Yesterday a girl I work with said "Wow, you look totally cool in street clothes! I expected you to be all like...Revenge of the Nerds."
Thank...you?
260 thoughts on “April 13, 2012: Compliments”
Looks are so deceiving
You all wanted it so here it is (courtesy of cjzero.com)
Raul Ibanez is jealous.
I promise you I will never get tired of this.
I think he looks more like a 1976 Impala on that play.
I got bored at work since I had a meeting cancelled on me. I had just not enough time to get home to make it worth my while, so I'm screwing around online.
Slaught played in 5 home games vs. the Phillies in 1991. May 24th Morandini didn't play, May 25th Slaught didn't get on base in either of his to PA. 3 more games to check.
Aug 13: 1-3, 1B (not advanced), BB (scores on next batter's 3B), K
Aug 15: No PA
Sept. 22: K, HBP (not advanced), 3-5, BB (doubled up on 3-U line drive)
I must have missed something somewhere...
Looks pretty green behind them; I'm thinking Spring Training.
Must be, those unis for Philly aren't showing up as official jerseys.
Looks like a spring training game to me (trees in the background, red tops).
I'm a little bummed not to find it, but it was an enjoyable way to kill 30 minutes. I got to run to my lesson now. If anyone (*cough*Rhu*cough*) wants to throw up another card in about 2 hours or so that'd be awesome.
Dude, some of us have to WORK.
Stare at the ii gif above; that's doing it for me.
Gardy on Wheeling Ham (I swear I'm not making this up):
he can jerk the fire out of the ball.
Well, I think we know who Gardy's man crush is on this season.
I wonder what happens when Hammie jerks that fire through the internets.
Man, that's even better than jacking a donger.
US Today's Money section reports this year's AVERAGE prom spending: $1078. When I "went to the prom", all it cost was the price of a fishing license.
Meanwhile, another headline there: Toyolta's Scion loses not time in making hot FR-S
$1078? That is nuts. We as a society should be embarrassed about that.
A grand on prom? Holy balls. Dr. Chop and I got married for a little over 3K which included 2 flights from ABQ and her ring(s). The most expensive part of the show was getting enough John Hardey's BBQ to feed my family.
My wife and I got married in a little ceremony and had an afternoon meal at a decent restaurant in St. Paul. Total number of attendees: 21. This is the way to go.
We had something like 400 people (350? Somewhere in between I suppose), but still did the whole thing for around 5K because we had the wedding in out-state MN. That is the way go.
I don't even want to begin to think about what my wedding cost.
Dido. Our wedding wasn't huge, but its price tag was significantly larger than anything listed here so far.
I'm going to a wedding in your hometown next weekend. I trust it will be a fairly inexpensive affair.
A weekend in Marshall? You lucky dog. Enjoy Applebees!
I worked in Marshall for a summer (wife is from Wabasso). It was painful.
Bold flavors, top shelf margs, you guys.
I went to a friend's wedding last spring. The cost of the venue alone was like 10 grand. On top of that was a very elaborate ceremony and huge reception. The bride's family was extremely well-to-do, but still, jeez.
Us too. All told I would say we spent about $16K. But it was awesome and I regret nothing.
That's not what his wife says!
Hey-oh!
[sob]
This.
Then again, I didn't think I'd like having a big reception, and that night was absolutely a blast. I wouldn't change a thing in retrospect.
That's not what his wife says! (I have to add more here, since it's detecting a duplicate comment.)
Dido. Ethnic weddings in Chicago are not cheap.
My wedding cost a lot more than I would have spent on it. On the other hand, I wasn't paying and we weren't getting that money unless it went to the wedding. It was quite generous, even though I'd rather just have lower student loan debt.
xactly. Many weddings are for the benefit of the MiL, not necessarily the matrimonial couple. I learned that early on in the planning process and strove (strived?) to pick my spots. For example, I got veto rights on the everyday "china" pattern for which we registered, which I exercised to the degree of "no flowers 'n stuff on the eating area -- edges only!"
Of mild interest, the Mrs tired of that pattern after a decade. We now have plain bone white plates. #Winning!
The way to go is whatever you and your spouse prefer. There aren't a lot of hard and fast rules about it. It is, of course, a bad idea to spend a lot more money on a wedding than you can afford.
One thing I always caution couples about, though, is to try to minimize the stress of a wedding as much as possible. What that means will be different for everybody. For some, having lots of people coming in can be very stressful. For others, cutting the list down so that some have to be excluded can be very stressful. There are, of course, lots of other factors that can add to the stress of a wedding.
I also remind couples that if they choose to have their wedding performed by a pastor in a church, then they are deciding to have a religious ceremony and not a show. It's still a celebration, and I want it to be. Still, if I'm going to be involved, it will be a celebration that honors God as well as honoring the couple. If people don't want that, it's fine with me, but I suggest that in that case, it might be more appropriate for them to have a civil ceremony rather than a religious one.
Mrs. A and I had about 250 people at our wedding, but we did not have a wedding dance. The only reception we had was sandwiches and cake in the church basement. That cut down on the cost considerably.
Whatever the couple prefers is nice in theory, but in practice, the preferences of parents must be considered as well.
See below, but our "Stone Soup" method felt very free of parental complications. Everything they wanted to add, we were free to accept or decline. SSS disclaimer: I've only gone through this with the two sets of parents.
I'm not sure the degree to which you were lucky or I was unlucky, but I think we had different experiences on that front.
You're right, and that can be another source of stress. I don't have a perfect answer for it. I do remind the couple, though, that by agreeing to get married, they are forming a new family unit, so it's important that they make decisions together. I also remind them that, during their marriage, there are going to be times when parents have ideas that one or both of them will not like. The two of them need to be able to come to a mutual agreement and, if necessary, be able to tell either or both sets of parents, "We appreciate your thoughts and your concern, but this is what we've decided to do."
That can be a lot easier in theory than in practice, of course.
Good advice, for sure.
Depends on whose checkbook is being dented.
It's not just about money. Some of the things that caused the most tension in my wedding had nothing to do with spending cash.
I like the point about the religious ceremony. It's a bit easier as a Catholic, since the church is pretty strict about what they will and won't allow.
One of my favorite professors from SJU is a priest (and monk, obviously). He agreed to do the wedding. His homily was like siting in class and listening to one of his lectures. Lots of people were bored but I absolutely loved it.
The priest at our wedding refused to allow us to have the sign of peace. So, I could not go shake my dad's hand and hug my mother because that was "distracting".
That's absurd. The sign of peace is part of the Mass. You don't cut out part of the Mass. I feel for you.
Let's just say we got married in a conservative parish. Two weeks later, back from our honeymoon we went back. The pastor's message in the bulletin was a long diatribe about how great the Iraq War was going (2005) and how the news media was distorting the truth about the war. This was in the church bulletin!!!! The sermon was about how homosexuals were to blame for the sexual abuse scandal in the church. Oy vey.
I have not stepped foot in that building since then.
The homily at my brother's mass was largely about abortion. And forbidden topics aside... time, place, and manner, you know?
My wife and I did not get married in a church.
Ugh. I went to a church like that for a while when I lived in D.C. It was easily the closest church, and every other parish involved getting on the metro, which didn't exactly get you where you were going quickly on a Sunday morning. Still, it wasn't long before we just sucked it up and started spending an hour traveling to/from a different parish.
You could always commute to SoDak on sundays.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvAIIX5Qk7s
btw, if the House Padre is uncomfortable with this imbedded link, he should feel free to remove it from this post (or ask me to do so). I picked one video kind of at random, and this was it. It seemed rather apropos to the thread.
I went to a Presbyterian wedding for one of Sheenie's family friends in Dallas a couple of years ago and the sermon of the wedding was all about how everyone should be thankful that their church hadn't started allowing gay marriages. WTF?!
I don't have a problem with it, bS. I don't link to that kind of stuff here myself, because I don't feel this is the place for it. I will say that if anyone's interested in my messages, my blog, or anything else like that, you can go hereto get links to them.
I don't want to comment on what other churches do, because we're all different, and I don't want to be in the position of criticizing someone's faith. I will say that I personally am fairly permissive about what I'll allow at a wedding, as long as it's within reason. One constant source of amusement to me is that in my current appointment, I'm actually the liberal pastor in the area.
I also will say that I make it a practice to not ever comment about political matters from the pulpit. There are a few reasons for this.
One is that, when the pastor does this, it can be implied that those who disagree are not really Christians. I don't believe that at all. I know many people whom I am convinced are faithful believers who completely disagree with me politically.
Two, I know a lot of pastors, of all political persuasions, who are convince that they know what God's politics are. Coincidentally, God's politics always agree with their own. Certainly there is a congruence between my politics and my faith, but I try very hard to let my faith inform my politics and not the other way around.
Three, even if I'm completely convinced I'm right politically, I never want to risk losing a religious convert for the sake of gaining a political convert. The first is much more important than the second to me.
Sorry if I've gone on too much about this. I don't normally go into these subjects here, and I don't intend to make a practice of it. I only did here because it seemed to fit in with the conversation.
Wow, SBG and Neil,
I've been to many Catholic Churches and have heard very few homilies about political issues.
Typically only ones about reflection before voting, or when the Archbishop has statements for the priests to read.
