Aaron's Articles

Good-bye, Blogger

2010-03-31T21:11:00.001-05:00

I'm wrapping up my four-year run of my blog on Blogger. I'm making the switch to Wordpress. It seems much more intuitive and has features I feel are more suited for what I would like to do with my blog.

Please change your links to my new blog home: http://aaronmcgrath.wordpress.com

See you at Wordpress!

Portland (part two)

2010-03-31T11:27:00.016-05:00

The view of downtown Portland from atop Mount Tabor.

On Wednesday morning, we decided to hit Mount Tabor, an extinct volcano located just north of our accommodations. We walked from the house just a short distance to Mount Tabor Park. It was a steep climb up, but it was very beautiful. The historical trees and beauty of Portland is apparent all over the city, but especially at Mount Tabor.
We didn't make it too far up Mount Tabor because we decided that we were going to save our legs from too much walking because we decided we were going to scout around the city by foot and public transportation. We did make it far enough up the volcano to see two big reservoirs and a pretty view of downtown Portland.

Video from Mount Tabor:

After Mount Tabor, we decided to fuel up before our journeys throughout the town. Along our route to get on the Max, we had to try one of Portland's own: Pizzacato. This pizza-by-the-slice contemporary café offered many varieties of pie and other Italian faves.
We walked a couple miles down Division, a street we got to know very well, to get to the Division Max depot. We would've ridden a bus line down, but we didn't have a ticket and we weren't quite sure if we could buy a day pass that was good for both the bus and the train once we boarded a bus. It was good to walk, though, and see the different businesses and neighborhoods along the way.

Riding the Max into downtown Portland on Wednesday.

Once aboard the Max, we were on the green line headed to the union station stop in downtown Portland. At our stop, we journeyed through downtown into the various districts. I was a little weak from being sick, and we both needed a pick-me-up, so we found a Starbucks; Rachel got a mocha frap, and I got a tall Pike Place.
We, next, made our way through downtown some more. In Portland, it's easy to see that many businesses are local — not apart of a large national corporation. It's not just a few locally-owned shops here and there — it's just about every place you see in Portland; it would take you years to visit every business that looked interesting.
One local business we happened upon was Cupcake Jones. They had a huge variety of cupakes on display, and they all looked quite scrumptious. Of course, I indulged my sweet tooth with a chocolate cupcake. It was excellent — and very messy.

Relishing a little Cupcake Jones.

We decided it was time to find Powell's Books, one of largest used bookstore in the nation. This was a book lover's heaven. We stayed only a few hours, but I think even I, the non-reader that I am, could've stayed an hour or two more browsing. If we lived in Portland, there's no way I would want to go to a Barnes and Noble with Powell's so close.

After much of the afternoon downtown, we caught the green line back to our Division stop. We then caught a bus back toward the house. We departed the bus prematurely because Rachel was attempting to locate where she would be attending her religious meeting on Wednesday night. We took a nice walk through the Mount Tabor neighborhood and saw plenty of cool homes. The houses throughout the entire region were very quaint and full of charm. Too everyone's yards were so well kept and were so full of vibrant flowers and bushes.
We returned to the house shortly and Rachel began cooking one of her Indian specialities, a chicken rice pilaf. Emily said she enjoyed spicy food, so Rachel decided to make sure it was extra spicy. I think she made the best pot of Indian chicken rice pilaf ever. The Indian bread was delish, too.
I retired to the couch with my good friends, Claire and Atal, who didn't realize they weren't lapdog-sized. Occassionally, Nelle and Thomas, were brave enough to get by their canine sibilings to get a little attention from their Missouri guests.

Nelle

Thomas and Nelle together

Claire. Poor Atal didn't make one photo on our trip. Poor boy.

Portland (part one)

2010-03-30T20:57:00.009-05:00

Having never been to the Northwest, we decided it was time to visit that part of the country. We were very fortune to have Emily Jenkins, a friend who was on the percussion line with me in school, to allow us to stay with her at her home in Portland. She and her husband, Tony, relocated to Portland in 2005, and they both really love it. Tony is currently deployed to Iraq but should be back to Portland in a few weeks and should be done with his service completely.

We are so grateful to Emily for allowing us to invade her house.

Here goes the chronicles of our journey. ( I didn't take as detailed notes on this trip, so it shouldn't be as big of a blog as our New York trip.)

Our journey began on Monday, March 24. We dropped Hebrew National, my dog, off at my parents in the afternoon and were off to the Ramada near the St. Louis airport. We had done some investigation and found that it was cheaper for us to stay a night at the Ramada use the hotels park and fly option than it was to leave our car parked at an airport parking lot. That being said, the Ramada wasn't the greatest. It served a purpose — it was a place to get some rest before our early morning flight and it had a shuttle service that took us to the front doors of the airport. After moving two different times, our third hotel room was fine. The first two smelled of cigarette smoke badly even though they were non-smoking rooms, so we were moved to a different floor and didn't have any smoke issues.
I had not been feeling well, and I felt like I was starting to get a little congestion and possibly a minor fever. Rachel got me some DayQuil and NyQuil tablets so we could take the trip and I wouldn't be so uncomfortable.
Our Tuesday morning flight was at 6 a.m. on Frontier Airlines, so we decided to catch the 4 a.m. shuttle service on Tuesday since the airlines always recommend getting to the airport extra early. The shuttle left a few minutes early since we and the other party who signed up for the 4 a.m. shuttle were already there. We arrived to the airport and got down to security to find that it didn't open until 4:30, so Rachel opted to get a greasy cheese danish while we sat waiting.
After getting through security, we sat another hour or so until we actually boarded our Frontier Airlines jet. I had never flown with Frontier, but I liked how their flights offer TV service. We didn't want to pay $6 to watch TV, but we could've watch the small screen on the seatback in front of us if we had wanted. I did use the free preview while it lasted.
Our plane layover was in Denver, but the same plane that had brought us from St. Louis to Denver was the same plane that was flying from Denver on to Portland. Another couple of hours in the air, and we landed on the west coast at 10 a.m.

A view of our Frontier jet. Our Frontier jet, which is a "different kind of animal," sported a parrot on our flight from St. Louis to Portland.

Our next venture was getting from the airport to Emily's house in Portland via the Max, the public transportation rail system in Portland. After getting our day pass, we boarded the red line, which took us to a stop where we switched to the green line. The green line then took us to the Division stop, where we then go off to catch a bus near Emily's house.
After a short walk from the bus, we found Emily's house. Needless to say, we crashed after we got to her house.

Our first ride on the Max in Portland.

After a restful afternoon, Emily arrived home from work and took us on a tour of the various neighborhoods that comprise Portland. We stopped at a small Mexican restaurant for some quick, inexpensive (but very tasty) tacos.
That evening we hit the hay early, but not before watching Emily make her oatmeal medley that she was preparing for the next day.

Emily's oatmeal medley.

Rachel getting ready to sleep on our Ikea pullout sofa that was very comfortable after a long day of travel. I wish I looked that good at the end of the day! (I know, right?)

Window Seat

2010-03-30T19:55:00.005-05:00

I haven't been consistently blogging all winter — and I'm not quite sure why.

Partially, I believe that Facebook has been my main place to leave comments and thoughts. But the 420 character limitation on the social networking go-to has squashed my ability to completely put my brain on paper (or on computer screen, I guess).

Thanks to my recent visit to Portland, I have found that turning the TV off isn't that bad of a thing. Emily Jenkins, a friend from high school, graciously allowed my wife and me to stay at her home in Portland for spring break. It was a great spring break. (I'll probably blog about it later.)

But, while in her home, there was a noticeable difference; she had no TV. Well, she had a TV and a ton of DVDs to watch, but it didn't have an antenna or cable or anything. It didn't bother me one ounce since we were so active while we were there, and it has made me appreciate the lack of bombardment of news and brain-dead sitcoms that consume our lives too much.

So, tonight, thanks to Emily, my TV is off. And I have been reading. I did my daily Bible reading, which was more meaningful earlier in the day as opposed to reading it closer to bedtime.

I've also been reading online articles. Two have caught my attention tonight:

First, a column by David Brooks called "The Sandra Bullock Trade."

In the column, Brooks starts writing about Sandra Bullock's major events that happened this month: her Academy Award win for best actress and the alleged affair her "adulterous jerk" husband had.

He, then, in the column addresses whether fame and fortune or personal relationships make someone happier. Of course, all the interesting studies he points out indicate that "economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important."

But the second thing Brooks addresses in his column was a good message for educators:

The second impression is that most of us pay attention to the wrong things. Most people vastly overestimate the extent to which more money would improve our lives. Most schools and colleges spend too much time preparing students for careers and not enough preparing them to make social decisions. Most governments release a ton of data on economic trends but not enough on trust and other social conditions. In short, modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter most. They have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of moral and social ones.

Yes, our kids need to be prepared to go to college and planning for a career. But even more so, students need to make good social decisions. I think that's why I always promote to my students the idea of getting out of the minute worlds in which they've grown and live somewhere different. What better way to develop better social skills than to be around people who are from different backgrounds or who have a different culture. If you're not exposed to another culture, it's likely that you don't do well socially with people of other cultures. So, that means anytime you're in a social situation with someone not from your cultural background, that can be problematic.

This totally transitions into the second thing I read online tonight. (I apologize for going on and on, but I'm on a roll here.)

Erykah Badu is stirring up a little controversy, according to a music blog I read on Yahoo!, in a new music video for her song "Window Seat."

In the video, which you can watch at her Web site or on the YouTube embedded video above, Badu strips down naked (Yes, it's censored.) at the site where JFK was shot. While I don't completely understand why she chose JFK as a comparison to herself, she's basically making the point that people shouldn't judge what they don't personally understand.

From the Yahoo! blog post:

By the time Badu reaches the infamous grassy knoll where Kennedy was killed, she is completely nude. A gunshot is heard, her head cocks back, and her limp body falls to the ground. The words "group think" bleed from her head in blue ink.
"Group think that's like a form of thinking that causes you to bury what you really feel inside to please the group so you won't be ostracized by the group," Badu told the Wall Street Journal. "It's a comfort zone that we create for ourselves, and I go outside of that comfort zone."

As Badu's body lies on the ground, she speaks in a narrative voice to explain the message. "They play it safe. Are quick to assassinate what they do not understand," Badu says in the voiceover. "This is what we have become. Afraid to respect the individual."

Very interesting. Does my initial uneasy reaction of her decision to strip down naked publicly make me a societal conformist?

What do you think about this video? I'd be interested to read your thoughts and comments.

Enough blogging for now; I have to go watch the TV. Oops, I guess I haven't completely quit watching TV. But I do plan to shut off the boob tube unless I have something that I absolutely want to watch. (I going to watch Parenthood — just in case you wanted to know.)

Yum Yum!

2010-02-27T19:43:00.004-06:00

I had seen it forever, but it never quite caught my eye due to its lack of physical appeal — and maybe because I'm tired of seeing yet another new Asian food place overtaking a failed fast food joint in Springfield to cash in on the cashew chicken-crazed folks in town.

But after reading various local restaurant review Web sites, I knew it was time to try Yum Yum Bowl. Several restaurant-goers touted it as a good, cheap Asian restaurant — not that attention-getting in my book; however, they also said it and Ocean Zen have the same owners. That caught my attention.

Stepping inside, customer's begin by choosing their dish from a contemporary menu along the wall before sitting in the dining area. They didn't completely redo the interior of the restaurant, but they cared enough to install stylish light fixtures and did some more with-it decorating than some of the new Asian places in town have done in the past.

The food is pretty inexpensive. I ordered a lunch portion kung pao chicken, which was served with fried rice and two cream puffs (a.k.a. crab rangoons). It was $5.95. Rachel ordered a combination dish; she always asks for the dish with the most vegetables. We could have ordered a bowl — hence the name — but we went with the specialty side of the menu.

My kung pao chicken was absolutely wonderful, and the fried rice and the cream puffs were all tasty, too. The sauce was perfectly spicy, and there was no concern of MSG, since they don't use it in anything. (You know Rachel asked.) We both ordered lunch portions, and were both completely satisfied. If we had ordered the dinner portions, they would've only cost us a dollar or two more — and then we would've had leftovers for dinner.

Rachel wasn't as head over heels for her dish as mine, but she wants to go back because we had only a positive experience with the food and service. They have a drive-thru, too, we will definitely be trying.

If you're an Asian food lover, and you're in Springfield, give Yum Yum Bowl a try. You won't be disappointed.

Little snow, big problems

2010-02-14T19:20:00.003-06:00

A little bit of snow has caused some big problems in southwest Missouri.

According to MoDOT, a crash at mile marker 102 on I-44 has completely shut down westbound traffic with an estimated reopen time of two hours as of 7 p.m.

Springfield has been slammed with crash reports, including an accident at Lone Pine and Battlefield (picture from Ozarkstraffic.info).

Update to my snowfall forecast

2010-01-26T21:52:00.005-06:00

After seeing tonight's model run (including the GFS shown above), the change I would make to my snowfall forecast on the last post would be moving the heavier band a little farther north and probably make it a little more narrow.

Tomorrow's 12z model run will be much better than tonight's because the low has just made landfall tonight, meaning we haven't received the complete amount of data to pinpoint things for sure.

I'll try to have an updated snowfall forecast map tomorrow afternoon.

My snowfall forecast

2010-01-26T12:25:00.003-06:00

I've gone out on a limb and made my own snowfall forecast map based on models and data I've read online — because, what else is there to do at home while you're trying to beat the stomach flu?

This is definitely an early estimation, but it looks at this point that the low will now track so that we'll be getting more snow and not so much ice in Missouri. Arkansas still has a chance of some ice, but it doesn't look like it'll be a major ice storm like they experienced last year.

I'll modify this after the next model run tonight or tomorrow.

School-cancelling weather possible once again

2010-01-24T15:46:00.003-06:00

After five surprise days added to my Christmas break due to the Ozarks' last winter storm, another one could impact us again later this week.

"Low pressure moving from the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley Wednesday night through Friday will bring the potential of a mix rain, freezing rain, and accumulating winter precipitation to southeast Kansas and southwest and central Missouri," the National Weather Service said in a Hazardous Weather Outlook issued today.

Aside from accumulating snow, ice is a concern due to the anticipated setup of this storm system.

"The upper level low is anticipated to kick into the plains mid week with warm Gulf moisture advecting into the Plains and Ozarks ahead of the low," says the NWS forecast discussion.

Check back for more updates as this system begins to rare up this week.

3.5 inches of snow, more potentially on its way

2010-01-03T08:18:00.007-06:00

The view outside my front door.

We finally had some measurable snow in Springfield, and it looks like midweek could easily double what we received today.

"Another storm system will impact the area from Wednesday through Thursday," says the National Weather Service in its most recent Hazardous Weather Outlook statement. "This feature will bring additional snow accumulations to the Ozarks."

In this morning's forecast discussion, forecasters are already anticipating a winter storm warning this week and a high snowfall ratio.

"... Given the structure of this system, warning criteria snow accumultions will likely be observed somewhere either within or near the Ozarks region," the discussion says. "One factor that could enhance snow accumulations by the end of the week is the unusually cold airmass. Ratios, much like tonight, could end up being around 15:1, which is unusual for this part of the country."

That airmass that will increase the liquid-to-snowfall measure ratio is expected to be frigid — day and night.

"A very cold week is on tap for the region. Much of the area will not observe above freezing temperatures for the entire week," says the NWS. "The coldest portion of the week will be Thursday into Friday, where highs in most locations will not warm out of the teens and lows will be firmly in the single digits."

One person's trash...

2010-01-02T09:26:00.007-06:00

The old adage is true — well, at least we thought so thanks to our found treasure on yesterday's antiquing voyage.

We have been searching high and low for bargains to fix up our house. Rachel made an awesome find on an antique chair that fits nicely in our living room. We purchased it from the Ozark Antique Mall in Ozark. If you haven't hit up the antique shops in Ozark, you're missing out. Too, you're missing out if you don't visit Ozark's square, which features some shops with an array of home decor sure to please your home.

