The Listening Project–Week 5

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  I averaged a little more than 4 CDs per day so I am back on track for my 20 per week schedule.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
79	LeAnn Rhimes	Blue	8/22/2011	Yes
80	The Waiting	Blue Belly Sky	8/22/2011	Yes
81	Harry Connick Jr	Blue Light, Red Light	8/22/2011	Yes
82	Rick Altizer	Blue Plate Special	8/22/2011	Yes
83	Rick Altizer	Blue Plate Special (European Version)	8/22/2011	Yes
84	Anberlin	Blueprints For The Black Market	8/23/2011	Yes
85	Mad at the World	Boomerang	8/23/2011	Yes
86	Phil Collins	Both Sides	8/23/2011	Yes
87	Sting	Brand New Day	8/24/2011	Yes
88	Melissa Etheridge	Brave And Crazy	8/24/2011	Yes
89	Melissa Etheridge	Breakdown	8/24/2011	Yes
90	Brian Barrett	Brian Barrett	8/24/2011	No
91	Phil Joel	Bring It On	8/24/2011	Yes
92	The Wallflowers	Bringing Down The Horse	8/25/2011	Yes
93	Britney Spears	Britney	8/25/2011	Yes
94	Broomtree	Broomtree	8/25/2011	No
95	Hokus Pick	Brothers From Different Mothers	8/25/2011	Yes
96	Various Artists	Brow Beat - Unplugged Alternative	8/25/2011	Yes
97	Payable On Death	Brown	8/26/2011	Yes
98	U2	The B-Sides 1980-1990	8/26/2011	Yes
99	U2	The B-Sides 1990-2000	8/26/2011	Yes
100	Bob Carlisle	Butterfly Kisses	8/26/2011	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• LeAnn Rhimes “Blue”: I bought this for the daughter but I kind of like it.  Not a bad way to start the week.
• The Waiting “Blue Belly Sky”: I really, really like this band.  I remember reading a review of this CD in the “indie” section of a magazine.  They sounded like something I would like so a sent a check in the mail and have loved this CD since the day I got it.  Sadly, this group is no more but I have all their CDs so you will be hearing more about this band as this project continues.  There is an excellent song called “Staring At A Bird” that really hits home almost every time I hear it.
• Rick Altizer “Blue Plate Special” / “Blue Plate Special (European Version)”: It had to happen eventually (having 2 CDs back to back by the same artist) but this one I brought upon myself for having 2 versions of the same CD.  I got the original one as a used demo at a local store and then bought 5 of his other CDs online.  I seem to recall that there was a deal if you bought 5 CDs instead of 4 so the European Version was essentially free.  It does contain a few different songs (though for the life of me I do not know why it would appeal to those fans over the pond).
• Mad At The World “Boomerang”:  Here is a band I would not have liked had I started with their later albums.  They started out a techno group and morphed into a rock / grudge / I don’t know what band.  They did it slowly and took me along for the ride.  Not my favorite of their albums.
• Melissa Etheridge “Brave and Crazy” / “Breakdown”:  And just like that I have another couplet of CDs by the same artist.  I like Melissa’s voice but 2 straight hours of her gets a little depressing.
• Phil Joel “Bring It On”: Phil is a former member of the band “Newsboys” (maybe he is still with them).  I am always leery when someone who is not the lead singer of a band releases a CD where they are the singer.  Seldom do the pull it off and I was close to giving this one a No in the last column.  It is just catchy enough to listen to again.
• The Wallflowers “Bringing Down the Horse”: If I had a top 10 (or maybe top 20) favorite album list then this one would likely be on it.  What is not to like?  Awesome!
• Britney Spears “Britney”:  I gave this a Yes but really the swing from The Wallflowers to Britney Spears almost made me dizzy.
• Payable On Death “Brown”:  Here is a band that I would have not followed had I listened to their early stuff first (similar to Blindside).  Fortunately I started with “Satellite” first (their smash CD) and worked backwards.  This one is a little rough for me but has enough redeeming qualities.
• U2 “The B-Sides 1980-1990” / “The B-Sides 1990-2000”: And just like that I have my third back to back CD by the same artist for the week.  I used to buy all of U2’s singles on 45s and so I knew almost all the songs on the 1980-1990 CD but is it nice to have them in CD format finally.

