So Amber finally wanted to play Karaoke Revolution after a year of hiatus from the thing.  I bought a microphone for it a long time ago, but never got around to using it.  When we finally got it set up and ready to start singing, we discovered that the microphone was not working ( Read more... )

We're starting to get into the interesting years of parenting.  Brandon came into our room last night after we got him to bed and said that he was scared that he was going to die.  It's not an easy subject to tackle when you're trying to raise up a generally humanist/naturalist type family.  That's one place where Christianity (or most other world ( Read more... )

First off, I'm happy to say that I've finally found the equivalent of In'N'Out Burger in Colorado.  It's a place called "5 Guys Burgers & Fries".  They started out east somewhere, and now they've finally made it close to Intel.  First time I tried them, I could tell they were trying to be In'N'Out, and I admired them for the attempt, though I  ( Read more... )

Last night was the first of two nights where I was scheduled to challenge our reigning chess club champion to a 4 game match to see who this year's champion will be.  The first two matches, eh, didn't go so well.  I blundered away a bishop in the first game, and lost a very close heartbreaker in the 2nd match where I should have had at least a draw ( Read more... )

It's been a little while since I posted... let's catch everyone up at least on the Disney trip...

So a couple of weeks ago, I took my family on a vacation to Disney World.  It was everyone's first trip except for me, but it's been 22 years since I last went.  Yeah, I know, it's probably not the best time to be spending TONS of money, but we made the ( Read more... )

I know I've been a bit critical about McCain for most of these last post entries.  But this time, it's positive ( Read more... )

Dear Diary,

Today I started the 4th year of chess club at my kids' elementary school.

There were about 33 kids, all squeezed into a 25 desk classroom.

My god, what have I created??  I'm gonna need a bigger room.

As soon as stocks head up, I can quit my job and teach these kids permanently, finally doing what I really enjoy.

In other words,

The Little President Who Cried Wolf

Once there was a guy named George who always thought it would be fun to play tricks on the Congress townspeople.

He would wait until Congress had settled down a little, and then he would yell out:  "Wolf! Wolf!  We have verifiable evidence that there are weapons of mass destruction in this other country, and we ( Read more... )

Let me tell you a story about a man named Henry.

Henry was a person, just like any of us.  He had a wife, a couple kids, and lived in the suburbs in a nice place.  He seemed to be living the dream, but he had one small problem.  He owed a bit of money to a guy named Bill.  Actually, it was a LOT of money.  So much money, it was going to take Henry ( Read more... )

Our department (DEG) sends out a weekly E-mail newsletter once a week.  Here are a couple of funny headlines ( Read more... )