New Best Thing a Kid Said

This one actually made me do a listening-double take. A "What did you just say?"

"Mr. Rice, can I wash my hands? They're covered with boogers."

Yesterday was awful and today RULES. Any day with that quote is fine with me.

For those of you interested . . .

My latest comic reviews are up.

Rough day at school. Good comics made the pain go away. And a pretty decent West Wing. And damn good sushi.

It's the little things. Just two days till the weekend . . .

"What's that?" "It's a liger."

"What's a liger?"

"It's my favorite animal. It's a cross between a lion and a tiger. It's bred for it's abilities in magic."

Braffy hilarity

Did you know Zack Braff had a blog? Well he does. It's in my links section now. He's an extremely talented writer, director and actor. And his blog seems to be funny, too. Yay! NOW I FEEL LIKE WE ARE PALS!

Horrible Drunk Nerds

A comic about happy. Do check it out. It's both educational and entertaining.

Birthday Badassery

So Lisa had let me know that my birthday present this year was going to be a smoking jacket, all Hef style and such. But she kept talking about it a bit too much and I began to get suspicious. So when I get to her place Friday we see the box has arrived. It doesn't feel like a smoking jacket.

I open it up and it's . . .a helmet? I think, "Holy crap! She got me a tard helmet! That's hilarious!" But then she points out the earphones. It's this badass helmet designed for snowboarders who want to listen to their discmans or whatever while going down the mountain! It's freakin' incredible! Here are some of the reasons why:

1. I always break my headphones. Not now!

2. I always forget my hats in the winter. Not now!

3. In college, I used to bum around in an old WWII army helmet, and I kind of missed that.

I hope to get a picture of two of me with it on up soon. You will all be amazed.

Wait no more, here I am. I am so beautiful. You may kiss your computers, but not the real me.

HOORAY CONTEST!

OK, so I'm clearly not writing my comic reviews here anymore. They'll be posted on Comics Should Be Good. This blog is becoming more just a thing for personal stuff: classroom stories, photos, movie or music talk, etc.

So the "Joe Rice Media Review" name doesn't really work. I'm also incredibly stupid, so I can't think of a decent replacement. So how about this: the person that comes up with and posts the idea I like best for a new title for this blog will get a FREE GIFT! Yes, I will pick one (1) "cool thing" and I will give it to you.

That is exciting.

So enter.

Recent Kiddie Antics

I saw two of my really well-behaved girls passing a note back and forth so I read it.

"Dear Laura,

You are my best friend. You are so nice. If you tell anyone I WILL KILL YOU.

Isabelle"

I wondered if this was some sort of joke so I let the experiment go on. They kept passing notes to each other like "You're so sweet, thank you. Tell anyone and I WILL KILL YOU." When I read that one they both giggled.

My kids are weird.

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The other day, as we're getting started on our writing work, Justin raises his hand.

"Mr. Rice, I forgot to tell you something on the carpet." I figure he remembered something about our lesson on how characters interact with each other. He continues, "One time my dad got hit with a tranquilizer gun."

This is simultaneously hilarious, depressing, and fascinating.

Etch-a-genius

Here's something I've been meaning to post for a while. Did you know that my fiancee is an Etch-a-sketch genius? It is true. She never even had one when she was a kid, but a recent purchase has brought more and more complicated offerings. Here's the one for which I have the best photo:



I'll try to get more out of her in the future.

Birfday

So Tuesay's my birthday. I had a little party at my place this weekend and it was a hell-ton of fun. Lisa really out-did herself with the spread: a cheese plate, two varieties of stuffed tomatoes (one with herbed goat cheese and one with bacon, lettuce, and mayo), spicy-meat-a-balls, toasted nuts, garlic toast, whoopie pie (God's dessert), sangria, and chocolates from Leonidas, my favorite chocolatier. Delish.

The crowd was varied and fun. First arrived was Mr. John Bartol, straight in from JFK. John's the first guy I ever met in person from the internet, so it's appropriate. He's the big brother that never wanted me, or something like that. Soon after John arrived, the CBR contingent made it:



(left to right: Lena, Brian Cronin, his girlfriend Jean, and Michael.)

Much comics talk commenced as Lisa and Jinah acted interested. Next up was f-dot and his friend, whose name I think was Yukari. At this point, everyone at the party was someone I had met through the internet, or through someone I met through the internet. Good times, but spooky.

Around then, things started getting more mixed up. At about ten o'clock, the party exploded. It was jam packed and difficult to navigate. Anyone who is anyone was there, from Anxious Alex Cox



To three supermodel assassins from the Invisibles



To at least one guy I've never met before.



As the party went on, it became clearer and clearer, that no matter who my friends are, they are nerds. Everyone talked comics at least once, and knew their shit. My original art was gone through a few times, and I'd often come in and see a bunch of folks reading comics off my rack, girls, guys . . .everyone loves comics.



Though it would be later known as "the one I didn't need," it felt right to down a shot of bourbon with the former Writerboy, Mike.



All in all, I had a great time, and thanks to everyone who came. Special thanks to Brant Englestein, who went out and found my very favorite wine of all time. Yum. I leave you with dignity, as usual.

Wait, I have a blog?

Yes, yes, yes. It's been a long time since I've posted. I know that. I'm sorry. I've had things to talk about, but I've spent most of my time at my collaborative blog. BUT Mr. Ed Cunard recently showed me an easy way to put pictures on the blog, and I am a SUCKER for pictures.

I went with my fiancee and her sister to my hometown in Kentucky for Christmas. We all had a great time (due in no small part to the shortness of our stay). The food was probably the highlight, from my Gran's fried chicken, mashed potatoes (hell, anything she made) to the excellent diner fare here:



The Bluegrass is an old-school greasy spoon with unbeatable onion rings, hot dog sauce (chili to the rest of you), and it's famous "Flying Saucer" burger (two beef patties, special cole slaw, and a slew of other goodness). That last one is the one I'm recommending here:



If this doesn't seem amazingly fascinating, please understand that this is also a test run for the picture posting.

But you just can't miss with a New York girl amazed with how gluttonous Appalachian folks shopping at Super Walmart can be.