Well, I am back on pace now.  I did buy another used CD today but it starts with an S so it will not get onto this project for a while yet.  This project seems to be the only thing keeping me blogging for some reason.

Jon

The Listening Project–Week 4

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few CDs in my listening project.  I was travelling on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (Wednesday’s travel notes are worthy of a separate blog) so I only was able to listen to 14 CDs the week which puts me behind my 20 per week schedule.

You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
65	Twila Paris	Beyond A Dream	8/15/2011	No
66	Steve Bell	Beyond A Shadow	8/15/2011	Yes
67	Petra	Beyond Belief	8/15/2011	Yes
68	Jeremy Camp	Beyond Measure	8/15/2011	*Yes
69	Phil Keaggy	Beyond Nature	8/18/2011	Yes
70	Riki Michele	Big Big Town	8/18/2011	Yes
71	Bebo Norman	Big Blue Sky	8/18/2011	No
72	Michael W. Smith	The Big Picture	8/18/2011	Yes
73	The Elms	Big Surprise	8/18/2011	Yes
74	Big Tent Revival	Big Tent Revival	8/18/2011	Yes
75	Mylon LeFevre & Broken Heart	Big World	8/19/2011	Yes
76	Bleach	Bleach	8/19/2011	Yes
77	Blindside	Blindside	8/19/2011	Yes
78	Audio Adrenaline	Bloom	8/19/2011	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Twila Paris “Beyond A Dream”: I am not sure why I buy Twila Paris CDs.  I have 3 or 4 I think.  Maybe I just think that I want to be a fan.  This one garners a NO in the last column.  Not a great way to start the week.
• Steve Bell “Beyond A Shadow”: Awesome acoustic guitar driven praise album.  It that is your style I recommend that you buy some Steve Bell CDs.
• Jeremy Camp “Beyond Measure”: My mp3 rip of this CD was all messed up after song 6 or so so the YES has an * by it.  I am not sure what went wrong but the CD might have been scratched up when I ripped it.
• Riki Michell “Big Big Town”: Riki Michelle is (was) the wife of Gene Eugene (the lead singer for Adam Again).  She sings (sang) backup on the Adam Again albums that I have (mostly NOT on CD).  Anyway, I knew that Gene Eugene would be involved with the producing of the CD and Adam Again is one of my favorite bands of all time.
• Michael W. Smith “The Big Picture”: The first MWS album that I really liked.
• The Elms “Big Surprise”: A great $1 find and a CD that has no misses.  We used the first song to play over the opening credits of the short movie the kids and I made last summer.
• Blindside “Blindside”: I paid $10 total for the re-issue of Blindside’s first 2 CDs (bought directly from the band’s website.  Their later stuff calmed down a bit from the sound of this album but there are enough highlights to get this into the YES category.

My anal retentive side crept up on me this week as I considered keeping track of the most popular first word in the album titles of my CD collection.  I started out on Monday with 5 straight CDs whose title started with “Beyond” but followed up with 6 more that started with “Big” and that got me thinking about keeping track of this.  This is not a record as the “All” CDs totaled 7.  I might revisit later if I feel like writing an Excel formula to track this (omitting the “The” and “A” starting words).  I also am considering keeping track of all words in the album titles.  We will see.  Hopefully I can get back on track and get ahead of schedule in time for the 3 days I am taking off in September for a getaway with the wife.

Jon

The Listening Project–Week 3

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few CDs in my listening project.  Tuesday of last week was a travel day as the family headed to Texas.  They vacationed the rest of the week while I headed into the Plano office (external hard drive containing my music in tow).  Because of Tuesday I only listened to 16 CDs this week.  I am still slightly ahead of my 20 per week pace though.

