The Balding Avenger's Lair

 It has been a good year for my second Sidekick.  She is growing up very quickly.  She is her brothers opposite in every way.   The funny thing is these photos are the exception to the rule.  KenzieBear is a real HAM and is usually putting on a show instead of sitting still for the camera.

School is going well, she has all A's and B's (yes, they do letter grades in the 2nd grade..).  She has worked so hard at literacy this year, it is really paying off for her. 

Kenzie has taken a real liking to life's more imaginative artistic endeavors.  Coloring, creating a scrap book, writing a journal, thinking up stories....she is definitely a free thinker.

If you are a cultured geek, you will get a laugh out of this....

 Gee, why didn't he just print a billion-gazillion dollar bill?

Link to Man tries to deposit fake $1M bill - Yahoo! News

It has been a long time since I truly wrote in this blog.  There has been the occasional commentary on a news story, or sporadic pictures of the Sidekicks, but nothing with real substance.  This has been on my mind of late.  I seem to recall really enjoying the act of creating this thing.  Where did that go, I wonder.

Well, I thought about it, and I can think of one reason I have not written as much.  In thinking back, I realized that I did most of my blogging while in school.  I don't mean to say that I blogged more during that time period, I mean that I literally blogged during class, while listening to the lecture (or not).  Ok, I hear my parents out there gasping in horror, all I have to say is check out my 3.9 GPA....  Anyway, about 90 percent of the time, class was flat out BOR-ING, so I killed the time writing for the blog.

Of course, since graduating, there is certainly not an overabundance of boring moments to motivate me to extreme measures such as writing.  Still, I don't think that is the whole story.

I have realized something else as I have read through my old entries.  Early on I wrote about family, old war stories, and whatever else seemed fun.  After a while, most of the entries start to become about MudTreasure having cancer, and her eventual passing.  (Wow, a few months ago I couldn't have written THAT sentence).  The Ol' Balding Avenger's Lair became a pretty sad place.  I was just as involved in our little local blog community, but we were all about MudTreasure.  Now, I think that the blog was very impotent for getting through that time.  It was a great way to share news with everyone and pull together. 

Ever hear of Pavlov's dogs? If you are reading this, I am sure you have, only a very enlightened person would be cruising this blog.  Well, I think I am one of them.  For me though, instead of a ringing bell making me salivate (actually, that does happen), I think that I associated the blogging with the more negative aspects of those times.  Until very recently, thinking of writing for this was accompanied by dread.  Sheesh, heavy.

The magic year has passed since MudTreasure died.  I don't know why it is magic, but it seems to work.  I find myself suddenly ready to move on in many respects, and blogging is one of them.  Of course, at this point nearly my entire fan base have stopped reading (all 3 of them).  None the less, I am diving back in.  I know, you'll believe it when you see it, but I am telling you, I even have some entries queued up for future use.  Besides, look at the length of this bad boy, it's an essay!

For now, I am going to try and catch up on this year a bit, and see where it goes from there.....

Gee, that didn't take long.  He was without a job for a whole six hours! 

Link to FOX Sports on MSN - COLLEGE FOOTBALL - Nutt moves quick, takes Ole Miss job

Well, if your not a Hog fan, this is no big deal, but around here this headline may be the biggest news of the year.  Allot of folks have been highly critical of Nutt here lately.  I think he was a good man and a great coach.  I dread having to play him if he gets a job in the SEC.... 

Link to ESPN - Nutt era closes with resignation of Arkansas coach - College Football

I just wanted to post a few photos of the Sidekicks playing in the neighborhood this summer.  

 Mainly because it shows just how  HUGE they have grown. 

There are plenty of kids in this area, and a lot of good neighbors.  If the weather is nice at all an impromptu block party tends to start with all the young ones converging on some "lucky" parent's house to romp in the yard. 

So, the commercialization of the holidays is nothing new..... 

Quote

Greatest Stories Never Told: Thanksgiving


FDR was lobbied by retailers to lengthen the Christmas season by making Thanksgiving earlier.

I had never heard of this, but it seems this happens a lot.... 

Link to Dolphins rescue surfer from shark - People: Tales of survival - TODAYshow.com

Wow, this does not surprise me, but it does scare me.  It occurred to me that Sidekick #1 is only a little over 3 years away from being a teen.  How sad that I am having to already start talking about drugs... 

Link to Drug dealers peddling new kid-friendly mixes - Addictions - MSNBC.com