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  • Alex Rinehart

    Steve’s an uncle! My nephew was born on January 12th, 2012. Today is his two week birthday, and I will proudly display photos of my little buddy Alex Rinehart.

    Last week, I went to Milwaukee to meet my nephew. He was very appropriately dressed.

    I got to spend all day with him on Thursday and Friday. My sister characterized her son well: He is always in a state of waking up on a Saturday morning. Karen and the baby are doing well. The new grandmother loves holding Alex. This baby is well photographed. My sister had the neat idea to take pictures of Alex with common objects. Here he is thinking about whether to pay the 10% or $200 on Income Tax.

    And here is the little guy dreaming of the day he can compete for the Taboo Championship cup and win the right to be served pie by the Flowers women.

    He already has the competitive spirit. I challenged him to a thumb war, and he won!

    It was great to meet my nephew, and I can’t wait until I see him next.

  • Men Serve the Pie

    Well, Thanksgiving was last week. And regular readers know what that means: The Taboo Championship Cup was on the line.

    Now the men in my family have been on a pretty good streak. Winning in 2008, 2009, and 2010. But this Thanksgiving was the first one where Karen Ann Rogers Rinehart was back in town since being married. Karen led the women to victory, and now the Taboo Championship Cup for the first time is in Wisconsin.

    It is a rare experience for the men, but the tradition is that losers of Taboo serve the pie. So Jeff got to slicing it up, Jim threw on some whipped cream, and I served.

    The men may be in some trouble in future years. Generally Barb is the women’s MVP, but she and Tim spent Thanksgiving in KC. If the women get Barb and Karen together at the same Thanksgiving, we may be doomed.

  • State Leg Tid Bit

    The Hawaii State Legislature has never been controlled by Republicans.

  • Ring!

    Downloadable Link if YouTube pulls video.

  • Small World

    I wasn’t expecting to have two Facebook posts in a row, but this was sort of amusing.

    Today, these two posts showed up in my mini-feed, one right after the other.

    Michelle lived on the same floor of my Freshman dorm. Scott and I go to grad school together. It was sort of funny to see two posts about Denver weddings right after one another. So I thought I would GChat Scott asking whose wedding he was attending.

    Steve :  Randomly curious, but whose wedding are you going to in Denver  Two facebook posts in a row on my mini feed mentioned denver weddings

     Scott:  lauren maynard and coley brenan
     Steve:  HA! Same wedding
    Michelle and I have not spoken in years.  But its a very small world sometimes.

  • The Facebook of Police Departments

    You may have heard, we got a little rain here in Jersey over the weekend.

    Saturday night it stormed. I lost power while asleep, and by noon the next day it was almost sunny. I stayed indoors for all of it, and I woke up today. I however could not get to work. I put my Garmin GPS to the test, hitting the detour button multiple times, but it could not find a non flooded route. So I went back home to work.

    Later on, I debated going in (I work better at my desk). I however was still concerned about traffic. My friend Deborah pointed me to West Windor’s Police Department Facebook page. Mickey Weinberg happened to ask if there was anyway to get into Princeton, and 8 minutes later Leslie Fox detailed how Washington Rd. was the only way in, and there were alternative ways out. Considering that when one road (Alexander Rd. into Princeton) closed caused 30 minute delays in June, I decided not to test what happened when just one road was open.

    Now, I am generally skeptical of social media/Web 2.0’s usefulness. But Michael Franden says it well:

    This just shows why West Windsor is doing better than East Windsor. East Windsor is the MySpace of Windsor Police Departments

  • Poppycock, Funny Little People, and America’s Got Talent

    Not being productive at work apparently makes you productive. So this post will help you with that!

    We all have those shows where it takes a little guts to bring up in conversation that you like it. But once it is brought up, you sometimes just love talking about it. The past two summers, I have become a fan of America’s Got Talent.  I really have no idea how I started watching. People from across the country come and audition for for semi-washed up celebrities. You get strange, great, and sometimes awful acts. However things are more in good fun it seems than trying to rip someone’s heart out. It is the near definition of mindless television, but my DVR has room for both NBC’s Meet the Press and America’s Got Talent.

    The Wild Card show was this week where eliminated acts get another opportunity to make the semi-finals.  It was probably one of the best episodes of the season (especially the first half).  A nerd redeemed himself, a stand-up comic roasted a judge, and a minature Sharon Osborne came out of a Delorian.

    Now obviously America’s Got Talent is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I am not much for the talented singers or dance groups, but stupid acts are great.  This year’s stupid act that gets me are some dancing elves: Those Funny Little People (Start Video at 1:40).

    Last season, Prince Poppycock, an operatic singer was a favorite. This Patriotic singer made it to the finals (where he got eliminated for becoming a little too serious) (Start Video at 1:30).  

    This year’s patriotic performance is from less flamboyent dancers (their first performance was actually better) (Start Video at 1:28).

    There is a lot of talent on this show, but before I let you return to your work week. I have to share one juggler who sadly got voted off (Start Video at 1:48).

    Now back to your work week.