Reboot

My father had his second class today. He had an online quiz beforehand that he did well on and that is very encouraging. I am concerned about how he is going to combine class and work and a family but if anyone can do it he can. We will need to give him a lot of support. It is great to see him come home and open a book instead of turning on the television.

Elanie is also doing well in school and seems to be coping with the reality that professors are not teachers. She has a class where one of her professors reads directly out of the book during lecture. This to her is tolerable however there is apparently a student in her class that hasn't found this out yet and ask him to repeat concepts that he is reading verbatim from the book.

Art had the great idea about playing WOW under parental controls. He would have the password to the parental controls and I would be regulated to playing during specified hours of the day.

Sports

US Open is underway and naturally all the ESPN pundits are talking about none of the Americans. I can understand the obsession with Roger Federer because in all likelyhood he is the Roman god of tennis. I can also understand the obsession with Raphael Nadal because his is coming off an injury and looking to rebound. But Andy Murray.... seriously? Wimbledon has come and gone I don't want to hear about Murray any more. This guy has never won a major and has only been in the final of one.

Why not talk about Andy Roddick? Last time I checked Roddick made it to the final against Federer and took him to 5 sets. Plus news flash... THIS AMERICA LETS TALK ABOUT THE AMERICANS!!! Serena and Venus have been dominating again and the talk is about Darina Safina's coach. Come on people. The Williams sisters won more majors than Safina has played in. Lets at least pretend that we are interested in the resurgence of American tennis.

Politics

Uh-Oh someones gonna get it. The President is going to give some life to the health care debate next Wednesday in a joint session of Congress. For the blue dog Democrats I can imagine the lead up to the event is going to be a lot like getting called into the principles office. Most of those blue dogs Democrats rode Obama's coattails into office and they will need his support to stay in office. If history is any lesson then they should know from the failure of health care in the Clinton administration that the party in power ends up losing seats if they can't manage to compromise.

Movies

I saw The Last Castle for the first time in a long time and I forgot how much I liked that movie. It isn't an epic or anything it is just a good story. Robert Redford does a great job and James Gandolphini makes a good villian.

I am watching Casablanca now and I don't think that I have seen a movie that has been written better. Talk about great lines.