After shopping the chain stores, we have determined that the same ol', same ol' offered at Furniture Row and Slumberland is OK and standard, but the character of treasures at local, unique shops is like no other. Plus, supporting our local economy is what it's all about, right?

Our next venture is browsing for bargains at The Thicket, a neat shop tucked behind Steak 'n' Shake on Glenstone. The clerk told us he was going to bring out lots of new merchandise later this week after their 60-percent-off Christmas paraphernalia has been sold or put away.

Never a Year Like '09

2010-01-01T09:11:00.002-06:00

There's also another cool way to reflect on 2009. I created a collage of "my year in status" on Facebook. Anyone who uses Facebook would find it quite interesting, I'm sure.

¡Feliz año nuevo!
— Aaron

No real snow yet, but...

2009-12-17T16:49:00.004-06:00

Indications of a white Christmas? From the NWS:

IT APPEARS AS THOUGH THERE WILL BE THE POTENTIAL FOR SOME WINTER
WEATHER JUST PRIOR TO CHRISTMAS.  DETAILS ARE NOT AVAILABLE AT THE
MOMENT...BUT ALL MEDIUM RANGE MODELS ARE SIGNALING THAT UPPER LEVEL
ENERGY WILL APPROACH FROM THE WEST BY AROUND THE 23RD OR 24TH OF
DECEMBER.  IT ALSO APPEARS AS THOUGH A GULF MOISTURE CONNECTION
COULD BE ESTABLISHED BY THEN.  THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN
MODEL SOLUTIONS AT THIS POINT.  THE FORECAST WILL BE FINE TUNED WITH
TIME AS OUR ANALYSIS BECOMES MORE STABLE AND CONSISTENT.  WE
RECOMMEND THAT ALL INTERESTS ACROSS EXTREME SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND THE
MISSOURI OZARKS TO MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND STATEMENTS ISSUED BY
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE...REGARDING THE POTENTIAL FOR WINTER
WEATHER JUST PRIOR TO THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY.

I know, the last few chances of snow weren't that great, but we can still hope for a white Christmas, right?

First accumulating snow on its way

2009-12-06T08:03:00.002-06:00

Hebrew National trying to lick the snow as it fell last January.

The Ozarks will likely see its first accumulating snowfall this week.

Amounts are still up in the air because a few variables are still being assessed, but people in the Ozarks with the best shot of accumulating snow are northwest of I-44 as the upper level low will likely traverse that highway.

The National Weather Service's forecast discussion this morning:

THE NEXT CONCERN FOCUSES ON THE STRONG STORM SYSTEM THAT IS
EXPECTED TO AFFECT THE OZARKS TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY.
CURRENT MEDIUM RANGE MODELS ARE IN FAIRLY GOOD AGREEMENT WITH THE
TRACK OF THE SURFACE LOW PASSING THROUGH THE OZARKS ALMOST RIDING
FROM SOUTHWEST TO NORTHEAST ALONG THE INTERSTATE 44 CORRIDOR.
THERE REMAINS SOME CONCERN THAT THE MODELS MAY NOT BE DIGGING THE
SYSTEM ENOUGH GIVEN THE EVENTUAL KICKER ENERGY IS STILL ROUNDING
THE TOP OF THE HIGH AMPLITUDE RIDGE OVER THE WEST COAST. THE SHORT
WAVE THAT WILL DETERMINE JUST HOW FAR THE SYSTEM WILL DIG IS JUST
NOW BEGINNING TO BE SAMPLED OVER ALASKA. BECAUSE OF THIS REMAINING
UNCERTAINTY AND THE AMOUNT OF COLD AIR THAT WILL BE AVAILABLE HAVE
CONTINUED TO INDICATE SOME ACCUMULATING SNOW MID WEEK. STILL THE
HEAVIEST SNOWS SHOULD REMAIN NORTH OF THE OZARKS ACROSS NORTHEAST
KANSAS AND NORTHWEST MISSOURI. THE PRECIPITATION SHOULD BEGIN
EARLY TUESDAY AS FLURRIES OR LIGHT SNOW AND CHANGE OVER TO RAIN
DURING THE DAY TUESDAY. AS THE COLD AIR SLIDES INTO THE REGION
OVERNIGHT TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING...PRECIPITATION WILL
SLOWLY CHANGE OVER TO SNOW WITH THE POTENTIAL OF SOME MINOR
ACCUMULATIONS. AGAIN...THIS WILL BE HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON THE TRACK
OF THE STORM SYSTEM. WILL NEED TO CONTINUE TO TRACK THIS SYSTEM
AND HOW THE MODELS HANDLE THE DIGGING ENERGY OVER THE NORTHWEST.

AGAIN...IT STILL APPEARS THAT THE BEST CHANCE OF ACCUMULATING
PRECIPITATION WILL BE ALONG AND NORTH OF INTERSTATE 44. THE
UNCERTAINTY THAT REMAINS WITH THE EXACT TRACK OF THIS WINTER STORM
AND WHERE ACCUMULATING WINTER PRECIPITATION WILL OCCUR WILL NEED
TO BE MONITORED OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

A taste of winter — maybe a full meal next week

2009-12-03T06:49:00.003-06:00

As I said in my previous post, our winter weather activity is very likely on the increase over the next several weeks.

I saw some pretty nice snowfall in Marshfield yesterday during the last hour of the day and after school. It didn't stick, obviously since the ground is too warm. But despite the very lacking moisture in the atmosphere, the southwest low was able to have enough energy to provide us with some snow.

Next week, however, forecast models are showing potentials of some accumulating snow. The snow shovels could be needed Tuesday into Wednesday.

Yeah, it's early on, but you might keep an eye on the forecasts. As time gets closer, I'll give provide some updates.

Weather Low Down

2009-11-30T21:16:00.004-06:00

We've already heard that it'll be "our possible first snowfall of the season," several weeks ago when local meteorologists were looking at a little puny low of the northwest that could come in and put a little dusting on our cars.

Yeah, I woke up and saw nothing, too.

But, here's the deal. The U.S. weather pattern is shifting in that we are going to start seeing waves of energy move in from the southwestern U.S. into our neck of the woods.

That means that right now — and probably over the next several weeks — we will be seeing chances of snow in the forecast in southwest Missouri.

And you can pay attention to the forecast and know that if a snow graphic is in the seven-day outlook, it's a safe bet that snow probably will fall. If the meteorologist says "accumulating snow" during this current weather pattern, he or she does have a higher probability of that being accurate right now.

It's possible that this Wednesday afternoon/evening/night that we could honestly see our true first snow. I don't believe it'll be that significant, but I do think we'll actually see snow falling instead of squinting our eyes to see it barely snowing through the raindrops. The variables for this low to bring us some accumulating snow are (1) the track of the low and (2) the speed of the cold air mass coming in from Canada.

At this point, it looks like those receiving significant snowfall are probably areas in south central Missouri up into the St. Louis region. A special weather statement was issued earlier today from the St. Louis National Weather Service office:

THE LATEST WEATHER DATA CONTINUES TO INDICATE THE INCREASING
POSSIBILITY OF ACCUMULATING SNOW ACROSS THE AREA FOR WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON AND NIGHT. THE MOST FAVORED REGION AT THIS TIME APPEARS
TO BE NEAR THE INTERSTATE 44 CORRIDOR IN MISSOURI AS WELL AS MUCH
OF THE EASTERN SUBURBS OF ST LOUIS AND PARTS OF SOUTHWEST
ILLINOIS...HOWEVER ALL AREAS IN EASTERN AND CENTRAL MISSOURI AND
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS APPEAR LIKELY TO GET SOME SNOW.

...BY LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT...SOME AREAS MAY SEE A FEW INCHES OF SNOW.

IT MUST BE STRESSED THAT THERE IS STILL A DECENT AMOUNT OF
UNCERTAINTY WITH REGARDS TO THIS STORM...ESPECIALLY WITH RESPECT
TO HOW QUICKLY THE COLD AIR WILL BUILD IN TO CHANGE THE
PRECIPITATION OVER TO SNOW AND ALSO WITH THE EXACT TRACK OF THE
STORM. ANY CHANGE TO THESE TWO ITEMS COULD DRASTICALLY IMPACT THE
EXPECTED SNOWFALL AMOUNTS.

Aaron's Articles will keep you updated on the track of this upper level low as it comes in.

Oprah to leave show

2009-11-19T17:43:00.004-06:00

Oprah Winfrey has decided to quit her show. Her last show will be Sept. 9, 2011.

While I don't always agree with Oprah, I do say it's hard to believe she won't be on the air in a couple years. She has been such a cultural icon to our country, and I do believe she has done some great things with her money and power.

I wonder if she'll have show re-runs.

First snow?

2009-11-16T20:55:00.004-06:00

Looking down Grand in Springfield on January 28, 2009.

We might see the first flakes for the 2009-2010 winter season. We're expected to receive next to nothing in the way of accumulation, but I wouldn't mind to see the grass a little white tomorrow.

"An upper level storm system will track east across southern Missouri tonight and as it does, precipitation will likely become mixed with or change to all light snow," said the National Weather Service. "Accumulations are expected to remain minor or generally less than an inch and mostly on grassy surfaces.

We have a slight chance again tomorrow, too, due to the same upper level low's continuing to sit and spin.

"The upper level low will lift northeast into Southeast Missouri on Tuesday. Light snow will be possible mainly west of an Osage Beach to Branson line with general snow accumulations of less than an inch expected."

New east-west highway in south Springfield?

2009-11-11T18:23:00.003-06:00

KY3 reported tonight on a proposed east to west highway in southern Greene County:

Do we really need it?

I know that rush hour drive times are pretty nasty in southern Springfield due to Ozark/Nixa commuters coming to and from work. But, isn't rush hour bad no matter where you are from 4 to 6 p.m.?

I'm not sure if concentrating on just that area of town is necessarily the best option. I think that all major routes need to be fixed in Springfield. Have you ever tried jumping onto East Sunshine during rush hour? Yikes. Why can't we work to improve all major thoroughfares in Springfield? Could we not work to have three lanes of traffic in both directions on all heavily traveled routes — like Battlefield, Sunshine, Chestnut and Kearney for the east-west roads and Glenstone, National, Campbell, and Kansas for north-south streets? If the flow were improved on all the roads in town, wouldn't traffic flow in and out of town at the beginning and end of the day much more smoothly?

As you can see, most of my post has question marks, so your comments and opinions are very much welcomed.

Skating down memory rink

2009-11-08T09:24:00.004-06:00

Growing up in Mountain Grove, Missouri, a small town about an hour away from any real metropolis, had its benefits, but it was definitely lacking in entertainment.

One thing's for sure, any recreation there was in MG, the McGrath family did it. I have fond memories of the bowling alley, tennis courts, swimming pool, golf course, and Taco Palace. (Taco Bell can't even begin to touch TP.)

Another major source of small-town merriment that I was able to relive yesterday was the skating rink. After some coercion from my wife to take her skating, we found ourselves — along with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins — at Springfield Skateland on South Campbell. Having not been in a pair of skates since 1994 (or maybe even earlier), I was a little skeptical of my abilities.

I was rocky at first, but by the end of the two hours we were there, I was zooming around the rink like a teenager. I have to say, too, that I'm amazed I didn't fall down — no, not even once. Rachel, who has a little more youth in her than I do, was the one who fell once and nearly took a small child out.

Nonetheless, we had a blast, and I'm glad my wife pushes me to do things I wouldn't normally do. Thanks for the memories and for the trip down memory lane, Rachel.

Get 'em laced up, girlfriend. I'm ready for some roller boogie.

This Is It

2009-11-07T08:29:00.003-06:00

We've been listening to a lot of Michael Jackson lately.

Last weekend, we saw This Is It, a movie that chronicles Michael's journey to create what would've been a powerful concert. We were initially worried that the movie would exploit Michael, but it really didn't. It was a well-put-together film that gives the viewer a behind-the-scenes viewing of the concert.

Now, I'm not as big of a fan of Michael Jackson as my wife, but I have to admit the movie really displays his love for music and just how much he loved to entertain. Yeah, Michael was unique, but I believe that's why he was on stage his whole life — as opposed to just being a child superstar that fizzles out as he ages.

Just like when you attend a concert, this movie made me want to listen to all of Michael's songs that I've enjoyed before.

Here are a few I keep playing on my commute to/fro work:

Interracial couple denied marriage

2009-10-15T17:34:00.002-05:00

Rachel, we can't live in Louisiana:

NEW ORLEANS – A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years. Read more here.

I don't use this phrase, but WTF?

72-year-old who was tasered gets rewarded

2009-10-13T17:15:00.003-05:00

The 72-year-old woman tasered in a traffic stop in Texas last month has accepted a settlement offer of $40,000.

The dashboard cam footage has been released. Here's a report with that video from Fox 7 in Austin, Texas:

After watching the footage, I have to side with the officer. All she had to do was sign the ticket and be on her way, but her refusal led to the incident. After getting out of the vehicle, she wouldn't step over and was placing both the officer and herself in danger by standing too closely to the roadway. You have to respect and obey what a police offers says — no matter your age.

Cupcake Burgers

2009-10-10T16:33:00.006-05:00

Thanks to a blog post by Natalie (Nunn) Tristan a few months back, we were inspired to make something new for a fall festival we're attending tonight.

These are cupcake hamburgers with all the fixin's:

It really does play tricks with your mind when you're trying to eat them.

Heads up this p.m.

2009-10-01T06:58:00.002-05:00

Severe weather is likely in the Ozarks today:

 SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WILL IMPACT AREAS GENERALLY ALONG AND
 NORTH OF THE INTERSTATE 44 CORRIDOR THIS MORNING. SOME OF
 THESE STORMS MAY PRODUCE HAIL TO THE SIZE OF QUARTERS AND
 LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL. NON THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS GREATER
 THAN 30 MPH CAN ALSO BE EXPECTED THIS MORNING ACROSS EXTREME
 SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND WESTERN MISSOURI.

 ADDITIONAL THUNDERSTORMS ARE THEN EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AND
 INTENSIFY THIS AFTERNOON AS A STRONG COLD FRONT PUSHES
 INTO THE OUTLOOK AREA. AT THIS TIME...IT APPEARS THAT THE
 GREATEST RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE ALONG AND
 EAST OF A NEVADA TO JOPLIN LINE FROM EARLY THIS AFTERNOON
 INTO EARLY THIS EVENING.

 THESE STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP INTO A SQUALL LINE BY
 MID AFTERNOON...WITH THE PRIMARY THREAT BEING DAMAGING
 STRAIGHT LINE WINDS UP TO 70 MPH. ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL
 ALSO BE POSSIBLE DUE TO HIGH WIND SHEAR IN THE LOWER LEVELS
 OF THE ATMOSPHERE. HAIL TO THE SIZE OF QUARTERS WILL ALSO
 CONTINUE TO BE POSSIBLE. A BRIEF PERIOD OF HEAVY RAINFALL
 WILL ACCOMPANY THESE STORMS...BUT THE THREAT FOR FLASH
 FLOODING WILL BE LOW AS THIS LINE OF STORMS WILL MOVE
 QUICKLY TO THE EAST. THESE STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO EXIT
 SOUTH CENTRAL MISSOURI EARLY THIS EVENING.

Cool morning, severe wx later

2009-09-29T06:35:00.002-05:00

It was a rather chilly 45 degrees when I took the dog out for his morning duties today. It seems that autumn is beginning to clinch down for the season.

But, severe weather will come into play for Thursday, according to the NWS. The ingredients will be present, but just exactly what types of severe weather remains to be seen.

UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WILL TEND
TO TAKE ON A NEGATIVE TILT...BRINGING QUICK COOLING TO THE MID
LEVELS. CURRENT INDICATIONS ARE THAT THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD THEN
QUICKLY DEVELOP BY THURSDAY AFTERNOON ACROSS EASTERN KANSAS AND
QUICKLY OVERSPREAD THE REGION. WIND FIELDS WILL BE QUITE
IMPRESSIVE WITH THIS SYSTEM...WITH SHEAR PROFILES EASILY
SUPPORTIVE OF SEVERE STORMS.


