DisAnim.Com

This is a shameless plug for my brother in law's new website, DisAnim.Com.

The concept is simple, he is going through all of the Walt Disney Animated Films in chronological order and breaking them down. For each film he analyzes the significane of the film, it's place and timing in history, key lessons learned, the potential time and place of some of these movies, their ties to folk-legendes and much, much more.

If you enjoy the disney catalog and want to dig a little deeper into some of these shows, please take a fewminutes and check out DisAnim.Com.

Up in the Air Part II

Coming back from a trip is a funny thing. The minute you walk in the door, and after the 3 or 4 subsequent days that you don't unpack, it feels like you never left. All that said, the gettin there and the gettin back can make for some fun times.

This post is a sequal to Up in The Air, which was posted after my last trip.

The flight out was pretty uneventful. Though while waiting in the terminal, I observed that people really seem to enjoy standing in lines, clusters, or bunches. Otherwise, why would they stand up there if there zone has not yet been called. In the case of the flight I was on, the people waiting for the plane quite literally created a wall around the door that made it very difficult for anyone in zone 2 and 3 to break through.

Boarding in Zones is kind of an interesting concept as well. One thing I've never really understood is why the plane gets boarded from the front to the back. Now I understand that those first class folks (and from what I can tell most of them are first class all the way -eyeroll) want to sit and sip their club sodas in their big comfy chairs, but don't they realize that all of us coachers are looking at them and just resenting them the whole time we walk by their 6-8 rows of in-flight bliss.

As my plane was getting ready to land, the fasten seatbelt sign flashed to signal to everyone "hey the plane is landing in like 5 minutes," which prompted one guy to literally get up, and sprint through first class to the bathroom. I thought, "we're going to land the plane with this guy in the bathroom...I hope he likes a dash of blue water on his clothes."

The trip back was a real life lesson in inefficiency. At the SLC airport, they have what is called a family line. The family line  is a seperate line set aside for two reasons: 1) to allow families traveling with small children to get through security without incident and 2) to prevent other passengers from being held up by families and their 75 things they're taking with them. In SLC, the line also serves as the means by which airport personnel get to the terminal. I cannot begin to express to you how dumb I think this is.

So, we get there and there are two "families" standing in front of us. One of them is a mother and daughter combo. The daughter is at minimum 14...small children? I had no issue with the other family, but during the time we were waiting to get to the security scanner, quite literally 20 airport employees walked through ahead of us. Then, a nice 18 year old kid who worked for the airline wheeled an older lady up to the front of the line. That's cool, I'm a fan of the elderly...but then we hear from the back "wait! wait! wait!" and up comes 4-5 people who are apparently traveling with said elderly women. None of them have problems mind you, and none of them cared enough to push her, but they were all apparently important enough to go to the front of the line.

Once we got through the first part of security, the cutting really began. Several airport employees were very litterally shoving my stuff backwards on the conveyor belt to make room for their stuff. After about 15 people did this, I got a hair irritated. I started forcing the issue with my stuff and stopped short of the ole talking loudly trick (you know, the one where you say something to someone else with you so that the offender can hear you loud and clear).

We finally made it through, and ended up sitting in front of someone who thought he was Larry the Cable Guy...he was just full of one-liners and whoppers...and really made me glad to be sitting in front of him. All in all it was another great opportunity for people watching...

The Rise and Fall of my Tooth Brush

This is a cautionary tale about cleaning the bathroom...

It also proves that no good deed gos unpunished...

Whilst staying with my in-laws this past week, I decided to be a good son in law and clean the bathroom we were using. I got all of the cleaning supplies out and ready made that sucker shine. As I was putting the finishing touches on it and throwing away the last piece of paper towel from wiping the glass. My arm grased the back of my tooth brush, sending it into a spinning motion and flying downward at a rapid pace. Given that it had a short distance to travel, it didn't take very long, but I still reached for it loudly proclaiming....NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It finally came to rest here:

We had a good run, but no amount of cleaning could've brough my toothbrush back to life. It was gone and it was time to move on to a new one.

And now for some cheap tooth brush humor:

Did you know the tooth brush was invented in West Virginia? If it had been invented in any other state, it'd be called a teeth brush. BOOM!

FF Season in Review Part I: The Records

And so another season of fantasy football has gone by the wayside. It was an up and down year for me overall. I played in a total of five leagues and made the playoffs in four of them. Here's a league by league breakdown:

League 1: (12 Teams): Record; 9-4 (2nd place regular season) 4th place finish.

First round: (my pick in bold)

1. Chris Johnson (Ten - RB)
2. Adrian Peterson (Min - RB)

3. Ray Rice (Bal - RB)

4. Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB)
5. Steven Jackson (StL - RB)

6. Randy Moss (Ten - WR)

7. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)

8. Aaron Rodgers (GB - QB)

9. Michael Turner (Atl - RB)

10. Frank Gore (SF - RB)

11. Ryan Mathews (SD - RB)

12. Shonn Greene (NYJ - RB)

The player who picked 3rd in this league ended up winning it.

