Thursday, May 31, 2007

Our kids are doomed!

I sent the Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test to Robert. We both took it independent of each other . . . and we BOTH got Pure Nerd!

Jocelyn's Stats:
Your Score: Pure Nerd
78 % Nerd, 47% Geek, 34% Dork


The "meaning" of the terms (according to the highly-scientific test) is as follows:
  • A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
  • A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
  • A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
Read Robert's blog (below) to see what it means to be a Pure Nerd.

Now I want to know . . . What are YOU? Nerd, geek, dork, or (*gasp*) normal? (-Jocelyn)

Robert's a Nerd!


Your Score: Pure Nerd


78 % Nerd, 34% Geek, 43% Dork



For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.

Congratulations!

THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Monday, May 28, 2007

Memorial Day


It's now been officially a week since Jocelyn and I had to say goodbye to each other. She's been spending time with her family in CA, and I've been spending time with my brothers in the game parlor, trying to fill the void of her presence with games and laughing. It hasn't worked too well. It's been super hard being apart from her, going to sleep at night in an empty, quiet house. I'm picking her up tomorrow at about 2:00 p.m. from the SLC airport, though, so tonight's the last night I'll have to go through that.

I went to work for a few hours today, and I was driving up the road that leads toward the Provo temple, I saw no less than a hundred flags lining the street. Some houses had as many as four flags posted into their lawn. It's a good time to reflect on all the soldiers who have fought bravely in wars since the beginning of American history--both those who have died and those who haven't. I'm glad they're willing to go out there and do a job that very few people want to do.

Happy Memorial Day!

(-Robert)

Friday, May 25, 2007

Can't Sleep






Hey All,

It is 2:45 a.m. CA time and as the title suggests, I can't sleep! Isn't it SO annoying when that happens? I'm hoping blogging will bite me with the tired bug. We'll see.
-
I'm in CA this week visiting my parents and siblings here. It's been a fun trip so far, but it's been a really hard trip, too, because Robert couldn't come. The most we've spent apart before this trip is a day. So far this trip, we've been apart four days and this will be the fourth night. I think maybe I'm missing Robert so much that all desire for sleep is gone. Hopefully, though I miss him, I will be able to sleep soon or I will be a basketcase tomorrow. (Just ask Peter.)

Above are a few pictures of our (Peter's and mine) trip to CA so far. Enjoy! And here's hoping all of you are snug in your beds . . . having visions of sugarplums, etc., etc. (-Jocelyn)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Presidential Contenders

After I broke new ground with my blogs on sports and the Jazz, I started thinking about politics. While I would never use this blog as a pedestal for eschewing political messages, I want to take a look at who stands a chance in the '08 election. I'll just start with the top three Republicans today, and maybe I'll look at the democrats next week. Keep in mind, I do this with very little knowledge and probably a lot of bias.

McCain



McCain stands absolutely no chance of winning the election. I say this now because it seems like he's finally starting to recognize that he's really not the front runner he used to think he was (hence why he's taken to criticizing Mitt Romney recently in an effort to put himself on a pedestal). The problem with McCain is that he became the likely Republican nomination too early, way back when Bush was still popular and relatively early on his term.

McCain painted himself as the same ol' same ol' plain vanilla Republican way back then, and has more or less stuck to that image (since his appearance on David Letterman, he has tried to convince the country he's a funny guy, but the only impression I've gotten is that he's tired and thinks he can slide into the nomination without enormous effort). But within the past year, sentiment in the country has changed; despite the boasting by major Republican candidates that they're all the next Reagan, the country wants someone a little more fresh.

Giuliani


A lot of Republicans don't like Giuliani because of his stance on things like abortion, but that just means that more Democrats would be willing to vote him into office. Giuliani stands a good chance of getting the nomination, I think; we'll see if he can get the general vote though.

Romney


He's my personal favorite. Even though he's starting to be known as the wishy washy candidate, he is the most solid and confident of any contender I've seen. Sometimes just looking and acting like a president (at least according to the country's expectations) is half the battle. I can envision Mitt Romney making awesome speeches and inspiring tons of confidence. The only thing I can see McCain doing is signing laws and vetoes and golfing on the weekends.
.
(-Robert)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Monkeys, Spiders, and Warriors

On Their Way

Jocelyn has been a little concerned that I've been submitting too many blogs about the Jazz, so I decided to submit one about the Warriors.

Last night, the Warriors lost the second round of the playoffs 87-100. It's funny, because after Game 2 of this series, I was perusing some sports forums and found that most Utah fans thought the series would go six or seven games, and virtually all Warriors fans thought the Warriors would still take it in six. One Warriors fan prophesied, "Jazz will NOT win at Golden State. The Oracle Arena is impossible to win at."

I, on the other hand, figured that once the Jazz had won their first two games, they would be playing more confidently in Oakland. I predicted, along with a very small minority, that Jazz would win one in Oakland and close it out in Game 5.


Say goodbye to the Warriors.
.
Celebrations
.
There have been a lot of even more exciting things going on lately. On Saturday, Jocelyn, Peter, and I went to the Hogle Zoo as part of our anniversary celebration. We found out too late we could have gotten in for free if we'd stopped by Macy's first and picked up a "Mom and Me at the Zoo" t-shirt (a Mother's Day promotional event).
We spent time looking at penguins and monkeys (including the Gibbons), and Peter thoroughly enjoyed it for the most part. We made it back to Orem in time for Jocelyn to watch my play.


