I picked up Grand Theft Auto IV yesterday..........

I love the game. It's mindless fun at a higher level. A wide open city where you can do basically anything you want. Violence that is so over the top that it borders on cartoon-like.

I've seen a couple of things that really make me tired of judgemental people. First, there was a piece on the CBS Nightly News last night about the release of Grand Theft Auto 4. It mentioned how it will likely gross more than the highest revenue producing movie of last year. It also mentioned that the video game industry now makes more than the movie industry. At the end of the piece, the narrator said that 'the game is a great time as long as you enjoy hanging around with people like this' and then showed a guy punching another character in the game. They flashed back to Katy Couric and she decided to say 'No thanks!' in response to the reporter's question.

Pardon my french, but who the hell is Katy Couric to tell people what to think? Her job is to be an unbiased reporter and not to provide an editorial. Her job is to present the information, not insert her opinion. If she wants to interject her opinion, be sure that the words 'Editorial' is flashed across the screen.

Another fact lost on most people has to do with the age of people who play video games and how they acquire the games.

1. The average age of a video game player is now 32 years of age. The vast majority of gamers are way over the 18 year old limit for mature games. They obviously have every right to play a mature rated video game.

2. The constant argument against violence in video games is that kids shouldn't be playing the violent games. Guess what? There's a clear rating system in place. Responsible parents who monitor their kids and what they play should have no problems identifying the games that kids should/shouldn't play. Also, there's no way those kids can get a mature rated game without a parent to buy it for them. I'm 33 years old and I got carded to check my age before I could buy the game. They don't even card me in bars anymore, yet they card me for a video game. That's a clear statement that the safeguards to restrict mature games to 18+ are in place and working properly.

Matt Damon came out yesterday and said that he wouldn't do the voice work for the upcoming 'Bourne Ultimatum' video game because he didn't approve of violence in video games for kids. So instead of checking the facts that mature video games can't get into the hands of kids, Matt Damon decided to speak on a situation that simply doesn't exist. Kids can't get those games, Matt. Meanwhile, kids can watch sex scenes on network TV which are supposedly censored by being under the sheets. Where's the outrage, Matt and Katy?

When ignorance can be passed off as fact by these people, it's hard to debate it at any level without pulling your hair out thinking about how oblivious they are to reality.

Never seen that before............

I walked into the bathroom just now. A man in a wheelchair was in front of the shorter urinal. He had his foot propped up on the urinal. I thought that was an awfully funny place to tie your shoe. Just as I finished that thought, he pulled a small hose out of the bottom of his pants leg. It had a cap on the end that he took off. Evidently, this guy has a hose hooked up where he can urinate and then empty it out through a hose in his pants. I'm guessing he can't stand up, which is the reason for the gadget. I'm not sure how it all works and hopefully I don't ever have to find out. But I definitely won't double-take the next time I see it happen.

One drink at a time............

I ran a fundraising poker tournament the other night for my fraternity. We ended up with around 30 people and had a nice mix of alumni/actives in attendance. Afterwards, a few of the actives asked me if I wanted to go down to the local bar for a couple of beers. With Mrs. Lime working late, I didn't have any reason to say no.

The bar has both a restaurant and a bar area. The food there is actually pretty good stuff, but the bar takes over after 7:00 PM. I found the guys in the bar area, already with pitchers of beer on the table. As soon as I walked up to the table, I found the guys being stalked by two 40+ year old women who had drank their share of alcohol. The women were snapping pictures everywhere. Of course, they also snapped a couple of pictures of me. Who knows where those pictures will end up, but I doubt the women will even remember where they took the pictures given their advanced level of alcohol consumption.

After a few minutes, the women left and I started chatting with the guys. One of them was going to be a religion professor. Another one said he'd be interested in being a music professor. One of the alumni was a pool cleaner. I even found a student that wanted to cut hair for a living. Wide variety of people in this gathering, but we had a great time.

One thing that I immediately thought about while I was in the bar was how glad I was to not have to be in the dating scene anymore. Between the stories that the college kids told and the people-watching I did at other tables in the bar, I remembered how much of a hassle it was to go around looking for 'the right one'. Some people see dating as a game. I always saw it as the means to an end, which could never come quickly enough. It seems like such a pain viewing it as an outsider.

