Lincolnite

It is day two of "Lincoln's Best" week here at Lincolnite. Today let's talk about Lincoln's best buildings. What are Lincoln's five best buildings? What makes them the best?

Don't try to renew your driver's license this week. All DMV offices are closed until Friday for "essential training in fraud detection, computer use and customer service". Here's a hint that the DMV might need a little work on customer service: their website doesn't contain any information about the closures.

Robert is 5 months old today. The milestone, such as it is, serves as a good time to reflect back on how many strides he has taken so far. In one sense he's the same little Robbie he was four months ago in Boston. But then I look at him when he's all stretched out and I think: he's huge now! And you know what sticks out most about him right now? His voice. Robbie's voice is becoming less like an infant's and more like a baby's. When he cries it sounds like a child's cry, not a newborn's cry. When he laughs, there's a hint of the sound of a toddler laughing, rather than just his previous infant giggle. And when he babbles, though he has a long ways to go, I can already hear how he is beginning to think about giving meaning to his sounds. Unfortunately, Robbie is celebrating the start of his sixth month with a cold. It drove him nuts last night. At 4:30 he had had enough, so I went into his room and slept propped up with him on my chest. Well, I say "slept", but there was little sleep to be had with Robbie snoring and snorting and tossing and turning. But he was doing it very cutely (?), so it was easy to forgive him. I think The In-Laws will be very surprised how much he has changed when they come for Thanksgiving. There's a good chance he'll be sitting by then. (He can already sortakinda sit, but he quickly folds in half.) And sitting means joining the family at the dinner table in a high chair. He's going to like that.

It's "Lincoln's Best" week here at Lincolnite. Let's start with parks. What are Lincoln's five best parks? What makes them the best?

Halloween is fast approaching. What are Lincoln's best locations for Halloween festivities? Perhaps the most obvious answer, for families with children anyway, is Boo at the Zoo (October 26-30, 5:30pm - 8:00pm). Any other suggestions?

Criticizing is easy and commonplace, but giving credit is rare. Kudos to the LJS for running a front page story today on Hispanic-owned businesses in Crete, AND for a front page photo with an interracial couple. That obviously raised some eyebrows from the old guard as evidenced from the comments. This country is about to hit 300 million, one in three of which is a racial minority (By the way....welcome to the "real world" George Allen).

Based on the ingredients and nutrition facts, can you identify what I ate for lunch today? Ingredients:

• pork livers
• pork
• calcium reduced (?!) dried skim milk
• salt
• corn syrup
• water
• sugar
• ...and a bunch of preservatives

Nutrition facts per 2 oz. serving:

• Calories: 200
• Calories from fat: 160
• Total fat: 18g (28%)
• Saturdated fat: 6g (30%)
• Cholesterol: 85mg (28%)
• Sodium: 640mg (27%)
• Total carbohydrates: 2g (1%)
• Protein: 8g
• Vitamin A: 240%
• Iron: 30%

And by the way, it was goooood.

I was very disappointed in this morning's Journal Star editorial. Titled "Counseling for gay youths worth funding", I thought the LJS would take Robin Eschliman and Bob Workman to task for their boneheadedness. Instead, readers were handed an example of weak-kneed journalism that packed as much sting as a glob of Cool-Whip. I wasn't expecting an all-out assault, mind you, nor was one necessary. But if that's the best they could come up with, they should not have even bothered stirring up the masses again. At least I can still count on Neal Obermeyer to spice things up.

I'm going to give the Downtown location of Taco del Mar a try today because I have five buy-one-get-one coupons sitting on my desk. Anybody care to bogo with me over the noon hour?

The Mayor's arena task force has recommended a location for a new arena behind (west of) Lincoln Station in the Haymarket. It's a good location, but I'm left with one question: how in the world can the area roads be reconfigured to accommodate 10,000+ arena-goers? Traffic can get snarled today even with just a few hundred Haymarket-goers. Folks put up with massive traffic jams on Husker game days because, well, that's what you do. But that won't be tolerated with an arena. It's a very solvable problem, but I'm curious which options are on the table, and which are definitely out.

It's the Friday Five, paraskavedekatriaphobic edition. In honor of Friday the 13th, here are five places in Lincoln I'm afraid to go:

1. Standing next to the Sower. But if the opportunity arose, I'd do it anyway.
2. Robber's Cave without lights. After being closed for years, who knows what unpleasantries lie in the dark.
3. Any Lincoln middle school. Middle schoolers scare the crap out of me.
4. Amigo's. After ragging on Amigo's for so long, being seen there could ruin my reputation. And besides, who knows what the workers would do to my food in retalliation.
5. The kitchen at Lee's Chicken. Some things are better left unknown.

We are about a month away from election day. The polls say Ben leads Pete 55% to 32%. Does Pete have a shot, or is he dead in the water? If Pete is out of contention, does that mean Ben is unbeatable, or has the GOP just not found the right opponent yet? Discuss. (In other news, the Guv leads David Hahn 72% to 18%. Yeouch.)

What's with all the big fireworks going off right now? What did I miss?

A student came up to The Missus today and asked if he could borrow a pencil. She told him "Sure, if you hand over some collateral." So he reached into his pocket and pulled out the only thing in there. A condom. Ahh, the joys of teaching America's youth. On the plus side, at least he wears a helmet whle riding the village bicycle.

Robert slept eight straight hours last night, for a total of ten hours of restful slumber. Needless to say, mom and dad woke up very happy this morning.