You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
49	Strawmen	At Home	8/8/2011	Yes
50	Various Artists	Awesome God: A Tribute to Rich Mullins	8/8/2011	Yes
51	Clannad	Banba	8/8/2011	Yes
52	4 Him	The Basics of Life	8/8/2011	No
53	Meat Loaf	Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell	8/8/2011	Yes
54	Keith Urban	Be Here	8/8/2011	Yes
55	Al Denson	Be the One	8/10/2011	No
56	Petra	Beat The System	8/10/2011	Yes
57	Switchfoot	The Beautiful Letdown	8/10/2011	Yes
58	Superchick	Beauty From Pain 1.1	8/10/2011	Yes
59	Chris Rodriguez	Beggar's Paradise	8/11/2011	Yes
60	Clash of Symbols	Begging at the Temple Gate Called Beautiful	8/11/2011	Yes
61	U2	The Best Of 1980-1990	8/11/2011	Yes
62	U2	The Best Of 1990-2000	8/12/2011	Yes
63	Lost Dogs	The Best Of Lost Dogs	8/12/2011	Yes
64	Resurrection Band	Between Heaven 'N Hell	8/12/2011	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Strawmen “ At Home”: This band is related to one of my favorite groups, The 77s (though I forget exactly how).  Several of the songs on this CD are either covered on CDs by the 77s and Michael Roe (The 77s lead singer).  Of course it could be the other way around (these guys are covering 77s tunes).  Either way, a good CD and a great way to start the week.
• Various Artists “Awesome God: A Tribute to Rich Mullins”: I own a few tribute albums (Steve Taylor, Stryper, U2, Larry Normal, Mark Heard, etc.).  Sometimes it is nice to hear alternate versions of old favorites.
• 4Him “The Basics of LIfe” / Al Denson “Be the One”: I fear both of these artists will get all No’s in the right column as this project moves forward.
• Petra “Beat the System”: I could do without the song “Computer Brains” and the re-remake of “God Gave Rock-n-Roll To You” but this is sill a good Petra album.
• Switchfoot “The Beautiful Letdown”: It is good to revisit this one as I had not heard it in a while.  I listened to it constantly when I first bought it.  I think I even paid close to retail for it (shocking, I know).  This is still my favorite album by this band.
• Chris Rodriguez “Beggar’s Paradise”: I heard this artist on a CD that I will get to in the S’s and had high hopes when I found this CD in the bargain bin.  It is still good but not as good as I had hoped.
• Clash of Symbols “Begging at the Temple Gate Called Beautiful”: This is Mike Stand’s band after the Altar Boys broke up and he did a few solo albums.  Still good but not as good as the 80s Altar Boys albums (most of which I only have on LP).
• U2 “The Best Of 1980-1990” / “The Best Of 1990-2000”: I have all these songs on the normal release CDs but I bought these for the disc 2 that was included (both of which are coming up in next week’s listening list).  I am not a fan of “Best Of” albums in general mostly as I am used to songs appearing in a certain order and not having “Bullet the Blue Sky” follow  “With or Without You” always sounds wrong.
• Resurrection Band “Between Heaven 'N Hell”: As I recall I got this at a used record store in Utah when I was there for a bowling tournament.  I almost always prefer the songs where Glenn Kaiser is the lead singer to the times his wife (Wendy) sings.  Sadly I think I only own 2 of there (over 20) releases.

Until next week.

Jon

Silence Is Silver

As I begin to write this blog we have about 2 hours to go in our Silent Saturday experiment.  We arrived home after midnight last night so the entire family is a little tired this morning and no one (even the dogs) were up before 7.  The wife got up shortly after that and the kids around 8 so we are all half way through this experiment in quietness.

My initial thoughts are thus…

• I am enjoying the relative quietness.  I mean the dogs still make noise (the licking of various dog body parts seems somewhat louder compared to other days).  So far, only the daughter has slipped up stating a six word sentence that really did not communicate anything meaningful (“I have my own makeup bag.”).
• During this, listening to music is better than watching a TV show.  The wife and I sometimes either listen to a podcast (NPR’s Planet Money) or watch yesterday’s Colbert Report but we often discuss the shows (pausing them while doing so).  This is not possible today so that took away from the enjoyment.  Listening to music is better (preferably a CD that you do not know all the words to so that you are not tempted to sing along out loud).
• We need some way to communicate.  I did not think this through.  I suppose if it were an emergency then this experiment would end right then and there but what about a minor emergency (like say the puppy wants outside [something that cannot wait even 15 seconds for us to act it out {please, don’t think too long about us acting out the fact that the puppy needs to go outside to use the bathroom}]).  The wife and kids know the letters of the alphabet for sign language but I do not.  We are left with pen and paper (or keyboard and notepad.exe).  I thought by now the wife would have tried to IM me via Facebook.

I will let you know how the experiment ends later.