Another thing that struck me was the female lead singer in the band. No, she didn't actually strike me. She spent the time in-between songs yelling out what she was drinking during the last song. Judging from her dancing and her slurred lyrics, she had been drinking quite a bit during the songs. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the drinks were likely on the house and she walked out of that bar with a paycheck and a next-morning hangover.

There were also two guys who walked in who were very noticeable. They strutted like a peacock trying to mate. I've never seen a more blatant display of two young guys trying to 'be cool'. I pointed it out to some of the guys at my table and they got a good laugh out of it. The only thing that would have been more funny is if they would have made an announcement at the door letting everyone in the bar know that they had entered the room. They essentially did that, although it was non-verbally.

I'm thinking there's a good chance that I'll take Mrs. Lime to that bar on a Friday or Saturday night. Everyone needs a good laugh from that kind of entertainment.

Too big for their britches??????

Yesterday was 'Take your Child to Work' Day. Per the usual, the otherwise quiet government building was flooded with kids from ages 8-18 who came to see what their parents do on a daily basis. They also had a kids seminar downstairs for a few hours to give the kids something to do while the grown-ups actually took a couple of hours to get some work done.

Over lunch, I ran downstairs to the cafeteria to grab a chicken sandwich. I looked out over the cafeteria and the connected lunchroom and was struck by something. I was amazed at the number of kids who were overweight. I'm not talking just a few pounds here and there. These kids were 20-30 lbs. overweight. Some of the problems were obvious, as their parents also had a weight problem. But there were other kids who had a problem who had parents that were relatively fit.

Generally speaking, my friends have kids that are fit and not overweight at all. I guess that's why it came as such a shock to me to see so many kids with a weight problem. I didn't realize how wide-ranging the problem was in the general population. I honestly think that lack of activity and eating out a lot are the main culprits. I'll certainly be aware of the problem moving forward.

The highest level of respect.............

My dad probably clicked on this blog entry hoping this thread about respect was for him since it was his birthday. While I do respect my dad and wish him the best on his birthday, he likely won't be shocked that this is yet another thread about his oldest grand-daughter.

Last night, I had to attend a meeting for the alumni board at my fraternity. It's only about 10 minutes away, so not too much of a drive. Mrs. Lime was working last night, so I was in charge of Kali 1.2. I decided to take her along with me to the meeting.

I picked up an ice cream sundae for her on the way over. She could eat that for the first 15 minutes or so to keep her busy. After that, the sheer number of people would keep her attention. She ate almost half of the sundae over the first 20 minutes. After that, she sat in my lap with a smile on her face, quite happy with the sundae now residing in her tummy.

She was wiggling around in my lap when suddenly she sat upright with such force that she 'broke wind' with great vigor. Under normal circumstances, this could be quite an embarrassing situation. But this isn't a normal situation. We were sitting in a room with 5 fraternity alumni and 4 fraternity actives. Not everyone in the room heard it, but the few that were nearby reacted quickly............

Active #1: (laughing) Whoa!!!!!!

Alumni #1: Wow, that girl has potential!!!!

Yes, only in a fraternity house will you get that kind of respect for launching an attack of that magnitute on the hearing and smelling organs of an average human. Kali has now received that level of respect.

Grass and fire..........

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be paying for that $60 fertilizing job that took place a month or so ago. My neighbor to the north did not fertilize their yard. Neither of us have mowed the lawn yet this year. But you likely would think that the neighbor has already mowed once. That's because my grass is growing like gangbusters. As a result, I see a beautiful lawn coupled with more lawnmowing in my future. Granted, I have a riding mower, so it only takes about 30 minutes to mow the lawn. Let this be a lesson to me to not maintain my lawn nearly as well in future years.

In addition, Mrs. Lime and I have decided to tackle some outdoor projects. We would like to build an outdoor kitchen area with a grill and countertop. In addition, we're considering doing a fire pit or outdoor fireplace. We're browsing through books trying to figure out what we want to do. When we decide on something, you'll be the first to know.

Up and down videos..............

Here's a couple of videos of Kali 1.2's stair-climbling prowess.

First, the video of her going up........

Up video link

And a short 10 second video showing her descending technique.........

Down video link

Kali 1.2 picture blowout!!!!!!!

The masses finally get what they've been looking for.......less of me and more of Kali 1.2!

Dad, you'd tell me if I had something on my shirt, right?



RIGHT?



Pony up!





