Ode To The Weekend

Where did you go? Have you left forever?
Don't you remember? It was good.

Naps. We used to go out after the naps.
7 a.m. was never a time we saw. 7 a.m., nope.
Camping, sitting in the sun, traveling, TV, beer.
Don't deny the goodness. You can't. You won't.

Now, you are gone.
Oh weekend, it is not fair, it is not right.
You've been knocked out cold by a toddler.
No fight.

Running, chasing, working, scolding.
The boy... that boy... has sent you into hiding.
He means well, I know. But the poop... all the poop... raises questions.
Those difficult, pungent questions.

He breaks. He spills. He cries. He whines.
He whines, he whines, he whines.
Remember wine, weekend? Not the same.
A shame.

Funny, he is. Funny, ha ha.
Hide and seek. Dancing.
Sweet and sour sauce on his head.

Still, relaxation comes when the lawn mower hums.
How sick. So wrong. No fun.

But, with morning comes a glorious pair.
The paid work week... and day care.

I'm tired now. More tired than before.
Weekend, I miss you so.
Reality and Mr. O.

Let Your Fingers Do The Walking

William F. Buckley once said, "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."

With this news this morning, and the ongoing scandal, investigation, trial and gubernatorial review of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's hijinks, the phone book is actually starting to look like a pretty viable option for finding someone to lead the City of Detroit.

The Century Mark

99 posts ago, "Life With Mr. O" began. The post you're reading right now marks our 100th offering.

It's been interesting to look back at the little man to see what has happened in the roughly 3 1/2 months since this website was created.

Mr. O used to eat from a bottle, almost exclusively. Now, he uses a spoon and a little guidance.

He used to be a Ladybug (the nickname for the children in his room at day care). On Tuesday, he graduates to Toddlerland and becomes a Seal, full-time... walking proof of a very creative theory of intelligent design.

He used to explore. Now, he destroys. He used to just sit. Now, he doesn't. He used to say, "Dah." Now, he still says, "Dah." He used to have no teeth. Now, he has 4.

Once upon a time, there was a boy with long and poorly-styled hair, chunky cheeks and a drool puddle on his shirt...















who has now turned into a non-stop dancing machine.




What better way to mark Post #100? A little Mr. O, some dancing and a few memories.

Quick Quiz

This is a picture of...

A: The Stanley Cup, the trophy recently won by the Detroit Red Wings as a result of their beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League championship.

B: An historic sports relic that has the name of each member of each team ever to earn the NHL championship engraved on its sides.

C: The very latest shiny object to enter the Michigan State Capitol to cause the giddy distraction of a toddler with a cookie sheet and a wooden spoon among our state's finest products of the democratic process.

A hint: This evening, a daily capital newsletter noted, "Most of the earlier part of House session saw lawmakers participating in a presentation of the Detroit Red Wings 2008 Stanley Cup."

Dang, that gives it away, doesn't it?

Answer: All of the above, of course.

Congratulations to the Red Wings.

Sure, winning the Cup is a major accomplishment, but getting state lawmakers to focus on something for an entire hour that doesn't include the words "free," "breakfast," "lunch," or "dinner" is truly a feat worth celebrating.

A Little Inside Joke Among Friends

Facebook, ah Facebook.

Who knew "friendship" could be so funny?

WARNING: To visitors with an aversion to salty language... beware. But, they are British, so somehow it all seems less crude when said with an accent.



Thanks to one of my very close Facebook friends for passing this along.

Question

Can a week go bad that starts with the Cubs sweeping the White Sox?

Nah, no way.

Attention Michigan Voters

The Detroit News' Nolan Finley pens a must-read column for all people planning to vote in Michigan this November. And even if you're not planning to vote, it's an interesting read.

There have been plenty of sleazy attempts to slip self-serving ballot initiatives past unsuspecting Michigan voters -- in fact, few recent referendums have been honest about their true intent, which may explain why voters defeat most of them.

But this drive to enshrine a partisan advantage in the Constitution is the slimiest I've seen.

That sets it up pretty well.

Something For The Weekend

Every once and a while I'll catch a story on NPR that I finish listening to and think, "Now, that was good."

It happened this morning. A fascinating story and interview with Marin Alsop, director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, about Robert Schumann, his mental illness, his music and his sad death at his own hands.

