Wednesday, January 26, 2005

American Idol

Alex and I really got into watching American Idol last year. We were very excited to watch it this year. In the very painful beginning, with the good and bad singers, it has been really fun to hear him tell me who is good and who is bad.

For example, the 44 year old who had lied to be on the show. "Mom, he is NOT making it to Hollywood."

The 22 year old psychic... "Mom, she can't sing."

Simon Cowell, my six year old son Alex, has you beat. He assesses the pathetic in about 3 seconds. No need to spend 30-60 seconds enduring the painful.

The showgirl who could sing..."She's pretty good mom."

The Vegas Cowgirl "Viva Las Vegas"..."She is just weird mom, she isn't going to Hollywood."

I think Alex would add value to the panel and give Paula someone other than Simon to kiss. Besides, Alex is much better looking and sweeter.

I am really enjoying American Idol with Alex. As a mom, it's very hard to find a show I can enjoy with my son. Fox isn't normally the channel that has clean shows, but this is one I do like.

If you don't watch it, I would strongly recommend it to you and your family. The laughs are definitely worth it.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Ya know back in the old days it was called a sacbut.....

Just got done practicing.

I play the trombone. Have since the 6th grade when I just kinda fell into it. I was taken to the middle school I was going to attend in the latter part of summer before my 6th grade year began and was pretty much told to pick an instrument. Now originally I was wanting to play the drums (percussion) but with my mother's sanity and hearing on the line I was told that I really needed to know how to play piano before even attempting to bang a drum. So, on to the piccolo. Yea right. Then the assistant band director picked up the long instrument , told me it was a trombone , and to buzz my lips and blow here. Well I did. I let out a big SPLAT, right at the same time the head band director for the school was in my crosshairs. It was enough to stop him in his path and look right at me and exclaim "Now that is a Trombone Player!" Well, not one to ignore fate, I settled on that instrument.

My trombone playing has allowed me to literally go places. I have been to all sorts of cities and played in all sorts of facilities and universities in high school and college. Its been a pretty cool ride. Once I graduated college I just stopped except for playing every 4 years at my university's Band Alumni Reunion ( that would be the University of Notre Dame Marching Band). Well, I got the bug again. I went to Northpark Mall in Dallas and heard the North Dallas Trombone Choir for a Christmas performance. 15 men and women playing trombone for a nice sized holiday crowd. That got the juices flowing. Thankfully they do not mandate tryouts to join. All I had to do was show up at the practices. I have been going the last month and our first performance is this Friday. I am pretty excited to be performing again. It has been going well and being a pretty decent player I have been doing pretty good.


On another note I was very happy with the Patriots performance last night. My wife wasn't but I was ( eventhough she is also an ND grad). This is another notch in Charlie Weis' belt and hopefully with a win at the SuperBowl, another ring. Of course my motive is that with a new Superbowl ring and a good first year as ND head coach he is going to start getting the players that will bring back the reputation that ND had in the early 1990s.

My son, Alex lost another tooth today and doesn't have very many baby teeth to go. Also, he got called back to do a second round of testing for the Talented & Gifted program in his school district. I am pretty proud of him and hope he does well. He is a bright kid but the last thing we are doing is pressuring him. We wanted to have him try out for it just to see how he would do but we were not expecting to actually get in. Now we are half way there so lets see how it goes.

The Steelers

I have been a Steelers fan since the early 80's. I remember it vividly. It was September and my family had gone to Pennsylvania for my great grandfather's funeral. It happened to coincide with my birthday. Unfortunately, the dress my mom had bought me didn't fit, so my parents bought me a new coat. It was a Steelers ski jacket with the zip off sleeves. From that moment I became a devoted fan.

I am so bummed about last night. I think Cower's decision to go for the field goal on 4th down on the two was a chicken decision. He coached like Ty, quite frankly. Sometimes, being conservative and safe is the wrong decision.

Oh well, either way I believe he was out-coached and the Steelers were out-played. As much as I hate to admit it, the Pat's were the better team yesterday and proved it on the field.

I am very much looking forward to the game in two weeks. I will be cheering for the Eagles, but believe Bellichek(sp) and the Pat's will probably be up and ready to dominate the game. I have been a McNabb fan since he was at Syracuse and I will stay loyal regardless of the odds.

Go Eagles!

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Breaker breaker....

Well we finally took the plundge and created a Blog. My friend Jeff (jeff.squyres.com) has had one for a while. Custom made and maintained. So, as usual I waited to find a free, dumbed downed, point and click option that can be maintained anytime, anywhere with all the bells and whistles.

This blog will be maintained by my wife and myself. We live in a suburb of Dallas and do pretty well for ourselves. Not a lot to discuss currently as this is playoff Sunday and it is hard to do two things at once. Lynn is going to cheer for the Steelers but I will be backing the Patriots as the Offensive Coordinator is the new Notre Dame head coach.

As we get used to Blogger/Picasa/Audioblogger/Hello functionality I imagine this blog will get a bit more detailed and active. For now we are just doing the text.