It's someone's last birthday today and this is me not making a big deal about it...I'll save that for next year!

Drew and Will visited the Easter Bunny at the mall on Saturday. Will was a little hesitant to sit in the Easter Bunny's lap which, when you think about it, is pretty smart...after all, why would a six-foot, 200+ pound rabbit necessarily be an herbivore?

Aunt Catherine came over during the week and helped color eggs with the boys.

Drew and Will were excited to put our carrots for the Easter Bunny.

The four of us after a successful Easter egg hunt at Ma and Pa's.

Forty-five years ago, in April of 1963 before I was even born, my sister Donelda and my parents celebrated Easter while they were living in Tripoli, Libya. Donelda is just a few days away from being 2 1/2 years old in these pictures.

As you may have noticed from this year's "early" Easter, the date of Easter is not fixed but, rather, is a variable date the calculation of which is not all that simple. It is commonly believed, and it is often but not always accurate, that Easter is celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. Close, but not exact.

The date of Easter is actually the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon which does not directly correspond to any astronomical event but, rather, is a historical artifact determined from tables and which may differ from the date of the actual full moon by up to two days. The result places Easter between March 22 and April 25, inclusive.

This year's early Easter, March 23, will not be matched again for over a hundred years, until 2160. But, the earliest possible Easter won't be seen until 2285. The second latest possible Easter, April 24, is just around the corner in 2011. We won't see one on April 25th until 2038. And, for what it's worth, the whole cycle of Easter dates repeats every 5,700,000 years.

Add to all this the fact that, unlike Christmas which everyone the world over celebrates on the same day, Western Christianity uses the Gregorian calendar for their calculations while Eastern Orthodox Churches use the Julian calendar resulting in dates for the celebration of Easter which are sometimes the same but often a week apart.

As for me, I say fix it as the second Sunday in April.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is: 42. It took the computer Deep Thought, specially built for the task of answering the question, 7½ million years to calculate. Unfortunately, by then, the Ultimate Question itself was forgotten.

The story continues with another more powerful computer, the Earth, being built which can figure out the Ultimate Question. However, the determination of the Ultimate Question gets interrupted when the Earth is destroyed to make way for an intergalactic freeway.

I read the book sometime in high school or maybe college and it is the only book I can ever remember reading which caused me to laugh out loud. But, don't even think about watching the movie, it's beyond horrible: jokes without punchlines, punchlines without jokes, jokes needlessly altered so that they are no longer jokes. A painful disappointment to fans, a ridiculously muddled confusion to newcomers.

[UPDATE I: Holy coincidences Batman! I just learned, after writing this post today, that Douglas Adams' birthday is/was also March 11.]

[UPDATE II: M&M, actually MM&G, sent me a hilarious Hallmark E-Card.]

After a fine dinner of beef tenderloin lovingly prepared by Mama, we all enjoyed some chocolate cake. Will is letting Mama know she is his number one valentine.

Aunt Donelda sent some fun-with-foam materials for the boys to make Valentine themed picture frames. They loved picking out, arranging and sticking the foam on the frames.

Drew and Will were very proud of their completed picture frames, although Drew insisted his wasn't done until there was a picture in it.

Merry Christmas from Don, Mary, Drew and Will Danz.

The tree this year just may be one of the best we've ever had; perfect size and shape with no gaps or other problems and the limbs are all strong for great ornament hanging. I'm pretty certain my family always had Scotch Pines every year growing up, but I think we're going to be a Fraser Fir family.

The tree is exactly ten feet tall. The star touches the ceiling and, in fact, that is my trick to keep the star from leaning. When Mary saw that she said, "So, that's why the tip of the star of bent." OK, so the "trick" is not without its flaws. The tree has 1100 lights, three triple strands of 100 on one extension cord and one double strand of 100 on another extension cord. We didn't count the ornaments, but we used up all of our hooks.

Drew and Will visited Santa Clause today at the mall. Drew very quietly asked Santa for a purple lightsaber, Star Wars Transformers - Darth Vader that turns into the Death Star and Darth Vader that turns into his ship, and Qui-Gon Jinn. Last year, Drew asked Santa for, "Darth Maul and Cars movie" and two years ago when Drew was just two years and a month old he asked Santa for "car zoom."

Will, this year, was excited to see Santa Clause while we were waiting in line. He kept point to him and grunting letting everyone know that he recognized Saint Nicholas. But, come time to actually sit in Santa's lap, Will was a little apprehensive. Will stuck out his bottom lip and wasn't all too happy about getting up close and personal with Father Christmas.

We picked out our Christmas tree last weekend, but didn't get a chance to mention it here due to the recent power outage.

Daddy, Drew and Will pause for moment while picking out this year's Christmas tree to have their picture taken by Momma. (Compare this year to two years ago.)