What's up?



So I hear apples are good for me?









I'm turning on the cuteness now!

Marcie.......

I went over and put in a session of poker at the casino last night. Nothing terribly special about my play. I folded a lot and won a couple of pots to avoid losing much. For those that don't know, there is also a bad beat progressive jackpot in the poker room. If one person has a hand of 4 or a kind or better and is beat by a better hand, the jackpot hits. The losing hand gets 50% of the jackpot, the winning hand gets 25% of the jackpot, and the rest of the table splits the other 25%. Last night the jackpot was up to over $200,000.

During my session, I could hear a scraping, high-pitched voice say, "Is that seat open?"

The dealer replied that it was and slowly, a older lady stepped into the seat. The dealer quickly greeted her as Marcie. She was in her late 80s and played poker on a daily basis. Her husband was also in the room at another table.

The guy sitting next to Marcie introduced himself as Jake. Marcie looked down her shirt and began to open up her collar. Everybody started laughing as she started to open up her collar, expecting the worst. Marcie looked up and laughed......

Marcie: You guys are terrible! I was just looking for my necklace that had my name on it. But if taking off my shirt will help me win, I'll do it!

Me: So, Marcie, why don't you play poker with your husband?

Marcie: Oh, we play at separate tables to double our chances of hitting the bad beat jackpot.

Me: Oh, I see.

Dealer: Marcie, have you every been to a strip club?

Marcie: Oh, no. My husband wouldn't ever let me go there.

Dealer: Would you take us there if you hit the bad beat jackpot?

Marcie: If I hit the bad beat jackpot, I'm taking everyone at this table to the strip club and buying them all a stripper!

Me: I'm married, so I'll take one of those $5.99 steak dinners.

Marcie: Well, I'm married as well. We've been married for 69 years. If I won the bad beat jackpot, I'd buy my husband a stripper too!

Everyone at the table was rolling with laughter at this point. Extremely smart lady in her old age. And she could play poker. The regulars respected her bets, so I did the same. Several of the regulars came up to say hi to her and received a kiss in return.

Poker is a beautiful game in that regard. This lady was in her upper 80s and her husband was in his 90s, yet they both came out to the casino on a daily basis to play a thinking game of skill while socializing with other people. Better yet, they were able to compete with the other players as the game requires nothing more than the mind.

Marcie didn't stay at our table for more than an hour, but it was a lot of fun while she was there. Always nice to get the opportunity to those kind of people that you otherwise might not get to meet.

Sliding and eating..........

New video of your favorite 14 month old baby. She starts by surprising us when she goes down the slide on her belly for the first time. She then snacks on a blueberry muffin. Finally, she tells the audience exactly who's doing the filming......

Sliding and eating video

When the cat is away, the mice shall play..........

Mrs. Lime and Kali 1.2 are headed to Baltimore as we speak. As a result, I have some much needed free time on my hands. Granted, I'm not off to a great start as I'm about to mail off a bunch of money to the federal government, but we knew it was coming, so no big deal.

I will finally have some time to post some pictures to the blog. I've got a full week planned, including a couple of trips to the casino to play some live poker. So you'll likely get a story or two about some dysfunctional characters at the poker table. Also, a great time to get some car repairs done while Mrs. Lime is out. I'm sure I'll think of some other things that need to be done, but I won't rule out an afternoon nap or two. I've earned that right.

My daughter already needs reprogramming.........

Kali 1.2 and I hung out last night since Mrs. Lime was busy working. We ate some dinner (Noodles, hamburger pasta sauce, corn and peas for the young lady) and then headed over for some playtime on the floor. We read several books together and played with some plastic balls. The basic routine consisted of getting a toy, bringing it to Dad, and then walking back to get another toy before Dad could even engage in playing with the previous toy handed to him. Mindless fun that can soothe the savage 14 month old beast.

Kali was still hungry by 7:15 PM, so we went over to her high chair and ate some animal crackers. I spent time emptying the dish washer while she ate. At some point, she decided that she was done eating. As I put away the dishes, I heard something hit the floor, followed by Kali yelling 'Dog!'. I turned around to see Kali looking down at a piece of animal cracker on the floor, about to be sucked up by Nova 8.0. So my daughter has figured out that she can throw food on the floor, scream 'Dog' and then watches for the dog to eat the food. As I said in previous posts, an unholy alliance is definitely developing. This may call for drastic counter measures.