O-dacity

This might just be a tad much.

Web MD

Long-time visitors to LWMO will likely remember this... my bout with a Boxer's Fracture.

There is no scientific proof to back this up, but I believe it to be a fan favorite, and through the mighty pain killers I was taking to dull my extreme suffering at the time, I remember it fondly too.

While I'm glad it entertained, I really had no expectations that it would also educate. Even comfort. But, apparently it has.

How do I know? Well, as part of hosting this site, I can see how many visitors come to read about Mr. O, and while I don't get names and addresses of visitors, I can see which website, if any, directed them to the site.

Let me explain. When the good people at RightMichigan.com link to something on LWMO, for example, any time a visitor goes to RightMichigan and then clicks on the link to LWMO, I can see that their "Entry Page" was RightMichigan.com.

Likewise, when someone finds Mr. O and his dad's busted up hand, I can see that their entry page very often was a Google Image search for a "Boxer's Fracture."

Why is this interesting? Well, maybe it's not, but I do not lie when I report that at least once daily a poor soul with a throbbing hand and bruised psyche uses Google and lands on LWMO in search of information about a Boxer's Fracture.

Here I thought the mission of LWMO was to post pictures of a little boy and pontificate about politics. Now, I feel the need to raise my good hand and repeat the Hippocratic oath.

At the time of my injury, my search for sympathy and compassion was long-suffering. If now, LWMO can become a sanctuary for Boxer's Fracture sufferers everywhere, then clearly some good will have come from my pain.

A Public Service Announcement

Ben and Jerry's "Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler" ice cream is spectacular.

Although, it is apparently not without controversy.

Caption Time

Share your caption, Vide-O style.



"Juicey!"

Happy Father's Day

I'm No Civil Engineer

In no way do I want to make light of the terrible flooding in Iowa, but I have to wonder who thought is was a good idea to place the Cedar Rapids' City Hall, county courthouse and jail on an island in the middle of a river.

Downtown Cedar Rapids before the flood:













Downtown Cedar Rapids now:

He Will Be Missed

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tim Russert, host of NBC's "Meet the Press" and its Washington bureau chief collapsed and died at work Friday after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 58.

How shocking and how terrible.

You Like Me, You Really Like Me

David Brooks has an interesting column this morning in which he works to identify exactly where Barack Obama stands on the political spectrum, and he uses education policy as his measuring stick.

One paragraph jumped out at me. I think it says more about a potential Obama presidency than does anything in connection to his specific ideas on education, although it follows from Brooks' point.

He proposes dozens of programs to build on top of the current system, but it’s not clear that he would challenge it. He’s all carrot, no stick. He’s politically astute — giving everybody the impression he’s on their side — but substantively vague. Change just isn’t that easy.

All politicians want --- and in many cases need --- to be popular. It's kind of the nature of winning an election.

Still, there is a difference between focusing a campaign around the popularity of one's personality as opposed to the popularity of one's policies. In this, I see a lot of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm in Obama.

Granholm, like Obama, has always been, and likely always be, very personally popular. And with the current state of things in Michigan, the fact that people like her is about all she has going for her.

Granholm, like Obama, ran on "change" and against a person who was a political victim of the public's fatigue with an outgoing administration.

Her campaign, like Obama's, focused on the fact that she was dynamic, young, attractive and very likable, much more so than any 10-point plan on a particular issue.

The problem for the "personality politician," however, is that "change" is hard, as Brooks notes. It's often not popular. Upsetting the apple cart upsets the people who run that apple cart. Challenging the status quo makes people mad. So, when you've based your campaign primarily on the fact that you, and not your ideas, are popular with people, the very thought that someone or some group could get mad at you can be politically paralyzing.

Granholm and Michigan have discovered this the hard way. Instead of using her popularity to push for big, tough things, she boxed it all up and hid it in a mattress.

Voters across the country should take note.

Comfort Zones

This, kind of reminds me of this.

The Pitfalls Of Friendship

The Washington Post this morning reports:

Facebook fanatics who have covered their profiles on the popular social networking site with silly games and quirky trivia quizzes may be unknowingly giving a host of strangers an intimate peek at their lives.

