Father's Day

I just read an article in the paper this morning that basically states Dads get the short end of the stick on Father's Day. More money is spent on Mom on Mother's Day, they get better gifts, etc. etc. Well. I don't think that should be the case. And in honor of this equally important day, I leave you with my favorite Paul Harvey piece, "What Are Fathers Made Of" And yes, it always makes me cry!


A father is a thing that is forced to endure childbirth, without an anesthetic.

A father is a thing that growls when it feels good–and laughs loud when it’s scared half to death.

A father never feels entirely worthy of worship in his child’s eyes. He never is quite the hero his daughter thinks, never quite the man his son believes him to be. This worries him, sometimes, so he works too hard to try and smooth the rough places in the road for those of his own who will follow him.

A father is a thing that gets very angry when school grades aren’t as good as he thinks they should be. He scolds his son although he knows it’s the teacher’s fault.

Fathers grow old faster than other people.

And while mothers can cry where it shows, fathers stand there and beam outside–and die inside. Fathers have very stout hearts, so they have to be broken sometimes or no one would know what is inside. Fathers give daughters away to other men who aren’t nearly good enough so they can have grandchildren who are smarter than anybody’s. Fathers fight dragons almost daily. They hurry away from the breakfast table, off to the arena which is sometimes called an office or a workshop…where they tackle the dragon with three heads: Weariness, Work and Monotony.

Knights in shining armor.

Fathers make bets with insurance companies about who will live the longest. Though they know the odds, they keep right on betting. Even as the odds get higher and higher, they keep right on betting more and more.

And one day they lose.

But fathers enjoy an earthly immortality and the bet is paid off to the part of him he leaves behind.

I don’t know where fathers go when they die. But I have an idea that after a good rest, he won’t be happy unless there is work to do. He won’t just sit on a cloud and wait for the girl he’s loved and the children she bore. He’ll be busy there, too…oiling the gates, smoothing the way.

Funny Al

Al: Hi Boo. I have some details for you
Me: Wait. You have information before I do?
Al: Well, there's a first time for everything. Tomorrow you'll be wearing ice skates to get the mail!

A Fun Movie Quiz

My mother is forever sending me 'distractions' like recipes or fun articles or videos, etc. She recently sent me a super fun movie quiz. It's sponsored by Empire, and it celebrates the last 20 years of movies. As you may be able to tell (above) it's a big painting with movie titles 'embedded' in the artwork. Some are obvious, others not so much. I have figured out about 35 so far. Best part is you can save and come back later. To play along, click here.

I love Zack Morris

My favorite show ever: Saved by the Bell
I have all 5 seasons and special movies on DVD of only one show: Saved by the Bell
Jimmy Fallon is trying to organize a reunion of the kids on.... Saved by the Bell!

I could go on and on. This made my day. My week. The reunion (if it happens) would likely do me in. I love Mark-Paul Gosselaar for this.

Holy Pete Y'all! I'm getting married!

Despite being engaged for 9 months (to the day) the reality of getting married has not really sunk in completely. I mean, don't get me wrong. I have done a lot of planning and have a dress and all that. But since we started planning a year before the event, everyone has been saying 'oh you have time' and other such things. Well, we did. And we have a lot less now! I find myself thinking of random details like "Do I need a human being to pass out programs, or will a basket in the foyer suffice?" and "What time do we need to get to the church" and all sorts of other random things. But what makes it feel 'real' now is really dumb, actually. Mom sent out the shower invitations last week, and gifts are being purchased off the registries. We created the first one back in February and have been adding and subtracting and changing quantities off and on. But we can't do that now! People are buying us this stuff!! They're coming to the shower and to the wedding, which is a real event that will happen in 3 months. And this is a good thing, this wedding in 3 months. But all of the sudden we went from 'tons of time' to less than 100 102 days. Which I realize is not 'zero time' but still. It just feels very very real right now.

*Thank you Al for calculating our wedding countdown

Movie Challenge

Now that there is nothing* on TV, I have had to come up with alternative distractions in the evenings. You know, when I am not planning our wedding. And I thought of something! We have been Netflix subscribers since moving to DC in 2004. In case you are unaware, the thing about Netflix is you pay monthly and can rent as many movies as you want. There are no late fees, so if you receive a movie on March 1 and don't watch it until April 30, that's OK. I mean, you're paying for unlimited movies and you've only watched one. But if you're fine with that, so are they. Spring was rough for Netflix watching. We were just busy, doing various stuff. We had visitors, house stuff, wedding stuff, etc. Oh, and don't forget about May television, which included season finales of Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, LOST (best show ever) and American Idol. We really don't watch much TV-- those are our only shows-- but you can't miss the last ones till the fall! Then the Cavs were in the playoffs and like any idiotic Cleveland fans, we tuned in to each game. Once the Cavs lost, I decided we needed to do something productive (and less heart-wrenching) in the evenings. This brings me back to Netflix. I decided we should try to watch a Netflix movie every day. We can have 2 DVDs at home at a time, but we also have 'instant watch' movies, which will keep us busy while the actual discs are in the mail. We have recently watched Cactus Flower, Get Smart, and Silkwood. Quite a motley assortment, no? Tonight we have no discs at home, and will venture into the instant watch category. We also have HBO with our cable- somehow it does not cost extra- so we have been searching for movies currently in our Netflix queue to record on HBO, thus adding more 'instant watch' movies to our list. Between the DVDs, Netflix Instant Watch, and HBO movies that we DVR, we should be in good shape! I'll let you know how we do later this month.

*unless you count reality summer TV or NBA finals w/o the Cavs as quality television

Marissa was here, too!

Marissa visited us over Memorial Day weekend. I was going to write about her visit, but she already has done a much better job than I ever could in capturing the weekend's fun.
So this post is two-fold:
1) I post without having to think
2) I introduce the very few readers I actually have to Marissa's blog

Here is a photo.