...THE BIGGEST QUESTION STILL REMAINS THE AMOUNT OF INSTABILITY THAT
WILL BE PRESENT. THIS WILL BE A VERY DYNAMIC SITUATION WITH VERY
QUICK MOISTURE RETURN AHEAD OF THAT SURFACE TROUGH. EARLY
INDICATIONS ARE THAT 60 PLUS DEW POINTS WILL MAKE IT NORTH INTO
THE AREA. THIS WOULD LIKELY SUPPORT MLCAPES APPROACHING OR
PERHAPS EXCEEDING 1000 J/KG...ESPECIALLY ACROSS SOUTHEAST KANSAS
AND WESTERN MISSOURI. ALTHOUGH A LOT OF QUESTIONS REMAIN...
ESPECIALLY WITH REGARD TO SMALLER SCALE FEATURES...CURRENT
THINKING IS THAT ALL MODES OF SEVERE STORMS ARE POSSIBLE.

The all-American solution to everything

2009-09-17T21:09:00.003-05:00

In light of the recent "jackass"es, as one wise man referred to people who are publicly disrespectful and rude (a.k.a. Joe Wilson, Kanye West, and Serena Williams), I thoroughly enjoyed this clip from Jay Leno's show last night:

Obama's speech

2009-09-07T18:01:00.002-05:00

In case you haven't seen President Obama's speech that he'll deliver to students tomorrow — or your parents say no-no, Johnny, our president won't brainwash you, here it is:

Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Excellent speech. I can totally see why right-wing radicals are offended.

'I just think it's really kinda crazy'

2009-09-03T21:37:00.002-05:00

Thanks, Norm, for representing our city so well.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

An actual "thank you" to John Stossel, once again.

Obama in our schools

2009-09-03T18:56:00.002-05:00

President Obama might visit your school on Tuesday — just maybe.

Listen, I understand there are people who vehemently oppose Obama's stance and opinions. But since when is it wrong to let our children listen to someone encourage them in their educational interests? Do me a favor, parents, and put your kid's iPod ear buds in your ears for about 30 seconds if you're TRULY concerned about your children's influences.

Who CARES if you disagree with President Obama. Have your opinions about our leadership; it's a free country, right?

But, really, why is it wrong for someone in charge of our country to speak to the youth of the country about the importance of education?

Bush, Sr. spewed his nasty opinions around about the dangers of drugs. Oh, my goodness — don't you dare speak to my kids about that because I disagree with you!

I'm stealing a line from John Stossel tonight: Give me a break!

Getting Paid?

2009-09-01T18:03:00.004-05:00

Sara Forhetz reported today on KY3 that Positronics Industries is closing its Cabool location where 464 workers will lose their jobs. In a town of 2,168, that's a good chunk of people to lose a job.

Job loss is a terrible reality many people are facing lately, but the thing about the story that got me was the statistic Sara read in her report. She said that the average annual household income in Texas County is $24,000.

All these CEOs and head honchos ought to be ashamed. Not only should they be ashamed by Texas County's numbers, but also the average household income numbers of those counties with the highest averages in the state:

1999 Median Household Income
Highest Household Income by County		Lowest Household Income by County
St. Charles County	$57,258	Dunklin County	$24,878
Platte County	$55,849	Wright County	$24,691
St. Louis County	$50,532	Texas County	$24,545
Cass County	$49,562	Wayne County	$24,007
Clay County	$48,347	Mississippi County	$23,012
Jefferson County	$46,338	Carter County	$22,863
Franklin County	$43,474	Ripley County	$22,761
Cole County	$42,924	Oregon County	$22,359
Lincoln County	$42,592	Ripley County	$19,671
Ray County	$41,886	Wayne County	$18,786

Information from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.

I'd say this is a good indication that the divide between the rich and the poor is being pulled apart further and further.

Remind me again why people freaked about Obama's implying or saying "spread the wealth" during his campaign?

What are we supposed to do as a nation to deal with this problem?

Sushi and Pie

2009-08-26T20:38:00.008-05:00

An odd combination, yes, but we had it tonight.

As any culinary artist, Rachel decided to make another all-homemade apple pie again tonight; the first one went fast. It was another taste of success.

As for supper tonight, Rachel gathered up the fixin's for sushi. We've made sushi before, but it's never been as good as the rolls we made tonight. They had shrimp, crab, cream cheese, avocado, and my personal spicy mayonnaise concoction. The rice turned out very well, too, and our rolling techniques have improved.

Now, let's just pray Rachel finds new employment soon so we don't get too fat around here.

Leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

We finally got a piece of the pie (after it's cooled anyway)

2009-08-24T20:00:00.001-05:00

One might have thought it was March around here today, but, no, we weren't celebrating Pi day or anything like that.

It's just another day, but Rachel has definitely made it better by making a homemade apple pie.

She used all fresh ingredients and made everything from scratch. Since every store-purchased pie crust has trans fat and/or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (aren't they one in the same?), she had to make the crust, too.

I'll let you know how it tastes when it's cool in two hours.

The Problem of Prejudice

2009-08-17T21:09:00.007-05:00

http://jamesriver.org/messages-media-podcast/messages/551/

(CLICK TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE SERMON)

"The Problem of Prejudice" was an awesome sermon from John Lindell at James River Assembly on Sunday morning; I would urge you to listen to it at the link above. John is continuing the Sunday morning service's study of the book of James, and his sermon was based on James 2:1:

ESV— My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
NLT— My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?

Partiality, better known today as prejudice, is sin, according to the Bible. Prejudice comes in many ways, but an area of concentration John wanted to address was the area of racial prejudice because of its problem in our country, state, and even at a more local level.

When looking at the sin of partiality, it's important to consider some points, as outlined in John's sermon:

1. Partiality is not God's character; He is completely impartial.

2 Chronicles 19:7: Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribes.
Deuteronomy 10:17: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

God shows no partiality in:

A. Salvation — Acts 10:34-35: So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him."

B. Judgment — Romans 2:9-11: There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

C. Employment — Ephesians 6:9: Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

1 Samuel 16:7: ... For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

2. Commandment from James

We're all one race — the human race living just like everybody else:

Acts 17:26: And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place

3. A Call to Action for Christians

A. Recognize that racism is sin.
James 2:8-9: If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

B. Repent the sin of prejudice.

C. Stand firm against the devil.
Don't let him feed you the lie that, "Oh, it's just how I was raised."

D. Let the Holy Spirit help heal our hearts from any partiality.

What did God tell Peter in Acts 10?

v. 28: And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.
v. 34-35: So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

YouTube Yellin'

2009-08-14T21:17:00.002-05:00

I don't know why, but I've been listening to the thousands of musicians who aren't yet famous that have posted YouTube videos of their talent.

There are truly some talented people out there:

Crowded Class

2009-08-12T20:55:00.002-05:00

I realize every teacher and every department has their own set of problems within a school. Sometimes, there are issues that you just deal with and go on — isn't that the name of education in our country?

But, one thing I have really been mulling over is class sizes. This year — unless my rosters change tomorrow — I have two classes with 28 students and one with 27. People who aren't educators don't understand how nearly 30 students can be too much in a classroom.

According to the Missouri School Improvement Program, state standards for class sizes have been set as follows:

GRADES	MINIMUM STANDARD	DESIRABLE STANDARD
K-2	25	20
3-4	27	22
5-6	30	25
7-12	33	28

I'm not sure how 28 is considered "desirable standard." I'd like for people who have established these standards to come in and teach listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills for a foreign language class with 28 — or better yet 33 students. Not so easy.

I'm going to do some more studies on the correlation between class size and student performance, and of importance to me, teacher performance. I'll try to post some conclusions later.

For now, however, for the first day of classes with students tomorrow, I'll just deal with it and go on. I don't really have a choice.

Back to the real world

2009-08-09T20:18:00.003-05:00

I've been on blogging hiatus for about two weeks now. I don't know why, but I haven't been motivated to write anything lately.

Tomorrow, however, I will be back to the working world again; teacher workdays initiate for the 2009-2010 school year. I don't have dread, but I'm not excited about a new year. It is what it is: a new year. I've been praying for a nice, peaceful, successful school year, and I have faith that God will come through for me.

My time off this summer has been very excellent. I've taken some great trips, and I feel like this has actually been a pretty relaxing summer.

HELP! Now, before the students come back Thursday, I'm going to ask for everyone's help in cyberspace. I am trying to compile a list of big (and small) things that have happened over the summer. I'm looking for news, but I'm also looking for fads/trends from the summer — such as Yearbook Yourself on Facebook or other electronic phenomena that have been popular recently. I'm wanting to create a humorous PowerPoint for back-to-school with the theme "The Best of Summer 2009." Please leave a comment. Your help is greatly appreciated.

New Sam's Club opens for business

2009-07-23T09:52:00.004-05:00

KY3's story on the grand opening of Springfield's new Sam's Club. You can see Jenny, my sister, at -:53 seconds.

Last night's sneak peek opening of the new Sam's Club (at Campbell and James River in Springfield) was quite a mad house.

What was to be an invitation-only event turned into a grand opening to all members. It was a case of monkey see, monkey do: Monkeys saw other monkeys' cars in the parking lot and decided to come shopping, too. One would've wondered if all area monke — I mean members — did come with the lack of parking spaces and the number of people who were parking in the grass.

My sister, who has worked at the East Sunshine Sam's Club for close to 20 years, made the move to the new location. Despite her position in receiving, she was helping in last night's chaos up front doing the prescanning process where she scans all your merchandise prior to checking out and just gives you a ticket so that all the cashier has to do is scan the ticket to check you out.

And I guess her years of service to the east-side location (yes, it's on the east side of town — see the lady in the KY3 video who didn't know her directions) were integral to the new location. She was solving issues when management didn't have a clue.

Congrats to my sister for helping to open Springfield's newest big business in town. I know they couldn't have done it without you.

And that's the way it is...

2009-07-17T22:22:00.002-05:00

Walter Cronkite
Nov. 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009

Best known in his role as anchorman on the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, Walter Cronkite died at the age of 92.

I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Cronkite for The Marshfield Mail in November 2001 where Cronkite, a Missouri native, received an Outstanding Missourian Award in Branson.

Interracial Ignorance (?)

2009-07-15T20:40:00.004-05:00

Yeah, I know I'm on overkill with our trip to New York City, but it was a cool trip. But, now that you've gotten a detailed glimpse on the previous three posts, I wanted to put the trip to bed with an issue we had with the city.

Rachel's recent blog post is a good indication of some issues we dealt with in New York as an interracial couple. It's not often we focus on this personally, but it was so blatantly obvious that we were getting glares and stares. I didn't see whites, Latinos, or even purple people giving us look daggers; it was exclusively black people. It didn't matter what subway we traveled, we got angry stares from various black people.

I recently heard people use the phrase, "This is 2009!" Well, I agree. It is 2009, New York black people who stared at us — notice I'm not saying all black people glared at us. Why, in New York City, which is thought of as a progressive city, would people have an issue with a white man married to a black woman? Oh, what, you want us to go get divorced so we can appease your ignorant issues?

Unfortunately, we dealt with the same problem when we visited Chicago in March. Again, a city I would assume is a progressive-thinking city, we faced similar funky looks from some of its black citizens.

St. Louis, on the other hand, which is thought of as having more of a Midwestern mind (I'm not quite sure what the means exactly), didn't give us problems when we lived there. In fact, we both felt as though we were treated like two normal people — which is exactly what we are. We weren't asked if we were paying separately (like we do in Springfield); it always seemed evident to everyone (of all races) that we were together in St. Louis.

Maybe someone can enlighten me on this topic.

A New York Minute (part three)

2009-07-11T13:39:00.038-05:00

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A view of Meredith Vieira on a monitor outside Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza; she was waiting to go on air.

It was an early morning again. Our goal was to get to Rockefeller Plaza and get on the Today Show. Despite our attempts, we were unsuccessful in getting on TV. Our chances weren’t very good; Matt was in California covering Michael Jackson’s death, Al was on vacation, and Meredith didn’t come outside much since the show was split between California (MJ’s Neverland Ranch) and Studio 1A. In other words, it wasn’t the peppy morning show it normally is.

After The Today Show, we crossed the street to go to the NBC Experience Store. We purchased 20-bucks-a-pop tickets to do the NBC Studio Tour. Unfortunately, no photos were permitted on the tour, but we saw several studios. The MSNBC News and NBC Nightly News studios were right next to each other. We got to see the “tricks” they do with Nightly News, including the big screen where they show a fake newsroom; it’s a looping video that shows the same people walking around in the background performing the same tasks. We also saw the Jimmy Fallon Show studio, which is very small. Again, plenty of tricks there to seem like the studio is much larger than what it is. We next sat in the Saturday Night Live studio; it was much smaller than you would imagine, too. They completed the tour with a visit to a fake news set and green wall for people to see the “tricks” of TV. Boring — unless you’ve never seen a news set before.

Rachel eating food from a vendor — not the one she wanted, though.

After the hour and a half tour it was time for lunch. Rachel was wanting to eat at a specific meal cart on the corner of a street nearby NBC studios (it received a prestigious Vendy award), so we looked for it. Unfortunately, we didn’t find it, so she tried a place at the same intersection. Not too shabby.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was our next venture. Previously, we had tried to find it, but I figured out that we were only a street off. Rachel and I both weren’t initially impressed with MoMA. Some of the exhibits on the lower floors looked like stuff that took little time to slop together. As we went up to the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors, we finally were getting into some real art — paintings, sculptures, and photography. Photography was permitted — without the flash, as I was told by security personnel after snapping a few with my flash.

The famous Magnolia Bakery.

After MoMA, we enjoyed some edible art from Magnolia Bakery, an establishment made popular by Sex and the City. Rachel had to try the cheesecake, but I went for a generous slice of extra chocolately gooey buttercream cake. ¡Qué rico!
We went back to the hotel to plan our evening. We decided to check out Greenwich Village, home to Sarah Jessica Parker, and try a place called Burrito Loco. It was sprinkling when we left our hotel. When we got off the subway at Greenwich Village, it was pouring. Fortunately, we brought our umbrella. Since we didn’t know exactly where Burrito Loco was, we, like everyone else, waited under an awning on the corner of a street. The rain was still coming down, but we decided to head left off the corner because we knew the restaurant was nearby — at least according to the directions we had. Funny enough, it was just a few buildings down from where we had been standing. The food was excellent, especially their homemade salsa.
When we left, things were drying up outside a little bit; we decided to head back north toward Central Park and our hotel. It was getting dark, but the park was fairly well lit with plenty of people around, so it wasn’t unsafe to scout around. We were tired, so we didn’t stay too long, though.

Friday, July 3, 2009

A waterway in Central Park.

A beautiful archway in Central Park.

We awoke casually due to our previous early morning. After we got around, we went back to Central Park to check it out a little bit more. Since most people were off from work for the Fourth, plenty of New Yorkers were out enjoying the park. There were lots of musicians performing all throughout the park, too.

We went back to the Belnord to make a few plans for the rest of the day. Rachel found some thrift shops back south in Chelsea.
On our way south, Rachel still wanted to find her Vendy-award-winning meal cart. At last, success. We found the Kwik Meal cart where Rachel enjoyed lamb, rice, and yogurt. I have to admit, it was quite tasty.

Kwik Meal Cart, an award-winning vendor in NYC.

After we were full, we headed on toward the thrift stores. These thrift stores were unlike any I had ever seen; they offered true name brand clothes that I would definitely buy. Since we only had carry-ons, I opted not to buy clothes to try to shove into my already full suitcase. Rachel did, however, get a few bargains, including a few garments and a Nat King Cole record in great condition. The two best ones we went to were Angel Street Thrift Shop and Housing Works, both on 17th Street in Chelsea.

Grand Central Station.

