Entering THEIR World

Here's an easy parenting tip for you all--especially you dads with little girls. Anytime you get a chance, enter into their little fantasy world. Their eyes light up and their spirits will glow.

As I write this, Snip and Snap (my daughter and my niece) are playing Pretty Pretty Princess with their Build-a-Bears, Sasha and Sissy. Sasha and Sissy are an important part of their lives. A few minutes ago I heard Snip tell Snap that purple was Sasha's favorite color. Well, last night I had to pick up Sasha at around 11:45 at night because Snip left her at grandma and grandpa's house. So, I decided to interrupt their game to tell the girls that Sasha's favorite color was orange and that I knew this because she told me last night when I had to pick her up (she was also a bit miffed about being left at the grandparents' house and having to sit on the front porch in a doll's car seat--but that's another story). Apparently, Snip thought that purple was Sasha's favorite color all these years and Sasha just went along with it so as not to hurt her feelings even though she really prefers orange. Of course, I told Snap all about this and I love how she went along with the whole thing. It has been incorporated into their world and it's precious. I'm a bit of a goof (or "doof") anyway, so it's easy for me to enter into this world now and then. Dad's--DO IT. I'm quite certain that your kids will love it.

Update, Sasha the bear was running away with this game of Pretty Pretty Princess until Sissy came out of nowhere to win it all.

Plumber Mascots

I noticed a service truck flying by me on the interstate today. It was one that I've seen in the Indianapolis Metro area quite a few times. The company is called "Williams Comfort Air" and they use a cartoon character or something called "Metzler's Mr. Plumber" as their mascot. Here's the best version of the logo I could find online...


Just seconds later another service truck from "Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber" shot by my car as well. Here' s look at their artwork...

Now the thing that gets me is why would a plumbing company (in this case, TWO plumbing companies) pick a seemingly old blind guy as their mascot. Metzler's Mr. Plumber is clearly squinting and using his hand to aid his vision while Franklin is known in history for creating bifocal glasses. On top of that he's also thought of as a pioneer in the understanding of electricity--which doesn't mix well with plumbing.

Sales Cliches - Part 1

While the rest of the economy continues to nose dive, I've been blessed to work for a company that is growing. As a result, we just moved to a new office space. It's much bigger and nicer than our old place. Overall, it's a great move for our company. However, in the process, I went from having an office of my own to a cubical. I don't really mind it at all, but I get to hear everyone else talk (and vice versa).

Since I work in the Sales & Marketing department, I get to hear (and sometimes use) some of the best cliches in the business world. Of course, I also catch quite a few cliches that are invented right on the spot. For instance, to day I heard one of our sales guy utter this one...

"Are we cutting the pie into more slices or are we adding more pie."


Personally, I'm always in favor of more pie.

This could turn into a great source for blog entries (although some are not appropriate for this blog--but they're funny), so stay tuned.

Cruise 2009 Report (sort of)

That was me just a few days ago with my feet firmly planted on the sand and in the waters of Great Stirrup Cay near the Bahamas. Today I am back home where it is currently snowing.

But I'm not complaining. It was a great trip. I'm sure that the wife and Toni will have much more to say about the details. However, I would encourage you all to ask them about the mysterious Foosball game at Senor Frog's in The Bahamas. They both were quite puzzled by it.

So, this is my brief report (sort of) on our cruise with Toni & Carl. It was an incredible time.

Out

Starting Monday you can CLICK HERE to see how I'm doing for the next four to five days.

Girding Your Lions

I've been reading about the Passover in Exodus lately, as it relates to what I'm reading about in the book of John (yes, I'm so holy and righteous--I read the bible). Anyway, I came across the phrase "gird your loins" in Exodus Chapter 12 and I really had not thought about what that means. As it turns out, it has to do with preparing your strength so that you're ready to use it instantly. With the Passover, the firstborn of every family in Egypt was going to be killed by the angel of death. You were only protected if you put the blood from the Passover lamb on your doorposts and above your door (the lentil). As the angel came around to your house and saw that you were protected or spared by the Passover lamb, it would move on to the next house. Jesus is our Passover lamb in that he paid the ultimate price for us...powerful stuff.