League 2: (12 Teams): Record; 7-6 (4th place regular season) 2nd place finish.

First round: (my pick in bold)

1. Chris Johnson (Ten - RB)

2. Adrian Peterson (Min - RB)

3. Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB)

4. Frank Gore (SF - RB)

5. Ray Rice (Bal - RB)

6. Drew Brees (NO - QB)

7. Aaron Rodgers (GB - QB)
8. Michael Turner (Atl - RB)

9. DeAngelo Williams (Car - RB)

10. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)

11. Randy Moss (Ten - WR)
12. Ryan Mathews (SD - RB)

The player who picked 7th in this league ended up winning it.

League 3: (10 teams): Record; 8-6 (4th place regular season) 2nd place finish.

First round: (my pick in bold)

1. Chris Johnson (Ten - RB)
2. Adrian Peterson (Min - RB)
3. Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB)
4. Ray Rice (Bal - RB)
5. Michael Turner (Atl - RB)
6. Frank Gore (SF - RB)
7. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)

8. Ryan Mathews (SD - RB)

9. Shonn Greene (NYJ - RB)

10. Rashard Mendenhall (Pit - RB)

The player who picked 4th in this league ended up winning it.

League 4: (10 teams): Record 9-5 (1st place regular season) 3rd place finish

First round: (my pick in bold)

1. Chris Johnson (Ten - RB)
2. Adrian Peterson (Min - RB)
3. Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB)
4. Ray Rice (Bal - RB)
5. Michael Turner (Atl - RB)
6. Frank Gore (SF - RB)
7. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)
8. Ryan Mathews (SD - RB)
9. Shonn Greene (NYJ - RB)
10. Steven Jackson (StL - RB)

The player who picked 8th in this league ended up winning it.

League 5: (team teams) Record 10-7 (5th place finish) - no playoffs.

First round (my pick in bold)


1. Chris Johnson (Ten - RB)

2. Adrian Peterson (Min - RB)
3. Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB)

4. Michael Turner (Atl - RB)

5. Frank Gore (SF - RB)

6. Ray Rice (Bal - RB)

7. Drew Brees (NO - QB)

8. Rashard Mendenhall (Pit - RB)

9. Ryan Mathews (SD - RB)

10. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)

Overall I think my first-round picks were solid. It was obviously a huge blow when Frank Gore went down. Had he not, who knows what might have happened. The one thing I learned this year is that I can draft a pretty solid squad, but I've got to do a better job of managing my team. I'll break down the teams in my next post.

Total win loss for the season: 43-28

Wrapping Up Christmas

On December 26th, my two-year-old woke up to see what presents Santa had brought for her that day. The previous day was Christmas, and of couse she was showered with gitfs so she couldn't wait to see what the next day held in store for her. When she realized that Christmas comes but once a year, and that that day had indeed past she said "time to take down the tree, Christmas is over." And so it was.

It has been very interesting, funny, and educational to see how others handle Christmas. From trying to figure out how soon is too soon for the tree to go up, or for Christmas music to start playing throughout the house, to when to take it all down and store it for another year, everyone seems to do it just a little different.

I've always loved the holidays. Growing up (and even while I was in college) it meant that I literally didn't have to do anything for about two weeks. I can remember as a kid getting up on Christmas morning one year and being done with my present opening and running to the neighbor's house to see what my friends got...but they were all still sound asleep!

Outside of the religious aspects of course, Christmas for me is about traditions. We're trying to establish our own family traditions and it isn't always easy. This year, I decided that I was going to read "The Night Before Christmas" and have that be something I do every year. Though my kids are still too young to sit through that kind of thing, it's still kind of fun to do.

One of my favorite parts about the holidays is all the Christmas movies that are on. The one that for me stands the test of time is Christmas Vacation. That movie is not only fantastic, but so quoteable and it just puts a smile on my face whenever it is on. "Surprised Eddie? If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now." Classic!

We just finished our last Christmas/New Year's tradition of the season, Divinity! This stuff is so ridiculously yummy that I can't even handle it. I could eat my weight in this stuff...in fact, I may have already! But that is what New Year's Resolutions are for!

I hope everyone out there had a safe and happy holiday. I look forward to more fun posting and sharing in the New Year.

-  The Loose Change Guy

The Gravy Boat

When my wife and I got married. We made a conscious, calculated decision to save some of our gift cards for the holidays so that we could spoil each other a bit without breaking the bank.

I've always tried to have a well-rounded Christmas for my wife where she gets a book, some clothes, a couple of fun things, some things she wants, and then the big surprise gift that just blows her away and makes her say..."oh wow, I was NOT expecting this. You are soooooo thoughtful, funny, cool" you get the idea.

Last year, I hit a home run. No, not the gravy boat, I'll get to that in a  minute.

