Tony Woodlief never fails to amuse me in some fashion:

[T]his is what we have come to: a grown man, grooming his eyebrows in traffic, using his rear-view mirror. In Wichita.

Animal is my favorite Muppet. Just for the record.

With thanks to my frient Tom, who lifted my spirits with this earlier today.

Matt's Dancing 2008 footage. My favorites: the DMZ in Korea, the two from Tonga, and Nellis Airspace. [Wave of the phin to my sweet for passing it along.]

My buddy Tom pinged me with this via IM just a bit ago:

Weird Al. Who else?

Pretty good:

[Wave of the phin to Bruce Webster.]

What do you get when you mash up Family Guy with The Matrix?

Fun fact: Both of these pop culture dynasties debuted in 1999. [Wave of the phin to Dan.]

This is my all-time favorite movie trailer.

Brilliant.

This is fairly awesome.

Doesn't that make you want to drink milk?

To quote Geekdad, where I first saw this: "Sheer brilliance."

The Grand Prairie AirHogs are a new minor league team in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, and we have some footage from a recent press conference:

The AirHogs season begins in May, and I'm looking forward to taking in a game or two this year.

This past weekend, we spent a few days visiting my parents in the suburbs of Birmingham. (That would be Alabama, not England. Just in case it wasn't clear.) My dad pulled my old rocking horse, Donut, out of storage, cleaned up the parts, and assembled him in the basement, all for my son to ride while we were visiting.

I got Donut about the same age as the little phisch is now, roughly 1974. The nostalgia from watching my own child ride the same horse I did thirty-three, thirty-four years ago, was overwhelming.

This is fairly awesome.

How can you go wrong when you mix REM and The Muppets?

This is for my pal Nathan:

[Wave of the phin to Grant.]

Opening credits of Star Wars, Saul Bass-style:

[Wave of the phin to Laughing Squid.]

My pal Heather sent me a great recipe for sushi that nearly anyone will eat. I know what you might be thinking: Not me, I'll never eat raw fish. I've had that thought, too, but I love this sushi! Here's the recipe: Swedish Fish/Rice Crispy Sushi Treats
Ingredients:

• 1 package Swedish fish
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 (10.5 oz.) package of marshmallows
• 5 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1 box fruit by the foot (blue or green)

Directions:
1. In a large microwave safe bowl, combine butter and marshmallows. Microwave on high for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth.
2. Remove from the oven and stir in the cereal.
3. Working with the mixture while it is still warm, shape into small ovals in the palm of your hand. It helps to put a little butter on your hands before working with it.
4. Cut strips of fruit by the foot to fit around each ball. Place one Swedish fish on each ball and wrap fruit strip around it. Let cool and serve!

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

As the chef, I, of course, had to sample the product, for quality assurance purposes. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

At least his version doesn't go on forever.

Muppet style.

Awesome. Just awesome.

Raena tagged me. Normally, I'd politely ignore it, but I must give her props for the way she linked to me. The rules: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules. 2. List EIGHT random facts about yourself. 3. Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names. 4. Let them know they’ve been tagged. So, here are eight things you probably didn’t know about me. Well, maybe some of you know some of them, but not everyone knows all of them. Well, maybe my wife. Perhaps my parents. Whatever... 1. I have never tried Vietnamese food, nor do I plan to. Seriously, it's like pulling teeth to get me to try non-rice-based Chinese or Thai dishes, so I'm not really interested in trying pho-anything. Noodles should be a form of pasta, covered with marinara or alfredo sauce. 2. I utterly detest the song "You Light Up My Life". Made popular by Debby Boone in the late 1970s, this was one of the songs we were forced to sing as a collective choir in fifth-grade as a tribute to our parents during the incredibly lame fifth-grade "graduation" ceremony we were equally forced to participate in. While I sincerely am thankful to my parents for all they have ever done for me, the repeated practices of this song burned it so deeply in to my brain, that even now, as I type this, I can hear Ms. Boone's voice coming over the jambox we used to listen to the words and music, and I cringe in abject horror. 3. I managed to get a position I held eliminated. No, I was not fired, thank you very much. Half of the workload was redundant, given the responsibilities of others on the staff, and the other half could easily be folded in to the responsibilities of others on the staff. I eventually took this information to my boss, and, more importantly, his boss, and the decision was ultimately made to phase the position out. I made such an impression with the head honcho that he actually tried to create a totally new position for me elsewhere in the small management company, but I chose to leave instead, to pursue other endeavors I was passionate about. I like to think that this shows I can think outside the box, and think about the good of the company, if need be, rather than just myself. (Viz: "team player".) 4. I have been a pallbearer in a military funeral. My sophomore year in college, one of my best friends was killed by a drunk driver. We were in Air Force ROTC together, and Brett's fondest dream had been to be a navigator for the United States Air Force. It probably wasn't as pretty, or as crisp, as a military funeral one would get if they were actively serving, but Brett got full honors, it was the best we could do, and it was from the heart. 5. I have been a jury foreman. The only time I was ever picked for jury duty was five years ago. It was a misdemeanor trial, and there were only six jurors. No one else wanted it, so I volunteered. Didn't mean much, other than I was the one who interfaced with the baliff, and then read the verdict. The trial turned out to be a he said-he said situation, rife with reasonable doubt, and we acquitted the accused. (Aside: the judge on the case sent each of the jurors a hand-written thank-you note.) 6. I have met Michael Jordan and Oliver North. Jordan participated in a basketball clinic at the convention center I worked at (see item #3), and I was part of the staff assigned to show him around behind the scenes. No, I did not get his autograph, or a photo with him. The man had been at a charity golf tournament earlier in the day, and was clearly tired from that and the other events he'd participated in while in town. But he lit up when he saw the kids. Colonel North was doing a book signing at an area book store, and I got my copy autographed. 7. I have never been drunk. I'm not kidding. Not lying. Never been drunk. Don't plan to be, either. 8. I don't really listen to the radio any more, nor do I watch television news. (Yes, I'm kind of stealing this one from Raena.) Between the music I rip from CDs and download from Amazon or the iTunes Store, and podcasts, I have no reason to listen to the radio, other than traffic updates. I get my news online. I shall be merciful, and break rules #3 and 4, by not tagging anyone and passing the meme along. Of course, you may feel free to share in the comments, or on your own blog, if you'd like me/us to know eight things about you that we probably don't know...

I love the little aliens from the Pizza Planet vending machine in Toy Story. Thanks to my friend Heather, and a long ago giveaway of some kind, I have two of the little guys guarding my favorite Mac, which is a little otherworldly in its own right...

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

One day last month, the little phisch wanted to play his Cars computer game, so Dad set it up for him on Mom's computer (a Dell running Windows Vista! Icky!!), then grabbed some "action" shots.

Click on the photo to see the entire set.

Two weeks later, some more skating fun! The little phisch got better moving around the house without help, but seemed to regress when it came to getting up when he fell.

Click the photo to see the entire set.