Jon

The Listening Project–Week 2

I have stuck with my plan of listening to all of my CDs for one more week and made the amount of progress that is needed so that I can complete this in a one year time span (about 20 CDs per week).  I am still in the A’s (that is to say all Albums listened to this week begin with the letter A).  Windows media player evidently ignores the word “The” when alphabetizing.  I did hit my first duplicate with two CDs titled “All Things New”.  I wonder how often this will happen?

You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
25	U2	All That You Can't Leave Behind	8/1/11	Yes
26	Watermark	All Things New	8/1/11	No
27	Steven Curtis Chapman	All Things New	8/1/11	Yes
28	Rick Altizer	All Tie Zur	8/1/11	Yes
29	Various Artists	Alpenländer Wunschkonzert	8/1/11	No
30	Casting Crowns	The Altar and the Door	8/2/11	Yes
31	Sinead O'Connor	Am I Not Your Girl?	8/2/11	Yes
32	Licoln Brewster	Amazed	8/2/11	Yes
33	Parachute Band	Amazing	8/2/11	Yes
34	Five For Fighting	America Town	8/2/11	Yes
35	David Ball	Amigo	8/2/11	Yes
36	Clannad	Anam	8/3/11	Yes
37	Relient K	The Anatomy Of The Tongue In Cheek	8/3/11	Yes
38	Eleventyseven	And The Land Of Fake Believe	8/3/11	Yes
39	Bryan Duncan	Anonymous Confessions of a Lunatic Friend	8/3/11	Yes
40	The Real McCoy	Another Night	8/3/11	Yes
41	Tree 63	The Answer To The Question	8/4/11	Yes
42	12 Stones	Anthem for the Underdog	8/4/11	Yes
43	Burlap to Cashmere	Anybody Out There?	8/4/11	Yes
44	John Reuben	Are We There Yet?	8/5/11	Yes
45	Various Artists	Arista's Perfect 10	8/5/11	Yes
46	Chris Tomlin	Arriving	8/5/11	Yes
47	Thousand Foot Krutch	The Art Of Breaking	8/5/11	Yes
48	Smash Mouth	Astro Lounge	8/5/11	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• U2 “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”: Any week that starts off with U2 can’t be all bad.  I am trying to find U2’s first 3 or 4 albums in their remastered, deluxe, two disc editions to add to my collection but they are quite pricey.
• Watermark “All Things New”: I initially heard this group on a live CD (that will come up when I get to the N’s) and very much liked the few songs by them.  This CD though did not quite live up to my initial listening experience of them so it gets a rare NO in the last column.
• Rick Altizer “All Tie Zur”: Other than his first CD (that will come up when I get to the B’s), all my other Rick Altizer CDs were purchased directly from Rick via PayPal and his website.  I think I paid $5 each for the 5 CDs I bought.
• Various Artists “Alpenländer Wunschkonzert”: 75 minutes of polka and yodeling!  Nuff said!  This CD was one of 6 that the wife bought (randomly) from the pawn shop for $0.50 when the daughter needed CDs for a project at school.  I am not sure why I kept this CD.  This is the last time I will listen to it (probably).
• Eleventyseven “And The Land of Fake Believe”: If you don’t know this group than I am not surprised.  They are kind of a mix between punk and electronic dance.  I picked this CD and another one by them up at the pawn shop for $1 total.  The son likes them.
• Bryan Duncan “Anonymous Confessions of a Lunatic Friend”: Bryan is the former lead singer of Sweet Comfort Band and I have most of his solo stuff (some only on LP).  I sang a song of this CD for a special in church once (Blessed Are The Tears).  A little out of my range but I think I pulled it off.
• The Real McCoy “Another Night”: I might have liked this one more if the final track wasn’t a boring and long remix of the title track.
• Tree 63 “The Answer To The Question”: 41 CDs into my list and this is already my 3rd Tree 63 CD.  I am not saying that is a bad thing.  I performed their version of “Blessed Be The Name” in church twice.
• Burlap To Cashmere “Anybody Out There?’  These guys released this CD in 1998 and then disappeared.  I saw that they have a new CD out (it was on sale at Target) so I may need to pick it up.  Awesome CD and one that the whole family almost has memorized.
• Various Artists “Arista’s Perfect 10”: Air Supply, Alan Parson’s Project, Thompson Twins, etc, and all for fifty cents.  It was hard to resist.
• Thousand Foot Krutch “The Art Of Breaking”: TFK!  One of my favorite groups.  I think I paid (close to) full price for this one and an actual music store.

