It's a little known fact...

Cliff Clavin was always my favorite character on the show Cheers. "It's a little known fact Norm..." was one of my favorite lines on the show. I don't have a great memory for things like my kids birthdays, but somehow I can remember obscure song lyrics and Cliff Claven type facts. Check out this collection of great collection of useless knowledge, like:

• The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words.
• Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions!
• Coca-Cola would be green if coloring weren’t added to it.

Legos

Did you know that Lego is the largest tire manufacturer in the world? Good article on the business behind legos and pictoral on how they're made.

Tags: Legos

Emily

It just keeps getting better. It looks like Em now has strep throat too. I went to bed about midnight last night and just before I did, Emily came down, telling me that she knew she was up early, but she'd hang out and watch a movie meanwhile. I put her back to bed and I slept on the futon in the other room. Around 1am she came out and woke me up telling me she didn't feel good. I let her crawl into bed with me and from that point on, pretty much every hour on the hour she woke me up: To scratch her back, get her water, get her blanket or tell me a random thought she'd had. I'm beat this morning. I'll be glad when Cathie's better. This dual Mom/Dad thing is rough.

Cathie, cont.

Cathie went to the doctor today and it turns out she's got strep throat, badly. She hasn't been able to eat anything since Sunday because of her throat and flu symptoms. He gave her antibiotics and something for her sore throat. The doctor we normally go to was booked solid, so they had her see another doctor, the same one I saw last week. This doctor must be some kind of Doogie Howser prodigy, because he couldn't have been older than 12. He told Cathie that she shouldn't expose herself to new people. I don't think she should expose herself to anyone other than me.

Cathie

Cathie has been sick since Sunday. She's not sure if it's the flu or strep throat, but it's pretty bad, even after 3 days (if it's strep, I'm covered since I'm on antibiotics for my sinus infection). I noticed today how easy it is to take all that Cathie does for granted around the house. The house is trashed, we've been eating pizza for most meals, but at least the kids are getting to school with their homework done. Cathie does a million things around the house and for the family that I sometimes don't even notice. She's an amazing woman.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday. He's not 70 yet. Here are ten things you may not know about my Dad:

• He grew up on a farm in Iowa and drove the school bus for while in High School. He would leave in the morning, pick up students, and drop them off on his way home.
• My Dad has seen Johnnie Cash in concert a bunch of times while growing up in Iowa.
• My Dad is a certified Ski Patrol and is trained in advanced first aid. He learned at an early age that by putting a cravat on Susan, he could stop her from whining about any ailment.
• My Dad is the youngest of 8 kids.
• My Dad hates credit unions the way Southern Baptists hate Disney.
• My Dad is a part of the Knights of Columbus, but hasn't gotten to the level where you get to wear the cool sword and hat with the plume on it.
• My Dad used to make his own wine. We used to get to stomp the grapes with our bare feet. One time we made Dandelion wine and all the kids in the neighborhood picked a thousands of dandelions. I can't imagine that it tasted all that good.
  
• My Dad rides the DALMAC (4 day bike ride from Lansing to Mackinac) almost every year. He's ridden it with each of the boys.
• Growing up, my Dad took each of his sons to the Philmont, the Boy Scout ranch in New Mexico. Each of us backpacked in the wilderness for 10 days.
  
• I was the first person to call my Dad today and wish him a happy birthday. Sherry was a little mixed up and called yesterday, but it didn't count, according to the official Kurt rules.

Update:
Sooze posted a similar list to her blog, after I did. Oddly enough, neither had read the other's post before writing there post (or so Susan says).

Kick Me

Emily is learning how to read and write and is pretty proud of herself. She spent this afternoon writing "Kick Me" on sticky notes and sticking them on mine and Nate's backs and we spent the evening pretending we didn't notice. It took her a while to figure out which side of the sticky note to write on, but eventually she got it and she was thrilled at the fact that she'd figured it out. . She stuck one on my back that I'd forgotten about it and went out tonight wearing it around until someone pointed it out to me.

Brush with fame... Kinda.

I was wearing my More Cowbell shirt tonight when I went to pick up Madeline from play practice. A guy came up to me and told me that he works with the guy who was the recording studio tech for Blue Oyster Cult during their recording of Don't Fear the Reaper and would tour with the band, occasionally play the cowbell with the band. I told him that my only claim to fame is that I know a guy who looks like a guy from the movie Old School.

