The Next Best Thing Since...

...dehydrated reconstitutued unsliced bread. I think one would have to be really jonesing for an all beef patty in a sesame seed bun to pop open and down this little gem.










Yummy! Yeah, not so much. Thanks Matt for turning me onto this Fastfood Fix in a Can.

Imagine That!

I was just having lunch with a coworker and we were discussing childhood aspirations that start out with, "When I grow up, I want to be a ...". He asked me what I wanted to be when I was a kid and it was a tough question.

I can recall wanting (for a while) to be a cross-country truck driver. I think that we can thank BJ and the Bear for that insightful career choice. I mentioned to my coworker that I was attracted to the travelling and, even back then, was a big fan of truck stop menu fare. He then asked if I made all important decisions based on food....well, I am overweight - duh. Although...point taken.

I then remembered that I had sent for, and received oddly enough, an application packet for the CIA. But I never did anything with it.

I was at odds trying to think of an actual career choice or dream job that I had wanted growing up. All I could tell him was that I dreamed of being in meetings where folks wore suites, shook hands, and say at big oval conference tables. I also imagined having a job where writing would be a large part of it. My coworker looked at me like I should've had a V8. My current job and where I have been for 14 years, is as a business analyst. My role is to help with the creation of projects that will help the company reach it's goals, in where I have to be meetings constantly and I have to write documentation that captures the project requirements. Well, spank me and call me Sally...I'll be a monkey's uncle chauffeur driving an 18 wheeler.

Mini-Meme: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

How's It Hanging?

"Slightly disfigured, but thanks for asking", would be our 3 month old's response, if he could talk. And yes, the "IT" in question would be the "IT" that is the subject of the question "How's it hanging", though I can't imagine the origins of that question. I mean, isn't it kind of personal, and who really cares?

But I digress and feel the need to share with my fellow bloggers the woes of my youngest son's genitalia. Won't he love this particular post when he comes across it in 15 or 20 years as he is reading the "Da Da's Blog Scrapbook" that Mrs. Pheasantly Fascinating has asked that we keep for both boys?

Both our boys are circumcised. It was a decision that we sort of made on auto-pilot. We talked about it but there was no great debate and it seemed like the obvious choice to have it done.

When we had it done in the hospital for the littlest, everything was fine. We put the gooey gauze on it for the next week or so as instructed. The reddening went away and everything was looking copacetic except for one thing: the skin of the head was adhering to the shaft and wouldn't pull away.

We told the pediatrician who said it was no big deal. She prescribed us a steroid cream (okay, I don't like the sound of that) and told us to apply it daily and to work at the skin manually to try and unstick it.

As success has been non-existent, Mrs. Pheasantly Fascinating started driving down the Information Super Highway in search for, well, information.

OH MY GAWD....what a scary place the world of circumcisions gone wrong can be!!!

She read medical accounts of little ones whose little ones are less than what they should be. There was a photo she described to me as the child having just the skin showing. The actual penis had retracted and was now entirely inside the little guy.

Okay, so maybe a little stuck skin isn't a big problem. But aesthetically it makes it look funny. It looks neither circumcised nor uncircumcised. If the cream doesn't end up working we are going to ask the pediatrician if there are other options, including minor corrective surgery. Some of you might think that is a bit drastic if there is noting medically wrong. But, right or wrong, the normalcy of appearance of said body part is pretty significant in a young man's psyche. I might get backlash for having just said that, but my guess is that it won't becoming from the parents of boys.

Well, that's pretty much all I have for now on the subject, unless it was a bad idea to share this with the blogging community, at which point, I won't.

The Friday Shuffle for the Sake of Shuffling

I am at work and unfortunately Fred is not with me. But fear not, I have 5,116 songs on my C drive that I've collected from various sources.

Let's be adventurous, Substitute-of-Fred!

