no better feeling...

than the one you have when you're minutes away from the end of your last work day before a vacation. i can smell the barley and hops from here. not a long break this time, but a much needed 5 days at home starting tonight.

(no worse feeling than the minutes before returning to work after a vacation, but fortunately i come back next thursday for a short 2-day week.)

wii are the champions

been a strange week for me- worked the weekend before christmas and christmas day, so despite the holiday i feel like i haven't really had my vacation yet. i'm off a few days next week, so after tomorrow at 5pm it's happy hour until after the new year.

santa was good to the fink clan as usual. molly got the pink fishing pole and toothbrush she asked for, brendan was thrilled with his webkinz, and owen had all 6 bionicles that santa brought him built by dinnertime.

the big hit for everyone has been the wii. brendan likes it, owen loves it, and grandma and grandpa are infatuated with it. it's been on almost non-stop since christmas afternoon. the interactivity makes it so much more enjoyable than other games, and the fact that it involves some physicality makes playing it a little more justifiable. it wears on you, though- i'm nursing a sore shoulder thanks to the baseball game, and i'm a little worried owen may develop little leaguer's elbow without playing a single game of little league.

after a few flying controller incidents, the boys are getting better about wearing the wrist straps. still funny watching them jump all around the living room, though. thank god there's not a soccer game as part of the package- i'm not sure my living room could handle it.

merry christmas!

no post tomorrow, so here's my chance to wish you all a merry christmas.

don't forget to track santa tonight- always fun to see where he is before your sugarplums start dancing.

sounds of the season

i've often got a few things rattling around in my head that i think would make good posts. this one's been brewing for a few weeks, but got tabled because of the events of this past week. time to pull it out, if for no other reason than to transition to a sense of normalcy and restore some brightness back to this blog.

i'm a big fan of christmas music, and have assembled what i think to be a pretty decent collection. i thought it would be easy to do a "top 5 christmas songs" post, but then as i started to compile my list, i realized how hard a task it was (bing's "white christmas" is by christmas law supposed to be #1 on every list, but i couldn't put it even in my top 5). i tried breaking it up into traditional and modern lists, but even that had too many crossovers (elvis' "blue christmas"- traditional? not exactly an old english carol there. sting's "gabriel's message"- modern? the song's got its roots in medieval times).

so, i decided to make the list of "top 5 christmas carols", whereby "top" is defined as "most likely to give me the warm-all-over christmas fuzzies". here we go:

5) "must be santa", mitch miller & the gang: if you grew up with a mitch miller album like i did, you know this is on your list too. back when we'd stack 5 LP's on the turntable, and they'd drop down one after the other, then we'd flip them over to hear side B on all of them, this was the song that the arm got lifted back and the needle replaced so we could hear it over and over.
4) "christmas must be tonight", robbie robertson: i love this song. i remember hearing it in the christmas rotation on WBAB, long island's finest rock station, and found it on a compilation disc a few years back. great lyrics, pleasant melody, way better than that paul mccartney song.
3) "i believe in father christmas", emerson, lake and palmer: at the risk of coming off like some classic rock geek, this was also one i picked up an appreciation for thanks to WBAB. got this one off yet another random christmas compilation.
2) "(there's no place like) home for the holidays", perry como: this is always the first christmas song i listen to every year. i won't allow myself to listen to christmas music before thanksgiving, and usually at some time on black friday, i'll pull out this song and put it on. i think my love for this one goes back to a 4th grade chorus concert.
1) "rockin' around the christmas tree", brenda lee: we didn't have this song on LP as kids, but it certainly got its fair share of radio airplay. i always liked it a little, but after "home alone", it became my favorite song of the season. (that movie for me is a classic, and i absolutely love the scene with him dancing by the tree to this song, with his bb gun over his shoulder and the cardboard cutouts moving by on the toy train.) never feel more christmasy than when i'm swingin' to this song.

honorable mentions: "do they know it's christmas", band aid, "twelve days of christmas", john denver and the muppets (by far the absolute best version of this song- "BA-DUM-BUM-BUM"), "i saw three ships", sting

intentionally left off: "white christmas", bing crosby (see above), "little drummer boy/peace on earth", david bowie and bing crosby (got nuthin' but love for bing, but this song just doesn't do it for me), "father christmas", the kinks (fun, but not fun enough)

if you managed to get through all that, and still care enough to leave a comment with your top few, be my guest. remember, though- my blog. i always win.

back to the grind

emotional service yesterday, as was expected. as with most memorials, it was a litany of accolades, all deserved, for a great person. hopefully all in attendance will have heard something which inspires them to make their lives a little better.

kids start their christmas break today, which could spell disaster for their already emotionally and physically fatigued mother. thank god for tivo.

what do i call this feeling?

hard to put up a post between the last one and the likely one that will follow tomorrow's memorial service, but i thought this was appropriate and fit some of the recurring themes on this blog...

