Farewell to Thanksgiving Weekend!


I sincerely hope everyone had as good a time this weekend as I did. Shelly and I got home at about 2:30 this afternoon, after a two and a half hour drive. We had nothing to complain about, as we barely hit any noteworthy traffic, and made it home in record time. Well, maybe it'd be more accurate to say that I had nothing to complain about- Shelly had to listen to me prattle on for an hour about DC vs. Heller, and related issues (see two posts down). By the time that was over, I'm pretty sure she was prepared to exercise her Second Amendment rights on me...

Our Thanksgiving itself was very nice. First, Shelly's extended family came over, and we all had lunch in the kitchen, living room, dining room, and foyer (there were about 20 people, so dining space was at a premium). The only thing that exceeded the number of people was the number of entrees, and after the meal, I didn't think I'd need to eat again until at least Christmas (or the Mid-Winter Tree Giving Festival, for my secular friends out there). But, things being what they were, Shelly had made plans for us to attend a second Thanksgiving dinner at Stefanie's house at 8 pm that night. I did my best to not over-indulge, but you can probably guess how that went. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the first dinner:

No, I'm not going to suddenly blind-side you now with a picture of a starving African village. Just don't eat so much next time. Or if you really feel bad, go here and test your vocabulary, and donate rice at the same time.

So, then it was time for round two. Over at Stefanie's house, we had a second dinner, then settled in to watch the Colts-Falcons game. Everyone was predicting a Colt's win, so just to be contrary, I predicted a 24-19 Falcons victory. For maybe 15 minutes, it looked like I was some kind of prophet, as Peyton Manning threw two interceptions and the Falcons got out to a 10-0 lead. They managed to blow it, of course, but it was fun while it lasted.

And here are some pictures of that:

Following our dinner at the Zambrano's, we returned to Mary's house to enjoy the restless sleep of utter indigestion. Mine went on quite a bit longer, as Shelly rose at 5:30 am to do the Black Friday shopping. More power to her, because no force in Heaven or on Earth could have made me go out in that mess.

I didn't do much with my alone time, besides make an abortive run to Frank Liske Park (which was closed, thwarting my plans to fraternize with the waterfowl). Not having much else to do, I returned and watched episodes of season three of House on our portable DVD player (and I blogged too, hence the two posts below this one, so no whining about me not keeping updated!).

After Shelly's return at the late hour of 3 pm, she took a nap, and then the two of us headed over to Miiiisty's and Christy's house for dinner. We ended up eating at a local Chinese restaurant called the Red Bowl- Shelly and I gave it two thumbs up.

After that, the five of us (Lerissa joined us too) had our misadventure at the movies, seeing The Mist. Just read the post below this one for all the details of that horrid affair.

Finding ourselves in desperate need of cheering up, we retired to Misty's house, firing up the Wii. Shelly, exhausted, wasn't into it, and went upstairs to catch a few Z's, and I, being the supportive husband I am, only played the games with Lerissa and Misty for a little while longer before taking her home. A little while in this case being three and a half hours- but I swear, I thought she was asleep, and those two hussies egged me on, saying "It's ok, she's lying down! Don't worry about it!" You can't win when you have two devils on your shoulders.

Anyway, with Misty watching, Lerissa and I played Rayman's Raving Rabbids 2 for hours on end, frequently breaking into hysterics as we tried and failed to make our on-screen counterparts sing, wait tables, shoot plungers, and talk on cell phones in movie theaters. As if our howling laughter wasn't enough, Misty's dog Bonkers would frequently go into barking fits at the slightest sharp movements- which there were a plenitude of, which you know if you've ever played a Wii. I later found out that a grumpy Shelly had not slept a single wink in all that time. To say I was in trouble would be a vast understatement! Here's Misty and Bonkers:

Ok, it's about time to wrap this up. In a nutshell, the other noteworthy event was us going to see Beowulf on Saturday with Shelly's dad. I usually don't like revisionist stories, but I very much did like the movie. That's one I would definitely recommend, particularly to any would wish to wash the taste of The Mist out of their mouths.

Alright, Thanksgiving weekend draws to a close! Hope you all had a happy one!

Milestone!

Yep, I hit one hundred posts yesterday with my treatise on the Second Amendment! Now I'm a force to be reckoned with!
Actually, that's not really why I'm posting. This is just an emergency announcement to any movie-goers.
DO NOT GO SEE THE MIST!
I really liked the short story by Stephen King, and I liked much of the movie, which by and large stayed very true to the short story (although Hollywood, once again, couldn't resist the opportunity to bash Christians by making one of us look out-of-this-world batty. They actually probably think they're being creative and cutting edge shocking. Want to try something shocking, boys? How about making a Christian look sympathetic and rational?)
But even that isn't my major bone of contention. The original ending in the book was mildly depressing and somewhat unsatisfying, but they made a change in the movie that made it monstrous. It took a movie that I had been enjoying and made me literally feel sick. Everyone in the theater got up and left as quickly as possible, not looking other people in the eye, as if having watched it meant that you somehow endorsed what happened. At least that's how I felt. We went with Misty, Christy, and Lerissa, and the five of us had to go back to Misty's and play Wii for 3 hours before we felt we'd washed the stain from our souls.
I'm not exaggerating at all. I honestly can't believe any test audience would have ever told them this was a good idea.
Alright, back to my vacation, see you soon. Seriously, don't see that movie.

