I tested mine with an Anderson Valley Brewing Company Boone Amber Ale.  As I said before, the glass is bigger than your typical beer, so that’s a slight minus for presentation. It comes in 2 different styles, sports bar and neighborhood pub. You can find it here.

RedEnvelope has a wide array of interesting gifts for beer, cigar and BBQ / grill and wine enthusiasts. They also have a few unique ways to organize your accessories. Here are a few things that intrigued me:

• Beer Can Chicken Roaster
• Transit Token Cuff Links
• Gorilla Torch Flashlight

If you see something you like on their site let your wife or kids know. Use this URL, http://bit.ly/rednoodad, and this 10% off code, 10offred. Happy Father’s Day.

In the meantime, if you see something you like on their site, perhaps you could strategically place this URL, http://bit.ly/rednoodad, and this 10% off code, 10offred, someplace your wife or kids can easily find it!

About RedEnvelope:

From tokens of gratitude to expressions of love, RedEnvelope offers a unique and wide-ranging collection of thoughtful gifts for every occasion and everyone on your list — around the clock, all year round. We only select quality products — many of which are exclusive to RedEnvelope — that are unusual, surprising and beautifully designed to ensure that our gifts create a special moment. Many of our gifts can be personalized with color options, engraving, different sizing, etc… and can be enhanced with our exceptional, signature Gift Box presentation. Our products have been featured on MSNBC, Oprah, Rachel Ray, The View, and more.

It’s bad enough that we have to see kids in just diapers at the pool or on the beach, now Huggies is encouraging the behavior. Seriously. Dads, have a little respect for your kids. Is it too much to put a swim suit or a pair of shorts on your kid? Your kids should have enough clothes on to keep them protected from the sun, but not so much that they get too hot. A little sun hat, a swim suit or SPF shirt and shorts and a kid-friendly sun screen are not too much to ask.

I don’t want your kid to grow up to be this guy:

Although, my hair is heading in that direction and Greg’s is not.

I learned about Love146 via Spike Jones of Brains on Fire. He and his partner Geno Church are stand-up guys who do great work. They are not into self promotion at all so when Spike asked me to consider a cause that he believed in, I figured it must be something worth paying attention to. This is a problem that has been bothering me for a long time but that I have had no idea how to do anything about solving.

How Love146 got its name:

“We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children…raped each night… seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us, with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl…

“…All of these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting to break through the glass. To take her away from that place. To scoop up as many of them as I could into my arms. To take all of them away. I wanted to break through the glass to tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her…”

“Because we went in as part of an ongoing, undercover investigation on this particular brothel, we were unable to immediately respond. Evidence had to be collected in order to bring about a raid, and eventually justice on those running the brothel. It is an immensely difficult problem when an immediate response cannot address an emergency. Some time later, there was a raid on this brothel and children were rescued. But the girl who wore #146 was no longer there. We do not know what happened to her, but we will never forget her. She changed the course of all of our lives.” -Rob Morris, President and Co-founder

I made my donation to the Asia Prevention Fund. I half seriously made a comment that I hope it pays for bullets that make an example of the people who are responsible for this terrible industry and to those who would support it.

The earth does not need them.

This morning on my commute I heard Mike and Mike in the morning from ESPN Radio talk about this story. You can go and read the full story about Grant Whybark and Seth Doran here but let me summarize:

2 college golfers were duking it out in a one hole playoff where the winner got a guaranteed spot in Nationals. Golfer 1 had already gotten into Nationals because his team qualified granting him a spot already. Golfer 2 needed to win the hole to get in.

So what do you think happened?

What happened is Golfer 1 shanked his drive 40 yards off the fairway. He double bogeyed the hole. Golfer 2 parred it and got in.

But the real story is Golfer 1, Grant Whybark lost on purpose. In an interview, he said:

“We all know Seth very well,” Whybark explains, “and he not only is a very good player, but a great person as well. He’s a senior and had never been to nationals. Somehow, it just wasn’t in my heart to try to knock him out.

“I think some people were surprised, but my team knew what I was doing and were supportive of me. I felt Seth deserved to go (to nationals) just as much as I did.

“It was one of those things where I couldn’t feel good taking something from him like this. My goal from the start was to get (to nationals) with my team. I had already done that.”

Dads, listen up. This is absolute B.S.

What Whybark did is not selfless, admirable, or even remotely close to sportsmanship. What he did is an insult to him, his team, his sport, and most importantly, his opponent, Golfer 2 named Seth Doran.

How do you think Doran feels this morning? If I was him I would feel horrible. “woo hoo I got into Nationals…..because someone let me win”

All along Grant Whybark is sitting back thinking he did something admirable. Who is he to “let someone win” or decide who “deserves to win”.

This is a teaching moment for your kids, guys. Don’t miss out on using it.

Let’s assume you have been given the A-OK to start your kids training. The first question you need to answer is: how long you need to take it easy on them?