On Monday, we did a little more celebrating by going to Spiderman 3, which I thought was pretty good. I also gave my wife a cd stereo for one of her gifts, and she gave me the surprisingly generous gift of first dibs on Harry Potter 7 when we it comes out in July, as well as a gift certificate to Games People Play and a DVD collection of classic musicals.


Thanks, Jocelyn!


Oh, and take a look at her new haircut. Isn't she pretty?

(-Robert)

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Jazz 1-0

I went to my brother's house (Josh G.) last night to watch the game on Tivo. My wife, who was sick, generously allowed me to go on the condition that I bring back a borrowed laptop with Microsoft Word (which we no longer have) so that my wife can freelance edit for a friend of her parents.

I got to Josh's house right before the second half and watched with gut-wrenching anxiety the battle between Utah and Golden State. I have not seen such a fast-paced intense basketball game in a long time. Jazz would start to settle down, take things slow, and then Golden State would rocket the ball across court for an easy dunk. So Jazz would pick it up, then slow it down again, on and on. I must say I was very impressed with Derron Williams. He seemed to take control of the floundering Jazz, who were probably letting the Warriors get to them psychologically, taking frantic shots and throwing bad passes.

Here's a picture from one of my favorite moments from the game.

(-Robert)

Monday, May 7, 2007

Sports Injuries

Because we've written about Peter so much in the last few posts, I decided to write a blog about something new--sports.

1. Jazz. First off, we have the Jazz. I haven't been able to watch too many Jazz games this year because I've been so busy, and I probably won't be able to watch any playoff games because I'm in a play that runs every single night, but that doesn't mean I don't know what's going on with them. On Saturday night, when I was at theater and the Jazz were playing in Houston, I checked co-actor Bobby Swenson's cell phone every time I got offstage to see the score update. I was ecstatic the Jazz were doing so well. When the play ended, I started checking the score on my own cell phone; I saw the Jazz were down 83-88. I took my play clothes down to the laundry and then checked again--we were tied at 88. I took someone home from the play and had him continue checking the updates for me. We rejoiced together in the Jazz victory. So even though I didn't get to really watch the game, I felt like I was a participant. Now that the Jazz are going up against Golden State in Round 2, I'm going to follow the games even more closely, I predict. And maybe I'll even be able to watch the last half hour of some of the late-night ones.

2. Wii. Okay, so the Wii probably doesn't really count as sports, but at least I'm referring to sports games. Saturday night, after the aforementioned Jazz game, Jocelyn and I drove to Springville to play games with my brothers. The favorite of the night was Wii Tennis. I was probably the worst player (my wife and my brother Josh beat me and my brother Stephen in the first game I played), but I put all my energy into it. My arm felt like it was out-of-socket by the end of the night because I'd been swinging so hard. Jocelyn has talked about buying a Wii, but we probably wont' be able to afford one for a while.


3. Frisbee. My favorite sport to play on a Saturday is Ultimate Frisbee. I played two Saturdays ago on what seemed the hottest day of the year with some friends of mine. Although I love it, it has been the source of several stitches and the price of a plastic surgeon in the past. Before my mission, I was playing frisbee in a park on one occassion and was pretty much dominating everyone (not really). Then someone sailed it to me in the enzone and I ran at breakneck speed to catch it. With my eye only on the frisbee, I failed to stop myself from running full-speed into the trunk of a tree. The impact on my chin resulted in an explosion; I went to the emergency room and laid down while a plastic surgeon pulled the skin up from my neck to cover the gap left in my lower jaw. For several weeks I couldn't put my teeth together straight. Eventually it all evened out and now I can chew regularly. I also injured myself snowboarding this year. Apparently, I have a knack for that sort of thing. By the way, Frisbee Golf is also a fun game. And I haven't been injured by that yet.
/
/
(-Robert)

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Hangin'



More pics for you all of my cute "buppy" (a nickname I created for Peter from . . . who knows where; I think it comes from "puppy"). Hmm. How I love him (And how CUTE is he in that outfit????).

Today was a fun "hang-out" day. I got to spend time with four of my six siblings (all the Utah sibs plus Liz) plus I tagged along with Annette at home, on the road, and at Target (with Katie, too). Peter was pretty good all day . . . up until Target. I think he has grown a distaste for the place, because the last two times I have taken him there, he has acted up the entire trip. *Sigh.* He used to be so good (and sleepy) in public! I hope the Target curse does not spread to other public outings . . .

Robert is now in his play every night (except Sunday) until June 2. Peter and I are going to California for a week this month which I am SO excited about. I'm sad to go without Robert and to be without him for so long (the longest ever!!!), but it's good timing since he's gone all day and night anyway this month. Plus I think it will be fun to have some quality one-on-one time with my California familia.

Wednesday Robert and I dared the nearly unthinkable: we took Peter to the movies! It was a 2 p.m. matinee showing at a very (VERY) low-key dollar theater called University Mall Cinemas, so we thought we'd try it. Amazingly enough, he was an angel! He slept for the majority of the movie, then he woke up and I fed him, and he didn't make another peep until the movie was over! We saw "Music and Lyrics" which we both thought was a cute, fun film. Nothing deep or significant by all means, but definitely some great light entertainment.

Welp, it's time to sign off. Here's hoping your life is going Tony the Tiger GRRRREAAT! (-Jocelyn)