erin and i were discussing the differences between sympathy and empathy, and both realized we didn't have a great idea of the differences between the two. i had always thought that one of them dealt with a sharing in emotions because of one's prior similar experiences. kinda right.

both words describe the sharing of feelings with another person. sympathy can be used very generally, for any feeling or emotion. empathy involves shared feelings, but usually describes the sharer with a deeper sense of feeling the actual emotion. no need for prior experience, but that's probably what had been explained to me before as empathy.

right now, either works, but not as good as a much simpler word: sad.

tragedy

as a medical professional, one of the worst but usually unfounded fears is that the anonymous patient in the next room, bed, or ambulance is someone you know.

erin worked yesterday and happened to be chatting with another nurse who was reviewing her patient's labs. erin recognized the name as that of a friend of ours, and then confirmed that the patient, in fact, was a classmate and friend from georgetown. he had gone to another hospital with a severe headache the night before, and was rushed to georgetown. tragically, he had a massive bleed into his head from an undiagnosed tumor, and died yesterday.

ray was 41, leaving behind a wife and twin 6yo girls. he was the last person you'd think something like this could happen to- an outdoorsman, rock climber, AF academy grad, helicopter pilot before going back to med school, family physician, all around great guy.

at a time of year when you're already more likely to appreciate those around you, do it a little more today. that is the only way any good can come from this.

apostro-phed up

as promised, the long-awaited apostrophe rant...

more than any other grammatical mistake, the misplaced and misused apostrophe gets me all fired up. maybe because it's the most common, or maybe because when misused in public, it's the most ridiculous appearing. the two main uses for an apostrophe ( contraction and designation of possession) are equally abused, but because abused contractions (like "your welcome") are usually just homophone mistakes, i'll limit my rant to the possessive apostrophe.

the rules really are quite simple: if you want to show one thing belongs to another, put two nouns next to each other, then give the first noun an apostrophe and an "s", and the second noun now belongs to it. (any two nouns will do- it might not always make sense, but it will be grammatically correct). if there's no belonging involved, there's no apostrophe involved. that's it.

acceptable: "the computer's keyboard", "the water's edge", "a winter's night"
unacceptable (actual phrases from signage in THIS VERY COMMUNITY!): "hour's of operation", "hot dog's and hamburger's", "shirt's- $1.29"

special apostrophe occasions:

• plural possessives- if you want your first noun to be plural, the apostrophe goes after the "s" ("the cars' headlights", "their parents' joy").
• "its"- "it's" is a contraction for "it is" or "it has", and is not a possessive form. "its" is the possessive form of "it", used similar to "his" or "her". there is no such word as " its' ".

whew. now that's off my chest. next up, more top 5's.

that time of year again

one of my favorite things about this time of year is pulling stuff out of the mailbox that actually is worth reading- your christmas cards. always fun to see how many we can get in one day. been a slow trickle so far, nothing yet to challenge last year's record of 12 in one day.

got my nog here in front of me, which means i'm about to start the annual missive myself. so keep an eye on your mailbox, estimated time of arrival is early next week.

sing along with freud

apparently, the networks and major ad agencies have openings in their media departments for pop music aficionados. only that can explain the lack of insight that goes into the choices of music paired with some recent TV spots. while the songs may be catchy (and some would argue, isn't that the whole point?), the titles, artists, or lyrics of the song don't always match up well with the subject matter.

two very recent examples while watching football this weekend:

• happened to be watching the BCS selection show this weekend (only because it immediately followed football on FOX), and when they announced that ohio state would be going to the championship game, they showed a montage of clips set to the new foo fighters single, a rockin' song that (unfortunately for OSU) is titled "the pretender"
• those UPS commercials that come up almost every other commercial break, the ones with the artsy looking guy writing on his dry-erase board with his brown marker, are set to a very pleasant electronic melody (recognized by some as "the song from grey's anatomy") called "such great heights", recorded by a band called 'postal service'- one of UPS's main competitors

oh, tannenbaum

got the tree and dressed it up real purty yesterday. our initial intent was to ride the wagon at the tree farm out to the field and select the most perfect tree God hath created, fell it ourselves, then have a few teenagers in overalls drag it back to our car for us. with the miserable weather here yesterday, it turned into this: getting out of the car, walking 40 feet to the pre-cut lot at the tree farm, looking at one tree, finding it acceptable until the helpful TOAs (teenagers-in-overalls) pointed out a second one which was even more acceptable, purchasing said tree, strapping it to the roof of the carbon-footprint-leaving conestoga, and hauling it home.

the time between our arrival at the tree farm and our departure- which also included getting 3 kids out of the car, into their muddy tree-finding shoes, an additional 7 minutes to purchase 75 feet of pine roping and a wreath for the front door, then getting the kids back out of the shoes and into the car- was no more than 18 minutes.

you say rush job, i say more time for egg nog!

