Mr. Incredible

Finally entered the world of smartphones yesterday. I've been lusting the iPhone for a while, but because I'm on Verizon, I've held off from switching carriers. Recently started looking at Droids, but was advised by the Official Finkipedia Brother-In-Law, Futures Division to wait until the end of April, as the latest and greatest would be hitting the market.

Well worth the wait. The Droid Incredible (their name, not mine) launched yesterday, and I was the first person in town to get one. (Kind of neat to be a techno pioneer). Totally satisfied so far. Still much to learn, but the apps so far have been fun, and the look and feel of the phone are great. To steal a pun from one of the reviews I read online, this certainly is the Droid I was looking for.

Next to come- blog updates from the field, more photos on the blog, and a resurrection of the Finkipedia Twitter feed. Fun for both of us, to be sure.

Midweek tidbits

No scintillating commentary today, just a few random thoughts to keep the week going.

• Don't look now, but the Metropolitans are in first place. I realize we're not even 1/6 of the way into the season, but it's refreshing to be competitive again
• "Idol" is tightening up. Will be interesting to see who's in the bottom 3 tonight. Not a big Shania Twain fan, but some pretty solid performances last night
• Got a new putter for Christmas and picked up a new Cleveland 56 degree wedge a week or so ago. Road tested them both for the first time this past Saturday and shot 83, some of my best golf ever. Itching badly to get out again (or maybe that's some kind of rash).
• My favorite new kid quote: Somehow the topic of Roman numerals came up over dinner a few weeks ago, and I was quizzing the kids on what each letter represented. The boys went back and forth, but Molly of course was completely lost on the discussion. To bring the conversation back to her level, at a break in the quizzing she interjected apropos of nothing at all, "You know what's good? I like yarn." That's been my mantra since then.

My Three Songs, Jan Brewer edition

It's been quite a while since we've played everyone's favorite game. You remember- it's the one where I give you three songs that have something in common, and you read the post but fail to even attempt a lame guess as to the connection between the three. I'm sure you know all three of these songs- perhaps singing them to yourself will help you discover today's theme. (While it would have been fun to include it just for Jan's sake, "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin didn't make the cut.)

• The Beatles, "Get Back"
• Steve Miller Band, "Rock'n Me"
• The Eagles, "Take It Easy"
  

Hey, you never know

$252 Million jackpot Powerball tonight. Got my ticket yesterday already. I'm one of those people who usually gets a ticket when the jackpot crests $100M, and certainly when it approaches and passes $200M. I realize that many lottery winners talk about how their winnings corrupted their lives, but I think it would at least be interesting to be given that chance, right?

Several years ago, on one occasion when the jackpot was close to $200M, I had my ticket in hand and as usual, began the mental arithmetic of what the lump sum payment would be, and what the annual return would be if I invested that lump sum, and who I'd donate to and what I'd buy. For some reason, on that particular occasion, I had an especially "good feeling" about my chances. The morning after the drawing, I drove past a billboard showing that the jackpot was now $15M, meaning that someone had won. I was convinced it was me.

I spent the next hour in the car ruminating no longer about how I would spend the money, but what I would do in the immediate aftermath of my winning: how I'd break the news to Erin, what I'd do about work, who I'd call first (my attorney? my accountant?). I was consumed with the idea that I was now a jackpot winner.

I got home, went about my usual business in kind of a fog, then late that night got the daily paper to check my numbers. Not a single match on either of my tickets.

When I relayed the story to Erin, she said, "Well, was all that wondering worth your $2.00?". And that, in a nutshell, summed up my love of the Powerball. I realized then that I'm not really paying for the chance to win $200M (because the odds are so insane that that chance isn't even worth $2.00). I'm paying for the opportunity to fantasize for a few days about what that life would be like. That's certainly worth the price of a shamrock shake.

Idol-ized

It's true. I'm officially hooked on "American Idol".

My relationship with Idol goes back several years. Since about season 3 or 4, I watched about 30 minutes of one of the early audition shows every season- just enough to catch a few of the horrible or hilarious performances for that year. At the time, I had no appreciation for the good performances; in fact, they were far less appealing to me than the bad ones. I enjoyed that 30 minutes a season, and needed no more than that. Never watched another minute of it for the rest of the year.

