While I’ve seen lots of praying mantises in my time, I’ve never seen one the size of the behemoth that settled on our front door last evening.  He seemed to like the place, as he was still there after 11 when I went to bed.  The pictures maybe don’t give a lot of scale but he was in excess of 6 inches.  Maybe he flew in from the tropics as a result of Fay?

Initially I had only sent an email to some Chicago sports fans about the departure of Jay Mariotti from the Chicago Sun-Times earlier this week but something happened after that which bears repeating.  In just about any workplace there is going to be inevitable conflict.  Sometimes it’s more magnified in some places than others but usually cooler heads prevail and it doesn’t become a public matter.  When that person leaves, people usually either say something nice about that person or they don’t say anything at all or are secretly happy that the point of conflict has been removed.

Wow.  I did it.  In this day and age of internet spoilers and other media talking about the ending to the last Harry Potter book the week it came out, I managed to somehow submerge myself into an information blackout until I finished the book.  I still can’t believe I didn’t inadvertently hear about the ending although some radio shows sure tried over the course of the past year.  I would quickly switch the station when there was any mention of the book.  I even avoided reading synopses of the latest movie in production in case I read som ...

This blog is a window into my head and partially into my family life.  For many reasons, I have kept secret the fact that we have taken a pounding financially in the past year due to a myriad of reasons, most of them unforseen.  The most frustrating part of it all is that we are blessed with two awesome and healthy daughters, two good paying jobs and we don’t live beyond our means.  That being said, the combination of events (which I simply won’t get into here) has left us reeling in a way that is frustrating as hell and I need to see the light at the end of the tunnel before I lose my goddamned mind.

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User participation seems to be a fun trend on this blog so let’s have another stab at it today.  Based on a topic submitted by my favorite General, answer the following.  Assume your house is on fire but your family and pets are safe outside.  You have two minutes to grab what you can in your hands (only one trip though – the house is about to cave in).  What do you grab?

Sometimes common courtesy trumps what you can legally or technically do and I think I encountered such a case yesterday.  A co-worker and I were getting a post-lunch coffee at the Starbucks inside the Target by work yesterday.  We were behind only a mom and her kid.  Sure, it was annoying enough for them to take forever to order but that wasn’t the worst of it.  Since we were in a Target and the Starbucks workers are actually Target employees, they can ring up anything you’ve bought in the store.

Ahhhh, hurricane season.  It’s that time of year when Mother Nature does the ‘Cops’ show a favour and pressure-washes that show’s largest soundstage (also known as the state of Florida).  You can always tell when the winds are getting near since the clouds are headed east to west up here in Atlanta.

Thankfully I’m not the only fuddy duddy who thinks that baseball’s claim of success comes with a price.  One of the more well known fans of baseball, Stephen King, went on a rant in the past issue of Entertainment Weekly.  As much as I loathe when politicians use the “But what about the CHILDREN?” line, King actually makes valid points in his argument.

Today is Katie’s first birthday.  In keeping tradition with how she came into this world, she’s been sleepless the past two nights.  Therefore Mommy and Daddy are hopped up on caffeine in order to get through the day.

Ever since I found out in our first ultrasound where we learned we would have a girl more than 5 yeas ago, I knew the day would come where I would eventually have to deal with a certain scenario.  No, I’m not talking about Ally bringing home a Hell’s Angel or a two-timing professional athlete – that’s my cross to bear in a decade or so.  No, I’m not referring to Aunt Flo – she’s only 5 and that will be Mommy’s job to explain.  No, I’m not referring to her getting into a fighting match with her sister – I’m sure that will come soon enough once Katie starts to say “no” to her on a regular basis.