Mongo

for any of you blazing saddles fans, you know the charactor i'm referring to in the title of this post. if you're not familiar with blazing saddles, mongo was played by alex karras, a defensive tackle for the detroit lions in the 60s and early 70s (you may also remember him as the adoptive father in the sitcom "webster".) in the movie, mongo was a very strong, very large henchman sent to eliminate the new sheriff. however, mongo was defeated by the cunning new sheriff when the sheriff appealed to mongo's only weakness - candy. mongo then became an ally for the good guys and helped them defeat the evil attorney general and his band of misfits (if you haven't seen the movie yet, please watch it - it might be one of the funniest movies ever made.)

we've got a mongo jr on our hands with joey. he's now 3 months old and is 16 lbs and 25" long. he gained 3 pounds in a month, and has already more than doubled his birth weight. that milestone isn't supposed to be reached until 6 months or later. besides mongo, he's also being referred to as "the fire hydrant".

one of these things is not like the other

i just called xm satellite radio to cancel our car radio subscription and was on hold for a few moments. during that time, there was a promo announcement involving the merger of xm and sirius satellite radio. according to the promo, you can now sign up for the best of sirius, "featuring the howard stern channel, the nfl channel, martha stewart, the playboy channel, and nascar." what demographic are they trying to appeal to? do you think martha enjoys being lumped in with that crowd?

maybe they should have included martha in a grouping of stations that include ivan boesky, michael milken, bernie ebbers, dennis kozlowski, and samuel waksal.

live free or die

this past weekend, kim, joey, and i ventured up to portsmouth, new hampshire to visit with our friends jessica and larry mcgondel (charlie wanted to stay home with his mimi pat). we ate some great food, drank a whole bunch of really good wine, and watched the red sox split the first 2 games of the alcs. saturday, we spent the day at the topsfield fair, about 25 miles south of portsmouth in mass. this was a huge fair with an abundance of food and entertainment. we saw cattle, pigs, goats, a border collie demonstration, played some typical fair games, and did some great people watching. at some point during the day, larry and i were talking about saturday night live and how the sketches are just too long and not as funny as they used to be. once back at the house, larry showed me one of his favorite sketches called mark wahlberg talks to animals, which i enjoyed very much, so i thought i would post that one along with my favorite. enjoy!

jocktober

sorry, i couldn't resist the cheesy rename of october, adding to the already extremely overused rocktober and the not as popular shocktober. this is one of my favorite times of year to watch sports - the nfl and college football are in full swing, and the mlb playoffs have started. awesome! here are a few observations from watching the baseball playoffs:

- the boston red sox are on a collision course with the la dodgers and one of the most prolific offensive players ever - manny ramirez - who by the way they traded away during the season to the la dodgers (incidentally, being managed by joe torre, the longtime manager of the yankees, the hated rival of the red sox). my head is spinning.
- the tampa bay rays are for real and dangerous.
- there is some sort of device called a blackberry that can handle email/phone/pics, etc. this is an ingenious invention, but will never take off. no one wants to be in constant contact with work.
- academy award winner timothy hutton has a new show debuting in december on tnt, but it has been kept under wraps and its name escapes me.
- noah wiley is starring in an indiana jones rip off made-for-tv movie
- thank goodness chicago has the bears, bulls, and blackhawks, or there would be a spike in the number of people jumping from the sears tower this week.
- 100 wins in a soft division doesn't mean a thing (see "California LA Anaheim and whatever other geographic name you would like to give to the Angels)
- frank caliendo does great impressions, but how will they translate into a season's worth of shows?
- nobody cares about the phillies or the brewers
- everybody has a little captain in them.

a couple other things to ponder:

apparently, joe biden learned only 9 commandments, skipping over the 8th commandment at some point.
so far, barack obama's answers to america's woes are more vague than a fortune in a fortune cookie.
does being a vietnam vet and a "maverick" qualify someone to be president?
if sarah palin winks at a camera one more time, i think i'm going to go ballistic.
the economic bailout plan sucks! why should we have to pay for the idiocy of these large bank's decisions. shouldn't the decision makers/ceo's of those banks be held responsible?

i'm stumping for presidential votes, so if anyone is as fed up with the current candidates as i am, please feel free to write me in as your choice. i know i've got at least 1 vote so far.

"scrumptious"

that's what charlie called the apples during our 2008 apple picking excursion this week. the apples were plentiful and, as a matter of fact, scrumptious. this was joey's first apple picking experience, and he missed most of it as he was sleeping very comfortably in a front carrier that kim was wearing. once we got home, we made an apple pie and apple sauce. the apple sauce turned out terrific, but the apple pie could have used a little more flavor. i think our mistake was using mostly red delicious apples in the pie, instead of the more tart stayman winesap apples. oh well, you live and learn.

we've also found a new wine we enjoy very much - ferrari carano fume blanc. very light and refreshing and at around $15/bottle, very affordable too.

9 1/2 weeks

dont' think you're going to see a review of the movie starring mickey rourke and kim bassinger...

this is a joey update. we had a doctor's appointment today for joey, his monthly well visit, and it seems he had a small growth spurt over the last 4 weeks. at his last visit, 8/28/08, joey weighed 10 lbs and was 22 1/2" long, and everything seemed to be going very well. today, joey weighs in at 13 lbs, 8 oz, and is 24 1/4" long. he gained 3 1/2 lbs and 2" in 4 weeks. if he continues to grow at this pace, we'll have the next defensive lineman for the ny giants in 3 years. even more surprising was the revelation that joey has a big head. so big, as a matter of fact, that the doctor wanted us to get an ultrasound of his head to make sure there wasn't anything in the skull that shouldn't be there. not sure what he would have been looking for - a basketball, gazing ball, soccer ball, the world's largest rubber band ball, but he wanted to take a look to err on the side of safety (really, all he needed to do was take a close look at my head and he would have understood.) so we had the ultrasound this afternoon, and sure enough, everything is perfect. nothing in his head that shouldn't be there, other than a ton of brains.

i have to go now - joey's calling me in for my lesson on the theory of relativity.

strangest thing...

when we were speaking with the director of Charlie's preschool, she told us that they will be teaching the kids to print the capital letter J without its top (or hat) because that is the way the entire school system is teaching it. huh??? there are so many other issues that should/could be addressed rather than spending time to decide to teach the capital letter J without its top. imagine the discussion - "should we be teaching evolution or creation? should their be prayer in the school? whatever we decide, we have to make sure that the kids don't put a top on their capital J." i don't get it. and i'm guessing it's not the teachers making this decision, it's the administration.

did anyone think of how the letter J might feel about this? maybe he likes to wear a hat to keep his bald head from being exposed to the sun. maybe she likes to wear a hat because she's famous and likes to be incognito when she goes out. shouldn't they teach it both ways and let the kids decide which way they want to print it? or is that too much to ask of our teachers?

maybe there is a valid reason for this, but i haven't been able to find one. maybe it's because the capital letter J looks similar to the capital letter T, but if the teachers aren't able to teach the difference between the 2, we've got bigger problems. i asked the director of the preschool and she doesn't know why and i can't find anything on google or wikipedia. if someone knows, please leave a comment. i just can't believe they've taken away the letter J's identity. without its hat, it's just a hook.