Pierced Ears and Such

Side note: I also don't love Democrats, but I love my wife. (It'll make sense, trust me.)

Next time: The tale of the missing tooth...

A new way to blog

Another Reason to Bleed Cougar Blue

Just a quick post an another reason why I love the essence of BYU athletics.

Bronco Mendenhall's name was swirling around as a potential prospect for the head coaching gig at UCLA. In a time where there is maybe a minutia of honor or integrity left in the hiring process in NCAA programs, it is nothing short of refreshing to have a head coach like Bronco. I really like what he says in this video clip about why he coaches at BYU. While I make no naive generalization about the integrity of the entire population of BYU student athletes, I do have confidence that the overwhelming majority follow in the footsteps of their head coach.

Yet another reason to rise and shout...
Now for my soapbox speech:
I know personally and from life experience many people who hate - that is no exaggeration - BYU. H-a-t-e it. Passionately. The thought makes their blood boil. I'm not talking about the random hater. I'm talking about LDS folks. (Caveat: This isn't about folks who just prefer another university; I'm talking about the angry and bitter little people out there.) And I have to question why. What is it that invokes such indignation, such animosity, such bitter bile that people become almost unable to utter anything coherent?
Is it because of the standards BYU espouses?
Is it because of the rules BYU enforces?
Is it because of the meshing of spiritual thought and secular learning?
My hypothesis is this:
These people hate BYU not simply for all the above reasons, but because those who attend BYU are mortal; and, by being in such a state, they fall short of the standards, rules and codes of the institution - either by deliberate action or a hiccup of better judgment. And these transgressions make them hypocrites because they have not followed by every rule to which they agreed but still espouse the rules which they violated.
The ironic thing to me is that, each members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has made covenants to live at a certain standard. In essence, each has signed an honor code. And these people are mortal; and, by being in such a state, they fall short of the standards - either by deliberate action of a hiccup of better judgment - and transgress the code by which they promised to abide. And these transgressions make them hypocrites because they have not follow by every standard to which they agreed but still espouse the rules which they violated.
But that's just one guy's observation.
Cougar-faithfuls and Cougar-hatefuls, now it's your turn to tell me what you think.

I'M SORRY!!!

I owe my family and the five other people who look at this blog an apology for the length of time I've gone between posts. I had one ready to go the second week of November but the pics wouldn't load right and I forgot about it. I've posted it now (it follow this one) so there are some month old pictures there from when G&G Roberts came out for Lydia's blessing the first part of November.
Anyway, life has been uber-busy. (Uber is a hip German world for 'really'; I don't know if that's an exact translation, but I'm not the New York Times...oh, maybe I am and I don't check my facts before I put it in print. Yikes! I am the NYT.) I haven't even read any blogs in the past month or so, much less written anything. Sort of out-of-sight, out-of-mind, you know? Anyway, to put the past month in perspective, this is what's been going on - my life since the first of November:

1st weekend: G&G Roberts come into town for Lydia's blessing. I end up have to work the weekend on a mock run of a major project at work.

2nd weekend: Have to Friday night, Saturday and Sunday on the live run of a major project at work; spoke in Sacrament meeting on the topic of service as it relates to the great commandment.

3rd weekend: Wake up Friday morning at 3:30 am to get everything ready to catch a 6am flight to SLC for Ty and Kami's wedding. It's our first time traveling with a child. Stay up until 11:30 local time with family and friends, making it a 22 hour day. Saturday is full of wedding activities and stay up until 12am watching the DVR'd BYU v UW game at the Brough's house w/ Elder Brough as we explore the intricacies of his new iPhone. Sunday wake up at 5:30 to go back to Atlanta. We also had a 4 hour layover in Minneapolis on the way home, which would have been awful if not for the chance to see Zach, Keri and Saylor as they caught a connecting flight to PA. It had been 1 1/2 years since we'd seen them and it was a pretty sweet reunion.

4th weekend: Thanksgiving on Thursday, paint the kitchen and dining room of the new house; Paula decided she doesn't like the color she picked out and has me repaint the kitchen and dining room with a new color that looks pretty much the exact same; attend Ty and Kami's open house; watch the DVR'd BYU v UU game. Get a call from my mom at midnight telling me the score of the BYU-UNC bball game, so I log onto the computer and listen to the game till 1am; get up early next morning for bishopric meetings; get released; smile.

1st weekend (December): As with week 4, spend every non-job working moment working on the house. Lay tile Thursday night from 8pm straight through until Friday morning 6am, with help from Todd from 11pm to 2am; go to the apartment for a nap, get up and pack boxes and work some more on the house; get up early Saturday to find out U-Haul can take a reservation, but they can't hold a reservation; get a different, oversized truck from Penske and move. Get a lot of help from some great friends.

So anyway, that's been the scoop. There are a lot of little things that go into moving into a house, especially one that needs work, and I'm not a "little things" kind of person. It's been a bit crazy and while I've managed to get all the big stuff done, some of the little stuff has hung around to bite me. Oh well, what can you do? Live and learn...live and learn.

There's the update. Pics will come later. Maybe.

G&G Roberts meet their granddaughter

Basically, you've got four kinds of bloggers:

1. The kind that blog everyday with little, pointless drivel (not that the degree of drivel differs among blogs in general) that doesn't really do anything for anyone. Like liberals.
2. The bloggers who post weekly, allowing interesting events to build up and turn the events into something worth reading.
3. Those who post sporadically but with distinct flavor and excitement and those who frequent the blog anxiously await every opportunity to read and comment, even if there's nothing there - like college freshmen and dating.
4. Then there are those who post once in a blue moon, so rare that you almost forget they have a blog and when they do post it's a mile long and takes almost the month before the next post to finish first.

Then there's this blog: pointless drivel, sprinkled with excitement sporadically as there are posts, but often far too long and sit down and really read. And I'm not sure that's something to aspire to.
Anyway, Paula posted some pics of my parents' visit to see their granddaughter. It was a good time, though I worked intermittently throughout their stay (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) which prevented ever venturing too far from home base. But we did have some good times. They are so great; Sunday night, Paula started feeling sick and their flight was leaving at 6:15am, which meant they needed to be at the airport around 5am, which meant we needed to leave by 4:30am, which meant getting up even earlier. So Grandma and Grandpa gave us the bed and slept on the single and couch while taking care of Lydia so we could rest. Seriously, a pair of troopers. They were so helpful and fun, not to mention very much in love with their first granddaughter. And Lydia reciprocated that love with a ton of smiles for them.
I'm going to just post some pics (with pithy comments) and wrap it up.

I'm practicing how I'm going to answer the phone when boys start calling for my daughter.
(Is Lydia there? Yep. Can I talk to her? Nope. Wha... Click. Dad!!! What? Wrong number.)

Statements like "My kid is the cutest in the world" always garnish an eye-roll from me. Really - yours is the cutest? Have you seen every kid in the world? So I won't say that. Cuz it's annoying and I'm a hypocrite in enough other ways I don't need another on the list. Even so, this kid's pretty darn cute.

This is at the World of Coca-Cola, not the North Pole. The polar bear really confused Lydia, but I assured her if it was the North Pole we'd have brought a jacket for her.

Outside the church building with G&G Roberts. Don't really have any smart comments for this...

Ah, the cousins. Both were very cute and both were imitating the other - Juliana awake and alert, Lydia passed out and fast asleep. What a couple of jokers. Whenever the general public finds out how close they are in age, the general consensus is that they'll be best of friends. We'll see; I hope so, but all bets are off when girls become teens.