Why don't you eat breakfast?

You know you should. Every doctor, every nutritionist, every teacher and every parent have told you it's the most important meal of the day. You know it's the most important meal of the day. Yet you still don't eat it, do you?

Why?

Great Birthday / Not So Great Day After Birthday

I got a pair of Bill's Khakis for my birthday. I've always wanted a pair and now I have some. They're the most comfortable khakis ever. My wife is the greatest! I also got the complete Strangers With Candy series on DVD, which is about as twistely hilarious as you can get. It was a very nice birthday at home with the family.

We'd planned to go out to eat, but Maddie hadn't been feeling so hot so we ordered take-out Thai food from the place down the road for our birthday dinner. We've eaten there a few times and always liked it, and Wednesday night it tasted particularly good.

Apparently food poisoning tastes particularly good.

Everyone who ate the Thai -- my wife, both step-daughters and myself -- spent all day yesterday violently ill. I've never experienced anything like that in my life. Normally you'd think three bathrooms is enough for a family of five (one of which is an infant), but not yesterday. No, there were times when each bathroom would be occupied and someone else would be hurling in a pot next to the bed. The only one who was unaffected was little Sam. He just hung out in Mommy and Daddy's bed all day happy as can be.

I came into the office this morning but I still feel like crap, so I'm going home.

Blech.

READ HALOSCAN COMMENTS.

Coffee. Black.

I'm a pretty simple guy when it comes to coffee. Give me a good roast, a strong brew, and just black, thank you very much. I want my coffee to taste like coffee. I brew about half a pot in the morning (well, actually, my awesomely awesome wife makes it for me during the week, which is way cool) and pour it into my monster travel mug for the road. I also have a coffee pot at my desk, and I'll brew another half pot or so for the rest of the morning (I don't know what it is they brew here at work, but it ain't good). It's pretty rare that I go into a coffee shop for coffee, and when I do, it's rarer still that I order anything but coffee, black, which always throws the kids behind the counter because they're just not used to an order that simple. Even if they understand that I just want regular roasted coffee, they still ask if I want room for cream, to which I reply, "No, thank you," if I'm feeling my friendly self, but if I'm ornery, I'll reply, "No, because then it wouldn't be black." Every once in a great while, however, I'll get a hankerin' for a chai tea. And that I just can't make at home. So it's off to the coffee shop for me, to feel all hip, tortured and liberal. Plus I love the game of trying to order the drink the right way, even though I know there is no right way. I don't know if you've noticed, but no matter how you order your drink, the order taker is going to turn to the coffee maker (or "barista," as the kids like to call them) and say it differently. You: "Grande chai with skim milk." Them: "Grande skinny chai." But if you come back the next day and say, "Grande skinny chai," they'll say, "Skinny grande chai." They've been instructed to never just repeat the customer, because then the customer would be in on the secret coffee ordering society and we can't have that.

Okay, I gotta go. My coffee just finished brewing.

READ HALOSCAN COMMENTS.

Coffee cup idiosyncrasies.

I just spent five minutes staring into the cupboard trying to decide which coffee cup I wanted to use this morning. I decided upon the yellow "Sun Record Company" mug, as I'm feeling in a bit of a rockabilly mood. This is the first time I've ever stopped to think about the fact that I never simply grab the mug that's in front. I always carefully choose the mug from which I want to drink. In my cupboard I have an Ernest Hemingway mug, a San Francisco mug, a couple Michigan State University mugs, a mug that says "Jeff," a big, blue, handmade ceramic mug from Akumal, Mexico, a Colorado Public Radio mug, a mug with Goofy on it in which you could fit a whole pot o' coffee, and a mug that says "Hero" (that was a gift from my family, and yes, I choose that one a lot), to name but a few. My choice of mug is really the first important decision of the day for me.

And today is going to be a good day.

READ HALOSCAN COMMENTS.

Pudding question.

Just out of curiosity, how many individual Snack Pack puddings would you say constitutes "too many" to eat within, say, an hour?

READ HALOSCAN COMMENTS.