Well dads, I have the answer for you.

How long do you need to keep the kid gloves on when playing your kids at videogames? (Answer after the jump)
Never. You brought kids into the world to compete not to fail. What good is playing a game at all if you can’t crush them? Jeez. I can’t believe you even had to ask the question.

This post was originally published May 10, 2007. With Mother’s Day approaching it’s good to reflect on how good moms have it.

The following rant is an irrational, straight-from-the-heart rambling by a sleep-deprived overworked and stressed-out father. You have been warned.

The big day for moms is coming up this sunday: Mother’s Day. It’s a time for celebrating the best thing to ever happen to you and your kids: the mom. And even though it is all nice and cheery, deep down inside, us dads who are really honest about are feelings, feel like we get the royal screwjob. There is no question that moms deserve everything they get, but dads wants some action too. Here’s why:

Reason Dads Get Screwed #1: The Timing
Mother’s have the nicest part of the year: just when people are exiting their hibernation caves and spending more time outside, Mother’s Day comes along. The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping and people are generally in an optimistic mood.

What do dads get? Do we get the optimism of spring? Hell no. We get the beginning of the oppressive summer. We get the middle of June, wedged between Grandparents day and the Fourth of July.

Reason Dads Get Screwed #2: The Kids in School
For gradeschool and pre-school kids, the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day are filled with stories about mom, activities revolving around mom, and project time to make mom a Mother’s Day gift. As a result, moms get some seriously sentimental swag.

What do dads get? Well if your kids happen to still be in school, they certainly aren’t thinking about Father’s Day. No, they are thinking about getting the heck out of school and hitting the Slip N Slide (because the heat is so damn oppressive). They aren’t learning about why their dads are so special. They are watching movies during end-of-the-year filler days before the final dismissal.

Reason Dads Get Screwed #3: The Gifts
Life isn’t always about gifts but sometimes, the real honest dudes admit that they do like to get stuff. The differences between men and women (Mars and Venus) screws us in the department of gift giving. Here’s why it burns us

• Men are stupid. And we typically can’t get sentimental so we make up for it by buying expensive stuff. Or we buy expensive stuff for our wives and let the kids give it to them. It makes us feel better because we just can’t bear to write poetry just to get laid anymore.
• Women on the other hand, take a lot of time thinking about special gifts for their husbands. Like slippers and pajama pants. Then they have the kids hand make cards.
• But the real issue is us dads keep score. And the 2 bills we dropped on a Coach bag for mom a mere month earlier translates in our minds to anticipating 2 tickets to REO Speedwagon, 24 on DVD, or at the bare minimum the home brew beer kit we have been wanting.

Reason Dads Get Screwed #4: We Typically Don’t
Let’s face it, all men typically want is to get a little action. And most times, women don’t equate “putting out” with special events. It is a longer marinading process (Sometimes overnight). Don’t get us wrong, (if I were to take this metaphor further), the extra flavor is worth the longer marinade time, but we just wish the preparation started a day earlier so we could get some good old fashioned lovin’ on father’s day.

There you have it, noodads, the reasons why dads get screwed on Father’s Day.

One of these important decisions comes around the 16th week of pregnancy. It is the decision on whether or not to take the AFP test. AFP stands for Alphafetoprotein, a protein made by your unborn kid and secreted through their liver and then dumped into your wife's blood. The test is a simple blood test that checks for abnormally high or low levels of that protein.

The reason the test is controversial is not because of the blood giving part (your pregnant wife will be giving blood for one reason or another quite frequently). The basis of controversy is about the reliability of the results and what the results may tell you. The results of the test can give you and your doctor advanced notice on potential neural tube defects in your kid. These defects could include major defects like anencephaly and spina bifida —both conditions that frequently result in stillborn births or death shortly after birth. A low AFP level can also give you indication your kid may be born with Down Syndrome.

{mosnooad}There are many reasons why you and your wife may choose to have this test performed. Some people feel that advanced notice gives them the option to terminate the pregnancy and try again for a healthier one. Others believe that a positive test result gives them enough time to prepare for the special needs their kid may be born with.

But for every reason that may point you to getting the test, there may be one that steers you against it. Experts disagree on the reliability of a positive result with these tests. Some say the "False positive" rate is only 5% yet others say it can be as high as 80%! Personally, how "experts" can differ that greatly really pisses me off. You would think that with all the technology these days, people would know more. But they don't so you are out of luck.

Another reason people argue against taking the test is the fact that a typical follow-up test to a positive AFP test is amniocentesis which can carry up to a 2% rate of fetal loss. Some opponents to the test argue that they would not do the amniocentesis test anyways, so why worry with the first test.

Here's what you need to know noodads:

This test is optional. But talking about it, is not. When your pregnant wife wants to talk about it with you, you better give it a thought. Because no reaction to this issue makes it seem like you don't give a damn. Believe me, you do. There is no wrong answer to this answer. It is only what you and your wife want to do.