Indiana Dunes

Indiana Dunes,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Here's a cute picture of Parker that Cathy took this past weekend. He's looking for buried treasure at the Indiana Dunes State Park.

Can you give me some privacy?

Can you give me some privacy? ,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Parker taking care of some paperwork. We're bound to use this as blackmail on him once he starts dating.

Jedi Parker

Jedi Parker,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Here's a cute picture of Parker at Brian Popovitz's house, taken by Chad Wells. Parker got into a vicious light saber fight with Jon Beard's son Will. I hope he doesn't turn to the dark side.

Bon Voyage Nigel, Helen and Ellie

Our friends Nigel Pizzini and Helen Gremillion and their daughter Ellie left Bloomington Saturday for New Zealand. Nigel is a native Kiwi and has lived in various parts of the world and the country since leaving New Zealand. He's lived in Bloomington for the past 6 years and we got to know him when we were volunteering with Big Brothers/Big Sisters. We've been friends ever since and have gotten to know his family. We wish the Pizzini/Gremillion family the best of luck in their new home and jobs. Nigel is going to be a full time Dad! Maybe we'll save our pennies and try to visit them some day!

Potty Training: Done

Well, that was easy. What's the big deal? Parker was potty trained in a little less than 2 weeks. Well, we've been working with his for almost a year, but once he decided he was ready to do it all the time, he was ready. He now wears big boy underwear all the time, except for long car rides and at night. And even then, the extra precaution hasn't been necessary. We were even away from home the last two weekends and he had only two accidents. I don't even count one because it was at the end of a 3 hour car ride and we were stuck in construction traffic in Chicago. He went 4 times at Denny's on Friday night! Our baby is growing up! Next big step, tricycle proficiency.

When I'm Big

So, last night Parker went down a list for us of all the thing he was going to do when he gets big. Here it is:

• Pee on granny's tree like cousin Jake did.
  
• Play football on a football field.
  
• Watch Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 movies.

That kid of ours is so flippin' cute!

Random Wednesday

Some funny ethnic stereotyping from Saturday Night Live.


2008 American Idol winner David Cook performing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." It was just ok for me. Kind of pitchy. He played it safe.


New Barenaked Ladies kids CD called "Snacktime" is out now. How did I miss this?


How about the Top 10 Worst Films about Jesus?

Since my last political post, Obama has picked up 10 super delegates. The magic number is down to 46.

The track listing for the upcoming re-master/re-issue of U2's 1980 debut album, Boy, was finally leaked to the web. Most of the bonus tracks have already been released as part of the Compete U2 Digital Box Set on iTunes. I'm rather disappointed in this track list. There's really only 2 unreleased tracks, 1 unreleased mix and 2 unreleased live tracks. I would have liked to have seen more from their pre-Boy demos. Here's the track list for the second disc:

1. I Will Follow (previously unreleased mix)
2. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock (single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
3. Touch (B-side of "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
4. Speed Of Life (previously unreleased track)
5. Saturday Night (previously unreleased track)
6. Things To Make And Do (B-side of "A Day Without Me" single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
7. Out Of Control (U2:3 version, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
8. Boy/Girl (U2:3 track, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
9. Stories For Boys (U2:3 version, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
10. Another Day (single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
11. Twilight (B-side of "Another Day" single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
12. Boy/Girl (Live at The Marquee, London) (Also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
13. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock (Live at The Marquee, London) (previously unreleased)
14. Cartoon World (Live at The National Stadium, Dublin) (previously unreleased)

Politics, Poker, Potty Training and Pepper Potts

So, I haven't posted much in the last few weeks. Work and the great, although cool, weather has kept me busy.

I was in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, for 5 days at the beginning of the month for the 100th annual conference of the American Planning Association. Yes, that's right. The good citizens of Bloomington paid to send me to Sin City. This was my first trip to Las Vegas and it may have been my last. The conference was great, but the city was more than I can handle. The conference Keynote speaker was Congressman Earl Blumenauer from Oregon. He spoke about McCain's "Gas tax holiday" and the sorry state of public infrastructure and infrasture funding in the country. I also got to attend a session by Jack Dangermond, founder of ESRI about the future of GIS including consumer oriented geographic data systems, like Google Earth, and the sharing of data and data analysis tools over the web. Of course I had some fun too! I played a little video poker, a little 3-card poker, a little video blackjack, a few slots. In the end, I came out about $20 ahead. I ended up checking out 5 casinos; Paris, Bally's, Bellagio, Planet Hollywood and the classic downtown Golden Nugget. The whole city stank of capitalism to the extreme, unchecked growth and wealth, and conspicuous consumption however. Everything was for sale and had a price. Not really my style. While in Vegas, we made one trip out of the city to Red Rock Canyon. This was the first time I'd ever been in any kind of desert. We were lucky because it was a beautiful spring day in the 60s and the desert flowers were in bloom.

I saw Iron Man on Tuesday. It was phenomenal. They stayed true to the comics story line and Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect Tony Stark. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to stick around in the theater until after the credits. There's a great scene with a new character and major hints about future movies. Also, if you're quick enough, you can apparently catch of glimpse of Captain America's shield in Stark's workshop and the band in Caesar's Palace (Which I didn't get a chance to go into while I was in Vegas) is playing the Iron Man cartoon theme song from the 1960s. In my opinion, this was the second best super hero film that's been made, right behind Spider-Man 2.

We are in full blown potty training mode with Parker and it's going well! He's been using the potty sporadically for almost a year. He's been wearing underwear almost exclusively during the day for about a week. He still doesn't go #2 in the potty, but we're working on it. We bought him a bunch of underwear with his favorite characters on them and we're keeping spare pants with us all the time. I hope he's totally potty trained in time for George's wedding in October.


While I was in Vegas, I missed the highly anticipated Barack Obama rally at Assembly Hall. I was impressed when I heard that 17,000 attended. That's more people than live in Lebanon! This pales in comparison to the 75,000 he attracted in Portland Oregon last week. Cathy didn't get a chance to attend the Obama rally either, or the Hillary Clinton rally 5 days earlier. My parents got a chance to hear Bill Clinton speak to a less than half full Lebanon Middle School gym. Only 750 people turned out to see him. Kind of sad considering this was the first time that a president had visited Lebanon since Abraham Lincoln. The Clintons' visits to Bloomington and Lebanon didn't help much. Obama won both counties, but Clinton pulled out a narrow victory in the state. To all but Clinton, the primaries look like they're all but done. Obama has Clinton the pledged delegate lead and is 57 56 delegates from clinching the nomination. November can't come soon enough!

Classic Marvel Cartoon Theme Songs fom the 1960s

After seeing Iron Man and all the recent hype about future Marvel movies, it's made me nostalgic for the old Marvel Comics characters. I just started reading "Tales to Astonish" a book about Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the characters and industry they created.

Here's a couple of fun YouTube clips of 1960s era Marvel character based cartoon theme songs. Parker loves the Spider-man theme song and can sing all of the first verse. Apparently, the Iron Man theme song made an appearance in the Iron Man movie, but I had never heard it before. These are all really cheesy, but fun.

















Bonus: A classic from my childhood, Spider-man and His Amazing Friends from 1981:


Bonus 2: A non-marvel character. This is the theme from "The Batman" from 2004, written by U2's The Edge.

Treat Your Mother Right

A mother's day message from Laurence Tureaud, AKA Mr. T. I pity the fool that doesn't respect his momma.



Found at the I Am Fuel, You are Friends blog.