On the way back from helping my father move my grandmother into her new apartment I decided that I would grab a snack while at the gas station before leaving Horseheads. It would be the WORST food mistake I have ever made. Now, I like Slim Jims...it's no secret. There was a whole rack of different varieties to choose from. I picked up a beefsteak (always a good choice) and after much deliberation I chose what appeared to be just a really thick stubby Slim Jim. It was called the Tijuana Mama Pickled Sausage. Little did I know that it was pure evil in food form wrapped in plastic.

I ate the beef steak first and about a half hour down the road I decided to test my luck with the Tijuana Mama. So, at the next stop light I opened it up and when I started moving again took a bite. I gagged. It took every ounce of self-control that I could muster to not crash the car. I swear I thought I was going to die just from the smell. There are only two ways that I can think of to describe the rancid insidiousness of this vile snack...My first thought was "My god! It's like blowing a dead pig!"...this is the first time a food has ever made me feel violated. My final analysis however is that this thing...this horrid excuse for a snack is, simply put, a big smelly spicy pickled turd. I cannot imagine who on earth would want to eat one of these things. I really think that the makers of this snack intended it to be a complete and unfunny joke. They are evil and should be destroyed. I cannot understand how this could be considered a "food" and allowed on to store shelves by the FDA.

So my advice to all of you is simply this...if you see this "snack" in your local grocery or convenient store...RUN...run screaming out of the store and return later with the largest angry mob you can find and burn the store to the ground! Believe me, you'll thank me.

- Jeremy

You scored as Freddy Krueger. You are Freddy Krueger. You are evil, but enjoy having fun. Sure you made some bad choices in life, causing some parents to attack you, and burn you alive. But hey, you have even more fun now than you did then! You prefer waiting for your victims to fall asleep, so you can have fun with them in your world. But if they pull you out, you dont let that stop your fun! Freddy Krueger 75% Hannibal Lecter 70% Jigsaw 65% Pinhead 50% Leatherface 50% Candyman 45% Captain Spaulding 35% Jason Voorhees 35% Michael Myers 35% Buffalo Bill 25% Which Horror Killer are You? created with QuizFarm.com

I spent the better part of the day today at my grandmother's house. She's moving out at the end of the month and there were things that she'd wanted me to have. She's lived in that house for 61 years and since my Grandfather passed away a few years ago I've been putting off going through the house gathering the things that I wanted to keep. I knew going into today that this would be my last chance. I drove home with my car packed full. There is now over 100 years of my family's history sitting in my living room. So much of it is made up of things that I'd never seen before. For example...I had no idea that my Great-Grandpa Gibson was wounded in France during the first World War. I have in my possession a poster sized certificate stating that he "served with honor and was wounded in action in the World War". I had no idea. Even more amazing was that I also have his baptismal certificate from 1894. These are things that I need to preserve so that future generations of my family can see them.

Among the most precious items are pictures of my Grandfather from when he was in the Army Air Corps during WWII. I'd never seen these pictures before and going through them has allowed me to reconnect with him in a whole new way.

My Grandfather was and still is my hero and I miss him terribly.

I'll be posting some of these pictures in my photo galleries very soon and as I begin to go through and catalogue these treasures I will post them here.

- Jeremy

Your results:

You are The Flash

The Flash 60% Spider-Man 60% Superman 60% Robin 58% Green Lantern 55% Catwoman 45% Hulk 45% Iron Man 40% Wonder Woman 38% Batman 35% Supergirl 33%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

That was the phrase of the day on Saturday. Let me explain...

Saturday mornings are usually my day to sleep in. Erin takes Sophia out to see her grandmother, mother and aunt and they have a little morning get together. I usually take advantage of this by getting a couple of hours of sleep. Erin was up at her usual time that morning getting ready before Sophia woke up. We had heard little from her during the night and only a little talking that morning. This was all very normal for a Saturday morning. Then Sophia started crying. This is pretty normal as well. Usually it means that she has figured out that mommy is in the bathroom and she wants Erin to open the door so she can see her. Erin did just that...and then I heard, "oh shit!" This was not normal. Erin is always a lot better than I am at watching her language around Sophia so for her to say that there had to be something wrong. I jumped out of bed grabbed my glasses and rushed into Sophia's room.

The stench was awful! We're not sure when, but sometime during the night Sophia managed to strip off her diaper. There was poop everywhere! The sheets, once white with purple butterflies, were now brown...just BROWN. Sophia was covered in it and the crib itself had streaks of poop all over it. We took her out and put her right into the tub, clothes and all. I stripped the crib and decided that it was better to just throw the sheets out. Bleach or no bleach, they'd never be white again. Needless to say, it took us a while to get everything cleaned up. I left the windows open in her room, while running a fan for a couple of hours to get rid of the smell. Thank god for febreeze!

So that was the adventure for this weekend.

On a more upbeat note Sophia has started saying Mama and Dada this weekend. It was rather amazing. Friday night we had heard her making the dada sound and didn't really think anything of it. I went to walk out of the room and I heard this little voice shout, "DADA!" I spun right around and walked back into the room to find Sophia sitting on the floor looking at me smiling. Quietly, looking at me, she said it again. "Da da...da da"

Erin and I just looked at each other. I nearly melted right there.

Erin had pretty much the same thing happen to her on Saturday and Sunday. In the afternoon Sophia had been making the mama sound. Sophia was on the floor in the living room playing. Erin went to run upstairs and Sophia shouted, "Ma ma!". Erin ran back down the stairs and there was Sophia, sitting there on the floor looking at Erin smiling. Again, she sat there smiling at her mommy, saying, "Ma ma...ma ma."

We were both floored. We've been waiting for the day she would say "mama' and "dada" and she goes and says them both within 24 hours of each other. It's like she wanted to make sure neither of us felt left out.

That's all for now. More to follow in the coming weeks.

- Jeremy