We caught a subway to Grand Central Station — something you have to see when you go to NYC. With plenty of people heading out of town for the holidays, plenty of people were catching trains out of the station. The station offers plenty of restaurants and shopping. Rachel found a very nice scarf from a vendor at Grand Central. She also had to try another piece of cheesecake from an impressive bakery in the station.

Fox 2 St. Louis anchor/reporter April Simpson lookalike (in Rachel's opinion).

Next, we went back to Times Square to look around. We visited the M&M Store and a few other fun touristy places. Rachel found an April Simpson (Fox 2 news anchor from St. Louis) look alike; I don’t see too much resemblance myself.
We decided to head southward again to Greenwich Village again to see if we could find some cheap Chinese food. We had gotten on some subways to which we weren’t accustomed. We ended up getting off at a station and looking around. We happened upon an independent movie theatre called Film Forum near 7th and Houston Street. We got a ticket to see Food, Inc. We both believe that every person in the United States should watch this movie. It affects every person since we all eat food here. If it comes to your city, WATCH IT!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Our last day in the Big Apple wasn’t all that adventurous, but we made the most of the time we had left. For breakfast, we walked a couple blocks from our hotel to Café On Broadway, where we enjoyed relatively inexpensive breakfast sandwiches and coffee.

In front of Cafe On Broadway where we ate breakfast on our final morning in New York City.

Since checkout was noon sharp at the Belnord Hotel, we decided a quick trip to Times Square before we had to leave was in order. We found a few items to bring back for family and friends.
After we got back to our hotel, it was time to check out. After we kissed room 306 goodbye at the Belnord, we headed off with our carry-on luggage and everything else. We decided to walk toward Central Park to kill a few minutes since our flight wasn’t until 4 p.m. We had wheeled our luggage around so much to and fro that my rubber wheels were wearing off. Rachel’s eventually broke off, too, before we boarded our returning flight.

To get back to LaGuardia, we took the subway back north to 125th street. It was a busy afternoon, but not as many people were hanging around the Apollo as they had when we arrived. There were plenty of people selling various merchandise on the street. After stopping off for a quick Starbucks treat, we found our M60 bus and took it to LGA. We were glad we had left early for our flight because along the way, our bus stalled out. The driver said he’d get us on the next bus, but as we waited for it to arrive ours started and successfully transported us to the airport. We didn’t want to miss our chance to get off the bus, so got off at the first terminal our bus stopped at LGA. Mistake. We walked a good 20 minutes to get to the Northwest terminal.
After we put our shoes back on and gathered our things after we went through security, we had some time to kill. We decided to split a meal at Chili’s, Too in the airport terminal.
We boarded our flight at about 4 p.m. We arrived in Detroit to catch our connecting flight to Kansas City. Surprisingly, Detroit had a really nice airport. Our plane from Detroit to Kansas City was the smallest plane we were on our entire trip. The engine was louder and the flight was bumpier, but we honestly can’t complain about any of our flights since they were all on time and relatively smooth (minus Rachel’s flight friend you read about in part one of this post).
We arrived in Kansas City after 7 p.m. and saw our Four Points by Sheraton van waiting outside. We hopped on with several airline crew members who were catching a ride back to the hotel. Upon arrival, our car was just how we left it and we were ready to go home. The car ride home was a spectacle; we had a better fireworks show than most people do sitting on a blanket at a city celebration.
After a stop for some fuel — for our car and our bodies (Wendy’s) — we made the US 71/Highway 7/Highway 13 journey back to Springfield and were home a little after midnight.

A New York Minute (part two)

2009-07-07T13:00:00.035-05:00

Monday, June 29, 2009

We awoke at 7 a.m. so we could get to the Empire State Building early to avoid a large crowd. After we took the 1 to our stop, we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts; I got a coffee and Rachel ordered a breakfast sandwich.

Atop the Empire State Building.

We went to the top of the Empire State Building, snapping plenty of pictures and video. No matter how far you looked from the 186th floor, you either saw metropolis or waterways. The $20-per-person view to the south was the business district and where the Twin Towers once stood. To the west was the Hudson River and New Jersey. To the north was Central Park and a view of the Upper West Side where we stayed. To the east was a view of the awesome bridges that crossed into Brooklyn. At the top, we stopped at a gift shop and purchased some postcards.
A view to the west toward the Hudson and New Jersey.
A cool building toward the south.
View south from the Empire State Building.

A view holding the camera down the Empire State Building.

A view to the north of Central Park and the Upper West Side.

I'd hate to have this guy's job at the end of the video.

When we made our way back to the ground, I decided that I needed a bag. Upon shopping at the Walgreen’s at the base of the Empire State Building, I got my employee-discounted man purse. I would have to say that anyone who doesn’t have a bag around their shoulder — man or woman — is definitely in the minority in NYC.

We next walked toward Koreatown, scouting our next meal. It wasn’t quite lunchtime so we walked around. We ended up eating at Shilla Korean BBQ House. The food was stellar and the lunch prices were reasonable. I had the shrimp tempura box and Rachel had the kimchi chigae. Our meal ended with a delightful sip of a highly sweetened cinnamon tea; it was the perfect dessert.

Shilla in Koreatown.

After our visit to Korea via New York City, we decided to hop the waters to China (town, that is). Rachel got a mocha focha (my term) drink from McDonald’s and we looked at the little shops. For the most part, Chinatown stinks — literally and figuratively. We neither one were very impressed, but you definitely have the opportunity to bargain for some cheap deals at the shops. Rachel showed some interest in some sunglasses at one shop. “Seven dollar,” the clerk quoted to us. Seeming not extremely interested, she then offered “six dollar.” Rachel went ahead and bought her cheap-o high-o pink-rimmed glasses from Chinatown.

A subway performer playing "Under the Sea."

A ride on the subway.

In the subway terminal.

We returned to our hotel after Chinatown. It’s common to have people playing instruments in the subways, and on this particular ride back, there was a guy perfectly playing “Under the Sea” on his steel drums. Rachel threw a couple of bucks in his case and took his picture.
As we relaxed in our room for a little bit, we were trying to determine our next move. Rachel spoke with a lady on the phone from Expedia who was giving us several options for city passes that would give us full access to over 50 attractions in NYC. The only problem, we felt, was that they sell those passes in increments of two, three, or seven-day passes. We felt like we would be rushed and compelled to kill ourselves trying to get to all the places, so we opted to not buy a city pass. We settled for a bus top night city tour from Gray Line. It was a great way to see an overview of the city and the various boroughs and sections. We would both definitely recommend anyone to choose one of these tours just so you can sit back and see the city. If you get a day tour with Gray Line, you have the option of getting off and on as you please, but the night tours don’t offer that; that was fine with us because we figured if there was somewhere we wanted to visit, we’d just figure out how to get there via public transportation later.

On board our Grayline bus tour.

After our tour, we walked down Broadway through Times Square again back to the 50th Street station. As we walked along, it seemed as bright as day even though it was night. Down the middle of Broadway, there is a big set of bleachers and lawn chairs that anyone can sit in, relax, and take in the city.
On our ride back to our stop at 86th and Broadway, we decided that we were in the mood for burgers and fries before bed. We stopped at Arnie’s Diner just a couple of blocks away. Our waiter told us they were “regular-sized” burgers. I wouldn’t be surprised if our burgers were over half a pound, and there was no way I could even think about consuming that many fries. A nice touch at Arnie’s was the bowl of pickles and other deli snacks we enjoyed while waiting for our food.

World Trade Center memorial site.

A ride on one of the newer subway trains.

Walking through Times Square.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Today was considered Rachel’s day. When traveling to New York, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit her religion’s headquarters. We had to rent a car from a rental agency near our hotel, and Rachel drove us toward upstate New York. After getting out of the city (atrocious traffic), it was absolutely beautiful in upstate New York. Plenty of hills and conservation areas to boot.

Rachel driving her rented VW Beetle.

On our drive back to Manhattan, we encountered issues getting back just exactly how we had left that morning. After driving on the New Jersey side and trying to get back on a bridge we had previously crossed, we ended up having to pay an eight-dollar toll to get back to where we were that morning — something we had mapped out to purposely avoid.
Our walk back to our hotel wasn’t too pleasant either. Our clothes were absolutely soaked from a steady rain that greeted us upon exiting the car rental agency.
After we dried off in our tiny hotel, which wasn’t always easy to maneuver when two people are trying to get into luggage and whatnot at the same time, we scouted around the Upper West Side some more. We had both wanted to find some New York cheesecake and did so successfully at a café/bakery a few blocks from our hotel.
Our walk back to the hotel with the cheesecake marks the second celebrity siting on our trip. We were both parched and stopped to get some drinks at a Duane Reade, a pharmacy you find on nearly every street corner in the city. We waited in line with our drinks behind a no-make-up-wearing, grungy, sloppy-looking Caroline Rhea, who had quite a few items in her basket. She was there with a guy whom she kept asking to be her driver the following day and a lady that appeared to be an assistant. The thought occurred to me to take her picture, but I was afraid she might try to break my camera since she looked like such a slob.

My first chance to see NBC News and the Rockefeller Plaza.

More from Rockefeller Plaza.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

After having gotten up early every morning, we finally slept in on Wednesday. After we got up and around, we headed toward The Museum at FIT. We knew that Isabel Toledo’s clothing exhibit was on display and wanted to see it. Unfortunately, it didn’t open until noon, so we decided to go grab a bite and come back later.
Rachel had done some research on different places to eat, so we decided to go to an Indian restaurant called Chola. They had a lunch buffet available for $13.95. For all the quality-looking offerings, it seemed like a bargain. The food was excellent. The atmosphere was very busy and really crowded with everyone up and going to the buffet — but, like I said, the food was worth the cramped space.
Having stuffed ourselves with excellent Indian food, we decided to stroll over to the southern edge of Central Park. This is where many horse-and-carriage rides were soliciting riders, as well as bike carriages. As we strolled along the southern edge, there was a major police presence. They were doing some sort of emergency drill, according to one of the officers. As we continued, we saw Columbus Circle and beautiful statuary.

On the south side of Central Park.

We rode the subway back to the FIT Museum to view the Isabel Toledo collection. Unfortunately no photography was allowed. The first (and most notable) piece we saw, of course, was Michelle Obama’s Inauguration Day dress.
We were both thirsty and stopped at Starbuck’s near the museum. Rachel’s mocha drink was too strong for her, so I drank that and she had some H2O. We got back on the subway en route to find the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). As we walked to find it, we found the David Letterman Show theatre. We were unsuccessful in finding the MoMA, but we found some shopping areas. We went to an Urban Outfitters, where Rachel found a steal on a clutch for $5.

In front of the Late Show with David Letterman.

After going back to our hotel, we walked across Central Park to the Guggenheim Museum. It was about 4:15 when we arrived there, but it was going to close at 5 p.m. We determined we didn’t want to pay $20 a person for 45 minutes in the Guggenheim. So, we decided to head back toward Broadway to find tickets to a Broadway Show. We first stopped at the TKTS booth, where they sell same-day discounted tickets. They didn’t have any bargains to any shows we wanted to see, so we decided to go directly to the Minskoff Theatre where The Lion King was showing. A lady behind us in the TKTS line told us The Lion King was by far one of the best Broadway shows she had seen. So, we took the plunge and bought two $96.50 tickets to see the show. The cheaper tickets were all sold out for several weeks beyond the show we were going to see that night.
With a little bit of time to kill, we decided to eat. Having just forked out $200 for Broadway tickets, cheap was on our minds. We went into the McDonald’s. I got a Big Mac meal with a Coke and Rachel got a meal, but upgraded to a mocha focha drink. I’m not sure I’ve ever spent $16 for two people at McDonald’s, but in Times Square, I guess that’s a cheap meal. While we were eating, a lady, whom we had seen at the TKTS booth, came up to us to see if we had gotten any tickets. She struggled to speak English, so Rachel asked what language she speaks. I got a chance to listen and speak Spanish with her; she was obviously from Spain.

Inside the Minskoff Theatre where we saw The Lion King.

It was time for the show, so we headed back to the Minskoff Theatre for The Lion King. As we waited for the doors to open, we were able to take photos and video, but they didn’t permit any photography in the theatre itself — which a lot of people ignored. I couldn’t believe how many ushers had to scream at people for taking pictures. The show was phenomenal; the costumes were so intricate and very uniquely created. My favorite character was young Simba — that kid was so, so talented. I would definitely recommend the show to anyone.

A New York Minute (part one)

2009-07-06T18:12:00.036-05:00

I will be blogging over the next several days, chronicling our journey to New York City, which started June 28 and ended July 4.

I know, I know — it has lots of details. I realize that I'm writing for the general population, but I am also detailing our trip so we can look back and remember for ourselves. I will be posting more from our voyage over the next several days.

For now, enjoy the first two days of our vacation:

Saturday, June 27, 2009

We drove to Kansas City from Springfield and arrived at our hotel in the afternoon so we could relax and prepare for an early-morning start the following day. We stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton at the Kansas City airport. It was a nice, clean place that offers free shuttle service to and from the airport and free 14-day parking with your hotel stay; the shuttle runs every 20 minutes.

Our hotel room at the Four Points by Sheraton at the KC airport.

A clean restroom at the Four Points.

Driving through downtown Kansas City.

Having never scouted around Kansas City much, I hadn’t visited the north side of Kansas City where the airport is located. We drove around on I-29/Highway 71 south toward downtown. After checking a few areas out, we happened upon Thai Place. Rachel’s Pad Thai was really good. They brought me the wrong food so I just sent it back and canceled my order; I ended up eating half her food since it was so large. There was a nice outdoor shopping mall just south of the airport right along I-29. If we fly out from MCI again, we’ll have to check it out more closely.
One other thing to point out is that other hotels near the airport provide the same service (park and ride), so it would be worth checking other hotels to get a cheaper rate. Our room was only $69 a night at the Four Points, but I'm always up for the cheapest rate.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

We awoke at 4:45 a.m. to catch the hotel shuttle to the airport which departed at 5:20. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7 a.m., and we wanted to arrive as early as possible in the event we encountered issues at the airport.

The view of our airplane as we waited to board.

We boarded our airplane before 7, which was bound for Minneapolis for our layover. That was our most uncomfortable flight due to one reason: a weirdo, bleached out, punk-haired 15-year-old girl who didn’t know when to shut up. Of course, she sat right next to Rachel. If you get a chance, ask Rachel about her new-found friend. ☺
Our flight from Minneapolis to LaGuardia was much better; we sat on the very back seats of the airplane, so we couldn’t lean back. The guy who sat next to us on that flight didn’t talk to us at all, so we were much happier on that flight. We arrived at LGA at 12:30 p.m. EST.
My first celebrity encounter happened at LGA right after we got off the airplane. I walked in the restroom and realized the person I was following in was Biff Henderson, one of the stagehands and sidekicks on the David Letterman Show. As I waited for Rachel to use the restroom, he stood and waited for his wife. Since I didn’t want to be one of “those people,” I opted not to speak to him or ask to take a picture. Although one odd traveler wasn’t shy; he came up and put his arm around him and asked for a picture.
One thing we had to do before we could leave LGA was find Metro passes so we could ride all the public transportation NYC has to offer. It took a while, but several unsuccessful conversations with the airport’s “help” staff and a complimentary shuttle to the central terminal, we finally found a machine that sold the seven-day Metro passes we needed. Funny enough, they had just gone up the day we arrived. We anticipated them to cost $25 per person, but they had come up to $27.50 per person.
Our itinerary had us taking the M60 bus toward the city and getting off to ride the subway to our hotel. As we found out the hard way, the bus drivers don’t announce every upcoming street as they did in the buses we rode in Chicago in March. I knew something was wrong when we made a turn off the street, so Rachel asked and sure enough we didn’t get off at 125th and Malcolm X Blvd. as our instructions indicated. We were able to catch a line going back and got off. I think we would’ve seen the street the first time through, but we were a little distracted because that intersection is right at the Apollo and a ton of crazed Michael Jackson fans were paying their respects.

People outside the Apollo Theater on 125th Street paying their respects to Michael Jackson. I snapped the photo from our bus.

