Friday, June 24, 2011

Jennie Finch is Biting My Style

Jennie Finch, the lovely softballer player, and her husband, minor league pitcher Casey Daigle welcomed a new baby into the world on June 19th.
Their first child is named Ace, fitting for two pitchers.



The new child, Diesel. Diesel Dean Daigle. And the little kid is pretty cute. Let's just hope he doesn't grow up to scream his head off every time a squirrel goes by.

Story suggested by BC

Thursday, June 23, 2011

You Never Forget Your First Time

The first movie I ever saw in the theater was "E.T." I don't remember anything about the movie except that I fell asleep.
My second (presumably) movie in the theater was two years later. I saw "The Natural." I loved it, it's my favorite movie ever. I even remember specifics about the movie-going experience including the guy who said "I've seen Kingman hit some shots, but nothing like that."

My first baseball game was also in 1982. Mike Scott pitched, the Mets won. But I don't really remember it.
A couple years later I would have vivid recollections of games. I even remember having tickets in the middle of August, presumably around Mama Poop's birthday and being worried the 1985 players strike would like to the cancellation of the game.

Note: the strike only wiped out two games (they were rescheduled). I even remember Papa Poop remarking that we didn't miss anything because both of the postponed games would have been on Sportschannel which we didn't have at the time.

With Chase, while we had the opportunity (as opposed to my parents who had me third and had no choice but to drag me along to these things) I wanted to hold off these special experiences as long as possible, so he would remember them forever.

We have somehow convinced him that you have to be 5 to go to a baseball game. And I do intend to take him on his 5th birthday (or thereabouts) and get a picture of his face the first time he sees the green grass and all the seats at CitiField.

But as far as the movie thing goes, the dam has broken. Cars 2 is coming out on Friday, June 24th. And we are taking him on Sunday at noon. And leaving Julian with BC and LCC.

Chase has probably watched 100 movies in his life, Madagascar once, Evan Almighty once (he still grabs a stick and yells "get in the ark now") and Cars 98 times.

His favorite song is "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts because it's in "Movie Cars" as Chase sometimes calls it.

Combine the fact that every character in "Cars" is a car, toy cars are so cheap ($5), we (and especially grandma) love to spoil him, the marketing geniuses at Disney are evil (we have a toy of Hank Haulsum who doesn't even have a speaking part in the first movie, he's just drinking motor oil at Flo's Cafe) and Chase is absolutely obsessed with the movie, we have so many toy cars our house looks like a miniature version of an athlete's garage on "Cribs."

We have 10 different Lightning McQueens ("why does Grandma always call him Steve?"), 6 different Cars that change color when you make them hot or cold, and 7 or 8 different Maters including a Dr. Mater and El Materdor.

how many Maters does one little boy need

Those last two come from "Mater's Tall Tales" which was a series of short films (4 to 6 minutes) they released during the 5 year break between movies. They were actually quite clever. Because they were only a few minutes long they got in a lot of funny jokes in a short time. One of our favorites was "Monster Truck Mater" where Mater and Lightning McQueen (Frightening McMean) become pro wrestlers and compete against the likes of I-Screamer (evil ice cream truck) and Patty O'Concrete (evil Irish cement mixer). We of course bought both of those villains. What else do you give a half-Irish boy on St. Patrick's Day if not Patty O'Concrete?

But the genius of the marketing people at Disney doesn't end with toys. The promotional tie-ins for this movie are incredible. Band-aids, Cheez-its (with a character imprinted on each cracker), macaroni and cheese (macaronis in the shape of Mater and McQueen), juice boxes, yogurt, tissues even a commercial for State Farm.

oh the crap they sold us just by putting Cars 2 on it

The plot of Cars 2 seems to revolve around McQueen going overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix (with stops in Italy, Japan and London). While in London, in addition to meeting The Queen and Prince Wheeliam, Mater gets mistaken for a spy.

I hope, for the sake of Mater's biggest fan, it is a movie experience he will never forget.

mater bike and Mater t-shirt, it says it's all about the gas

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Song of the Week

"Hold Me (remix)" Brian McKnight featuring Kobe Bryant
Yes, that Kobe Bryant. This is a fantastic song and even Kobe's verse isn't bad.
If Billy and I shared one brain (I know, tough hypothetical to imagine) this would be one of our 5 favorite songs ever.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Chase's Underwhelming Reaction to Something I Thought Was Really Cool

I have met many celebrities in my career, most of them didn't even register with me as anything more than a smile and a good to meet you. There were a few I wanted to get a picture with (Uncle Mick Foley, Jonathan Duhamel and Jon Bones Jones).

But never have I been more insistent on meeting a celebrity, tried harder to do it, and had a more unusual request than when I recently met Larry the Cable Guy.

For those of you without children, please understand that LTCG (nee Daniel Whitney) is the voice of Mater in "Cars" and the forthcoming sequel "Cars 2."

Chase absolutely loves Mater and is so excited to see the new movie (I will elaborate in a future post) that I just had to get him to record a brief message on my blackberry.

I had all my minions following his every move throughout the building but my schedule and his just didn't work out and I thought I had missed him. As luck would have it I was walking right past where he was, so I waited around and much to the dismay of his PR person, I accosted him and he complied with my request.

He couldn't have been a nicer guy to everyone, not just me. And his message was pretty awesome, even though Chase didn't react with the amazement I expected.

From Shaggy to This

I was almost sure I had posted this video years ago, but apparently I never did.
It's a now famous clip of Casey Kasem freaking out.



So many great lines in this one:

"He was a little dog named Snuggles."

"Is Don on the phone?"

"What happened to the pictures I was supposed to see this week?"

"I gotta talk about a fuckin dog dying."

Sad to think the man who once lent his voice the loveable laid-back stoner Shaggy eventually turned into a ranting, raving lunatic.

Happy Birthday Poop

You constantly recognize everyone's birthday in this forum so I thought I owed you one. You may not be the easiest little brother on the planet, but I wouldn't trade you for too many others.

In recognition of Paul's 33 years on the planet, if every reader could post a favorite Poop birthday memory or some other funny story about him that would be great.

Happy Birthday baby bro.

And happy half birthday to my oldest daughter. She has amazed me every day for the past six and a half years and has taught me much more than I can ever teach her. Happy 1/2 Birthday munchkin face.

Happy Birthday Damino

A very happy birthday to Damino. Quite unusual to still know, 33 years later, another person who was born on the same day, in the same hospital.
Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of us together then, now or any time in between.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

You Can't Say I Never Listened

The cemetery is a popular place. People are dying to get in there.

If Papa Poop taught me anything, that is it.

Happy Fathers' Day to mine and all the other dads out there.