Not sure what all this stuff is so I will list just as it appears on my WinAmp player skin

1. Kansas - Incomudro--Hymn to the Atman...okay, a very iteresting 16 minute instrumental with an incredibly intense drum solo.
2. Bob Marley - 10 Real Situation....get your grove on Bobbie!
3. InToThePink....that's all my WinAmp is giving me. Come to think of it, that's pretty much the only lyrics in the 1:48 song.
4. Sade - Never As Good As The First Time...I so do NOT like Sade.
5. Los Melodicos - Yo Me Llamo Cumbia...Ummm, okay.
6. Lit - Drop D...Yuck. If you know this song, or this group, then shame on you.
7. Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet...Cool song. I like me my CTD
8. Jeff Buckley - Grace...I just learned of this guy. This contribution is actually from Hilda.
9. U2 - Bad
10. Wyclef - Another One Bites The Dest (Remix)- I like Wyclef well enough but I think he should've left this song alone.

Sorry guys, maybe I'll redeem myself next Friday by asking Fred to do the honors.

Connect the Dots...of Logic

1. Child has fever
2. Child gets medicine, which child actually enjoys
3. Child then complains of other illnesses
4. Child is kept home from preschool and is allowed to watch TV, normally a weekend-only privilege, whilst mommie takes care of infant and works from home.
5. Child is complaining of illnesses the second day with sippy cup in hand looking for Gatorade, a favorite libation of his and one that is reserved for times when he is ill.

Child is not dumb.

PS Totally unrelated: Last night, I placed 2nd in our annual Toastmasters Table Topics Contest.

Get a Clue

I work with one of those people. You know....the ones who love to hear themselves talk...the ones who feel they work (or produce - there is a difference) more than they do...the ones who annoy the h-e-double hockey sticks out of everyone else...the ones that are new to the job so they feel that they have to prove something as is noted by the fact that when on a business call, they speak very loud but whilst on a personal call, they speak in hush tones (sorry for the run-on sentence Hilda & Toni). And while I don't see the person when I look in the mirror, I do accept as much culpability as if I did.

You see...I helped the guy get hired. He was working for our company but in a different department and had submitted a resume with HR for an opening in our dept. He hadn't heard anything - go figure. I met him in the lunch room and I thought the guy was affable - at first. So, I dropped a copy of his resume on the big boss' desk. HE-GOT-HIRED. Our immediate manager is quite savvy and I'm not just saying that because she might be reading this...and I imagine it's only time before the planets realign and things happen as they shall.

The Scary Thing Is...

...I understand the genius insanity of the logic behind the ideas that can sometimes hurt & maim, or at the very least, make a big mess. A little while back our local paper, which runs Dave Barry, had reprinted one of his submissions from October 14, 2001 entitled "Beer compels man to go where no man has gone before".

It speaks of guys and ideas gone wrong. Being a big fan of Myth Busters, especially the experiments that result in explosions, I read with great delight. The scary thing is that after reading the article, instead of possessing a general cautiousness of incendiary devices, I was inspired.

I want to build a device that gets people from point A to point B for short distances very quickly. This would solve the problem that my 3 year old has encountered in not getting to the bathroom quick enough. Come to think of it, my 94 year old grandmother would find is useful as well.

It would look like those pull lines that you see on bunny slopes. It would be attached to the interior walls of a home (or office) and the "passenger" would wear those sneakers with wheels in them. They'd grab hold of the handle, announce which room it is that they wish to be transported to, and with a swooosh, there they are.

I am going to build a prototype using raquet balls and dental floss. It will be powered by....propane via vacuum hoses, of course (see Dave's article). I will test it out on our 15 year old cats.

Whatch'all think? Here kitty, kitty!

No Harm, No Fowl

Get it? No Fowl. Keeping in theme with Pheasantly Fascinating. Clever, right?

So, the title is in reference to my WW weigh in. I didn't gain. I didn't lose. Considering I have gotten lazy recently at tracking my points, I am nonplussed at the results. I need to make a conscientious effort at meal planning, though. I had found items that are low in points and have fallen into rut. I've become bored with them. The WW meeting leader has said, rightly so, that diversity is key to successfully losing the weight. Yeah and diversity is also additional work. But who said that eating healthy is easy? It takes effort but the rewards are more than worth it. So I will give due diligence this week to eating even wiser with a broader range of tastes.