Shortly before we moved, we started playing with the Super Nintendo that my parents had passed off to me when they moved out of my boyhood home. It mostly sat in a box un-played collecting dust. For some strange reason, we decided to pull it out and start playing games on it again. Mostly Mario Brothers. One of the signature games for the Super Nintendo that my family never had was Mario Kart. These days, you can find one of those games at a fairly inexpensive price on eBay. So, I found it, bought it, and gave it to her for Christmas. Home run. I pretty much expect all my gifts to be home runs. Such was the case with the gravy boat.

When we were engaged, we registered at several different places, one being Crate and Barrel in part because my office (at that time) was close to one. After the dust settled and the gifts stopped coming, we had a little bit of money left over on our Crate and Barrel gift card. So I told her I'd run over there and take a look. Before I did that, I looked at our wedding registry to see if there was anything that we didn't have that we really wanted. It popped off the page. The beautiful, white gravy boat that nobody had gotten us. How could they/we have missed such an oversight? I would not let Christmas pass with us gravy-boat less. As I stared at it in all of its $14.99 glory, I thought of my wife's reaction when she opened it on Christmas morning. The happy-surprised expression on her face would say it all. This, was a surefire home run.

Getting the gravy boat was a bit of a challenge. I had to make three separate trips to Crate and Barrel to secure the crown jewel of my wife's Christmas. On the second and third trips, I called in advance to make sure they had it and I was assured they did. Both times I came up empty, but I had someone dig one out of the back. Finally, the gravy boat was ready to come home and sit under our tree until the big day.

Christmas morning finally came. I placed the gift towards the back so that it would be one of the last things that would be opened. As the wrapping paper flew and the gifts were open, I could barely contain my excitement. Finally she got to the gravy boat. She peeled back the paper, opened the box and there it was...I could swear there was a bright light emitting from it, that's how cool I thought it was and how excited I was for her to open it. "Oh, neat," she said.

Neat?

"Yeah, you know it's from our registry, pretty cool that I remembered huh?"

"Yeah, that's nice. Okay, your turn."

Apparently, the gravy boat was not the out of the park home run I thought it would be. She thought it was nice, but how often do we really serve gravy? It was not the make or break Christmas gift I thought it would be...so you could say that rather than a home run, it was more of a bunt...it gets you on base, but not in impressive fashion.

Some friends of ours got a kick out of this story when we told them a few years ago.

Guess what they got for Christmas?

The Treat Threshold

It starts with Halloween, and it ends with Valentines day. We are currently right in the middle of the parade of treats. It happens every year, and you know what I'm talking about don't you? The weather gets a little cooler, the clothes we wear might be a bit more baggy and there will be more of them...so it becomes less necessary to be in shape perse. Oh sure, we have a shape, but it usually goes from a cucumber to a pear...or in my case, a small pear to a big pear!

The thing I've noticed about this time of year is that every holiday or occasion usually involves a treat of some kind. The problem is, by the time you've consumed too much, it's too late. You have passed the treat threshold!

Let's take some of my favorite treats individually and break down their threshold, shall we?

Halloween:

Candy Corn - Candy corn is one of those treats that used to be seasonal. These days you get pastel candy corn at Easter and red, white, and blue on the fourth of July. However, most treat purists such as myself reserve candy corn for Halloween, the holiday for which it was intended. Candy corn is often grabbed by the handfuls and shoved into ones mouth. By then, it's too late. A few handfuls later, your belly aches and your mouth feels like you'll never be able to get all the sugar off your teeth.

Reece's Peanut Butter Cups - I'm pretty sure I could eat these year round, and I often do. In fact, I requested a peanut butter cup cake for my birthday this week. It was yuuuuuuummmmmmmy! While there may be a threshold for this treat, I will choose to ignore it because it is so good!

Thanksgiving:

Chocolate Moose Pie - This is another one where you really have to ask yourself, is too much of a good thing a bad thing? Let's be honest with each other here, by the time you get to pie on Thanksgiving, you're already stuffed. You just do it because it is the big payoff at the end of a good meal. I think there's some part of each of us also that sees 1, maybe 2 pieces of pie left that makes us say "I must have." Once that second piece of pie is consumed, immediate regret follows. Eat one piece of pie this thanksgiving, you'll thank me later!

Christmas:

Sugar Cookies - Again, something that we see throughout the year, but somehow the idea that we're making them for Santa and the Reindeer, makes it okay for us to eat and eat and eat annnnnnnd eat! And the frosting on these? Get right out of town! It is fantastic!

Divinity - True to its name, divinity is quite divine. These small white puffy treats seem relatively innocuous, but eat 7 or 8 of them and you'll be feeling the pain.

Valentines Day:

Message Hearts - Much like candy corn, this seasonal treat is consumed by the handful, often rendering the eater too late once he or she has eatin too many. Not only do these hearts say "Text Me" they also say "roll me out of here!"

So there you have it, the treat threshold. If eatin in proper amounts, these treats can all be quite tasty and useful, but if overeatin, hello couch, hello cavities, hello hurtin! You'll spend the next 6 months wishing you had listened to me as you run on that treadmill. Don't cross the treat threshold!