How's Everything?

I'm writing this blog early today, to give you a chance to act on its wisdom.

Here are three recommendations for a happy and well-balanced day:

1. Recommended breakfast food: an everything bagel. Man, these are tasty. You can put egg and cheese inside for a bagel sandwich, though they're fine with just butter. Besides, for lunch you're having...

2. Recommended lunchtime food: an everything bagel sandwich. Tired of sandwiches on plain old bread? Of course you are. An everything bagel makes everything taste good (that's where it got its name).

3. Recommended dinner: Pizza. This breaks the pattern, but is a lifelong favorite that deserves a place on the list. If given the option, go with Cheryl's homemade pizza.

Another recommendation:

Recommended blog: Visit our friends Jeff and Aubrey here, and read a very moving post entitled "Not Your Doctor." Thank you, Aubrey, for sharing this.

Beta Testing

Yesterday, our family was sharing Chick-fil-A with a neighbor. Cullen happily crawled around the room opening and closing drawers, playing with door handles, and attempting to bring the TV tray (which held our food) crashing down. We were successful at keeping the TV tray in place. However...

Suddenly, there were the following sounds: Swoosh, Bonk!, Whap!, Splash, Whap!, Splash.

It all happened very suddenly. I should note it was followed by a loud, alarmed cry on Cullen's part (see "Bonk!" above).

These sounds were those of Cullen pulling a little towel off our neighbor's dresser. The problem was that there was a small aquarium on top of the towel, with a little beta fish inside. That beta was now literally a fish out of water.

If you are wondering why there was no flop, flop sound, which you may expect in such a situation, it's because the fish lay motionless in stunned silence. He flopped eventually, and was given some new water. At last check, he was doing fine.

What is interesting about this whole episode is that, just yesterday morning, we saw a story on TV about some men who videotaped their fight with a shark off the Carolina coast. I wonder if Cullen was inspired by this to take on the beta?

The Vacationing Shomos

It's vacation week here at the Shomo household. We decided to splurge this time around and travel to... Virginia Beach!

Monday was beautiful. We enjoyed First Landing State Park, a huge forest area with walking paths and such. Not unlike our favorite hiking areas in New Jersey!

Diligent readers of this blog will note that we've been to First Landing before... the picture on the right sidebar was taken there, when Cullen was younger and smaller. You'll notice I haven't changed much since then, though. Literally.

Speaking of New Jersey, on Tuesday we visited the part of Virginia - or at least our area - that I deem winner of the Impersonate New Jersey Contest. It's called Newport News.

What makes it Jersey-like is that, from the freeway, it seems like a place you'd only want to be from or drive through. And when you get off the freeway, there are crowded roads of convenience stores and gas stations.

However... keep driving, and you find a lot of parks and nice walking areas. It apparently has one of the largest city parks in the country, even. And some nice homes. Way to go, Jersey look-a-like!

We were only able to snap a few pictures, near "City Center."

Hooray for vacation time! It feels nice to explore.

We'll update you if we find anything else.

Tuesday Tips: How to Win a Lady's Heart

In this first installment of Tuesday Tips, some advice for young men. If you wish to win the heart of a lady, you should dress like this:


The sweater vest is always a winner. Of course, the other important point - and you'll notice this if you look closely - is that you should be about 18 months old. The sweater vest really looks best on an 18 month old, and at that age you can still win that lady's heart without too many big expenditures.


Of course, there's always the danger of someone younger swooping in... Which isn't a problem if they're wearing hand-me-downs, but could be a big competition if they're fashion sensible. So don't delay!

(By the way, for you older guys... there's really not much hope... but you can try this.)

Who Hacked Our Poll?

Last time we met, we discussed whether Facebook or All Things Shomo is the future of the internet. The poll - as of this typing, still running - finds blogs far ahead of Facebook. Yet the comments section was a different story, where Facebook was lauded, defended, and applauded.

Quite interesting... Either we have a wide following of blog readers whose motto is "Comment Not."

Or... Perhaps we have just one particular reader who is simply voting for blogs on the poll multiple times!

Yes, that would be a possibility. Cullen does spend quite amount of time on his laptop...