The Fun Zone: Eric and Co

So my Father's Day request was to travel to South Norwalk to show The Kid the aquarium there. We thought he'd be a little young to enjoy a zoo, but the bright colors of the tropical fish might just hold his attention nicely. Of course, we'd have to make sure he was in a position to see all of the fish, but that wasn't much of an issue.

Wow, that is an incredibly unflattering shot of me. I look like that old alternate Strong Bad from Homestar Runner. Anyway...

There were times, like with the tropical fish and the frogs, that he really wanted to interact with the animals. He probably thougt they were chewable toys.

You can't see it here, but we're looking at a column of jellyfish. They looked like little Metroids. Here's a shot through the collumn:

On Sunday, we visited my grandparents and went out to lunch with the family. After all, we had not only Father's Day to celebrate, but also Tracy's birthday, our anniversary, and The Kid's five month milestone. But first, we played a bit with TK's favorite play center.

Notice how Lucy wants to play too. Sorry, Dog.

Happy Dad's Day!

Link: http://www.gateworld.net/news/2006/12/trading_card_game_coming_in_febr.shtml

There's a Stargate SG-1 Trading Card Game coming in February.

Info here.

Must resist.

Link: http://www.quizyourfriends.com/takequiz.php?quizname=051130130501-917598

Okay, so Bekah started it, and I couldn't resist...

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

I tried to make the questions tough but not too crazy. Who knows? It might be too darn easy. Let me know how you do.

Five years ago today, in the back hallway of a little church in Chepachet, Rhode Island, I was dressed in a tux and pacing like a madman. The other guys were busy ushing, but Jason, clearly amused at my panic, was trying to calm me down.

Stef's limo was late.

I knew, as I told Jason, that as freaked out I was at the delay, Stef must have been ten times as much so. "She's usually so punctual," I remember saying. Soon, we learned that she had arrived, but that the flower girl and ring bearer had not. Turns out that they needed a potty break, so they stopped at McDonalds on the way to the church. Eventually, they showed up, about 30 minutes late, and we could finally begin our grand adventure.

And what an adventure it's been.

Life can be pretty scary sometimes, and I'm not just talking about the mutant spiders we had in Fishkill. There's also taxes and exploding furnaces and employment woes. I am so very thankful that I have a partner in all of this chaos. Someone to turn off the water main when I tried to disconnect the washing machine at midnight. Someone to take me to the hospital when I had a (what ended up being pretty serious) tummy ache. Someone to give me a hug when I had a really bad day.

She's always been there for me, and I will always be there for her. I love you, Lady. Happy Anniversary.

--

Now, on such a momentous occasion, I'd like to take this opportunity to announce a new arrival. We're both very excited about it. We expect it in August.

Yes, you can finally stop asking.

We're getting a new couch.

I know, it's long overdue. The old couch is looking pretty sad these days, and I don't think Stef ever liked the color scheme. It's amazing how good an idea looks in the store, and how wrong it can be in your house. Anyway, we found a lovely couch last night, as well as a matching chair, and if you come see us in mid-August or so, we'll let you sit on it.

If you're careful, you can even hold one of the pillows.

I miss my radio show. Not the Beethoven.com show, although I miss that one as well. I'm talking about the Syracuse University WERW-AM weekly novelty radio show, The Amazing Intern's Fun Zone. I spun some tunes, I talked about TV, and I gave away prizes, often involving canned meat or coconut soda. I know we only had about a one mile radius signal. I know that most people didn't know the show existed. But for two or three hours a week, Rockapella shared the airwaves with Weird Al, and The Arrogant Worms met Alvin and the Chipmunks. Ah, the WERW hole in the wall... I remember it well.

Actually, that's what this weblog was originally going to be. With all this talk about podcasting, I thought, "hey! Here's my chance to bring back The Fun Zone! It'll be great! I'll do a half-hour every couple of days, talk about pop culture, and have a jolly old time!" Then I started researching the darn process. The big issue with putting any audio on the 'net these days is royalties. Through my work at Beethoven Radio, I knew all about the RIAA and the CARP hearings and all of that crud. At first, I thought I could try to work with the existing statutory license, and as long as I got a few donations and kept the downloads down, I could afford it as a hobby. Ah, but the current statutory license doesn't include podcasting. In fact, by collecting various musical works into a downloadable "radio show", you're actually creating an illegal compilation album and distributing it for free online. Not a smart thing to do, in my opinion. So, the audio idea went away. Maybe it will return. I'd love to man the show again. However, until there's a fair and legal way to do it, I'm not going to try.

So, here I am with a blog. I was going to call it a Blarg, because I thought it sounded funny, but it turns out Insomniac Games beat me to it with their promotion for Ratchet and Clank 3. So it's a blog. Stick with me. It should be interesting.