And yet, this blog doesn't usually dip into the deep spiritual significance of things. I leave that to other blogs where I participate with my comments. It's only appropriate that here on Big Doofus Blog I tell you what came up on dictionary.com when I looked up "loins". Yes, I got the actual definition of loins and they even had the expression "gird your loins," but the geniuses at dictionary.com's advertising department decided that "loins" and "lions" must have been similar because I got advertisements to by tickets to Detriot Lions football games. If you follow NFL Football, the Lions have been anything but a show of strength for the past few years. In fact, they made NFL history this year by putting up a perfect season--0 and 16.

Cursing the Biblical Way

If you really feel the need to tell someone off with colorful language but feel the restraint of your walk with the most high God, here's a resource for you:

CLICK HERE FOR THE BIBLICAL CURSE GENERATOR!

Here are some great examples that I got today and plan on using at my church leadership retreat tomorrow:

Behold, thou shalt be as welcome as a fart in the queen's bedchamber, O thou wayward winebibber!

O that thou wouldest accidentally insult Goliath, O ye denizen of the underworld!

Woe unto thee, thou Mesopotomian harlot, for you will fall under a speeding chariot!

Buried in it!

This is kind of how I feel lately. I get WAY too much email with my job and I know that if I don't get through it all in a day, it's going to pile up. I get just as much the next day and while I'm digging through that, the older stuff gets ignored. I know that there are important things in there that I need to take care of but I don't know when I'll get to them. I'm just venting a bit.

Oh, and the fact that I'm writing this blog post while I could be going through the email is brilliant.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

I Know This Is Wrong, But...

...it's funny. There was a story in today's Indianapolis Star about some local pranksters that hacked the electronic construction signs you see along the highway. Locally, someone made them say"Raptors Ahead." I guess that's enough to slow you down, right?

Even better,

“NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!” and “ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN” in Austin, Texas.

And,

“DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES” near St. Louis.

License Plate Update

I have a few kiddos that read this blog, so let me state that today's post is rated "PG" which could stand for "Pretty Good" but in this case it stands for "Parental Guidance."

A few days ago I pointed out that there's something funny going on with the new Indiana license plates. Well, today I saw a few more that made me chuckle...

"845 ETC"
POLICE OFFICER: Sir, did you happen to catch the license plate of the person that ran into your car and then sped off?
CITIZEN: Yes I did. They were Indiana plates and it was "845 ETC."
POLICE OFFICER: Um....ok. Do you actually KNOW the last three digits of the plate?
CITIZEN: Yes, it was "ETC."
POLICE OFFICER: Ok. So what were the last three digits?

"245 AZZ"
Honestly, I don't remember the first three numbers of this one, but I sure as heck remember that this was the AZZ Car! It reminds me of an old Seinfeld episode.

Meeting With the High Church

This past Saturday my wife and I had the privilege of meeting some blog friends (some that I mentioned last week) at a Starbucks in Brownsburg. They were on their way to Lutheran Home School group that meets up in Ft. Wayne. If you know anything about Ft. Wayne (and I do since I was born and raised in the area) you know it's FULL O' LUTHERANS.

We met The Elephant's Child, A Round Unvarnish'd Tale and Boots on the Ground. Let me just report a few things:

• There were no elephants.
• No Varnish
• Boots on the Ground was not wearing boots (that I recall--actually, I didn't even look at her shoes. I'll bet my wife did because women always notice what other women are wearing.
• All three of these ladies have real names.
  

Actually, it was a great meeting. I think we talked for over an hour about parenting, teaching, blogging, etc. It's always interesting when you get to meet someone that you've gotten to know via the computer. All three of these ladies are top notch, 100% genuine people and I'm blessed to have met them personally. It seemed to me as if we were all instantly very comfortable with each other and talked freely the whole time.

Of course, that was just MY impression. They all could have thought that I was completely nuts.