My daughter Hallie has always been special, having first announced her arrival in her grandmother’s dream and then developing at a lightning pace in spite of arriving eleven weeks early. She has leapt to the top of the growth charts, is taller than kids twice her age, and has a speaking vocabulary of 400+ words.
Now she’s showing other signs of being special. Two days in a row, she has shown signs of being able to read minds. Continue reading
One of the hazards of being a parent is being exposed to all the songs that get stuck in your head. Just about every toy makes music, and invariably you’ll hear its particular song hundreds of times.
The latest song stuck in my head is “Jellyman Kelly,” by James and Sally Taylor. Its part of the Sesame Street Music CD boxed set. Now Sesame Street mastered the art of song-sticking, so every song on this CD is catchy. But this one has risen to the top.
—
Jellyman Kelly
James Taylor (music) Sally Taylor (lyrics)
Here’s a song about jellyman kelly,
He loves jelly the most.
Ah, but most of all,
Jellyman kelly loves jelly on toast.
And here’s the part about jenny mulhenny,
She’s a fireman’s daughter.
Yeah, but most of all,
Jenny mulhenny loves to boil hot water
Jenny put the kettle on, jellyman kelly,
Can he come home, jenny, can he come?
Jenny put the kettle on, jellyman kelly,
Can he come home, jenny, can he come?
Chorus:
Oh, can he come home, jenny,
Can he come home, jenny can he come?
Oh, can he come home, jenny
Can he come home, jenny, can he come?
Yada yada yada voo doo papa
Yodely doo
Da voody doo doo doo
Yaka yaka yaka yaka hum hon no
(repeat chorus)
That’s the story about jellyman kelly-he still loves jelly!
And yes and maybe someday you and me, friend,
We can have tea with him!
(repeat chorus)
Jam
I got back from eating at a buffet restaurant today. It got me thinking of a world where all restaurants were buffets. Of course, it’ll never happen, but imagine if it did.
One of the (many) things that bugged me when I was working at a restaurant was the wasted food. We’d throw out huge amounts of food every day because people would order something and not eat it. With all the starvation in the world (and communities), throwing out food seems like such a crime.
Buffet restaurants, however, have less of a problem with wasted food. Patrons can have as much food as they need. Sometimes that means more, sometimes it means less. But in either case, the restaurant isn’t telling the patron how much to eat: the patron decides.
At the end of the day, a buffet restaurant can safely donate leftover food because it never touched the patrons’ plates. Homeless shelters and “meals-on-wheels” programs could benefit.
This would also battle the problem of Americans gaining too much weight. With so many meals offered “super-sized,” people feel compelled to finish them, even when its too much food.
Oh well, some thoughts on a rainy day.
I was listening to Adam Sandler’s Ode To My Car this afternoon and thinking how it applied to me. The “Old Nole” is feeling a little dated, now that its reached the ripe age of 14.
It didn’t help that I came back to a car still covered with snowy, icy grime. Or that I drove a peppy rental car on my trip. I wan’t particularly fond of the Oldsmobile Alero (Alero, by the way, is an Indian word meaning “don’t leave the lights on all night”), but it did have some power. When it would start.
Getting a new car is on my list of As Yet Unpublished new year’s resolutions. I hated the car buying process before, and I’m even less fond of it after reading this (long!) article on Edmunds.com about life as a car salesman. I’m going to be incredibly prepared once I get serious about buying.
I’ve updated the mt.net poll with new car suggestions. You can help me decide. If I missed something, let me know that, too.
Man, Faith No More ruled. I saw them on the “Monsters Of Rock” tour in ’92 and thought they rocked the other bands right off the stage.
I just realized that this song explains my beef with the media’s focus on fear. Also, it just rocks.
—
Faith No More – We Care A Lot
We care a lot!
About disasters, fires, floods and killer bees
About the NASA shuttle falling in the sea
We care a lot!