Good news and bad news.............

The good news is that they can no longer say that a Big 12 team has never won a NCAA basketball championship.

The bad news is that Kansas was the one to break the streak.

I admit that I was rooting for Kansas just because I wanted to see a Big 12 team win the championship. However, I feel less inclined to feel good about their win this morning. That's because all of the beaker fans at my workplace are being downright obnoxious at work today. It's a good thing that they don't let knives into government workplaces. I fear there would have been multiple stabbings already on my floor alone.

The crawler has become a biped........

Kali 1.1 has been working quite a bit on her mobility skills. Over the past month, she's developed some stair-climbing abilities. She crawls up and down the stairs several times a day at this point. Mrs. Lime and I supervise her, but haven't had to help her in any way for a few weeks now.

Also, in recent days, she's upped the ante and has started walking without holding on to any furniture. She takes small steps, but her balance is getting a bit better each day. Yesterday, I counted out loud as she took the steps. In one burst, she covered a distance of 6 feet with about 11 steps without falling down. She ended up at another piece of furniture that she grabbed. Had it not been there, she likely would have just kept on walking.

She's also paying quite a bit of attention to our actions. We have locks on the cabinet doors that can be released with a magnetic opener that is placed against the outside of the doors. The other day, I handed Kali one of the openers. She immediately took the magnetic opener and started touching it to the cabinet doors. While she has no clue yet that there is a specific spot that the opener needs to touch, it's blatently obvious that she has been watching us and knows that the opener is supposed to touch the cabinet doors. I'm sure she'll keep refining her door-opening skills as time progresses.

So I've been a bit busy...........

I haven't posted in 6 days, which has to be some kind of record for my blog. Even when I've been on vacation, I've generally posted from the vacation spot.

I took over my new management position last week. Spent some time with the VP getting things set up. We're still not completely transitioned over, but it's getting close. I'll start doing things like approving time cards and having a weekly meeting with the government manager on the project. If any openings become available, I'll have to fill those spots as well. I don't think it will be nearly as frantic as most management positions, but it's a good thing to have on the resume in case I ever want to move to another management spot in the future.

I've also been doing quite a bit of manual labor over the past couple of weeks to help out some friends. It's always good to get down and dirty every once in a while. I'm reminded of two things whenever I do a lot of hard manual work.........

1. You get a heavy dose of respect for those people who put their bodies through this kind of work on an every-day basis.

2. You become more thankful than ever before that you have a job that doesn't require you to beat up your body at that level.

I'm a bit sore, but I'll survive. I've lost a few pounds in the process, so it's not all bad.

Is it April 1st again??????

Yep, it's that day again. It's April Fools' Day and it's my 8th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary is somewhat deceiving, in that we've been together for nearly 14 years now. So we're actually quite a bit further along than our anniversary year total would suggest.

Obviously, a lot has changed over the past year as Kali has grown from a very tiny 0.1 model up to the current 1.1 version. Certainly, there's a lot more of Kali to handle as she's grown around 15 pounds and is now on the verge of walking. Casanova 8.0 has been around for the whole marriage and probably wishes that everything were as quiet as it was when we first got married and didn't have nearly as much excitement in our house.

Mrs. Lime and I have grown A LOT over our 8 years. I'm not even sure we're the same couple from a relationship standpoint. Both of us have matured immensely over the past 8 years. I can easily say without hesitation that our relationship is as good as it ever has been. It certainly wasn't bad by any means in the past. But we're closer as a couple than we ever have been.

So I'll take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Lime for giving my life a wonderful purpose and for making these past 14 years a blessing. In 42 years when we have our 50th wedding anniversary, I'll likely still be saying the same thing and wondering why we can't do 50 more years.

Good news and bad news..............

First the bad news. I nearly ran over the old blind guy that works on my floor in the building. I came around the corner and he was heading right for me.

The good news is that my cat-like reflexes allowed me to avoid any contact with the man. He likely never even knew how closely we courted disaster.

Hope springs eternal...........

Yes, it's that day again. The opening day of the baseball season. Another season arrives full of hope that this will be the year that the team overachieves and becomes a playoff contender. Realistically, a .500 record is a pretty good goal given the overall talent on the team, but even that would be a good improvement over the past several years of losing teams.

