Jason’s SuperAwesome Tales from the Crypt

My wife, Allison, is so wonderful. She's the most wonderful wife, ever!! She stays home taking care of our 2 children (2 and 3/4 years, and 1 months old) while I get to go off to work. Why, just last week, in addition to changing dirty diapers and fixing lunch and keeping the house clean, she had to shovel a dead cat into a trash bag, all by herself. Now, you tell me, how many wives would have done that? Not too many, I bet!

I didn't even give her the appreciation she deserved, but did she complain, no sirree! I mean, she might have blogged about it, but she didn't say one word to me about how underappreciated she felt. That, my friends, is a wonderful wife.

When she mentioned that I ought to blog about how wonderful she is, I realized how neglectful I have been, and decided to let everyone know what a wonderful, wonderful wife she really is. Now you all know...make sure you tell her how wonderful she is!

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Well, as you may have seen from Allison's Blog, I am now the proud father of a new baby girl, Harper Abbigail Russell. She was born this morning, and we are now resting comfortably in our room (very swank, by the way). You know the best part about this hospital (aside from safely delivering my daughter, and successful surgery on my wife)? The ice!!! This place has the great ice that's small enough to bite into, but not so small that it's hard to drink anything. It's perfect. I highly recommend the ice at Northside Hospital, if you have a baby anytime soon.  They also have wireless internet, which is cool for updating your blog and all.

Harper is waking up, so I'll check in later.

In anticipation of the birth of 2K, we went out and bought a new video camera (actually, I sort of tricked Allison into buying the camera, as she thought we were just going to get an external hard drive case). We were going to go with the Sony DC38 (or something like that), but Best Buy didn't have any unopened boxes in the store, so we went with the Panasonic GS320. It has the 3 CCD chips (one for each color), so it supposedly had better picture quality. I really wanted a Hard Drive Digital video camera, but they are apparently not compatible with Macs at this time, so we went with the MiniDV. 

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by "Transformers". I didn't go in with high expectations, as I typically don't like cartoons brought to life movies - i.e. "The Flintstones" and "George of the Jungle". However, "Transformers" did a great job with the special effects and action scenes. As expected, the plot was a little thin, but since I didn't have high expectations, it turned out well. It was great that they used the actual voice from the cartoon for Optimus Prime, and seeing some of the better Autobots and Decepticons was a fun trip down memory lane.

One downside was that the voices for some of the other Decepticons were not from the cartoon, especially Starscream. I was looking forward to hearing that. Also, the faces on the Decepticons were not as recognizable as they were in the cartoons.

Overall, I give "Transformers" an 8 out of 10, which is about as high as I think I could have rated any movie of this type (does that mean I should give it a 10??). As usual, i'm not sure than ANY movie is completely worth $9.50, but I wasn't upset that I spent that for the movie.

Work was pretty normal today, and when I came home, I talked with a friend (Steve) who's invited me to go watch "Transformers" with him tonight at 10:10. I don't know when I've seen a movie that late at night, but I imagine that I was either still in college, or early in my married years. I know it's been at least 2.5 years. I'm pretty excited about going to see a movie that late at night. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

We had someone come and clean the carpets today in preparation for 2K's arrival. Apparently since the baby is going to be crawling on the carpet in 6 months, we need to get them cleaned now. Like the dogs won't get them dirty in the next 6 months :) They do look really good, almost like new. It reminds me of moving into a new apartment, when all the carpet still had the fresh lines in it from the cleaning.

Anyway, I'll come back with a movie review tomorrow.

As much as I love America, and as much as I love the 4th of July and what it represents, I was saddened and ashamed yesterday. I watched Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest, and as Allison said - "no wonder so much of the world hates us." With as many people around the world suffering from hunger and starvation, I watched as people  consumed as much food as they could in 12 minutes. It was truly a sickening display. How on earth can we as a people have contests to see how much food people can cram into their mouths when there are literally thousands of people dying from starvation each day? I realize that there is really no practical way to get all that food to people starving in Africa, but I know there are numerous food shelters in Brooklyn that would LOVE to have that food to feed as many people as possible. The problem is that the hot dog eating contest is only the tip of the iceberg.

I saw that the contestants' claim to fame were legendary - "Consumed 1.5 gallons of chili in 10 minutes", "World's record for deep fried asparagus", "Ate 1/10 of her body weight in cheesecake in 10 minutes" - obviously, there are many more contests that aren't as famous where food is being wasted. I was dumbstruck that we now have plenty of contests to show how people can be more gluttonous than anyone else. How can I, in good conscience, support a contest highlighting one of the 7 deadly sins? Next on Fox, "Who can be more Lazy than the next Guy?"