We successfully got on the 3 subway line and transferred to the number 1 line that took us to the 86th Street stop; it was at the intersection of 86th and Broadway. We got off and walked a block to our hotel, the Belnord Hotel (209 W. 87th Street); it was a building or two away from Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Room 306 at the Belnord Hotel in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

The hallways were extremely narrow outside our hotel room.

After we settled into our extremely small hotel room, we decided to see things nearby our hotel. We got slices of New York-style pizza from Perfecto Ristorante near the hotel. It was decent, but not the best pizza we had while we visited New York. Next, we decided to walk over to Central Park, which was only three blocks away from our hotel. We walked through the west side of the park and saw the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.

A shot across the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park, which was just three blocks from our hotel.

We walked back toward our hotel and then got on the subway and headed on the 1 train south toward Times Square. (The 1 train was our main source of transportation the entire trip; it runs the length of Broadway all the way up north into the Bronx all the way to the southern tip of Manhattan.) Times Square was hustle and bustle with tons of people there on a Sunday evening. We went into the Macy’s and found a nice visitor’s center.

Our first visit to Times Square.

Who is that young man in the advertisement?

ABC News in Times Square.

Times Square's finest pharmacy.

On the 1 train to the Staten Island Ferry.

We then rode the 1 train back south toward the Staten Island Ferry. On the subway, we met a nice family from Staten Island that sat across from us; they had the stereotypical New York accent that we didn’t encounter as much as I had anticipated. They asked us to take their picture on the subway and they reciprocated the favor to us.
When we got to the station, we found a ton of people crowded in the corner where the ferry departs. We figured we wouldn’t get on due to the number of people, but we all got on easily. It took us about 25 minutes or so to ride the ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island. We didn’t get off and look around much because we wanted to return, eat, and get back to our hotel since we were tired from day one in New York. It took a little longer for us to get back because someone had clogged up the toilet in the women’s restroom; I’m not exactly sure why that delayed our boarding and departure but it did.

Aboard the ferry.

Statue of Liberty from the ferry.

A closer shot.
A common site on our ferry ride.

After we got back to Manhattan, we boarded the 1 once again back to the 86th Street Station. When we got off, we walked around to find a place to eat near our hotel. We happened upon Ollie’s, a phenomenal Chinese restaurant that served free tea with your meal. I had the General Tso’s chicken and Rachel got the house fried rice. We also got some steamed shrimp dumplings that I still find myself craving.

Shrimp dumplings at Ollie's. Mmmmm.
Free tea at Ollie's. Mmmmm.
General Tso's Chicken at Ollie's. Mmmmm.

After getting back to our hotel, our air conditioner wasn’t working in our room. We tried a few suggestions from the staff, but they finally sent a maintenance person who had to climb up and do some adjusting to the unit, which was up in the ceiling. No problemas after that. Needless to say, we slept well that night.

More to come.

On the menu at Captain D's

2009-06-26T21:16:00.004-05:00

Available only at the Captain D's at Sunshine and Lone Pine in Springfield:

The only thing we can be sure of is that it has shrimp in it and it's crispy. Lunch anyone?

RIP Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T10:15:00.003-05:00

August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

I don't have all the grandiose memories of Michael Jackson like other people — other than remembering his eccentric music videos, but it's crazy that this iconic artistic has passed away.

It will be interesting to see what caused his cardiac arrest and his eventual death.

RIP, Michael Joseph Jackson.

In Song

2009-06-22T00:12:00.002-05:00

Here are some of the top songs (in my opinion) right now:

I've enjoyed these at church lately.

Here's one I stumbled upon that I hadn't heard yet that I really enjoyed:

Former KSPR anchors get face time in Czech Republic

2009-06-11T09:15:00.006-05:00

Former KSPR news anchor/report Danielle (Elliott) Smith and her husband, Jeff Smith, who was a sports anchor/reporter for KSPR, are doing well in the Czech Republic — something they didn't find out until recently.

I first heard about the story when Danielle, who now lives near St. Louis, put it on her Facebook status a week or so ago. Apparently her family's Christmas photo has ended up on a large sign in the front window of Prague specialty grocery store.

A friend of Danielle's was traveling and happened upon the advertisement and, of course, snapped some photos to send back home.

Danielle said in an Associated Press article that "the photo taken of her family last year got sent to family and friends, and was posted on her blog and a few social networking sites."

Here is an interview Danielle did on St. Louis's best TV news station, Fox 2:

UPDATE: Yahoo! has this as the main story on their front page this afternoon:

"I'm gonna buy you a 'drank'"

2009-06-09T09:00:00.004-05:00

KY3 reported this morning that a new product is being sold in Springfield and is causing controversy.

Drank is touted as an anti-energy beverage that will relax its consumers via a combination of herbs, according to its Web site:

'Drank' contains a combination of Valerian Root, Rose Hips, and Melatonin designed to 'slow your roll' after a hectic day. A calming beverage, Drank is formulated to relax the body, mind, and soul. 'Drank' is the perfect lifestyle beverage for those who can appreciate extreme relaxation. So grab a Drank and 'Slow Your Roll'!

The controversy of Drank, however, is that it could be harmful if it is combined with drugs or alcohol. A dietitian interviewed for the KY3 story says that Drank was formulated "after a drink that is a mixture of prescription drug and a soda," but it "has nothing in it that would be harmful" because the quantities of the ingredients are low.

The possible history of this beverage comes from "purple drank," which "is a slang term for a recreational drug popular in the hip-hop community of the southern United States," says Wikipedia. "Its main ingredient is prescription-strength cough syrup containing codeine and promethazine. Cough syrup is typically mixed with ingredients such as Sprite soft drink and pieces of Jolly Rancher candy. The purplish hue of purple drank comes from dyes in the cough syrup."

What's 'Up'?

2009-06-02T08:19:00.005-05:00

"Up" is what's up.

Rachel dragged me to another animated film by Disney while we were in St. Louis over the weekend.

Much to my chagrin, this movie was actually entertaining — for the kids and adults. (I don't mean hidden jokes only adults understand, but rather material to which adults relate.) I thought it had a very great message about making your own adventures in life — again appropriate for kids and adults alike.

The synopsis of the film, according to Yahoo! Movies:

Carl Fredricksen spent his entire life dreaming of exploring the globe and experiencing life to its fullest. But at age 78, life seems to have passed him by, until a twist of fate (and a persistent 8-year old Junior Wilderness Explorer named Russell) gives him a new lease on life.

Going into the film, I knew absolutely nothing about it, which I think made it even better. That being said, I won't embed the trailer for viewing, but you're welcome to watch it if you must.

"Congradulations!"

2009-06-01T08:46:00.004-05:00

"Ahhhhh!"

That's what went through my mind as I drove away from Dairy Queen in Marshfield before taking our weekend getaway to St. Louis.

No, they got our order correct. It was the erroneous spelling of "congratulations" on the Pizza Inn sign that caught my eye.

I see it every year about this time. I can never figure out why someone misspells congratulations. I know it sort of sounds like "d" instead of a "t," but I'm sure they've heard people like me gasp at the misspelling of the word enough that they would remember how to spell it.

Heck, if you can't remember how to spell that big, long word, you can at least just write "Congrats." And if you can remember how to spell "Congrats" then wouldn't you know that the full word has a "t" anyway?

Can I get an amen?

Garden Growth

2009-05-28T18:45:00.006-05:00

We've had our garden out for about two weeks now, and all the plants have been drinking well with all the recent rains. Here's the proof:

A salute to Dr. Bell in Eureka Springs

2009-05-19T21:08:00.002-05:00

Oprah featured a Eureka Springs, Arkansas doctor on today's show who is helping people who don't have health coverage or are low income.

"When their small, working-class town was hit hard by the country's economic crisis, Dr. Dan Bell and his wife, Suzie, made it their mission to make sure everyone in their community had access to free healthcare. Soon after, they started the ECHO Health Clinic."

This is part of Oprah's Everyday Heroes in Hard Times series. I hope more people in the medical world take note of this type of service.

Green Garden

2009-05-19T20:48:00.005-05:00

We've started our garden; we planted:

lettuce
collard greens
cabbage
onions
green beans
tomatoes
bell peppers
jalapeños
cilantro
basil
oregano
ivy

School's out Friday. More to come after that.

Fair Grove Schools likely out for the summer

2009-05-10T21:17:00.005-05:00

No official word, but Fair Grove Schools Superintendent John Link asked Gov. Jay Nixon to end the school year early due to Friday's major storm damage.

As it looks from an article by the Springfield News-Leader, the governor will probably pass a bill that allows school to expire for the year:

Nixon asked Link if there was anything the school needed. The most immediate need is permission to end the school year now, nine days before it is scheduled. Grades 4 through 12 have damaged classrooms, and there is no place in town where students could be transferred temporarily, he said.
State law requires schools to be in session a minimum number of hours; to waive that takes a legislative act.
Rep. Shane Schoeller told Link that there were two bills to which the waiver could be added. The legislative session ends May 15.

If school ends early, students will still have an opportunity to finish any work and get a complete grade.

"Link told the News-Leader that summer school would still be on," the article says. "And if the school year closes early, he also wanted to give students the opportunities they needed to finish any work necessary to make the grades they needed to get."

Fast Food Facts

2009-05-10T16:40:00.005-05:00

Yahoo! featured an interesting article today from howstuffworks.com on how intricate and long the ingredients are in most fast food.

Order a meal in any fast-food restaurant, and you'll likely walk away with a sandwich, fries and a drink. If you had to identify the ingredients of this meal, you might list beef (or chicken), lettuce, tomato, cheese, ketchup, bread, potatoes and soda. Not complicated, right? Wrong.

Burger and chicken joints don't think of the building blocks of a menu item as ingredients. They think of them as components, which, are made of ingredients. For example, McDonald's famous Big Mac jingle -- "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun" -- suggests the sandwich has seven components. Would you believe it has 67 ingredients?

… Considering that some of these ingredients have been implicated in serious health issues, it would be good to know which are the most common.

Here are the top 10 ingredients (and highlights) writer William Harris included in his article:

10. CITRIC ACID: The most common preservative — “Citric acid, an organic acid found in many fruits, especially limes, lemons and grapefruits, is one of those chemicals. It increases the acidity of a microbe's environment, making it harder for bacteria and mold to survive and reproduce. It can also be used to bind to and neutralize fat-degrading metal ions that get into food via processing machinery.”

9. HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP: The most common sweetener — “Unfortunately, some research has shown a link between HFCS and obesity. At the very least, many beverages and processed foods made with this corn-derived sweetener are high in calories and low in nutritional value.”

8. CARAMEL COLOR: The most common color additive — “Common additives include Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6 and Red No. 40. According to one source, Red No. 40, which finds its way into jellies, pastries and those neon-red maraschino cherries perched atop your Chick-fil-A shake, is the most widely used food dye in America. This same source says Yellow Nos. 5 and 6, which provide the golden glow to cheeses, pudding and pie fillings, and soft drinks, are the second and third most common food colorings, respectively [source: Women's Health]. But when we analyzed the ingredients of five popular fast-food menus, we found caramel color to be even more common.”

7. SALT: The most common flavor/spice — “Most health experts warn against eating too much salt, pointing to studies that show a link between sodium and high blood pressure. The government recommends a maximum of 6 grams of salt per day for adults, 5 grams a day for children between ages 7 and 10, and 3 grams for children between 4 and 6. Compare that recommendation to a typical family meal from KFC, which delivers a whopping 5.2 grams of salt per person [source: BBC News]!”

6. MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG): The most common flavor enhancer — “MSG is the sodium salt of the amino acid glutamic acid and is just one form of glutamate, a chemical that exists naturally in many living things. In fact, Asians historically used a broth made from seaweed as their source of MSG. Today, the food industry obtains the white powder through a fermenting process involving carbohydrates such as starch, sugar beets, sugarcane or molasses.

The safety of MSG has been in question for many years. In 1959, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified MSG as a "generally recognized as safe" substance. Then, in the 1980s, researchers began to wonder whether chemicals in the glutamate family could harm brain tissue based on studies that revealed glutamate's role in the normal functioning of the nervous system. An extensive FDA-sponsored investigation has since determined that MSG is safe when consumed at levels typically used in cooking and food manufacturing, although two groups of people -- those who eat large doses of MSG on an empty stomach and those with severe asthma -- may experience a set of short-term adverse reactions known as MSG Symptom Complex.”

5. NIACIN: The most common nutrient: “Manufacturing these foods often has the unwanted side effect of eliminating key vitamins and minerals, which then have to be replaced in a process known as enrichment. Fortification is the companion process, which adds nutrients that may be lacking in the diet.”

4. SOYBEAN OIL: The most common oil: “Soybean oil contains several unsaturated fatty acids, which means their component molecules have fewer hydrogen atoms. Unfortunately, unsaturated fats don't have long shelf lives. Hydrogenation, or forcing hydrogen gas into soybean oil under extremely high pressure, eliminates this undesirable characteristic. But it also leads to the creation of trans fatty acids, which have been linked to heart disease.”

3. MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES: The most common emulsifiers: “Mono- and diglycerides allow smooth mixing of ingredients, prevent separation and generally stabilize food. You can find them in ice cream, margarine, baked goods, whipped topping and certain beverages. Luckily, glycerides pose no serious health threats, although they are a source of fat. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has classified them as a "generally recognized as safe" substance, indicating that experts consider them safe as food additives.”

2. XANTHAM GUM: The most common stabilizer or thickener: “Xanthan gum also creates a smooth, pleasant texture in many foods. For this reason, it appears in ice cream, whipped topping, custard and pie filling. And the really good news: It's not associated with any known adverse effects.”

1. CHICKEN: The most common meat product: “We're just as surprised as you to list chicken, not beef, as the most popular fast-food meat, and to be honest, this one is tricky. In our analysis of several menus, chicken appeared as the first ingredient more than beef, pork or turkey. But that's a little misleading because many fast-food chains have more chicken-based menu items than beef.”

Double-wide Damage

2009-05-08T18:47:00.004-05:00

The building where I began my work in education was damaged in today's crazy severe weather event.

KSPR caught a shot of the damage to the modular unit (I was the king of the double-wide) where I taught my first two years.

Aside from sitting in duck-and-cover for about two hours with high school kids, I can't personally complain about any damage from today's storms.

Severe storms possible Thursday, Friday

2009-05-06T22:06:00.003-05:00

The National Weather Service says the Ozarks could be hit with large hail, winds, and isolated tornadoes over the next two days.

ISOLATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP WEST OF
HIGHWAY 71 LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON. SEVERE STORMS WILL BECOME
MORE WIDESPREAD AS ACTIVITY MOVES TO THE EAST ACROSS THE MISSOURI
OZARKS DURING THE EVENING HOURS. THE PRIMARY THREATS WILL BE HEAVY
RAINFALL AND POSSIBLE FLASH FLOODING...LARGE HAIL...AND DAMAGING
WINDS. A FEW ISOLATED TORNADOES CAN NOT BE RULED OUT.

The ingredients available for severe cell development on Thursday include interaction of an upper level disturbance with strong instability and sufficient wind shear.

Extreme southern Missouri and northern Arkansas will have a better chance for severe weather Friday.

S-bomb on the radio

2009-04-30T19:54:00.003-05:00

Anybody listening to Power 96.5 (KSPW) this morning heard a no-no word on the radio.

In an interview with hosts Fotsch and McClain, a drag queen was asked how he gets ready.

"I sh**, shower, and shave just like everybody else," he responded.

So will the radio station get fined or will he?

"The new KOLR 10 News"

2009-04-28T18:31:00.002-05:00

KOLR 10 unveiled its new look yesterday, which included a new set, graphics, and music — as Aaron's Articles anticipated earlier this month.

My opinion? I'm not overly impressed, honestly. I feel like everything looks too dark on set. The graphics don't seem like they're an actual package, but rather a compilation of various graphics packages. The music reminds me of news music that was around in the mid to late 90s.

