I found this on Mashabletoday.

Here’s another picture from our 4th of July adventure.

I still haven’t posted any of the 4th of July Weekend pictures. I haven’t forgotten, I’ve just been busy.

This should hold me over for a while though.

A few weeks ago it dawned on me that the final Harry Potter movie was about to be released. I thought that I should gear up for it by getting my mitts on the audiobook versions of all seven books and listening to them during my grueling commutes. I thought I could have them all done by the time the movie came out.

Well, movie 7.5 comes out today and I am still on book six. I should finish it during the drive home tonight and then I’ll at least be on book seven when I see the last movie, but in the overall scheme of things I’ve failed.

Which probably means my commutes have been a touch shorter than normal (not counting last night’s endless marathon) which is a good thing.

Now that the movie is out the only question left is, when are we going to get to see it. Both kids want to see it, but given the intensity of the subject matter we are not going to let them see it without screening it ourselves first. We have them this weekend so we’ll probably have to wait.

Which means I might finish the audiobooks before seeing the movie after all! Funny how things work out, eh? I expect the movie to be a bit of a let down. Not because I’ve heard anything bad (I have heard that the 3D is kinda crappy) but because it’s been building up for so long, how could it not disappoint. I’m still really looking forward to it though.

begin.rant

So the Roger Clemens perjury trial officially started yesterday.

And today it ended with the judge declaring a mistrial. Go ahead and search for it on Google News, I’m too pissed off to link to a specific article.

Background. Roger pitched for the Red Sox and was god among mortals. Then he started getting old (and by old I mean old for a fireballing major league pitcher, not a normal person) and his skills started to decline. When his contract was ending it was generally agreed he was not worth the huge money he was asking for. He was running out of steam and moving down the depth chart. At the very end of his stay though, he suddenly picked up his game and showed flashes of his old self.

He left though. He told us he wanted to play closer to his home in Texas and play for a contender… so he went from Red Sox Nation to Suck Nation in Toronto (take a second to look at a map if you need to).

In Toronto he was his old self again. He won Cy Young award after Cy Young award. He was a god among mortals once again. He latter moved to the Yankees (a bigger sin than perjury could ever be) and finally to Houston.

His turn around from aging former star to ageless mega star was intriguing. I don’t recall any actual steroid allegations, but I know it wasn’t far from anyone’s mind.

Then the steroid scandal officially broke and Roger was called before Congress to testify at a hearing on steroids in baseball. He said under oath that he’d never used.

Not long after that, the MLB Mitchel report came out and his name was all over it. He was charged with perjury. Jury selection began last week and testimony began yesterday.

A motion was made before the judge during a pre-trial hearing where the judge decided that no second hand statements about Clemens using steroids could be admitted into the record.

Today the prosecution played a video tape of Andy Pettite’s wife saying that Andy Pettite had told her that Roger Clemens used steroids.

Please take a second to reread the last two mini-paragraphs and let them sink in.

The judge stopped the video and declared a mistrail.

My question:

How can you make it through law school and pass the bar and get a job as a Federal Prosecutor AND STILL BE THIS STUPID?

We clearly are talking about the single dumbest lawyer in the history of law.

What a friggin’ idiot!

/end.rant

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

We had to break the news to my step son yesterday that one of his new fish has vanished from the tank. He got mad and blamed it on the three original fish. He said it had to have been them who killed the new guy. We talked him down from his wrath, telling him that we don’t know what happened and that whatever it was it’s not something to get mad about. They are just fish and they just do what fish do, that’s all. After a few minutes he relaxed and was all right again.

At bed time I took a look at the tank and saw five fish. I thought I’d be nice to them and throw another tiny pinch of food in. I opened the top, dropped in some flakes, closed the top, and watched…

and I swear the yellow glow fish that I know I had seen seconds before was gone.

I almost shit a brick. I swear it had been right there, and then when I looked again? Nothing. Gone. I left the room without mentioning it to my step son. If we lost another one just a couple of hours after telling him about the first one he’d be a wreck.

Fortunately when I went back in this morning to turn off the tank’s light (he can’t reach it) the yellow glow fish was in sight again. That was the moment that I realized…

The fish are messing with my head.

I bet the green glow fish is still in there. Hiding. I bet when they hear footsteps outside of the room he burrows under the fake rocks at the bottom of the tank and waits for me to leave before coming out again. Either that or he’s hiding in the little cave thingie.

It’s bad enough that our cat is clearly plotting to kill me, but now I find that we have a smart ass fish who’s trying to convince me that I’m losing my mind.

Thanks a ton, pets.

Did anyone watch the MLB All Star Game last night?

Neither did I.

I checked the score once. The American League was losing to the National League in the 5th inning. That was all the caring I could spare. It doesn’t matter what the league does to try and manufacture importance the game is just boring. It used to be a showcase for the best players in each league to play against each other. Now it is a showcase for disgustingly rich people to get some face time on network television during prime time. I really can’t see it as anything beyond that.

All of the major sports all star games have become the same thing. Gimmicks. Top players routinely don’t show up. Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball have events that don’t have anything to do with the game itself that have become more of a draw than the actual draw (I have never paid a single second worth of attention to the NFL Pro Bowl so I don’t know if they have a skills showcase of some kind or not).

Why do these events exist? So the leagues’ major corporate sponsors can schmooze. That’s it. They have nothing to do with the sports themselves, little to nothing to do with the players, apart from when the corporate sponsors schmooze them, and apart from the aforementioned camera time they really don’t have anything to give the fans either. In fact, the only people who benefit from these events are the players who are not chosen to participate. They get a couple of days off from work out of it.

Hooray, major league baseballs’ best players can hit home runs in batting practice. Hooray, the best players in the NBA can slam dunk and hit 3 point shots. Hooray, the best players in the NHL can shoot straight and hard and skate fast. Yippee. No shit, Sherlock.

Can we get back to games that mean something now?

Thanks.

Seven years ago today I was hired. I’m still here. Seven years is the longest I’ve stuck to anything in my entire adult life. I went to two colleges and got a mini degree and a real degree over the course of seven years. Work is now tied with school.

How does this anniversary make me feel?

It makes me want next months vacation to get here RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! We’re going to San Diego. We’re going to Disney Land. We’re going to Southern California during the summer. We’re going to swim in the Pacific ocean like it’s nobody’s business. We’re going to ride Splash Mountain like we just don’t care.

I jokingly said to Jen recently that before we go to California we should all spend a day at the beach here. Maybe Old Orchard, or Hampton, or something. I figured, jokingly, that we could have a discussion with the kids where we compare and contrast the two biggest oceans on Earth.

Jen then came up with a really great idea that made me really want to get to the Atlantic before we fly out West to visit the Pacific. She said we should fill up a couple of water bottles with water from the Atlantic, and then pour that water into the Pacific, there bye mixing the two oceans. Isn’t that a great idea? I think that’s a great idea. I want to do it!

I want to go on vacation, damn it!

Seven years… I think I should be ready for retirement by now, don’t you? Maybe we’ll open up that ice cream shop in San Diego after all.

How much is that kitty in the window?