Now, where in my desk drawer is that Mini-Snickers?

Who Flogged His Fragrance on The Home Shopping Channel?

The answer, boys & girls, would be: Engelberg Humperdinck! So says the Millennium edition of Trivial Pursuit. Yes...tonight was game night; which I hope will be the first of many with Hilda, her hubby, Matt, Mrs. Pheasantly Fascinating, me, and two close friends of ours who are not bloggers - yet. It was many hours that swept by quicker than we knew filled with laughter (often at my expense), pizza, wings alcohol, games, a crying baby on occasion, yummy carrot cake, and did I mention...laughter?

Friday Shuffle: The Feces is Hitting the Proverbial Fan Once More

Yep, at the office I am once again up to my eyeballs in...work. You miss it, don't you Toni? If my trail of postings is any indication, you can gather that I got busy on Tuesday and will remain busy until.....well, let's just be thankful for the moments at home in between family time and sleep. So, squeezing in 2 quick posts, once a few minutes ago, which was technically yesterday, and another now in the wee hours of Friday morning (12:01 AM)...here is the Friday Shuffle.

Take 'er away. Fre-ZZZzzzZZZzzz

1. "Over The Hills And Far Away" by Led Zeppelin. I yearn for retirement which is far away and requires me to be over the hill. Guess I'll wait.
2. "Stereo" by John Legend. This guy is the hibbidy jibbidy.
3. "Suffer The Children" by Tears for Fears (off of their "The Very Best Of Tears For Fears" album). Huh? Honestly, did this album need to be more than 2 tracks long?
4. "Turn The Page" by Bob Seger. I remember jamming to this song in Elementary school - well, as much jamming as one could expect from a little white kid with no rhythm.
5. "Gone", by Ben Folds. Why isn't this guy (and his group) better known?
6. "I Don't Believe", by Paul Simon. I don't believe he put out such a wanker of a song.
7. "Leave a Little Room For God", by Neil Diamond. Indeed! Whether you call him (or her) God, Allah, Yahweh, Jehovah, or Fred...just do it.
8. "Fins", by Jimmy Buffet. This is what could happen to you if you don't head the words of the previous selection!
9. "The Man Comes Around", by Johnny Cash. Look out for the man!
10. "She Bop", by Cyndi Lauper; which I shall retitle as "He Bop" as I bop right off to bed!

Nite, Nite!

Scattegories, the Blogsphere Addition!

Tomorrow night is game night and in honor of that, here is a posting that I borrowed from Hilda

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks! Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following... they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl and no combination words (only one word)!!!
If you wanna play, leave me a note in my Comments section.

1. What is your name: Troy
2. 4 letter word: taut
3. Vehicle: truck
4. City: Toledo
5. Boy's Name: Theo
6. Girl's Name: Tawanda
7. Alcoholic drink: Tequila
8. Occupation: Technician
9. Something you wear: TiresHat
10. Celebrity: Twiggy
11. Food: Tomatos
12. Something found in a bathroom: Toilet
13. Reason for Being Late: Tardiness
14. Cartoon character: Tweety
15. Something You Shout: Taxi!
16. Animal: T-Rex
17. Body part: Thyroid
18. Word to describe you: Thoughtful

I Am a Weiner!

I came, I saw, I confessed. And as a result I won the True Confessions blog contest over at Ordinary Days.

The Week Is Off to a Good Start

I went to my WW meeting / weigh in this morning and I am down 2 pounds. I have 15 pounds more to go!

Saturday's Symphony - Not to be Read While Eating

In my weekend posting, I failed to mention one of the highlights, or low lights, of my outings Saturday occurred at the mall. Between the Jeopardy tryouts and trip to Knauss Berry, we stopped at the mall food court for lunch. My toddler announced that we had to use the toilet - someday I hope it will be "he".

He had to do number two and as is custom, I squatted down in the stall facing him, to give him needed encouragement and praise. Well, something I never realized before, is the awesome acoustics one is witness to with their head that low to the ground in a stall of a very busy restroom.