I feel that if you're going to spend some money to update, make sure it's an upgrade — not just change for sake of change (or as a gimmick for sweeps to bring in bigger numbers — that's right, we all know it was planned).

Any opinions?

Fatal Flu

2009-04-27T20:24:00.003-05:00

Swine flu has taken a toll in Mexico, according to the Associated Press.

The AP is reporting that 149 people have died in Mexico, the center of the outbreak. Two thousand people have been infected there. The US has reported 48 cases of swine flu but no fatalities due to swine flu.

"The number of U.S. cases rose to 48, the result of further testing at a New York City school, although none was fatal," said a story by the AP. "Other U.S. cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Worldwide there were 73 cases, including six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland."

Also in the report by the AP:

The swine flu epidemic entered a dangerous new phase Monday as the death toll climbed in Mexico and the number of suspected cases there and in the United States nearly doubled. The World Health Organization raised its alert level but stopped short of declaring a global emergency.
The United States advised Americans against most travel to Mexico and ordered stepped up border checks in neighboring states. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States.

The virus poses a potentially grave new threat to the U.S. economy, which was showing tentative early signs of a recovery. A widespread outbreak could batter tourism, food and transportation industries, deepening the recession in the U.S. and possibly worldwide.

According to the WHO, we shouldn't panic just yet.

"The Director-General has raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from the current phase 3 to phase 4," Dr. Margaret Chan said in a statement released on the WHO's Web site. "The change to a higher phase of pandemic alert indicates that the likelihood of a pandemic has increased, but not that a pandemic is inevitable."

My question: Should we be getting set for a pandemic? I heard on the news earlier that people are investing in face masks like crazy. Amazon.com has sold a lot of them today, and my wife said people were asking for them in the pharmacy today. Is that going to far? What do you think?

Photo Phun

2009-04-26T08:13:00.010-05:00

A few from yesterday:

Thanks to the kids. For some reason, I can't get too many adults to let me take their picture.

Severe Storm Sunday

2009-04-22T20:59:00.005-05:00

It looks like the Ozarks could be under the gun for severe weather on Sunday, according to Accuweather.com.

The highest threat for widespread severe weather appears to be late Sunday into Sunday night. The combination of an approaching cold front and a jet stream digging far to the south will trigger an outbreak of severe weather late Sunday, Sunday night and into Monday...

KSPR Chief Meteorologist Kevin Lighty's blog entry today agrees: There will be "warm temperatures lasting through the rest of this week but then those precipitation chances really ramping up by sometime Sunday or late Sunday depending on which model verifies."

"As we look at some of the severe weather parameters we see decent instability and wind shear that may be available for storm development."

Sunny Skies!

2009-04-20T06:31:00.003-05:00

It definitely will be tough to be inside all week — especially by Thursday and Friday:

Tuesday

Sunny

Hi 62 °F

Wednesday

Mostly
Sunny
Hi 74 °F

Thursday

Mostly
Sunny
Hi 81 °F

Friday

Mostly
Sunny
Hi 81 °F

And why didn't we plan to go camping this coming weekend?

Saturday

Mostly
Sunny
Hi 78 °F

Sunday

Mostly
Sunny
Hi 78 °F

Enjoy the week!

The "Domino's" Effect

2009-04-16T18:41:00.002-05:00

If you like Domino's Pizza, don't watch the following YouTube video, which was spewed across the Internet today.

Food for thought: This is just one video of one incident at one fast food joint. I'm sure another video exists just like this — be it online or just on someone's cell phone.

Regardless, it's nasty, vile, and absolutely disgusting.

The facts from the New York Daily News:

Domino's Pizza has a lot more cheese on its face today.
The woman caught urging a fellow Domino's Pizza worker to stuff cheese up his nose in a gross YouTube video is also a convicted sex offender, cops revealed.
Kristy Lynn Hammonds, 31, of Taylorsville, N.C., was convicted of sexual battery last June and received 24 months probation, officials said.
In 1995, she was also convicted of possession of stolen goods and damaging a vending machine.
Hammonds, who also uses the last name Thompson, and Michael Anthony Setzer, 32, of Conover are each charged with distributing prohibited foods for their Domino's stunt that has gone viral on the web.
In the video, Setzer is shown making sandwiches while a giggling Hammonds narrates and urges him to "do it again, do it again" in putting the cheese up his nose.
He throws some of the cheese in the garbage but some on a sandwich.
The sicko sandwich maker also waves a piece of salami around his rear end.
"This is Michael's special Italian sandwich," Setzer says on the video.
Hammonds says the sandwiches were meant to be delivered soon to customers and that "little did they know that the cheese was in his nose."
Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre said the workers were fired and there is no evidence any of the tampered foods were served to customers. He said the company also may pursue a lawsuit.
Company CEO Patrick Doyle posted another video in response, saying the store had been sanitized "top to bottom."
"We're re-examining all of our hiring practices to make sure that people like this don't make it into our stores," he said.
"This was an isolated incident," he added. "There is nothing more important or sacred to us than our customers trust.
"It sickens me that the acts of two individuals could impact our great system."
Setzer was released from the Catawba County jail on $7,500 bond, while Hammonds remained in custody today.
A man identifying himself on the phone as Setzer's father said the family is not commenting.
Hammond's mom told a local TV station that her daughter is, "Very remorseful. Stupid. Embarrassed. Those were her words."
Hammonds has also apologized to the company in an email message.
She wrote: "It was fake and I wish that everyone knew that!!!!

Jai Ho! (It Rocks!)

2009-04-15T17:08:00.002-05:00

I know it's been around for a while, but I wanted to post the "Jai Ho" rendition by North Point Church in Springfield as part of their Easter performance.

I think the lyrics (below) are definitely appropo for church, too. Definitely an awesome performance.

Jai Ho, Jai Ho, Jai Ho, Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS!,IT ROCKS!,IT ROCKS!,OH IT ROCKS!)
Aaja Aaja Jind Shamiyane Ke Tale
(COME ON MY LIFE, JOIN ME UNDER THE BIG ROOF)
Aaja Jariwale Nile Aasman Ke Tale
(COME JOIN ME UNDER THE GLITTERING BLUE SKY)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)

Aaja Aaja Jind Shamiyane Ke Tale
(COME ON MY LIFE, JOIN ME UNDER THE BIG ROOF)
Aaja Jariwale Nile Aasman Ke Tale
(COME JOIN ME UNDER THE GLITTERING BLUE SKY)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)

Ratti Ratti Sachi Maine Jaan Gavayi Hai
(BIT BY BIT I TRULY DIED EACH DAY..)
Nach Nach Koylo Pe Raat Bitayi Hai
(SPENT THE NIGHTS DANCING ON HOT COALS..)
Akhiyon Ki Neend Maine Phoonko Se Uda Di
(I BLEW AWAY THE SLEEP IN MY EYES..)
Gin Gin Tare Maine Ungli Jalayi Hai
(I BURNT MY FINGERS TRYING TO TOUCH THE STARS..)
Aaja Aaja Jind Shamiyane Ke Tale
(COME ON MY LIFE, JOIN ME UNDER THE BIG ROOF)
Aaja Jariwale Nile Aasman Ke Tale
(COME JOIN ME UNDER THE GLITTERING BLUE SKY)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)

[The Spanish part]

Baila! Baila!
(Dance! Dance!)

Ahora conmigo, tu baila para hoy
(Now with me, you dance for today)

Por nuestro dia olvidas,
(For our day, just forget..)

los problemas que sean
(whatever problems there may be)

Salud!
(Cheers!)

Baila! Baila!
(Dance! Dance!)

Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS..OH IT ROCKS!)
Chakh Le Ho Chakh Le Ye Raat Shahad Hai Chakh Le
(TASTE IT, O TASTE IT, THE NIGHT IS HONEY, TASTE IT)
Rakh Le Haan Dil Hai Dil Aakhri Had Hai Rakh Le
(KEEP MY HEART, IT IS THE LAST LIMIT, YEAH KEEP IT)
Kala Kala, Kajal Tera Koi Kala Jadoo Hai Na
(DARK, THIS EYELINER OF YOURS, IS LIKE A MAGICAL SPELL)

Kala Kala Kajal Tera Koi Kala Jadoo Hai Na
(DARK, THIS EYELINER OF YOURS, IS LIKE A MAGICAL SPELL)
Aaja Aaja Jind Shamiyane Ke Tale
(COME ON MY LIFE, JOIN ME UNDER THE BIG ROOF)
Aaja Jariwale Nile Aasman Ke Tale, Jai Ho, Jai Ho
(COME JOIN ME UNDER THE GLITTER BLUE SKY,.. IT ROCKS!IT ROCKS!)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS!..)
Jai Ho Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS!..)

Kab Se Han Kab Se Jo Lab Pe Ruki Hai Keh De
(FOR SO LONG, YES FOR SO LONG, WHAT'S BEEN KEPT FROM YOUR LIPS, SAY IT)
Keh De Ha Keh De Ab Aankh Jhuki Hai.. Keh De
(SAY IT, O SAY IT, NOW THAT YOUR EYES ARE SHOWING IT..SAY IT!)
Aisi Aisi, Roshan Aankhe, Roshan Dono heeray, Hai Kya
(SUCH, AH SUCH LIT-UP EYES (OF YOURS), BRIGHT AS DIAMONDS, AREN'T THEY? )
Aaja Aaja Jind Shamiyane Ke Tale
(COME ON MY LIFE, JOIN ME UNDER THE BIG ROOF)
Aaja Jariwale Nile Aasman Ke Tale
(COME JOIN ME UNDER THE GLITTERING BLUE SKY)
Jai Ho.. Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS!..OH IT ROCKS!)

Baila baila (Spanish)
(Dance! Dance!)
Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS!..)
Baila baila (Spanish)
(Dance! Dance!)
Jai Ho
(IT ROCKS!..)

Two tornadoes reported to NWS

2009-04-10T06:57:00.002-05:00

The National Weather Service has had two tornadoes reported in its local storm reports from last night's severe weather:

0829 PM     TORNADO          NIXA                    37.04N 93.29W
04/09/2009                   CHRISTIAN          MO   EMERGENCY MNGR

0836 PM     TORNADO          TURNERS                 37.18N 93.16W
04/09/2009                   GREENE             MO   AMATEUR RADIO

The official word will probably come later today as to the confirmation of tornadoes. A few other reports could result from more tornado reports; there were some reports of insulation and other damage that can be the result of a small tornado:

0856 PM     TSTM WND DMG     4 W ELKLAND             37.44N 93.10W
04/09/2009                   DALLAS             MO   AMATEUR RADIO

           ROOFING DEBRIS AND A LARGE SECTION OF A BUILDING BLOWN
           INTO ROAD

0859 PM     TSTM WND DMG     2 W NORTHVIEW           37.29N 93.03W
04/09/2009                   WEBSTER            MO   AMATEUR RADIO

           INSULATION AND FOAM DEBRIS BLOWN ACROSS INTERSTATE

Republic had an impressive wind gust reported, too:

0826 PM     TSTM WND GST     REPUBLIC                37.12N 93.48W
04/09/2009  E80.00 MPH       GREENE             MO   AMATEUR RADIO

Changes coming to KOLR

2009-04-08T19:36:00.004-05:00

According to the Facebook status of a news anchor at KOLR 10, changes are coming to the station:

"Very excited about the new BIG changes coming to KOLR 10 News. For those in this area, stay tuned and be sure to watch on MONDAY April 27th!"

That's all I know for now. My guess would be an updated graphics package and possibly a new logo. (I'm not a big fan of their current, shown above, or previous logo, below.) Maybe new weather graphics (I hope)?

Both bond and levy fail

2009-04-07T22:14:00.003-05:00

The Marshfield R-1 School school bond and levy both failed miserably:

Marshfield School Bond
100% OF PRECINCTS REPORTING
> No 2,234 75%
Yes 760 25%

Marshfield School Levy
100% OF PRECINCTS REPORTING
> No 2,267 76%
Yes 726 24%

I'm no expert, but I don't necessarily agree with the presentation of these issues from the district. It should've been proven to the public without a shadow of a doubt that we are overcrowded as a district. "That brand new high school" that will soon enough be 10 years old is only going to get worse, but how can Joe Shmoe who lives in the boonies realize that without seeing it first hand? Again, that's just my opinion.

Bad presentation or not, I'm not sure it would've passed anyway. With the economy as it is, any increase of money for any reason just isn't going to fly right now.

Guess the belt's going to be tightened up even more. Great.

Just Foolin'

2009-04-04T10:54:00.002-05:00

April Fool's has come and gone, but I found a prank that happened in 2008 that was pretty darn funny:

English — what a language

2009-04-02T20:35:00.002-05:00

As a Spanish teacher, I frequently hear "Spanish is so hard!" That happens especially right after I've taught an irregular verb or concept.

Learning a language other than your own is definitely a challenge, but I'd have to say that I'm glad English is my native language due to the difficulty and irregularities. Here's a poem that I happened across that has a slice of the abnormalities of English:

IS ENGLISH DIFFICULT?
By Walt Reynolds

We’ll begin with a box and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
The one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole set of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why should not the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural wouldn’t be hose.
And the plural of cat is cats and not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren.
But though we say Mother, we never say Methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his, and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim,
So English, I fancy, you will agree,
Is the funniest language you ever did see.

"Alice Variety" Improves

2009-03-31T21:06:00.002-05:00

Until recently, radio station Alice at 95.5 wasn't one of my top picks for musical selection due to their overuse of stupid '80s rock.

But I've started listening again, and I have to say that I really enjoy the upgraded song selection. It's not the same old junkie '80s rock music; they're actually playing a true variety of music that has included more music from the later '90s and early 2000s — and even some of today's top hits.

It's about time we had a station with some of today's hits that don't include booty-spanking, lick-you-up-and-down-like-a-lollypop lyrics. They might even give Power a run for its money.

Go Alice!

KY3's new weather graphics — like or hate 'em?

2009-03-29T22:38:00.005-05:00

The transition happened when I was in Chicago, so they've been out for about a week.

But I just can't decide whether or not I like KY3's new weather graphics. I would assume they made the modifications to the graphics so that they're more compatible with HD-sized TV screens.

The font selections are OK, I guess, but I don't know if I would call it an "upgrade" to the graphics — just a change. That is unlike what KOLR did with their weather graphics when they switched; I thought they were a total downgrade in graphics — some cheesy looking stuff KSPR had back in the day.

Any opinions?

Chicago (Part 2)

2009-03-28T09:23:00.017-05:00

S A T U R D A Y

I awoke early again so I could get to several sessions for the day. There were only two sessions that I really enjoyed: a session on technology where I learned how to use a Wii remote as a SmartBoard and a session on popular music in Spain.

While I was completing my sessions, Rachel was working hard to get us checked out of our hotel at the Hyatt and moved over to the aloft hotel, which was located northwest of downtown by the O’Hare airport. At my lunchtime, I helped her get our bags put into our car that she parked at the front doors. She gave them our keys since that’s what you have to do if you’re leaving your car unattended at the front. When we went back down with all our stuff, we thought we were going to have to give these city boys an old-fashioned country a—whoopin’ because our keys were nowhere to be found. Fortunately the man to whom Rachel had given our car keys reappeared with them. She was on her way to the aloft to get our stuff checked in and I was on my way back to afternoon sessions.

My last session was the worst one of them all. The description was “100 Ways to Teach Vocabulary.” I was expecting a useful, technique-filled session on teaching vocabulary. All I got was a couple of foreign exchange students with their professor trying to muddle through statistics and facts about learning a language. Fortunately, I had my phone on vibrate and Rachel was calling to see if I was out of my sessions yet; you know I had to get out of there and take that phone call.

As I was waiting for Rachel, I tried standing by the road between the Hyatt’s two towers. Unbeknownst to me, I was standing in a taxi zone under a specific sign. A guy working at the hotel saw me and exchanged pleasantries with me, and then he said, “I’ll go call and see if we can get someone here for you.” I was confused by what that meant. I then realized where I was standing (underneath a specific cab company’s sign), and quickly moved back into the lobby hoping to not encounter that guy again. Fortunately Rachel arrived soon after that and we were on our way.