Most of the places I've lived, there's been an abundance of Catholic churches around. That would have sent me to another.
I find Neil's story particularly galling because most weddings I know involve people from multiple faiths, who wouldn't be under any religious duty to agree (or respectfully consider, or whatever) with statements from the pulpit. We chose the priest for our wedding as we got married at a college chapel outside of a parish. I asked my childhood priest.
At one parish I did hear an extremely environmentalist homily once.
Whatever the persuasion, I always find them distracting, often because I dispute the facts or logic behind the argument, even if I've agreed with the punchline. Which gets me mentally argumentative, and then I'm not paying attention to anything else for the rest of mass.
My inlaws are good friends with their priest, and so I see him frequently. I think he hews closer to Rev.A's position, and I'm thankful for that.
/Not enough time to re-scan for line crossing if it happened. Please forgive any errant steps. If anyone thinks so, I'll redact later. (Or just go ahead and do it if you have rights.)
i think that's a fabulous philosophy, jeffA. i wish it was more universal.
I like the way you think, padre.
I'm not a believer, JeffA, but if I were, I'd be looking for a preacher/rabbi a lot like you. Which is why I linked.
You do a lot of credit to your faith, and to our virtual community. Thanks for all you do around here, including setting a good example.
Thank you, brian.
I didn't mean to drop a bomb like that and take off. It certainly has not been my experience in the vast majority of churches I've been to (I grew up Catholic and am probably best described as lapsed now). I went to a rather liberal Catholic church and schools growing up so I've always found such things pretty shocking. We had a religious ceremony, just not a Catholic mass.
And agreed with above - I like the way JeffA approaches things. All God's chillin', you know.
My pastor reminded me in his message at our wedding that things like the Minnesota Twins would now be taking a back seat. He's right, I guess.
I'm reasonably sure there was some sort of message at my wedding, no idea what it was, though.
Our homily started with a humorous story about the wedding shower in my hometown. It was held in the rectory basement of this priest's church. One of my great-aunts or Mom's cousins got stuck in the restroom when the doorknob failed. Father had to figure out what had happened, redirect the women to the men's restroom, and call a locksmith. Then he held up the actual doorknob which had failed. He told us to never let our hearts never be locked shut to each other etc. etc. and presented us with a skeleton-type key to always remember that (because actually giving us that doorknob would be a bit awkward to carry back up the aisle). It's framed in our bedroom, surrounded by our vows and some dried remnants of the flowers.
As soon as he arrived, he was feverishly writing things down and asking us questions about our courtship and family members' names etc. At the reception, where we had him lead one dance before he left, he told me that he had left his prepared notes in NU on his desk. Yep, that's why I wanted him.
So why would I have ever wanted some political content? Though I'll admit that there are times where political issues may be important enough to be discussed during homilies, I don't go to mass to learn how to vote, I go in part to learn (or re-learn) how to live.
SBG, I remember a priest in NU more recently who stopped handshaking during peace for some influenza-spread-stalling reasons. He made some comment about it being a more recent or non-canonical addition to the mass.
He was also a self-important windbag (got himself elevated to Monsignor, much to the chagrin of many I know in the parish because that means he'll be there twice as long), and I had low levels of respect from him back to his time as the junior priest at the other parish in town. I'm not back in NU often due to many issues (my mother's mental health tops among them, but when I am, I do my best to avoid his church, the one I grew up with, and attend the other, which is always packed like sardines.
Yeah, I walked out of a friend's wedding because the pastor went on a long tangent about how marriage was under attack by gays, and all that.
My friend noticed, and she later said "I swear to God, I almost followed you."
J & I had a small ceremony in her back yard with eight attendees. We had dinner catered in from a Chinese take out place and then went bowling. I think everything total cost under $500.
This of course doesn't include the cost of the stuff that got stolen out of the trunk of my car the night of our wedding, but I don't think it's fair to include that.
yeah, i've never understood big weddings. i wanted to do something small, and jane mostly agreed. thanks to her and my mother's meddling it did end up ballooning much more than i wanted, but still it was smallish and on the cheap. i don't know how much it ended up being, but i'd be surprised if it was more than 1 to 1.5 prom(s).
I, on the other hand, don't understand small weddings. Of course I've got something around 100 relatives when you stop at the grandparent/aunt-uncle/cousin level, so by that point alone you've already blown past small wedding. I really did enjoy the big wedding though. Lots of love and support to go around.
We both have big families - my wife particularly so - so we had about 250 guests.
Yeah, my wife's family is big too. I love it.
My immediate family is tiny. Once you get to the "parents' cousins" level, it balloons from 8 to 80, so we ended up sending out about 300 invitations. We expected maybe 100 or so people to show up. 220-some ended up coming.
The Milkmaid's got a huge family and felt the need to invite everyone despite many of them not being important to her, and they cut into the list considerably. Luckily, everyone was invited to the reception, so while the wedding had probably around 175 guests, the reception was well over that, as the countless actors I knew showed up for it. I wouldn't change anything about my wedding day either, though I wish it hadn't been such a blur.
I definitely have a huge family, but I have very little contact with them. Honestly, I didn't really tell people other than the attendees that we were getting married. We kind of keep to ourselves.
dido. very few people even knew about Pete until after he was born (and even then, we waited about a week since he was in the NICU).
In retrospect, me and my wife both agree that taking my dad up on his offer to fly us to Reno would have been the better option for everyone. Big weddings can go straight to hell, especially with a lot of family and two families that don't like each other. A good time was had for the most part, but yeah, I probably shouldn't go into it too much.
and then went bowling
Dr. Chop and I had a softball game at our wedding. We picked sides and played 7 innings. One of the best days of our lives.
That sounds awesome, meat.
Seconded.
Secondy seconded.
Wrong site. Oops.
Her team crushed my team. Not even in the joaking sense. They absolutely destroyed us.
Oh, yeah. We also had stage coach rides. No kidding. A good friend's dad runs a stage coach in SoDak and brought the rig to our wedding. Yeah. That happened.
Hope you played 1880's rules softball.
I keep saying I'm going to to get married at the rugby clubhouse. Wrap some flowers around the goalposts = one of those flower arch things. The deck has steps = stadium seating. There are plenty of changing rooms and the banquet hall can certainly hold our relatively few guests. Job done for <$2K MAX, probably closer to 1.
She, unsurprisingly, is not quite on board with that exact plan, though she is in the small wedding camp
Mmmm, John Hardy's BBQ. I'm focusing on that.
mrsS was the first of her extended family to get married. It happened in DC. I can safely say it cost more than a grand. But we did NOT have John Hardy's bbq 🙁 (nor the keg that I suggested to my Moms-in-law; she was not amused).
the three kegs of primo were the next highest cost, non-rings division.
Two kegs of Lienie's Red. (Do they still make that?)
Not sure whether I should included the cases of MGD cans for when the kegs ran out, as we drank most of them over the next few months...
EAR & I each put in $1000 of our own money, but it was a bit like stone soup. Her folks said, "you've gotta have more food than that" so added to the catering budget. I think they went 50-50 on the dress, too. I think my folks went 50-50 on the beer. I bought a suit, so I got a bit of use out of it since.
Overall, it was less than $3K though. It was at St.Kate's on a Friday night. Reception at the on-campus dancehall-type room. The priest from NU said he'd stay with his sister so he didn't need us to put him up at a hotel. My wife's uncle DJ'd (and all we had to do was put up with some of his choices). Practice dinner was family style at Buca DiBeppo (Pope Table!). Attendance was between 150 and 200.
mmm, Buca DiBeppo. I've only been once, but I really liked it.
I live a five minute walk from one. The food is good, but it's so crowded.
Pope Table. Nice.
Our groom's dinner was a grill out at her family farm. It doesn't get less formal than standing around in cow manure.
Ours was at a nice-enough-but-not-too-nice restaurant in Bethesda. The restaurant royally screwed up on service and my bride-to-be reamed out the manager in front of my dad. He was sold for life on her qualities.
Ours was at The Local back when they still had a party room with a private bar...it was a success. Also, we got married by a judge in my SIL's backyard - perhaps 25 people and spent about two proms and included a honeymoon here. We had a nice time.
On the odd chance that anyone cares, we got married here by him (still my favorite rabbi). Reception was downtown, near G'town (Park Hyatt?? I can't remember, but I do recall that some group of scruffy looking dudes were in the lobby when we came in; the newly-minted Mrs. S didn't like their looks -- turns out it was Depeche Mode; no, they did NOT play our reception). Honeymoon was a bed & breakfast in Bermuda. I highly recommend Bermuda for you East Coast types.
You were married by
KAAAAHHHHHNNNNN!!!!!!??!?!?!?
/Not sure if I did it right.
the Shatner obsession came first, I assure you.
I think I spent about $100 on my tux, $50 on dinner, and $11 on a bottle of vodka. I did not have a very good prom.
You've gotta upgrade for prom.
I've enjoyed Ketel One, but I'm sure there are plenty of options better than Phillips or Karkov.
So keep that in mind for next time!
I made $65. It wasn't until halfway through my shift that I realized other schools also had prom, making for an easy night.
yeah, i decided i'd much rather be working than being anywhere near prom. my friends were all 3-8 years older than me anyway, so i had a much better time running around with them.