The cacophany was grandiose, and the stalls on either side were occupied - this proud papa is happy to report that my boy "outcacophed" them all!

Lines, Dissapointment, and Yumminess

Today consisted of two very long lines, some disappointment, and some extreme yumminess.

Last night a friend and I decided to try out for Jeopardy, which was here in Miami today looking for contestants from 10am to noon. We took my 3 year old with us under the promise that he could see the horseys (the Jeopardy bus was at the Gulfstream Horse Track & Casino). We had meant to be there by 9:30 but didn't show up until 10:15. The line was unbelievably long - well, more so unbelievable for my friend than me...I was pretty sure it would be long. Well, they had reached their 1000th contestant, which was about 300 people in front of us, so we didn't get to try out. So went looking for the horseys. The first race wasn't until 1:30 so the horses weren't out yet - we were o for 2. So we headed back home.

We got back home, picked up our other friend, and headed out to Knauss Berry Farm - my wifey had plans to go shopping with her cousin. I had heard of this place but had never been. It is a farm and bakery that is run by Mennonites; it's only opened from late November through Easter. We pulled up to the place and drove on by on account that the parking lot was jammed. We ended up parking a few hundred feet down the road. There was line of people out the door, through the parking lot, and to the street. It took us 30 minutes to get inside. While in line, I asked a lady what all the hub bub was about. Answer: Their Cinnamon rolls! And their bread! And their pies! And their strawberries! And their shakes - which was different (and shorter) line to a smaller building. We had planned to buy 2 loaves of raisin bread, 1 loaf of 9 grain bread, a pineapple upside down cake, Cinnamon rolls - yeah, we didn't want to buy too much stuff on our first trip. Then we'd go out back to the U-Pick strawberry fields. They were out of everything we wanted except the rolls, so we bought those, put them in the car, and took the toddler to pick the most gorgeous strawberries. And the little man was a natural. Once I had told him that we didn't any that had white on either the tip or the crown, or any that had boo boos (read as rot/insects)...the kid was flawless! So we paid for our pickings and headed home. Guess what we had for dessert? Strawberry Shortcake! Those berries were incredible! And breakfast tomorrow morning....Cinnamon Rolls!

New Year-ish Meme

This is supposed to be a New Years Meme, but seeing as how my source and inspiration for this meme, and all memes, didn't post it until a few day ago...well, betther late than never.

I am reaching out in the blog-a-sphere trying to make new friends, so this member will give them a chance to know a little more about moi!

If you want to play, let me know in my comments.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Introduced our 3 year old to his little brother.

2. Did you keep last year's new years' resolutions, and did you make more for 2008?
I didn't do New Year's resolutions last year, but I did this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth in 2007?
My wife. That's pretty close. :-0

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My grandma's boyfriend - the family feels that she is better off.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just the one in which I live - unfortunately.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Hair? That's not going to happen.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory?
10/12/07 - the birth of our second son.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
See # 7. Okay, ladies, I realize it's a bigger achievement for my wife, but it's like they say
in the commercial..."It's Shake'N'Bake, and I helped!".

9. What was your biggest failure?
I stopped riding my bike regularly.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had a hernia operation.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
An iPod.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My toddler. I know I may jinx it, but that kid has a heart of gold.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
People did things that I didn't agree with, but that doesn't make it appalling.

14. Where did most of your money go?
See # 1.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
See # 1.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
The song they played whenever an American Idol contestant was voted off: "Home" by
Chris Daughtrey

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner
c) richer or poorer? Richer - but just barely

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Travel.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Getting annoyed.

20. How did you spend Christmas 2007?
With friends & family.

[21 is missing. Couldn't be bothered to stick around, apparently.]

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Yes, I did. His name is Dylan.

23. How many one-night stands?
I stood for a night.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
I can't pick just one.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.

26. What was the best book you read?
Shadow of the Wind.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Johnny Cash. I had sworn off country music a decade ago without ever hearing this man.
A coworker turned me on to him in '07.

