Great Super Bowl, Lousy Commercials

 

 

Super Bowl XLIII was great, the Boss was boss, but the commercials? Meh! Most of them were stupid, and a few even were offensive. The goal no longer seems to sell products, just to shock. The worst of the worst? Probably the AshleyMadison.com ad. I was surfing the ’net on my MacBook during the game (#1 son was doing the same and working on his iTunes collection on the Powerbook); when the AshleyMadison.com commercial aired, I just had to check out the website. Wish I hadn’t! Its tagline: “Life is short. Have an affair.” Yes, it’s a website for people who want to have affairs! And it has a 100% guarantee! No thanks!

When the Steelers’ Santonio Holmes caught the winning touchdown pass, my first thought was: I hope one of the hundreds of photographers on the sidelines got a great picture! As you can see above, this photo was from the back, but it was nice how it showed that Holmes had both feet inbounds. 

Speaking of Photography

A note about Friday’s blog: If you’ve decided to buy a Nikon dSLR and intend to use it to take indoor action photos, be aware that the D40 and D60 can’t autofocus the 50mm and 85mm lenses. It’s fairly easy to manually focus the lenses (and sometimes it’s preferred so the sensor doesn’t get confused about what you’re focusing on), but if you think manual focus all the time would be a drag, look at the D80, D90, D200, or D300.

Hallelujah! It’s Finally Gone!

Yes, this will be the final time that I write about the entertainment center. The little beast is out of our house for good. The Freecycle gal came by to pick it up around noon Friday; fortunately, my neighbors Shari and T-bird were close by, and the four of us managed to hoist it into her pickup truck.

Even after we had bid the little beast a fond farewell, the Mister for some reason was still lobbying to keep it! I’m not sure what the problem is with the Mister and his reluctance to part with material possessions. I can understand how he felt towards the dresser he had had for 50 years, because it reminded him of his childhood (I Freecycled it to help a gal who had left an abusive situation). But the entertainment center?!? He was still pleading its case, saying we could’ve put it in the extra bedroom we call the playroom. That room is tiny; that’s why we never put a bed in it.

If the Mister was a lemming, he’d be poised at the cliff for about a year, hemming and hawing, not sure whether to stay or go, hoping and praying that someone will make the decision for him. Eventually, another lemming would have to push him, just like I had to do with the armoire, the old TV, his dresser, and the entertainment center. I finally got a new TV by giving away the old one; I finally got a new car by making sure that #1 got his driver’s license and needed to use my car to drive to school. On the way down to the sea below, the Mister lemming would be saying, “Do you really think this is a good idea? Maybe we needed to stay on top of the cliff a little longer. Do you mind if I bring the entertainment center with me?”

Get ’er dones

I’ve figured out the digital frame, and I don’t like it. Unfortunately, it’s way too late to return it, so I’ll probably have to learn to live with it.

Tomorrow is #1’s 17th birthday. Seventeen years that seem to have flown by in the blink of an eye. I’m just glad that he’s aging, not me! Today really should be his birthday, because it’s when I went into labor (his due date actually was January 24). I remember thinking how 2/2/92 would be a great birthdate to remember; I should’ve realized that him waiting until the next day to be born was a harbinger of how hardheaded he would be!

One of his birthday gifts, an iPod Touch (his third iPod; he seems to outgrow them every couple years), is on my list to buy today. I also need to grocery shop and, of course, work in the master bedroom (which really only needs to be done on days ending in the letter “y”). Hopefully, #1 son will remember to bring home his Verification of Enrollment (VOE), so we can renew his driver’s license after school. Relaxation this evening? “The Big Bang Theory,” of course, and watching the DVRs of “Wipeout,” a game show that was on ABC during the Super Bowl. #1 son and I especially enjoyed watching “Wipeout” last summer, so we’re stoked to see some new episodes.

Will the entertainment center PLEASE leave the bedroom!

We’re finally closing in on saying a not-so-fond farewell to the entertainment center. Someone has indicated interest in it on Freecycle. It’s devoid of  excess baggage (e.g., boxes and papers) and ready to rock and roll into someone’s truck.

Of course, when I updated the Mister on the entertainment center’s status, he said, “But I might want to take it to work!”

An entertainment center? At work?!? Why? It’s 60″ wide by 68″ tall!

“Maybe we should put it in the garage to hold discs.”

An entertainment center? In the garage?!?  

Do you see why I’m having trouble getting rid of things? And let’s not forget that this particular piece of furniture is in the bedroom (where it clearly doesn’t belong) in the first place, because he put it there after we got the new big-screen HDTV and tv stand in the family room. Why I allowed it, I’ll never know. Remind me one of these days to spin the yarn about the gigantic train set he put in the dining room before we bought dining room furniture; that’s a classic tale of our sometime marital miscommunication.