you an' me, takin' flix

donger's comment on "magorium" got me thinking. if i was too hasty to position "magorium" at the top of the list, then what should go up there? i used IMDB to give me a list of g-rated films, so i wouldn't miss any obvious ones, and then compiled my top 5 g-rated movies. (interestingly, "2001- a space odyssey" is a g-rated film- had no idea.) here you go:

5. "finding nemo"- never much of an ellen degeneres fan, but you've got to agree she's perfect in this flik. the scene at the beginning with the diver is amazing. and the seagulls rock.
4. "the sound of music"- sorry donger, no asians here, but a way better rodgers and hammerstein nomination for the g-rated top 5 than "king and i". and how 'bout that liesl?
3. "mr. magorium's wonder emporium"- after a few nights to sleep on it, i've got to admit that as great as it was, there are still better, such as donger's nomination and my #2 pick...
2. "willy wonka and the chocolate factory"- not that johnny depp abomination, but gene wilder at his sans-richard pryor best. "scratch that- reverse it."
1. "toy story"- the second one was awesome and probably would fall into the top 10 if i extended the list, but the first of a series always merits special consideration. concept alone is fantastic, and the one-liners abound. "i have been chosen!!!"

honorable mention: "chicken run", "the music man"
intentionally left off the list: "babe", "the wizard of oz", "the secret of NIMH"

more top 5's in the not-too distant future. apostrophe apocalypse coming soon, i promise.

thanksgiving denoument

didn't see this until today, but still worth checking out. one last vestige of thanksgiving before the christmas machine engulfs us all. enjoy.

leftovers

wrapping up a great thanksgiving weekend here in the 302. had a great day thursday, from watching the macy's parade to feasting here at home seemingly all day long. erin and i started friday by joining the madness at 4:30am shopping for god knows what. took the kids to see "mr. magorium's wonder emporium" in the afternoon- terrific fim, possibly the best G-rated film i've ever seen, live action or animation. trekked up to longwood gardens today- an arboretum/garden not too far away with some great holiday decorations. nice way to kick off the season.

my folks were here for all the above, which was great. too often lately it seems we only see them when they're watching the kids for us. can't remember the last time we had 3 days to spend with them as a family. but that's what "the holidays" are about, right?

what i'm thankful for

besides the obvious (family, friends, health, rapidly approaching end of current administration, etc), in no particular order:

• high speed access
• comfortable shoes
• heated driver's seats
• bath and body works' orange ginger shampoo (intensely invigorating, and i'm not ashamed to admit it)
• lego star wars for playstation 2
  
• DILF (with an all-new repertoire for finkbowl XII!)
• podcasts of espn's 'PTI'
  
• directv's major league baseball extra innings package
• friendly's of middletown

have a great holiday.

give a man a fish...

a rare double-post day, but i just read this op-ed piece from today's washington post and felt that with thanksgiving just a few days away, you might want to give it a look. this nation's feast of plenty is incomplete without a side dish of social justice.

can you hear me now?

here's a tip: when a medical professional has their stethoscope in their ears, and is listening to your body, it's wise to be silent until they're done. i like to think of myself as a respectful kind of guy, and make it a practice not to start examining a patient until the conversation has ended or at least paused. it amazes me how many people will again begin talking while i'm examining them with my stethoscope, completely ignoring the facts that 1) i'm obviously intent on obtaining some practical information from listening to their body, so my undivided attention towards that point would be helpful, and 2) i have plastic tubing in my ears, making whatever they're saying sound like instructions from charlie brown's teacher.

please help stop the spread of this epidemic by reaching out to everyone you know, and while you're at it, ask them to turn off their cell phones too.

grumpy old man, signing off.

a clone army...one of the finest we've ever created

i often struggle with bioethics. as a catholic, i hold strong beliefs regarding the sanctity of life. but as a scientist, i'm seeing the definition of "life" become more and more subjective.

a report of researchers cloning monkey embryos made the front page of today's washington post. as the article states, this advancement into the cloning of primates represents a huge step towards the usefulness of cloning technology for human medicine. the proof alone that viable stem cell lines can be achieved from the use of skin cells rather than "unused embryos" should be enough to justify federal funding into this field.

it's the last line of the article, from a catholic priest in charge of some think tank, that has me wondering most today though. the priest admits that this research can benefit greatly our insight into human disease, but he warns that if it is used to advance the purpose of cloning humans, that "such a pursuit, if successful, would be one of humanity's darkest endeavors."

why? not that i want to see an army of jango fetts in the middle east instead of our marines, but why would a human clone be our "darkest endeavor"? ethical morass, to be sure, but a cataclysm? i'm not so sure anymore.

more endorsements

finally getting around to adding links to two blogs that got me into this more than any other. couldn't be more polar opposites than each other, but there's bound to be someone reading this who's got an interest in one or the other. i enjoy them both:

• donger's an old friend from high school, living the life of a single guy working an IT consulting job. hence, he has lots of disposable income to spend on things like electronics, night clubs and porn.
• amy, her husband jim (an FU stag like us) and their beautiful brood live in upstate NY. her blog, "it's a funny farm life", is about their daily lives, which means pretty much everything that donger's life is not.
  

