Last day of winter.

Today is the last, meteorological, day of winter. Tomorrow, regardless of the amount of snow still on the ground, spring will begin. Actually, spring has been in the air ever since the most famous Pennsylvania rodent missed his shadow twenty six days ago. But for me spring arrived yesterday when I signed up for fantasy baseball on Yahoo. Now I can't wait to select my team with the accuracy of a blind man kicking a field goal and to watch them fall apart with the combined winning history of the New York Muts and the Boston Red Sux. Oh well, it's free and it's fun.

Cultural differences.

My friend Leather Penguin sent me this link. It makes a very interesting point about the cultural differences between Europeans and Americans.

Family moment.

Today my daughter is two months old. It is really weird to write that. It is also really weird trying to remember a time before she was born because she brought so many new things into our lives. There are some things, such as diapers and night feedings, I can not wait to be done with. But there are also some things that I will never forget. Tonight, while my wife and I were watching TV, I changed the channel. The volume, as it often happens anymore, got unpleasantly loud. So my wife, who was holding Lili, looked at her and said: "Tell Daddy it's too loud." Lili turned and looked at me. That was an amazing moment.

Before going on a cruise.

Make sure that you bring your passport and an ex-Marine because without a passport you might not be able to get back into the country and without an ex-Marine you might not get back to the ship.

Have an ice day.

Yesterday, as schools were closing because of the snow and ice storm, my boss called to inform me that they are jumping on the bandwagon. This is great because now I get to spend Valentine's Day at home with my wife and daughter. Now, if only it started snowing again, this would be a perfect day.

Wrestling with God.

Once again the good citizens of Kansas are engaged in a Creation vs. Evolution wrestling match. This has been an on-going title bout for over a century. I think that it is time to call it a draw and find something new (more appropriate for the 21st century) to argue about. After all, both God and Darwin have long, white beards. Shouldn't that be a clue?

Bumper stickers.

Today, as I was walking to my car in a grocery store parking lot, I noticed a car next to mine with a bunch of bumper stickers. The three that I had time to read were: "I don't believe The New York Times," "I don't believe The Washington Post," and "Politically Incorrect and Proud of It." The driver of this car arrived at his vehicle soon after I passed it. He was a gentleman in his seventies (I am horrible judge of age so it is a really, really rough guess on my part) with gray hair and large glasses. Seeing him, made me wonder what made this man, who grew up in the age when people believed the printed word, put those stickers on his car. This reminded me of two stickers I had on a Buick I used to drive. One said "Broken horn look for finger," the other "If you found God, and nobody claims him in thirty days, he is yours." My wife was not very fond of them, but I thought they clearly represented my attitude toward life in general and religion in particular.