But I digress. I did some good work in the master bedroom yesterday. It was fun and a bit embarrassing to go through a couple boxes filled with #1 son’s first- and second-grade artifacts and #2 son’s preschool paraphernalia, circa 1998-2000. I kept maybe 5% of what I looked through and chucked the rest into the recycling bin, reducing two corrugated boxes to one much-smaller plastic bin. One classic paper I found was neatly printed by #1’s best friend; he was apologizing for teaching Jake a bad word in first grade. It was the f-word. The best friend has an older brother, and that’s how it is with those older siblings sometimes. I’ve learned that with #2.

Bowled Over

Today is Kitchen Wednesday. It doesn’t look like I have a lot of mail to go through and sort or shred, but there’s always languishing paperwork and the dreaded storage container cabinet (or as the Mister says with venom dripping from his tones, “I hate this cabinet! Find me something to put my leftovers in!”). I’ve been looking for better ways to store the containers rather than my not-working toss-it-in-willy-nilly system. My friend Lana said she stores containers and their tops by shape. Anyone else have any great ideas? I know that first I need to make sure that I have a lid for every bowl, but what happens next? 

Here is one bowl and lid that I won’t be worrying about storing. I found out first hand what happens if you put the lid too tightly on a bowl you microwave . . . it distorts the bowl, and it takes 15 minutes to take off the lid. After you’re done eating the soup, you throw the bowl and lid away! Fortunately, the soup was delicious; the bowl merely another casualty of my ineptness in the kitchen.

Get ’er dones

I’m going to be back in the master bedroom today going through boxes after I get done with my 30-60 minutes in the kitchen. “Lost” is on tonight, and they’re replaying “The Lie” from last week before the new episode. That means I get to see Neil go up in flames once again! Sorry, dude!

Hoping for some knee answers today

First things first . . . as for yesterday’s get ’er dones, I failed to go to Best Buy (no biggie) and to hook up the dvd. Everything else turned out a-okay. I baked the potatoes using a recipe at http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/PotatoBaking.htm; the Mister and I liked them more than son #2 (but he prefers mashed potatoes); #1 son ate the usual white rice and barbeque sauce delicacy. I enjoyed the middle school PTO meeting (nice group of gals and a short meeting . . . a great mix!). The doctor’s appointment gave me absolutely no answers, but it was only a prerequisite for today’s Airrosti appointment. I dislike seeing orthopedic doctors who don’t run; they think the answer to every ache and pain is not to run. They don’t understand that runners NEED to run, especially when they’ve paid $65 to enter a half-marathon! Obviously, I wouldn’t run with a fracture, severe sprain, or illness, but I know that I can at least walk for a fair distance, so the half-marathon still is doable. We’ll see what the Airrosti folks say today.

By the way, #2 son lambasted me about not using Arial Black (ugh! that’s not readable for a three-page paper!) and not single-spacing his science project paper (I used 12-point Arial on 18-point leading). Of course, he didn’t bring home his scrawled instructions, so I could double-check that I did NOT see any details about spacing or the Arial Black. I contend it said to use 12-point Arial. Geesh! The only middle school grade that counts for high school is Spanish, anyway. If he gets a B on the project, so be it. I did finally convince #1 son and the Mister to quiz #2 son on his Spanish, since both of them have taken it. Even though #2 insisted he didn’t need their help, he later admitted that he thought it was a good thing. But we didn’t get to the U.S. History; he should have some time during school to study that review today. We’ll go over it after school. He also has his math final.

Today’s get ’er done menu:

• 9:30 a.m. massage (hurts so good!). This could help my knee, and I know it will help my chronically sore illiotibial bands.

• One load of laundry; put water in pool.

• Hook up dvd to bedroom TV.

• Hook up external drive to the old Powerbook and back up the boys’ extensive iTunes library (we’ve done periodic backups onto dvds; I’d like more redundancy).

• Call a recommended guitar teacher, so that #1 son can start lessons. Expect that the lessons will end after a month, just like the drum and art lessons, but feel assured that he will get something out of them.

• 1:30 p.m. Airrosti appointment (http://www.airrosti.com/). Practice not cringing beforehand.

• Continue excavation of master bedroom; consider bringing in a forklift (it’s a daunting task!).

I did get rid of one big box in the bedroom . . . I freecycled an unopened Epson Stylus printer from 2004! I’m sure the ink has long since dried up, but it should work. My “trash” is someone else’s “treasure.”