take a peek and enjoy some funny stories from each of them.

yes, more yee-hahs!

despite the fact that i started the countdown to finkbowl XII a week ago, i just realized today that the date of the event is 2.3.08. if you once owned a 3-legged cat, luged down a staircase on a cookie sheet, or burned incense in your room thru a hollow statue of Death, those numbers might mean something to you.

so let's hear from all friends of the captain, all buddies of bong (the handyman, not the illicit paraphernalia). "2308-the blog" may have seen its last days (yes, it actually existed for a while), but "2308- the reunion" is on! finkbowl XII- now the official 2308 reunion.

with 100% of precincts reporting...

delegate steve shannon has been re-elected to serve the 35th district in the virginia house of delegates! some of you know steve from our fairfield days, others may remember his stirring version of galatians 3:4-11 from the live production of "the union of erin and john". possibly you had the chance to meet steve at finkbowl VI, aka the first 'finkless' finkbowl. whatever the case, i hope you've had the chance to meet him, because he's a great guy who's going far, and you can say "i knew him when..."

steve's a politician who's in it for the right reasons: he has a mandate from a higher power to do all he can to make our world a better place. so far, the people of northern virginia seem to understand that, and continue to decide that he's the guy to represent them in richmond. good for them.

congrats, steve. if you ever need a campaign song, i can loan you that johnny gill cd you used to borrow: "steve shannon- he'll 'rub you the right way'!!" or maybe not.

before the myriad of comments come rolling in...

thanks to donger, who insists on using things like dictionaries as his authority on the english language rather than me, i've been enlightened that indeed "myriad" can be used both as a noun and an adjective.

from dictionary.com: "Throughout most of its history in English myriad was used as a noun, as in a myriad of men. In the 19th century it began to be used in poetry as an adjective, as in myriad men. Both usages in English are acceptable, as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Myriad myriads of lives." This poetic, adjectival use became so well entrenched generally that many people came to consider it as the only correct use."

this proves several things:
1) i have smart friends
2) people other than googs read this blog
3) i don't fact check anything i write
4) i'm just a poetic kind of guy

a myriad of misuses

i know i promised you apostrophes next, but that will take a longer post. after two misuses this weekend (one on "NPR" this morning), "myriad" jumped to the top of my peeve list.

sure, "myriad" is a cool word, but it is possibly one of the more frequently misused words with regards not to definition, but to part of speech. most know that myriad means "many", but it seems not enough know that "myriad" is an adjective, not a noun. it's commonly misused as a synonym for "plethora", which is of course a noun.

example of misuse: "there are a myriad of things wrong with this government."
correct usage: "there are myriad things wrong with this government."

there's today's lesson. apostrophes soon, i swear.

are you ready for some football?

i've always been more of a baseball guy than football, but i do enjoy sundays on the couch with a cold brew and some good games. more excited about this sunday's colts/patriots game than i've been about any non-giants game in years (super bowls included). for an interesting read on the matchup, check out last week's TMQ... a column, by the way, that you should be reading each week if you're even remotely a football fan.

getting some company to watch the game- trooper kev's got a conference here in the small wonder, and will be shacking up with us on sunday night. looking forward to it.

doctor, doctor

had a terrific weekend in DC for the g'town M'97 reunion. "spectacular", as dave would say.

spent almost every waking hour doing something reminiscent of our time at georgetown- meals at old glory and cactus cantina, beers at garrett's and clyde's, late night cheesesteaks on M street, and about an hour and a half just sitting in the balcony of LA-6, the old lecture hall, rehashing old stories. we even snuck in a visit to the gross anatomy labs, just for old times' sake.

finkbowl XII is right around the corner, so for those of you who we pulled from the woodwork to come to this reunion (that's you, tasha), this is the kind of fun we have every year! come on out to middletown in february, and we'll do it all over again- just without the dead bodies.

shiny! me like shiny

got a new phone yesterday, brought on by the facts that a) my old phone was 3 years old and couldn't hold a charge past 4 hours, 2) some little plastic piece inside the display was hanging down over the battery icon, so whatever charge i did have was nearly unidentifiable, and d) i needed to get my phone on my work account in my continuing efforts to maximize the benefit of being a small business owner.

same old number on a shiny new phone. despite all the whistles and bells, the new phone has about 1/4 of the selection of the standard ringtones the old one did, and the ones that it does have are lousy. so, i did as verizon clearly expected me to do, which was to spend more money and download a few ringtones at 1.29 each. maybe you'd like to sponsor my ringtone library, so you can each have your own unique sound i can identify your calls with.

the bidding for your number to be assigned the "super mario brothers" theme starts at 25 cents.

time for another pic

just a quick post tonight- been a while since i threw up a picture. this one's from last month, at build-a-bear for molly's b'day...

