March 31, 2009

Be Kind and Rewind

Since it's been a while since my last blog post, I thought I'd give you a little scoop on the poop that's been stinkin' up our doghouse over the past week or so. And since most things that occur in our house can be termed as "backasswards", I'll start with the most recent events first...

First and foremost, I need to give a BIG bark and howl to my Fargo dawgs (not to mention their respective dogs)! I have several folk I consider aunts and uncles in Fargo (Veronica, Matthew, Michelle, Peter, Naiya, Russell... plus their many friends we've met over the years). Last Saturday night's report had them all safe and dry (and enroute to a Thai restaurant of all places). Here we thought they'd all be huddled in an attic somewhere with various flotation devices around their necks, but this just goes to show Fargonians are a tough breed (albeit just a tad bit crazy... and wood-chipper happy). And my Fargo pals have all been sandbagging for the past week or so... which up until now I thought was only a term used by Momma to describe Stew's level of effort in the bedroom (as in deliberately performing at a lower level than one is actually capable of). Who knew sandbagging could have two totally opposite meanings? My bet is Peter Karl knew. He's brilliant, despite the fact he's a big fan of the unwatchable TV show, The Mentalist. Anyway, as most folk know, Fargo is now being hit with a winter storm including high wind gusts that could impact the river and the temporary levees. As Aunt Veronica recently wrote, "I guess we're ready for anything... except locust!" Luckily, there is no such thing as a winter locust. Trust me. I checked, and I'm an expert with the Google. Hang in there, Fargonians!

Today, Stew resumed his workout program which apparently consists of two days in a row of running on the treadmill, followed by 10 days of sitting on his ass. Under this program, he's managed to gain two pounds... although it's my understanding he's actually trying to lose weight. He's also popping fish oil tablets at the advice of a doctor after a recent wellness exam. Prior to his using the couch as an exercise machine, Stew actually played basketball a couple nights per week (that was five years ago). But he gave up hoops because he could never straighten his back the next morning after playing ball. He went to see MD's, chiropractors and a physical therapist. All of them told Stew the same thing: his back would get stronger if and only if he worked on his abdominal muscles. Apparently what Stew heard was, "completely replace your abdominal muscles with about 25 lbs of blubber and pretend your back feels better." Recently I saw Stew shirtless, and I'm pretty sure I saw man boobs forming on his chest (and not the good kind like the dude has in the photo to the right). Needless to say, his back still hurts and will "go out" if he walks too far or stands too long (like when he stood in the beer tent at the Herreid, SD, Centennial Celebration for about six straight hours a few years ago... which eventually lead to a visit to the Emergency Room the next day after he couldn't get up off the floor).

So here's a video clip showing Claire and Stew working out this morning. The sound you'll hear is Stew attempting to sing along with the 1980's music he has loaded on the iPod. You just might want to mute the sound on your PC while watching. You've been warned.



GIRL GONE WILD

Claire was on Spring Break last week, so she took a break from being a well-behaved little girl and cut loose. First she took a page out of Stew's playbook and decided she wanted to wear her Elmo pajamas all day, which is alright since we know both Claire and her PJ's are washed on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Stew. Trust me. I'm a dog, and I have 200 million scent receptors in my olfactory system. It's both a blessing and a curse... especially when you live with Stew. Anyway, Claire also decided to play Hide-And-Seek nonstop for five days. Here's a little video evidence for you...


The good thing about Claire misbehaving during her Spring Break was that I was the benefactor of one of her most mischievous acts. The day after Stew slow cooked a big pork roast we received from Grandpa and Grandma's farm, he had a Tupperware container full of BBQ pork sitting on the kitchen counter. Apparently Stew was distracted by something shiny. More specifically, the newest Fox News multi-millionaire, assclown, political commentator (Glenn Beck) was ranting about how everyone needs to fear impending socialism, so Stew left the kitchen to go sit on the couch to soak in the propaganda like a sponge. And this was all the time Claire needed. She reached up, snagged the BBQ pork, took it into the front room and set the pork down in front of me... then she gave me a wink and a smile. And that's all I needed to finish the pound of BBQ pork in record time. Stew was not amused as there's not much in this world he enjoys as much as his BBQ pork. Luckily for me - not to mention the rest of the family - Claire did not serve any baked beans with the meat.

