when it first came out, i thought firefox was a pretty good brand name for the lastest brower offering from mozilla.

but since then, i have heard so many combinations of [blank]fire, fire[blank], [blank]fox, fox[blank], [blank][blank] that i am convinced mozilla overestimated the ability of the common man to integrate a new compound word in to their lexicon.

its not unusual for ethan say:

dad, i have a new girlfriend.

it was surprising who the new girlfriend was:

its hermione.

further proof that the kid has a discerning eye.

the whole family is getting in on the ‘rant’ act…

a letter from natalie to barack obama:

President Elect Obama

I was overjoyed when you were elected. We took our 3 and 5 year olds to one of you rallies so they could see history in the making. However, your choice to include Rev. Rick Warren in such a prominent position in your inauguration has disappointed me and left me feeling that you are not the change I had hoped for. My sister is a lesbian in a dedicated relationship for over 15 years. They have 4 children and my sister is a stay at home mother. She will not get social security benefits from her partner’s years of working and is not guaranteed partner benefits (health insurance) if her partner changes jobs. Selecting someone who has openly spoken against her right to have the same safety in her financial future that married couples enjoy shows a lack of understanding on your part. I was so excited about your inauguration that I took the day off work so that I would be able to show my children your speech. I may now take them to a park instead. From what I have read it seems you do not personally believe in “gay marriage”. However, I hope that you can educate yourself and push for equal rights for all.

i’m not sure which was worse, telling the octogenarian sitting next to me in the theatre that checking her voice mail in the middle of a film is annoying, or feeling bad about it afterwards because as annoying as it was (and trust me, its mighty annoying to watch an old lady attempting to click through a dozen or so cell phone menus), it sucks to be the guy who has to scold aunt bee.

tonight after dinner we ran an errand. dinner must not have been satisfying to ethan because he asked if he could have some pizza. there is place near by that dishes up slices so we agreed.

on the way ethan said “god wanted me to have a piece of pizza”.

i replied that i wasn’t so sure about that and maybe he was just lucky to have such cool parents.

ethan said “you don’t always understand the ways of god, he wanted you to get me a piece of pizza”.

when we got to the pizza place it was surprisingly closed but with great self control i refrained from pointing out that god should have known the pizza place was closed tonight…

i had my first post-forty physical on the last day of last year. the lab results came back in the mail today and my testosterone count was 368 with a reference range listed as between 175 – 781. i asked my wife what the measure meant and with all her medical expertise she responded with ‘its fine’.

i’m not so sure. i’m thinking i’m losing the little bit of manliness i have given that my testosterone count is barely out of the lowest quartile of the reference range…

as i’ve mentioned in the past, natalie and i haven’t done anything to encourage our daughter towards stereotypical ‘girlish’ things. i would argue, we have such little expertise in such things that we aren’t capable to teach her about them.

so i know some recessed gene passed on to logan when i hear her say things like this (we were leaving early for the airport and dressed her before she was completely awake, this was the first thing she said):

mom, i love you. you dressed me all in pink.

there are many reasons i root for ohio state (sure, playing against texas makes that a no brainer) but i have to say they are doing everything imaginable to dissuade me…

two kids and a latina in the house with whose family is visiting and there is no way christmas doesn’t last the entire month of december. i hope your holidays were less chaotic but equally merry.

happy new year.