28. What did you want and get?
See # 1.

29. What did you want and not get?
Nothing. Well, if I had to pick SOMETHING, it would be a chance to visit with my
deceased brother.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Happyness - I'm sure there were better films out there but this was a slow movie year for us.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
We watched the Super Bowl. I turned 35.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Connecting with others on a deeper level.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
What's that?

34. What kept you sane?
What's that?

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Fancy? Not so much. I admired Sydney Potier. Though I must say that Jillian from this season of Project Runway is pretty cute (Ummm, my wife makes watch?).


36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I agree with Hilda...The war in Iraq

37. Who did you miss?
My brother. It's been 22 years.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
See # 1.

39. What valuable life lesson did you learn in 2007?
To strive to be less controlling, less judgemental, and more forgiving. Man, I have a lot of work to do!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums 2007.
"What a looooooooong strange trip it's been."

A Happy Shuffle

I am feeling very happy. Tired? Sure! Over worked? Sure! But I am happy. I appreciate the blessings that I have. I hope that you have an awesome weekend! Fred, make us happy with your 10 selections...

1. "Delia's Gone", by Johnny Cash. Um Fred? Try again.
(But I must say this song is funny...just not very happy.)
2. "Down On The Corner", by CCR. Now, that's more like it. Happy foot tapping music about, well, happy foot tapping music.
3. "Celebration Day", by Led Zeppelin. Okay, really, Fred is picking these songs at random.
4. "Yeah Yeah", by Cyndi Lauper. More like...Please No, Please No.
5. "Light As The Breeze" by Billy Joel. Starts out as "She stands before you naked" Happy thoughts indeed. Wait, which one of us is naked?
6. "Love Or Something Like It" by Kenny Rogers. A decent lighthearted song.
7. "I'd Really Like To See You Tonite", by England Dan & John Ford Coley. We all know the song, but I've never heard of these guys...a result of feeding Fred "Best Hits of the 70's". Burp.
8. "It's Only Rock N'Roll", by the Rolling Stones. 'Nuff said.
9. "Breath In, Breathe Out, Move On", by Jimmy Buffet. Talk about an awesome story teller with a guitar....Am I happy? Oh yeah.
10. "New Blue Moon", by the Traveling Wilburys. Hmmm, well this song reminds me of my favorite beer: Blue Moon. So, yepp, this song makes me happy.

Happy Thoughts Everyone!

Mr. Slick - Not!

So there I was...on a hot date! I was nineteen years old and was on a date with a girl from college. Yes...she had a name - I just don't recall what it was. Our date consisted of hanging out at my dad and step-mom's home. We'd have dinner with them and would swim in their pool. I know that the idea of taking someone home to meet the parents relatively soon in the relationship, i.e. on our first date, sounds perilous to a relationship, but when you're on a limited budget, it can be very appealling. Maybe it was the proverbial nail-in-the-coffin...that was our only date. Of course, that could have been on account of my not-so-slick-moves at the beginning of the date.

I drove over to her house, an hour away, to pick her up and on the way to my dad's house, stopped at an incredible bakery to get desert. This young lady was very attractive and I was very excited (read as: akwardly nervous). We went into the bakery, I bought the desert and escorted her out to the car whilst holding the cheesecake. I placed the cheesecake on top of the car at the passenger side of the car so that I could open the car door for her. Now I know what you're thinking...no, I did not leave it on top of the car. I shut her door, grabbed the cheese cake, opened the passenger side back door, placed the cake on the floorboard so it wouldn't slide of the seat - hey, I was thinking here! I then closed the back passenger door, walked around the back of the car, opened the driver's side car door, slid inside, and closed the door.

And while it was the driver's side door...it was the wrong one. I was sitting in the back seat.

On the bright side...I had made it to the back seat on our first date - sorta.

PS Mrs Pheasantly finds this story very, very funny.

Stories Are a Wonderful Thing.

Memory Lane make for an interesting trip. We all have stories that we can recall; I believe it's important that we tell our stories. Mrs. Pheasantly is encouraging me regail my fellow bloggers with some trips down my memory lane and she, like most better halves, does have an ulterior motive. She wants to save them for our boys. So, I will begin collecting my blog posts and will commit to posting often so that whenever our children wish, even once we are dead and buried, they will be able to feel connected to us, because after all isn't that what stories are all about...connection?