I'm with sean, although I don't remember specifically what I made that night. I only hope I can pass along the same prom values/opinions to my daughter due to free's post below.
All you guys with daughters, just wait. Shit gets real once they hit their teens.
This is going to be a source of marital tension, you can go to the bank on that.
It will probably be a source of father-daughter tension when I get there, too.
I'm already feeling tense about this stuff.
I am banking on the Girl thinking that all of the guys are stoopid.
The Boy got wheedled into going to the "junior Prom" (they have 2 proms out here; WTF??) as "friends" with a girl. She ok'd him wearing a suit, as the jr. prom is less formal than the sr. prom, and she bought her own corsage, correctly predicting that he'd be an idiot. He did at least buy her dinner at a nice restaurant. And he got to drive mrsS's beemer.
I am banking on the Girl thinking that all of the guys are stoopid.
This is my only hope. Yesterday was "V" day at Miss SBG's preschool. Her mother dressed her up in a white dress and she wore her mother's first communion veil (v, get it?). The boys teased her and said she was dating. My daughter said no, she's just a bride.
She sounds like a real firecracker. That should serve her well.
Especially on the 4th of July.
You have no idea. No. idea.
My wife has a difficult time making decisions and imposing her will. My daughter is the opposite of that. This is not a good combination.
My daughter is a mini version of my wife. That has its own drawbacks.
My son is a mini version of me. That of course means that he is totally awesome.
That's not what his wife says!
/ran that gag into the ground, huh?
Okay, girls are more expensive sure, but those numbers are inflated.
See Spooky's comment below. I didn't even include nails (or new undergarments either). Those are not inflated numbers. Also I should have bumped the shoes to $75.
My last comment seems to be overly aggressive. I just wanted to show how one could get to that $1,078 figure and to mostly demonstrate that it's the girls who are driving up the per couple cost of Prom.
Oh, I understood where you were going with those numbers. I'm just saying that you can not skimp and still come up well below that total.
I think those numbers are relatively fair in that they are realistic representations of what people do spend, but it's not a representation of what people would have to spend. Bring the dress down to even $200 and using the rest of your numbers, you're down to $364 per person. Still a lot, but probably more representative of the median than the $1000 average that was quoted. I realize that winning the concession of a lower cost dress is not an easy victory, but it's also not impossible.
as we should all understand, "average", "typical" and "median" are not the same things. Methinks the $1,000 mean is likely to be true, but the distribution is very skewed.
[ed: I see that ubes addressed this exact pt below]
Yeah, that's usually my first thought with almost any spending or income distribution. Spending fifteen seconds on the google machine, I see estimates of a $25K average for weddings and a $17-18K median for weddings. The prom distribution is probably similar.
Another point to consider here is that it is likely for costs to vary greatly from region to region. What someone spends on prom in Manhattan is not likely to be what someone spends on prom in rural Minnesota.
I'm already there, and it is indeed very real.
I went to prom three times, since I had a girlfriend in 11th grade when I was in 10th. All three sucked (particularly the last one; the girl I wanted to be with at prom in 12th grade died the day of the prom and I was inconsolable).
All three girls took it easy on the money, it would seem. Fine by me...I never liked the high-maintenance girls.
A classmate of mine pointed out that she'd gotten her nails done for $38 for prom. I was dumbfounded. I detected no difference between her nails and mine.
I think that it has really exploded since we were in high school though. Also, we're dudes.
I can't imagine losing someone like that - that's nuts. Wow.
It sort of defines who I am still. I miss her terribly.
Wow, that's brutal.
I wasnt cool enough to go to prom (or maybe too cool)
This would carry more weight if your previous avatar said it.
Hmmmm...I find this statistic at least somewhat dubious. I am sure that the thrust of the article holds--a lot of money is spent on prom--but two things: 1) this seems like a classic spending distribution where the top 5-10% brings the average way up while the median stays fairly low, and 2) what about those who spend nothing on prom? It seems likely that the latter group doesn't get counted in the statistics, and including them would certainly bring down the average.
It's likely similar to wedding cost statistics. The average is much higher than the median, and particularly in the case of wedding costs, the wedding industrial complex seems to prefer putting high numbers out there with either the idea that people will feel pressured into spending more or people will be more comfortable with buying things they would otherwise never consider.
So we're still recruiting for the next game of Werewolf over on the Casa. It'll be an Arrested Development themed game. It'll be light-hearted, with gags and humorous afflictions, etc. Recent player developments have also helped the games be less intense/time-consuming, so if those have been concerns for you, they might be effectively mitigated now. Hoping to get up to at least 12 players.
Update: we're a couple of players away from a really good game. Hoping we can get a few more. Got some fun stuff planned.
And now that song is in my head. In the ghett-ooooooooooooooooooooohhh...
Yep, that's all it takes. I can expect it to be wedged in there for a week or so.
Sing it in the Cartman voice. It helps.
Is there another version?
"iiiiii'm saaaiiillliiing awaaaaaayy..."
Chocolate salty balls, they're chock full of vitamins, and good for you!
And I live in the land of bad drivers.
The corner of "Flat" "Corn" and "Absolutely Nothing."
::Looks out window::
Yup.
"Sugar Beats"? There's so much not right with this map, but that kinda stands out to me.
And Drunk Indians. I know the gag is to stereotype and all, but c'mon now.
Yeah, that seemed over the line. I thought the idea was more to stereotype outsiders than insiders.
"Sugar Beats"? There's so much not right with this map, but that kinda stands out to me.
No joak. I do NOT think of that part of the state when I think of pop cover tunes
No respect for Pipestone National Monument, I see.
The Pipestone National Monument will get respect when it earns respect, damn it.
Ice & Snow. Yep.
And wind. Don't forget the wind.
If anyone sees an Iowa version, let me know. I'd love to see what they come up with.
It would just be one color and it would be labeled Smells Like Manure.
Not corn and idiots? Hmmm. A difference of opinion!
Both options are accurate. I would just be curious to see how the creator decided to divvy up the state. Excepting the two circles around Ames and Iowa City for "Drunken A$$hole college kids"
well, then you would need some smaller circles for "rich, drunken A$$hole college kids" for Cedar Rapids, Mount Vernon, and Grinnell, no?
I was once driving down I35 into Iowa - the sign said "Iowa - A Place To Grow" - and someone had painted "Corn" after it. Hee-haw.
Heywood Banks has you covered:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyeY0hWU28I
I live the line of 'corn' and 'absolutely nothing'. sounds about right!
Hopefully this doesn't step too far into the forbidden zone...
Does anyone know what crime could possibly have been committed by the Fox News guy who reported stuff for Gawker? I'm not coming up with an obvious one, unless somehow he stole something?
Maybe he had some sort of non-disclosure agreement? I heard they threatend to pursue criminal and civil remedies. I can't think what criminal violations there would be but it isn't really my area.
That's the thing... it's not my area either, but the only things I can think of are all civil claims.
Pretty much all of us commit federal wire fraud. I'm guessing he could be charged with that, but what's the point. Fox News may ask the feds to look into it, but I doubt they'll care about the case.
What constitutes wire fraud?
(1) scheme to defraud (money or property) by means of false pretenses, (2) defendant's knowing and willful participation in scheme with intent to defraud, and (3) use of interstate wire communications in furtherance of scheme
Basically, lying on the internet.
But not all lies intend to defraud of money or property.
True, but pretty much anyone who has ever bypassed registration using bugmenot or something along those lines has committed wire fraud. If this guy used shared any proprietary information (and used his email while doing so), then the elements are there. However, it is incredibly like the feds won't care.
But what kind of proprietary information could he be sharing? Perceptions of a workplace don't exactly qualify as property.
No idea - I really haven't paid any attention to the facts of the case. I just know that if the feds "want" you, then they can always "get" you for wire fraud (much like Al Capone was nailed for tax fraud).
whew. For a second there, I thought you were talking about the wgom.org's trip to Aruba maintenance fund that we're supporting.
Ah, BugMeNot. Does that site still work?
he gave Gawker a video of a Mitt Romney/Sean Hannity interview that was not meant for air. He also said mean things about FOX and FOX being the *redacted*heads they are and going to sue, and sue to prevent other low level employees to speak out.
I enjoyed those columns.They had a 'Im going down hard, and I dont care' feel to it. And no he has a great 'I got fired' story to tell!
I gave up watching most cable 'news' outlet shows long ago because most of them are people yelling at each other, spewing out talking points, and accomplishing nothing.
Ok, so I guess taking the video might be theft or use of proprietary information in violation of wire fraud statutes... still, seems pretty weak.
I gave up watching most cable 'news' outlet shows long ago because most of them are people yelling at each other, spewing out talking points, and accomplishing nothing.
Me, too. And I haven't missed it a bit.
I gave up watching most cable 'sports' outlet shows long ago because most of them are people yelling at each other, spewing out talking points, and accomplishing nothing.
I did that, too. I might watch a little of PTI once in a while, and I usually catch a little of Mike & Mike while I'm getting ready in the morning, but that's it.
I can't remember who it was that suggested Terriers. I really enjoyed watching that show, and while it's a shame that it was canceled they did an excellent job of wrapping it up without hurrying.
