Behold, the future

I'm gonna post on the weekend we all spent outside Willits, Calif. on a Boy Scout camp there -- it was surprisingly fun. But I'm going to wait until I've got pictures I can add. Oh, you can pretend you're not excited for it, but you know you are.

In other news, I'm going to predict the future. This will be fun because we can come back to this post in the fall and see how wrong I am. We'll call the feature "Rob Predicts the Future!" and you'll have a good time (that's my first prediction).

1. Gas prices will hit $4.50 a gallon this summer -- At least. And I'm guessing they'll bounce up to five bucks a gallon if we have anything that even closely resembles a hurricane anywhere near the Gulf Coast.

2. "Pirates" will be the biggest blockbuster of the summer while simultaneously taking the title for most abysmal use $200 million of the year -- Seriously, they should have stopped with one. And that should have been trimmed by at least 30 minutes. And after the second one? I can't imagine how bloated and overwrought this one will be.

3. I will be vaguely disappointed with "Transformers" and "The Simpsons Movie" and love "The Bourne Ultimatum" -- Only because I'm really looking forward to both "Transformers" and "Simpsons." But I know deep down the "Transformers" can't match what I built it up to be in my head as a kid and the "Simpsons" just can't work as a motion picture.

4. I will lose 10 pounds this summer -- I imagine what I don't sweat off this summer I'll work off being out and about with Becky and with the girls. Plus, I'm off soda for the time being -- I rule -- and I'm cutting way back on my candy consumption. This makes us all happy.

5. Erick and I will form a band after blowing away the Boulder Creek crowd with our trumpet/guitar/6-year-old vocalists rendition of "Ring of Fire" -- That's if we can get it together. Because if we do that, there will be no stopping us. Unless we suck together. That might stop us.

So there it is. We'll check in over the summer and see were the predictions are at. And in a couple days I'll give you the run down of the Willits Weekend. Willits. I can't say it enough.

Oh, and a quick reminder. Wilco's new album "Sky Blue Sky" is out today, go pick it up -- you owe it to yourself. They'll also be on Letterman tonight.

Pure gold

It's time for another visit to Show and Tell Music. (Past trips can be found here, here and here.) These fine gentlemen you see here are the Royals and this is their album "Music." It's possibly one of the finest do-it-yourself album covers I've ever seen. To quote SaTM, "I could stare at this image for hours." And really, you can. It's surprisingly and completely captivating. So let's do another.





He's Father Robert White and he's the "Reverend in Rhythm." Dig him, baby! I like to imagine that he's a smooth, lounge jazz act that just melts the doors off the chapel. Let's do one more. Question: Who's nature's secret?





Answer: Michael Cassidy, that's who. Sitting in the forest glenn, dressed like Friar Tuck and holding a rabbit. No one's putting stuff out like this anymore. And it's a shame.

It feels like I have to write something

Kids are fun. Don't get me wrong, they can be a pain in the butt, too. But they can also be fun, which makes the whining, the fighting, the arguing and the general chaos that forever seems to surround them easier to bear. You know, a spoon full of sugar and all that.

Leigh, our four-year-old, for whatever reason -- age, preschool, new sibling -- has begun to verbalize her feelings. Which is a remarkable thing when you think about it. I mean, when was the last you verbalized your feelings? Or maybe I'm impressed because I'm a guy. I don't verbalize my feelings much at all. But Leigh has started doing it all the time.

But what's fun with Leigh is that it's never "I feel sad" or "I feel angry" or "I feel good," it's "It feels like I have to laugh" or "It feels like I want to cry" or "It feels like I need to run." There's something about expressing it in the passive voice that is hilarious to me. As though she's sneakily shifting responsibility for her actions.

A couple weeks ago she and Claire, my six-year-old, were fighting, as is their wont. There's really no in-between with the girls -- either they're at each other's throats or playing like the bestest friends and bosom buddies who have never not seen eye-to-eye their entire lives. I can't recall what brought on this particular argument, but it ended with Leigh just fuming. With the meanest, surliest little face she could muster, she turns to me and says, "It feels like I have to punch her in the stomach."

Becky and I just died laughing. And really, who hasn't felt that singular emotion at some point during their day?