The Dobrindt Family

Mosquito Trap

FYI ? the domain name "www.mosquitotrap.com" is already owned by someone. Damn IT.

Borders Book Store

I went to Borders book store yesterday to pick up two books I have been meaning to read. I love book stores. The staff, while quirky and often a bit odd, are always helpful and friendly and usually offer some kind of interesting and witty comment. They might be strange, but that is what I except at a book store. I guess if you are working with books, having calm and pleasant personality helps. I always leave books stores, the large ones like Borders and Barnes and Noble as well as the small mom and pop shops, feeling good.

Trip to Minnesota

Next Wednesday we are heading to Duluth, Minnesota, for Patti?s cousin Kara?s wedding. Duluth is about 3 hours north of the cities and on the Wisconsin border. We have been looking forward to this trip since we found out she was getting married. Our trips to Minnesota are always nice and it?s great to see Patti?s side, something we have not done since Kara?s brother got married almost two years ago. This brother, Andy, had a son a couple of weeks ago so it will be a pretty eventful trip.

This will be Ethan?s first airplane trip and the first time all 4 of us have traveled on an airplane together (I took Emily to Atlanta last December but Ethan and Patti did not go). Emily has averaged about 3 airplane-length trips a year so she is pretty good with flying. Ethan is easy going and still young so we don?t anticipate much of an issue. The trip takes about 2 hours so not too long confined to a metal tube. STILL, with young kids, anything can be an adventure.

Patti called me today and the following conversation took place?

Patti: ?I just talked to my parents and since they are flying Northwest as well, they wanted to see if the airline would let you switch Emily?s seat and they would take her out with them from New York.?

Me: Stunned silence. Not sure I heard Patti right. Speechless.

Patti: ?You there??

Me: I made some kind of gurgle sound.

Patti: ?They are going out Monday so they would pick her up at the ferry (Long Island Ferry, a great halfway point between us and Patti?s parents) on Sunday and watch her until we get there.?

Me: ?Is something wrong with them??

Patti: ?Stop it?

Me: ?Drugs??

Patti: ?No?

Me: ?Are they drinking a lot??

Patti: ?That?s enough.?

Me: ?They?ve met Emily, right??

Patti: ?What is wrong with you??

Patti?s parents are really good like that and we appreciated the offer. I did call the airline but because our tickets are out of a different airport they wouldn?t do it without a large fee, a tongue lashing from the supervisor, purchase of an additional ticket, naming rights to our next child, a written promise to not fly them again and the deed to the house. It was a very nice idea though. All joking aside, I can see the draw. Little kids are fun and add an element of surprise to any travel experience. Plus she is cute and Jim would get a lot of attention from some of the ladies in the airport.

American Idol

I will watch American Idol usually while I am doing something else, like reading or folding clothes. I like the music part of the show but hate the nonsense that surrounds the people singing. A couple of things.

- People like the British guy Simon because Randy, the black dude, and Paula Abdul just say the same thing with each person. They say it was alright, they liked it, and never really tell the truth. And ever time Simon opens his mouth he is honest and direct. People like that. I know I like it.

- I hate when singers spread their legs and squat while singing the song. I have no idea why they do it and it makes them look awkward.

- One of the girls on the show sang ?Against All Odds?, a great song by Phil Collins. When Randy said his peace (or is it piece), he looked at Paula and said something about he had the pleasure of working with Mariah Carey. I was like ?huh??, it?s a classic Phil Collins song. I thought for a moment Randy was thinking of something else. But I did a quick search on this thing called the web and found out that Mariah Carey did a remake of it. So I went on to iTunes, where you can listen to a quick sound bite of any song they have for sale, and listened to it. Not bad. Say what you will about her, but Mariah Carey has a great voice. I still like the Phil Collins version better, but what do I know.

Horror Movie - "Gargoyle"

Last night I couldn?t sleep so I started watching a really bad (but pretty good B-Horror level movie) called House of the Dead. As movies go, it was terrible acting, over the top cinematography, stupid plot, good looking but bad acting young cast, strange ?I know that guy? appearances by a couple of people, and stupid mingle of long drawn out scenes and a video game. Basically it was about a group of young people who use an island to have a party and get killed by the walking dead who inhabit the island. It was full of topless women which made it more awful because the scenes were so misplaced it was gratuitous. But I love, really love, movies about the living dead so of course I watched it until I fell asleep after midnight.

This morning I woke up really early, around 4:30, and while I was trying hard to get back to sleep and of course getting farther and farther away from actually getting to sleep, I heard something on the roof. It was probably a squirrel or something running around but it got me thinking about a pretty cool horror movie concept.

Here it is.

A young family...

<div align="left"> <img src="http://www.moveyourasana.com/David/pictures/Blog/VSICD-purple-gargoyle.jpg" width="100" height="100" border="0"</a>

Goodbye Dennis

Emily has a pet goldfish named Dennis. Well...had. Dennis lives in a fish bowl about the size of a bowling ball (not round, just about that tall). Here is how the conversation went the morning Patti and the kids were going on their trip and I was getting ready for work.

<u>Patti</u>: You are going to have to change the water in the fish?s bowl. Do you know how?

<u>Me</u>: I?ll figure it out.

<u>Patti</u>: Fish are very sensitive to a change in water temperature, you have to do it right.

(Patti then explained how I am supposed to do it).

<u>Patti</u>: Did you get that?

<u>Me</u>: Not really, I wasn?t paying attention; can you go through it again?

(Patti patiently explains it again)

<u>Patti</u>: Ok?

<u>Me</u>: I?ll figure it out.

<u>Patti</u>: Dave, if Dennis dies while we are away, you?re gonna have to replace him with a goldfish that looks just like him.