This season, for some reason, I don't think I watched any of the audition shows (still haven't seen the "pants on the ground" guy). But at some point, the kids (led by Brendan, I believe) asked if we could watch Idol together as a family. The first episode we watched was the first episode of Hollywood Week, when all the contestants with the yellow tickets from the auditions get together for the first time to compete for the finals. I was intrigued. The talent was better than I expected, but most importantly, I felt drawn in to several of the contestants already after that first show.

We watched again together the next night, then set the DVR for a season pass to record it every week. By the second week, my fledgling attraction had become more like a passion. Now that the competition is in full swing, it truly is appointment television. Even though it's recorded, we're all in front of the TV every Tuesday and Wednesday night, and voting on Tuesdays along with 30 million others.

From what I read and hear, this year's cast of contestants is less interesting than some of the previous casts, but since it's all I know, I'm enjoying them quite a bit. I've already got favorites (Lee and Crystal) and ones I can't stand (Casey and Siobhan), and feel like the middle-aged hack that I am when I critique their performances and argue with the judges.

I'll be sad to see it go when it ends later this spring, mostly because watching it has become a fun family event but also because it's the first show in ages that I've watched on a weekly basis and I'll have a void that needs to be filled. By then, I think Molly will have rehearsed enough that she'll gladly stand in as the first contestant in our home game. Owen will be the witty schmoozing host, and Brendan of course will be the acerbic judge ready to groom his protege into a superstar.

Something's Rotten In Flushing (but you knew that)

As last season ended, I think most of us Met fans had the sense that it couldn't get worse, but it probably would. The tragic collapses of 2007 and 2008, followed by last year's miserable injury-ridden season gave some hope to the fact that better days must surely lie ahead. They still might, but if this first week is any example of what this season holds, better days are a bit further ahead than 2010.

The rough part of being a fan right now is that the team just isn't likeable. There are a few bright spots, like the ever ebullient David Wright, but as a whole the team just doesn't have character. One bright spot though is that if things continue as-is, tickets won't be hard to come by.

Over Easter dinner I posed a question to the official Finkipedia brother-in-law (law enforcement division), who happens to unfortunately be a fan of the other NY baseball team: higher number at the end of the season- Yankee wins or Met losses. The Vegas line at the beginning of the season for Yankee wins was 94.5, for Met losses was 81. By that metric, it would seem obvious that taking the Yankees in the bet would be the right move. But the AL East is tough this year, and the Mets have so far set their bar at winning only 1/3 of the games in their division and are on pace for 108 losses. At this point, it's still early, and since both numbers stand at 4, still fair to bet either side. I can't really bet on my team to lose and my hated rivals to win, can I?

Resurrection

I gave up Facebook and blog-surfing for Lent, as a way to direct my attention away from the interwebs and more toward other things. It worked, to some degree, but also led to an unintentional avoidance of this blog. Now that Easter has come and gone, it's time to get back on the blogwagon.

Six weeks off has provided me with lots of material for posting, so in the weeks ahead look for posts about a trip to the west coast, my new addiction to American Idol (no joke), the nascent baseball season, and the first formal golf instructions for Fink men in over 40 years.

Thanks for sticking with me, and spread the word- Finkipedia is risen! Alleluia!

Olympic Fever, Part Deux

I mentioned a while back how much I love the Olympics, and that it's the Winter Games that really get me. I'm all wrapped up again, glued to the TV most nights watching things I'd never otherwise watch (short track skating? sure! curling? you bet!), and in my old-man, not-uncool-to-say-this-anymore state I'll even admit to watching and enjoying figure skating.

Really looking forward to the US-Canada hockey game tomorrow. As many have written, the Olympic hockey tournament is the best hockey tournament in the world. Olympic hockey rules allow for a more free-flowing, artistic game and the national pride (especially in this case for the home team) increases the passion and desire to win to a whole new level. I remember the "Miracle on Ice" fairly well, but didn't really appreciate the game at the time. The greatest hockey game I can remember watching was the gold medal game between Canada and Sweden in Lillehammer in 1994 that ended in a shootout. The shootout itself was of course exciting, but I remember the whole game as being just awesome. Hopefully tomorrow's game won't disappoint; perhaps it'll be a taste of a possible gold medal game a week away.

Snowmaggedon

UPDATE: Apparently the videos weren't playing last week. Try them again- seems to be working now.


Thought you might like to see some footage from the first half of Snowmaggedon- the first one is midday Saturday at the peak of the snow, and the second is the aftermath. That's Googs and Scully with Brendan in the driveway. Owen is off in the distance towards the end of the shot.

