Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like planning for parenthood. Julie and I have attended a few classes over the past few weeks that were suggested by our doctor. We spent almost a full Saturday (as opposed to several nights) at the hospital, learning everything from where to go when it’s show time and how to clean a newborn. We even watched some....detailed videos that helped us get a better idea of what the delivery will be like. We also attended a hands-free CPR class and learned what to do when infants and adults stop breathing or show signs of choking. I did not reassure Julie about my capabilities when the head came off of my CPR baby. The Branches attended both of these classes with us - having good friends go through this with us is so much fun and makes the classes much more tolerable! Here are some photos:











This week, I love Catching Hell. I’m a Chicago Cubs fan. We don’t have much to celebrate, but that’s part of the deal. When the future starts to look bright, a dark cloud always manages to loom over Wrigley Field. There’s no better example of this than the Steve Bartman incident. In the 2003 National League Championship Series, the Cubs were just a few outs away from winning game 6 and advancing to the World Series. All looked well until a fan named Steve Bartman made an attempt to catch a foul ball and interrupted a Cubs’ outfielder from making the final out of the inning. As fate would have it, the Cubs blew their lead, lost Game 6, lost Game 7 and the Cubbies still haven’t won the World Series since 1908. Steve Bartman has never appeared publically to discuss the play and receives all the blame for the Cubs’ collapse to this day. Catching Hell is a great documentary that not only examines the Steve Bartman incident but also the Bill Buckner incident from 1986, in which the Boston Red Sox first baseman made a crucial fielding error in Game 6 of the World Series. Just like the Bartman incident, the Red Sox lost Game 6, lost Game 7 and Buckner received all of the blame for the Red Sox’s collapse. The film explores why we make Bartman and Buckner the scapegoat despite plenty of evidence of other factors that led to those losses.



This week, I don’t like football players wearing pink. I love women so much that I married one. I understand that breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States. But I just don’t get the NFL’s breast cancer awareness tactic during the month of October. The NFL’s website explains it all but I just don’t know that this makes any sense. Breast cancer awareness is clearly the winner here: the NFL is a great vehicle for getting your message out there. But who is getting this message? I know there are lots of female NFL fans but wouldn’t the league do the majority of its viewers a much bigger favor by putting this effort behind prostate cancer awareness? You have to believe that the NFL would save many more lives of men by touting prostate cancer awareness than the number of women it is reaching with its current campaign. Ugh, everything is PINK – that’s the real issue I have. There is no franchise in the league that can mix pink into their color scheme without the result looking like something that came from the 90’s.