It's A Boy!

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I am proud to introduce to you: Neil Walker Branstner

Born: July 15, 2009 at 1:32 PM

Length: 20 inches

Weight: 7 pounds, 7 ounces

Favorite NFL Team: Minnesota Vikings

Hair: Blonde.... what?!?! (Yep, he's blonde. Beth swears the boy is mine, though!)

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Our New Neighbor

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I've talked about this dude before on my blog, but on Friday he really gave us a show.  He perched himself above the bird feeders in our back yard and waited for (I imagine) an unsuspecting squirrel to come along.  He eventually flew away with an amazingly huge wingspan... but here he is, our new neighbor, "Oscar" the Barred Owl.  I originally thought he was a Great Horned Owl, but this picture I snapped out our living room window makes it very obvious that Oscar does not have tufts or "horns" on top of his head.  His head is nice and round and he has the most incredible eyes.  Beth looked it up in our handy Birds of Minnesota handbook written by my friend Stan Tekiela, and he is undoubtedly a Barred Owl. The only other choice of owl in Minnesota (after Great Horned and Barred) is the Screech Owl, but that species of owl stands only 9 inches tall.  Oscar was an easy two feet from head to toe.  The only word I can think of to describe him is "majes...
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Make Over!

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I have decided to do a little make over on the site. Actually, I went to Stacy's blog and saw that she had some cool new graphics, so I just followed the links to the source. Pretty neat. I decided on a winter scene since we just got several inches of snow over the last couple days and outside it is colder than Bill and Hillary's bedroom. I'll find something more "springy" after while. I've also modified the "Comment" section (since changed to "Smart Remarks" section) so anybody can leave a smart remark, not just registered Google users. As you can see, I am endorsing my own presidential candidate: Gene Simmons. America would be a better place if he was the Big Cheese. I would strongly recommend reading his autobiography Kiss and Make Up . Don't worry, the demons of Hell won't come flying out of the book. It is actually a very interesting read. He came from total poverty as an immigrant from Israel (his mother was a prisoner in a c...
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What a song can do

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It was a rainy day yesterday, so I decided to catch up on some low-priority tasks, such as updating my iTunes with some old songs from my CD collection. It turned out to be a very interesting day of reflection for me. In mid-1994 I bought Counting Crows' album "August and Everything After." It remains one of my favorites, but one song in particular really moves me, even to this day.  Actually, it helped change my life.  You see, music does that to me. A little background: 1994 was a blur to me. I was going through a very tough time. I was 24 years old, had a worthless (so it seemed) bachelor's degree and suddenly I found myself going through a divorce, which totally blindsided me. My life was a screwed up mess.  I had no direction.   Life had no meaning.  I was angry.  I was lost.  It would have been easy to give up. I sure as hell wasn't interested in women. I tried dating, but I hated it. Women were nothing but trouble, anyway. The...
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