Want to hear a story pulled from my memory lane, you'll just have to wait, but not too long.

Clinton and McCain pull off upsets in NH

An upset....Really? That's the headline of an AP article about the New Hampshire caucuses. Me no think so. I'm not sure that I would label Clinton's victory as upset. This considering that she was the front runner up until recently and with Obama and Clinton both scoring 8 delegates each with a difference of only 6,312 votes - it was a close race that either could've won. Again...not an upset. Whereas McCain doubled the number of delegates earned by the Republican runner up, Romney. So the headline was 50% accurate. Leave it to the media!

The Better To Eat You With!

"Mommy, you're little...but you have really big teeth".

That's what our 3 year old told Mrs. Pheasantly Fascinating this evening while he was getting ready for bed.

She responded, "Okayyyy". Which I guess is better than "The Better To Eat You With" on account of nightmares and all, but that would have been my retort.

Not Too Shabby

As I had mentioned in my blog yesterday, Mondays are my weigh in for my Weight Watchers meeting. We hadn't met for two weeks on account of the holidays, so needless to say, I was a bit worried. I had given myself wiggle room of 3 pounds (or maybe lack of wiggle room?). Meaning that if I put on 3 pounds, I would not not commit hara-kiri. Well I enjoyed the holidays, eating what I wanted without getting ridiculous and the results are....drum roll please....I gained 2 pounds.

That's a pound a week. That's a half a pound for each weekend. That's 1.142857142857142857 ounces for each dinner consumed.

Not that I'm counting.

PS I went for my post-op visit today on account of the hernia surgery I had on 12/13/07 and the surgeon says I am doing great and can resume rigorous physical activity....chuckle.

oh the joy

Look at what I can win in the confessions contest over at Ordinary Days.


I am hoping for the sponge instead.

The Weekend Recap

Okay, so it's only 7:47 am Sunday morning, therefore technically the weekend isn't over yet, but it seemed as good as any title for a posting. I went to work yesterday and the project was not going smoothly. So "not going smoothly", in fact that at 3:00 pm, semior management was on a conference call with us and decided to roll back our implementation. What does this mean. Well, it means that there was a whole bunch of finger pointing as to which area caused the multiple failures, and yes, some fingers were pointed in my direction. It also means that thousands of man hours are for not as we will now have to analyze the failures and remap a solution. The silver lining? I don't have to go into work today.

What else is going on?
Well, something most of you don't know about me is that I am a member of Weight Watchers. I had been in WW before (prior to our first son's birth) and I lost 45 pounds in 6 months. Note: The photo on my blog is from then, which was when I was at my lowest weight in a decade. I then forgot everything I had learned from the "program", that's what us WWs call it, and I had gained everything back in 3 years plus another 10 pounds.

I rejoined October 26 and, as of the Monday before Christmas, I lost 26 pounds. I have since put on 4 pounds and have not been on program, but will start anew tomorrow morning - my meetings are on Mondays. I will let you all know how I am doing.

Bad News Shuffle

I learned today that I have to work this weekend. I work in a typical Monday to Friday, 9-to-5, office and working weekends are not the norm so it's kinda a bummer when I have to. One my current projects has required that I work 3 weekends in the last four months - yuck! So with a bit of bad news to share with you all, here is a Friday night shuffle to hopefully pick up our spirits, well at least mine anyways.

Take 'er away, Fred!