This year, we have good young players at several positions with some veteran talent sprinkled in to keep the kids pointed in the right direction. A new, more stricter approach is being implemented by Trey Hillman, the new head coach. He took a last place team in Japan and put them in the Japanese championship game in a few years. Hopefully he can reproduce that feat in Kansas City, though it's obviously a bit tougher job in Major League Baseball.

In a month or two, I'm hopeful that we'll be putting up a competitive record. If not, football training camp is just around the corner.

The day of reckoning draws near............

The project manager for my group just announced the change that I already knew was coming. She's headed to another group effective the last day of this month. I already knew that because our vice-president had already let me know that I was the one he'd like to take the project manager position.

So, in the coming weeks, I'll get dumped into the world of management. I'll have to hire someone to replace the outgoing project manager. I'll send status reports to my VP concerning the group's work. Approval of time sheets and vacation time fall in my responsibilities as well, though that shouldn't be hard to approve considering everyone works a straight 40 hours.

My only concern is that I'm going to be promoted to run a group that has a couple of people who are older than me. They honestly don't have the experience or education necessary to run a group, but it's never a great situation when a more veteran group member doesn't get the nod for a promotion over a newer member of the group. Thankfully, I have a very good relationship with both of them, so I don't think it will be too difficult to make it work.

Celtic romp...............

Last week, I took Kali 1.1 to her weekly music class. They had a class with Celtic music in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Only one other girl, Malia, was there for the class. She was 3 years old. Kali was a bit more outgoing than usual. She wanted to crawl over to play with Malia. She also kept pointing at the musical instrument bin, wanting to play with them before it was time.

I also played with Kali in the gym room. They have things like slide, bridges, climbing walls, etc. for little kids. Kali likes to play around on some of the equipment, but most of her time is spent watching other kids. She's learning a lot in the classes and from playing with the other kids.

On the way home, Kali and I stopped at McDonalds to have a snack. On the way in, I saw a couple of girls in a car at the drive-thru window. They were giggling a lot and looking somewhat sleepy-eyed. As they drove away past me (I was on the sidewalk), I quickly figured out the issue at hand. The smell of marijuana smoke filled the air. Those girls were stoned out of their mind. I counted my blessings that those girls would be long gone by the time I got back on the road. Scary stuff.

Kali and I shared a ice cream sundae. Kali loves ice cream. She'll eat plenty of other foods, but much like Mrs. Lime, she's a sucker for ice cream. The sugar didn't have much effect on her energy level. She fell asleep on the way home after a couple of minutes on the road and slept well all night. Music and food can have that effect.

Take notice..............

Our group got a notice about a short meeting this afternoon:

Me: Oh, look. We're going to have an improptu 15 minute meeting this afternoon.

Co-worker: Really? I didn't get any e-mail about the meeting.

Me: Well, if the meeting is for a short announcement and you weren't invited, I'm guessing you can connect the dots.

Co-worker: ***eyes bulging***

Good times. Good times.

Must be tourney time..........

I've overheard a few comments in the office today.....

"What are you talking about? We want Kansas to lose in the first round!"

"Kansas State is going to get beat today. They're not going anywhere."

Yes, it would appear that the NCAA Basketball Tournament has begun. My only regret is that no one is mentioning that MU will lose because we're not even in the tournament. Alas, there's always next year.

Random musings............

1. Local rumblings indicate that several administrators in our school district used corporate credit cards to make numerous personal purchases? If these people are dumb enough to think they'll be able to get away with this, do we really want them to oversee our child's education?

2. I received a speeding ticket last month. I intentionally set the speed control at 7-8 MPH over the speed limit to avoid going 10+ MPH over the speed limit, which is generally the line where cops start pulling you over. On the day in question, my speed control was set at 72 in a 65 MPH zone. Cop pulled my red Mustang over on the last day of the month for 'going 75 in a 65 MPH zone'. Either they round up 3 MPH when your car is red or they adjust the speed to make sure they fulfill their ticket quota on the last day of the month. Either way, it's awfully hard to argue against him.

3. If Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama keep pissing on each other's shoes, there going to hand the election to John McCain by default. Note to the Democratic party........starting the mudslinging before you even get to the point where your candidate is selected is a BAD idea.

4. I bought a new powder blue Royals' jersey. It's been awhile since I purchased one. Thought I'd spend yet another year building up my hopes. Perhaps this year will be a good one??????

