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?

Should you drink with your kids?

Interesting article in Time (and it even has an Arkansas connection) about ways to prevent binge drinking in teens by letting parents drink with them ... kind of the way it's done in foreign countries.

Our friend Mark once told Jennifer and I about letting his two children drink as they were growing up. His son asked for a beer at 12 or 13 and he let him have one, thinking that if he drank it around his parents it wouldn't be a big deal once he got older. Sounds like Mark was right ...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1816475,00.html

Pubs in peril

I miss going to Papa's. But it's not high beer prices keeping me away, it's the smoke. Not the case in jolly ole England ...

LONDON (AP) — Raise a pint to the old British pub: Dark-paneled, fixed on the English landscape — and, more than ever these days, empty.

Beer sales in British pubs have slumped to their lowest level since the Great Depression, including a 10 percent drop in pints drawn in just the past year, an industry group said Monday.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hNk_VoQeywApudn_ScR4rJB3VrLgD9273BU01

Avoid the ham

On Sunday, I spent the evening puking, thanks to a case of food poisoning.

Through a process of elimination, the culprit had to be a piece of lunch meat I had on a wrap.

Deep down, I think Jen was a little glad I got sick. After all, she's been dealing with morning sickness for a few weeks now. She was probably glad I was the one with my head in the toilet instead of her.