If you know who Rick Astley is..

Rick Astley sounds like a neighborhood kid who is good at wiffleball.

In reality, he is a singer from the 80's/90's. If you have never heard of him, stop here. If you HAVE heard of him, check out the following nifty Pie Chart for all the things Rick Astley would never do to you.

If you know who Right Said Fred is, then you know the "I'm Too Sexy" song. They made a Pie Chart for them too.

Two Things that Made Us Laugh Today

1.) I was up and down the stairs and Aimee was watching the local News. As I walked into the living room, the News Reader was talking about some sort of local crime. I am not sure what the perp did or to whom, but the very last sentence was something like this:

Witnesses say the assailant was around (x) feet tall and possesses a very large right ear.

Maybe it was the way it was said, but we both busted out laughing. It was very random. Anyway, to help authorities, I drew a sketch in case you come across this villain. Click here to see.

2.) On the same news program, Aimee heard about The Pope coming to DC (Nationals Stadium).

She jokingly asked me:

Are you getting tickets to The Pope?

I had to ask her three times to repeat herself. When I finally understood, I said:

I don't know. Who's opening up for him?

I do know this. There is only ONE entity who could ever 'open up' for The Pope. See video below if you are interested.

My Job

My parents don't know what I do for a living so I thought I would explain. This stems from a phone call my mother had with a second cousin who asked what I do. All she knew is that it had something to do with computers. No problem Mom.

I am a 'project lead' or 'project manager' for website development. Say you want to create a website. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle: How it will look, how the information is laid out on the pages (this is more important than you may think), how it functions, how it is made (what computer language you use to develop functionality), how a database is structured and what information is stored, where and how the website is stored, etc. etc. and ergo epsum.

I manage all of that stuff. I am sure it sounds boring to a lot of people. For whatever reason, I thoroughly enjoy it. I've thought about it: What's a fella who leans towards History, Political Science, Sociology and all those other liberal arts subjects, doing making websites? I think it has to do with the fact that I am not very detail-oriented while a website must be. Aimee loves to kid me about my lack of noticing details. On the other hand, she never kids me about getting things done.

If one, tiny, minute detail is incorrect, a whole website can malfunction. I look at it this way: the website helps me do my job. If there is a problem, nothing progresses until that problem is fixed. I know enough about the Internet to distinguish the problem, so all I need to do is contact the person who must fix it. This person can be one of many different people. Instead of shooting an email (or calling or asking in person) to all these many different people, I send it to one person. I try to do as much homework on the issue so that the person who's responsible for fixing it has a lot of information and says to him or herself: no problem.

The above was the basic version. I could go into more detail but I don't like to bore. So, Mom, that's what I do.

Speculation on Getting Older

Occasionally, I will have Instant Message exchanges with my oldest brother. Yesterday, we were talking about me having a family one day. He knows that Aimee and I want to have children. While I am married and intend to have children, he is unmarried. Sometimes we enjoy giving each other a hard time for no other reason than the fact that we are brothers. So today, I was speculating on him at age 53 while he did the same for me.

Below is mid-exchange of our chat. Of course I censored a bit as this is a PG rated blog. Keep in mind we are making fun of each other and believe this is a fine age. Fifty is the new thirty anyway. It's not about the age as much as zinging one's brother.

Brother: you will be talking some punk out of getting his nose pierced
"I hate you Dad!!!!"
Me: While you'll be talking to a chair..

Brother: "Hey Dad, get borrow money....for some Crystal?"
Me: Your best friend will be a box of Cheerios

Brother: "Dad, I have feelings for the other boys"
Me: your neighbors will bring you meals on wheels

The Next exchange is censored.
.
Brother: you get to teach a kid how to go poopy!
Me: you get to have someone teach you how to go poopy in a diaper.

Brother: that fate awaits us all
Me: true

Robots Can Help with Dogs

Every morning I (Matt) wake up and feed our dogs, then take them for a walk. The following video gave me some ideas. But then again, I would need a life-sized vehicle to achieve the same results.

Julie's Wine Blog

Aimee's friend Julie has a new blog about Wine. She knows a lot about wine. I don't.

She is a sommelier at a Restaurant named Ran Azul. Ran Azul is a very good Tapas Restaurant located in Howard County Maryland. This part of Maryland is very beautiful and wealthy. There are a lot of horse farms, big houses and rich people. With your meal, Julie will arrive at your table and tell you what wine goes with what food. Izzz Nyyezz!

I like Wine. I pretty much like everything about it. I don't drink that much though. I was just speaking about it with Aimee. I really really enjoy wine or beer but I seldom partake (any more). The main reason is lifestyle, I suppose. If I won the lottery and didn't have to work, and hung around people who enjoyed wine a lot, I imagine that I too would enjoy the spirits.

Enough about me. Here's her blog. And if you are ever in Clarkesville, MD, check out the restaurant. Good Luck with your blog and restaurant Julie.

Valentines Day

Within the first month of meeting Aimee, I learned a peculiar (to me) predilection of hers: She loves Broadway Musicals from the 1950's. I learned this on a Sunday afternoon, when she became overly excited because Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was on TV. It had a tough looking Lumberjack as the lead so how bad could it be? About five minutes later I learned how it could be when a group of "lumberjacks" in multicolored outfits started dancing and singing. It was absolutely ridiculous..and Aimee loved it. That day was probably the 37th time she had seen it.