pride of the yankees

despite my general disdain for the yankees, i've always respected joe torre. maybe because of his days in the orange and blue, or maybe just because he's always seemed to be a class act in the dugout. i have no way of verifying this, but i'm willing to wager that torre's departure was a carefully negotiated dance by him and the team. by him turning down the contract offer, the team gets to save face by not firing him and actually offering him a high-dollar contract with great incentives, and by turning down that offer, he gets to save face by not resigning.

no one in the media seems to be offering this at all as a possible explanation. you heard it here first. (remember though, i'm also the budding online sports journalist that told you the yankees would trade a-rod for jason kendall)

i literally hate this word

what good's a blog if you can't rant from time to time? herein starts a new occasional feature- fink's language pet peeves. it's my attempt to better the world through the proper use of the english language.

i'm literally appalled by the literal overuse of the adjective "literally". from radio and TV interviews, to podcasts, to daily conversation, not a day goes by anymore that i don't hear someone incorrectly use the word "literally".

examples:

• "i was literally blown away by that movie". no, you weren't, because you're obviously standing in front of me still using incorrect language.
  
• "they literally moved 2,000 miles just to be near a white castle." maybe a true statement, but a superfluous use of the word.

the word should be used to describe a situation where an action that has a figurative meaning is carried out in the truer yet possibly less likely way.

example:

• "while collecting seashells, i was literally swept off my feet by the waves."

this ends todays complaining. tune in next time for a lesson on apostrophes.

old friends

one of the great things about moving back east a few years ago was re-connecting with some old friends from high school. not that i had lost contact, but the transition from college to med school to residency, and the increasing distance from L.I. that each of those brought, separated me from all but a few.

now, thanks to a few weddings, an annual summer golf weekend, and the wonders of the internet, i've been able to reconnect with most of the crew. amazing to think that friendships that started before any of us could drive are still going strong and continue to grow. recent e-mail threads have ranged from debates on the iraq war and the upcoming election, to star wars vs. star trek and who should have dated who way back when.

the best compliment i think i can give them all is that i can only hope one day my kids will someday have friends like them.

classic fall

finally getting some weather around here to make it feel like fall. after a few weeks of mid-80's, looking like a 65-degree weekend here. perfect for soccer, pumpkins, and maybe even the first fire of the season.

erin's half-way thru her trip to italy, which means grandma and big buddy are half-way thru their trip here with us. good times being had by all.

the sounds of progress

our office is in a building owned by the local hospital. they've just started site work on a new project right next door for a building 4x the size of this one. interesting watching all the work from up close, but it's not without its drawbacks, of course. for 2 weeks straight they've rolled the dirt every day with a vibrating steamroller, and because the new building will be within 4 feet of our current office, every pipe, window, and fluorescent light in this place has been rattling like crazy. on several occasions i had to practically shout in conversations with patients.

but the upshot is, this time next year we should be in that new building, probably shouting while they do the interior work on the floors above us.

i'll have the chicken

made dining reservations today for our trip to disney world. in april. next year.

for those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, because of the popularity of certain restaurants at disney world, it's become necessary now to decide what and where you want to eat six months prior to your vacation. the extreme here is reserving breakfast at cinderella's castle (which we're not doing). the reservations are so hard to get, some guide books give step-by step instructions (see page 337) on how to optimize your chances, right down to synchronizing your watch to be sure you call exactly on time. insane.

all this so i can pay 9 bucks each for my kids to order chicken nuggets they probably won't eat anyway.

greatest nickname ever

erin's off to italy next week- yes, that "once in a lifetime" trip a few years ago has spawned two return trips now. steve and dolores are headed to middletown tomorrow to visit for a few weeks and help out while erin's gone.

the kids are totally pumped about grandma dolores and grandpa steve coming out. last time they were out, through a hierarchy established after brendan was called "little buddy", grandpa steve became "big buddy" and the name has stuck. even molly goes around saying "big buddy is coming!" i hope he likes the nickname as much as they do, and doesn't feel like he's just a guy we found at the boys and girls club.

america's newest rockies fan!

thanks for checking in despite the paucity of updates lately. now that i don't have playoffs to worry about, i hope to get back to my 3-4 updates per week schedule.

went to a show in DC last week with googs and rachel- rilo kiley at 9:30 club. great, great show. never seen a band feed off the crowd's positive energy the way they did. they (especially lead singer jenny lewis) seemed to truly enjoy what they were doing, and seemed genuine when giving the obligatory "you guys are a great audience" salute. made it even more enjoyable.

nice opening set by a band out of omaha called "art in manila". i knew right away i liked them, especially their extremely talented lead singer/guitarist, but didn't know until checking their myspace page tonight exactly why (and it's not because her first name is "orenda").

a new perspective

"perspective" was fine when we had a 2.5 game lead. now i'm back to being as fired up as a fat guy when the stuckey's buffet runs out of home fries.

my only solace is that the braves are eliminated.

