Hannah's funny stuff

We watched Star Wars episode 3 yesterday and Hannah has been asking questions ever since. Most of them starting with "Why." Tonight she called me into her room to interrogate me some more. "At the end of Episode 3 Anakin was on a changing table, Padme was on a changing table. Why were there changing tables different?" I don't know why she thought they were changing tables, but whatever. I then explained to her that Padme was having babies on her table and Anakin was having surgery. Her response was "why?" to which I described that Obiwan had cut off both Anakin's legs and one arm so he had to get new ones put on. The next question was "why?" I then realized there was no way out for me and I was thankful that Ethan started calling for me from the next room after about 5 minutes of trying to explain why Anakin killed at the younglings... Yikes!

Also, during sacrament meeting Hannah piped up, in an English accent, with: "Charlie, you bit my finger!! That really hurt!" I think they have seen this video a few too many times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM&feature=related

Chuck v Lost

As my wife an I watch another episode of Lost last night I realized that Lost has been on a long time. Last night was the 100th episode in fact. It has felt like a long time. Season 1 was so long ago that it is hard to remember what happened and what was even important. It seems like Lost is suffering from what I like to call the "Alias syndrome. " This involves a show with a good story that gains a lot of popularity. The network then decides that the show needs to last for as many seasons as possible and the story gets put on hold while they make a few episodes that fail to further the story. These episodes can last for as long as the network deems necessary or until the ratings fall and they are forced to get back on board with the story. Only with Alias this happened too long and the rating were not recoverable.

We started watching Chuck this seasons and rented the entire first season to catch up (if anyone is interested NBC will have all the season 1 episodes on April 23 on their website and other episode can be found on Hulu.com). Chuck is an awesome show with a great story and acting. Lost's story seems stagnant while Chuck is moving fast. Now don't get me wrong I love Lost but I found myself wishing Chuck was on. Just so you know I cannot stop watching Lost as I am now vested in the show having watched all 100 episodes and abandoning it now would make all the time I have put in more of a waste.

Children's books

Why do they make kids books so sad? This weeked I was reminded of just how sad kids books are. My kids were at the library and checked out the movie, "The Bridge to Tarabithia." And let me tell you its sad! Right up there with "Where the Red Fern Grows." As a kid I read both of these books, and failed to comprehend the full extent of the sadness thereof. Now that I have grown up and appreciate more the difference between happiness and sadness I choose not to engage in activities that make me feel these sorts of feelings and make a conscious effort to avoid them. For this reason I have sucessfully avoided authors like John Steinbeck (and Jeremiah, although I don't think there was any capitalization involved in his instance), who seem to relish human misery and in fact capitalize on it! I will not support these harolders of hard times, exultators of undue emotion, and harbingers of heavy hearts! There are not enough hours in the day to languish in lamentations. Just entertain me (there really should be a Transformers novel) or teach me.

Why?

I acknowledge that dogs do funny things, even gross things. I don't usually question why. As an animal science guy I know that the answer is usually simply "They're dogs." For example, over the last few months we have noticed that Lady (my inlaws boxer) will periodically follow Hannah around with her nose firmly attached to Hannah's rear end and thereby acts like an early warning system when Hannah has a poopy diaper. I notched this up to "just being a dog" behaviour.
We didn't think too much of this until today. Yesterday, Hannah had an accident in her underwear (Disney princess underwear). Amber found Hannah, the pooplets and the wet spot onthe carpet and cleaned her up. What she couldn't find were the underwear. We thought that Hannah probably hid them knowing that she should go potty in the potty and sought to get rid of the offending evidence. We discovered our fallacious understanding and underestimation of Lady when the kids, this morning, found her yakking up said soiled undergoods. Thats right she ate the poopy underwear and then threw it up. All I'm left asking is WHY? Then we realized why she was always nosing the trash in the bathroom and why dirty wipes sometimes go missing from the site of a recent diaperectomy. (I wonder if there is a poop rehab?)
Abbey took one look at them and said, "Oh man, we are gonna have to wash those!" To which Amber patiently replied, "No, honey, those are going in the garbage!"