Gotta Love Homer

"Well excuse me for having enormous flaws that I don't work on"
-Homer Simpson

Christmas Shopping

I've updated my Amazon Wish List for Christmas so that those of you looking to get me the perfect gift have some good ideas. My friend Brad has a strange way of shopping for his friends. Every year Will and I try and find him a nice, thoughtful gift. One year I took some pictures that I'd taken at a retreat we'd gone on a while back, framed them and gave them to him. That same year Will wrote him a sonnet (which was strange to me, but Will told me lots of guys do this for other men). Will and I try and one-up Brad in the gift giving department every year, which isn't tough, considering Brad does not like to express his friendship and love with gifts.. at least gifts for others. He has no problem spending days thinking of something nice to buy himself. In the spirit of assuming the best, I'm guessing that this is the year Brad turns it all around. I'm guessing he's been thinking this through for months and will blow us all away. I can't wait to post more about it once I get it. It will probably be so tremendous that it will overwhelm me with special feelings in my belly.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We normally go and get our Christmas Tree on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year, Susan's kids chose to get sick and get everyone else sick and Kevin decided that he loves basketball more than family so we ended up not going as a family. Instead, we had fun going Christmas Tree Shopping with our friends the Niemi's today. The kids ran around while we searched for a tree that didn't look like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree.

The place was a kind of a "Mom and Pop Shop" and the tree selection was pretty horrible, but we both found trees. Normally when we go tree shopping there are six inches of snow on the ground and we're all bundled up against the cold. It was weird cutting down a tree in short sleeve shirts, but I'll take it when I can get it.

We found a tree (nicely hidden behind us), dragged it out and tied it to the roof like a dead deer. My lights are up and I've got a tree, all in 60 degree weather - not to mention another 28 days of shopping ahead of me.

Poker

A bunch of us went over to Bob's last night to watch the Notre Dame vs. USC game and play cards. Instead of playing tournament style texas hold'em, we played a cash game, which is played very differently and it took me a while to change my strategy. The nice thing is that you can buy-in throughout the night, the downside being it takes a cap off how much you can lose in a given evening. People play the game way differently when it's for real money. I was down about $60 before things started turning around for me and I gained a better handle on how to play. I ended up breaking even for the night, but for a while I was taking a beating. Eli ended up being the big winner for the night, which is rare for him, so I let him soak in it.

While we played cards, Cathie, Dana and the girls hung out at home and the girls put on a dance show for everyone. Our girls have been big on putting on these kind of performances lately. During Thanksgiving, we were treated to a couple different shows. They can be improv-acting with no ending or apparent plot, karaoke-dance routines or game shows. I think it's somewhere in the "good parenting handbook" that you have to watch the show and applaud at the end, even though the end may never come.

After going to bed around 2am, I got up this morning around 6am to head over to Best Buy in Ann Arbor. A friend of mine had given me the "inside scoop" that they were getting a bunch of Nintendo Wii's in and thought that if I got there early enough, I could get one wtihout a problem. I got there around 7 only to see that lots of people had the "inside scoop" and had camped out all night. I turned around and went back to bed.

Twins

Funny enough, my brother Jon was wearing the same outfit but wouldn't pose for the picture.

First time ever...

For the first time ever, I'm hanging my Christmas lights BEFORE it's cold, nasty and slippery out. Every year AFTER I hang the lights, I swear that the following year I'm going to do it early. This year, I really did it. I felt glee, melancholy and satisfaction in my belly at having gotten the job done. I also wanted a nap afterwards.

Friday Thanksgiving

Friday morning was our second Thanksgiving at Cathie's parents house. Ed & Stacy were there with their child/dog Justice. We hung out Friday morning while Cathie's Mom cooked an awesome meal. My mother-in-law has been to culinary school and is classically trained in cooking - qualified as a master, especially in things like basting the turkey.

My Dad was invited over for dinner as well so we sat and gorged ourselves for a second day in a row.

I figured I would take my best shot at doing some work after the dinner and doing something photo-worthy, so I did some of the dishes.

After dinner we broke out the infamous marble game. This is a game that I've played with Cathie's family since before we were married, and today we taught the girls how to play. We finished the night up by playing some more poker, but this time we included the girls and Nate. The top three finishers were Myself, Nate and Cathie. The best man won.


