On this day in 1964, two incidents happened that changed history.

In Vietnam, the Tonkin Gulf Incident occurred. Maybe something happened, maybe something didn’t. President Johnson used the incident to get Congressional authorization to conduct combat operations in Vietnam. This was the authorization that fueled the Vietnam War and marked a generation.

Also in 1964, the FBI pulled the bodies of 3 young, idealistic civil rights workers out of a mud dam in Mississippi. The savage murder of these men put a backbone into President Johnson over civil rights, and may have been a tipping point in the fight over federal civil rights legislation.

OK, it’s a cliche, but this Monday sucked.

When I went to leave this morning, I couldn’t find my key to the van. For reasons I won’t get into, I only have the one. I turned the house upside down looking for it, but no luck. I had to move all of the baby stuff over to the truck and take it to work.

Baby Bear loved riding in the truck, though. He kept pointing and waving to all of the other drivers.

We looked more this evening, but didn’t find it. I’ll call the dealer tomorrow and get another made. Even if we find the other one, I’ll have a spare.

Then when I got to work, I found out that a small detail that I forgot to do a few months ago has come back to bite me square on the tuckus. No details, but a lack of work on my part is keeping my DBA’s from logging into one of our databases to do admin work like monitoring and backups. I’ll have to get downtime from the users and fix it.

So I’m going to just sit back, relax, and let this day end. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Soon, our long national nightmare without Sunday football will be over.

Just got back from Great Wolf Lodge. The kids had a wonderful time, and the Irish Woman and I got a good workout chasing Baby Bear both in and out of the water.

The Lodge itself is wonderful. It’s 4 stars, and the service is excellent. It’s extremely family oriented, with a lot of different activities for kids. There are a few things for adults, but you can only drink beer and sit in a hot tub so long when you’ve got kids with you.

I really have no complaints. We all had a wonderful time.

One note: bring your wallet. The money you pay for your room gets you into the waterpark and that’s about it. Everything else costs, and some things cost big. That being said, I think we got good value for every dollar we spent. The non-waterpark activities sound great if you want your kids to have a good time and you want to relax, but they’re expensive. There’s a game of sorts for older children where they run around with magic wands and get points for finding things on a treasure map with them. The wands are ID’ed by the hotel’s computer, so as the kids find things in the scavenger hunt, they gain points. The basic set consists of a wand and a treasure map. That was $25. If you want, you can drop a LOT more coin and deck your little wizard out like something at a dress inspection at Hogwarts. Girlie Bear got the basic set, and that kept her occupied for about 6 hours when she wasn’t swimming.

Another note: The place isn’t really set up for children under about 4 or so. Baby Bear had the time of his life, but all of the time he had to be held onto by Irish Woman or me. That tired us out almost as much as it did him. Even the areas that had fountains and the like that were appropriate for him had at least 6 inches of water. If I was to be asked what could be added to the park, then a splashpark without standing water would be high on my list. Also, I didn’t see any changing tables in the restrooms or changing rooms. That meant we had to schlep back to the room to change Baby Bear.

If you’re looking for a good, family friendly vacation, this is a great get-away close to Louisville. But it’s not cheap by any means.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have watched professional football since I realized what the television was for. I have worked long and strange hours in bad parts of the world so that I could get to the MWR tent to see the game.

All these years I have made football my fall and winter hobby. I have shared my love of the game with my children and now a new generation enjoys watching football.

When the horrific acts of Michael Vick came to light I took heart when the NFL and the Atlanta Falcons dropped him like a hot rock. A lot of players have broken the law and seemed to incur any consequences.

Now you have chosen to reinstate this person who financed gambling and murdered the dogs he lost money on.

My estimation of the NFL has fallen to a new low.

If any team picks up Michael Vick, I will boycott that team as long as he is on the payroll. This includes the playoff and the Superbowl. I will work to influence my family and friends to take similar actions.

Please reconsider your decision to let this individual play.

Respectfully,

A Lifelong Fan

The Irish Woman is in the other rook watching “The Deadliest Catch”. It’s one of the few programs she makes a point of watching. She even watches the “extra” programming, like behind the scenes stuff and interviews. She comments that the Scandinavian fishermen remind her of me. Not sure where that comes from. I’m as far from rugged as they come.

I watched the first season and it was interesting. God love them, those guys work in dangerous and miserable conditions so that I can have crab legs ony birthday.

But I lost interest early in the second season. I still watch a bit with Irish Woman every so often. But how many times can you feel tension about crustaceans?

I grew up watching Norwegians fishing so maybe that’s why I don’t find it that entertaining

Soon football season will start and she will surrender control of the cable box. So I let her watch her program in peace.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a few days. The stomach flu that Baby Bear brought home from day care has worked its way through the family. Irish Woman got it again on Thursday and hasn’t quite come back from it yet. I’ve been ill off and on, but I think I’m on the better side of it.

Junior Bear came home Friday night from his mother’s house. He had a good weekend, but woke up sick this morning. Not sure if he picked it up from us, or from the 1000’s of people he came in contact with in 4 airports, or from one of his friends over the weekend.

Needless to say, nothing I planned on doing got done this weekend. Guess we’ll play catch-up this week so we can go away on the family trip on Saturday.

H/T to Are We Lumberjacks?

All I can say is, damn.

For those of you who haven’t seen the rugrat lately, here you go:

Saw this over at Fox News. The Church of England is coming up with a way that the children of people who are getting married after living in sin can be made a part of the ceremony and get baptized. Some are up in arms about this:

Stephen Parkinson, of the Anglo-Catholic group Forward in Faith, said: “The proper place for a baptism is not during a wedding but during the Sunday morning act of worship so the congregation can welcome a new Christian. It is a shame that what should be a bride’s day now stands to be hijacked by screaming kids.”

I don’t agree. More and more people are having kids outside of marriage, and if they’re trying to get right with the Lord, then they and their family should be welcomed with open arms.

When the Irish Woman and I got married, we decided to join an Episcopal parish. Even though we were honest and told Father that we were living together, we were welcomed with open arms. When we got married, Father worked with us to integrate all of my children from earlier marriages into the ceremony. It wasn’t just a blessing of our life as a couple, it as a blessing of our life as a family.

By the time I made the Irish Woman an honest woman, she had become a mother figure to the kids, and we wanted to make sure that they felt as important in the ceremony as we did. Junior Bear was one of my groomsmen, Little Bear was the ring bearer, and Girlie Bear was one of the flower girls. I made sure the boys got to wear tuxedo’s like the adults, and Girlie Bear went to get her hair done with the women that morning.

When Father gave us the final blessing, all five of us knelt at the altar. We had been a family in spirit for a long time, but we made sure that we made it a public fact that day.

If the church wants to make it easy for families to return to congregations, so much the better. For those who think this isn’t such a good idea, don’t participate in the ceremony.