Uga VI and friends

(picture taken by my wife and proud UGA grad, Paige)

The princess trades in her crown for a fishing hat.

Raggle-Taggle Gypsy

There were three young gypsies came to our hall door,
They came brave and boldly O.
And there's one sang high and the other sang low
And the Lady's seen the raggle-taggle gypsy O

It was upstairs and downstairs the Lady went
Put on her suit of leather, O
It was the cry all around her door
She's away with the raggle-taggle gypsy O

It was late last night that the lord came in,
Inquiring for his a-lady O
The serving girls replied to him all
She's away with the raggle-taggle gypsy O.

O then saddle for me me milk-white steed
Me big horse is not speedy O
I will ride and I'll seek my bride,
She's away with the raggle-taggle gypsy O.

O then he rode east, and he rode west
He rode north and south also,
But when he rode to the wide open field,
It was there that he spied his a-lady O.

O then why do you leave your house and your land?
Why do you leave you money, O?
And why do you leave your only only-wedded lord,
All for a raggle-taggle gypsy O?

What do I care for me house and me land?
What do I care for money,O?
And what do I care for me only-wedded lord,
I'm away with the raggle-taggle gypsy O!

Well it was there last night you'd a goosefeather bed,
With blankets drawn so comely, O.
Tonight you'll lie in a wide open field,
In the arms of your raggle-taggle gypsy, O.

What do I care for a goose-feather bed,
With blankets drawn so comely, O?
Tonight I'll lie in a wide open field,
In the arms of me raggle-taggle gypsy, O.

Often you rode east when I rode west
You rode high when I rode low
I'd rather have a kiss of the yellow gypsy's lips
Than all of the cashier's money, O.

Scarlett Johansson, when's the album coming out?

I've been waiting with bated breath for her Tom Waits covers release. Some scoff, but I'm envisioning a very sexy, sultry Diana Krall-ish treatment of his "beautiful maladies."

Once an early October release, the date has come and gone. When, in industry-speak, does it drop?

Casting directors take note:

If your movie requires a four-year-old boy who laughs like a smartass Swingers-era Vince Vaughan and a younger sister who has that classic dumb guy laugh, then have I got the pair for you.

They're bringing hapless back.

Opposing offenses move the ball with such ease, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis can't even keep his head straight from the wind effect.

Three Dalmations

What do you do? Oh, sorry I asked.

"And for many people, asking what someone does for a living is still considered as rude as asking how much their apartment costs."

Really? I've asked that question of a lot of people and never thought that it might be taken as a rude question. Interesting article.

My Two Cents

A couple of months ago, Blogger announced that it was making it easier for you to find bloggers with similar interests as noted on their profile pages.

Say you live in Albuquerque, count the Smashing Pumpkins among your favorite bands, and like sushi. Starting today, we’re making it easy for you to find other bloggers who share your interests. ...more>>

That's pretty cool and I've enjoyed the fact that I can go to my profile page, click my city and find a list of other bloggers in my city, or I can click Peter Himmelman as featured as one of my favorite artists and find bloggers who have him featured as well. But what would really make this special is a way to check multiple keywords (say "Nashville" and "Peter Himmelman") to find local bloggers who like the same things.

What I Know

When a four-year-old is sick with what may or may not be thrush and all prescribed dosages have been met, with all offers of popsicles and yogurt exhausted, all that's left to do is to hold him while he cries and wish like anything that his pain was solely your own to contend with.

What We're Doing This Weekend

My Thursday night shift has come to a close and I don't go back to work until Monday afternoon. My beautiful wife is off to the mountains of Georgia for her annual girls' weekend. (Of course, for all I know, she spends these little retreats actually partying it up with college boys in Atlanta. I'm at peace with that, too.) In truth, except for three hours of watching her Georgia Bulldogs as they take on the Tennessee Vols, it'll be a quiet weekend of reading books and catching up on old times for her. This is the one time in the year when she gets to take a respite from the daily duties of educating and parenting, not to mention cleaning up after me. I hope she has a wonderful time.

