Good Night Dune

After thoroughly enjoying Julia Yu's unexpected mash-up of Margaret Wise Brown's Good Night Moon and Frank Herbert's Dune, I am almost tempted to watch ALL of David Lynch's movie of the same.  Almost.

Check it Out Here!!!

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Dog V. Sheep

Cora just couldn't get her head around the idea of "sheep hurting."  "Why does the dog what to hurt the sheep?" she asked.  I tried and tried to explain to no avail.  I could only rephrase "the dog isn't 'hurting' the sheep, it's 'Her-ding' the sheep to get them together in a group or a herd" so many times so I turned to Youtube.  The top search result on google didn't quite to the job of explaining what "herding" is, but it made me laugh.

Check it out:

It's hard to tell who is herding whom. 

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Update

Following is an update for my blog:

I'm doin' fine. I have plenty of time on my hands given my house husband status and all, but what I've found is I have so many other things to do like pouring concrete in the basement or doing dishes that updating this blog falls way down the list of importance.

So there's my update.

A message from the guy in payroll

This biweekly message from the guy in payroll is a story that has obvious import for today's political wrangling.  Enjoy:

On this day in the year 752 B.C., Uriah the Beggar petitioned the court of Pharaoh to provide adequate health care for all the citizens of Egypt.  Pharaoh considered the proposal, but was quickly beset by The Barbers of Cheops and The Potions and Salves Union,  powerful lobbies representing surgeons and pharmaceutical companies, who convinced Pharaoh that if health care was universally available to all the citizens they might lose some of their income trying to compete with a government-sponsored plan.  If that happened, they reasoned, they might not be able to provide Pharaoh with a new chariot of gold each year.  Shortly thereafter, Uriah the Beggar was deemed to be an enemy of the state and was tossed to the crocodiles in the Nile, discouraging anyone else from suggesting such an outrageous proposition.
 
1 day until my birthday, 39 days until our next holiday, 148 days until Christmas (and can’t you just feel it creeping up on you, just like an old spider), and 6942 days until I retire.

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Report on "Unpaid Furlough Week: Day 1" by Ben Randell

Yesterday was the first official unpaid day of the furlough week which my employer instituted to save $450,000. Since I don't have a supervisor this week, I feel the need to report back to the general public about my time of not making money.

I got up when our walking talking alarm clock woke me around 7:45 am. I heard stifled giggling and felt something touching my nose. I opened my eyes to see Cora touching her nose to mine and staring into my eyes. I guess that's what I get for sleeping so close to the edge.

Kim and I took Cora to school and had a quick meeting with the director of the school. On the way home, I talked Kim into stopping by the donut shoppe. That took about 2 seconds. After ordering, I realized cash was in my other pants. We were sent away with two donuts and a "shiny pink" cupcake for Cora. After eating my donut, I took the dog on a walk to burn and pay for our empty calories. Snapped a few pictures of lawn ornament Virgin Marys. (Kim's wanting to keep an eye on the neighborhood Marys, to make sure they don't get out of hand I guess.)

This one is watching over a couple of trics

This one seemed kind of bored standing by the roses and staring at a wall.

She has some company.

She has a little protection if it rains.

Lucy really liked this sign. I didn't even notice it. Didn't think it was talking to me.

I'm fixing the back fence this week, so I went to Lowe's and got my supplies:

• 1 Wheelbarrow
• 12 - 40lb bags of Sakrete brand concrete
• 4 - 8 foot posts

I got home and put the wheelbarrow together before mowing the lawn in preparation for a house showing we had at 5:15.

I also cleaned up a bit in the house. When the showing rolled around, we took Lucy on walk number two for the day (probably a sign of the end times in her own eschatology). It was a good walk when it started.

Nanna was fine in the stroller, but began to ram herself into things. Cora gave her repeated stern talking to's to no avail. In short order, Cora quickly became tired and needed Kim to carry her. I was put on stroller duty. Cora perked right up when she saw the "steeps" she likes to climb.

I was ready for a sit down and took the opportunity to spy on the people looking at our house down the block.

They were leaving by the time we got back. After a meal of Mac&Cheese, cucumber salad and brocolli chop Cora finally got her cupcake.

Alright!!!!

Cora and Kim went upstairs for the bath and I worked on the floor trim in the kitchen.

After Cora's bedtime, Kim and I looked at houses online, watched an episode of "Flight of the Conchords," and went to bed to rest up for Tuesday. You know what they say about unpaid furlough? "Another day, another ______."

End of report...up next: "Report on Unpaid Furlough Week: Day 2" by Ben Randell

the blog

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Furlough Voice Mail: Record Your Version

11 hours and I'm on furlough. I'd be happy if it weren't for the whole losing a week's pay bit. What is money besides the tender with which we purchase our daily essentials? Who needs those anyway? I know I don't.

In the day and age of corporate branding, my employer has asked all employees to utilize the scripted voicemail message below. I've been rehearsing the last few days with different inflection, tone, and demeanor. As my friends back home can attest, I'm not so talented with voices. Most impressions I undertake have a way of sounding like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

That's not to say I'm some Pat Fraley (II) of something. By no means do I have his talent or range. I can't compete with the voice of Krang AND the Delivery Gnome in the 2007 straight to DVD smash hit Garfield Gets Real.

That's where YOU come in. Take a couple of minutes to record your version of the following message. To do so, just click on the "Call Me" button at the top right corner of the blog. Enter your phone number and it will call you. You can then leave your message. I will post them later, so leave only the identifying information you want the entire World Wide Web to have.

Note: To protect my employer and my job, I've changed a couple of things about the script.

Now have at it.

Voicemail message Script:

“Out of office message. Hello, you have reached (your name) in (your work area) at UniCorp International. I will be out of the office and not checking voicemail during the week of May 17 – My 23 due to a mandatory furlough of UCI employees. This weeklong furlough provides significant savings for the 2009 budget during this challenging economic time. Please leave a message and I will respond to you when I return to the office Tuesday, May 26th after the Memorial Day holiday. If this call is an emergency, please press 5003 followed by the pound sign now. Thank you.”

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A Shout-Out to My Friend Sarah

I have a new show that I really like. It's currently filling the void left by the cancellation of "Arrested Development" and spanning the lag between when I first watched season One of "Flight of the Conchords" and when season Two comes out on DVD when I can get it from NetFlix. The new show is called "Sit Down, Shut Up."

It's by the same guy that did Arrested Mitchell Hurwitz. I new it was coming out and had seen some promotional videos with Will Arnett and Jason Bateman, but I did not realize it began airing on Fox on April 19th until my friend and colleague Sarah Vial said something about it. Unfortunately when I used the school symbol on a post yesterday, I failed to make this shout out so here it is:

Sarah told me about this show and for that I'm eternally grateful.

Check out the blog

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