Dave Mancuso dot Com

To me, this is parenthood.

Two weeks ago at Giant, they have no Sesame Street vitamins, so the kids beg for Jimmy Neutron vitamins. They look good nutritionally, so that’s what I get.

Over the next week I get the kids to try the Jimmy Neutron vitamins on five separate occasions. They hate them. They won’t take them. Six bucks down the drain.

Last week, I mention to my wife that the kids won’t take the new vitamins. Denise doesn’t like to take her own vitamins (she considers them pills and she hates all pills–really hates them), so I think she will empathize with the kids. She doesn’t. I’ve already since bought the kids Sesame Street vitamins, so Denise decides to take the Jimmy Neutron vitamins herself.

Denise has now been taking Jimmy Neutron vitamins for over a week. She says she’ll finish the bottle. The kids really don’t know what to make of it. I think it’s hysterical. Apparently, the only thing my wife hates more than pills is wasting money.

So I see the weirdest thing as I’m shopping at Giant, and I figure “why not?” I buy it for the kids. It’s a new Jimmy Neutron food product. The kids want these every time I suggest them, but they’re never able to actually eat them. As my wife said, “These are possibly the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen.” The product? OreIda Jimmy Neutron chocolate french fries. I swear I am not making this up. Look here for the “Funky Fries” if you don’t believe me.

Mmmmmmm…Choclified french fries. Even Homer would have trouble getting behind that.

I’ve updated the logo at the top, thanks to Brad Rhine for the concept and tips with Adobe GoLive [Later–I actually meant Adobe ImageReady, but Brad got to the comments section before I could correct this, as usual]. It’ll change more, but it’s a start.

Easter was good–the kids had a great time at Uncle Keith and Aunt Cheryl’s. The funniest part of the day for me was church service. I go to a Methodist church now, but I was brought up Catholic. I’m slowly getting used to the Methodist faith, but it’s painfully apparent to me how Catholic I’ve been. Heck, when I moved out here west of Philly, I couldn’t figure out for the longest time where all the Catholic churches went (I’d thought it was the overwhelmingly dominant religion nationwide). At service, I constantly have to stop myself from answering things that seem vaguely familiar in a Catholic way. For instance, I keep biting my tongue at times to keep from saying “and also with you.” I keep saying the Apostle’s Creed slightly wrong. I wanted to sing the Hosannas today instead of speaking them. Friends are astounded that I don’t know the most basic hymns here. Stuff like that. It’s actually made me miss Mass a bit from time to time.

But today they did Communion. And I felt like I was “back home” again. I knew things by heart I gave the responses without having to follow along. People actually went up to the front of the church for Communion (they drank from the little cups still and went up row by row, but it was still familiar). But then at the end they launched into an “Our Father” that completely threw me, a short version with “trials” and other foreign stuff, and I was back into unfamiliar territory. I like the church, I like the community, I believe in the faith. I like the option of going to the traditional or contemporary service, too (the most contemporary thing about my old Catholic church was a guitar playing “Day by Day” at Mass). It’s just humorous to me that Methodists can’t seem to choose a single “Our Father” or a single Apostle’s Creed (and it’s funny how they have to footnote the word “catholic” and explain that it means “universal”). I guess part of me will always feel like a broken Catholic. I’ll get used to it as time goes by, though. Now if only I can stop calling the two pastors “priests.”

My conversation today in Alyssa’s room:

Alyssa: (throws dirty clothes on the floor and goes to the dresser to get new clothes)

Me: “Pick up those clothes and put them in the hamper. There’s no need to make your room a pig sty.”

Alyssa: “My room’s not a pig sty.”

Me: “It’s getting there. Look at this mess.”

Alyssa: (pointing to bookcase) “Well, maybe if my brother didn’t mess up all my books my room would be cleaner.”

Me: “Well, maybe if his sister would worry more about cleaning her room than blaming him, she’d be done by now.”

Alyssa: “Well, maybe his sister should do whatever she wants.”

She’s five. What will the teenage years be like?

I sent a message to a number of people about this website. So I got an error message and tried to send it four times before I found the address that caused the problem. I may have ended up sending the message to several people four times over, but my email client doesn’t let me know this at all. So I may have spammed someone, but maybe not.

Isn’t technology wonderful?

This is why I can’t read a book nowadays. If it’s good, I have trouble putting it down. And I’m not as fast as I used to be. I just finished the Saturday Night Live book– 600 pages in 24 hours is good, but not as fast as I used to be (just can’t drop everything and read a book with kids, although Denise would tell you that’s just what I did). 🙂

40 is creeping up on me…

This one is one of the cornerstones of my personal philosophy (especially in dealing with people). I made it up ten years ago. Aristotle said “Man is the rational animal.” I say “Man is the rationalizing animal.”

This is really good news. Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites announced a new spacecraft almost ready for testing. This thing will be carried up by a specially designed plane and then launched to reach space.

The government space programs seem to be stagnating. It’s great to see private firms get into the mix. I’ve seen a few announcements in the last few years for privately run space programs; I’ve wondered if any of them were partially funded by Robert Heinlein’s estate. He’s been a prime mover and shaker in the space program–you’d be surprised how many people in spaceflight he’s inspired and influenced. Regardless, I’m glad to see someone making progress on spaceflight. Arthur C. Clarke said that we were 50 years ahead of our time with Apollo, but even if that were true, our time is still coming for a greater presence in the solar neighborhood.

You can find the Rutan spacecraft story here.

Not to be obtuse, but I’m reading a book on the inside story of Saturday Night Live and I noticed a name partway into the story. I never knew that Howard Shore, who has graced The Lord Of The Rings movies with such breathtaking soundtracks, was also the music director for Saturday Night Live for the first five years of the show’s run.