You can see the rest of the pictures here in the Kurt Family Photo Gallery.

Art by Jon

Dan and Em with Matching Shades

Dan loves all that Thailand has to offer

On Dan's recent trip to Thailand, he was kind enough to bring back t-shirts that exemplify the best in America. To fully appreciate them, you need to read the fine print.

We learned a few things about Will and Monaca through all this:
1. Will doesn't quite know how to dress himself.

2. Monaca would like a part time job.

Will and Monaca both work at MSU in their Department of Social Work. Monaca offered Will $100 to wear the t-shirt to work. Monaca thought that most of the people she works with would have no problem if she wore it, which seems like a double-standard to me.

Thanksgiving Poker Party

We got together last night and played poker at my Dad's house. Cathie's Dad, Ron, and brother Ed, Will, Jon, Dan, Kevin, my Dad and I played. We played tournament style texas-no-limit hold'em. One of the players really blew everyone away with their play and won two of the games that night.

Thursday Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday with the whole family, including Will and Monaca and some of Beth's family: Paul, Laura and Elise We had three different turkeys. My dad had two nice breasts and another whole turkey. These were some of the best turkeys ever.

The girls cooked a feast that was worth of the banquets my Mom used to prepare. We even had the standbys that only one person likes: Cranberry Blob, Green Bean Casserole and Creamed Peas.

We hung out and watched the Lions get destroyed by their old quarterback, Joey. It was a bittersweet thanksgiving as the first holiday without my Mom there.

You can see the rest of the pictures here in the Kurt Family Photo Gallery.

Turkey Bowl

Thursday morning I drove back to participate in the first annual Crossroads TurkeyBowl Football game. It was a beautiful morning: Cool, Crisp, Sunny with a thin cloud cover about 50 feet in the air that refracted the sun beautifully. About 20 of us got up at the crack of dawn to play football at our church property. We had four teams and only some minor injuries. The kids had as much fun as the adults, and got hurt equally. Bruce Green coordinated the whole thing and it was a great tradition to begin.


You can see the pictures here at the Kurt Family Photo Gallery.

Tags: Crossroads Flag Football

YouMail

While messing with the SimuScribe service I mentioned here, I came across the YouMail service. It's a customizable voice mail service in that it lets you customize your greetings based on who is calling and it lets you listen to your voice mail messages on the web. You can then take the messages and save them as .wav files to your computer. The two services aren't interchangable, so I'm trying YouMail and then SimuScribe.

Tuesday/Wednesday

My Dad came over last night for dinner and we were able to introduce him to Emily's wonderful world of Sequence. This is Emily's favorite game in the world and she can easily play ten games in a row. After my Dad left to pick up Jon and Beth from the airport (they never made it in), our friend Tiffany came over to hang out, talk and watch a movie. Nate had two buddies over for a sleep-over, and they finally called it a night around 2AM. They started out the night with their Nintendo DS's, all in the same room, playing Mario Kart wirelessly, which was funny to see.

This morning we were greeted with breakfast in bed by the girls. It consisted of a newspaper, milk, and two ice cream sundaes. The girls and I sat around watching old family videos from 8 years ago and laughing hard. You could tell they were old because Kevin and Will still had hair and Emma, Lindsey and Nate were all playing ring-around-the-rosie together.

We had a big breakfast later in the morning and I went outside to finish raking the leaves. I'm going to the airport in a few to pick up Jon and Beth, and then we're heading to Dewitt for the double-whammy thanksgiving at my Dad's house tomorrow for Thanksgiving. My Mom would always go all out in cooking and this will be our first holiday as a family without her. It'll be sad in parts, but good to see everyone. On Friday, we're having another big Thanksgiving at Cathie's parents, right down the street from my Dad's house.

Ballroom Dancing

I had the chance to teach Maddie some of what I learned from my ballroom dancing classes. I'm still not very good. I figure we'll be able to really show off when it comes to the next Daddy-Daughter dance.

SimulScribe

This is kind of cool technology called SimulScribe. It will transcribe the voice mails on your cell phone and send them to you via e-mail. They've got a 1 month free trial that I'm checking out, but otherwise it's $.25/message. If you add up the amount of cell minutes you spend checking them and pain of writing stuff down, it seems like a cool feature that's not quite as expensive, especially if your cell phone supports e-mail like mine does. I'll let you know how it works.