All in all, it was a fun Spring Break for most of us. I'd tell ya more, but it's time for me to go get dinner started. Smell ya later!

March 20, 2009

Dog Gone Mad

It's true. We've all gone mad at our house, and it's not because of the $165 million "retention bonuses" paid to AIG executives.. or the plethra of other handouts paid to executives who drove their respective mega-companies into the ground while these companies (and even the Death Star) are enacting salary freezes for lowly middle management and worker bees. No, I learned long ago there's nothing that can be done to stop The Reagan Revolution. I do find it funny - and even more so sad - that even Right Wingers are now feigning outrage at these exuberant bonuses. Who do they think they're kidding? This is text book Reaganomics. Toss in a dash of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, and you've got a recipe for abundance! I'm confident giving already super rich executives even more money, plus repealing a 60 year old law that prohibited a bank from offering investment, commercial banking and insurance services will only create jobs that will eventually trickle down to "lower class" folk while making our financial infrastructure stronger. What's that? Really? You say the rich just got richer, and the financial infrastructure has collapsed? But how could that be? Well, under Reagan the top personal income tax bracket for rich dudes dropped from 70% to 28% in just seven years (and now Rush Limbaugh and other rich guys on Fox News are whining about Obama's plan to raise the rate back up to 39%). Oh, and here are some fun little facts about The Reagan Revolution:

It was in the decade of the 1980’s that the U.S. was transformed from the world’s largest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor nation. By the end of 1986, the U.S. had a national debt of $269 billion. By 1992, it had ballooned to $3.5 trillion. I guess someone in the Reagan Administration forgot that "reducing the growth of government spending" was supposed to be a cornerstone of Reaganomics. At least they got the part about "hyper-deregulation of the economy" right.

By 1984, the U.S. had the greatest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation in world history.

In 1953 there were 27,000 millionaires. In 1964, there were 90,000 millionaires... in 1972 180,000... in 1980 574,000. And 1.3 million by 1988.

In 1981 there were about 10 billionaires in the U.S. This number more than doubled to 26 by 1986. It doubled in just two years to 52 in 1988. No parallel upsurge of riches had ever been seen since the late 19th century of the Vanderbilts, Morgans and Rockefellers.

So, y
ou need to keep the faith, people! This plan has been nearly 30 years in the making, and it's sure to produce profound results any minute. C'mon, super rich people... get crackin' on creatin' those jobs!

Where was I? I didn't just get sidetracked on a political rant did I? Wow, that's weird... that hardly ever happens. Anyway, we've all gone mad around here because MARCH MADNESS is finally here... the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament started yesterday!
This is a major holiday at our house (at least for Stew and me). For us, MARCH MADNESS is bigger than Cinco de Mayo at an Iowa turkey processing plant (I wrote that joke for you, Lou Dobbs). Last year, I picked the Georgetown Hoyas to win it all, but they disappointed me greatly. Therefore, I put a curse on the team... which mysteriously finished at the bottom of the Big East Conference this year. Coincidence? I think not. This year, I'm going with the Michigan State University Spartans (the team Earvin "Magic" Johnson took to the title in 1979). Momma's picking the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, while Stew's finally tossing aside the Duke Blue Devils (the team he's picked to win the tourney every year since 1986) and instead going with the Gonzaga Bulldogs because he [quote], "likes saying 'Gonzaga', plus they have a cool mascot." Is it any wonder he's never won an NCAA tourney pool... ever?

Claire was on her Spring Break last week, so we've got lots of photos and even a short video to post soon. In the meantime, Grandma Helen will be here any minute for a visit, so I'm supposed to help clean. I overheard Momma "discussing" wit
h Stew last night the need to get the house cleaned up. He mumbled something about the need to watch basketball games all day, but he stopped mid-sentence after lightning bolts shot out of Momma's eyes.

Here's a pic of Claire doing her impersonation of [insert the name of any 1980's musical artist]. But instead of wearing fingerless gloves that were all the rage in the '80s, Claire is wearing her tiny little tube socks. And the microphone she's holding? Well, it's a Swifter duster handle. Apparently she misplaced the toy screwdriver she usually uses for a microphone.