5. Kali 1.1 tried to swallow a penny yesterday. Mrs. Lime wasn't sure if it went down the chute, so they got an X-ray to be sure. No pennies were found, so we don't know if it went through the system or if she missed her mouth. It would appear we have the next great sleight-of-hand magician on our hands.

6. Mrs. Lime brought home two containers of ice cream and one container of sherbet last night. She said she couldn't decide which one she wanted, so she bought all three. This wouldn't be the first time that Mrs. Lime was indecisive, but it would be the first time that three containers of ice cream came home with her as a result of that indecisiveness.

7. I think I'm one of the few people in the U.S. that's excited about the economic downturn. I see that stock market going down and all I can think about is how much quicker I'm going to increase my retirement savings by investing right now.

8. Someone I know mentioned that their parents bought a second home in a Florida retirement community. Unfortunately, a short time after they bought it, the developer filed for bankruptcy and now the subdivision is full of empty houses and unfulfilled promises. Note to self: don't enter a 'planned retirement' community unless it's fully completed.

9. I watched High School Musical the other night with Kali 1.1. I admit it. It was a fun show and the songs were catchy. Kali gave it a thumbs up.

10. A baby's digestive track leaves little to the imagination. What comes out in the diaper can be easily deciphered to determine what went in the mouth to produce the output.

Ink on the mind............

Mrs. Lime for some strange reason decided to write some messages on the back of my hand using an ink pen. She had been writing something while sitting in bed and just grabbed my hand and started writing on it. I pulled my hand back at first, worried what may be about to happen, but then I eventually relented. She drew a smiling face and 'I love you' on the back of my hand. Relatively harmless. I fell asleep shortly thereafter.

In the morning, I got to work and was typing away on my computer. I looked down and noticed a faded smiling face on the back of my hand. That's all well and good. But then, a wave of panic suddenly hit me. If Mrs. Lime drew that on the back of my hand, what might have she done to my forehead after I fell asleep?????? I walked to the bathroom to make sure that my head wasn't a ink billboard. Thankfully, Mrs. Lime had spared me from the behavior that I feared for some reason. My forehead was unscathed.

The only problem with this blog is that Mrs. Lime will now read it and likely get some bright ideas. Hmmmmm, maybe I shouldn't have related this story after all............

Da-Da, where'd the top go??????

Kali 1.1 took advantage of the 75 degree weather yesterday. She went with me to Target, which is only a 5 minute drive away. We make that trip all the time together, but this day was different. We drove to Target with the convertible top down for the first time.

Kali knew something was odd right away. I put her into the baby seat without opening the car door. Once she was buckled into the seat, I got into the car and pushed the button to open the garage door. Kali was entranced as she looked up and was able to watch the garage door slowly open on its own. She smiled the whole time.

We backed out of the garage and Kali kept looking up and around. She looked at the clouds and trees that she usually can't see with the roof in the way. We drove slowly through the neighborhood and Kali just continued to take it all in.

After a couple of turns, we got onto the 4 lane highway. We sped up to around 60 MPH. Kali's hair started blowing all over the place. She put her hands on top of her head, seemingly worried that her hair might blow off. It didn't upset her at all, but you could tell that she was caught off-guard by all of the wind. As we slowed down after a couple of miles, Kali took her hands back off her head and resumed her surveillance of the surroundings.

She did even better on the way back home, not even worrying about her hair blowing around. I'm sure we'll be making many more convertible rides as the summer approaches. She'll be a veteran co-pilot in no time.

An unholy alliance.............

I think that Mrs. Lime and I need to heighten our awareness of the situation in our home. There is evidently a slowly developing alliance in our midst. The main ingredients consist of one part Kali 1.1 and one part Nova 7.11.

My favorite daughter is playing the power cards to bring Nova to her side. The other day, I left the room for a moment to switch out the laundry. I left Kali in the high chair with her breakfast of Cheerios. While I was out in the other room, I kept hearing Kali make the 'Mmmmm!' noise that she often does when she's pointing at something or wants more food. I went back out to find Kali offering Cheerios to Nova. It was pretty apparent that this alliance has been brewing for some time now, as Nova was nearby waiting for the handouts. I told Nova 'no', but I think the cat may be out of the bag at this point.

