Went to Sharper Image on Friday night after work. Relaxed for a few minutes in the shiatsu massage chair before moving on through the mall. Nice, especially on my lower back. I don't have back problems as such, but I do enjoy a good massage. The shiatsu chair was doing a great job... Didn't feel any worse Saturday morning, went through the day as usual. No problems. Sunday morning I could hardly stand up straight. Couldn't hold the baby, couldn't ascend or descend the stairs...

"...My bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." My tickets are bought online for Arundel Mills Muvico 24. My mother, bless her, took the day off from work to come down and see it with us. (We didn't ask her, but whoo hoo!) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the most action-packed yet of all the books (in sequence... SIX isn't a film yet...) and promises to be extraordinary. I am very excited. My buddy Christopher Bahn wrote a wonderful interactive article for MSNBC. The...

I have a problem with my son, Dylan. He's seven years old and just doesn't get that he needs to use the toilet every time he goes to the bathroom. Mostly pee, sometimes both. He doesn't wet the bed; he gets up in the night to pee. We have been going over this with him, and we thought he had it at the age of three. He was using the potty every time and it wasn't an issue. But he's had ongoing problems with accidents. We've used rewards, punishments, and a combination of both. P...

My kids are totally into Spongebob Squarepants, Danny Phantom, and Fairly Oddparents. Oh man, the TV doesn't get turned from Nickelodeon until we have to tear them away to do homework, bathe, go to bed, etc. Do you have the same problems with your kids? How do you get them away from the TV once they get started? I'm no pushover, and I do get my way over them eventually. But is there a way to get them off the TV without being the bad guy?

This is from a presentation I gave at work today. I thought it was excellently appropriate for bloggers, since we seem to be so opinionated and brutal with those who do not share our opinions. I start with a question: Which is more likely to cause death in the United States? Being killed by falling airplane parts or by a shark? According to a 1994 report in Newsweek, in the United States, the chance of dying from falling airplane parts is THIRTY TIMES GREATER than being killed...

Thanks go out to my friend Jo who sent me these head-scratchers.... BRAIN CRAMPS (On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.) Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever," --Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contes...

Thanks go out to my friend Jo who sent me these head-scratchers.... BRAIN CRAMPS (On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.) Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever," --Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contes...

Someone from a trailer park must have invented toothpaste. Otherwise, it'd be called "teeth-paste." Bwah hah hah hah!

Someone from a trailer park must have invented toothpaste. Otherwise, it'd be called "teeth-paste." Bwah hah hah hah!

There are some guys at church who want me to come out and play football in the park, rain or shine, every Saturday morning. I haven't taken them up on it, but I am considering it. Which brings me to my point: How do I like to recreate? I love to play volleyball and golf. I actually like to jog (thank you, Army)! I suck at basketball, baseball, and softball. But I have fun playing them nevertheless.

Well, it has truly hit the fan in France. And, allegedly, Australia has nabbed seventeen alleged terrorists allegedly working to allegedly blow up some alleged place; probably the Sydney Opera House or Harbor Bridge, according to The Scotsman . But l put it to you, good JU reader, that this current violence has its roots in the happenings of 9/11. But what is happening now is not the work of al-Qaeda. Let me make this perfectly clear once again: this violence is not from al-Qaeda. N...

Wrote my first piece of fan mail, to Kirsty Hawkshaw: Hello Miss Hawkshaw, I never ever ever write fan mail, and I try really hard not to write to people I haven't actually met, but I saw your name on a couple of websites and an album or two. See, I know your surname, and I thought I'd just pop you a line. Turns out that while I was a missionary for the Mormon church in St. Albans Ward I visited your family's house. Back in 1992-ish. (I have been home from London for a long time ...

PORT MORESBY (Reuters) - Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested 320 people for practicing sorcery and religious cults, the National newspaper reported Thursday. Belief in sorcery is widespread in this jungle-clad, mountainous South Pacific island nation where some villages only encountered Western civilization in the 1930s. Police raided three villages Monday near the city of Lae on the north coast and arrested leaders of a "cargo cult" and their followers, the newspaper said. Th...

PORT MORESBY (Reuters) - Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested 320 people for practicing sorcery and religious cults, the National newspaper reported Thursday. Belief in sorcery is widespread in this jungle-clad, mountainous South Pacific island nation where some villages only encountered Western civilization in the 1930s. Police raided three villages Monday near the city of Lae on the north coast and arrested leaders of a "cargo cult" and their followers, the newspaper said. Th...

All right, lately (the past few years) it has been very difficult with work and school to get into televised sporting events. But this year, I want to try my hand again at following the sporting scene. My first love to watch was basketball, with football and baseball behind. I am also enamored of hockey, because it's fast-paced and exciting. But low-scoring, like baseball. Football and baseball are slow and low-scoring, and Arena Football is not a real sport. So the NBA season has beg...