March 13, 2009

Brawl Street - Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer

This was no contest. Jon Stewart handed Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, his proverbial hat last night during an "interview" on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, Jon Stewart took the CNBC host (and the entire network) to task last night for failing to display any sort of ethics or journalistic integrity as the world financial news expert the network claims to be. This whole feud started when Jon Stewart pointed out on a Daily Show "bit" on March 4th that CNBC played a role in the financial market meltdown by failing to live up to the network's own hype. And if you've got some free time on your hands (or paws), I encourage you to go to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's website and watch the entire feud unfold by watching all the clips in the Cramer vs. Non-Cramer: Tell of the Tape section on the website.

Following are the 23 minutes of the uncensored interview from last night. Again, I encourage you to watch the Tell of the Tape clips before watching the interview below to fully appreciate the context of the feud. Regardless, after watching this, I hope anyone who wonders why I prefer to get my news from The Daily Show rather than network or cable news networks will realize Jon Stewart "gets it". You can learn a lot more from his show than any "real" cable news show on the air today.

PART 1


PART 2

PART 3

March 06, 2009

Friday Night Videos... in the afternoon

Nothing new to report today... but I have a couple videos.

Here's one Grandma Stewart sent. Claire loves this video and likes to point at the computer monitor, laugh and say, "Babies!" while it plays. Enjoy!



And here's yet another clip... a little Tip of the Hat / Wag of the Finger from Stephen Colbert. I think he hit another homerun on last night's show with this one. Enjoy!

March 05, 2009

The End of Days

As some of you know, I'm pretty much convinced the world is going to end on December 21, 2012. There's going to be a galactic alignment when the sun is directly in the center of our Milky Way galaxy. This alignment's going to wreak havoc on the earth's gravity (the north pole will become the south pole... great energy will flow through the earth's core, etc...). The Mayan calendar predicts it... the Hopi Indians agree... ancient Egyptians left behind information pointing to the same... the Bible (Revelations)... and the Lost Book of Nostradamus contains the same info. Freak yourself out by watching THIS video on the YouTubes.

Well, my newe
st favorite Fox News Channel weirdo, Glenn Beck, believes you have a responsibility to prepare yourself for things that are never going to happen. Stephen Colbert took an in-depth look on his show last night:






















By now, you'd think I'd be
smart enough to know NOT to watch Fox and Friends in the morning, but I'm apparently a glutton for punishment. Today, they invited some stock market expert named, Rudolph "Rudy" Giuliani, on the show to join them in judging the Obama Administration based solely on how the Dow Jones Stock Market has been slipping for the past couple months. But last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I found out some interesting information on how the Dow reacted to other events in history (such as the Reagan Administration's first couple months in office). It's a sad commentary on the legitimacy of the so-called "mainstream media" when you can learn more from a fake news show than you can from watching "real" news. See for yourself...


So how did we get into this mess? Well, both Democrats (Fannie & Freddie fiasco) and Republicans (hyper-deregulation of financial markets) certainly play large roles. But I also like to blame the media. The media helped sell the war in Iraq, and the media also played a huge role in our economic collapse. Jon Stewart gives us a good example of CNBC's role:

Later in the show, Jon gives the following analogy when discussing with a guest how CNBC, a highly-respected financial news network, could have missed all the warning signs of the entire financial market meltdown. [Quote] It'd be like the Weather Channel interviewing Hurricane Katrina and saying, "You know, there's a report you have high winds and flooding" and Katrina's like, "No, no, no... I'm sunny" and they're (Weather Channel) like "Alright" and then they walk away. It's insane!

March 04, 2009

Bongs, Barbies, Bimbos, Blowhards and Beer Pong

We all need heroes in our lives, and I'm not talking about the sandwich kind. Well, I think I just found another hero to add to my list. His name is Acea Schomaker, and he's the guy who stuffed his hyperactive cat into a homemade marijuana bong and tried to smoke it (okay, so it's a kitten... you say tomato, I say it's still a damn, dirty cat). I'm sure some won't believe this, but I don't think Stew or I have the technological know-how to build a bong. Besides, at our house, we simply throw unruly cats onto the roof. You can read more about Acea here. And I predict it will be no time before unambitious youth across the country begin referring to the act of smoking marijuana as blazing the kitty. And if you don't like to read news articles, here's a little 30-second video you can watch instead:


In other news, a West Virginia lawmaker has introduced a bill in the state's legislature that would ban the sale of Barbie's and other dolls like her [source]. Apparently, the Democratic delegate feels the glamorous-looking doll sends the wrong message to West Virginia girls by putting too much emphasis on physical beauty. In response to the proposed legislation, Mattel (the maker of Barbie) has quickly developed two prototypes of dolls that would be sold exclusively in West Virginia and parts of Appalachia. Stay-at-home-dog broke this story today and brings you the first-ever photos of Mattel's new dolls...

