One Day...

Rio de Janeiro. One day, I will go back. I will take both gondolas on Sugarloaf Mountain, visit as many beaches as possible (though maybe with a blindfold), watch a soccer game at Maracana, ride the trolly in Santa Teresa, pay an old man who drives a boat to take us to the Christ statue and feed the cutest monkeys ever some bananas. Oh, and eat nothing but meat on a sword, açaí, and rice and black beans. One day . . .

Tribute

As a tribute to my lovely wife, my text in now teal/turquoise -- her favorite. At the moment, at least.

hmmm...maybe i'll add some pics later...

Mount Merapi Erruption and Devastation

Growing up, I loved reading National Geographic (actually, flipping through the pages finding the really cool pictures). I was always in awe of the raw power and beauty of earth...

Source

...but now, I'm just as awe struck by the devastation. It's horrible what they are going through in Indonesia right now.

If you want to see more pictures, go here.

I Can't Believe It's ... Tubeless!

After countless decades of having that infuriating tube left on the toilet paper bar, tubeless toilet paper is finally here! Unfortunately, it's only being "rolled" (get it?) out in the NE US of A. Here's hoping it's sucessful so us Phonecians can get it!!

There Are Some Crazy People in This World

Once Again, I Should be Studying, But I Really Want to Fly on Cebu Pacific

Better than an in-flight movie.

And I Thought Arizona Dust Storms Were Cool

And, it turns red.

Do Fun Stuff

A while back, I posted about an awesome potty training song. It was instrumental in getting our oldest on the toilet and doing his thing. That song was part of an album just released in iTunes for the sake of raising money for SMS case studies. SMS is a rare genetic disorder -- read about it here. All monies made off the album sales will go into a grant fund to be used by graduated/PhD students who decide to research SMS. Check it out, it's fun music. If you want to buy it to help, it's only $9.99 for 13 songs that go to a great cause!

Who Ever Thought I'd Be Jealous of Snoop Dogg...

...and no, it's not the pretty pig-tails. He got to blow up a 4 ton truck!!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/23/snoop-dogg-mafia-wars-promotional-stunt-breaks-ustream-record-with-2-million-views/#ooid=M3OTNvMTqSiNCWWZdkksVh6pd_SocSKj

Whooping

I've recently become obsessed with photography; which means I follow a lot of photography blogs. Not only are the photos interesting, but quite a few add their personal life to it (I tend to gravitate towards those with 3 or more boys for some reason). Some are hilarious, some are boring, some are sad. In the above pic is boy #4 of Natalie Norton, Gavin, who died of whooping cough at two and a half months young. This stuck with me as my wife is due with boy #3 in early October -- cold and flu and RSV season.

Did you know there's a whooping cough outbreak? Yep. I'm not posting this to tell everybody to get their children vaccinated or start doing vaccinations for yourself, I'm posting for the sake of creating awareness (to all 3 of my known regular readers, ha!).

Did you know (for those who do vaccinate), that 80% of children who get the whooping cough get it from family members because they haven't gotten the booster shot? Did you know there was a booster shot? I didn't. It's the TDAP vaccine, needed every 10 years. Get it.

Did you know that when adults have the whooping cough, they don't whoop, but just have a lingering cough, and unknowingly and easily pass that on to infants who can't be vaccinated yet?

So, yeah...