What snow looks like

Kell just sent me this email:

Just wanted to share Joey's observation of today's weather...

When it was snowing rather heavily earlier, he looked out the window and said, "Mama! It looks like powder! Wait, no, like butt cream! It looks like butt cream and powder outside!"

Oh, he's a poet!

Yup, that's my boy ...

'80's cheese, but it's sooooo tasty!

I admit that I'm a child of the '80s hair metal movement and "Hair Nation" is one of the favorite channels on Sirius satellite radio.

One of my fav hair bands is Ratt and for me, it doesn't get any better than "Lay It Down" ... pretty sure if you looked up "cheesy '80s metal hair band video" in the dictionary, you'd see this video. Roooocks!

F@#$%*g Wal-Mart

One more reason why I friggin' hate Wal-Mart ... hate hate hate them.

A sweet idea

Now that spring is here (supposedly ... it's been cold in the Northeast and we're supposed to get 4 - 8 inches of snow tonight), I'm reminded that allergy season is right around the corner.

I've always had seasonal allergies and as I've gotten older, they seem to be getting worse, especially in the spring when trees and grasses start blooming and growing and pollen coats everything with that fine, bright green dust.

I mentioned this to my brother-in-law, Jim, who lives in Anaheim, CA, a couple of years ago as he had really bad allergies, too. He told me about a home remedy that he got from some co-workers: a tablespoon of honey for about a month or two before pollen season starts. But not just any honey, it has to be honey made by bees in your area. The nutritional chart shows the facts for a tablespoon of honey (I was curious ... and now you know, too).

Here's how it works: Because bees use pollen to create honey, if you take honey made by local bees, it'll contain pollen from local trees. The more honey you eat, the more pollen gets built up in your system and you become immune to it.

While that seemed to make sense, I still thought it was ridiculous. But last spring I tried it and damn if it didn't work. I took 1 - 2 tablespoons a day for about 6 - 8 weeks and never sneezed once all spring. No itchy, watery eyes, no congestion ... nadda.

Sirius/XM merger approved

I've been a Sirius satellite radio subscriber for about 2 1/2 years now and love the service. I chose Sirius over XM because of Howard Stern and have discovered that Sirius is so much more than Stern. Don't get me wrong, I listen to Stern every morning and in the afternoons during the playback of his show, but their music channels are commercial free and there's a channel for every taste. Very cool.

So it was about a year and-a-half ago that merge discussions between Sirius and XM. Check this out about the merger on orbitcast.com, which covers all news pertaining to satellite radio.

This merger has taken an unusually long time to go through and speculation was that the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which covers terrestrial AM/FM radio, was opposed to the merger because of perceived competition a merger would create. Not surprisingly, Stern has been moaning and groaning about this for months saying the NAB is paying off people to stop the merger. Well, if that's true, then the effort failed because the Department of Justice approved the merger.

I was really hoping this merger was going to go through because it now means I'll be able to listen to baseball on satellite radio and not have to listen to it on crappy AM broadcast radio. Sirius carries all the other major sports (NFL, NHL, NBA and NASCAR) and XM had baseball. Woo-hoo!

New government symbol

My mom sent this to me today ... perfect!

A proud moment

Brace yourself ... it's another Joey story.

It was a proud moment at the Davis household on Sunday. We've been trying to gently persuade young Mr. Davis to use the potty but have had little success. When he goes to daycare, it's a totally different story, of course ... he goes on the potty for "Auntie" all of the time. Not so much at home.

So, when Joey said, "Daddy, I need to use the potty!" the other night, I thought, "Yeah, sure."

But, to my pleasant surprise, he went into the bathroom, asked for help with his pants and let me put him on the potty. The look on his face was priceless ... a huge grin on his face as he did his thing.

High-fives all around followed (after he washed his hands, of course).

Three orange whips!

A friend of mine (who's also a Chicago native) sent me this link to the The Blues Brothers - Chicago Filming Locations ... a very cool Google map showing where in Chicago many of the scenes for the Blues Brothers was filmed.

This movie is one of my all-time favs and the cool thing is that my friend, Craig, says that as a kid he used to go to the Dixie Square Mall (the one that's destroyed in the movie by the car chase).

"We're on a mission from gah-d."

"I'm a kid, mama!"

A recent exchange between Kell and Joey:

Kell: Hey munchkin, what are you up to?

Joey: (looking up from his teddy bear) Hi Mama, I'm Doctor Joey and I'm making sure I'm teddy bear is OK.

Kell: Really? You're Doctor Joey? Cool!

(As she says this, she walks through a doorway and bumps her elbow on the door frame.)

Kell: Ow ow ow!

Joey: Are you OK, Mama?

Kell: Yeah, Mama's OK, I just got a boo-boo on my elbow. Do you want to look at it and make it better, Doctor Joey?

Joey: Mama! I'm not a doctor, I'm a kid!

Now THIS is "going green" ...

This has to be one of the coolest houses I've ever seen.

If I had the time to do something like this, I'd so jump right in and do it.