A FinkBowl for the ages

Every year at FinkBowl, the same stories of memorable events from previous years are told and retold- The Finkless Finkbowl, The Leaking Ceiling, The Pirate Ship Cake, The $120 4-3 pot. This year most of those stories stayed locked away in the story box (wait- that's right, there are no locks on Story Box) as we lived what will one day become the greatest of all FinkBowl stories- The Snowmageddon Finkbowl.

It was clear by Friday morning that the DC contingent would not make it here before midday Sunday unless they raced the storm out of town. Thanks to an early dismissal from the federal government, Googs, Rachel, Lady V (aka The Tiny Cuteness) and Scully arrived here in the 302 just as the first flakes were falling. Ciaran and Atti had arrived earlier in the day to help us get ready for whatever was coming. We hunkered down as the storm ruined the travel plans of all of our other Saturday Taco Night scheduled attendees (though the Min-Salvs of NY were hell bent on coming, snow be damned, until common sense prevailed). Texts and calls from LA updated us on the latest flight Judge had gotten on to, only to be cancelled soon thereafter. By late Saturday night, the unplowed streets of our development suggested that the 6 adults and 4 kids currently in the house would be splitting a double batch of gumbo 10 ways the next day.

Then, things started to turn. Plows came through around 11pm to clear the neighborhood. Locals called in on Sunday to confirm that the big show was still going on. Puddin' rolled up in his Zipcar Sunday afternoon, and soon thereafter the biggest surprise- in the front door walked Judge, keeping his 14 year streak alive by catching the 5th flight he was scheduled to be on. Final tally was about 35 non-Finks who braved the weather and road conditions to be here for our little gathering.

A great game was the icing on the cake for one of the most epic FinkBowls in history. Not looking to duplicate this mess next year, especially since it kept away many of our usual attendees. But it certainly made things unique, and offered yet another perspective on the power of friendship.

Bartlett's got nothing on this girl

I never wanted this blog to be purely a listing of all the great and funny things the Fink kids do day in and day out (thus turning it into "The Family Circus" without the cartoons), but I think I forget sometimes that part of my mission here is to do at least a little bit of that. Molly's got more quotes and quotables on a regular basis than the rest of us combined, and I really should do a regular feature on them. We keep a book with some of the best of all the kids' quotes and favorite sayings, perhaps I'll go back and dig up a few someday to post here.

She let out a great one tonight- we were watching "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian", and Ben Stiller's character was talking to the female lead, a historical museum figure come to life. I asked Molly, "Hey Molls, who's that lady?", knowing that she had just gotten a McDonald's Happy Meal toy of this character and her famous plane within the past week. She looked unsure at first, then remembered and said "Oh yeah! It's Amelia Airforce!"

Little Red Light

Had a fun experience the other night. I was asked by the local hospital system to appear in a commercial they recorded to advertise their cancer program. The spot featured another doc and myself reading a short script about the program while standing in front of some "high-tech equipment" (actually a cardiac catheterization table, which has nothing to do with the cancer program but looked nice and scientific on camera).

We worked off of a teleprompter, which was pretty neat, and got to see the finished product on the monitor when we were done. There was really no director per se, so no one could help me explore what my character's motivation was. I was reading a script about cancer, which I felt needed to be played with a serious undertone, yet I wanted to warm up the cold surroundings of the sterile-looking cath lab with an expression that said "I care. Really, I do." Unfortunately, the internal conflict about my direction, coupled with my steadfast efforts to keep from slouching, led to an on-camera effort the likes of which television hasn't seen since Cindy Brady was on a quiz show.

Rumor has it that I may be receiving an electronic copy of said commercial; if so, I'll do my best to post it here. It'll scare the cancer right out of you.

New Look!

Still haven't gone that extra yard and learned to write the code necessary to truly customize this blog. But I have found a new template that I like, and I think you'll agree makes the posts much easier to read.

You'll also notice I returned the Twitter updates to the sidebar, but to a different Twitter account- the @finkbowl one I created for the countdown. Now even those not among the Twitterati can embrace the excitement of FinkBowl advent!

And, I deleted the "finkipedia-endorsed blogs" list. I've still got nuthin' but love for all y'all, but most of them, like my own "finkathon" blog, weren't active anymore. (Life (and blogging) still goes on at The Funny Farm, so if you'd still like to stop there and visit sometimes, be sure to bookmark it.)

Thanks for reading- hope your eyes don't suffer as much with the new layout as with the old. Would love to hear (or read) what you think.

FinkBowl ftw!