DRIVING DOWN THE MAGNIFICENT MILE.

MA AND PA ON DISPLAY NEAR THE CHICAGO RIVER.

OUR "COUSIN'S" MCGRATH LEXUS IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO

I didn’t really want to drive in downtown Chicago, but Rachel asked if I would drive back to the hotel. It was a little crazy, and she soon took over for me. I think I was still tired from all the sessions from the conference. We stopped at a well-known joint (the name escapes me); they’re famous for serving chili dogs and very tasty shakes. Rachel got a couple of chili dogs and a chocolate cake shake (they blended an actual piece chocolate cake into the shake), and I got a chicken sandwich. It was very good.
AFTER THE CONGESTION ON OUR COMMUTE TO THE ALOFT HOTEL.

Our commute back to the aloft hotel was rather congested. We saw the train line, which we were going to take CTA train back into downtown. It was definitely moving a lot faster than traffic out to the O’Hare area.

OUR BEDS AT THE ALOFT HOTEL.

OUR BATHROOM AT THE ALOFT.

After we got to the aloft on Saturday afternoon, we rested a little bit. The concept of the hotel is really cool. The rooms are uniquely designed and it’s not costly like an expensive hotel downtown.

That evening, we didn’t really want to go back downtown, so we ended up driving to Schaumburg (a ‘burb) and going to the Woodfield Mall, which was advertised as a big shopping experience on a pamphlet at the hotel. We had to get on a toll road to get there; it cost us 70 cents both ways.
RACHEL EATING AT A CHIPOTLE AT THE WOODFIELD MALL.

Our Saturday night wasn’t a very pleasant experience at the aloft hotel. In the lobby, I they were having a party and lots of people were showing up. We went down there at 10 p.m. to see what was going on. At that time, not a lot of people were there. I thought about getting a glass of wine, but $9 for a glass of wine shot that idea down in a hurry. We ended up going back to the room not long after we went to check out the party. I guess we left when the party was getting started because the music thumped all night and got louder as the night went on. I couldn’t go to sleep very well with all that noise going on. It wasn’t quite hot and not quite cold so we hadn’t been using the a/c or heating in our room. At 2:30 a.m., I decided to turn the fan on so it would drown out the noise from the party in the lobby. That pretty well did the trick, but I think that’s pretty ridiculous. We told the hotel that, along with some of our other complaints (parking prices that were different than what we had been quoted earlier). They didn’t seem to want to take care of us, so Rachel asked for the corporate number. “Oh, you can look that up online.” We darn sure did, and miss Ashley at the front desk got a complaint about her lack of customer service skills, along with everything else we didn’t enjoy about the hotel. Like I said earlier, we liked the concept of the hotel, but we didn’t like the lack of customer service and consideration to ALL of the guests staying at the hotel; party it up if you want, but don’t make everyone suffer who doesn’t want to party all night long.

S U N D A Y
RACHEL WAITING TO BOARD THE L TRAIN AT THE ROSEMONT TRAIN STATION.

We ended up getting up Sunday and taking the CTA train (the “L” train) downtown. I, being the uptight, like-to-know-where-I’m-going type, kept confirming our train line numbers and bus numbers. I nearly drove Rachel crazy with that, but hey, it was my first real experience with public transportation of any kind really.
WAITING FOR A CTA BUS ALONG WACKER DRIVE.

After we got downtown, we got on the bus line that took us to Navy Pier. After we left there, we had decided to try to find some fabric stores that Rachel had been dying to find. We found a couple and a neat little Hispanic street market. After we were done looking there, we got on another bus line that took us toward Greek Town. We got out and looked there. We decided we would come back and eat dinner there.

Rachel wanted to find a thrift store she’d heard about, so we got on a line that took us there. It was a little more in the ghetto lands, but we actually did find some pretty good deals. I got four pairs of pretty nice pants (Gap and American Eagle), and Rachel found several skirts and tops. We paid about $20 for all of it.

It was time to eat, so we headed back on a line that took us to Greek Town. We ate at a place called Pegasus. Of course, we had to try the flaming cheese (Saganaki), which was delish. For the main course I had the Macaronada Ala Greca and Rachel had Domates. I’m pretty sure that Rachel and I aren’t Greek food lovers — at least based on the dishes we had. We both are fans of gyros, but beyond that, we’ll stick with food we enjoy.
ME IN FRONT OF PEGASUS IN GREEK TOWN.

Upon leaving Greek Town, we stopped at a little pastry shop for some dessert. It helped complete our meal for sure.

Now it was time to get back on the blue line and head back to the aloft.

Sunday night, we decided that we’d had plenty of Chicago. We decided that we could spend some more time there on Monday and then had back toward home — maybe stopping in St. Louis on our way home.

M O N D A Y

After checking out of the aloft, we planned to get back on the train line and go back toward a certain area so we could look at more fabric for Rachel. It was on Devon Ave., which is known for its Indian culture. We stumbled upon the Devon close to where we were going to get on the train line, so we decided to go by car than to get back on the train line. We found a Dunkin’ Donuts, and enjoyed a sweet breakfast. After looking around a little bit, we decided to head back toward St. Louis.

After getting through heavy midday traffic, we successfully traversed back to I-55 south to get back to Missouri. We made one stop and enjoyed lunch at Fazoli’s in the Normal/Bloomington area.

We finally got back to St. Louis at about 6 p.m. and checked into our favorite inexpensive place, the Pear Tree Inn in Fenton. It’s run by Drury Inn and is actually very clean and has never cost us over $50.
ONE OF OUR FAVORITES AT PHO GRAND — VIETNAMESE SHRIMP EGG ROLLS.

We decided to go find a few of our old favorites. We ended up eating at Pho Grand and then traveled toward the Galleria mall. Most things were closing up by the time we got there, so we decided to get back on I-64 and check out the new highway; nearly the entire time we lived in St. Louis, I-64 had been closed from I-270 to I-170 so we hadn’t checked out the new road since we had left. They actually did a very nice job with it, and it was completed sooner than they had anticipated.

T U E S D A Y

After a night in a very comfortable bed at the Pear Tree, we got up and checked out of our hotel. We were a little disappointed that we hadn’t purchased more clothes than we had, so we decided to find some resale shops/boutiques. We found a few out by the Galleria. We also ended up going back to the Galleria, but after finding such good deals at the thrift store in Chicago, we didn’t want to pay full prices for the clothes.

While looking around at the Galleria, I saw a familiar face that I didn’t completely know who it was. I thought it was Theresa Petry, a former KOLR and KPLR reporter, who is also a friend of mine on Facebook. After returning home, I found out it was her, and she thought I was who I was, too, because she had seen my status on Facebook that said that we were going to be in St. Louis. What a small world, eh?

After the Galleria, we visited a few more places we enjoyed in St. Louis. We even traveled by our old apartment complex on Baxter in Chesterfield. Rachel also spent a good amount of time looking at the Goodwill in Chesterfield and nearly cleaned ‘em out.

WAITIN' ON A WOMAN AT THE GOODWILL AND LISTENING TO ST. LOUIS'S NUMBER ONE STATION FOR HIP-HOP AND R&B.

Before leaving St. Louis, we had already decided to visit Whole Foods so we could stock up on some organic meats and other things we enjoy from Whole Foods. Our cooler was full when we left.

We were hungry after a long day in St. Louis, so our final stop was at an old favorite: Cecil Whittaker’s. And since it was Tuesday, we got their special — a large cheese pizza for $3.99 to which we added pepperoni for about a dollar more.

We were gone for only a few days, but we definitely enjoyed the getaway. I think overall we determined that Chicago was nice, but not the place for us. We also realized that St. Louis was cool, and we always enjoy visiting.

Thanks for reading about the trip. I know most of you will be bored to tears by it all, but I’m mostly posting it for us to remember.

Chicago (Part 1)

2009-03-25T09:31:00.007-05:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Chicago on March 21 and 22. Of course, since I’m on spring break this week, Rachel and I decided to stay a few extra days to check out the city. Here are a few highlights from our experience:

T H U R S D A Y

We awoke at 2:45 a.m. to get on the road. Our goal was to avoid St. Louis morning rush hour traffic and avoid Chicago’s evening rush hour. It worked out pretty well; we were in Illinois by 6:30 a.m. and we got into Chicago and checked into our hotel by 1:30 p.m. or so — that’s even after we stopped for brunch at the Cracker Barrel in Bloomington.

OUR ROOM AT THE HYATT REGENCY IN CHICAGO. WE WERE IN THE WEST TOWER OF THE HOTEL AND ON THE 22ND FLOOR.

OUR SELF-TAKEN PHOTO FROM THE 22ND FLOOR.

RACHEL STANDING BEHIND THE HYATT. WE PARKED IN A BUILDING RIGHT BEHIND OUR HOTEL, WHICH WAS CHEAPER THAN THE HOTEL PARKING. IT STILL COST US $30 A DAY.

After we successfully checked into the Hyatt Regency, which is located on Wacker Drive right along the Chicago River, we spoke with the concierge and made a few plans for the rest of the afternoon. We ended up walking from our hotel to a library that was a few blocks from where our hotel was so we could purchase CTA tickets; the tickets we purchased allowed us to use the city buses and trains for the entire time we were there. We caught a bus line that took us toward the north side of the downtown area so we could eat at Hema’s Kitchen, a place that Rachel had found that had affordable Indian cuisine at reasonable prices.

Since we were pretty bushed from getting around so early, we didn’t do a whole lot more Thursday evening except check out more things around the hotel.

F R I D A Y

On Friday morning, I awoke early so I could get to the conference registration and go to an early-morning conference. My first session was “Top 10 Tips for Teaching All Spanish Students.” It was an exhibitor session, which was actually focused on the textbook I currently use, so I learned a few tricks with my materials that I hadn’t known about them before.

After that, I had the privilege of going to the keynote address. I say “privilege” because this wasn’t your boring typical keynote address. The speaker was John De Mado, the most animated, inspiring speaker I’ve heard at a conference. This isn’t from our conference, but this is a sampling of what I got at his keynote address:

His major platform for teaching a foreign language is encouraging risk-taking (“confront more language than what you presently own”), vulnerability (“the willingness to err for the broader goal of communication”), and intuition (“the ability to sift for meaning”).

In the afternoon, along with other sessions, I also attended a session he was holding called “Creating Student Rap CDs.” He encourages students to use rap music to learn the language. And, what writing and performing raps, students experience all those things he encourages (risk-taking, vulnerability, and intuition). This is an example I found on YouTube of a student rap performance:

And yes, we had to perform a rap of our own during the session. I was grouped with a bunch of Spanish teachers and we wrote an original rap to talk about likes/dislikes. In the few minutes we had, we did a good job. The best rap, though, was the lone Russian teacher who had to rap by himself. It was hysterical.

CHRISTINE AND CHERI WORKING TOGETHER TO GET A SLICE OF PIZZA AT GIORDANO'S. AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE WAS PLENTY OF CHEESE ON THE PIZZA.

On Friday after our sessions, Rachel and I joined Christine Bell and Cheri Caldwell (two foreign language teachers at my school) for pizza at Giordano’s. We got two of the stuffed pizzas and were absolutely stuffed when we left. If you’ve never tried a Chicago stuffed pizza, you must go to Giordano’s if you travel to Chicago.

That evening, Rachel and I walked across the Chicago River and on into the infamous Magnificent Mile. Unfortunately it was later in the evening and a lot of the stores were closing at 9 p.m. We were able to hit a few places, including Macy’s and Nordstrom. We didn’t buy anything since it was too expensive. We did, however, walk toward an AMC we could see from our hotel and found a nice little Japanese restaurant called Niu. The logo, we thought, looked very similar to Kai in downtown Springfield. Since we were on vacation, we just had to try a couple of rolls from there, which were actually very tasty. You never know how sushi will be away from Springfield, but it was presented well and very delish.

THIS IS THE WEST TOWER OF THE HYATT REGENCY WHERE WE STAYED.

THIS IS THE VIEW WEST OF OUR HOTEL. THE SHINY TALL BUILDING ON THE LEFT, I BELIEVE, IS DONALD TRUMP'S NEW TOWER IN CHICAGO.

ANOTHER SELF PHOTO. THIS ONE ACROSS THE STREET FROM OUR HOTEL ALONG THE CHICAGO RIVER.

RACHEL COMING IN THE SIDE ENTRANCE OF THE HYATT.

Part two will of our Chicago excursion will be posted in a day or two.

Angel (?) food cake

2009-03-15T22:31:00.002-05:00

Maybe next time an angel will help Rachel make one, but this evening's angel food cake flopped — literally.

She made an angel food cake from scratch, and the compiling of ingredients and cooking went very well. When she flipped the tube pan up on the glass bottle with the cake (as angel food cake is done), things still seemed all right. As I was folding some laundry in the bedroom, however, a crash and yelp from the kitchen wasn't music to my ears.

As you can see, the bottle toppled over and the cake landed on the counter top.

I guess we didn't need the calories anyway...

Wordsplosion!

2009-03-14T08:54:00.004-05:00

I was introduced by my aunt and uncle to a new blog called Wordsplosion! [sic].

It's a blog that makes fun of grammatical errors, punctuation problems, and misspellings. I only wish I had thought of doing a blog like it sooner. Here's a fun one from the capital punishment section:

I heard he was a "jer."

Today's weather

2009-03-10T06:50:00.002-05:00

Last night wasn't as severe as anticipated; the system moved in later than meteorologists were thinking, which reduced the instability factor with the storms.

There is, however, chances of severe weather once again today. Current thinking is that the storms could impact Springfield after 4 p.m. today, says the NWS:

WEATHER HAZARDS EXPECTED:

DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH.
HAIL TO THE SIZE OF QUARTERS.
AN ISOLATED TORNADO.

AREAS AFFECTED AND TIMING:

THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP AFTER 200 PM ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM JOPLIN TO TO BOLIVAR TO THE LAKE OF THE OZARKS. AREAS ALONG AND EAST OF THE INTERSTATE 44 CORRIDOR WILL BE AFFECTED BY THESE STORMS DURING THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EVENING.

DISCUSSION:

A COLD FRONT THAT EXTENDS FROM NORTHWEST MISSOURI THROUGH WESTERN OKLAHOMA WILL BEGIN TO SURGE EASTWARD THIS AFTERNOON. A WARM AND MOIST AIRMASS IS ALREADY IN PLACE AHEAD OF THIS FRONT. STRONG WIND SHEAR AND MODERATE INSTABILITY WILL RESULT IN A SQUALL LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING ALONG THE COLD FRONT THIS AFTERNOON. DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WIND GUSTS AND HAIL TO THE SIZE OF QUARTERS WILL BE THE PRIMARY SEVERE WEATHER HAZARDS. AN ISOLATED TORNADO CANNOT BE RULED OUT...ESPECIALLY ACROSS THE EASTERN OZARKS.

Severe storms possible today, tomorrow

2009-03-09T06:49:00.002-05:00

Today we have a good chance of severe weather in southwest Missouri, according to the NWS:

LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS A STRONG UPPER LEVEL JET WILL PUSH INTO THE CENTRAL PLAINS...THIS WILL HELP DEVELOP STORMS ALONG A DRY LINE ACROSS CENTRAL TEXAS INTO CENTRAL OKLAHOMA. A STRONG LOW LEVEL JET WILL ALSO DEVELOP WHICH WILL CREATE STRONG LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR... ALLOWING FOR STORMS TO BECOME SUPER CELLULAR. THIS ACTIVITY WILL SPREAD NORTHEAST INTO SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND SOUTHWEST MISSOURI THIS EVENING. LARGE HAIL TO THE SIZE OF GOLF BALLS...DAMAGING WINDS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL BE POSSIBLE WITH THIS ACTIVITY...WHICH WILL MAINLY AFFECT AREAS WEST OF HIGHWAY 65 THIS EVENING. OVERNIGHT THIS ACTIVITY WILL LIKELY DEVELOP INTO LINE SEGMENTS AND PUSH EASTWARD ACROSS THE REMAINDER OF THE AREA. THE PRIMARY HAZARDS EAST OF HIGHWAY 65 WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL TO THE SIZE OF QUARTERS.