Best song ever?

As I listened to the radio last night after driving home from school I decided to list my top ten songs of all time. It was more difficult that I originally thought so I had to make it 12 with one special award for understandability. Some of these will come as no surprise to my family since I will play them on the guitar all the time.

Obviously, this is just a sampling of my favorites and there many more that could have made the list but for the passage of time, dimming of memory and the influx of a lot of really lame songs and singers (as apparent each week on American Idol) that tend to obscure the really good songs.

13. Eddie Money – Take me home tonight (award for being the catchiest song that I have a hard time understanding, Aha gets a close second here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbhXmSBlS_U
12. Huey Lewis and the News – Power of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFaXTcR4dtE
11. Ricky Nelson – Mary Lou
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLkCWT2neuI
10. John Denver- Wild Montana Skies (and many other John Denver songs go here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqeDLFYzN2Y&feature=related
9. Bon Jovi – Dead or Alive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k99h5aikc4g
8. Blues Traveler – Runaround
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pCDs_0zbNo&feature=related
7. Aha – Take on me (This video is classic)
http://www.videocodezone.com/videos/a/a_ha/take_on_me.html
6. Wham – Freedom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMCnqyhdEUw&feature=related
5. Jack Johnson - Upside down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFjnit1wyus
4. Hamilton, Joe, Frank and Reynolds – Don’t pull your love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM0UK6DR5Zc (and for all you MST3K fans here they discuss H,J,F&R = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmF7lEKwAfQ)
3. Frank Sinatra – That’s why the lady is a tramp
2. Toby Keith – I should’a been a cowboy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyA2n6b6WiU
1. Whitesnake – Here I go again on my own
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKTiwCez6Zs
I hope you enjoyed my list. These links will take to videos of each of the songs on youtube.

Hannah is funny

While we were eating dinner the other day, Hannah passed some gas and exclaimed "My bum burped." I also registered Abigail for kindergarten this fall. It makes me feel like I'm approaching 30 or something.

My answer to the economic crisis

Not that I'm biased or anything but I think this would be a GREAT fix.

Dear Senator,

As our economic situation has been deteriorating over the last few months I have been reflecting on how to best solve this crisis. I have come up with an idea that would help both the economy, increase the number of individuals seeking higher education and give the loaning industry a substantial bailout they currently need.
If the Federal Government were to take the money proposed as part of the economic stimulus package and pay off outstanding student loans for higher education this would free up an exponential amount of money to be spent in the economy. If the stimulus package as proposed passes the only result will be the government's direct pumping of millions and trillions of dollars directly into the economy. This means that once the money is spent there is no more for the people at large to spend. If the government were to give money to the very rich, they do not need it, if they give it to the very poor once it is spent it will be gone. Instead they should give the bailout to students of higher education.
Students are a large population and student debt is a heavy burden that will accompany graduates for years and limit the amount of disposable income they have to spend. Graduates are more likely to have a better paying job but probably cannot afford to buy a house, car or furniture...Their current loans would probably keep them from making these substantial purchases for years to come.
Without substantial monthly loan payments students would be able to divert thousands of dollars that would be going to creditors already floundering because of poor economic decisions and restore faith in the stock market and economy at large. It would also help the housing market and create a large population of new home buyers eager to purchase one of the many vacant, brand new or foreclosed homes currently on the market.
I think this idea has merit and would appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Obviously, the indigent would not like this sort of spending; however, perhaps there could be a portion of the stimulus money set aside to fund education for the next few years and provide a greater incentive to get people out to school and get an education.
Thank you for all you do. I appreciate the work you do for us.

Sincerely,

Powell

(I'm waiting with baited breath to hear back from my Senator about her thoughts on this subject)