I'm about 4 episodes in. Maybe if you and I had watched it when it was on it would have gotten renewed. Way to go, us.
I also watched it (and very much enjoyed it) after Zack recommended it. So add me to that list.
I think the title may have had something to do with why I didn't watch it...
I started watching Veronica Mars last night. The premier was enjoyable enough that it might become my complement to Battlestar Gallactica on Netfix.
Veronica Mars is excellent. Season 1 in particular.
I love that show. Except for much of season 3.
It's unfortunate how it kind of got jerked around at the end.
I liked parts of season two, but as I watched it as it aired, it was infuriating.
Are we talking about TV now? Because the first disc of Game of Thrones came from Netflix yesterday. My wife of course hated the pilot what with all the heads being chopped off and whatnot. I of course loved it what with all the heads being chopped off and whatnot.
7 episodes into that one. Not really enjoying the show that much. I can sense that much is being left out (by necessity) and it makes me sad that I'm not getting the whole story.
This isn't a case of conflating the books and the TV show, the series makes it clear that there is more story that the viewer won't ever get to see.
Most of what's cut is material that's unfilmable. It's just a huge universe that five books into it, is starting to make sense.
Most of what's cut is material that's unfilmable.
or too expensive. i'm glad that it's been as well received as it has so that hopefully HBO will up the budget a bit. i'm surprised they did what they did with what they had, but hopefully they'll be able to afford a bit more now.
Last year's budget was $50-60 million and it was upped 15% for this season. However, much of it is being saved for a rather large battle.
C"MON KARL POLAHD OPUN UP THE PURSESTINGS!!!1!
could be worse. they could've made a movie out of it.
I think the show actually does a pretty remarkable job of staying true to the books. But yeah, there is a lot of minor stuff left out.
i hope the 6th comes out soonish, because i'm looking forward to re-reading everything again.
Don't hold your breath.
yeah, i just read the series last summer and i think the forward of book 4 mentioned book 5 would be out around `06.
Supposedly, he's learned his lesson and the next book won't take six years. My guess is two or three years. There is the TV series now, which could motivate him to work faster. Or bog him down so it takes another decade.
I thought he was just J.K. Rowling writing under a pen name?
Hopefully he learned something from James Oliver Rigney, Jr.
Get 'r dun, George. Winter is Coming.
Hey, one episode into the TV show and I get that reference. Sweet.
I think the show actually does a pretty remarkable job of staying true to the books.
I haven't read the books, so that's not part of my thoughts on the show, DK actually pretty well nails what I miss in the storytelling in his comment below.
One thing I didn't think they did as well as I would have liked in a perfect world (since it would've been difficult to do this better with the time constraints they already had to get as many "current" events in as they did) is elaborating on the history of the world of the story. There are a lot of events that took place prior to the point where the story opens that have significant effects on what happens in the story and why some characters act the way they do, and I think in a lot of cases the show doesn't establish the magnitude of that history as well as I'd have liked. This varies some depending on different parts of the history, though; some are established better than others.
And the history is the thing that I like most about epic fantasy as a genre. So I miss it in the TV series.
Well, I guess my advice then would be... read the books! As DK said, it's a very rich world with a lot of meaty backstory. It's a perfect series for delving deep into the mythology and connecting the dots and coming up with zany theories.
This series of books is right in my wheelhouse, but I refuse to start until he finishes. I'd be pissed if he went and died before the final book was finished.
It would have been better if Frank had not reproduced. Or at least instructed his son in no uncertain terms not to screw with his legacy.
Our only hope is a ghola.
our own private Idaho?
heh, seeing pictures of him, and the way i assume he takes care of himself, this has actually been a legitimate concern of mine.
and if he does die, will you not read them. I'm telling you the books are great as they stand. Don't let a silly thing like lack of closure get in the way.
I'm not sure what I would do. At least I would be prepared for that when I started.
If it makes you feel better, he revealed the key plot points to the TV producers in case he died before finishing.
does it involve a plane crashing on a remote island?
Oh, I will read the books at some point. I was just surprised at how little I was into the TV series as it would seem to be something I would enjoy.
with any luck, after George finishes the main sequence, he will go back and write some prequels. Preferably filled with cute kids and idiot, floppy-eared aliens.
Which he will then behead.
Have you heard of the Tales of Dunk and Egg? It's a series of short stories that take place before A Song of Ice and Fire. I haven't read them yet, so I don't know if Jar Jar shows up or not.
Third Monday Movie Day is in three days, you guys!
Clearly we can't go a month without movie posts.
cry me a river.
*grumbles about book discussions going off the reservation, then remembers, hey, it's all good!!!!111one111!!!*
Perhaps the pent-up demand indicates a hidden desire for a TV day, say, in the first week of the month.
If it helps, I've witheld saying anything about the stuff I've watched. We have these special days for a reason.
Varitek wandering around Fenway today with a "C" on his jersey. It looks even more ridiculously stupid now that he's in street clothes otherwise.
He upgraded his captain status?
Love it! Please keep mocking him.
I need to have my villians, and if it ain't Cap'n Tek and Scioscia, I don't know who it'll be.
YES announcers spend a few minutes talking about how great Poo-Holes is defensively, but argue that he likely won't be able to win any Gold Gloves because of Doucheira. One of them finally mentions, "Oh, and Adrian Gonzalez won last year's so he'll be tough to beat, too."
If Pooholes hits 50 HRs, he'll probably win the Fielding Grammy too.
On a different topic, yet another day of rain and gloomy weather here in Sactown. I got me a vessel of pho from the local corner stir-fry shop. They do a credible job. Soup is good food, particularly when it comes cauldron-sized, full of rice noodles, mystery meat sausage balls, flank steak, fresh veggies, herbs, chiles and srirachi. Mmmm.
Blue skies in Seattle! I felt your pain back in March, and much pho was consumed. I am sure the gloom will return and stick around in some fashion through Junuary.
My correspondent in your neck of the woods concurs on the weather.
If he needs a home-cooked meal while he's out here, you can tell him where to call.
After many beautiful days here, it's been a well-needed rainy one today. Homemade chili in the crockpot - mmmmmm!!!!
So my godson that I mentioned the other day had his surgery this morning. It was his second open heart surgery in his 5 months of life, and third overall surgery. He's out, and it sounds like's his doing well enough. It's been a tense morning here, since this surgery is kind of make-or-break from the sounds of it. He'll have more in the future, but this is a pretty big step.
Good news! Best wishes to your family.
Glad to hear it. He'll remain in our prayers. I hope you'll keep us updated.
Fingers crossed for your family. Hope the good news keeps coming.
I see Delmon Young hit a HR today
He was also thrown out trying to steal by.... wait for it.... A.J. Pierzynski!
hilarious!
Resistible force, meet movable object.
And he turned a routine flyball into a triple.
Ask and you shall receive
Now we just need a .gif of Carlos Gomez doing something silly in center field and we'll have it.
I dont miss that.
although it could be an adventure in the OF tonight with 20-30 mph SE winds at Target Field
Beautiful. There is absolutely no way to commit an "error" anymore absent picking up the ball and throwing it out of the stadium.
And that is, hands-down, the worst route I have seen anyone take to a ball this year. The more I watch it, the more confused I get about where exactly _elmon thought the ball was going and how he was going to catch it. Dread Pirate is right, that should have been an error.
Wait, that wasn't an error? The batter got a triple?
Just another reason to dislike the White Sox, I guess.
That's insane. There's being a bit of a homer as the official scorer, and then there's that.
Ohhhhhhh, it's sooooooooooooo good.
I just. can't. stop. watching.
Twirling, twirling, twirling!
Not easy to do on rollerskates.
I just listed a ton of oil paint, rabbit skin glue, and varnish crystals on ebay. Oy. I don't like the feeling of selling off stuff that I know I'll use in the future, but at the moment I've hitched my wagon to the press. The good Dr. and I are rapidly downsizing our lives in preparation for the move. E, if you'd like some paint let me know.
On a related note, did you ever get my e-mail?
I was just wondering what to do with all these torn bits of rabbit skin...
the St Louis Cardinals tweaked their unis this year. Gold numbering on white jerseys. gross
I think that's just for today.
From what I read, they lined them with gold as part of the "current MLB champions" thing.
the subject matter of this article is probably forbidden zone, but I just wanna b!tch about the reporting fial. The Yahoo crawl header is teh Stoopid: "Lunch No Longer Law in California"
The Cali Supreme Court most assuredly did NOT eliminate lunch breaks.
The Court said that employers don't have to force employees to go on break, but they still have to provide break-time. I had a discussion about this one with someone from a gubmint office that I shall not name who noted that they had dealt with numerous complaints from workers about this case. Specifically, from waitrons, who don't want to be forced to take a lunch break right when the dinner rush is starting, since they earn so much of their income from tips.
First, a statement of fact. What Delmon Young giveth on offense, Delmon Young taketh on defense.
OK, here's the question. Why play Young in left field when Andy Dirks is also in the lineup as the DH? Considering the strengths and weakness of both players, which are pretty damn obvious, you would think it's a no-brainer decision to DH Young and give Dirks the start in left. I'm not even going to attempt to guess Leyland's thought processes in regard to lineups. Though an overdose of nicotine may have been a factor.
