Blog Full of Letters

Just say 'no' (to your lame, slick-sounding financial adviser)

justin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:31:35 GMT

We're all friends here, right? So as friends, why do we always turn each other's phone numbers over to our financial advisers?

The other day, I received a call from probably the seventh financial adviser in the past four years. All were referred to me by friends (some friends, right?). Usually they call several times and never leave a message. I don't typically answer calls if I don't recognize the number. However, after seeing the same number on my caller ID five or six times, I get PO'd and pick up. Sure enough, it's often a slick-sounded financial adviser. The conversation almost always goes something like this:

"Hello. Is this Justin?"

"Yes."

"How are you doing? Pretty nice out today, isn't it?"

"Ummm ... who is this?"

"Oh yeah, hi. This is Annoying Guy. I got your name from your good friend Bunghole."

"OK?"

"Bunghole told me that you might be interested in talking to me. I'm a financial adviser and I'd like to schedule a time when we can get together to talk ..."

"You can stop there. I already have a financial adviser."

"Oh. Well, it wouldn't hurt to just look things over. Maybe we could just grab a cup of coffee. What do you say?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, may I put you into my database to call you back every six months or so just to check in?"

"No, and please do not call me again."

[CLICK]

So there you have it. As your friend, I am going to give it to you straight here: I have a financial adviser and I do not want to talk to yours. Do not give your adviser my name and phone number. I can already tell you that I won't be interested, I will hate the guy no matter what because I hate all salesmen (generally speaking) and I will resent you for giving out my personal information.

If your financial guy pressures you to turn over some names and phone numbers, maybe you should be looking for a new person to oversee your finances. Who really wants to entrust their money to somebody who's less interested in your well-being than he is about making his next sales call? And while you're at it, tell him the "let's grab coffee" ploy is extremely lame. At least offer to meet over a few beers.

Oliver and Molly - best of buds

justin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:38:15 GMT

Molly, our crazy goldendoodle, has been front and center the past couple of days. We took her in to get her haircut on Saturday. The next couple of days, she was acting really strange and obsessively scratching herself and biting her fur. Plus, her skin was pink -- everywhere. Then, a couple nights ago, she puked several times and had some loose .... well, you know.

We took her to the vet yesterday and they think she had an allergic reaction to something (possibly the shampoo at the hair place). Anyway, she's on doggy 'roids now and looking much better.

Anyway, with thinking about Molly, it's hard to not think about how much Oliver adores her. His face just lights up and he squeals with glee when she's around. Here's a video of the two of them interacting:

And here's a still version:

Finally, this is Molly with her latest short-hair 'do:

World travelers stop in St. Charles to visit Oliver and Co.

justin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:59:34 GMT

We were visited by some world travelers recently. Well, they had reason to be here: one of them is family. Yes, my little sister and her boyfriend were in town for a few days. Carrie and Eli are both in the medical field, and they work in different cities for a few months at a time. So far, they've been in Florida a couple times, Seattle, Kansas City and Chicago. They also recently went to Mexico. For their current gig, they took positions in Carrie's hometown of Springfield, Mo., so they could be close to family through the holiday season. You can read about their travels on Carrie's blog, The Nomadic Life of Carrie, though she needs to start posting some new stuff (hint, hint!). All the while I've been here in St. Charles. Oh well...

Anyway, we had a good time. Oliver was excited to see his Auntie Carrie. Here are a few pictures from the visit.

The boy's historic first trip to the polls

justin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:19:54 GMT

Sarah and I took Oliver to the polls with us this morning. He sat in his stroller as we cast our ballots. Though he won't remember today, I can't wait to sit him down one day and tell him that he was there, with us on Election Day, as we helped make history.

Babies don't catch on regarding Daylight Saving Time

justin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:12:37 GMT

Daylight Saving Time ended this weekend. And while many in this country issued a huge "yawn of relief" for that extra hour of sleep, that couldn't be said of our son.

Oliver, it seems, doesn't have a concept of what Daylight Saving Time means. When 6 p.m. rolled around yesterday, he was ready for a meal and then bed. His little 8-month-old baby brain couldn't fathom the fact that it was not 7 p.m.

And this morning? He was up and ready to go at 5 a.m., crying out to us with a noise that could be interpreted as, "Mommy and Daddy, come get me. It's 6 a.m. Time to start the day!"

Hopefully we can get him back on schedule this week. Otherwise, it's going to be a long winter.