Kali later tried to offer her animal cookies to Nova as well. He behaved himself then as well, though the mounting pressure being applied by Kali may end up being too much to handle.

Uncomfortable............

I had another chance to put my non-verbal people-reading skills to the test. I walked by a lady talking with a guy in the hallway.

Lady: ....well, I have one other brother.

Man: I see.

Lady: But we're estranged and never talk to each other anymore. So I might as well be an only child.

Man: (nervous laughter) Oh, OK.

Lady: Yeah, he's a bit of an oddball. He's never acted like he wants to be part of the family.

Man: (crosses one leg over the other) Mmmmm hmmmmm.

Lady: So, we've just refused to talk to him anymore. I can't say I miss him all that much.

Man: (arms crossed) Sure, sure.

Lady: I've always felt like an only child. Never felt like he was ever my brother.

Man: That's too bad. Well, I've got to run. Talk to you later!

Lady: Take care!

1. Nervous laughter was evident in his first response. He was already in the 'avoid saying something stupid' mode at that point.

2. Crossing his legs is a defensive posturing. It's a sign that he's uncomfortable with the situation and is trying to protect himself in some way.

3. Crossing the arms is another defensive posture. He's closing himself off from the discussion, hoping to avoid any missteps.

4. After saying he 'had to run', he took off walking at a speed that would make race walkers jealous.

The amusing part was that the lady in this conversation appeared to be totally oblivious to how uncomfortable the discussion was to the man. She wore a smile on her face the whole time as she verbalized a family situation that would have made most people cringe. Regardless, it was another situation where non-verbal communication painted a pretty vivid picture of the situation that most people wouldn't have noticed.

The bottomless pit known as Kali 1.0..........

Kali 1.0 is just piling home the food lately. She's got to be on some sort of growing spurt. I took care of her yesterday and took note of what she put down.......

8:00 AM - 8 ounces of milk

9:00 AM - Two large handfuls of Cheerios

12:00 AM - Three large spoonfuls of Macaroni and Cheese along with 2 heaping spoonfuls of peas

4:00 PM - One bag of animal crackers (about 30-40 crackers)

6:00 PM - A few bites of bow tie pasta and a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce

8:00 PM - 9 ounces of milk

It won't be long before she's eating more than I do.

The mighty Brick Layers finish their season..........

I put together a rec basketball league team called the Brick Layers. We played an 8 game season. Just a few of my friends that needed a reason to have some glory days of some sort. We came very close to making the championship game, but unfortunately ended up 0-8. OK, so we didn't come close at all. It actually was a shame that the season ended because we were playing much better in the last three games. The first 5 games, we were losing by 15-20 points a game. In the last 3 games, we were competitive in every game and nearly pulled out the last game.

We'll probably play in another league later this year, but for now, we're going to take some time off to relax and learn from our (many) mistakes.

Kali 1.0's first basketball season comes to a close.........

Last night, I attended the final home basketball game for Mizzou this season. As always, we had a good time. It was a great game, as Mizzou won in double overtime. Certainly been a disappointing season due to some off the court issues, but thankfully, most of the team members that caused the problems are graduating, so we should have a fresh start next year with some good, young talent.

I've been amazed over the course of the season how much Kali 1.0 enjoys going to the games. She watches movies on the way down to the game to avoid boredom. On the way home, she sleeps well and barely stirs when I put in her in the crib when we get home.

At the games, she absolutely LOVES the band music. Every single time the band starts playing, she stops whatever she's doing, smiles, and begins to clap. She doesn't stop clapping until the music stops, then she goes right back to doing whatever she was doing previous to the music.

Of late, she's also gone to stomping her foot to the music and doing some dancing as well. We sit in the same area each game with the same people. In addition to our group, there are several people around us who spend their time during the timeouts watching Kali clap and dance. She literally performs to an audience at this point. They get a big kick out of watching her. She waves to all of them when she comes in and when she leaves. She's going to be a social chairman of something in her lifetime. It's too obvious of a fit.

Another big hit for Kali is the Truman the Tiger commercials that come up periodically on the scoreboard video screen. She smiles and points at the scoreboard every time he pops up. Often, she notices him before any of the rest of us do. Smart kid.

One note of caution. Kali decided to take a header right on one of the seat edges. The bruise on her nose this morning is proof that the seats don't give too much.

It was fun to take her to some games this year and she had a blast going to them. Can't wait for next year.