If the Tigers continue to play Young in left due to his not wanting to be a full time DH, you can just kill me now. Victor Martinez could play better outfield ...TODAY. Every time Young makes noises about wanting to play in the field, the Tigers should remind him of his criminal misadventures in left today, then write his name down in the lineup card as the DH ... IN INK. That, and hide his glove.
Looks are so deceiving
You all wanted it so here it is (courtesy of cjzero.com)
Raul Ibanez is jealous.
I promise you I will never get tired of this.
I think he looks more like a 1976 Impala on that play.
I got bored at work since I had a meeting cancelled on me. I had just not enough time to get home to make it worth my while, so I'm screwing around online.
I found this Mickey Morandini card from 1992. I'm CSI'ing it right now. The baserunner is Don Slaught.
Slaught played in 5 home games vs. the Phillies in 1991. May 24th Morandini didn't play, May 25th Slaught didn't get on base in either of his to PA. 3 more games to check.
Aug 13: 1-3, 1B (not advanced), BB (scores on next batter's 3B), K
Aug 15: No PA
Sept. 22: K, HBP (not advanced), 3-5, BB (doubled up on 3-U line drive)
I must have missed something somewhere...
Looks pretty green behind them; I'm thinking Spring Training.
Must be, those unis for Philly aren't showing up as official jerseys.
Looks like a spring training game to me (trees in the background, red tops).
I'm a little bummed not to find it, but it was an enjoyable way to kill 30 minutes. I got to run to my lesson now. If anyone (*cough*Rhu*cough*) wants to throw up another card in about 2 hours or so that'd be awesome.
Dude, some of us have to WORK.
Stare at the ii gif above; that's doing it for me.
Gardy on Wheeling Ham (I swear I'm not making this up):
Well, I think we know who Gardy's man crush is on this season.
I wonder what happens when Hammie jerks that fire through the internets.
Man, that's even better than jacking a donger.
US Today's Money section reports this year's AVERAGE prom spending: $1078. When I "went to the prom", all it cost was the price of a fishing license.
Meanwhile, another headline there:
Toyolta's Scion loses not time in making hot FR-S
$1078? That is nuts. We as a society should be embarrassed about that.
A grand on prom? Holy balls. Dr. Chop and I got married for a little over 3K which included 2 flights from ABQ and her ring(s). The most expensive part of the show was getting enough John Hardey's BBQ to feed my family.
My wife and I got married in a little ceremony and had an afternoon meal at a decent restaurant in St. Paul. Total number of attendees: 21. This is the way to go.
We had something like 400 people (350? Somewhere in between I suppose), but still did the whole thing for around 5K because we had the wedding in out-state MN. That is the way go.
I don't even want to begin to think about what my wedding cost.
Dido. Our wedding wasn't huge, but its price tag was significantly larger than anything listed here so far.
I'm going to a wedding in your hometown next weekend. I trust it will be a fairly inexpensive affair.
A weekend in Marshall? You lucky dog. Enjoy Applebees!
I worked in Marshall for a summer (wife is from Wabasso). It was painful.
Bold flavors, top shelf margs, you guys.
I went to a friend's wedding last spring. The cost of the venue alone was like 10 grand. On top of that was a very elaborate ceremony and huge reception. The bride's family was extremely well-to-do, but still, jeez.
Us too. All told I would say we spent about $16K. But it was awesome and I regret nothing.
That's not what his wife says!
Hey-oh!
[sob]
This.
Then again, I didn't think I'd like having a big reception, and that night was absolutely a blast. I wouldn't change a thing in retrospect.
That's not what his wife says! (I have to add more here, since it's detecting a duplicate comment.)
Dido. Ethnic weddings in Chicago are not cheap.
My wedding cost a lot more than I would have spent on it. On the other hand, I wasn't paying and we weren't getting that money unless it went to the wedding. It was quite generous, even though I'd rather just have lower student loan debt.
xactly. Many weddings are for the benefit of the MiL, not necessarily the matrimonial couple. I learned that early on in the planning process and strove (strived?) to pick my spots. For example, I got veto rights on the everyday "china" pattern for which we registered, which I exercised to the degree of "no flowers 'n stuff on the eating area -- edges only!"
Of mild interest, the Mrs tired of that pattern after a decade. We now have plain bone white plates. #Winning!
The way to go is whatever you and your spouse prefer. There aren't a lot of hard and fast rules about it. It is, of course, a bad idea to spend a lot more money on a wedding than you can afford.
One thing I always caution couples about, though, is to try to minimize the stress of a wedding as much as possible. What that means will be different for everybody. For some, having lots of people coming in can be very stressful. For others, cutting the list down so that some have to be excluded can be very stressful. There are, of course, lots of other factors that can add to the stress of a wedding.
I also remind couples that if they choose to have their wedding performed by a pastor in a church, then they are deciding to have a religious ceremony and not a show. It's still a celebration, and I want it to be. Still, if I'm going to be involved, it will be a celebration that honors God as well as honoring the couple. If people don't want that, it's fine with me, but I suggest that in that case, it might be more appropriate for them to have a civil ceremony rather than a religious one.
Mrs. A and I had about 250 people at our wedding, but we did not have a wedding dance. The only reception we had was sandwiches and cake in the church basement. That cut down on the cost considerably.
Whatever the couple prefers is nice in theory, but in practice, the preferences of parents must be considered as well.
See below, but our "Stone Soup" method felt very free of parental complications. Everything they wanted to add, we were free to accept or decline. SSS disclaimer: I've only gone through this with the two sets of parents.
I'm not sure the degree to which you were lucky or I was unlucky, but I think we had different experiences on that front.
You're right, and that can be another source of stress. I don't have a perfect answer for it. I do remind the couple, though, that by agreeing to get married, they are forming a new family unit, so it's important that they make decisions together. I also remind them that, during their marriage, there are going to be times when parents have ideas that one or both of them will not like. The two of them need to be able to come to a mutual agreement and, if necessary, be able to tell either or both sets of parents, "We appreciate your thoughts and your concern, but this is what we've decided to do."
That can be a lot easier in theory than in practice, of course.
Good advice, for sure.
Depends on whose checkbook is being dented.
It's not just about money. Some of the things that caused the most tension in my wedding had nothing to do with spending cash.
I like the point about the religious ceremony. It's a bit easier as a Catholic, since the church is pretty strict about what they will and won't allow.
One of my favorite professors from SJU is a priest (and monk, obviously). He agreed to do the wedding. His homily was like siting in class and listening to one of his lectures. Lots of people were bored but I absolutely loved it.
The priest at our wedding refused to allow us to have the sign of peace. So, I could not go shake my dad's hand and hug my mother because that was "distracting".
That's absurd. The sign of peace is part of the Mass. You don't cut out part of the Mass. I feel for you.
Let's just say we got married in a conservative parish. Two weeks later, back from our honeymoon we went back. The pastor's message in the bulletin was a long diatribe about how great the Iraq War was going (2005) and how the news media was distorting the truth about the war. This was in the church bulletin!!!! The sermon was about how homosexuals were to blame for the sexual abuse scandal in the church. Oy vey.
I have not stepped foot in that building since then.
The homily at my brother's mass was largely about abortion. And forbidden topics aside... time, place, and manner, you know?
My wife and I did not get married in a church.
Ugh. I went to a church like that for a while when I lived in D.C. It was easily the closest church, and every other parish involved getting on the metro, which didn't exactly get you where you were going quickly on a Sunday morning. Still, it wasn't long before we just sucked it up and started spending an hour traveling to/from a different parish.
You could always commute to SoDak on sundays.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvAIIX5Qk7s
btw, if the House Padre is uncomfortable with this imbedded link, he should feel free to remove it from this post (or ask me to do so). I picked one video kind of at random, and this was it. It seemed rather apropos to the thread.
I went to a Presbyterian wedding for one of Sheenie's family friends in Dallas a couple of years ago and the sermon of the wedding was all about how everyone should be thankful that their church hadn't started allowing gay marriages. WTF?!
I don't have a problem with it, bS. I don't link to that kind of stuff here myself, because I don't feel this is the place for it. I will say that if anyone's interested in my messages, my blog, or anything else like that, you can go hereto get links to them.
I don't want to comment on what other churches do, because we're all different, and I don't want to be in the position of criticizing someone's faith. I will say that I personally am fairly permissive about what I'll allow at a wedding, as long as it's within reason. One constant source of amusement to me is that in my current appointment, I'm actually the liberal pastor in the area.
I also will say that I make it a practice to not ever comment about political matters from the pulpit. There are a few reasons for this.
One is that, when the pastor does this, it can be implied that those who disagree are not really Christians. I don't believe that at all. I know many people whom I am convinced are faithful believers who completely disagree with me politically.
Two, I know a lot of pastors, of all political persuasions, who are convince that they know what God's politics are. Coincidentally, God's politics always agree with their own. Certainly there is a congruence between my politics and my faith, but I try very hard to let my faith inform my politics and not the other way around.
Three, even if I'm completely convinced I'm right politically, I never want to risk losing a religious convert for the sake of gaining a political convert. The first is much more important than the second to me.
Sorry if I've gone on too much about this. I don't normally go into these subjects here, and I don't intend to make a practice of it. I only did here because it seemed to fit in with the conversation.
