Rob Lifford

Goodbye, Superman.

We’ve reached the halfway point in the pregnancy. Today we went in for a prenatal visit and spent about 15 minutes looking at the ultrasound. The little guy or gal (we don’t know, and don’t want to know until it gets here — a boy or a girl is fine) was pretty active during our appointment: in addition to seeing the little heart beating away, we got to see the arms, hands, and jaw move. We also got detailed looks at the spine, femur, and skull. It was simply amazing. When we got the close up, full-frame look at the skull I had the overwhelming urge to say “we’re having a little pirate!” but I managed to keep my fool mouth shut and just drink in the moment of looking our kid square in the face for the first time.

The doc videotaped the entire ultrasound session, but since I lack the equipment and the free time to transfer VHS to digital, you’ll just have to come over to our place to watch it. In the meantime, here’s a pic (click to enlarge) of Cheris’ growing baby belly. Sorry, I realize I chose a poor spot for the picture — the dark background really obscures her shape — but we’ll be taking a lot more of these, so the ones to follow will be better.

I’ve gotta admit, Zell is a really, really cool name.

However, Zell Miller is just another shady, slimy, screw-’em-and-smile politician. Mike Rundle illutrates that quite nicely with his post; thanks, Mike.

Maybe Miller felt the need to contradict himself so thoroughly because of some personal feud with Kerry that’s come up in the last few year. Who knows, maybe Kerry did something really nasty to deserve that kind of backstabbing. But it’s all on the record now, Zell, and every voter in your state should know that they can no longer believe anything you ever say again, for the rest of your shady, slimy, screw-’em-and-smile piece-of-crap politician life.

Flip-flopping: 100% bipartisan.

Hell yeah, it feels good to just let loose and absolutely rant once in a while.

Sent this by e-mail to Bunker earlier but decided it might as well be posted too:

Went out to play a cheap 9-hole sunset round last night at Hancock after work yesterday. I’m hacking away as usual for most of the round but having fun with a pretty cool foursome of straggler singles like me.

So I start hole 6, a short par 4, with a ridiculously perfect drive — one of the best I’ll ever hit — leaving me with about a 75-yard wedge. I’ve been hitting OK at that distance all day, and I’m really hungry to take advantage of that drive, so I visualize the perfect swing and the perfect shot, set up, and… shank a line drive off to the right.

Before I can finish adequately cursing myself for blowing it, the ball hits a tree about 15 yards from the front edge of the green, caroms off at the perfect angle, bounces on the fringe, and rolls in a big gentle arc down the sloped green to a nice spot 8 feet from the flag — right where I’d visualized it.

Then I leave the birdie putt about half an inch short.

Golf giveth; golf taketh away. I can’t say I got any less than I deserved, though, and I’m certainly not complaining about the par I put on the scorecard.

…because if elected, I promise America that any blogger who uses the phrase “the party of hate” (to describe the political party opposite his/her own affiliation) will be hog-tied with USB cable and spanked 14,871 times with his own keyboard.

That’s one spank for every time I’ve seen that phrase used this year. Enough of this garbage already.

Oh, mercy, I can’t believe how good Garden State is. I went in with high expectations, having seen the trailer a few times, and they were thoroughly exceeded. It’s Zach Braff‘s debut as a screenwriter and director, and he’s hit the ball out of the park. The film has an unconventional but compelling structure, and it slips seamlessly in and out of moments ranging from complete hilarity to childlike wonder to completely overwhelming emotion.

Serioulsy, there are hundreds of veteran directors in Hollywood who will never come close to making a film this good. Natalie Portman, Ian Holm, and Peter Sarsgaard contribute fantastic performances. Even if you’ve never seen Braff in Scrubs, or even if you hate Scrubs, give this movie a chance. If Garden State is any indication, this guy’s got a great career ahead of him.

At one time or another in our lives, all of us have been Large.