About starvation and the food that Live Aid bought
We care a lot!
About disease, baby Rock, Hudson, rock, yeah!
It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it
We care a lot!
About the gamblers and the pushers and the geeks
We care a lot!
About the crack and smack and whack that hits the street
We care a lot!
About the welfare of all the boys and girls
We care a lot!
About you people cause we’re out to save the world
It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it
We care a lot!
About the army navy air force and marines
We care a lot!
About the NY, SF and LA PD
We care a lot!
About you people
We care a lot!
About your guns
We care a lot!
About the wars we’re fighting gee that looks like fun
We care a lot!
About the Garbage Pail Kids, they never lie
We care a lot!
About Transformers because there’s more than meets the eye
We care a lot!
About the little things, the bigger things we top
We care a lot!
About you people yeah you bet we care a lot
Well, its a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it
It’s a dirty song but someone’s gotta sing it
I posted a story at Mindblogging.com about some video a friend sent me of a strange-looking aircraft he saw at Four Oaks, NC last month. It could be a blimp, or it could be something else. I’m not sure.
Surf over to Mindblogging.com and decide for yourself. If you know what this is, please send me the info.
“I’m the boss….need the info…”
I added an RSS feed for my other weblog, Mindblogging.com. Since I’m updating that one more and more, it made sense to share it.
I breezed through the airports on my trip to Jackson. It was the easiest time I’d had passing through RDU security in years. I went from car to the gate in less than 15 minutes. At 6 PM on Monday, I expected more hassle. I’m happy to be wrong every now and then!
The Jackson International Airport has got to be the smallest municipal airport I’ve ever visited. It definitely is the smallest international airport I’ve ever visited. The runways, however, are world-class: twin 8500-foot concrete ones. I think the “international” part must come from destinations like Baghdad. I saw a few C-5A‘s land: enormous military cargo planes which seem to hang in the air when they’re moving at 200 knots.
I had fun at the gate while waiting for my plane by punching the tail numbers of the passing aircraft into Google. Google now offers searches on FAA registrations, so I could instantly find out the history and ownership of any plane. For the record, I took N426US from Charlotte to Raleigh.
Another highlight: the TSA screeners at Jackson were the friendliest by far of any airport I’ve visited. They were courteous, they smiled pleasantly, and every single one wished me a good trip, and meant it! Mississippi folks are some of the nicest, friendliest folks anywhere. They were so darn friendly, I was tempted to go through again!
I think airlines need to get tough on passengers hauling refrigerator-sized bags onto planes. They could shave 15 minutes off the trip if they did. We waited that long while huge bags got reshuffled in the overhead bins to accomodate Even More Stuff. I think if a bag won’t fit underneath the seat in front of you, it gets checked. No ifs, ands, or buts.
When I got back to Raleigh I waited around for my bag at baggage claim. If the airlines could speed up that process, the need to carry on luggage would disappear. While I waited, some fellow passengers – obviously new to the area – asked around to find out where to rent cars. I chimed in with info on the shuttle bus and was thanked generously.
It’s not the first time I’ve found myself happily giving airport advice to people there. I love making sure visitors get a good impression of the Triangle. It reminded me to explore an appointment to the RDU Airport Authority board, or at least to volunteer there. Either one would be a blast.
Tried out the new Exit Express service, where you pay for parking before you leave. I was disappointed there were no kiosks at the baggage claim area. It would be perfect to be able to pay for parking while you’re killing time waiting for your bag. It also would provide incentive for bags to get to baggage claim quicker: if the clock was no longer ticking on their lucrative parking fees, airports would be in a hurry to send you on your way. Parking fees are the cash cow for airports. They’d pay attention.
I also didn’t get a receipt for my parking, though I pressed the “receipt” button at the Exit Express kiosk. For a $23 parking bill, you’d better believe I’ll need a receipt.
Now its back to reality as I head into office for the first time since Friday.