Wow, SBG and Neil,
I've been to many Catholic Churches and have heard very few homilies about political issues.
Typically only ones about reflection before voting, or when the Archbishop has statements for the priests to read.
Most of the places I've lived, there's been an abundance of Catholic churches around. That would have sent me to another.
I find Neil's story particularly galling because most weddings I know involve people from multiple faiths, who wouldn't be under any religious duty to agree (or respectfully consider, or whatever) with statements from the pulpit. We chose the priest for our wedding as we got married at a college chapel outside of a parish. I asked my childhood priest.
At one parish I did hear an extremely environmentalist homily once.
Whatever the persuasion, I always find them distracting, often because I dispute the facts or logic behind the argument, even if I've agreed with the punchline. Which gets me mentally argumentative, and then I'm not paying attention to anything else for the rest of mass.
My inlaws are good friends with their priest, and so I see him frequently. I think he hews closer to Rev.A's position, and I'm thankful for that.
/Not enough time to re-scan for line crossing if it happened. Please forgive any errant steps. If anyone thinks so, I'll redact later. (Or just go ahead and do it if you have rights.)
i think that's a fabulous philosophy, jeffA. i wish it was more universal.
I like the way you think, padre.
I'm not a believer, JeffA, but if I were, I'd be looking for a preacher/rabbi a lot like you. Which is why I linked.
You do a lot of credit to your faith, and to our virtual community. Thanks for all you do around here, including setting a good example.
Thank you, brian.
I didn't mean to drop a bomb like that and take off. It certainly has not been my experience in the vast majority of churches I've been to (I grew up Catholic and am probably best described as lapsed now). I went to a rather liberal Catholic church and schools growing up so I've always found such things pretty shocking. We had a religious ceremony, just not a Catholic mass.
And agreed with above - I like the way JeffA approaches things. All God's chillin', you know.
My pastor reminded me in his message at our wedding that things like the Minnesota Twins would now be taking a back seat. He's right, I guess.
I'm reasonably sure there was some sort of message at my wedding, no idea what it was, though.
Our homily started with a humorous story about the wedding shower in my hometown. It was held in the rectory basement of this priest's church. One of my great-aunts or Mom's cousins got stuck in the restroom when the doorknob failed. Father had to figure out what had happened, redirect the women to the men's restroom, and call a locksmith. Then he held up the actual doorknob which had failed. He told us to never let our hearts never be locked shut to each other etc. etc. and presented us with a skeleton-type key to always remember that (because actually giving us that doorknob would be a bit awkward to carry back up the aisle). It's framed in our bedroom, surrounded by our vows and some dried remnants of the flowers.
As soon as he arrived, he was feverishly writing things down and asking us questions about our courtship and family members' names etc. At the reception, where we had him lead one dance before he left, he told me that he had left his prepared notes in NU on his desk. Yep, that's why I wanted him.
So why would I have ever wanted some political content? Though I'll admit that there are times where political issues may be important enough to be discussed during homilies, I don't go to mass to learn how to vote, I go in part to learn (or re-learn) how to live.
SBG, I remember a priest in NU more recently who stopped handshaking during peace for some influenza-spread-stalling reasons. He made some comment about it being a more recent or non-canonical addition to the mass.
He was also a self-important windbag (got himself elevated to Monsignor, much to the chagrin of many I know in the parish because that means he'll be there twice as long), and I had low levels of respect from him back to his time as the junior priest at the other parish in town. I'm not back in NU often due to many issues (my mother's mental health tops among them, but when I am, I do my best to avoid his church, the one I grew up with, and attend the other, which is always packed like sardines.
Yeah, I walked out of a friend's wedding because the pastor went on a long tangent about how marriage was under attack by gays, and all that.
My friend noticed, and she later said "I swear to God, I almost followed you."
J & I had a small ceremony in her back yard with eight attendees. We had dinner catered in from a Chinese take out place and then went bowling. I think everything total cost under $500.
This of course doesn't include the cost of the stuff that got stolen out of the trunk of my car the night of our wedding, but I don't think it's fair to include that.
yeah, i've never understood big weddings. i wanted to do something small, and jane mostly agreed. thanks to her and my mother's meddling it did end up ballooning much more than i wanted, but still it was smallish and on the cheap. i don't know how much it ended up being, but i'd be surprised if it was more than 1 to 1.5 prom(s).
I, on the other hand, don't understand small weddings. Of course I've got something around 100 relatives when you stop at the grandparent/aunt-uncle/cousin level, so by that point alone you've already blown past small wedding. I really did enjoy the big wedding though. Lots of love and support to go around.
We both have big families - my wife particularly so - so we had about 250 guests.
Yeah, my wife's family is big too. I love it.
My immediate family is tiny. Once you get to the "parents' cousins" level, it balloons from 8 to 80, so we ended up sending out about 300 invitations. We expected maybe 100 or so people to show up. 220-some ended up coming.
The Milkmaid's got a huge family and felt the need to invite everyone despite many of them not being important to her, and they cut into the list considerably. Luckily, everyone was invited to the reception, so while the wedding had probably around 175 guests, the reception was well over that, as the countless actors I knew showed up for it. I wouldn't change anything about my wedding day either, though I wish it hadn't been such a blur.
I definitely have a huge family, but I have very little contact with them. Honestly, I didn't really tell people other than the attendees that we were getting married. We kind of keep to ourselves.
dido. very few people even knew about Pete until after he was born (and even then, we waited about a week since he was in the NICU).
In retrospect, me and my wife both agree that taking my dad up on his offer to fly us to Reno would have been the better option for everyone. Big weddings can go straight to hell, especially with a lot of family and two families that don't like each other. A good time was had for the most part, but yeah, I probably shouldn't go into it too much.
and then went bowling
Dr. Chop and I had a softball game at our wedding. We picked sides and played 7 innings. One of the best days of our lives.
That sounds awesome, meat.
Seconded.
Secondy seconded.
Wrong site. Oops.
Her team crushed my team. Not even in the joaking sense. They absolutely destroyed us.
Oh, yeah. We also had stage coach rides. No kidding. A good friend's dad runs a stage coach in SoDak and brought the rig to our wedding. Yeah. That happened.
Hope you played 1880's rules softball.
I keep saying I'm going to to get married at the rugby clubhouse. Wrap some flowers around the goalposts = one of those flower arch things. The deck has steps = stadium seating. There are plenty of changing rooms and the banquet hall can certainly hold our relatively few guests. Job done for <$2K MAX, probably closer to 1. She, unsurprisingly, is not quite on board with that exact plan, though she is in the small wedding camp
Mmmm, John Hardy's BBQ. I'm focusing on that.
mrsS was the first of her extended family to get married. It happened in DC. I can safely say it cost more than a grand. But we did NOT have John Hardy's bbq 🙁 (nor the keg that I suggested to my Moms-in-law; she was not amused).
the three kegs of primo were the next highest cost, non-rings division.
Two kegs of Lienie's Red. (Do they still make that?)
Not sure whether I should included the cases of MGD cans for when the kegs ran out, as we drank most of them over the next few months...
EAR & I each put in $1000 of our own money, but it was a bit like stone soup. Her folks said, "you've gotta have more food than that" so added to the catering budget. I think they went 50-50 on the dress, too. I think my folks went 50-50 on the beer. I bought a suit, so I got a bit of use out of it since.
Overall, it was less than $3K though. It was at St.Kate's on a Friday night. Reception at the on-campus dancehall-type room. The priest from NU said he'd stay with his sister so he didn't need us to put him up at a hotel. My wife's uncle DJ'd (and all we had to do was put up with some of his choices). Practice dinner was family style at Buca DiBeppo (Pope Table!). Attendance was between 150 and 200.
mmm, Buca DiBeppo. I've only been once, but I really liked it.
I live a five minute walk from one. The food is good, but it's so crowded.
Pope Table. Nice.
Our groom's dinner was a grill out at her family farm. It doesn't get less formal than standing around in cow manure.
Ours was at a nice-enough-but-not-too-nice restaurant in Bethesda. The restaurant royally screwed up on service and my bride-to-be reamed out the manager in front of my dad. He was sold for life on her qualities.
Ours was at The Local back when they still had a party room with a private bar...it was a success. Also, we got married by a judge in my SIL's backyard - perhaps 25 people and spent about two proms and included a honeymoon here. We had a nice time.
On the odd chance that anyone cares, we got married here by him (still my favorite rabbi). Reception was downtown, near G'town (Park Hyatt?? I can't remember, but I do recall that some group of scruffy looking dudes were in the lobby when we came in; the newly-minted Mrs. S didn't like their looks -- turns out it was Depeche Mode; no, they did NOT play our reception). Honeymoon was a bed & breakfast in Bermuda. I highly recommend Bermuda for you East Coast types.
You were married by
KAAAAHHHHHNNNNN!!!!!!??!?!?!?
/Not sure if I did it right.
the Shatner obsession came first, I assure you.
I think I spent about $100 on my tux, $50 on dinner, and $11 on a bottle of vodka. I did not have a very good prom.
You've gotta upgrade for prom.
I've enjoyed Ketel One, but I'm sure there are plenty of options better than Phillips or Karkov.
So keep that in mind for next time!