Until next week.

Jon

Some Change

I got a letter from my bank the other day.  Most of the mail I get is saved for the burn pile.  Pointless, unsolicited junk really.  I remember seeing a story on the news a long time ago (like maybe 30 years) where a guy signed up for all the junk mail he could and then he used it to heat his home.  A little extreme but now that I am a home owner (well mortgage owner) I have more sympathy for the guy.  I am not quite that extreme though I have seriously thought about putting a trash can out by the mail box so as to save myself the hassle of carrying it back to the house only to throw it away, bundle it up in a trash bag and then haul it all back to the end of my driveway (only a few feet from the mailbox).  I would put a label on this mailbox trash can indicating it was for junk mail.  I am sure I would be the subject of the day in the break room where the USPS delivery folks congregate.

Anyway, as I was saying, I got a letter from the bank.  This was not the once a month statement but rather an indication that there were going to be a change in the bank’s (as in more) fees.  Gone was free checking unless you kept a minimum balance.  There was a myriad of other changes that will have no effect on me except for one thing, they are going to start charging for counting coins.  I don’t have the letter any longer but I seem to recall it saying that the charge would be $5 or 5% (whichever was greater).  You could bring in 501 pennies and they would just give you $0.01 back.  I guess I understand that they need to make money and counting coins is probably labor intensive but this still upsets me.

I have spoken in the past about my support for abolishing the penny but I still collect them and my other spare change and turn then into the bank (way back when they didn’t charge me to count them).  I would usually wait until I got close to $100 and then turn it in and put it on the principle of our mortgage.  This brought me a sense of satisfaction as I chip away at the monster pile of debt that I owe to them.  But, unless I want to pay a 5% premium, I will need to stop doing this.  Since my mortgage rate is < 5%, it is a net loss overall.  I had to find some other way of getting rid of this change.

The wife suggested taking it into the pet store where she used to work as they are always willing to trade change for bills.  This sounds like a lot of work really and I think I would quickly lose track of what money used to be change and what is really money for spending.  The plan I thought of was to use it to pay for small purchases at the grocery store (say when we make an ice cream run [which we have done a lot this summer]).  The self check out line takes coins and other than causing a delay in the line if there are others waiting to self check out, this might work out.  I tried this on Sunday.

In the non summer months, there is a guy in our Sunday school class that usually brings donuts (or donut holes) for the class.  For reasons I won’t go into, he is on the road for most of the summer and our class has to survive only on coffee.  There is a grocery store kind of on the way to church so we have been making it a practice (if we are not running behind) to stop in and grab something off of the “quick sale” bakery rack (usually 1/2 price or less).  It is not great but it is better than nothing.  We were running ahead of schedule this past Sunday and so I grabbed my bucket of change and we were off.

When I got into the grocery store and headed back to where the quick sale rack usually is, I was disappointed to find that it was not there.  Either everything was purchased or there was nothing that was nearing the expiration date.  I did find something on sale so I grabbed it and headed to the self check out lanes.  I started to put nickels, dimes and quarters in but they all kept spitting back out at me in the coin return.  In the end (despite the self check out supervisor offering to take my change) I decided to use the debit card.  So, not only did I spend more than I intended, my change was all still with me.

Tonight the wife decided that an ice cream run was needed so I took the bucket of change (slightly heavier now) and the son and I headed out (being the hunter / gatherers that we are).  Unlike Sunday, I successfully rid myself of over $5 worth of change.  I took longer paying for the groceries than it did shopping for and scanning them combined (and maybe driving there [I had a lot of pennies]).  I am going to put the receipt in the bucket and when I get $100 worth of receipts I will just take $100 out of checking and put it on the principle of the mortgage.  The net result will be the same other than taking a little more time to feed the coins into the coin slot at the self check out lane register.

Jon

Silent Saturday

I have wanted to take a day and just not talk for quite some time now.  I have brought it up from time to time over the past year or so when talking to the wife and she has not warmed up to the idea (this is a kind understatement [insert “woman” and “talking” joke here]).  I have offered a few compromises to get her to come along with me on this experiment (ex: only I take the vow of silence).  In the end she only agreed to a partial day so this Saturday we are gong to give it a try.