Boring, Policy-Related Post- Read At Own Risk


Oh, happy day! On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the appeal of the DC Circuit's decision to overturn the District's gun ban as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

I say that with caution, however, as the Supreme Court also could do something disastrous with this opportunity.

In March, I wrote a lengthy post about this issue and applauded the DC Circuit's decision. Later, unmarked by me, the entire DC Circuit left the decision intact, whereupon the plaintiffs and the District appealed it to the Supreme Court.

Already, the morons are coming out of the woodwork (I'm trying to be a little more generous to people I disagree with these days, but 'morons' is as nice as I can find it in me to be), claiming that finding the Second an Individual right will entitle people to own tanks and nuclear weapons (read the comments at the bottom), and that such a finding on the Amendment would be a radical departure from decades of jurisprudence.

Let's just settle that first issue: The Amendment says "keep and bear arms". Historically, that would mean a weapon one individual soldier would be expected to carry in military service, or in other words, a weapon one person could reasonably employ on his (or her) own. One person can't carry a tank, or operate all its functions by themselves. One person can't use a nuclear weapon in any defensive operation that would not involve vaporizing himself and his entire city around him. So please, people, take your medication and stay off the Internet?

Damn, there I go again, impinging the mental capabilities of those who disagree with me. I promise to pray for forgiveness later.

Then there are the specious arguments made by those who proclaim to be 'straight shooters'. In the GunGuys article cited above, we have this gem:

"Lost in the legal arguments, as GunGuys has pointed out on numerous occasions, is the reality that even a ban on handguns does not restrict the right of a person to own other firearms. A resident in D.C. can own shotguns and rifles, for instance." (Text shrunk to denote quotation, and idiocy of argument)

Just to take that over to First Amendment territory, if a law were passed that forbade me to speak my mind on political subjects on the Internet, that law would abridge my freedom of speech under the First Amendment. The fact that, under that law, I'd still retain my right to print a letter in the local newspaper is immaterial!

To point out another example of the sheer stupidity of that argument, if a law allowed me to be boiled in oil for running a stop sign, that law would violate the Constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishments, regardless of whether the law in question still forbade the government from staking me in the desert to die of dehydration.

Granted, GunGuys ("where everyone's a straight shooter") takes the collectivist Second Amendment viewpoint, but that still shouldn't stop them from seeing the vapidity of the argument they're making. If a person has a right to a firearm, then they have a right to a firearm, and simply arbitrarily banning one certain type of firearm but leaving others legal wouldn't make such laws any less unconstitutional. Although I will note that, in their cursory acknowledgement that DC residents can own long guns, they disingenuously fail to state that those long guns must be disabled and locked up. ARRGGG, I so loathe hypocrites!

Despite my disagreements with President Bush over several issues these last couple of years, if his picks, Alito and Roberts, manage to pull this one out, I'll count both of my votes for him absolutely well-placed.

Oh, yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving. I'll post about that once I get home from Charlotte on Sunday.

As Promised...

...you'll note, of course, I never said later which week I'd get those pictures posted! ;)

Anyway, here of a few from that momentous day a few weeks (three now) that Mom and Dad celebrated their 40th Anniversary!

To start off, here's a picture of them together, which I managed to take in that split second Mom closed her eyes:

Here's the photo montage that Aunt Jean and Uncle Dave put together, which featured many stylish trends of the 70's and 80's:

Here's the cake, which renders most of my descriptions up until now largely superfluous ...

And there was also a ginormous, 22 megabyte video of Uncle Pudgy giving his speech, which I will put in a separate post due to its large size, for any of you who wish to sample the spirit of the event.

Anyway, there's a couple representative pictures, and here are a few smaller ones of the assembled crowd:

So, there you have it, at long last. And like I said, as soon as I finish with this post, I'll do another with only the video in it.

The last three weeks have gone by very quickly, as for four nights a week I've been going to a Bible study class with Denise, my supervisor at SECU (visible on far right of 'coworker' picture two posts down). We just wrapped that up today, as a very-relieved Shelly can attest. Here's a picture of the group- I'm in the second row.

By the way, the "four nights a week" thing should partially explain my lack of motivation to blog.

On to other news. This past week, Shelly and I were honored to watch little Charlotte for the Hawkins' while they went to their own Bible study. I'm pleased to report she only cried for about a third of the time we were there, and that even that was largely dampened by one story and a closed door.

Last night, Shelly and I watched Ratatouille, and we absolutely loved it. So often lately, I find that the movies I most enjoy are the 'kids' movies. It was funny (without being preachy or taking cheap shots), clever, and had a great message to it that managed to not sound like something from an after school special (like the end of Shrek 3, unfortunately). Word of warning, though: Don't watch it while you're hungry!

Other than that, every thing's pretty bland around here. We'll be heading to Charlotte Wednesday night for a Thanksgiving with the Bibbs and Colliers (pronounced "Collie-Ers", for those who don't know). There will be no Turduckens there this year, nor will there be one in Maryland for Christmas, despite intense lobbying on my part.

Oh Dear Lord. That Osturduckencorpheail mentioned in the above article is a sin against nature. Consuming one might just bring down fire and brimstone upon thy city, regardless of how many righteous people might also dwell there with thee.

Mass bird murder aside, Shelly and I will be coming up to Maryland on December 22 (and for once not spoiling ourselves by flying) and staying until the 28th. So, should anyone wish to make some plans during that time, let me know!

That's all for the night! Hope everyone had a good three weeks, and I promise I'll write again sooner than that!