Michael's evolution

For anyone who has been under a rock for a few years (or perhaps is chronologically challenged), "The Office" is a TV show that originated in Britain but is now a US hit. Of particular interest to me and other midatlantic-ers are the numerous Wegmans products placed throughout the show. Oh I miss that place. But that is neither here nor there.

Megan and I started watching The Office on the internet after Heroes finished up it's season (we pretty much only have one show at a time that we watch; in fact, we never even bothered to hook up an antennae to our TV, so we can't even watch stuff on that). We like The Office for it's humor, and even for it's awkward situations, though sometimes the awkwardness gets out of control and we have to remind ourselves that the characters are actors, they aren't really that ridiculous. We hope. Also, the plot does not move along very quickly, so missing an episode is no big deal, or in fact missing the first three seasons is no big deal. The laughs still come, and the plot is pretty much unimportant. I remember the first time I saw The Office was the last episode of the second season. After watching that episode, I felt I had a pretty good grasp on everything important that might have happened since the show began. I promptly didn't see another episode until the current season. And we felt fairly confident that we hadn't missed much.

After we finished season 4, we decided to go back and watch previous seasons, just for the fun of it. We started with season 1. And thought we'd stepped into some hellish recreation of Michael Scott, the manager of the office The Office takes place in. All I can say is that if I had started watching the show that first season, I can almost guarantee I would never have watched another. Steve Carell's character was so much more awkward, mean, crude, and unpleasant that it made the potentially funny situations go straight to painful. We were shocked and disheartened, and we wanted to cry...tears not of sadness, but of anger, and vengeance. Could this be the same lovably goofy Michael we had come to know and identify with? Our whole world seemed to be crumbling around us.

Apparently, we weren't the only people to feel this way. As we started the second season, we noticed the immediate change (or immediately noticed a change). The writers had altered the character enough that we could once again see the bumbling fool we remember from more modern episodes. It's a good thing too. I couldn't have made it through a whole season with Satan's best friend as the star (luckily the first season was only 6 episodes long).

This post was much more exciting in my mind. Hmmm. Well, we'll finish with one of my favorite quotes from The Office.

Michael: Ladies and Gentlemen. I have some bad news. Meredith was hit by a car.
Jim: What?
Dwight: Where?
Michael: It happened this morning in the parking lot. I took her to the hospital, and the doctors tried to save her life. They did the best that they could... And she is going to be OK.
Stanley: What is wrong with you? Why did you have to phrase it like that?

For more check out the man blog.

Sugary cereals

Today we will be taking a journey back to simpler times. A time when "yes" meant "no" and "no" meant "maybe." I'm talking about childhood, that delightfully carefree time when we were invincible. And one particular aspect of childhood is the desire, the craving, nay the need for cold cereal containing enough sugar to stop the hearts of weaker mortals. I'm talking about the kinds of cereal that are only "part of a balanced breakfast" when they are used for decoration rather than consumption.

When I was a lad, we had a rule at my house that we could only eat a bowl of "sugar" cereal if we first ate a bowl of "non-sugar" cereal. Alternatively, we could mix a bowl of non-sugar and sugar cereals. Under no circumstances were we to eat only sugar cereal, or even eat the sugar cereal first. (Good intentions to then eat a non-sugar cereal were bound to go unfulfilled. Besides, who could possibly choke down something resembling cardboard after the extreme taste bud stimulation caused by something like Lucky Charms?) I always swore that my children would be free to eat as much sugar cereal as they want. At least they're eating, right? And even the sugariest of sugar cereals are required to have a bunch of vitamins added. And it's not like sugar cereals cost much more than non-sugar, especially if you wait for sales. So as long as they're full, what do I care?

A few weeks ago, I think I finally grew up. In my heart, I was still a kid. Now that I'm out of the house, (where, I might add, the kids can eat whatever they want. What's this world coming to?) I can eat the sweetest cold cereal I can get my hands on, and no one gives a care. And I was doing just that. It happened very suddenly, almost like my body was revolting. I ate my breakfast, began my day, and within an hour, my stomach was growling, saying things like "You forgot to feed me!" and other nonsense my brain knew to be false. But there it was. The stomach refused to listen to reason. The next day, I ate raisin bran, and "Voila!" problem solved. Since that time, whenever I have eaten just cold sugar cereal, I feel like I haven't eaten at all.

These are perilous times. I feel more satisfied having had a piece of Amish Friendship Bread with ice cream than a bowl of the stuff I once craved. My sugar cereal has been relegated to being eaten as an afternoon or evening snack, and must be followed by something more filling. It saddens me, but I see no recovery from this chilling condition.

Colorectal surgeon

In anatomy yesterday, we studied the second half of the digestive tract (from stomach to anus, plus accessory organs such as the liver). It was some rather interesting stuff. Then, to top it all off, we got to watch this video. Generally I'd prefer Weird Al, but these guys aren't too bad.