Brad's Two Bucks

I just got this picture from my friend Brad, who sadly enough, has no blog. He shot two big bucks hunting last week up north and apparently picked up a lovely orange jacket and flannel pajamas to to celebrate the event. Whenever hunting season starts, Brad likes to grow a beard in honor of his namesake Blue from the movie Old School:

The likeness is uncanny, don't you think?

Tags: blue, old school, deer hunting

Cheat Sheet

Nerdy? Sure. Just showing off? Maybe. Everything I learned in Computer Science is summed up in this document. This is the Greatest cheat sheet ever for Computer Science.

Fantasy Football

I made some great additions to my team last week in Fantasy football. I picked up Campbell, Evans and Cleveland's defense. What I didn't do actually pick the correct people to play. I left 78 points on the bench, giving me a potential of 161 points. As Eli said, "You're a great GM. Bad coach."

Conversation with Nate

Nate: "Dad, check this out. I lost another tooth."
Me: "Did they pull it out at the dentists office?"
Nate:"No, I pulled it myself."
Me: "Did they let you pull it out"
Nate: "When they numbed my mouth for the cavity, I couldn't feel anything, so I pulled it."
Me: "So it was loose enough to yank on your own?"
Cathie: "He pulled it out when they left the room. The hygienist said it still had a few weeks, but Nate figured just because he couldn't feel the pain, it was ready to go."
Me: "Nice."

Happy Birthday Jon

Today is my brother Jon's 32nd birthday. Here are 10 fun facts about Jon:

1. Jon has a poop-stain shaped birth-mark on his right butt-cheek. (This picture was taken during one of his wife Beth's favorite Christmas memories, entitled "Jon was sloshed on Xmas Eve")
2. Jon has always been one of my closest friends. He was the best man in my wedding and I was the best man in his wedding.
3. Jon was named after Jonathan in the bible, King David's friend that he "loved like a brother". (Ironic, huh? Jon actually is my brother.)
4. Jon once gave Madeline a bloody nose and paid her $10 to pretend that Jon hadn't done it.
5. Jon married far above himself with his beautiful, smart and kind wife Beth. She is the Ying to his Yang.
6. When I accidentally set off a large amount of fireworks in my room, Jon helped me with the clean-up. We took down the burnt curtains, cut out the burnt carpeting and rearranged the furniture to try and cover it all up.
7. When I would get in trouble as a kid, Jon would often plead my case to get me out of my punishment, as my consigliere.
8. Jon loves wieners more than any man I know. He has two.
   
9. Jon loves to read almost as much as he likes to watch TV. He and I have pretty much the same taste in books.
   
10. Jon is one of the funniest people I know. He cracks me up. He is the self-proclaimed lyrical gangster.
    

Lesson Learned

Hypothetically speaking, if a kid comes to your youth group and refers to himself as "junior", don't ask him what his first name is. It could be "Flem" and he might have to tell you that in front of a large group of kids, and you could (in disbelief) ask him what his first name is again, thinking he'd told you his last name (Deep down, I wanted to believe that a parent would not give their kid the first name of Flem). To top it off, he could be a fourth generation "Flem". Do parents not think of this before naming their kids? Maybe they were just big fans of the Johnny Cash song, A Boy Named Sue.

National Losers

For the big game yesterday, a bunch of us from church went up to the Youth Room at our church property to watch the game. It's pretty nicely decked out - with two big video screens (one for the game, one for XBox) couches all over and Bob Ray's grilling. The whole clan of Ray's boys were there, including Joe, who you see duct taped above. The duct tape started as a threat if Joe didn't quiet down. Joe was cracking me up the whole time between his climbing around and trying to get me to tape up his brothers, himself, and giving him a foot slapping. He would climb up on the couch with me, watching the game for 30 seconds and then bounce off the walls som emore. I can't help but smile when Joe's around.

At half time we played football outside - the old guys vs. the young guys. I'm old enough now to be in the "old guy" category. Right off the bat, we figured we couldn't beat them on speed alone, so we went to a zone defense and ended up smoking them - 21 to 7.