Later in the day Patti called and said she changed the water so I didn?t have to do it. Great, I thought, Dennis will live another week. When I got home that night, I realized Dennis wasn?t moving. And he was at the bottom of the bowl. On his side. With rigor mortis setting in. Despite my best efforts to revive him, Dennis passed.

I stood at attention, took my hat off and placed it across my heart, lowered my head and recited a line from the famous W.H. Auden poem.

?Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves?

Technically I had nothing to do with Dennis? death, after all I didn?t feed him, change the water or even look at him. But since it happened on my watch, I have to replace him. I?ll go to the fish store tomorrow and get another goldfish. Maybe I?ll pick up two since boredom and loneliness probably killed the first one.

Dennis, we hardly knew ye. Be well my old friend, our world is less orange.

MLB - Steroids

The other thing I want to touch on is the steroid use issue in baseball. I know it?s a big deal ? young fans see their sports heroes accused of taking drugs, historical baseball greats unfairly have their records taken away, young men are ruining their lives taking drugs, players not on the juice do not have a chance against the players who are ? but for some reason I could care less. I am tired of it already. It came as no shock to me that players were using steroids. I had Brady Anderson on my fantasy team the year after he hit 50 home runs and the rumors started back then. The steroid issue is old news, and even when it was new news, it was boring. I just do not care.

MLB is not going to do anything about it. They put a penalty for the first offense at a 10 game suspension (first time offense in the Olympics is a 2 year ban) which is a joke to these guys. They argue that you cannot do another test for months because it stays in your system but they use masking agents to block out the detection when they know when they are going to get tested. They can hide behind the union. Hey, it?s unfair and not right, but I like to see baseballs hit farther, pitchers throw faster, football players hit harder, running backs run faster and quarterbacks throw longer. I am part of the problem because I like to watch great athletes and I pay to go to games and I buy merchandise which pays for the owners to bid on players who hit the ball father, throw the ball faster and are better athletes than the next guy.

If fans really cared that much, they would stop buying jerseys and hats and shelling out a week?s salary for a night at a game. But I am sick of hearing about it already because there is nothing new to report. Players are accused of doing steroids, players deny using steroids, some players admit using steroids and offer a disingenuous apology (if they apologize at all), major league baseball and the player?s union does nothing, fans continue to watch games.

Jose Canseco and Jason Giambi could have been good guys if they came out and said they did steroids and it ruined their lives, sincerely apologized to the fans and their teammates, and begged kids not to follow the same path. But Jose goes on 60 minutes and every radio station saying the same meaningless thing over and over, all while his book hits the best seller list. I am as concerned about the steroid issue as I am about weather in Europe ? I might notice it but don?t really care.

NPR

From now on I am going to say ?I heard on NPR this morning?? when I talk about anything I heard, even if I didn?t hear it on NPR. Or even if I didn?t hear it on the radio. Or hear it at all.

Disney Movies, Part 2

Part of a long running and popular series is my "Real World Sequel" for well known Disney movies. Below is the third installment.

3. Cinderella

<u>Summary of Original Movie</u>

When Cinderella was young, her mother died and her rich father remarried a woman who already had two girls of her own. Shortly after getting married, I guess, her father died and the step mother treated her own two daughters much better than Cinderella. In fact, they all treated Cinderella terribly and made her their slave. I am not sure if her father died or not but I would assume so because the old lady and her daughters were really bad to Cinderella.

Anyway, Cinderella had to do all the chores and didn?t get to go to the good parties and stuff. One day the guys who took care of the local Prince really wanted to find him a wife. They threw a huge ball for all the young eligible ladies to attend so that the prince could meet someone and get married. Of course Cinderella was not allowed to go because she had to clean the bathrooms in the East Wing and then mop the attic ceiling and she was pretty upset. Her fairy Godmother appeared and turned some animals and vegetables into people and automobiles and away to the ball went Cindy.

At the ball the Prince hung out with Cinderella and ignored the other ladies. They spent all night talking but Cindy had to leave to be home by midnight, a deadline established by the Godmother.

The Prince?s handlers saw how happy he was with Cinderella so they set out to find her. Using a shoe the lovely young housemaid left behind, they went door to door looking for a foot to fit the shoe.

<u>Ending of Original Movie</u>

Miraculously there was only one person in the entire town who had what is probably the most common shoe size on the planet. Guess who that was? Yup, Cinderella. The Prince and Cinderella get married and live happily ever after.

<u>Real World Sequel</u>
There are two interesting sub-plots to the sequel. The first is that while Cinderella was busy cleaning the dining room floor with her tongue, the resentment was building inside her. When we thought she was talking to mice and birds, she was talking to herself, plotting her revenge. There was NO freakin WAY she was going to let her stepmother and the brats get away with how they treated her for so many years. Now that she was rich and had the Prince to back her, it was payback time.

NHL

The NHL was officially cancelled Wednesday. I have not been following the details too closely, mainly because I don?t really watch the NHL, at least not until the playoffs, but from what I can tell there is no solution in site. The sticking point, again, I am not an expert, is the salary cap. The players, rightfully so, want 49 mil and the owners want 42.5 mil. I guess almost all of the teams are losing money and there is no way for them to make money. In fact, the entire league lost a huge amount, over a billion dollars, over the last 10 years. Interest in pro hockey is at an all time low, a problem on a different scale because the NHL should have capitalized on Wayne Gretzky like the NBA did with Michael Jordan. Other than my buddy Jay and about 6 other people, no one is really into pro hockey. For a number of reasons, it has steadily been losing viewers. So the owners are losing money and the players are not willing to compromise on the salary. I am sure there is more to it than that, but for me personally the only impact it has on my life is that I don?t have to click through whatever channel is showing a pro hockey game on my channel surfing safari.