This leaves me with a fun weekend with the kids. Her mom is coming up to help out and will continue to visit for the duration of Fall Break. Cool. It's nice that there will still be someone here to clean up after me. Hopefully, we can all get out and enjoy the outdoors a bit. We'll be sure to get some time in at the local playground. The library should be graced by our presence as well. We'll make the all too rare drive to Franklin to visit with my mom Friday afternoon. (Hey Mom! We're getting a new employee at the hotel next week. I hear that she's from Hawaii. I'll have to ask her which island and then let you tell me what you remember about it.)

Beyond that, I don't have any plans set in stone for the weekend. There are some good college games on, but I'm not wild about college football. I pull for Vandy, but being a realist I know to always keep my emotions in check no matter how promising their season seems to be. I'll pull for Georgia just because. And I'm not allowed to ever root for Florida if I want this marriage to last. I think I may leave the kids with my mother-in-law Sunday though so that I can watch the Titans play uninterrupted. I can't remember the last time I watched them play when I could focus solely on the game at hand. Either I have to turn it off at halftime to go to work, or various parenting duties play a role in taking me away from the television. This could be the best Sunday yet. (Dad? Watching the game? Care to invite me to join you?)

What else? I guess that's it. Here's a picture of my dog. She's a good girl. Yes, she is.

Tales from the Teachers' Lounge

Robert Wilder's Tales from the Teachers' Lounge is absolutely dominating my reading time lately. I am surrounded by teachers in my family and am well aware of how impossibly tough of a career the teaching profession can be. I honestly don't see how they do it every day.

My own job can be pretty thankless and stressful, but at least I leave it at the time clock pretty easily. It never stops for the teacher. If it's not the kids, it's the administration. If it's not the administration, it's the parents. My dad once got out of a speeding ticket when the cop found out that he was a Metro school teacher and felt his pain.

Robert Wilder gets it right. He's funny and charming suffers gladly in his role as educator to our children. He's Rick Reilly in a classroom, always going for the laugh, always speaking from the heart.

Whether you're a teacher, a parent, or maybe a student who needs to know just what your teachers go through all day, pick up Tales from the Teachers' Lounge and smile.

Out of the blue, she said...

My wife just gave my daughter some apple sauce that is blue in color.

"Momma," she announced gleefully. "It's kind of blue!"

I love it when I hear album titles shouted out like that. Especially classic ones like that one.

Jonell sings "When I Write The Book"

Instead of driving to the library to see Jonell Mosser today before work, I'll just hang around the house and color with the kids.

Anyway, here's a taste of how awesome she is:

Don't worry about me. I'm only venting.

The job's not paying the bills, but I stay for the health insurance that I can't afford the co-pays for. I've got two more physical therapy sessions next week at $25 per visit. Five nights a week, I eat tuna fish straight out of the can with a plastic fork in the employee cafeteria like a hobo by a railroad track. Family members all around me celebrate birthdays and it's all I can do to send them a card or give them a call. Of course, they're cool with that, but still...I'm not.

Enough venting, I've got lots of reasons for smiling. In a year or two, we'll make the move to Florida. On that little beach town, I can work at the ritzy hotel if I'm still doing that hospitality thing for a living. I see myself driving a scooter as my primary means of transportation. The island is small - 1.5 miles wide and 13 miles long. Even if money remains tight and the job isn't entirely fulfilling, there's always the wonderful therapy of taking a moment each day and looking out across the ocean. Sand between my toes, Dylan singing in my ears, and perspective and peace in my heart, my solace awaits.

How To Really Wake Up (Must Have Kids)

Four easy steps:

1. Stumble into living room and sit in chair half-asleep while the children play.
2. Shuffle into kitchen like zombie and make chocolate milk in cup with no lid for daughter. (The rule: If the cup has no lid, the child must drink it in kitchen.)
3. Return to living room chair and proceed to read blogs while paying no attention to daughter's total disregard for the rules as they relate to cups with no lids.
4. Launch laptop and self upwards with a yelp toward the ceiling as an overturned cup of cold chocolate milk (with no lid) finds itself totally in lap and onto chair.
   

Related: How To Really Clean A Chair? I just scrub hard with wet cloths and hope for the best.