Horror movie scare No. 3: "The Strangers"

justin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:33:24 GMT

Sarah and I wrapped our annual scary movie-watching experience with the film "The Strangers."

Released earlier this year, the movie sort of came and went with little fanfare. While not the best horror movie I've seen, it's a decent flick. Lots of freaky moments.

"The Strangers" is allegedly based on a true story, but a quick Google search proves that to be quite a stretch. Basically, a mom and her family were killed in a cabin maybe 20 or 30 years ago (I'm too lazy to search it again, and we watched this on Thursday so I've forgotten some details). Anyway, in the movie version, it's a man and his girlfriend who are the victims. They're attacked at a house, and that's seriously the closest connection I could see.

The couple is played by that Ben guy from "Felicity" and the girl was played by the better half of those old Aerosmith videos (Liv Tyler, for those who don't know). Well, they get attacked over and over. The attackers wear masks and never explain why they are attacking. The couple do stupid things over and over ... you get the point.

So pretty scary, but not the best. Oh well. Maybe we'll have better luck next year.

Happy Halloween

justin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:55:01 GMT

Happy Halloween. We had a fun one. Oliver spent the day in his skull-and-bones shirt. Sarah dressed as a pirate for work (not really her style to dress up, but she succumbs easily to peer pressure and everybody in her department dressed up for a contest).

So after work, we threw a do-rag on Oliver and I took a mommy-and-son pirate picture. We also put the eye patch on him. It was funny. He just stared blankly at me. Here are the pictures:

After dinner, we put Oliver's official Halloween costume on him. We dressed him as a dragon. It was darn cute. Sarah and I put our little bistro table on the front porch and the three of us sat out there and handed out candy. Here are some pictures of Oliver in his costume:

After Oliver went to bed and the trick-or-treaters stopped showing up, Sarah and I watched a scary movie. I'll write about it in the next day or two. It was pretty freaky. Later on.

Horror movie scare No. 2: 'Halloween' (2007)

justin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:56:11 GMT

Sarah and I continued our annual October tradition of watching scary movies by viewing the flick Halloween (2007). As I mentioned previously, this movie was directed by Rob Zombie and I was very much looking forward to seeing his interpretation of this 30-year-old franchise.

Short on the suspense that made the original "Halloween" such a classic, this version ups the bad language and gore. Oh yeah, and it also ups the nudity (curiously, or perhaps intentionally, Zombie's extremely attractive wife, who plays Michael Myers stripper mother, is one of only a couple women in the film not to bare their chest).

The two-hour film is broken up into two halves. The first half is slow to build up, focusing on a young Michael Myers and how he came to be the slasher we all have grown to love (and fear). The second half of the movie follows the somewhat formulaic slasher format. Myers escapes, kills a bunch of people, survives things that would kill a normal person, etc. I don't think I'm giving away the plot here.

The film didn't scare either of us as much as we thought it would, but it was decent enough overall. I'd probably put it right in the middle of the pack of all the scary movies we've seen.

Hopefully Sarah and I can catch one more scary movie before Halloween (the holiday). We'll see.

The results of our pumpkin carving

justin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:14:46 GMT

We went to the in-laws on Saturday for their semi-annual pumpkin-carving party. It was a lot of fun to see family, pig out on food and goodies and sit around a bonfire on a brisk evening.

The pumpkins turned out well, if I don't say so myself. Sarah carved a white pumpkin this year (it features her favorite thing: a cat). I carved a giant one with an intricate pattern (and nearly got carpal tunnel in the process). And Sarah's relative, Butch, carved the little guy for Oliver. Here's the result of our work:

Horror movie scare No. 1: 'Vacancy'

justin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:16:31 GMT

Thanks to everybody who gave us scary movie suggestions the past few days, both here on the blog and off-line. Sarah and I are going to try and watch at least three movies from this list:

Vacancy
Halloween (2007)
The Strangers
Prom Night
30 Days of Night

We started our "scare adventure" last night with the movie "Vacancy." This movie is from 2007 and sort of just came and went at the movie theaters. I barely remember hearing about it. It stars Kate Beckinsale (and my libido goes "hummna-hummmna!!") and Luke Wilson (an odd casting choice to me at first glance, but I liked him in the role).

