Get that song out of your head.  Go ahead, just try.  You are welcome.  Yes, it’s as old as the hills, which means probably three months in Internet time.  It’s still fun.

If you ever needed an excuse to stay in shape as you get older, how’s this one for you?

A neighbourly disagreement over loud music and noise ended rather badly for a complete moron who deserved exactly what he got.  A 24 year old drunken arsehole tried to break into the home of a 72 year old man and his wife and threatened them with a knife, but ended up getting the crap kicked out of him by the homeowner who just happened to be a former boxing champion in his youth.  The pictures of this moron are so fitting, it’s got to be karma.  It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, it seems. The ex-boxer apparently landed just two punches, but from the pictures it looks more like the guy was in a car accident.  Definitely not someone to be messed with.  Saw the link on Boing Boing first.

We have covered kick-ass elderly folks before, and to be honest it makes me very happy to think that I might be strong and able for a while to come.  It’s going to be a necessity so I can try to keep three children in line, right?  Not to mention two huge dogs.

Finally, from the blog of one of the creators of P90x (again, which I have talked about before and am still using) a wonderful soundbite from that paragon of rational thought, as well as physical fitness, Rush Limbaugh.  Click through to hear this idiot say with a straight face that folks who exercise are what’s putting a strain on the American health care system.  Good lord, but this guy is a jerkoff.

Steve Earle, Sparkle and Shine

My baby sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
My baby sparkle and shine
And everyone knows she’s fine
She blesses all that she sees
A toss of her hair and a kiss in the breeze
But she don’t love no one but me
And I can’t believe she’s mine

Shimmering she moves
Sunlight all around her
Even when she’s blue
Silver clouds surround her

My baby sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
My baby sparkle and shine
And I can’t believe she’s mine

My baby swings down the street
Big tall high heel shoes on her feet
Walks by and my heart skips a beat
And I’m stumblin’ like a fool
She give me somethin’ so sweet
I can’t sleep y’all and I can’t eat
Sparks fly whenever we meet
I’m breathless ‘cause she’s so cool

Anywhere she goes
I can only follow
She’ll be there I know
When I awake tomorrow

My baby sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
My baby sparkle and shine
And everyone knows she’s fine

My baby sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
Sparkle and shine
My baby sparkle and shine
And everyone knows she’s fine

And everyone knows she’s mine

That is all.  Gag away if you feel so inclined..

It was pointed out to me recently that I seem to have hardly any pictures of Lloyd on the blog for some reason, so let’s fix that.  Here’s a little montage of Lloyd so far (who by the way is now 42 pounds):

Lloyd in his default state:

Lloyd sleeping again:

Lloyd sleeping with his stuffed buddy:

Lloyd, wait for it, sleeping, but in the bathroom this time:

Lloyd sleeping with flexed butt cheeks (why? I have no idea) after huge bender:

Lloyd and Harvey sharing a chew:

Lloyd pondering blurrily:

Lloyd not yet done pondering (if he’s not sleeping, he’s pondering)

Lloyd leaps into action!  He hates brooms:

Lloyd singing into the microphone, laying down some harmonies for his new song, I Hate Brooms:

I took Quinn to see Transformers, The Rise of the Fallen last night.  Yes, he’s only 7 years old, and yes the movie is rated PG13, and yes we thought for a long while about taking him.  Nikki and I have up to this point more or less completely shielded both of the boys to the exact same level, meaning that if something is too much for Cael, then Quinn wasn’t allowed to see it. This made things much easier for us parents as you can imagine, but I have started to feel that Quinn was a little cheated out of what he deserved since there is a growing gap in maturity between the boys.

Granted, perhaps taking him to a movie like is isn’t the best way to address that gap in maturity, but to his credit, he took it all in stride.  We talked about the movie beforehand, how it was going to be, and I took pains to remind him that it wasn’t real, etc.  In all, I think it went pretty well.  We laughed together at the funny parts, we both jumped at the surprising parts, and we both thought it was awesome.  It was a tad mature in language, which I think he heard without understanding what it really was (time will tell on that one), some slightly sexy content, and certainly lots violent.  It was a bad movie to see if you have an aversion to robots kicking the absolute crap out of each other.  I would have to say that the violence to humans was toned down more than the last one.  There was still lots of humans getting blown up (think A-Team style-explosions, but with way more CGI and money) of course, but it didn’t seem as obvious as before, if you are willing to ignore the implied human killing.  Like when an entire aircraft carrier is blown apart and sinks in 45 seconds, there’s a pretty strong chance that some folks got killed there, but we didn’t see it, so that’s ok.

I may be crazy of course, and watch it again and wonder what I was thinking.  Perhaps part of the success was that Quinn insisted we sit in the third row of the theatre, which was perfect since he talked quite a bit and we didn’t disturb anyone, but we also missed a lot of the stupendous action because we were sitting so close to the screen.

As for the big question: have I wrecked my kid by letting him watch a movie like that?

I was in geek dad heaven, but I think as an experiment it went ok so far.  I will have to update you on how it went once Cael hears about it, he’s still at Nanny’s house.  I think either way, it will be a while before we let Quinn watch something out of his age bracket, just to wait and see how it goes.

Anybody think I’m nuts?

One thing that has become clear as Lloyd gets bigger and bigger, and mostly stronger, sharing the stairs with an excited Lloyd is taking your own life into your hands.  We use a large measuring cup full of water to track how much he drinks, since there’s just no off switch for Lloyd when it comes to water.  If you are foolish enough to let him see you carry that measuring cup down the stairs to where his dishes are, you had better hop to it before he catches up with you.  If you aren’t subtle or fast enough, then it’s a Raiders of the Lost Ark terror run down the stairs with a tumbling barking avalanche of fur, teeth and spit enthusiastically trying to tangle your legs and carry you down to your death.  Seriously, Lloyd doesn’t come down the stairs so much as he surfs them, maniacally riding them into the wall at the landing where he lands with a whump and a grunt, only to heave himself up and launch down the next flight, using flailing limbs and tongue to carve a path of destruction for anything in his way.

The kids are especially vulnerable and while we haven’t lost anyone yet, it’s probably only due to sheer luck.  We were warned not to exercise St. Bernard puppies too hard when they are young, since their joints and bones are still growing and developing, forget about our own human puppies whose joints and bones are still growing.  I wonder how falling down the stairs 10 times or more each day fits into that?