So, yesterday being Monday, I was supposed to put up a new post. But that, obviously, did not happen.

After three straight nights of interrupted sleep, my daughter was in no mood to go to bed. And here’s the thing about small children and sleep. When you have, say hypothecially a 14 month old daughter, the more tired said daughter is the worse she sleeps at night. Seems odd, but when a kid doesn’t get in a good nap during the day, especially after a few nights of not sleeping well to begin with, that kid turns into a screaming machine right about bedtime. Because she was so overly tired she couldn’t get relaxed enough to actually fall asleep. So the wife and I had to resort to laying down with her in our bed. When she’s really upset, it’s the only thing that really works. The upshot of this, though, was that my wife and I both fell asleep before 8 PM.

Let me point out that my wife was still in her work clothes (I, luckily, was at least in pajama bottoms, as I had gotten in the bath with my daughter in an attempt to calm her down, which did not, in fact, work), the downstairs TV was on, and our dinner was still sitting out on the stove. I woke up sometime around 11, groggily carried the kid to her crib, shoved the food in the fridge, and shut off the TV before lying back down.

Needless to say, no “blogging” was even considered.

So now that you’re all bored to tears with the minutae of my home life, here’s what I was meaning to post….

Saturday morning, during my self-inforced punishment at the bookmines (read: working my second job) I came across the following album cover…

My initial response was, “What the hell is this?!” to which a co-worker responded, “I don’t know.”

Unpreturbed by this lack of information I took said album (which just happened to be a promo) into the back to give it a listen. It took almost a full 15 seconds before I became totally obsessed with The Pipettes. I was soon informed that, besides being too cute for words, and producing a heavily addictive brand of retro-doo wop, the three girls in question are also English.

Good GOD! It’s like one of my greatest fantasies come true.

If I weren’t married and had a kid, I would totally start stalking these chicks TODAY!

But, as I can only stalk so many people at any one time, I’ll just share the Pipettes love with everyone….

Current England Manager (and former head of Middlesbrough) has always seemed a nice enough guy to me. I mean, it’s not like I’ve ever actually had a conversation with him, or even been, say, in the same city as him. But I’ve always gotten this sorta, I don’t know, fatherly vibe from the guy.

But that feeling of general good will I once had toward McClaren has long since evaporated. And after yesterday, well, if I am ever in the same room as him I swear to god I’m going to take a crowbar to his knee.

Playing a Euro qualifier in the cold wastes know, colloquially, as Russia, the Three Lions needed a win to, basically, secure a spot in the finals next summer.

And everything looked good as Wayne Rooney put in a goal just under the 30 minute mark.

Now, I can’t be sure, because I was getting minute by minute text updates off the UEFA website, but it sure seems to me like McClaren, or the whole of the England squad, really thought that one goal was all they would need.

Judging by the scare stats info that UEFA was providing, Russia had much more control of the ball and many more shots on goal for most of the game. Even still, England held the 1-0 lead until the 69th minute. Then, in the span of 5 minutes, Russian sub Pavluchenko puts in 2 goals! Now, the first was a PK from, what appears to have been, a bit of a dubious call, but that still doesn’t explain the second goal.

In an obvious move of desperation, McClaren brought on all three subs in the span of a minute (and, seriously, can’t it just be decided to leave Lampard out all together) in an attempt to steal a late equalizer, which, of course, did not happen.

Now some may blame Gerrard for missing a seemingly sure goal early in the second half, but the stats (and granted, I haven’t actually watched the match yet) suggest that either the game plan was flawed (which would be on McClaren’s shoulders) or its execution was flawed (which, in many ways, would also be on McClaren’s shoulders).

Now football (yeah, that’s right, FOOTBALL) is a terribly unpredictable sport. Current European champions Greece are a testament to that. But since McClaren has taken over the England squad has been absolutely atrocious in away matches. And I realize that John Terry was out. But here’s an idea, instead of trotting out the few battered remains of what used to be Sol Campbell, why not bring in Jaime Carragher. I’m still at a loss at to why he hasn’t gotten more national team caps over the last three years considering he’s been the most (or second most, depending on who you ask) consistent defender in the Premier League over that span.

Now England have to hope that Israel beats Russia. It’s certainly a possibility, though a fairly remote one. If Russia win that match, then England will not participate in Euro 08.

As that bastion of entertainment news, the New York Times, has reported, today the WGA is supposed to announce whether or not its members will begin a strike on November 1.

