Sleepy Time Gal

Sleepy time gal,
You're turnin' night into day!
Sleepy time gal,
You've danced the ev'ning away!

Before each silvery star fades out of sight,
Please give me one little kiss,
then let us whisper "Goodnight,"
It's gettin' late and, Dear, your pillow's waitin' . . .
Sleepy time gal, when all your dancin' is through,
Sleepy time gal, I'll find a cottage for you.

You'll learn to cook and to sew,
What's more, you'll love it, I know!
When you're a stay-at-home, play-at-home,
Eight o'clock sleepy time gal!

There was a time in Janna's life where she thought nothing of staying up until all hours of the night. Two, three or four in the morning seemed like the perfect time to go to bed, why bother going to bed any earlier eh? Before we got married she insisted that she would continue to stay up until at least midnight while mocking me for going to bed early. She told me over and over again that life is better after dark, that there are any number of things to do. Going to bed is for losers, that's what she told me.

Not anymore so it seems, or perhaps she has joined the rest of us losers (read: civilized society) in going to bed at a decent hour. These days our Janna begins yawning at 7 and starts staring at the clock come 8, if she isn't in bed before 10 she starts going mad. That's PM for those of you of military persuasion. All of this from the girl who said she would never go to bed early, the one who fretted about me going to bed so early, the one who was told she wouldn't be required to retire at the same time that I do. After six months my sleepy time gal is in bed before I am, so much for retiring at midnight eh?

Happy Birthday Janna

Psalm 24

The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

California Here We Come...

This is the man who will lead Michigan State to the promised land. Michigan and Ohio State are on notice, your days of dominance are over. Mark Dantonio will lead Michigan State to the Rose Bowl. He's been part of championship teams, he knows how to recruit in the midwest and he wants to be at MSU. In just a few years we'll be contending for titles, next year you'll see a substantial improvement. Dantonio is the real deal and I suspect he'll prove that on November 3rd.

In other news, Chineese food is absolutely disgusting and I don't approve of it in any way, shape or form. It is hereby banned from the Birn compound.

And the Peasants Rejoiced

Several of you, the faithful readership, have very kindly expressed concern over the tragic bacon episode of almost a month back. The theft of our lovely center cut pork was deeply disturbing, to say the least. That is why we were so elated to find that the criminal in question (whomever that might be), having evidently reflected on the delinquency of his actions, returned the bacon to us unharmed. Said bacon was discovered during a purge of the refridgerator in a spot that had been inspected at least three times during the initial search and rescue operations. We have (wisely, I think) decided not to ask further questions and are instead grateful to have our bacon back home where it belongs.

The great turkey slaughter of last Thursday went well, or so it seems. Four turkeys, each prepared differently. Oy vey. My kitchen is only now beginning to resemble its former self.

Hmmm... what else? Not much, I think. No doubt Steve will have new post up here soon with either commentary on the machinations and vain imaginings of various football teams or a random assortment of ugly pictures of me and nice pictures of the dog. Something to look forward to, eh?

Fire Millen!

Today is a grand and glorious day. Not only do we give thanks unto the Lord but we also get to enjoy the greatest of all American traditions, Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day football! Granted, they're probably going to lose but still we will enjoy this tradition. I've been to several Thanksgiving Day games, including the infamous coin flip game in 1997. I can tell you there is nothing more fun than tailgating at the Silverdome (back when it existed) watching the Lions and returning home for dinner. We are blessed indeed to have such opportunities.

Forward down the field!
A Lions team that will not yield
And when the blue and silve wave
Stand and cheer the brave
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Go hard win the game
With honor you will keep your fame!
Down the field to gain
A Lion victory!
GO LIONS!

Wolverines Are Canadian

Drive! Drive on down the field;
Men of the scarlet and gray;
Don't let them thru that line,
We've got to win this game today,
Come on, Ohio!
Smash thru to victory,
We'll cheer you as you go;
Our honor defend
So we'll fight to the end
For Ohio.

Final: Ohio State 42 Weasels 39. Being a Spartan I can at least be happy that Michigan will not being playing for a national championship. Nothing pleased my heart more today than seeing the disappointed weasels in the visitors section at Ohio Stadium. Wal-Mart's across Michigan can re-open now that the game is over with, you know they have to close during Michigan games because their customer base is sitting in front of the tube.