She also loves pretty much loves all of Rodgers and Hammerstein productions, including The Sound of Music and Oklahoma! (exclamation point is part of the title). For The Sound of Music, she is quite talented at singing the song that all the Children sing at the Ball (or whatever it's called) before they go to bed: Good night, farewell, Adieu adieu adieu and all that nonsense. One by one, the children roll out of the party with their special "good night." One boy in particular reaches an octave so high that dogs cover their ears. Aimee can't quite reach that level but she sure tries..and tries..then laughs..then tries again. If you want to know what I am talking about, the song is below and our special little guy does his thing at about minute 1:40. It comes out of nowhere and is really quick so pay attention.



So, why am I writing about this? Because for Valentines Day, I gave her a DVD set of Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Music / The King and I / Oklahoma! / South Pacific / State Fair / Carousel.

Our dogs are already looking for places to hide when the music starts blaring.

I also got her the movie "Once" which is a musical without the high octaves, prancing and tidy clothing. It's set in Ireland. A song from the movie is below. I hear it's good. We shall see.

Neat Youtube Video for Obama

After the Democratic primaries in New Hampshire, Barak Obama gave a speech. A guy named "Will I Am" from a musical group called "The Black Eyed Peas" became inspired.

So much so, that he made the speech into song and had himself and other famous people sing along at the same moment with the same lines as Barak. I (Matt) found it a bit inspiring and at the least interesting. Plus, it has Scarlett Johansen, who is a {censored censored}. I was a bit embarrassed watching some of the histrionics but like the idea overall. Does it change my mind on anything? Not necessarily. I have to learn more about him. He does seem quite presidential though.



Now, someone needs to make a video for Hillary and McCain.

McCain's video could be set to the music of GI Joe, a Real American Hero.



Hillary's, to the Golden Girls:



Bill Clinton?



George Bush (My Favorite vid......on this post)



Okay, I'll stop. One last one for Dick Cheney, because deep down inside, he's gotta have a heart.

Chicken Running

In 1990, I visited my brother Tim at his home base in St. Croix, USVI. He picked me and my friend up at the airport and we proceeded to drive off. It was just our group in an old, giant convertible, out on a quiet, two-lane road. We were surrounded by lush tress, where it was tough for the sun to poke through.

Suddenly, a wild chicken bolted in front of the car, running as fast as it's chicken legs could go. It was as if he was late for a job interview or was trying to catch a flight. A chicken flight, if you will.

As soon as we passed, Tim screamed out the following words in desperate and pleading tone:

WHYYYYYY DID YOU DO IT?????

I laughed.

Our French friends are leaving

A while back, I wrote a post about how our French friends are leaving Maryland to return to their homeland. The next day, I received a feverish call from Anne-Laure, Vincent's wife. She called to ask that I remove the post because Vincent was afraid that his co-workers would see it and their secret out. Even though I know few people read this blog and the chances of any of Vincent's co-workers learning of their departure were between 00.0 and 0.05, I changed the post to unreadable French thanks to Google language translator:

You can view it here. If you're curious about what it says, I posted the translation at the bottom of this post. Keep in mind it went from English to French, then back to English. I other words, it's goofy.

Now everyone knows they are leaving. Vincent's last day at his job is Friday and they're off in a couple of weeks. They are making all their arrangements like moving stuff and selling cars. They're even scoping out apartments in Gey Paree.

I told Vincent today (we had lunch together), that since he's moving back to France he must change his blog, which is now in French (a Frenchman in DiCi), to English so I can keep up on what's happening with them. He replied: yes, I could title it "A Frenchman in Paris." Maybe you had to be there, but the irony of a French person writing about his experiences in his own country, from a global perspective, is rather amusing. Anyway, I hope he does. I will miss that Leche Cul Encule. He taught me a lot.....of naughty French words.

I am not, on the surface, a very emotional person. I am especially uncomfortable with man-on-man affection. This is one of the few times I can say that I am genuinely saddened and appreciative at the same time. It's a rare kind of sadness because though it's an end to a chapter, the next one will most certainly be more exciting than the previous. This sentiment is not foreign to me. I imagine he's experiencing similar thoughts that I expressed here, recently.

As far as the "appreciative" part above, I am thankful to have made such a great friend. I don't have too many friends, but the few ones I have are friends for life. So don't lose touch, baiseur, and don't forget your English because I don't have time to learn your language except for the bad words. I would say "Good Luck" but there's no such thing. Even if there were such a thing as good luck, you don't need it.

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Translation:

French:

Désolé Vincent. J'aurais pensé de la possibilité de voir les personnes nouvelles. Qui aurait WebFirst à regarder notre blog?

Quoi qu'il en soit, félicitations. Comme je vous l'ai dit auparavant, vous pourriez un jour bientôt éprouver les mêmes sensations je faire lorsque vous imiter mon accent américain. Préparez-vous, Super Leche Cul.

Vous permettra de ne plus se moquer de votre patrie d'adoption et ses habitants. Angry Quand les Français critiquent, vous, attention à l'horizon et une larme se déroulera votre joue, en pensant à Baja Fresh et Sam Adams. Je sais ces choses-là.

English:

Sorry Vincent. I would have thought the opportunity to see the new people. Who would WebFirst watching our blog?

Anyway, congratulations. As I said earlier, you may one day soon experience the same feeling I do when you imitate my American accent. Prepare yourself, Super Leche Cul.

You will no longer make fun of your adopted home and its inhabitants. Angry French critics When you look at the horizon and tears will run your plays, thinking about Baja Fresh and Sam Adams. I know these things.

Favorite Superbowl commercial

I (Matt) liked the following commercial the best.