Crosblog

According to the Jersey Shore Nickname Generator, I should be known as "G-Muscle."

I have family in New Jersey. Odd that they never brought this to my attention.

Last year...



This year...



Anybody can get their picture taken with flippin' Santa.

Native born Americans, I think, often forget how lucky we are to be Americans, and one way to remember is to see or read about a naturalization ceremony, such as the one that took place on Tampa, FL on Monday, to get an idea of how appreciative our newest Americans are of the chance to be a part of our great nation.

Our newly minted citizens include Ukranian-born Oleg Prudius,known to pro wrestling fans as Russian wrecking machine Vladimir Kozlov.



Welcome aboard, Mr. Kozlov. And, as I'm sure you know from your citizenship studies, the U.S. got its start rebelling against and oppressive and unjust British authority.



Sure, the "Shot heard round the SyFy channel" maybe doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but still...

Twelve months ago, I was certain I knew nothing. Now, I'm only mildly certain. I mean, think of where we started out...



Now, he can play the piano...



If the St. Louis Rams think they can play football, I think he can play the piano.

When we first started this gig, I only knew a few ways to fix any problems:

1. Feed baby.
2. Change baby.
3. Burp baby.
4. Walk around holding baby, singing softly to him. ("Hush little baby, don't say a word/and never mind that noise you heard/it's just the beasts under your bed/in your closet, in your head/Exit light/Enter night/take my hand/off to never-never land.")

It's been a year, and I still don't have many more arrows in that quiver. (Xander's puppy helps - but that solution might not work for everyone.)

But I have spent the past year getting to know him, and if you've ever heard me talk, the word I use the most is "amazing." I can just sit there and watch him figure things out forever, or at least until I realize he's figuring out how to get into the cupboard that contains the drain cleaner. I love that he's smart enough to figure out that you're trying to distract him away from the stuff you don't want him to play with - especially when it's my wife trying to distract him.

He's developed a sense of humor - I'm not sure I understand why he thinks stuff is funny, but I get, sort of, what he thinks is funny...



The thing I have learned is that the past year is probably the one whose passing I will regret the most. He's become bigger, smarter, faster, funnier, and generally more amazing every single day. I have become, mostly balder, but also more thankful for this incredible gift I was given one year ago. I'm not one who used to pray regularly - but in the past year I've said one particular prayer at least once every day - sometimes several times. It helps that it's easy to remember - just five words.

Thank you, God, for Xander.

Happy birthday, baby boy.

The U.S. gets a very doable draw in the World Cup. England is tough, of course, but a draw is within the realm of possibility, and Slovenia and Algeria should be wins, which puts the U.S. through to the next round.

Which probably means they'll blow it somehow, but the draw is good.

Elections around the world interest me. I'm always curious about how people around the world choose the lesser of two evils. Also interesting is the reaction to global elections.

Equatorial Guinea had an "election" recently. I put "election" in quotes because I'm too lazy to go get the picture of Inigo Montoya. "President" Teodor Obiang Nguema got "95%" of the "votes" in a race pretty much everyone in the world recognizes as "bullshit." At least, I presume the world recognizes it as bullshit, as I couldn't find any statements as such. It's not like Equatorial Guinea is unimportant, as it has a boatload of oil. The African Union seems to think the election was generally fair, although in their defense, actual fair elections are not things with which the African Union has a lot of familiarity, what with their theory that Robert Mugabe should be running Zimbabwe and not a prison gang. Neutral observers and foreign media were barred from covering the election, which is usually a good sign that somebody has stolen the thing. But, of course, this mostly speculative, because there has not been much international outrage about the "election" in Equatorial Guinea.

Which brings me to Honduras. International press was all over their recent election, and while plenty of people complained about it, the guy who lost the election accepted the result, which would seem to put Honduras well ahead of Equatorial Guinea. The big problem everyone had was whether the lame duck former President would get to hang out in whatever the Honduran version of the Oval Office for the next couple of months. (Because, remember, the whole reason this started was because said lame duck was accused of trying to illegally extend his term in office, which said lame duck assured us was absolutely not any part of his plan and he had no intention of trying to run things after January.) So...Honduras had an election, everyone agrees the guy who says he got the most votes got the most votes, and the only one with a beef is a guy who would have, at most, two or three weeks in office before the new guy took over.

Seems like Honduras' election merits less complaint than Equatorial Guinea. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Wonder why that is.