We all know there are people starving in the world, and we all know there are people starving in our own neighborhoods. How can we deliberately (and corporately) thumb our noses at those in need? America already consumes more than its share of natural resources, but do we have to rub people's noses in it? "Look, I have so much more food than I need, I can hold contests to see how much I can waste!!! I'm America!!!". It really is a disgusting display of decadence. Just because you can do something doesn't always mean you should.

While I can't assume others hold the same opinion, Allison and I are now boycotting Nathan's Hot Dogs. If you know the sponsors of some of the other food eating contests, please let me know. They need to know I don't think their food wasting is corporate citizenship.
When the Romans started showing off their pride and deliberate ignorance of those in need, it wasn't too long before the Empire fell. I can only hope that we finally learn something from history.

It really bothers me when people in the press make fun of Angelina Jolie for adopting children from impoverished countries. She obviously has enough money to make these children's lives better than where they were, and she's trying to make a difference in the world. How much better off will these children's lives likely be than before they were adopted? I don't agree with a lot of Jolie's views (I saw her appearance on "Inside the Actor's Studio"), but I applaud the efforts she is making to change the world.

Many of us here in America have the financial ability to adopt domestically or internationally. I realize financial ability does not a parent make, and there are many wealthy individuals who are probably better off not procreating or rearing the next generation. However, for those who have the means and the willingness to adopt, it is truly a life changing experience for the adopter and the adoptee. To mock someone for choosing to adopt as many children as she can is similar to mocking someone for donating a large sum of money to a worthy charity. Instead of just giving of her time, Angelina is giving of her life. She's getting her hands dirty, and giving her heart to someone sorely in need of a chance. Allison may not hold these views, as she's still angry at Angelina for what she did to Jennifer...

I don't claim to know Jolie's motives for adopting these children, but I know it is not a whim, or a decision that can be made lightly or quickly. It is a life-altering decision, for her and the children who are pulled from a horrid situation of 3rd world orphanages.

Allison and I started the adoption process before we were able to get pregnant with Garrett, and adoption still holds a soft spot in my heart. If more people decided to get involved to the level that Angelina is willing to do, many more lives would be changed.  Quit mocking and get involved. It's more than just tossing a handful of change in a bucket every once in a while. You can make the world a better place, one life at a time.

Dad came up today to help us put in new kitchen cabinets from Lowe's. They were pretty much installed when I got home from work. Yay, Dad!!!

We bought standalone cabinets, and then bought a countertop to put over the top.

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All right...after discussing some of my cousins at a recent 4th of July party, I've decided to try to get back in the habit of blogging. With only 10 days to go before the birth of 2k, I realize this might be a good time to get back in the habit and let some of my family know where we'll be putting updates and such.

The last post on the blog (if you couldn't tell) was posted by Allison, who mistakenly posted her blog on my blog. It happens... I obviously will NOT be having a C-Section, but I will be part of the team. Hope to have some interesting thoughts soon...If not, at least some thoughts here.

July 12th!  We found out yesterday that my C-section has been scheduled for Thursday, July 12th.  We have to be at the hospital at 5AM, but this is really a good thing because then I don't have the whole hungry issue and the baby will be born by 7ish.  There won't be any weird waiting at home, hungry and nervous, and we don't have to wait too long to find out whether it's a boy or a girl.  All in all, I'm very pleased, though a bit disappointed that we won't get to see Harry Potter in the theaters (more than likely!).  I suppose having a child should be a priority over seeing a movie that a lot of people think is a work of the devil anyway! :)

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a boy's name, we are open.  I thought we had decided, but then I changed my mind.  If we have a little girl her name will be Harper Abbigail.  We definitely want the boy's middle name to be James, but the first name is still up in the air.  I'd like for it to be at least 2 syllables, because a 1 syllable first name and 1 syllable middle name don't sound good together.  I would also like for it to be Gaelic in origin.  Garrett is Gaelic and I tend to lean towards other Gaelic names for boys.  We had discussed Finn, but we run into the 1 syllable issue and we can't agree on a longer form of Finn to then shorten.  I also like William and call him Will or Liam, but Jason is not sold on Will and Tori Spelling just named her little boy Liam, so I don't want it to look like we're copying.

So you have until July 11th to get your suggestions to me!