I made $65. It wasn't until halfway through my shift that I realized other schools also had prom, making for an easy night.
yeah, i decided i'd much rather be working than being anywhere near prom. my friends were all 3-8 years older than me anyway, so i had a much better time running around with them.
I'm with sean, although I don't remember specifically what I made that night. I only hope I can pass along the same prom values/opinions to my daughter due to free's post below.
Dude: Tux - $75
Flower - $20
Dinner -- $80
Condoms -- $3
Booze -- $25
Date: Dress -- $550
Hairdo -- $150
Makeup -- $100
Shoes -- $50
Flower -- $25
All you guys with daughters, just wait. Shit gets real once they hit their teens.
This is going to be a source of marital tension, you can go to the bank on that.
It will probably be a source of father-daughter tension when I get there, too.
I'm already feeling tense about this stuff.
I am banking on the Girl thinking that all of the guys are stoopid.
The Boy got wheedled into going to the "junior Prom" (they have 2 proms out here; WTF??) as "friends" with a girl. She ok'd him wearing a suit, as the jr. prom is less formal than the sr. prom, and she bought her own corsage, correctly predicting that he'd be an idiot. He did at least buy her dinner at a nice restaurant. And he got to drive mrsS's beemer.
This is my only hope. Yesterday was "V" day at Miss SBG's preschool. Her mother dressed her up in a white dress and she wore her mother's first communion veil (v, get it?). The boys teased her and said she was dating. My daughter said no, she's just a bride.
She sounds like a real firecracker. That should serve her well.
Especially on the 4th of July.
You have no idea. No. idea.
My wife has a difficult time making decisions and imposing her will. My daughter is the opposite of that. This is not a good combination.
My daughter is a mini version of my wife. That has its own drawbacks.
My son is a mini version of me. That of course means that he is totally awesome.
That's not what his wife says!
/ran that gag into the ground, huh?
Okay, girls are more expensive sure, but those numbers are inflated.
See Spooky's comment below. I didn't even include nails (or new undergarments either). Those are not inflated numbers. Also I should have bumped the shoes to $75.
My last comment seems to be overly aggressive. I just wanted to show how one could get to that $1,078 figure and to mostly demonstrate that it's the girls who are driving up the per couple cost of Prom.
Oh, I understood where you were going with those numbers. I'm just saying that you can not skimp and still come up well below that total.
I think those numbers are relatively fair in that they are realistic representations of what people do spend, but it's not a representation of what people would have to spend. Bring the dress down to even $200 and using the rest of your numbers, you're down to $364 per person. Still a lot, but probably more representative of the median than the $1000 average that was quoted. I realize that winning the concession of a lower cost dress is not an easy victory, but it's also not impossible.
as we should all understand, "average", "typical" and "median" are not the same things. Methinks the $1,000 mean is likely to be true, but the distribution is very skewed.
[ed: I see that ubes addressed this exact pt below]
Yeah, that's usually my first thought with almost any spending or income distribution. Spending fifteen seconds on the google machine, I see estimates of a $25K average for weddings and a $17-18K median for weddings. The prom distribution is probably similar.
Another point to consider here is that it is likely for costs to vary greatly from region to region. What someone spends on prom in Manhattan is not likely to be what someone spends on prom in rural Minnesota.
I'm already there, and it is indeed very real.
I went to prom three times, since I had a girlfriend in 11th grade when I was in 10th. All three sucked (particularly the last one; the girl I wanted to be with at prom in 12th grade died the day of the prom and I was inconsolable).
All three girls took it easy on the money, it would seem. Fine by me...I never liked the high-maintenance girls.
A classmate of mine pointed out that she'd gotten her nails done for $38 for prom. I was dumbfounded. I detected no difference between her nails and mine.
I think that it has really exploded since we were in high school though. Also, we're dudes.
I can't imagine losing someone like that - that's nuts. Wow.
It sort of defines who I am still. I miss her terribly.
Wow, that's brutal.
I wasnt cool enough to go to prom (or maybe too cool)
This would carry more weight if your previous avatar said it.
Hmmmm...I find this statistic at least somewhat dubious. I am sure that the thrust of the article holds--a lot of money is spent on prom--but two things: 1) this seems like a classic spending distribution where the top 5-10% brings the average way up while the median stays fairly low, and 2) what about those who spend nothing on prom? It seems likely that the latter group doesn't get counted in the statistics, and including them would certainly bring down the average.
It's likely similar to wedding cost statistics. The average is much higher than the median, and particularly in the case of wedding costs, the wedding industrial complex seems to prefer putting high numbers out there with either the idea that people will feel pressured into spending more or people will be more comfortable with buying things they would otherwise never consider.
So we're still recruiting for the next game of Werewolf over on the Casa. It'll be an Arrested Development themed game. It'll be light-hearted, with gags and humorous afflictions, etc. Recent player developments have also helped the games be less intense/time-consuming, so if those have been concerns for you, they might be effectively mitigated now. Hoping to get up to at least 12 players.
Update: we're a couple of players away from a really good game. Hoping we can get a few more. Got some fun stuff planned.
i've seen a few versions of these maps from other states, so naturally someone made the minnesotan version of this meme.
Turns out I live in the ghetto. Huh.
And now that song is in my head. In the ghett-ooooooooooooooooooooohhh...
Yep, that's all it takes. I can expect it to be wedged in there for a week or so.
Sing it in the Cartman voice. It helps.
Is there another version?
"iiiiii'm saaaiiillliiing awaaaaaayy..."
Chocolate salty balls, they're chock full of vitamins, and good for you!
And I live in the land of bad drivers.
The corner of "Flat" "Corn" and "Absolutely Nothing."
::Looks out window::
Yup.
"Sugar Beats"? There's so much not right with this map, but that kinda stands out to me.
And Drunk Indians. I know the gag is to stereotype and all, but c'mon now.
Yeah, that seemed over the line. I thought the idea was more to stereotype outsiders than insiders.
No joak. I do NOT think of that part of the state when I think of pop cover tunes
No respect for Pipestone National Monument, I see.
The Pipestone National Monument will get respect when it earns respect, damn it.
Ice & Snow. Yep.
And wind. Don't forget the wind.
If anyone sees an Iowa version, let me know. I'd love to see what they come up with.
It would just be one color and it would be labeled Smells Like Manure.
Not corn and idiots? Hmmm. A difference of opinion!
Both options are accurate. I would just be curious to see how the creator decided to divvy up the state. Excepting the two circles around Ames and Iowa City for "Drunken A$$hole college kids"
well, then you would need some smaller circles for "rich, drunken A$$hole college kids" for Cedar Rapids, Mount Vernon, and Grinnell, no?
I was once driving down I35 into Iowa - the sign said "Iowa - A Place To Grow" - and someone had painted "Corn" after it. Hee-haw.
Heywood Banks has you covered:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyeY0hWU28I
I live the line of 'corn' and 'absolutely nothing'. sounds about right!
Hopefully this doesn't step too far into the forbidden zone...
Does anyone know what crime could possibly have been committed by the Fox News guy who reported stuff for Gawker? I'm not coming up with an obvious one, unless somehow he stole something?
Maybe he had some sort of non-disclosure agreement? I heard they threatend to pursue criminal and civil remedies. I can't think what criminal violations there would be but it isn't really my area.
That's the thing... it's not my area either, but the only things I can think of are all civil claims.
Pretty much all of us commit federal wire fraud. I'm guessing he could be charged with that, but what's the point. Fox News may ask the feds to look into it, but I doubt they'll care about the case.
What constitutes wire fraud?
Basically, lying on the internet.
But not all lies intend to defraud of money or property.
True, but pretty much anyone who has ever bypassed registration using bugmenot or something along those lines has committed wire fraud. If this guy used shared any proprietary information (and used his email while doing so), then the elements are there. However, it is incredibly like the feds won't care.
But what kind of proprietary information could he be sharing? Perceptions of a workplace don't exactly qualify as property.
No idea - I really haven't paid any attention to the facts of the case. I just know that if the feds "want" you, then they can always "get" you for wire fraud (much like Al Capone was nailed for tax fraud).
whew. For a second there, I thought you were talking about the wgom.org's
trip to Arubamaintenance fund that we're supporting.Ah, BugMeNot. Does that site still work?
he gave Gawker a video of a Mitt Romney/Sean Hannity interview that was not meant for air. He also said mean things about FOX and FOX being the *redacted*heads they are and going to sue, and sue to prevent other low level employees to speak out.
I enjoyed those columns.They had a 'Im going down hard, and I dont care' feel to it. And no he has a great 'I got fired' story to tell!
I gave up watching most cable 'news' outlet shows long ago because most of them are people yelling at each other, spewing out talking points, and accomplishing nothing.
Ok, so I guess taking the video might be theft or use of proprietary information in violation of wire fraud statutes... still, seems pretty weak.
I gave up watching most cable 'news' outlet shows long ago because most of them are people yelling at each other, spewing out talking points, and accomplishing nothing.
Me, too. And I haven't missed it a bit.
I gave up watching most cable 'sports' outlet shows long ago because most of them are people yelling at each other, spewing out talking points, and accomplishing nothing.
I did that, too. I might watch a little of PTI once in a while, and I usually catch a little of Mike & Mike while I'm getting ready in the morning, but that's it.