1. "Look Around" by Blues Traveler - nice song, not sure what it's about...but nice none-the-less
2. "Feelin' Groovy" by the best musical duo ever known to mankind, aka Simon & Garfunkel
3. "Tracks Of My Tears" by Michael McDonald. I prefer the better known version of this by whatchyamuhcallit, Hilda? [That would be Smokey Robinson and The Miracles - Hilda]
4. "Long Ride Home" from the soundtrack for "Elizabethentown", by Patty Griffin. A fantastic soundtrack! Not a bad movie, either. But, akin to "Brother Where Art Thou", I think the music beats out the movie.
5. "Lakewater Hair" by Minnie Driver, yeah, she sings too!
6. "Promise" by Violent Femmes. Wow, memories of my mispent youth just came flooding back! 7. "3x5" by John Mayer, I prefer "Your Body Is a Wonderland", or "My Stupid Mouth", but then again, I'm not selecting these songs, Fred is; hence, why it's called The Friday Shuffle.
8. "Thank You", by John Mellencamp. Two Johns in a row...there is a joke in there somewhere.
9. "Desire" by U2.
10. "Storms" by Fleetwood Mac. One of their sleepier songs; a nice way to close the shuffle on a Friday night when I should retire to bed early, you know, that whole have-to-work thing tomorrow.

Sad, But True (And Funny, If You're Not Me)

Okay, so I was enjoying the cold misery of Tracey Michele when I came across this posting about a contest with prizes over at Me The Mama. And nooo, the contest wasn't how many links one can fit into a sentence!

We are being encouraged to come clean and make a confession to our fellow bloggers. Here goes nuttin', kids!

One evening many moons ago when the wifey and I were first married and were living on meager means, we had decided to have a romantic evening. We opened a bottle of wine and using wine glasses that we recieved as a wedding gift, sat down on our futon in the living room to watch a movie. Well, we polished off the screw-on-cap bottle of wine, and feeling quite amorous, and just a tad more than happy thanks to our liquid dinner, we moved on to the bedroom where we had a great time.

Afterwards, I got up to watch some TV in the living room where I had noticed that one of our cats had had an accident on our futon. I grabbed the first container I could find, an empty wine glass, filled it with warm water from the kitchen tap, and returned to said futon. Using one of my socks that I had discarded in haste earlier that evening, I proceeded to have at the stain, rinsing the sock in the water filled wine glass, as needed. It came out nicely, so I set my improvised cleaning materials down on the coffee table and watched a little TV before retiring to bed (to sleep).

The next morning, a Saturday, we got up to do our typical round-the house stuff, which included tidying up. I came across the wine glasses on the coffee table, and before I could think about it, decided to finish the bit of Chardonnay that was in one of them. It wasn't Chardonnay and after I told my wife what the liquid was, she laughed so hard that we almost had another accident that would've needed cleaning.

That's my true confession.

Belated Blog-iversary To Me!

Yep, that's right...December '07 marked the 1st birthday of Pheasantly Fascinating. So, in a celebatory fashion, as I reflect back over this year of blogging, I ask myself, what have I learned? Here is a top 10 list of lessons learned by PoultryBoy during year one of this blog.

10. Don't meme. Okay, fine, you can meme; but don't tag.

9. A meme is a way to generate visitors to one's blog.

8. Blogging takes more effort than one would initially think.

7. Blogging is more rewarding that one would initially think.

6. It's fun sharing my blog with friends and family that are non-bloggers.

5. The blogging community brings people together that otherwise might not connect due to beliefs or interests. Those passions seems to take a back seat to blogging. Or, while they exist, they don't get in the way of making connections.

4. Blogging doesn't necesarily make one less verbose - see # 5.

3. I know how to embed links!

2. Friday Shuffle is a great way to share musical selections with others - and to be the recipient of said sharing.

1. I am not the sum of my blog.

My Friend Looks Like...

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Guess Who I Look Like?

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

My New Year's Resolution(s)

A meme of sorts - except that I am not tagging anyone. If you want to post your NYRs, do so and let me know about it, please. Here are mine:

1. Blog more often.
2. Manage my time better.
3. Write and speak more gooder English.
4. Be less "my way or the highway" in polictical and social views.
5. Be friendly to ultra right wing conservative Christians. Wow, that's gonna be a toughie!
6. Read more.
7. Laugh more.
8. Love more.
9. Live more. This one will be a challenge because I already live a very full life.
10. Don't make promises that I can't (or won't) keep. Yep, there IS a difference.

Your turn!
(If you so choose)