Wrong season, but his heart's in the right place

Kell and I were getting ready the other morning and Joey was downstairs watching TV and drinking his milk.

Suddenly he starts singing "Jingle Bells" at the top of his lungs and he was getting almost all of the words, too ... even the "hey" at the end of some of the lines.

So we stopped what we were doing and just stood there listening and laughing because it was just too damn cute.

Then I went downstairs and discovered the impetus for his concert ... he was watching Bob the Builder and Bob and the gang were getting ready for Christmas.

The best part, though, was that they weren't singing any Christmas songs ... Joey recognized Christmas and starting singing a song. Needless to say, we just had to smooch him.

What is ...

Yup, it's another post idea I've ripped off from a friend (KCG!) ...

If you've ever seen "Inside the Actor's Studio" then you've seen when, at the end of every episode, host James Lipton asks the guest a series of questions. And if you've never seen the show, you now have context for this post.

Here's how I would answer Lipton's questions:

What is your favorite word?
I work with words for a living, so this is tough ... but, it would have to be "love" (guess I'm a pacifist at heart).

What is your least favorite word?
It's a tie between "can't" and "afraid".

What turns you on?
Figuring something out ... whether it's a difficult concept that I suddenly "get" or how to do something that I've been struggling with. I get such a rush from that. I can't tell you how many times I've stuggled with trying to figure out how to do/fix something around the house and when I stop thinking about it, the solution pops into my brain ... best ... high ... ever.

What turns you off?
Weak handshakes. There's nothing worse than shaking someone's hand (especially a man) and it's like gripping a dead fish.

What sound or noise do you love?
Joey's belly laugh and the way he says, "Dah-dee".

What sound or noise do you hate?
Joey crying because he's hurt or genuinely sad (not that fake crying he does to get attention or sympathy ... although, that's less gooder, too).

What is your favorite curse word?
"Bugger" ... but if you're from across the pond or Southie, it's pronounced, "bugg-ah".

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
Music producer. How cool would that be to be part of the creative process?

What profession other than yours would absolutely not like to attempt?
There's a lot, but President of the United States tops the list ... man, why would anyone want that constant pressure?

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear god say when you arrive at the gates?
"Nice try ... c'mon in."

Home equity dips

I just saw a story on cnn.com in which the Federal Reserve has announced that for the first time on record (since 1945) the percentage of equity in American homes is less than 50%.

This means that people's homes are worth less than what they owe on them.

The most disturbing part of the article:

"Economists expect this figure to drop even further as declining home prices eat into the value of most Americans' single largest asset.

"Moody's Economy.com estimates that 8.8 million homeowners, or about 10.3% of homes, will have zero or negative equity by the end of the month. Even more disturbing, about 13.8 million households, or 15.9%, will be "upside down" if prices fall 20% from their peak.

And there are people out there who say we're not in a recession.

Huckabee's out ...

I feel like the country dodged a bullet now that Mike Huckabee has announced he's out of the race for the GOP nomination.

Now it's Hillary vs. Obama ... here's hoping this gets resolved quickly before the Democratic party gets even more torn apart.

An ingenious idea? Depends if you're on the bus ...

No doubt you've heard about the alarming rise in home foreclosures with the burst of the real estate bubble.

I received an email from my bank this morning that I thought was ingenious and disturbing at the same time. They are now offering "foreclosure bus tours" that are just what they sound like ... you sign up, get on a bus, and review homes that have been foreclosed on. Here's the text of the email:

"Join us and view up to 10 of the best-valued foreclosure properties in town! Our Foreclosure Bus will shuttle you to foreclosed value deal properties that we have pre-selected and pre-screened. Each tour starts at 9 a.m. and lasts approximately 3 hours."

I just wonder what the atmosphere is like on that bus. While some first time buyers must be excited because they may find a deal, the whole bus tour must be a bit surreal, no?

Granted, this is an interesting idea because no doubt the bank wants to get rid of these properties as soon as possible so the deals must be amazing.

Still, the whole idea is kind of creepy and sad and at the same time. I mean, if there are that many foreclosed houses out there that you can literally tour them on a bus, that just can't be a good sign for the economy, can it?

Unless, of course, you're in the market for a house.

News from the gridiron

It maybe nearing Spring, but news from the NFL keeps coming.

The Patriots have signed WR Randy Moss to a three-year, $27 million deal ($15 million guaranteed). Thank the football gods ... with WR Dante Stallworth signing with another team and talk of Moss listening to other offers, I was beginning to think QB Tom Brady wasn't going to have anyone to throw to deep next season.

Also today, Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre announced he's retiring after 17(!) seasons of slinging the pigskin on Lambeau Field. I have to admit that I'm a little bummed by this. Favre was an amazing QB and after a disastrous 2005 season really brought his game to a new level in the last two seasons, especially last year in which he set the record for passing TDs (442), passing yards (61,655) and wins by a starting QB (160) and interceptions (288). Including the playoffs, he played in 275 consecutive games. Damn.

Still, he's going out on his out terms, not because he's being forced to (like from injuries). Cheeseheads everywhere will be crying in their Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old Style beers tonight.