Ya think? More interestingly, they continue by saying:

Those mini-programs, called widgets or applications, allow users to personalize their pages and connect with friends and acquaintances. But they could pose privacy risks. Some security researchers warn that developers of the software have assembled too much information -- home town, schools attended, employment history -- and can use the data in ways that could harm or annoy users.

Ah, the timeless pitfalls of friendship. Here we all thought that if a friend annoyed us, all we had to do was close our laptop. Not so much.

This really isn't a completely unserious problem. There are freaks out there, and they use sites like these to practice their freakness. Still, I have to think this is a little like filling your front yard with card tables full of junk from your basement for a yard sale and then wigging out when your neighbor walks by and says, "Gee, you've got a lot of junk."

So Friends, let's be careful out there.

Now That My Work Here Is Finished...

I must dance!



UPDATE: I must admit that I missed this the first 72 times I watched this and laughed, but if you listen closely around :11, you can hear the not-so-subtle, yet rhythmic pantings of a Bernese Mountain dog.

Combined with the music, dancing and terra cotta tile floor, if, through the screen, you could also smell the pantings of this dog, you would be instantly transported to the patio of an exotic Mexican taberna.

On The Air

Stepping into a new realm tomorrow evening. I've been asked to sit in on a radio show panel to talk about the presidential race. Should be a hootenanny.

I make no predictions, but if you tune in and can't figure out who's talking, for the sake of my own self-image, just assume I'm the one you think sounds smartest.

88.9 The Impact, the Michigan State University student station. 7 p.m. EST, June 11.

You can listen live, here (I think).

UPDATE: A fun time was had by all --- the 4 panelists and the 8 listeners.

The Devil Wears Pampers

Since becoming a father, I've heard much about a certain child-rearing phenomenon. The:

Spend-A-Week-On-Vacation-Or-With-The-Grandparents-Or-With-Other-Family-Members-Who-By-No-Fault -Of-Their-Own-Give-Wonderful-Attention-T0-Your-Child-And-After-It's-All-Over-Your-Child-Becomes-A-Perfect-Pain-In-The-#@& Phenomenon.

Or, more simply, SAWOVOWTGOWOFMWBNFOTOGWATYCAAIAOYCBALPIT#.


Wow! I'd heard stories, but never before has the devil himself sent flames of torture from my son's mouth every time an Oatio is not placed correctly on his high chair tray.

I know a significant factor in all of this was the extreme illness he's coming off of. An illness that required near constant holding in an effort to comfort. But with the perfect manipulation he is now showing in his attempts to rule our home, I'm starting to wonder if he didn't catch a showing of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" on cable before we left town and stuck a hot water bottle in his pants before it was time to take his temperature.

SAWOVOWTGOWOFMWBNFOTOGWATYCAAIAOYCBALPIT#. No good.

Note: I know I used this photo on an earlier post, but that's because I had it sitting around and wanted to post it and was looking for a reason to do so. Who knew that NOW I would have a legitimate reason.

Well Said, Young Man

Mr. O just wrapped up the third vacation of his 14 month life, and on it, he chose to say his first "words." Within some hours of arriving in Jackson, Wyoming, home of the Grand Teton Mountains and Yellowstone National Park, he said, "Uh Oh!"

Never have two syllables rang more true.

When his parents and grandparents sprinted through O'Hare Airport after being stopped by a slow-moving freight train on the way to the airport, followed by a ticket counter shouting match with someone who may or may not have been an employee of United, no one seemed to know, Mr. O thought, "Uh Oh."

When his aunt and uncle missed their connecting flight to the O'Hare, Mr. O thought once again, "Uh Oh."

When his aunt got sick one day into the trip and had to visit the Urgent Care, Mr. O said, "Uh Oh."

When the road to see one of the main attractions at Yellowstone was closed, Mr. O said, "Uh Oh."

When he woke up in the middle of the night with a 103 degree fever, Mr. O didn't say much of anything.

When Mr. O was diagnosed the next day at the Jackson Urgent Care with a severe ear infection and told he could not fly home, Mr. O's parents said, "Uh Oh."

When Mr. O's dad --- that would be me --- got a $116 speeding ticket leaving the Urgent Care, Mr. O managed a weak, "Uh Oh."