perspective

i was watching the mets game the other night (i know, a risk factor for coronary disease right there), content that they were up 3 runs against the marlins in the 5th inning, and so i went to read molly a book before bed. she chose some richard scarry book with scenes "all around town" or something like that. one particular page was of a fire company (staffed by pigs, as is the norm in richard scarry world) rescuing people (actually foxes) jumping from a burning building. the firepigs were using one of those old rescue trampolines to catch the jumping fox. molly was clearly confused (about the rescue effort, not the pigs-as-firefighters thing), and it took a fair bit of explaining on my part to get her to understand why someone would jump from a building.

this immediately conjured flashbulb memories of those horrific pics of people jumping from the WTC towers before collapse. i couldn't get the image from my head, and quickly turned the page to a nice beach scene with a hippo lifeguard and some bears making sandcastles.

in the time it took me to read that book and get molly to sleep, the mets had blown not one, but two different 3 run leads, and proceeded to lose the game in extra innings. i went to bed seething about the outcome. then my thoughts moved to how frustrated the players must have been, and how they would likely be lying in bed having an even harder time falling asleep than i was.

then my thoughts moved back to that richard scarry book, and the jumping foxes, and the jumping people, and i thought that no matter how frustrated i was about the game, or the players were about the game, that we'd all wake up in the morning, and hug our kids, and go off to another day of work.

perspective.

happy molly day

molly's b'day today- she came downstairs with me this AM, the boys were eating their breakfast before school, and said to her "happy birthday molly!". her response: "thank you. where's my cake?"

back to school

boy, i thought i'd be better at this blog thing- gotta post more and keep this interesting.

back to school last week. here's a shot of the boys in their unis:




owen started 2nd grade, brendan 1st. so far, so good. brendan's statement last week: "first grade gets funner and funner every day!" that is, until the grammar lessons start.

next step, her own iphone

put molly in a "big girl bed" this weekend. it's been in the basement for months, but she's had no desire to leave the crib so we hadn't pursued the transition at all. still had no desire to give up the crib, but we finished a room makeover for her this weekend, complete with purple ceiling, pink walls, new chair rail, new mini-chandelier, and felt it was the right time to bring out the bed.

so far, she seems to like it- we'll see how things go next week when the boys are back in school and we're all in more of a routine.

save jeffy!

unsettling report in the delaware news journal today...it seems they've pulled the family circus from their daily comics page! a call to arms has been raised by none other than tom keane, wilmington resident and brother to bill.

so do your part to support family humor in delaware. call the number listed in the above link (last letter on the page), or e-mail betsy price, features editor of the news journal at beprice@delawareonline.com. tell them the finks need the family circus, for their sanity and for blog material.

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here's my family circus moment from this past weekend- walking out of church yesterday, the kids give the priest hi-fives. molly says, "you know what? i smacked god's hand!" always knew she was strong-willed, but rebuking the hand of god is a whole new level.

the music man

went out today and bought a guitar, bringing the total number of instruments i own but can't really play to 7 (2 harmonicas, 1 acoustic guitar, 1 acoustic/electric guitar [the new one], 1 bass guitar, 1 keyboard and 1 saxophone).

the whole bass guitar thing (and subsequent dads-as-rock-stars band thing) started when my friend wyatt tried to teach me to play guitar. too many strings, so i downgraded from 6 to 4 and picked up the bass. been playing around with the old guitar lately, and felt it was time to try again at 6 strings.

so beware- someday you may see a dilf acoustic show with 3 guitars. "patience", anyone?

first ever finkipedia contest!!!

hey kids- here's something fun to show your creative sides. inspired by uncle googs' comment on the post about maine, and his and my love-hate relationship with "the family circus" (see christmas letter, 2006), i propose to you a challenge:

come up with a great family circus-esque tag line for any entry or part of an entry over the next few weeks. while the world of fink is your material to work with, "the family circus" is your canvas, so their characters should be used. (use googs' post from the 8/19 entry as your example)

post your submissions in the comments section of the applicable post; i'll cull through them all and post as many as i can in a poll at the bottom of the blog in a few weeks.

who posted this entry? NOT ME!

on tap next week- granny's colonoscopy!

kids are off to jersey for a few days with my folks while erin's in DC. during the school year, my mom will come down here to stay with them while erin works, but in the summer, they often go to NJ. fun for them all, because they do a lot of day trips to parks, lakes, the crayola factory- tons of fun stuff.

my mom called yesterday to confirm the pickup time for today. she was on the cell in the car (which, even when not driving, she feels awkward doing), and left a message with owen. she told him that they (she and my dad) were going to a wake at a funeral parlor (my parents are long islanders through and through, and still refer to funeral homes as "parlors"...well, maybe "pauluhs"), and wanted to be sure they were still picking the kids up at the decided-upon time. she then hung up because, of course, it's unsafe to be on a cell phone in a car.

owen passed on the message as "nana and grandpa eddie are picking us up tomorrow and taking us to a funeral". took several hours for us to get through to them again to figure out the real story.