The agreement is to stay silent (no verbal communication) until noon on Saturday.  This will work out to 5 or 6 hours depending on when McKinney decides it is time to get up.  The wife is actually leaving around 10:30 to head into her (extreme) part time job (8 hours per month) so if she is lucky she might only need to stay silent for 4 hours or so.  The kids will need to last until noon at home with dear old Dad.

The son (who gives the wife a run for her money in the talking department on any day of the week) is up for it but knows that he will not be able to make it.  He cannot even survive 5 minutes in the car without talking.  That number might realistically be closer to 2 minutes.  We were about a mile from home once and I bet him he could not stay silent.  10 seconds later he commented on the shape of a cloud.  I re-upped the bet for the final 30 seconds and he still forgot and spoke before we hit the driveway (he wanted me to bet him that he could not stay quiet for the length of the driveway after that).  For this Saturday I am giving him the incentive of paying a penalty of a nickel per word should he slip up.

The daughter has not weighed in yet but I imagine she will do better than the son.  She can disappear from us and retreat to her room for hours on end so she might fare better than the wife or the son.  We will have to wait and see.

I am very excited about this and if it works out I might make it a regular thing (maybe every first Saturday of the month) or expand it to a larger portion of the day.  I like silence.  Early in our marriage the wife came home to me sitting in the dark on the couch with the radio and TV turned off.  She thought there was something wrong with me (or that I was upset) but I assured her that I was just enjoying the quiet.  Soon afterward we got a dog and then had kids and (come to think of it) I have not had any silence since.  Saturday cannot get here soon enough.  I will have to let you know how it works out.

Jon

Technically It’s a Sport

The wife played softball growing up.  The wife played a lot of softball growing up.  For the first few years of our marriage it seemed we could not go anywhere without running into someone that a) she played softball with b) she played softball with their daughter or c) was a softball coach that she played for.  Before the car crash 3 years ago, she entertained thoughts of joining a church softball league.  From what I can tell she was a catcher.  It is not that she has not told me this 1,000 times, it is just that I have grown bored with the constant onslaught of stories (and retelling of stories when we ran into folks from her softball past (which, based on my math, is approximately 85% of the current population of Kokomo).

She often tells of her desire that her daughter would follow in her footsteps.  Her daughter, however, has an aversion to sweating (or running).  I am pretty sure I blogged a while back about her 2 games of soccer before she gave that up (too much running and sweating),  The wife has about given up on her I think as much as it kills her to do so.  The son it just not built for sports.  He is very thin and tends to have the kind of relationship to a ball of any sport that 2 magnets of like charges have to each other (I know I have blogged about his “keep a radius of 15’ from the ball” technique in soccer).  I can see the disappointment in the wife’s eyes when she realizes again and again that no child of hers will follow in her footsteps.

Since the kids have my genes as well as hers there may be hope for them in the sport of bowling.  The son has the build for it and bowling would be the kind of sport that the daughter might like in that you only walk a maximum of 17’ at a time and throw a ball (that is automatically returned to you) to (hopefully) knock down some pins (that are set back up for you).  I mentioned this to the wife the other day in an exchange that went something like this…

Wife (looking sad and dejected): Sigh
Me: You know, the kids could bowl.  That’s a sport.
Wife (long, uncomfortable pause)
Me: It IS a sport, you know.
Wife (quickly and defensively): I did not say it was not a sport.
Me: Yes, actually, you did with the long pause.  You sat there, pondered if you either wanted to hurt my feelings by telling me what you really thought of the sport or if you should stay silent or if you should agree to let the kids trying it know that they would a) probably like it b) probably be good at it and c) tell you that bowling was their sport and not soft/baseball.
Wife: Technically, I suppose, it is a sport.  How do you do that?  How to you read my mind!?!
Me: It is not that hard really.
Wife (looking sad and dejected): Sigh

Now I am not going to take the time here to defend the sport of bowling.  I defended it from my late teen years to my late 20s.  Bowling has a negative connotation with it in general but I had not expected the same comments from my wife that I heard for a good ten years.

I have never taken the kids bowling.  Most my bowling buddies cannot believe this.  It might be time to change that though, if for no other reason to get my kids in a (technically real) sport.

Jon