Baby Birds on our Driveway

As Alice was getting ready to take the kids to school this morning, she found a newborn baby bird on our driveway. We aren’t sure how it got there. There’s a nest in a tree about 30 feet away, but that baby bird would have had to climb a long way to get that far up the driveway.  THEN, we found a second baby bird, about 10 feet away from the first.  They were both alive, although clearly helpless… their eyes closed and featherless.  In the end, Alice took the birds to the vet to try and rescue them.  I would not have been so kind.

Here you can see all the pics.

And a video here:

Hanna Barberra makes a comeback in our house

You may or may not know who Hanna Barberra is or was… but maybe you’ll remember names like:  Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Captain Caveman, Wacky Race, etc…

These are cartoons of my generation.

My kids have discovered them on Boomerang (retro cartoons channel) and that’s now all they like to watch on TV.  Too funny!

I was telling Alice that our kids are going to be able to relate to all their friends’ parents… and not their friends at school.

Kid’s Favorite Songs

What are your kids’ favorite songs? Here’s the list of songs that I find my kids singing all the time… with or without the music.

• Lauren :  Mi Ya Hi Song – Lucas Prada
• Thomas :  Candyman – Christina Aguilera
• Nicholas :  (two) Mi Ya Hi Song – Lucas Prada  &  Once Upon a Dream – Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty

Worms, worms, worms…

Slowly but surely, I’ve been clearing the weeds away from the vegetable garden.  It’s not that big and it shouldn’t take that long, but it has.  Anyways, got home before Alice, who promised to make dinner, so off to the garden.  Pulling weeds and tilling soil with the kids.  Soil is everywhere.

Then they discovered the worms…

Lots of earthworms in the dirt, and they decided they’d start collecting them in a cup.  They probably collected 50 or so when all was said and done.

What I found most interesting was that all the kids were more than happy to pick up the worms with their bare hands.  All three of them — no big deal.  I used to do that as a kid all the time too… I guess there’s simply nothing scary about an earthworm.

When dinner was finally ready, the kids brought the cup full of worms to show mommy – who was promptly grossed out – and then Nicholas dumped the worms out on to the deck.  Daddy scooped up the ones which hadn’t fallen through the gaps in the decking boards and tossed ‘em all back into the garden to be collected another day.

UVa chosen as the best value

Yeah, UVa…

Today Show Clip

If you thought those lights were cool…

If you thought these other lights were cool… check this one out.  Personally, I like this one a LOT better!!

Wanna learn about Copyrights and Fair Use?

Check out this video… I found it to be quite funny and impressive the amount of effort it took to create it.

You can be rude, and still be nice.

At JFK, I’m going thru the airport security.  I do this on a frequent basis, so I’m very familiar with the procedures and rules, etc.  There was a single mom in front of me holding an infant, and trying to go thru the metal detector.

The TSA agent (one-bar only, duh) kept repeating… “hold your ticket in your hand, shoes on the belt,” etc.  She was doing it with that arrogant tone of “I’m better than you, and your stupid”  but she kept saying polite words.  What I mean is that if you wrote down all the words she said, she was being polite, but her tone was clearly very arrogant and she must have been on some kind of power trip.

So this mom was holding the baby on her hip, she gave the TSA agent her boarding pass, which by now has been wadded up in her hand… remember, infant in arms.  The TSA agent tells her, “Maam, I need to see your pass”

She extends her hand, and the agent repeats her demand.

All I heard next was, “Well, how am I supposed to know it’s folded up in your hand?”  (guess who said that).

So, she unfolds it and is just about to let the woman thru, when she sees the baby has on infant “shoes”.  If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about.  These are hardly shoes.  They’re basically leather socks.  They have no sole to speak of and they’re to keep a kids feet warm and look like shoes.

Anyways, the TSA agent demands the woman take off the baby’s shoes.  Holding up the line, and everything.

Look, I know she’s got a job to do, and I appreciate stopping the terrorists, but I’m 100% sure that a baby’s “shoes” are not holding explosives and would not be a threat to anyone.

Where is profiling when you need it?!?!?

BTW, as I finally got to go through, I had my left hand in my pants pocket, and my right was holding my unfolded boarding pass.  She wouldn’t let me go through with my hand in the pocket.  In fact, she made me take my hand out of my pocket and go back through the metal detector.

They’ve never done that before, and that’s asinine!  It’s a metal detector, and my hand is not going to prevent metal detection!

When I questioned it, she said “Well, I don’t know what’s in your pocket.  Could be something good or something bad!”  Uh, right.  Someone is a little drunkie on power, I think…

Cab in the rain in NYC is EASY!! …Not

Was in New York today… (still at JFK as I write this actually but heading home soon), and it was a lovely rainy day.  Sometimes the rain would slow to a drizzle, and then it would pick up again, and then it would drizzle, and then it would pour, and then… — eh you get the idea.

Well, the plan was that I was going to attend two Christmas parties that two of my partners (for work) were throwing (same night, same times).  I got a cab over to the first… stayed for about 45 minutes, then had to leave.  It was being held at a bar called “Stout”.  BUSY place on a rainy Thursday, but the appetizers they were passing around were pretty good.  Saw my buddies — some who had gotten a good head start on the tap — and had to leave to go to the next party.

So, I started walking in the right direction…  looking for opportunities to grab a cab.  They were all full.  I kept walking, hoping one would eventually be empty.  No luck.  8 or 10 blocks later, I get to the address of the party…  133 East 40th Street.  Hmm… there’s no bar here like there should be.  I looked at my invite note again.  The address was right, but then I noticed it said “between 6th Ave and Broadway”.  So off I began to walk again… back-tracking, up-hill, in the rain.  It was raining pretty hard btw.

I finally get there, with about 5 minutes before the time I had to leave to catch a ride to the airport.  Soaked.  Cold.  Tired.

Turns out the address was actually 133 West 40th Street, and no one told me about the error.    One of my colleagues had forwarded the email to me, and when a correction email went out, she forgot to let me know.

Sigh.

Screw the cabs. I called a car service to take me to the airport.

Top 10 Animated Disney Movies

With three little kids in the house, I’ve seen just about every modern animated disney movie at least a dozen times, not to mention all the ones I used to watch when I was a kid.  Does that qualify me as a critic?  No – but hey, this is my blog and I can do what I want.  Based on quality of animation, music, story and overall enjoyability — IMHO, here’s the top 10..

1. Aladdin — Outstanding music, humor, animation and story. What’s not to love?
2. The Lion King — Beautifully animated, best contemporary music, great characters, but the story could be better
   
3. Robin Hood — Outstanding characters, excellent story, great music… 1973 animation.
   
   
4. Sleeping Beauty — Classic animation, great story and by far the best (near perfect) classical music. Love the magic!
   
5. Beauty and the Beast — Outstanding animation, story and humor. Good music overall.
   
   
6. Finding Nemo — Great animation, story and characters.  There was music?
   
7. Mulan — Very good animation. Great story and humor. Good music, but not superb.
   
   
8. Cars — Great animation, characters and story. Looks beautiful on an HD TV when upconverted!
   
9. Monsters Inc — Outstanding humor, characters and animation. Story is pretty good, but seems rushed at the end.
   
   
10. Toy Story – Beautiful animation and great music. Story is so-so IMHO. To Infinity and Beyond!!