I can't remember who it was that suggested Terriers. I really enjoyed watching that show, and while it's a shame that it was canceled they did an excellent job of wrapping it up without hurrying.
I'm about 4 episodes in. Maybe if you and I had watched it when it was on it would have gotten renewed. Way to go, us.
I also watched it (and very much enjoyed it) after Zack recommended it. So add me to that list.
I think the title may have had something to do with why I didn't watch it...
I started watching Veronica Mars last night. The premier was enjoyable enough that it might become my complement to Battlestar Gallactica on Netfix.
Veronica Mars is excellent. Season 1 in particular.
I love that show. Except for much of season 3.
It's unfortunate how it kind of got jerked around at the end.
I liked parts of season two, but as I watched it as it aired, it was infuriating.
Are we talking about TV now? Because the first disc of Game of Thrones came from Netflix yesterday. My wife of course hated the pilot what with all the heads being chopped off and whatnot. I of course loved it what with all the heads being chopped off and whatnot.
7 episodes into that one. Not really enjoying the show that much. I can sense that much is being left out (by necessity) and it makes me sad that I'm not getting the whole story.
This isn't a case of conflating the books and the TV show, the series makes it clear that there is more story that the viewer won't ever get to see.
Most of what's cut is material that's unfilmable. It's just a huge universe that five books into it, is starting to make sense.
Most of what's cut is material that's unfilmable.
or too expensive. i'm glad that it's been as well received as it has so that hopefully HBO will up the budget a bit. i'm surprised they did what they did with what they had, but hopefully they'll be able to afford a bit more now.
Last year's budget was $50-60 million and it was upped 15% for this season. However, much of it is being saved for a rather large battle.
C"MON KARL POLAHD OPUN UP THE PURSESTINGS!!!1!
could be worse. they could've made a movie out of it.
I think the show actually does a pretty remarkable job of staying true to the books. But yeah, there is a lot of minor stuff left out.
i hope the 6th comes out soonish, because i'm looking forward to re-reading everything again.
Don't hold your breath.
yeah, i just read the series last summer and i think the forward of book 4 mentioned book 5 would be out around `06.
Supposedly, he's learned his lesson and the next book won't take six years. My guess is two or three years. There is the TV series now, which could motivate him to work faster. Or bog him down so it takes another decade.
I thought he was just J.K. Rowling writing under a pen name?
Hopefully he learned something from James Oliver Rigney, Jr.
Get 'r dun, George. Winter is Coming.
Hey, one episode into the TV show and I get that reference. Sweet.
I think the show actually does a pretty remarkable job of staying true to the books.
I haven't read the books, so that's not part of my thoughts on the show, DK actually pretty well nails what I miss in the storytelling in his comment below.
One thing I didn't think they did as well as I would have liked in a perfect world (since it would've been difficult to do this better with the time constraints they already had to get as many "current" events in as they did) is elaborating on the history of the world of the story. There are a lot of events that took place prior to the point where the story opens that have significant effects on what happens in the story and why some characters act the way they do, and I think in a lot of cases the show doesn't establish the magnitude of that history as well as I'd have liked. This varies some depending on different parts of the history, though; some are established better than others.
And the history is the thing that I like most about epic fantasy as a genre. So I miss it in the TV series.
Well, I guess my advice then would be... read the books! As DK said, it's a very rich world with a lot of meaty backstory. It's a perfect series for delving deep into the mythology and connecting the dots and coming up with zany theories.
This series of books is right in my wheelhouse, but I refuse to start until he finishes. I'd be pissed if he went and died before the final book was finished.
death hasn't stopped
So why should it stop George?
But it stopped Frank Herbert. Argafgjuhaljgh.
It would have been better if Frank had not reproduced. Or at least instructed his son in no uncertain terms not to screw with his legacy.
Our only hope is a ghola.
our own private Idaho?
heh, seeing pictures of him, and the way i assume he takes care of himself, this has actually been a legitimate concern of mine.
and if he does die, will you not read them. I'm telling you the books are great as they stand. Don't let a silly thing like lack of closure get in the way.
I'm not sure what I would do. At least I would be prepared for that when I started.
If it makes you feel better, he revealed the key plot points to the TV producers in case he died before finishing.
does it involve a plane crashing on a remote island?
Oh, I will read the books at some point. I was just surprised at how little I was into the TV series as it would seem to be something I would enjoy.
with any luck, after George finishes the main sequence, he will go back and write some prequels. Preferably filled with cute kids and idiot, floppy-eared aliens.
Which he will then behead.
Have you heard of the Tales of Dunk and Egg? It's a series of short stories that take place before A Song of Ice and Fire. I haven't read them yet, so I don't know if Jar Jar shows up or not.
Third Monday Movie Day is in three days, you guys!
Clearly we can't go a month without movie posts.
cry me a river.
*grumbles about book discussions going off the reservation, then remembers, hey, it's all good!!!!111one111!!!*
Perhaps the pent-up demand indicates a hidden desire for a TV day, say, in the first week of the month.
If it helps, I've witheld saying anything about the stuff I've watched. We have these special days for a reason.
Varitek wandering around Fenway today with a "C" on his jersey. It looks even more ridiculously stupid now that he's in street clothes otherwise.
He upgraded his captain status?
Love it! Please keep mocking him.
I need to have my villians, and if it ain't Cap'n Tek and Scioscia, I don't know who it'll be.
YES announcers spend a few minutes talking about how great Poo-Holes is defensively, but argue that he likely won't be able to win any Gold Gloves because of Doucheira. One of them finally mentions, "Oh, and Adrian Gonzalez won last year's so he'll be tough to beat, too."
If Pooholes hits 50 HRs, he'll probably win the Fielding Grammy too.
On a different topic, yet another day of rain and gloomy weather here in Sactown. I got me a vessel of pho from the local corner stir-fry shop. They do a credible job. Soup is good food, particularly when it comes cauldron-sized, full of rice noodles, mystery meat sausage balls, flank steak, fresh veggies, herbs, chiles and srirachi. Mmmm.
Blue skies in Seattle! I felt your pain back in March, and much pho was consumed. I am sure the gloom will return and stick around in some fashion through Junuary.
My correspondent in your neck of the woods concurs on the weather.
If he needs a home-cooked meal while he's out here, you can tell him where to call.
After many beautiful days here, it's been a well-needed rainy one today. Homemade chili in the crockpot - mmmmmm!!!!
So my godson that I mentioned the other day had his surgery this morning. It was his second open heart surgery in his 5 months of life, and third overall surgery. He's out, and it sounds like's his doing well enough. It's been a tense morning here, since this surgery is kind of make-or-break from the sounds of it. He'll have more in the future, but this is a pretty big step.
Good news! Best wishes to your family.
Glad to hear it. He'll remain in our prayers. I hope you'll keep us updated.
Fingers crossed for your family. Hope the good news keeps coming.
I see Delmon Young hit a HR today
He was also thrown out trying to steal by.... wait for it.... A.J. Pierzynski!
hilarious!
Resistible force, meet movable object.
And he turned a routine flyball into a triple.
Ask and you shall receive
Now we just need a .gif of Carlos Gomez doing something silly in center field and we'll have it.
I dont miss that.
although it could be an adventure in the OF tonight with 20-30 mph SE winds at Target Field
Beautiful. There is absolutely no way to commit an "error" anymore absent picking up the ball and throwing it out of the stadium.
And that is, hands-down, the worst route I have seen anyone take to a ball this year. The more I watch it, the more confused I get about where exactly _elmon thought the ball was going and how he was going to catch it. Dread Pirate is right, that should have been an error.
Wait, that wasn't an error? The batter got a triple?
Young badly whiffed on the catch, De Aza was given a gift triple by the White Sox's apparently blind official scorer.
Just another reason to dislike the White Sox, I guess.
That's insane. There's being a bit of a homer as the official scorer, and then there's that.
Ohhhhhhh, it's sooooooooooooo good.
I just. can't. stop. watching.
Twirling, twirling, twirling!
Not easy to do on rollerskates.
I just listed a ton of oil paint, rabbit skin glue, and varnish crystals on ebay. Oy. I don't like the feeling of selling off stuff that I know I'll use in the future, but at the moment I've hitched my wagon to the press. The good Dr. and I are rapidly downsizing our lives in preparation for the move. E, if you'd like some paint let me know.
On a related note, did you ever get my e-mail?
I was just wondering what to do with all these torn bits of rabbit skin...
the St Louis Cardinals tweaked their unis this year. Gold numbering on white jerseys. gross
I think that's just for today.
From what I read, they lined them with gold as part of the "current MLB champions" thing.
the subject matter of this article is probably forbidden zone, but I just wanna b!tch about the reporting fial. The Yahoo crawl header is teh Stoopid: "Lunch No Longer Law in California"
The Cali Supreme Court most assuredly did NOT eliminate lunch breaks.
Ok, I'm done.
Those foreigners and their funny looking money are so kewt.
Not an Onion headline: "Canada issues glow-in-the-dark dinosaur quarter"
Schadenfreude:
$6.75M this year. Not exactly chump change.
crazy box score of the night Baltimore and Toronto combine for 7 HR's, all of them solo shots.