Big Brother is (or was) watching

Fear not, Glenn Beck fans... this isn't going to be a post about your irrational fear of a Big Government takeover. No, I'll save that post for another day (perhaps after the next patriotic American shows up at a presidential town hall meeting with a loaded gun strapped to his hip). Instead, my Big Brother comment refers to the two blimps that have been hovering over our house taking pictures for the past several days (during the PGA Championship tournament). The blimps are now gone, but Claire wants to know where they went? More on that later because I have some BREAKING NEWS!

Brett Favre, thrice retired NFL quarterback, landed at the St. Paul Airport about three hours ago to apparently sign a deal with the Minnesota Vikings football club. I know this because Vikings HQ is located very close to our local Costco discount warehouse, and Stew and Claire just returned from their weekly trip to Costco to purchase a 36 gallon jug of cheeseballs and 75-roll pack of toilet paper. As they were leaving Costco, Claire couldn't help but notice a news helicopter circling over the Vikings HQ. She immediately informed Stew, "Look, Papa! A helichoppa... how do we get up there?" After Stew explained the physics involved with propelling Claire and himself into the helichoppa, they jumped into the car for the trip home... and that's when they heard on the news about Brett Favre. I have no comment either way. I truly don't care if he's a Viking or not. Minnesota natives and lifelong Viking fans will no doubt feel differently. Minnesota sports teams have an uncanny way of crapping the bed at the end of the season (particularly on the off chance the team is actually about to make the playoffs). So, I'm not banking on a Viking Super Bowl appearance anytime soon. Back when he sold high quality furniture at a modest price to the education and healthcare markets, Stew got to see Favre and the Vikings battle it out at Green Bay's Lambeau Field on three separate occasions (the main furniture line Stew represented is headquartered in Green Bay, and the company owns a box at the stadium). Stew thinks the Vikings won all three times, but he can't be certain since there was free beer available in the box. It's a miracle he even remembers being at the games in the first place... although he did bring home photo evidence one year.

As for the blimps, Claire wasn't sure what to make of them. At first she was calling the blimp an "airplane", so Stew tried to correct her by getting her to call it an "airship". That lasted about two minutes until she was back to calling it an "airplane". Then Stew tried to get her to say "dirigible"... then "zeppelin"... but to no avail. Finally, the two settled on "blimp". Once that was established, Claire wanted to know "how do we get up there?" That's the question of the moment whenever she sees any flying vehicle. And once she heard the blimp was here because of Tiger Woods, she immediately surmised that Tiger Woods was actually inside the blimp... perhaps even flying it. Anyway, below is a photo taken from our garage where Claire is pointing at the blimp saying, "There's Tiger Woods up there!"