The picture is a little distorted, but the tree, a Fraser Fir (abies fraseri), turned out to be just the right size. The very tip is just six inches away from the ten-foot ceiling! The base of the tree's trunk was unusually large even considering the size of the tree and would not fit in the tree stand. Thankfully, Great-Grandpa Spiv's hatchet made short work of narrowing it down.

Also, you can't tell but, immediately before this picture was taken there were two handsome young boys nicely standing together in their "I'm the Big Brother" and "I'm the Little Brother" t-shirts...and then Will got the sillies and insisted on rolling around on the floor laughing.

(USS Shaw exploding during attack on Pearl Harbor.)

I wrote a pretty good post last year about Pearl Harbor Day. Good thing I checked, as I was about to write a similar piece again.

Let me just say, I can't tell you how thankful I am that we didn't have around back then the same liberal mainstream media, disgraceful Hollywood trash, appeasers, cowards, cut-and-run advocates, surrender monkeys and flat out traitors that we have to deal with now.

As the United States Supreme Court considers today various cases relating to the "War on Terror," consider how America dealt with German Nazi Saboteurs in 1942. On June 27, 1942, eight Germans were caught on American shores before they were able to commit any acts of sabotage as part of the Nazi Operation Pastorius.

Roosevelt realized that neither the death penalty nor secrecy could be guaranteed in a civilian trial, so he issued a proclamation that established a military tribunal...which was held in secret at the Justice Department.

World War II: German Saboteurs Invade America in 1942

Despite the would-be saboteurs pleading innocent, denouncing Hitler and insisting they had no intention of actually engaging in sabotage, they were all sentenced to death. Although, President Roosevelt commuted one sentence to life and another to 30 years for helping in the arrest and prosecution. On August 8, 1942, the remaining 6 of 8 German would-be saboteurs were electrocuted.

Think about that timeline...caught June 27...tried during July...executed August 8. Further, none of them ever harmed anyone or anything. That's the attitude and actions it took to win World War II.

Oh, and to bring today's little history lesson full circle with the matters being considered by the United States Supreme Court today, the lawyers for the Germans attempted to have the case tried in a civilian court, but were rebuffed by the Supreme Court in Ex Parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1 (1942), which held:

[T]he law of war draws a distinction between the armed forces and the peaceful populations of belligerent nations and also between those who are lawful and unlawful combatants. Lawful combatants are subject to capture and detention as prisoners of war by opposing military forces. Unlawful combatants are likewise subject to capture and detention, but in addition they are subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals for acts which render their belligerency unlawful. The spy who secretly and without uniform passes the military lines of a belligerent in time of war, seeking to gather military information and communicate it to the enemy, or an enemy combatant who without uniform comes secretly through the lines for the purpose of waging war by destruction of life or property, are familiar examples of belligerents who are generally deemed not to be entitled to the status of prisoners of war, but to be offenders against the law of war subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals.

Look for a 5 to 4 decision coming down from our current Supreme Court...the 4 justices being ones that would have lost us WWII and would have us lose whatever it is we're fighting now if they and their ilk had their way.

For Thanksgiving the four of us drove to Chicago to be with Ma Danz and Aunt Donelda…11 hours, 15 minutes, there and 13 hours back.

Donelda out did herself with a flawless Thanksgiving dinner.

Aunt Donelda and Drew enjoying their pumpkin pie. Drew's not a big pumpkin pie fan, but he didn't let it get in the way of him enjoying the whip cream. Will, however, being the chow-hound that he is, downed a ton a pumpkin pie!

Grandma Danz with her grandsons Drew and Will. A picture of the main course after the jump.

The picture doesn't begin to show how delicious everything was. I could literally have the same meal forever and never get tired of it. Besides a fifteen pound turkey, Donelda fixed (clockwise), stuffing, bread (the only thing not from scratch), candied yams, corn casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy and green beans. There was also cranberries but which, in keeping with tradition, I passed on.

This is the third year in a row that I've posted a Thanksgiving cartoon, perhaps it is the start of tradition.

2006 - The Truth About Turducken
2005 - Sesame Street Surprise

100 years ago today, Oklahoma became a state. Happy birthday Oklahoma!

I had plans to do a more extensive post...but no time. Here's to another 100 years...maybe Drew or Will will be around to see it.

To everyone who has served...an unqualified, whole hearted, completely inadequate, thank you.

Winnie the Pooh Will and Obi Wan Kenobi Drew visited our house this Halloween.

Later there was high drama when Darth Vader Daddy took Winnie the Pooh hostage but Obi Wan Kenobi saved the day when he vanquished the evil Lord Vader. More Darth Vader after the jump.

May the force be with you and Happy Halloween!