after the nfl conference championship games are over, the real competition begins. who will get their preferred team and the point spread in the annual super bowl bet i have with my father.

the bet has been an annual tradition for more than twenty years now and started out with the loser having to wash the other’s car. this was a comical arrangement because we were living in st. louis where it is often cold in late january/early february and both of us owned junker trucks that really didn’t deserve cleaning.

the payoff evolved as we both upgraded our trucks, moved to different cities and i had kids, but the haggling over who gets which team remains. most superbowl games have a clear favorite and we both either make a claim for that team or cry about how little the point spread is. many attempts are made to coerce the other in to giving up the the favored team or to increase the points spread beyond the vegas line.

as we are both pig headed, the bet ultimately gets settled the day before the superbowl at the published odds with the guy who won last year being the one to give the inch it takes to complete the bet.

but this year was different, it started out normal enough with both of us seeking the patriots. then i doubled the published point spread and offered to take the giants and instead of dickering over the point spread, my father agreed. he said his good will resulted from the payout he received after winning last year’s bet. the stakes for the past few years have been if i lose – i send him nice framed pictures of the kids. if he loses – he sends the kids a gift box of toys. so as his walls have filled up with pictures and he’s still recalling the excitement from the kids at christmas – i caught him at a soft moment.

i’ve got the giants + 7 1/2 but will be rooting for the patriots by 7.

you want to know why folks in the religious right always think the judges are activists and every gay person is trying to convert them to their “life style”, – its because the religious right is always at it and think the rest of us must be as imposing as them.

Komen breast cancer charity severs ties with Planned Parenthood

“I find this really disappointing. I think when women’s health is more of a political conversation than a conversation about healthcare and taking care of people, then we’ve gone too far.” – Sue Dunlap, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles

a pleasant surprise on my work scratch pad from logan…

i married in to the ownership of a 1997 saturn sl2. worse yet its some putrid purple color. i hate the car.

i hate the car so much i feel its pushing me to a mid life crisis – not a two seater, convertible mid life crisis but more distinguished bmw 328i crisis.

my sister in law knows how much i hate the saturn and came in to good deal on a 1995 toyota avalon and asked if we were interested. not knowing the model very well i said sure and they brought it over on sunday.

turned out everything about the avalon, from the automatic transmission to the oatmeal gold paint cried senior citizen. in the brief two mile test drive all i could think about was retirement and sunglasses with large polarized temple pieces.

so driving satisfaction continues to elude me as does apparently the will to make it better…

at the last minute before heading to school the kids remembered it was spirit day at school and they were supposed to dress in blue. so outfits were changed and it occurred to logan that the blue face crayon was a necessary addition.

so i painted maori patterns all over both of their faces to the best of my ability and to their amazement. logan asking “were you an artist when you were a child”.

it was raining and we were now late for the bus so we had to grab backpacks, umbrellas and run out the door without getting a picture.

at the bus stop the kids showed everyone their faces, just in case anyone hadn’t noticed on their own.

then, when the bus showed up and i took their umbrellas away, both bowed their heads and covered the faces with their hands to protect the valued face paint.

my son just found out i have a web site.

when he saw the disturbing robot video he suggesting i follow it up with this song – so at ethan’s request, here you go (don’t ask me if this is an appropriate song for an eight year old to know)

who could blame the robots for wiping us out after seeing this?

its the time of the year when i reflect on the antics going on at the gym…

first, the new year’s resolution crowds have already diminished. ironically just about the time our holiday candies ran out. wonder if there is any correlation? also, it seems to me in years past these folks ‘stuck’ with their resolutions at least until february.

second, there is a new, amazingly fit woman doing unnatural exercises that make it impossible not to notice her. equally noticeable is how minus the sports bra and flower in her hair you may not know she was a woman. yeah, the sports bra may not have been enough, it required a flower in her hair to cement the gender. and you can’t question why that flower is there because none of the other women are coming to the gym with flowers in their hair.

during my eight year old son’s first basketball game, another boy took a pass near the baseline and tossed the ball up and in the basket.

after making the shot, he performed a celebration similar to the obligatory “look ma, i caught the ball” dance every nfl receiver performs these days.

his dance made me wonder, was he emulating the athletes he is watching on television, or do professional athletes have the emotionally maturity of eight year old boys?

during my extending break from updating this site, you may have noticed the site was down for a few days. this was due to me moving the site from godaddy to a new hosting provider.

i moved the hosting because i no longer wanted to send money to bob parsons, the executive chairman of godaddy. his ideals and politics don’t match any of mine…

you may have also noticed the site was blacked out yesterday like many other sites on the internet. this was in effort to raise awareness on stopping sopa and pipa.

since 9/11/2001 the liberty and freedom we enjoy in the u.s. have been under assault. most grievously, on the last day of 2011, president obama signed the national defense authorization act which allows indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without trial, where terrorism suspects includes u.s. citizens. that’s you, me and your grandmother included.

i can think of no example in history where a government gave itself this type of authority and it turned out well for the population.

its time to speak out now, before there is no one left, or its no longer possible…

we were supposed to still be on the mountain top, but seriously we got a call from housekeeping late the night before telling us the power was going to be off from 5am – 9am. the call was so strange we decided it was likely a prank and called the front desk in the morning and they confirmed – no power.

so with the prospect of no heat, no water and worst of all to natalie, no coffee in the morning – we left the mountain and found lodging that planned to include power for the length of our stay.

in honor of martin luther king day – we are spending the day on the mountain top.

showshoe, west virginia