Now I like writers, having aspirations in that field, and I generally like shows that have good writing. When you get right down to it, writing is the foundation on which any good film or TV series is built.

But after coming across this…for lack of a better word…abomination, I have to wonder if the strike wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Seriously, what was the thought process behind this show, Viva Laughlin.

“So I have a good idea for a show. Let’s take that crappy show set in Vegas, you know, what’s it called…the one so good that they moved it to Fridays…oh, right Las Vegas. So let’s take that, move it to an even crappier town, and then stock it full of contrived characters that sound like they came out a 6th rate Raymond Chandler knockoff.”

Ripley Holden?!

Nicky Fontana!?

Seriously, these are your character names. Why not just go with Cool Hero, and Evil Villain.

If this is what “professional” writers are coming up with, then clearly the ranks of TV writers need to be culled.

You know, I might not care so much if this were on, like FX or TBS, or some other cable station. If it were, then I’d assume this show did not take itself too seriously and it might actually work (take, Monk, for example which is AWESOME!). But, oh no, Viva Laughlin is on CBS, at 8 PM on Sundays! What the hell is a broadcast station giving an hour of primetime to this crap for!

And Laughlin!

Seriously!

I haven’t been there in about a decade, and hopefully I’ll never return. I don’t care how many fucking Starbucks and P.F. Chang’s it boasts. At it’s core, it’s still a place old ladies go to play nickel slots!

Shit, I can already tell that I’ve written stuff way better than this show and I haven’t even seen the show. Plus, I’m not a good writer. Everyone involved in Viva Laughlin should be officially blackballed, as of this moment, and never allowed to set foot in either California or New York ever again.

As any faithful reader should know, Gilgrim and April are “expecting” in the biblical sense.

So as the fateful day approaches, I thought it wise to regail the happy couple (and, by default, anyone reading this) with a bit of wisdom gained from 14 months of parenthood. And that bit of wisdom:

Parenthood ages you like nobody’s business!

On Thursday, I was having a rousing e-mail discussion with Mojo of Poor Mojo’s “various sundrys” about the ridiculousness of housing, particularly in the Golden State when said Mojo ended one of his replies with “tyvm.”

Now I was never up on the netspeak, but I could usually figure out crap like that, back in the day, say a year and a half ago, when I still felt some “connection” to the kids.

But that “tyvm” was so totally perplexing to me that I had to have Mojo translate. That’s how sadly out of touch I am.

Then came the weekend. MTV was playing a “So You Think You Can Dance” season 2 marathon all day Saturday and Sunday. Now I didn’t watch every single minute of the thing, but I certainly watched a lot more of it than, say, is healthy.

One minute to digress….let it be emphatically said that I do not, nor does my wife, or anyone even remotely connected to my house, watch Dancing with the Stars. The difference between the two shows might seem negligible to some. But one has B and C level celebrities with no appreciable appititude to dance or any dance related activity barely scraping through routines set to horribly contrived “renditions” of terrible songs that should in know way ever be accompanied by choreography. The other has actual, skilled DANCERS, performing actual DANCING, choreographed by good choreographers and accompanied by appropriate music. Can you guess which is which? Now, you may not appreciate dance, as is certainly your right. But my wife danced for 15 years, and it’s something that is taken seriously in our house (though, maybe not as seriously as, say, baseball or Premier League Football).

Do I think it is possible I would have watched so much “So You Think You Can Dance?” before I had a kid….well, I suppose anything is possible. But it certainly would have been highly improbable. Now….? The evidence speaks for itself.

So, be wary innocent expecting couple. You will find many changes occurring in your lives soon. Not all of them will sit well with the image you have of your former self.

As exsulis and I stumble around in the dark, sometimes bumping into each other, trying to figure out this whole “website” business, you will likely find a number of changes here at your favorite url (that’s normalityrestored.com, by the way…). We are at the point where it is about to get, as the kids say, “real up in this biatch!” But until it get’s really real, it’ll get a lot less real first.

Not exactly sure how we want the site laid out, yet. I certainly have a number of ideas, a few thoughts, maybe even one or two conjectures, as the case may warrant. And while wordpress.com doesn’t allow for a whole lot of, experimentation, you might say, I can at least start to get an idea of how certain set-ups look and/or feel.

And I realize I can preview a theme without actually applying to the website proper, but I ask you, what would be the fun in that?

Yeah, that’s right, nothing.