back on track again

just back from a week on the maine coast- great time. weather was terrific, kids had a blast, and we took advantage of several opportunities to throw back to days of fink past. stopped in fairfield on the way up and back, driving around campus and grabbing lunch at the firehouse deli on the way to maine, then dinner at penny's II on the way home. saw an old friend of the kent family in stratford, CT, had dinner in brunswick, ME with cindy, raj and their kids, and spent most of the week at the beach with stacey, irish and their kids. pics on the way later in the week.

quick tale of taking things for granted. never occurred to me that molly had never really seen the ocean. sunday night we took the kids out to the beach as soon as we reached the condo. had to hold molly because she wasn't too keen on the sand at first. she pointed forward and said, "what's that?". "that's the ocean!", i replied. she pointed and asked again "what's that?", as the waves crashed onto the beach. "those are waves", i said. she paused, stared at the waves for a second or two, then waved back.

back on track

not much going on last week, hence the lack of updates.

the kids and i hauled out to LI saturday for a BBQ with some old high school friends. great time, dampened a bit by the sudden passing a few days before of our friend jen's dad. nice to catch up with those who were there though. the ridiculous traffic getting there and back always serves to remind me why i don't live there anymore (as if i needed much reminding anyway).

the scream

you only need to hear it once to know it's different. not like any other scream you've ever heard. something about it immediately tells you there's something terribly wrong.

we'd heard it once before, last march. the five of us were getting ready to go out for an after dinner walk. owen was in the backyard, jumping from one cement slab of our raised septic tank to the other. he came up a bit short, and hit the cement face first. we were in the garage, getting molly and brendan ready, when he screamed. it was obvious from the sound that it was more than a scrape, and in the few seconds it took us to get to him, he had blood everywhere. took 7 or 8 stitches to close the cut, but he's no worse for wear now. even has the zigzag scar between the eyes to go with his harry potter glasses.

heard the scream again tonight. all 3 kids were in the backyard on the playset, while we sat at the kitchen table talking and watching them thru the window. it was brendan this time, letting out a scream that made owen's sound like a whimper. we didn't see anything happen, but from the house could see him sitting on the ground at the base of the slide. erin was convinced he was bleeding, i thought for sure he'd broken his leg. he knew exactly what had happened: "I GOT STUNG BY A BEE!!!!!" sure enough, the stinger was still there, right in the middle of his shin. he continued to scream as we brought him in the house, and as if the stinger had a direct connection to his sound card, he stopped almost immediately when we pulled it out.

a little ice, a band-aid, and about 10 minutes of extra attention were all it took to return him and the house to a sense of normalcy. i told him that even though he was just fine, the bee was not, because it would die without its stinger. erin thanked him for taking one for the team and ridding the world of one more bee. he said, "you're welcome, but it still hurts".

share a little love

continuing to find more and more uses for this blog. here's another- to promote good causes. my good friend ted is riding his bike much farther than i thought he could even drive, all in the interest of raising funds for the MS society. ted's mom rosemary passed away in june from complications from MS. you can read all about his endeavor here, and leave a pledge should you feel inclined.

thanks from both of us.

spreading the good word

kiddie quotes, stories, and my deep thoughts will only take this blog so far. as writer, editor, and publisher, i have sole control of all content and will humiliate you all as i see fit. i promise, no compromising pictures, but stories are fair game, as well as anything in the public domain.

i'll be gentle to start- the only humiliation here is me sharing your accolades with the world, as your grandmother might have done when she told everyone in her bridge club how you got the citizenship award at your junior high graduation. here then are a few huzzahs for some in the finkosphere...

• we finally know what googs does all day long- no better use for a medieval history masters than as a futurist. (those who do not learn from the past, blah blah blah)
• in case you're a large multinational insurance company involved in a bitter legal dispute, we've got a man for you. way to go, joey.
• congrats to mike and maura on the arrival of katie rose- start saving for the sweet 16 now

weekend wrap-up

no sharks this weekend, just some lazy time at home interrupted by a few trips to the driving range. brendan came into our room saturday AM dressed and ready to start his day, wearing some shorts and a collared shirt- clearly, something had gone eerily wrong during the night. his motive- he wanted to go to the driving range, and he knew that the course we go to requires collared shirts even at the driving range. now how's a dad supposed to say no to that?

no pics from the driving range, but here's a random one from last week when the "chefs" were making dinner...

when all else fails, go with the longest answer

off tomorrow to take my family medicine recertification exam. once every 7 years, need to prove to those who certify these things (and ultimately those who determine how much of your hard-earned insurance dollars i deserve to receive) that i can still make correct decisions on health matters when presented with multiple-choice questions. too bad patients don't read textbooks or give me a choice as to what i think they may have. not likely to see any questions like these tomorrow:

