In defense of under-recognized holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year's, I sent the following letter to a local radio station.

I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I've dropped your radio station from my preset list. On my way home this evening I heard a Christmas song being played on your station. Thinking it might be a commercial, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. When it turned out to be a complete song, I immediately reprogrammed the preset button. Christmas is 5 weeks away. Nothing outside of the realm of marketing juggernauts like Star Wars or Harry Potter needs a 5 week buildup. The day after Thanksgiving gives merchants and radio station more than enough time to hammer home the "goodwill" in the general public. Perhaps next year you'll consider this in your programming and gain back a listener.
Sincerely,

bill

We went up to visit The Warner Clan and bring some dinner along with Susie. Andrew is doing well and Katie and Gage had fun playing together. Though the camera and photographer couldn't quite get the hug timed out. Tomorrow concludes a very long week at work and in the personal swing of things (though personally, I probably won't get a good break til around December). It will be nice to have time to answer an IM here or there and perhaps catch up on the NHL standings.
Oh and Matt, we're 1 and 1 on the year with 6 to go.

Wow, it's been a while since I got a chance to post. I'll try and pick up from where I left off and end up today.
So last Friday, shortly after I posted Gage's picture, I got a phone call from none other than Adam. He was in town to take an exam for law school and wanted to know what we had planned. So, we headed out to dinner with Adam and caught up on all the new and exciting things happening towards the end of law school.
Since Adam had taken the late night bus in from Philly, he ended up crashing at our place and then we headed out to Pamela's for breakfast. We ended up at the Shadyside Pamela's and then for nostalgia and curiousity, walked around the shops. There was a ton of new stuff, chief among them the Apple store. That's a toy store I could drop a lot of money in.
After the Shadyside tour, we headed down to the bus station and bid adieu to Adam with the notion that we needed to get back out to that area for a visit soon.
Sunday we got together with my uncles and my parents in order to celebrate my parent's birthdays (which although about a month apart had both been forgotten by my uncle...not that I can fault him for that. He forgets Terri's birthday which is the exact same day as his). So, anyway, we had a good afternoon over there and then the week started all over again.
The Penguins bookended a phenomenal game culminating in a shootout win against the top team in the Eastern Conference with two puzzling losses to teams that they should have dominated from start to finish.
Not much really went on through the week til Friday again. As I'm on the phone with Terri discussing the 5th or 6th incarnation of dinner with some of her extended family that was in for the Steeler's game (each version becoming more outrageous and expensive than the last), Susie popped up on IM and says that Elizabeth thought her water broke and baby Warner might show up a little sooner than anyone had expected. Turns out, baby Warner did show up before anyone expected. So, Saturday morning after an update call from Randy we headed into the hospital to see the newest addition to the Warner family. See pictures here.
So, we skipped dinner with Terri's family since the original intention was for everyone to hang out with Gage, but they then made several decisions that showed they had no idea how to plan dinner for a 1 1/2 year old. We watched the Pens lose and then attempted to get Gage into bed.
This morning we headed to church and then (due to poor planning again) rushed to Station Square to have lunch with some of Terri's family. They invited us to dinner before the Steeler's game at another fancy downtown restaurant. Of course we turned it down. You just can't take Gage somewhere like that in his current state of mind. His tolerance is about 25 minutes.
Apparently they have another dinner planned for Monday night. We have yet to agree or disagree, since it will change several times during the day tomorrow, I'm sure.
Also today is the 13th so I'll say...
Happy Birthday to Jim and...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSIE
And another congrats to the Warner family for their new little addition.

Contemplate this problem I must.

So, even though this has been going on for quite a while, I've finally gotten around to mentioning it. I've noticed that one of the local banks has begun an ad campaign. Not odd, the local banks around here run ad campaigns all the time. However, this campaign is in Spanish. Yes, Spanish. Now, I have nothing against the bank (at least not anymore...granted I won't do business with them, but that's because they had their chance to keep me as a customer and they couldn't do it), anyway, I have known quite a few people that have worked for this bank. Tellers, programmers, business people. Not one of them could speak more than a sentence or two in Spanish. How can you market to an entire culture when your staff is unprepared to handle them in their own language when they come into your establishment. I certainly wouldn't market my business toward an entire community that I couldn't accomodate. It wouldn't be good for word of mouth (in any language) and it certainly wouldn't help me establish a good rapport with that ethnic community. ¡muy estúpido!
I fear that this article might mean that Victoria's Secret stock is about to go into the toilet. (For those of you who don't get it after the first read, carefully read the first sentence, trust me it's worth the extra minute).
That is just another one of those instances that shows me an English major should be more easily employed and paid equal salaries.
Halloween was quite fun. Gage got the hang of it easily and was soon breaking away from mom and dad to walk up the driveways to complete strangers to get candy to put in his little pumpkin. Mark and I were talking about how odd it is that you spend 364 days teaching your children not to accept candy from strangers and then this one night you not only allow it, but encourage it.
And trust me, there's still a big post about the other subjects that I had mentioned (music, lyrics, the nobel prize, and "wasted knowledge") previously.
I'm also curious as to how I can go 7 or 8 months not giving a damn what's in the box office (since most of it has degenerated into Hollywood crap anyway) and then out of nowhere, two movies that I'm really interested in premiere on the same weekend.
Also here's hoping that the Pens can make it two in a row against the Islanders tomorrow.