Posting this screen capture from The Rockford Files (1976) for mom.  We had this very couch in our home.  Not the foot stool though.

There were a couple of cherry tomatoes too, but Shivani ate them before I could take a picture. We got our first cucumbers about the same time last year.

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Again, for Mom, a garden report. We had some damage from wind last night and this morning. Several branches of tomatoes fell over. I tied them up better, but am not sure if the ones that fell will survive. There is an ongoing problem with a fungal infection on the tomatoes as well, probably due to the wet weather we have had. This has affected some a lot more than others. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes have come out in force now as well, and it is making garden work most unpleasant. Still, you can see progress since the previous set of pictures.

For mom. Click to embiggen:

It is very strange to see your senior prom date from high school mentioned repeatedly on Instapundit and to think that the instapundit himself must have spent weeks thinking and writing about Greg:

SECOND AMENDMENT UPDATE: My Texas Law Review piece, How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Second Amendment: a Reply to Professor Magarian, is now up to #1 on SSRN.

Instapundit

It's very dry here in Madison:

Seriously dry conditions have developed over southern Wisconsin during June. Several stations in the south central sections of the state reported the driest June on record. Madison received only 0.31 inches of rain, breaking a 117-year record. This amount was only 7 percent of normal June rainfall. Beaver Dam (0.33 in), Ft. Atkinson (0.42 in) and Watertown (0.50 in) also experienced their lowest June rainfall totals.

I don't remember seeing anything like it. Our lawn is yellow and it crunches when I walk on it. There are tall ugly weeds popping up in the middle of lawns all over town. Our garden is doing ok. We have to water twice a day, but on the plus side the garden weeds have been easy to keep down. I hope it will end soon.

Happy First Birthday to my littlest sweetie-pie.

How lucky I am to be your dad!

I took this picture while driving down Highway 14 outside of Madison. Why?

A blow-up explains it:

As they say in the bird books, "unmistakable"

Baby doesn't mind the cold...

This one's for mom

In the interest of fairness... this cutie pie:

Happy Diwali everyone!



Shivani and Anjali. Click to zoom.

Surf's up at Atwater Beach! I admire their tenacity.

From the front of JSOnline.com

Messmer/Shorewood's playoff fate up to a judge - JSOnline

Our alma mater is suing the Wisconsin school sports association (WIAA) because Shorewood (or rather, Messmer/Shorewood) believes it has made the playoffs for the first time since I was in 8th grade, and the WIAA wants to leave them out:

The Milwaukee Messmer/Shorewood football team defeated Wayland Academy on Friday night to clinch what it believes is its first playoff berth since 1981.

The question, however, is if a judge will agree.

The controversy centers over a provision in the WIAA bylaws which says that if a school leaves their conference without WIAA approval, then they are ineligible for the playoffs for 4 years.

Shorewood argues that the bylaw is meant for schools who continue to go it alone outside of any conference and Mess/Shore are now in a conference and thus are again eligible. Courts, not just for basketball anymore!

Update (10/19/2012): Messmer/Shorewood won and are playoff bound for the first time since 1981.

I'm tired of a number of movie genres.

Superhero movies. Good lord. Batman came out 25 years ago, and since then we have been getting more and more and more superhero movies. I swear they have done every major and semi-major hero now. There is still an occasional good one (Iron Man), but really nearly all of them are stale these days.

Gangster movies. Enough already. I am completely uninterested in the lives of the mafia and other gangsters. Even Martin Scorcese can't breath life into this genre.

Jane Austen movies. When did "Jane Austen" become a genre? How many remakes of these novels do we need?

Ivory-Merchant films. Only clones of these are being made now, it seems (are those two still alive?). There was a time 15 years ago or so when they were all the rage. I am still sick of them.

Holocaust movies. Yes, this is a genre. Every year we seem to get two or three major holocaust and holocaust-related films. These films can still have great emotional impact, due to the topic. I am no longer interested though, as I don't see anything new being done here.

Idiotman movies. These are movies with comedic male stars whose characters are idiots. You know the ones.

I think the underlying theme here is safety for producers. Movies are so expensive to make now that nobody wants to risk putting out something fresh. It's a common explanation, and mine is a common complaint.



Ann says: You forgot movies made from old TV shows, eg: "Dukes of Hazzard", "A-Team", "Miami Vice." Is there a single good movie based on a TV show?

Steve says: You are surely right. That group contains what many believe to be one of the worst movies ever made:



A shame, since the original show was pretty good. Remember when we drove to Chicago to see the original Car 54, i.e. the squad car used in the show?

Neighbor backed up her Tahoe into my parked car.



Good grief!

Our new baby, six weeks old or so:



She's giving hints of smiles now. I'm very much looking forward to her smiles.