Horror movie clichés abound (car broken down in the middle of nowhere, creepy hotel, etc.), but it was packed with some tense, scary moments. The plot of the movie revolves around the making of snuff films. Enough said. Perhaps the best part of this movie was it's running time: It came in around an hour and 20 minutes. As tired, new parents, we love movies that are short like that.

Next horror movie up? Not sure yet, but I'll let you know soon enough. I'm leaning toward "Halloween" (2007), which was directed by Rob Zombie. He's the guy behind a CD I listened to a lot in high school ("La Sexocisto" by White Zombie) and helmed my favorite horror movie of all time "House of 1,000 Corpses." It will be interesting to see where he takes the "Halloween" movie, since that's one of my favorites as well.

We need a good scare -- any suggestions?

justin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:07:32 GMT

Each October, Sarah and I watch several scary movies. However, we have yet to start this year (unless you count the lame, shaky camera "Quarantine," which we saw this past weekend).

That said, we need some suggestions for good horror movies. Or just plain movies that will scare us. Frankly, we're just out of ideas. My favorite from the past few years is "House of 1,000 Corpses," though it was too freaky for Sarah. Others we have enjoyed are "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Shining." And we've seen all the popular ones, like "Saw," "The Omen" and "Psycho."

The list below is courtesy of IMDB.com. I have crossed out the ones at least one of us has seen already (though some of these aren't really "horror" movies, are they?). Do you have any suggestions from this list or elsewhere? Think outside the box, because chances are that we've seen the movie you suggest. Leave a title (or two) and a description in a comment and maybe we'll check out your movie. Thanks for the help!

Rank	Rating	Title	Votes
1.	~~8.7~~	~~Psycho~~ ~~(1960)~~	~~110,497~~
2.	~~8.5~~	~~Alien~~ ~~(1979)~~	~~137,704~~
3.	~~8.5~~	~~The Shining~~ ~~(1980)~~	~~131,170~~
4.	~~8.4~~	~~Aliens~~ ~~(1986)~~	~~131,581~~
5.	~~8.3~~	~~Jaws~~ ~~(1975)~~	~~107,222~~
6.	8.3	Diaboliques, Les (1955)	9,864
7.	8.1	Bride of Frankenstein (1935)	12,056
8.	8.1	The Thing (1982)	54,611
9.	8.1	Cabinet des Dr. Caligari., Das (1920)	12,579
~~10.~~	~~8.1~~	~~Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens~~ ~~(1922)~~	~~21,406~~
11.	8.1	Frankenstein (1931)	17,144
~~12.~~	~~8.1~~	~~King Kong~~ ~~(1933)~~	~~29,369~~
13.	8.0	Jungfrukällan (1960)	4,956
14.	8.0	Faust - Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926)	3,100
~~15.~~	~~8.0~~	~~Rosemary's Baby~~ ~~(1968)~~	~~35,482~~
~~16.~~	~~8.0~~	~~The Exorcist~~ ~~(1973)~~	~~77,638~~
17.	8.0	Onibaba (1964)	2,776
18.	8.0	Testament des Dr. Mabuse, Das (1933)	2,862
19.	8.0	Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)	11,079
20.	8.0	Kaidan (1964)	2,807
21.	8.0	The Innocents (1961)	4,588
22.	8.0	Dawn of the Dead (1978)	32,640
~~23.~~	~~8.0~~	~~Shaun of the Dead~~ ~~(2004)~~	~~96,557~~
~~24.~~	~~8.0~~	~~Night of the Living Dead~~ ~~(1968)~~	~~29,515~~
25.	8.0	Repulsion (1965)	8,637
26.	7.9	Grindhouse (2007)	66,103
27.	7.9	What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)	9,345
28.	7.9	Dead of Night (1945)	2,328
~~29.~~	~~7.9~~	~~Halloween~~ ~~(1978)~~	~~48,073~~
30.	7.9	Yeux sans visage, Les (1960)	3,027
31.	7.9	The Invisible Man (1933)	6,023
32.	7.9	Delicatessen (1991)	23,160
~~33.~~	~~7.9~~	~~The Birds~~ ~~(1963)~~	~~41,112~~
34.	7.8	Evil Dead II (1987)	33,815
35.	7.8	Peeping Tom (1960)	6,524
36.	7.8	The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)	1,071
37.	7.8	The Haunting (1963/I)	9,023
~~38.~~	~~7.8~~	~~Freaks~~ ~~(1932)~~	~~9,987~~
39.	7.8	The Unknown (1927)	1,722
40.	7.8	The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)	2,701
41.	7.8	Survive Style 5+ (2004)	2,985
~~42.~~	~~7.8~~	~~Misery~~ ~~(1990)~~	~~30,382~~
43.	7.8	The Phantom of the Opera (1925)	4,232
44.	7.8	The Wicker Man (1973)	15,069
45.	7.8	Häxan (1922)	1,722
46.	7.8	Vargtimmen (1968)	2,865
47.	7.7	[Rec] (2007)	14,693
48.	7.7	Profondo rosso (1975)	6,372
49.	7.7	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)	2,544
50.	7.7	Locataire, Le (1976)	6,844