A chance exists for Tuesday, too:

A COLD FRONT IS EXPECTED TO PUSH THROUGH THE AREA DURING THE DAY ON TUESDAY...BRINGING ADDITIONAL CHANCES FOR THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS EXTREME SOUTHEAST KANSAS AND MUCH OF THE MISSOURI OZARKS. THERE IS A CONDITIONAL SEVERE THREAT WITH THIS ACTIVITY IF ENOUGH INSTABILITY CAN DEVELOP AHEAD OF THE FRONT.

Tuesday is when Missouri is supposed to have a statewide tornado drill at 1:30 p.m. I wonder if they'll have to cancel it based on the forecast. We'll see...

Cute Cap

2009-03-03T21:58:00.006-06:00

Rachel has been working on a baby hat for her boss, who is soon to give birth. It looks to me like something you'd pay plenty of money for at a little baby specialty clothing store.

What is it about men with the last name Brown?

2009-02-28T17:38:00.002-06:00

First, it was Bobby Brown who was able to take Whitney Houston on a less-than-desirable roller coaster ride. Now, Chris Brown may very well be on his way to bring pride to the Brown name. (They're not related, as far as I know — just an odd coincidence.)

Rihanna, 21, seems to be taking Chris Brown back after he left his mark in their night-before-the-Grammy's scuffle.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fans of singers Chris Brown and Rihanna expressed dismay on Saturday at reports the couple had reunited just three weeks after Brown was alleged to have assaulted her.

Celebrity magazines People and Us Weekly said that the R&B stars were spending time together at the Miami home of hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs -- and that Rihanna's father was supporting her decision.

"I love my daughter with whatever road she takes. I'm behind her win or lose. I will be supportive. If that's the road she wants to choose, I'm behind her," Rihanna's dad Ronald Fenty told Us Weekly from his Barbados home.

Fans could scarcely believe the news that came a week after a picture, showing the 21-year-old "Umbrella" singer with bruises to her face and swollen lips, was leaked on the Internet.

"All the abusive men are celebrating," Highroller33138 wrote in a posting on the MTV.com website. "It sets a terrible example for women everywhere. Rihanna really disappointed me..."

I'm done with this story. If people want to act a fool, let 'em do it. Enjoy the ride, Rih.

More Tyler Perry

2009-02-27T22:08:00.002-06:00

I know we've been watching a lot of Tyler Perry movies lately, but I hadn't seen "The Family that Preys" yet. Netflix served us up tonight, and I have to say that I really enjoyed this TP flick, too.

You will enjoy it!

And you gotta love Gladys Knight's version of "I Hope You Dance," which was in the movie.

Go pull your snow boots back out of the closet

2009-02-27T06:51:00.003-06:00

The National Weather Service is predicting the possibility of 1/2" to 3" of snow with a system that will come in on Saturday.

Maybe higher amounts?

From the forecast discussion:

WILL CONTINUE TO RAISE POPS FOR SAT AND HAVE ROUGHLY ONE TO NEARLY FOUR INCHES OF SNOW IN THE GRIDDED FORECAST...BUT FEEL THERE WILL BE HIGHER LOCAL AMOUNTS SOMEWHERE. SFC TEMPERATURES NEAR FREEZING MAY LIMIT OVERALL IMPACT ON ROADS...BUT THERE MAY BE A PERIOD FROM MID/LATE MORNING THROUGH MID AFTERNOON WHERE SNOWFALL RATES WILL POSE SOME TRAVEL PROBLEMS EVEN WITH RELATIVELY WARM SFC TEMPERATURES.

Extreme western Missouri could get less than half an inch, but the areas in blue on the map below could receive amounts of snow from 1-3 inches Saturday.

You learn something new everyday

2009-02-22T08:44:00.004-06:00

Rachel made an interesting discovery the other night. We always knew that Jerry Stiller — "Frank Costanza" on Seinfeld and more recently "Arthur Spooner" on King of Queens — is Ben Stiller's father, but we never knew (or cared) who Ben's mom is.

Another King of Queens star, Anne Meara, who played Spencer's mom on the show, is Ben Stiller's proud momma. She and Jerry are both native New Yorkers. Wikipedia, as reliable as it is, has an interesting tidbit:

Meara was raised Catholic, but converted to Judaism six years after marrying Stiller.[2] She has long stressed that she did not convert at Stiller's request, but because "Catholicism was dead to me", and she simply came to prefer the more "lively" character of Jewish culture. She took the conversion seriously and studied the faith in such depth that her Jewish-born husband quipped, "Being married to Anne has made me more Jewish."[3]

Is it just me or did they pull Ben out of the cabbage patch?

Another enjoyable Tyler Perry flick

2009-02-21T17:12:00.005-06:00

For the second Friday night in a row, we watched an opening movie. This time we saw Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail.

The message of the movie is very nice, and of course, you gotta love Madea and all her shenanigans.

Here's the trailer:

Puppy mill pups truly rescued now

2009-02-20T16:55:00.004-06:00

The 93 dogs that were rescued from the puppy mill in Pleasant Hope last week have now truly been rescued.

Four of them appeared on Oprah today; unfortunately none of them can be adopted for another month or two, but I'm sure all have already been spoken for now.

Rihanna photo leaked

2009-02-20T16:29:00.003-06:00

Horrible. That's the only thing that comes to my mind with this photo of Rihanna. Chris Brown is a complete and udder idiot — no question about it. I wonder how many years he'll serve for this one.

The controversy now, of course, is finding who leaked the photo from the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD is searching for the culprit.

Slumdog kid stars fairly treated?

2009-02-17T19:57:00.003-06:00

I'm a huge Slumdog Millionare fan, but I'm starting to question the filmmakers' decisions with the children who starred in the film.

Here's one from MSNBC:

MUMBAI, India - They are not your typical movie stars.

Ten-year-old Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail lives in a lean-to made of tarpaulins and blankets. Nine-year-old Rubina Ali's home is a tiny bubble-gum pink shack. A murky open sewer runs down her narrow lane.

Plucked from one of Mumbai's teeming slums to star in the Oscar-nominated hit "Slumdog Millionaire," they are India's real slumdog millionaires.

...The Oscars will be presented Sunday at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. The Fox Searchlight release has grossed more than $100 million, but the children’s lives seem nearly as fragile as before.

“He's supposed to be the hero in the movie, but look how he's living," said Azharuddin's mother, Shameem Ismail, sitting on a rotting board outside their lean-to. "It's a zero."

About 65 million Indians, roughly a quarter of the urban population, live in slums, according to government surveys.

"Most of them are doomed to remain as they are," said Amitabh Kundu, dean of Jawaharlal Nehru University's School of Social Sciences in New Delhi.

It's too early to tell whether Rubina and Azharuddin — Azhar to his friends — will buck the trend.

The filmmakers debated whether to use slum kids at all.

"Part of your brain thinks, would it distort their lives too much?" said Danny Boyle, the British director, by phone from London. "Then someone said, 'These people have so much prejudice against them in their lives. Why should we be prejudiced against them as well?'"

Rubina was cast as the young Latika, who grows up to become the hero's love interest, and Azhar as his brother, Salim.

Boyle and producer Christian Colson figured education was the best way to help Rubina and Azhar. They got them places in Aseema, a nonprofit, English-language school for underprivileged kids in Mumbai.

Some arrive at Aseema with matted hair, never having seen a mirror before. Many need counseling. On one blackboard, the lesson of the day read: "I must close my mouth when I eat."

...The filmmakers also paid the children for 30 days of acting work, give the families a small monthly stipend and set up trust funds that Rubina and Azhar can tap once they graduate.

Colson describes the amount in the trust as substantial, but won't tell anyone how much — not even the parents — for fear of making the kids vulnerable to exploitation.

As the movie's popularity swelled, the filmmakers' plan began to fray.

Journalists swarmed the school, forcing Rubina and Azhar to stay home. The families started demanding more, asking for cash and new houses, Colson said.

When the city razed Azhar's neighborhood, Colson wired the family money for a new home. He doesn't know what happened to the money, but the family remains camped out in a lean-to.

Most troubling, he said, the parents' commitment to seeing their kids through school has waned.

So the filmmakers have agreed to buy apartments and allow the families to move in. But they won't transfer ownership to the parents until Rubina and Azhar finish school at age 18.

The filmmakers have also faced criticism that they didn't fairly compensate the children, but have declined to reveal how much they paid, again citing fear of exploitation.

"It's becoming a full-time job dealing with the daily hassle," Boyle said. Still, he added, "I'm glad we did it, even with all the headache."

He hopes to give Rubina and Azhar an education rather than a jackpot — what he called a "slow nurturing" instead of "a sudden dash for glory."

"Moviemaking is distorting," Boyle said. "The last thing you want to do is turn them into a star."

If they have gotten them out of the slums into an apartment, why can't they really show how much they paid the children and their families?

I'll definitely be watching these developments because if they tried to take advantage of these kids that will totally tick me off.

Anybody else think something's wrong here?

These are my confessions

2009-02-14T07:59:00.002-06:00

No, the post isn't anything like U(r)sher's confessions, but I do have to admit that I went to see "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and actually enjoyed it.

The movie, which stars Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy, is more or less a comedy about a girl who is living the typical post-college dream life in New York as a magazine journalist but has an extreme shopping addiction and is in drowning in debt because of it. Joan Cusack and John Goodman play Fisher's down-to-earth parents in the film and add a nice comedic value to the movie.

And, yes gentlemen, this is sort of a chick flick, but it's not so much of one that you won't enjoy yourself.

My two cents

2009-02-12T20:17:00.007-06:00

Abe Lincoln is probably enjoying the redesign of his coin — or is he in an economy such as ours?

From the AP:
The first of four new pennies chronicling Abraham Lincoln's rise from a small Kentucky cabin will be put into circulation Thursday to honor the 16th president's 200th birthday.

The coin's front is unchanged, but the reverse depicts a tiny log cabin, representing the one-room dwelling where Lincoln was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky.

The new one-cent piece is being unveiled by the U.S. Mint as part of Lincoln's bicentennial celebration, being held Thursday morning near his birthplace.

The remaining coins, set for release later this year, show other phases of Honest Abe's life: a young man reading while sitting on a log during his formative years in Indiana; Lincoln the state legislator speaking in front of the Illinois capitol; and the unfinished dome of the U.S. Capitol.

Doesn't it make you wonder how much the redesign cost and if it benefits us as a taxpayers whatsoever? Several Web sites I read claim that it costs anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 cents to make an individual copper-plated zinc penny.

So, if it costs more to produce a coin than what it's worth, what's the point?

A letter to the editor on the Daily Herald's web site has some good points:

"The costs associated with redesigning and reissuing the penny, instead of simply retiring it, are nothing compared with staggering deficits, trade imbalances and bailouts that are going on."

Another site I read said that five billion pennies, which is worth $50 million, will cost about $70 million to make.

I don't know about you, but $20 million is a lot of dough to waste.

Good riddance, Mr. Brown

2009-02-10T18:41:00.003-06:00

I'd say we can all safely boycott Chris Brown — as Wrigley's has chosen to do with its Doublemint Gum commercials — if allegations against him are true.

TMZ has reported that Rihanna was bloodied and bruised in a fight the day before the Grammy's with her (now ex-) boyfriend Chris Brown:

Law enforcement sources have now gotten specific with us... police took pictures of Rihanna's injuries and they are 'horrific.'

As we reported, the photos show major contusions on both sides of the singer's face -- there is serious swelling and bruising. Her lip is split and her nose bloody. We have now confirmed there are bite marks on one of her arms and on several fingers.

And we now know this... Rihanna claims Brown struck her with his fists and that's what did the damage. There was no object used in the alleged attack.

Rihanna refused treatment at the scene, but before she left cops took photos. We're told the photos alone are 'devastating proof of abuse.'

What an idiot. I hope they plug him up for a long time.

Photo Phun

2009-02-07T20:33:00.009-06:00

Rachel was at the front door of Simply Fibers at 5:47 a.m. today (yes, a Saturday) to get in on major deals on yarn and other crochet paraphernalia.

The following skein of photos will show you some of the finds.

Obama does Beyonce proud

2009-02-03T20:00:00.002-06:00

LMAO

2009-02-01T19:35:00.000-06:00

I absolutely loved this one.

Better get that converter box

2009-01-29T08:10:00.005-06:00

I think it's possible that we've been spared four more months of DTV transition commercials.

From the AP:
Washington (AP) — House lawmakers have defeated a bill to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12.

House Republicans succeeded in scutting the bill to delay the transition, which is scheduled for February 17. Just two days ago, the Senate unanimously passed plan.

The defeat is a setback for the Obama administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who fear too many Americans are not ready for the switchover.

The Nielsen Company estimates more than 6.5 million U.S. Households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals could see their TV sets go dark next month if the transition is not postponed.

Oh lookie, there's one area where I do agree with Republicans — which makes sense since I (like my uncle Darrell) am a nonaffiliated independent thinker when it comes to politics.

Ice blamed for two fatalities in southwest Missouri

2009-01-28T12:06:00.003-06:00

Monday's ice claimed two lives in southwest Missouri, according the the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Paula Meyer, 39, of Sparta, died in an accident on Spring Hill Road four miles south of Rogersville in Christian County. The accident happened as the driver of the vehicle Meyer was riding in lost control on an ice-covered roadway, ran off the roadway, and struck a tree, the patrol said. The driver and two other occupants of the vehicle received minor injuries.

Jeffrey Woods, 46, of Lamar, was fatally injured when his vehicle also ran off the road in Barton County a half mile south of Lamar.

Both accidents occurred on Monday afternoon.

This morning's commute

2009-01-28T09:48:00.011-06:00

I successfully traversed Grand Street east to west and then back east this morning. Here are a few from the journey:

Photo Phun 2

2009-01-27T19:20:00.007-06:00

A few more after the snow began flying:

Best choice for news and weather.

Photo Phun

2009-01-27T11:24:00.002-06:00

These are a couple pics I took of Hebrew playing in the sleet/snow that fell last night. He kept licking the air trying to catch a few flakes as they fell this morning.

More DTV Transition Time (Are you for real?)

2009-01-27T07:32:00.006-06:00

Despite being hit over the head with a shovel with DTV transition advertisements, there are actual people, the government estimated, who wouldn't be ready to make the switch on February 17, 2009.

Even my grandma, the change-hating, stubborn mule she is, was finally succumbing to the fact that she was going to have to learn to use her converter box.

How could anyone not be ready? If you have watched a measly five minutes of TV over the past year, chances are you saw some sort of message that you need to do something about your TV or you won't have it come February 2009.

If people weren't prepared for the transition, we should've let them lose their signal. A few days without The View, Jerry Springer, or whatever these people watch and they would've figured something out. Come on. I would imagine that most of these people are similar to my grandma; they need a little taste of reality just so they know that it will really happen.

The decision to delay the transition for four months isn't final yet. It was approved by the Senate but most now visit the House. From the AP:

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Monday voted unanimously to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting by four months to June 12 — setting the stage for Congress to pass the proposal as early as Tuesday.

Monday's Senate vote is a big victory for the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress, who have been pushing for a delay amid growing concerns that too many Americans won't be ready for the currently scheduled Feb. 17 changeover.

The Nielsen Co. estimates that more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals could see their TV sets go dark next month if the transition is not postponed.

"Delaying the upcoming DTV switch is the right thing to do," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., author of the bill to push back the deadline. "I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time."

The issue now goes to the House, where Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has vowed to work with House leaders to bring Rockefeller's bill up for a floor vote on Tuesday.

First icy pics

2009-01-26T17:50:00.004-06:00

It took me over an hour and a half to drive from Marshfield to Springfield back home. (It's normally about a 25-minute commute.) The s-curve between Strafford and Northview was at a standstill and plenty of slideoffs were happening all through there; I didn't keep track, but there were definitely plenty.