Cathie went to a girl's poker party yesterday. One of the guys in neighborhood threw a birthday part for his wife and invited a bunch of other wives in the neighborhood and he taught them all how to play poker. Following in my footsteps, Cathie ended up winning some money. I think Eli would actually stand a good chance of winning for once against this group of girls.

Sometimes nothing is a real cool hand...

Nate and I sat around this morning and watched the movie Cool Hand Luke. Aside from being a great movie with one of the best titular lines in the world:

Dragline: Nothin'. A handful of nothin'. You stupid mullet head. He beat you with nothin'. Just like today when he kept comin' back at me - with nothin'.
Luke: Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.

along with this:

Captain, Road Prison 36: What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men.

the egg eating contest and the fist fight, and the capstone:

Dragline: He was smiling... That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker.

Team Strike Force

Riley started barking by the back window so I got up to look. Walking in a row through our back yard were four adult cats. My brother Jon suggesetd that they're some kind of feline para-military force trying to rescue the kittens. I did what any dog owner would do for their own amusement: I opened the door and let my dog Riley go chase them down. I was pretty impressed to see one climb about 20 feet up a tree. These ninja-cats have skills, but I have God on my side.

Dancing Like a Fool

All I knew was that it was a secret. Our wives had planned a night out for us guys and we were supposed to show up. None of us had any idea what was going on. After a long day, the guys were looking forward to having a cold beer, but that wan't going ot happen for a while. The Niemi's, Schultz's, Muzzi's, Girards and us all met up in a parking lot in an indusrial complex, which looked suspiciously like the dance studio Maddie had gone to. Strange, huh?

Along with 7 other couples, we began our ballroom dancing class. I wasn't horribly against it, I just was caught off guard by the whole thing. We proceeded to learn to foxtrot and waltz. The insructor would split the guys off to one side of the room and the girls to the other and show us our individaul steps and roles for the different dances. The guys as a whole were pretty slow at learning the whole thing while the girls picked it up pretty quickly. It ended up begin a fun night. It was fun learning the dances with Cathie and seeing the other guys be equally off. We'd all be so focused on learning to dance that we'd run into each other throughout the night. We laughed a lot and I got to hold my beautiful wife the whole time. We out to the South Lyon Hotel for dinner afterwards and then played cards at our house with Dana and Eli and Kasey and Michael.

Today we're getting together with a bunch of friends to watch the Michigan vs Ohio State national championship game. For the first time ever, I am rooting for Michigan in a game. MSU's season has let me down to the point that I'm hoping my statement has a huge impact on their motivation next year.

If you haven't wasted a lot of time on Line Rider, you don't know what you're missing. This is one of the more impressive rides I've seen, courtesy of none other than David Crowder:

Raitz in Cinci at NYWC

My meetings finished up around 4 yesterday and I was able to meet up with my friend Jason Raitz and his wife Tracie. Jason works at Willow Creek doing junior high youth ministry and knows everybody at these Youth Specialties conferences. He even has this special chair brought in for him. Not only does it set him apart as a "big deal", it also soothes his flaring hemorrhoids.

We were able to catch up for a while before I drove home, which seemed like the longest five hours of my life.

Great American Ballpark

Saw this view from our customer's office.

Rainy Day in Cincinatti

I drove in to Cinci yesterday for a couple days of meetings with a customer along with some co-workers I hadn't seen in a while. We had dinner last night at The Mongomery Inn, which they tout as great BBQ, but it doesn't hold a candle to Corky's in Memphis. I'm driving back this afternoon, after I meet up with Raitz, who happens to be down here for the National Youth Worker's Conference.

Chaos

We had our Chaos junior high youth group meeting tonight. We had a huge group of kids tonight (almost 20, which is huge for us). At one point, one of the leaders, Matt, came running in the room and chased down the other high school leaders (dressed in costume, including a life size power ranger costume) and tackled them. We played a bunch of fun games, including one where we wrapped a few kid sin saran wrap and they had to scootch down the room and eat a banana without their hands. It's harder than it sounds.

Jay's message tonight was on self esteem and how God values the kids. One of his quesitons was, "What makes you unique?" and it was cool to see how the kids see themselves. Each meeting keeps getting better and better, and the kids seem to be responding and bringing friends. We've got some great events coming up, including a man-hunt for costume-clad leaders in the Novi Mall and a winter retreat.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.