Date night for us old timers

justin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:37:20 GMT

Sarah and I had two date nights in the past four days, thanks to a five-day visit from my mom. She came to spend time with Oliver, and who were we to argue with that? It was great having her here. Not to mention that her presence allowed us some time away from parenting and our house.

On Thursday, we went to The Pageant for a Ben Folds concert. We had a decent time, but were a little disappointed in the set list, which was heavy on new songs (check the set list on the link above; I'm not going to re-count, but I think 12 of the 15 songs played before the encore were new or alternative versions of new songs). We did get to hear a few classics near the end which made up for things, sort of. Anyway, our old legs and backs were tired by the time the show ended. Three hours of standing was tough.

Us old timers had another date night last night. We headed to Old Town St. Charles for some fantastic New York-style pizza at Talayna's. Afterward, we went to the movies to see this horror flick called "Quarantine." It was one of those shaky, hand-held camera movies (like "The Blair Witch Project" on steroids). We both felt sick from the god-awful camera work and kept closing our eyes. Sarah left the theater with 30 minutes left, but I stuck it out to get our $18 ($18!!!!!!) worth. Blech!

So two date nights in four days ... that was great. But an observation I had: Parents dating in their early 30s are a lot like teenagers from my era dating in high school. Here's how:

HIGH SCHOOL: You go to dinner at Denny's, Steak n' Shake, McDonald's or the like, chowing on burgers and swigging down soda.
NOW: You eat dinner at cooler restaurants, enjoying pizza, fish tacos or steak while downing a couple beers or margaritas in the process.

HIGH SCHOOL: You follow up dinner with a dollar-show, PG-13-rated movie.
NOW: You drop $18 ($18!!!!!!) on a really lame movie at some giant megaplex, making sure the flick is an R-rated movie so you don't have to deal with obnoxious teens.

HIGH SCHOOL: You rush to make it home by midnight to make curfew.
NOW: You rush to make it home by midnight because you're old and tired.

HIGH SCHOOL: [Original thought, involving the "end" of the date, removed at the wife's request]
NOW: [Same here!]

An outing with our little 'pumpkin'

justin — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:49:11 GMT

It seems as if all of my friends, or at least the ones with young children, have been going to pumpkin farms over the past few weeks (for a couple examples, check the blogs of Cara and Valerie). We joined the fun yesterday, heading out to Rombach Farm in Chesterfield Valley along with my mom, who was in town for the weekend, and a family friend.

The crowd was huge. It felt like we were at the local Barack Obama rally held that same day (though that would have been cooler). While there, we got all of the obligatory "Oliver with pumpkins" pictures. Afterward, we hooked Oliver up into our Baby Bjorn and went for a hike at nearby Howell Island. It was fun ... for about 10 minutes. Then we realized our arms and backs were covered with mosquitoes so we booked it back to the car and headed home.

Below are a sampling of photos we took during our outing. Enjoy!

L-O-P-I-N-O-T ... "O?"

justin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:54:41 GMT

Most of my readers know me, and they know how to pronounce and spell my last name. It's Lopinot. Pronounced like LOW-PUH-KNOW, with the emphasis on the "low." Well, it gets butchered all the time. Sometimes we even get weird pronunciations with letters that are juxtaposed or not even in the name. Here are a few common mistakes:

LOP-UH-KNOT
LOP-UH-KNIT
LOW-PINTO
LOW-PIN-YO (they get the silent "T" correct but throw a Spanish tilda over the "N")

And trying to get people to spell this right? Yeesh. That's partly why I changed my UMSL e-mail address, when I worked there, to justin@umsl.edu. Much easier to give that out to reporters than to go through the rigmarole over my last name.

