Kung Fu Panda

Took my niece to see it last night so mom could go play bridge.

I give it a C.

An older kid probably would have liked it better. Erin spent most of the movie playing with her bracelet that lit up when you press a button.

(Sorry for the lack of posts, but this Fort Smith Classic drama is wearing me out.)

Shameless pimping

My fearless forecast for this season (Super Bowl prediction included) ...

Arkansas won't go bowling this season

We are everywhere

From Pittsburgh to Fort Smith to Beijing for the Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh gold medal ceremony ...



Here We Go Steelers, Here We Go.

Age-induced fear

We started softball season this week, and I had a moment where I thought "Damn, is this what it means to get old?"

It wasn't that I was sore the next day or that I couldn't do what I was able to do last year. It fact, it wasn't anything physical at all. Instead, it was all mental.

You see, playing coed softball you get these guys trying to recapture their glory days of high school baseball. They step to the plate and crush the ball. And, occasionally, they'll crush it right back at the pitcher aka me.

I've had close calls before. Jen was there for several of them. Line drives right at my head. Ones that I was just able to get a glove on before being decapitated. I've had guys intentionally try to hit back up the middle when their team was losing. I've taken linedrives off my thigh, whiz between my legs and knock my cap off.

This year, however, it felt different.

Going into the first game of the year, I was worried about getting injured. Hell, I was scared. That was new. That was unexpected.

At first, I thought turning 40 triggered some new "Be careful" mode. Then, I wondered if I wasn't subliminally worried about getting hurt while Jen was pregnant. I couldn't figure it out. So I did what every guy does in that situation, I told myself to quit being a baby and go for it. I can protect myself if another rocket comes at me.

Through three games over two nights, no line drives yet. Only two more months to go.

RIP LeRoi Moore

As y'all know, Jen and I are big Dave Matthews Band fans. The band's saxophonist died tonight.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dave Matthews Band saxophone player LeRoi Moore, one of the group's founding members and a key part of its eclectic jazz-infused sound, died Tuesday from sudden complications stemming from injuries he sustained in an all-terrain vehicle accident in June. He was 46.

Moore died at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, according to a statement released on the band's Web site. The statement did not specify what led to his death.

Moore was initially hospitalized in late June after the accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va. He was later discharged and had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin a physical rehabilitation program when complications forced him back to the hospital on July 17, the band said.

Galina Shinder, a nursing supervisor at Hollywood Presbyterian, said the hospital could not release any details.

Ambrosia Healy, the band's publicist, said the band's show Tuesday night in Los Angeles was not canceled. Saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who played with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, had been sitting in for Moore during the band's summer tour.

Moore, who liked to wear his trademark dark sunglasses at the bands' live concerts, had classical training but said jazz was his main musical influence, according to a biography on the band's Web site.

"But at this stage I don't really consider myself a jazz musician," Moore said in the biography. Playing with the Dave Matthews Band was "almost better than a jazz gig," he said. "I have plenty of space to improvise, to try new ideas."

Lead singer Dave Matthews credited Moore with arranging many of his songs, which combine Cajun fiddle-playing, African-influenced rhythms and Matthews' playful but haunting voice.

The band formed in 1991 in Charlottesville, Va., when Matthews was working as a bartender. He gave a demo tape of his songs to Moore, who liked what he heard and recruited his friend and fellow jazzman Carter Beauford to play drums, and other musicians.

The group broke out of the local music scene with the album "Under the Table and Dreaming." The band won a Grammy Award in 1997 for its hit song "So Much to Say" off its second album "Crash." Other hits include "What Would You Say," "Crash Into Me" and "Satellite."

The band won't be the same without him.

I've always wanted to be a rancher

So maybe I should look into getting a mini-cow ...

Just right for the garden: a mini-cow

Think about it, all the free milk Jimmie Jo can drink, fertilizer for my tomato plants and I won't have to mow the yard. Sure, the mooing might get annoying, but who'll be able to hear that over a baby crying?

Meet our daughter

The original plan was to upload video of today's ultrasound. But the tech screwed up the DVD, so we don't have any video.

However, we do have photos.

No, I won't be one of those parents who foist pictures of their kids on everybody. But, hey, it's our first photo of our first child. This was taken right before she started sucking her thumb.



Most importantly, the ultrasound revealed all is right inside the womb. Everything looks normal, which is all we really cared about.

And, NO, we won't be telling you her name. She'll hear her own name before any of y'all do. We have to have some secrets during this process.

How'd you spend your Sunday?

I spent mine on my knees, installing laminate, engineered, composite, imitation hardwood flooring in the den. It sucked.




Once I got a few rows installed, it actually got easier. The problem was the weather. I was using a jigsaw to cut boards, but it started raining Sunday afternoon. Since I didn't want sawdust all over the house, I was doing it outside. The rain put a kibosh on that.

So I thought I'd finish it up Monday morning, but it kept raining.

Hopefully, I'll get it finished before too long.

Oh, and what was Jen doing while I was working?

I am stylish

Remember that earlier post about shorts and a blazer?



Yeah, I wore that Saturday night to Rolando's for Angie's birthday dinner. I was stylin' and profilin'. And didn't get any odd looks (except from Steve, Jason and Nash).

Nike does good commercials

I'm not a fan of the NBA, so I'm not that interested in the USA Olympic basketball team.

That said, NIke put out one hell of a commercial for the team by using Marvin Gaye's National Anthem from the 1983 NBA All-Star Game as the soundtrack.

Olympic guilt

I love the Olympics. I think it started watching Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics. (How sad is it that young people only know him as the step-father to the Kar-dazzz-ian family?)

But I'm conflicted with the Beijing Olympics.

By watching, am I kinda, sorta turning a blind eye to the genocide in Tibet, slave-labor factories, restrictions on dissidents and heavy restrictions on journalists? Or, as some foreign experts suggest, will the Olympics help to foster change in China by exposing the nation to the rest of the world?

Of course, the biggest problem will be the time difference. Beijing is 13 hours ahead of East Coast time. So all the good events (aka live and not the sappy features done by NBC) will be happening in the middle of the night.

Years ago, I'd have just stayed up all night watching. During the last Summer Games, Jen and I stayed up until 5 a.m. one night watching canoeing. Not whitewater canoeing, but flatwater. And some crew events. It rocked.

But I'm too old for that these days.

What do y'all think?

Earlier this summer, I saw an article in Esquire about wearing shorts with a blazer. I thought it looked pretty cool (full disclosure: I was a hardcore preppy once upon a time) and have even considered trying it. But only once the temperature drops below 90. No way am I putting on any sort of coat when it's 104.

Now, the NYT has an article about the trend ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin




So am I crazy? Would I look unbelievably stupid dressed like that?