When his fever lasted and lasted and lasted and topped out around 104.7, Mr. O was too sick to say, "Uh Oh."

When the power went out on the last afternoon of vacation with prescribed medicine in the fridge, Mr. O said, "Oh good, I hate that stuff."

When a nice doctor at the Jackson ER said Mr. O could fly with an ear infection, it just might hurt a bit, all the passengers on the flight collectively said, "Uh Oh."

When a stinkin' owl perched itself outside the bedroom window of our cabin and launched into the Halle-WHO-jah Chorus about four hours before our 6:45 a.m. departure for the airport, Mr. O lifted his feverish noggin from his crib mattress and whispered, "Uh Oh."

All said, the trip went off without much of a hitch. Mr. O survived the flight and was a little man of few words until we pulled into a gas station outside of Kalamazoo, where the beautiful side effects of a strong antibiotic caused the little guy to fill his diaper, his pants and his car seat. "UH OH!"

Then, I look at this.


And this.


And while "Uh Oh" will place pretty high in my memories of this trip, a simple "Ohhhhh" will rank up there too.

NOTE: More phot-Os, to your left.

Thanks A Thousand

Not at all sure what to expect when this little web project named for a little man began, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and gratified when sometime this last Friday, "Life with Mr. O" welcomed its 1,000th visitor.

Granted, 378 of these visits were likely made by one grandmother of the featured youngster, and another 343 were most probably made by the other. Still, that leaves a couple hundred others.

I'm not at all sure where this kind of traffic ranks on the list of all-time successful site launches in history. Somewhere behind the introduction of the iPhone and somewhere ahead of www.WeWantABush3rdTerm.com, I suspect.

1,000 visitors in, a few lessons have been learned.

1) A cute kid who does funny stuff is pretty popular --- especially with his blood relatives.

1a) Whenever you try to get a cute kid to do something funny, he doesn't.

2) Injuring oneself --- severely --- and then telling people about it also thrills.

3) Political indignation often is less popular than a simple photo of a simple dog.

4) Funny videos on YouTube are --- well ---- funny.

And

5) While writing under the influence of a few vodka tonics (or "Juicey" as Mr. O calls it) might enhance one's creativity, it also increases exponentially the need for a more sober editor. Many thanks, in this regard, to Mr. O's ma.

And thanks to our many visitors. As I'm sure you are finding, Mr. O is just the kind of toddler this country can rally behind. He's about changing more than just a few diapers. He's committed to this through the end. And so, we continue in search of a second thousand visitors.

Hey, The Bar Is Open!

You're right, Mr. Mayor. If you resigned as a result of your sexually explicit text messaging, wrongful firing of police officers, illegal cover-up, tax dollar wasting, city embarrassing scandal, all the people who voted for you would be very upset.

Clearly.



"The beer is on me!" What?!

When at first you don't succeed with fraud, deception, misfeasance, and abuse of power, try bribery.

A Place Worth Visiting

We've just finished a week where at almost all times, this was our view. From our cabin, from the car, from our favorite lunch spot, from the grocery store parking lot, from the Urgent Care where Mr. O was treated for a nasty ear infection. The Grand Tetons are just that, and worth a visit.

It's On

All, save Mrs. Clinton, are now into the main event. Senators Obama and McCain, head to head.

Both men are serious. Both have compelling - if not inspiring - life stories. Both, by definition and by demonstration, represent a change from the Bush administration. Both are passionate when defending their vision for this country.

Both men also have two very different campaign comfort zones.

Sen. Obama is a speech maker. He will wow a crowd and inspire an audience. His campaign, along with the media, have installed him in America's pulpit, with voters as his congregants. Hear his well-crafted and poll-tested "Sermon on the Moment," and you will pick up and follow.

By contrast, Sen. McCain is a debater. His political life has been spent in the legislative committee room, grilling witnesses, defending and debunking policy. He thrives at the "town hall meeting," where eloquence takes a backseat to candor and because asking and answering questions is in his wheelhouse.

One man leads using the spoken word; the other man leads using the meaning of words.

Very different men. Very different styles. Very different visions. It's on, and it's sure to be compelling.

The O Cam

No dogs, woodwork or grand pianos were injured in the making of this vide-O.