REDNECK BARBIE

RED STATE KEN & BARBIE
In still more white trash news, The Superficial (the world's greatest celebrity gossip site) is reporting Paris Hilton plans to spend $280,000 for a diamond-encrusted dashboard for her new $200,000 pink Bentley [source]. So, the next time you're listening to multi-millionaires Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly complaining about the socialist government wanting to take money from them and other rich people (by raising the marginal tax rate to the whopping 39% it was back in the 1990's), just think about Paris Hilton spending on a dashboard an amount of money that could buy her two (crappy) houses in Robbinsdale, MN. But do you really want to make it more difficult for our little American princess to buy a half-million dollar pink car? Then again, something tells me raising her tax rate by four percent isn't going to phase her... but don't listen to me because I'm apparently one of them there socialists.

On the political front... a few words from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Please do not watch if you insist on only getting your political news from sources like Fox News, TownHall.com, and/or The Drudge Report... it's apparent you don't care about opposing viewpoints, plus the humor and satire in this clip will be totally lost on you. You have been warned.


And, finally, some health news from Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report:

March 03, 2009

Show me the stickers!

Last Saturday, Team Erickson spent the night here. It seems Aunt Susan & Uncle Kermit had a party to attend in Chaska and decided to stay here for the night rather than make the long drive home late at night. This meant I got to see my boys, Ole and Berkley. It also meant we were forced to spend our time together trapped in the mud room because of Momma and Stew's irrational fear of multiple shedding dogs, trashed wood floors from me chasing Ole around the house, smelly wet dog hair, and something called "stealth pooping" (as demonstrated by the tot in the picture, except replace the tot with a dog). Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing Ole and Berkley... although we were stuck in such close quarters. I sometimes fear getting on Ole's nerves. You might recall he was found wandering the mean streets of Duluth prior to joining the Erickson family, and he can still be somewhat of a bad-ass. You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with... Ole.

Yesterday, Claire received something in the mail from her California cousin, Benjamin. You see, a few weeks ago, Claire and Momma joined something called The Sticker Club. Claire's friend, Colton, got her into the club, which involves mailing letters to Claire's friends. I think it's some sort of voodoo or witchcraft because all Claire had to do was mail a couple letters, and now she's starting to get stickers mailed to her. Now I don't want to sound like a socialist, but maybe this idea could be used by the government to stimulate the economy. The gov't could send letters to other countries. But instead of asking for stickers, they should ask for gold (my apologies to the sticker manufacturing industry, but I'd rather have the money). I'm also thinking of starting The Milkbone Club, but Stew says he's "too busy" to help me address envelopes. Too busy drinking iced mochas? Too busy taking naps on the couch? Too busy taking Claire to The Land of the Velour Track Suit (also known as "Tot Time Gym" at the Chaska Community Center).

That's about all the news worth printing today. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to patiently waiting for the Free Market to solve all our economic, healthcare, housing, infrastructure and reliance on foreign oil problems. We've only been waiting about 27 years for the Free Market solution to kick in, so it shouldn't be long now...

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About This Blog

Commentary from a stay-at-home dad on daily happenings and misadventures while helping raise a wonderful little girl. The goal is to employ wit, sarcasm and/or humor to make the blog pseudo-entertaining. Then again, setting goals never really worked for me, but maybe you'll chuckle anyway.

OUR FAMILY - Provides a brief bio on each family member.

THE SAHD CLUB - A rip-off of the letter written by the kids from the 1980's blockbuster hit, The Breakfast Club.

THE DOG DISH - Here you'll find the occasional rant or story written from a dog's point of view.

COMEDY - Here you'll find stuff I think is funny, typically video clips, cartoons or jokes.

LINKS - Just what the name implies.

PAW-LITICS - More rants, typically directed at despicable politicians with whom I disagree.

VIDEO VAULT - Home videos of Claire set to some of our favorite songs.

BUY STUFF - My online store (that is if I ever actually create one).

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