Now, with that said I can return to my strong dislike of all things Ohio. I can also begin focusing on next year with our new MSU head coach, whoever he is.

Who Wouldn't Love Bobby Knight?

I think that Bobby Knight is my favorite coach of all time. He cares about his players, he brings in boys and turns them into men. Sometimes that takes a little bit of nasty but I'd rather see him get nasty and turn these boys into men than see him let those kids down by being a wimp. We need to value leadership in men and I believe that Bobby Knight does an excellent job at producing leaders.

Thoughts On A Bad Broadway Show

Last Wednesday, prior to the great bacon caper of 2006, Janna and I had opportunity to see Mamma Mia at the Wharton Center in East Lansing. This musical is based on the music of Abba. Let the record reflect that Abba sucks big time and I have nothing nice to say whatsoever about the music.

The story is of young Sophie who plans on being married to a dork named Skye. Our Sophie has a problem though, she doesn't know who her father is and she would like him to walk her down the aisle. It seems her mother was a whore and there are three possible fathers, it's a regular Maury Povich 'Who Da Daddy' show. Mother meanwhile is distraught that her daughter wants a traditional white wedding, she had thought such nonsense was done away with by her 70's generation. Who needs a husband anyway? Thankfully, our Sophie wants to do things the "right way" and so much as tells her mother that.

Mother is such a whore that she has no idea who the daddy is and isn't pleased to see these three gentleman in town for the wedding. Sophie thought she could figure out who the daddy is but unfortunately she can't. As the wedding approaches Sophie and Mother share touching moments together wherein Sophie realizes that a white wedding isn't all that important as long as there's love. At the alter she ditches the wedding and decides to shack up with Skye, no antiquated white wedding for her.

As you can see, the morals in this story are straight from New York and Hollywood. Traditional morality has to be thrown out the door in favor of love. The lessons taught in this show were downright evil, the writing meanwhile was dreadful. The writing for each character was unacceptably simple and even worse the plot was painfully predictable. One of the Daddy's turns out to be a homosexual, not only was that obvious from his first scene but it's just the kind of "scandalous" writing that has become old and tiresome. The only characters who were any good were the Mother's old friends, one of whom looked like Ina Garten the other of whom was a cross between Ann Coulter and that awful Semi-Homemade show host. Even these two were predicable liberals who were "shocked" over the thought of a white wedding.

And then there's the music. If I had to venture a guess 30% of it was sung live. It was quite obvious most of the performers were lip syncing. Sophie was the most obvious. A few of them were actually singing, including at least two of the fathers. The fact is, we were four rows from the front and really couldn't hear any of the actors live voices, though we could hear them blaring out of the trucked in giant concert speakers. What has Broadway come to when the actors can't even sing live? Heck, what has Broadway come to when pathetic Abba music is considered worthy of a show?

I give this musical a D-.

Grand Theft Porcine???

A great mystery has unfolded here on Union Avenue involving the wherabouts of a package of bacon. Said bacon (center cut, Meijer brand, on sale 2 for $4 this week) had been carefully placed in the refridgerator on Monday. It was still there on Tuesday morning. Not much thought was given to it until last night, when it was desired and intended for dinner. It was at that time that it's absence was brought to light. All attempts to locate the missing pork product have proved to be in vain. Drawers have been pulled out, shelves have been cleared, the whole appliance stripped bare, and it can conclusively be said that the bacon no longer resides in the Birn fridge.

So what happened to it? We already concluded that the bacon had at one point been in the fridge. Neither of Steve nor I had eaten it. While we can't rule out pregnancy induced dementia leading to misplacing the center cut goodness, it seems unlikely. I have no recollection at all of removing the bacon from it's appointed place in the cooling unit. What is left to assume? The obvious answer is...

...that it was stolen. Clearly what has occured is theft, not only of very tasty pork product (itself a heinous crime), but of our peace of mind. Someone has breeched the high security surrounding the Birn Compound, entered the house, and (scorning all other objects) taken away our bacon. We can't begin to imagine the reasons behind such treachery and we don't want to. We just want our bacon back. It cost us $2, after all.

The police have been shockingly unhelpful.