Jonathan's blog

I've had a little trouble during this past week. Last weekend while I was cleaning out our basement, I came across a burned cd "slideshow" of one of Elliot's pre-school classes. Seeing the cd reminded me of Elliot at pre-school, his pre-school graduation, etc. For some reason that stopped me in my tracks and made me extremely sentimental about my two little boys...like I want to take a 15-year break from work and spend every minute that I possibly can with these two kids.

Tonight I watched the first episode of Acceptable TV on VH1. From the Wikipedia entry:

Acceptable.TV is a television program from the makers of Channel 101, which first aired on VH1 on March 23rd, 2007. Each 30-minute episode consists of five 2.5 minute mini-shows created by the Acceptable.TV team, and one submitted by a viewer. After each episode, viewers can go online and vote for their two favorites. The two that receive the most votes will be continued in the following episode, and the remaining three will be canceled and replaced by new mini-shows.

Only one of the skits was acceptable to me, the obviously high-brow "Who Farted."

I had the unique experience this week of two different strangers telling me what I look like. First, as I walked down the aisle in the grocery store, a lady who obviously needed some information asked me if I worked there. I said, "Nope." She said, "Well, you look like you do." Then, at the post office I asked to buy a book of stamps. The clerk said, "You look like a flag kind of guy. Is that the kind you want?" I said, "Sure, that's fine." Yep, that's me, your flag-stamp-loving Kroger-employee wannabe.

Last night Lisa and I celebrated her birthday with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and a movie. We saw Amazing Grace (2007,PG) (ScreenIt! Review). We probably would have seen something else, but there seemed to be nothing else interesting showing. The Adam Sandler movie, maybe, but it seemed to be getting tepid reviews. So, we went to see Amazing Grace. It was good...an inspiring story of a long fight for the greater good that finally won out. I also couldn't help seeing parallels with today...talk of lives wasted in a war gone bad and a tendency to allow our principles of decency to be violated in war time (tolerating slavery then...tolerating torture now). From the Wikipedia entry:

Amazing Grace is a 2007 film directed by Michael Apted about the campaign against the slave trade in 19th century Britain, led by famous abolitionist William Wilberforce, who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament. The title is a reference to the hymn "Amazing Grace" and the film also recounts John Newton's writing of the hymn.

I give it 4 out of 5.

Elliot had a birthday party with his friends a week ago. Here are some photos: