Strong Men

Although I can watch just about any sport on t.v., I'm not generally a fan of bodybuilding or strength athletics. However, yesterday ESPN was showing a marathon from the World's Strongest Man competition held in September and I was hooked. I admit that it was a gross fascination, as I was simultaneously awed, curious, and appalled. The training these guys invest in their sport is amazing, but the competition itself is ... well ... just kind of strange.

You expect lot of lifting and carrying of heavy things, but the creativity of the events was impressive. Some of the most intriguing, and disturbing, events were the car carry (where they hoist a 900-lb. car body on their shoulders and walk a set length), the car lift (where they do repetitions lifting two cars weighing about 650 lbs.), the water barrels (where they carry three 200-lb. barrels through water), and the pillars of Hercules (where they prevent two pillars from falling for as long as possible).

And I thought I had a hard time explaining my job to people. Can you imagine the dinner conversations these guys have? So, honey, what did you do today? Well, I tried to carry two refrigerators for 25 m., but I could only go 20 m.

WonderPets

My niece has finally gotten hooked on a kids' tv show that I actually love! After suffering through many annoying shows (e.g., Doodlebops, Caillou, the Wiggles) and boring shows (e.g., Little Bear and Oobie), I can now actually enjoy watching tv with her. Her new favorite show is the Wonderpets. Three classroom pets by day (Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle, and Ming-Ming the duckling) turn into superheroes after hours when they escape their cages to rescue animals in trouble. The key to their success is not superpower, but simply teamwork.

My favorite wonderpet is Ming-Ming because her speech impediment is really cute (and quite similar to mine at that age). Her favorite line is: This is serious! Which comes out as: This is see-wee-ous!

I Heart NY

I always thought this NY slogan was a bit obnoxious, but the longer I live in NY, the more I'm starting to buy it. After spending a week in Michigan, Eddie and I have started compiling a list of things that we really love about living in New York. Here are the top items:

1. No smoking in business establishments (including restaurants, bars, etc.)
2. No trans fats in restaurants (coming soon)
3. Hands-free driving law (okay, not everyone does this, but most people do)
4. No potholes (seriously, not a one over 250 miles of toll road and, yes, the tolls are totally worth it)

Number one is a big one for me since I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. We had a couple of problems getting no-smoking tables in restaurants in Michigan, but the worst experience was at the florist. We were ordering flowers for my mom's funeral on a Sunday afternoon at our favorite florist in Hamtramck. The owners are friends of my sister and we've used them for all of the major flower occasions (weddings, funerals, etc.) and they're very good at what they do. Unfortunately, they're both smokers. We walked into the store and there was a cloud of white mist hanging in the air. I literally almost started gagging. By the time we left, we all reeked of cigarette smoke. Even though I really like those guys, I'm not sure I'd go back there after that experience.

Escape

I'm in Michigan again taking care of a "family emergency," which is an annoying euphemism to say that I'm here because my mother is dying. It's too f***ing depressing to blog about and anything I have to say on the topic at this point would belie the title and essence of this blog.

So, I'm sitting at a Panera Bread* to temporarily escape that depressing reality and actually have some "quiet time." It's nice to do "normal" stuff for a while, like checking email, reading the paper, and blogging.

My almost-four-year-old niece, Abby, has been the silver lining on this particularly large cloud. I'm making another list of her funny sayings, because she is just so cute and witty, but I can't resist sharing one for now:

Abby to Oscar the daschund, in a very authoritative tone: "You have stinky breath, young man. You should go brush your teeth."

*There's bound to be a future post on the suburban Panera experience.

The Italian Christmas Donkey

So there has been a change in the race for the most annoying Christmas song this year. Christmas Shoes has been replaced by Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey. No, I am not making this up. This is apparently a very popular song within the Italian-American community, and it's quite popular here in Albany.

Here are some of the lyrics and if you're really up for a treat you can hear the whole song on the web:

Hey! Chingedy ching,(hee-haw, hee-haw)

It's Dominick the donkey.

Chingedy ching,(hee-haw, hee-haw)

The Italian Christmas donkey.

(la la la-la la-la la la la la)(la la la-la la-la la-ee-oh-da)

Santa's got a little friend,

His name is Dominick.

The cutest little donkey,

You never see him kick.

When Santa visits his paisons,

With Dominick he'll be.

Because the reindeer cannot,

Climb the hills of Italy.

The hee-hawing part is really annoying. I suppose it's too much to ask for logical consistency in a novelty Christmas song, but I would really like to point out that Santa's reindeer do not need to climb the hills of Italy because they can fly.