So anyway, the point of this whole blog post is to tell you about a funny conversation I had on the phone yesterday. I was leaving a message for somebody, gave my first name and then was asked for my last name. Here's how the next couple of minutes went:

ME: It's Lopinot, L-O-P-I-N ...
HER: O?
ME: What?
HER: O?
ME: No. It's Lopinot, L-O ...
HER: O?
ME: No. It's Lopinot, L-O-P ...
HER: I'm sorry. O-P?
ME: No. L, as in Larry. O-P-I-N-O-T.
HER: L-O what?
ME: [slowly] L-O-P-I-N-O-T
HER: L-O-P-I-N ... what?
ME: L-O-P-I-N-O ...
HER: O?
ME: Yes, O.
HER: O.
ME: T.
HER: P?
ME: No. T, as in Tom. L-O-P-I-N-O-T.
HER: Huh?
ME: It looks like LOP-UH-KNOT
HER: Oh! I got it now.

Oliver's 'almost-costume' for Halloween

justin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:53:58 GMT

We bought Oliver a Halloween costume at Target the other day. The size was 12 months, but it was too small. Would have been funny to see him scampering around in this little getup. Oh yeah, the costume? He was going to be Molly (our goldendoodle) for Halloween. Here he is with the costume's ear part pulled over his head (that's about all that we could wedge onto him):

What do you think of the resemblance?

Oliver finally makes it from Point A to Point B

justin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:30:01 GMT

Today, Oliver officially crawled for the first time. Well, we were told so at least. Sarah's parents had him today, and they took him to the office of their financial adviser. As Annette went to throw a diaper in the trash, Oliver propped himself up on a blanket and crawled forward several feet. Rod and the adviser told Annette, who couldn't believe it. So they placed Oliver on the floor and rolled his stroller several feet away. Oliver crawled over. They did it again. Oliver crawled again.

How cool it must have been, and I wish we could have witnessed it. By the time that Sarah and I tried for a repeat performance at home, Oliver was pretty tired. His "crawl," when he could muster the energy to try, was more like what you'd see in Army boot camp. Anyway, this is the best we could come up with, so enjoy:

Oliver is officially a carnivore

justin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:00:50 GMT

As of Saturday, Oliver officially became a carnivore. Yes, we finally allowed the boy to eat some good old meat. Well, meat paste at least.

He's still on Stage 2 baby food, and we introduced a little something called Sweet Potatoes & Chicken. And let me tell you, it was .... well, kind of like cream of chicken soup. Really thick cream of chicken soup. I guess it was OK, from the little bit I tested on my finger. Oliver seemed to like it a lot. He ate another jar of it tonight.

We have lots of other varieties (usually a meat with some random vegetable) to try in the coming weeks. Can't wait to bust out the Vegetable Turkey Dinner. Yum.

Oliver almost on all fours (video evidence)

justin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:56:33 GMT

Need further evidence of Oliver being days away from crawling? Check this out:

Enjoy the bugs, Mr. Toad

justin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:34:48 GMT

Mr. Toad,

Sitting atop the top step on our patio, you have freaked Sarah and me out for two consecutive summers.

You're usually out pretty late at night, like when I'm letting the dog out to go to the bathroom before bed. Most times, though I should know you're out there, I catch a glimpse of you in the corner of my eye and almost jump out of my shoes. When you startle Sarah, she tends to let out a shriek and hop over "your" step as she enters the house and slams the door shut behind her. You must find it all amusing.

Each time we open that door, about 2-3 bugs fly into our kitchen. I'm sure that number would be much higher without you standing guard outside. From your picture, you appear to be eating quite well.

Anyway, I realize that with the cold weather moving in, you'll soon be hibernating for the winter. I read somewhere that toads usually live 4-15 years, so we hope that you continue to come back and see us each spring. For now, continue to enjoy the bugs.

Your friend,

Justin

All I want for Oliver is his two (frickin') front teeth

justin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:27:59 GMT

Oliver has had his bottom two front teeth for quite some time already, but those top two just won't bust through. It's got to take place any day now. I mean, it just has to.

God love the boy, but I'm tired of hearing that darn whiny, "I'm-in-pain" voice. I feel bad for the kid, too. It has to hurt, and I don't blame him for complaining.

The pain has been waking Oliver up at odd hours during the night, cutting his nap time down drastically, and made him just, generally, fussy. And he's not a fussy baby. He's the calmest, most relaxed baby I've ever seen ... just not these past couple of days.