In an effort to save trees (not to mention a few shekels in postage), we opted to go the e-Vite route for the annual FinkBowl invitations. After creating them I figured, why stop there?

So this year, it's FinkBowl all over the interwebs- on Twitter @finkbowl, on its own Facebook page, and of course here at the iHome of all things fink. I gave brief thought to giving FinkBowl its own blog, but since I have a hard enough time keeping this one going, I thought it would be doomed from the start.

Follow along somewhere online as we get ready for the best FinkBowl ever! (Unless it rains, and 25 kids are hoarded into my basement. That of course would be the ultimate fail.)

Leftover Bowl

Some things I've learned (or beliefs that were re-affirmed) by watching too many bowl games over the past 3 weeks:

• While a college football playoff would be nice, the bowl system should remain. No matter whether it was the official national championship game or just the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl, most of these kids seemed to embrace each game as their own championship.
• Those biceps arm bands make most of the guys wearing them look like they're in some sort of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka fanclub
• Marching bands both look and sound better from a blimp
• Penalties for "excessive celebration" are ridiculous. 'Bama was penalized 15 yards last night basically because the lineman who ran back the turnover for a TD at the end of the first half tossed the ball after he crossed the goal line. Taunting, I can see penalizing. Celebrating, now that's just having fun. If the other team's feelings are hurt- tough. Tell them to score more points.
• The Rose Bowl parade is amazing to watch, but wouldn't the countless thousands of hours that people put into gluing crushed walnut shells and pansy petals onto a 65-foot wingspan eagle be better used in some kind of national service?
• Since neither Army or Navy are likely to contend for the national title anymore, the Army-Navy game should be moved to Bowl Week
• College teams run way more trick plays, fakes, and onsides kicks than the pros, which makes the games fun to watch even if the quality of football is less
• Bowl games, except maybe the national championship game, should all be the week leading up to and including New Years Day.
  

Now starts the real fun though- NFL playoffs, and then the biggest bowl of them all- Finkbowl!

Dream weaver

Had a classic dream the other night. For some reason, it was determined that I had to repeat the fourth grade, despite the fact that I was now an adult. I was reluctant to do so, so I showed up late the first day. The other kids in my school had already assembled outside and were on their way into the building when I reached the school. Knowing I was late, I started run-walking through the halls, but was nabbed by Sister Laverne (the principal of the boys' school), who said "John, I know you're late, but that's no reason to run in the halls.

Found my classroom and class, who were already all seated at their desks. The teacher (happened to be Owen's teacher this year) said something like, "I know you're supposed to be with us, but if you're OK with not being here, I don't think you need to be here". I gladly left, wandered through the halls, passing by a room set up for a retirement luncheon for "Sister Joseph James" (no idea who that's supposed to be, but I remember thinking in my dream that it's always been weird to me that some nuns take male names when they take their vows). I met Sister Laverne in the lobby again on my way out, and told her I was leaving. She was OK with it, but pointed to a 10 year old now standing next to me and said "Since you're leaving, can you please take Anthony home too? He lives around the corner from you". So I did.

That's about all I remember. I relayed this story to Erin when we woke up, thinking that it was one of the more classic dreams I've ever had. She replied, "I had a dream las night that I got hit in the neck with a B-2 bomber". Always has to do me one better.

The Aftermath

A whirlwind of a few weeks around here. Erin had her foot surgery two weeks ago, and since then we've had: 1) Molly's Christmas pageant, 2) 2 feet of snow, 3) Christmas, and 4) a post-Christmas weekend in NJ with my folks and sister's family. Throw in a busy office schedule, and it's been a little busy for me, to say the least.

Nevertheless, it's been great. Erin's foot surgery went well, and she's been a model patient so far. Two feet of snow was a pain to clear from the driveway but made for some great sledding on the dirt mound across the street.

Christmas, as usual, came and went too fast. I did get a Flip video camera from Erin and the kids, which hopefully will mean some short clips here on the blog sometime soon.

Visions of Sugarplums

Owen, some night last week. The anticipation is killing him...

Let it snow

Had our first taste of the white stuff around here this weekend. It's all gone already, but the inch or so that fell yesterday was enough for the kids to get all decked out in full snow regalia and spend an hour or so attempting to sled and make snowballs. Fun to look at from inside while seated fireside watching some great football.

Quote of the day

Brendan: "Can we watch a movie in the car?"

Erin: "No, we don't need to watch a movie. Let's just talk."

Brendan: "That's so 1990's."