1) a 28 yo male presents as a new patient after leaving his other doctor because he was misunderstood. he is healthy other than his chronic low back pain, which has been refractory to all treatments except vicodin and soma. unfortunately, his pain is worsening because of his new job and he left the prescriptions he received from his last physician at his cousin's house in virginia. he is allergic to ibuprofen and tramadol. physical exam is unremarkable except for poor dentition and several large tattoos. at this point, you should:
a) rewrite his prescriptions for a 90 day supply with 3 refills, as he has requested
b) instruct him on proper lifting techniques and posture, refer to physical therapy
c) extol the benefits of chiropractic care and its effectiveness in similar situations
d) suggest he may want to find another less gullible physician
e) refer him to a pain management expert, since his pain is obviously far beyond your capacity to treat him

2) a 46 yo female complains of a 3 day history of sinus congestion, similar to all her previous "sinus infections". her symptoms include headache, mild rhinorrhea, and sore throat. she has no fever, though in the mornings she has a cough productive of "very dark green, thick stuff". she smokes 1 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day. proper treatment for this patient includes
a) an antibiotic
b) a cough syrup with codeine
c) a decongestant
d) a note for work for the rest of the week
e) a 20 minute discussion about the symptoms of the common cold, appropriate treaments for the common cold, advice on smoking cessation and the dangers of smoking, and then ultimately a prescription for an antibiotic, a cough syrup with codeine, a decongestant, and a note for work.


wish me luck.

random links...

...to a few things that caught my eye during my trip around the web this lunch hour:

- great photo here, makes a much better desktop image than that awful stonehenge one you're still using
- give a woman manna from heaven, and she'll eat for a day. give her worms, and she'll fish all week.
- mark my words, the cubbies are making this move to deal kendall, possibly packaged with a pitcher for an all-star 3B whose team won't negotiate an extension until after the season. you can say you read it here first.

our clever little land sharks

here's the other purpose for this blog- to share the joys of finkville with all of you.

this past weekend erin and the kids went down to calvert county, maryland to visit our friend (and molly's godmother) ciaran and her dog atti. they took a trip to the calvert marine museum. nothing says fun like sharks and face painting.

enjoy the photos.

the stars are out

thanks to all who've checked in so far and left comments (ha ha, HA HA HA, ha ha). i've really enjoyed some of the e-mail conversations/debates we've had over the years, and think that the comments section here could serve that very purpose. i figured a site merely about what's going on in our daily lives might not keep everyone's interest, so i hope that many of my posts turn into discussions and debates on the comments page.

picked up the newest release this weekend from a band called stars, album is titled "in our bedroom after the war". stars' last disc, "set yourself on fire" won them fair acclaim in the indy world (for good reason), and this one should do the same. a bit different, but solid album. listening to their disc reinforced to me how many great songs and bands are out there that deserve more radio airplay. there's no reason why several songs on this disc shouldn't be on pop/rock stations everywhere, but i guarantee you'll never hear them. i don't claim to be any kind of music expert, but it seems to me that there are more and more songs that have great critical acclaim and are "radio-friendly" by anyone's standards, but have never or will never be heard anywhere other than maybe college radio and a few satellite channels.

here's a brief list of songs just from the past year or two that i think should have gotten major radio airplay, but never did. check them out on itunes or elsewhere, and burn yourself a disc of them. great summer listening. (thanks to puddin, googs, d-train and others who steered me towards some of these)

stars, "my favourite book", "ageless beauty"
fountains of wayne, "someone to love", "new routine"
rock kills kid, "paralyzed"
brandston, "earthquakes and sharks"
camera obscura, "lloyd, i'm ready to be heartbroken"
golden smog, "corvette"
hard-fi, "cash machine"
nada surf, "always love"
youth group, "shadowland"
death cab for cutie, "crooked teeth"

don't judge a book by its cover, or a song by its title and artist. 30 second sound bites should be enough to convince you these are radio-worthy. you may add to the list, but not subtract. fire away.

go shorty, it's ya birthday

a quick happy happy to my baby sis, who leaves the coveted 18-34 demographic today. here's hoping you've got a homemade pinata to swing at, just like the old days. happy birthday b.

finks...in...(cyber)space...

while i will always have a disdain for the word "blogosphere" (there's fodder for a later post!), i've decided i can't resist the allure of a place to post my daily musings and amusements, not to mention a site for updates on all things fink. hence, the finkipedia.

herein, over the coming days/weeks/months/years (depending on how long i stick with this fad), you'll find postings about our daily happenings here in middletown and worldwide, pictures of the same, random thoughts and ideas, links to interesting things elsewhere in cyberspace, and plenty of the superfluous commas, parenthetical phrases (like this one) and run-on sentences (like this one) that have become my literary trademarks.

my original idea, in the spirit of wikipedia, was to have a site where everyone could post their own entries and update/augment everyone else's. but i figure i'll start small, and see what happens. so for now, i'll do all the posting, you do all the commenting, and we'll all have a happy cyber-experience together.

welcome to finkipedia! enjoy your stay.