Desert Island

I love Top 5 Lists... or Top "#" Lists of any sort. What are your top 5 movies of all-time, that you would take with you to a desert island for the rest of your life? (trilogies, etc. count as 1 movie)

You can tell from my list that A) I'm a total nerd, and B) My taste in movies does not match my mental acumen in the least. I find dumb things funny.

1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. Star Wars Trilogy
3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
4. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
5. Best in Show

Politics I can get behind...

The Sports Fans Coalition is a group founded recently, whose main goals are listed below. I urge you all to join, as it really boils down to accountability in spending, curbing waste, and helping the average American gain access to the games they love, without fattening the pockets of lobbyists and mega-TV conglomerates.

I know only one of my readers really cares about sports (That's you, Ms. Greene), but in general this is an idea we can all get behind right?

Who We Are

Posted using ShareThis

Stokes at 1 Month

He's got lots of swagger and eats and sleeps like a champion. He weighing in at 10 lbs 8 oz these days, and is in the 70th %ile for height and weight. Somehow he's only in the 40th for head size, which is odd because Jen and I have huge noggins. For those that haven't seen, and for those that always like to look at cute babies (I'm talking about you, Tat), and for those that happen to stumble across my blog (creepers)... here is a smattering of photographic representations of C. Stokes Bryan.

New Born (9/29/2009)

At the hospital, Day One

First Car Ride

Addison Brown meeting Stokes

Stokes and Yoshi are friends

First Tub Bath

Almost 1 Month Old! (a few hours shy)

I'm Terrible...

Well... actually I'm pretty amazing, but I'm terrible at posting.

Since the last time I was here, I got a year older, started another semester of grad school, have witnessed the football team I know and love collapse spectacularly (except against BYU, suck it BYU), and become a father.

Fatherhood is something I'm still trying to understand. I love Stokes, trust me, I do, but I feel so helpless at this early stage in his life... I don't provide nourishment, I don't think I can really teach him anything at this point... I'm simply a diaper changer and rock-to-sleeper. I know that will all change all too soon (he is growing so fast!!), but for now, I will just enjoy having such a beautiful young man to share a roof with.

I'll try to be better about posting, between the baby and classes I'm just about going nuts. Classes are entirely hard... just tedious, especially my online Data Mining class... doesn't it sound fun? It's even duller than it sounds... But, I can persevere.

Love you all (the 8 of you that read this)... for pictures of the young man check my Facebook profile... I will post pics here later, but I'm pretty lazy today.

Birthday Fish!

So today my Birthday Fish arrived, a wonderful gift from my wife.

I'm letting my loyal blog readers (all 8 of you) have a hand in naming these new beauties:

I got a Royal Gramma:

A Sixline Wrasse (also known as the Jap Wrasse or Pajama Wrasse... feel free to get racist with your naming of this one):


And... a Knobby Starfish:
Give names to 1, or all 3... I may or may not use them, as I reserve all rights to do whatever I want.

IM Bowling is over....

For us.

For the teams that actually win games and come through in the clutch... it is still going on.

We lost in heart-breaking fashion, in the last 2 frames of the 3rd game.... 8-7.

I personally shoulder the blame as I bowled 2 horrible games, after starting with a 178.

1st Game - 178
2nd Game - 97
3rd Game - 120

Average for the day: 133.67

Average for the season: 146.0

To adjust for potential outliers, I will find the standard deviation for the sample, and determine if any scores from the season need to be disregarded as outliers.

Mean: 146
SD: 27
Range of 2 SD: 96 - 200

As all scores fall in that range, my true average for the season was 146. Not 150, but at least I don't have caterpillars on my face, Lish.

Jen has a protector...

Yoshi has been demonstrably better in the last few months... which is a welcome relief, as he can be a real pain sometimes. Ever since we've had him, his favorite activity has been to sit on our bed, or on the floor, and look out our window that looks over the driveway and the street below. He has never really barked at anything at all, but has simply made whining noises when he saw something that he wanted to chase... but his whine is barely audible.

However, ever since Jen has been pregnant, he has progressively started barking more and more at passersby (who can probably barely hear him due to the distance from our window to the street) in a fairly menacing manner. He has become quite territorial of our driveway (even though we share it with 3 other apartments) and considers it his territory. Additionally, he has followed Jen around more often that he used to, and has been quite the lapdog for her.

This got me thinking, and I used the Internet-machine to discover if dogs can tell if someone is pregnant, after all, they have been found to be able to tell certain types of illnesses and even cancer in humans. While there is little scientific evidence, there are mounds of anecdotal instances that have been reported. The change in hormones/pheromones are perceptible to our little dog, and he has been great... even when he wakes us up in the middle of the night barking at some passing car. I'm glad to know that there are 2 of us that are concerned about Jen.

Additionally, he has been really good with the "baby training" we are putting him through. Randomly we'll just pull his tail, grab his paws, yank his ears, etc., to prepare him for a little kid. It is recommended so that Yoshi is prepared to react kindly and not with aggression when irritants are presented to him. He gets lots of positive reinforcement when he doesn't react with snarls, barks, and bites, and he has become pretty good.

You can't help but love this little guy....

(crawling inside an empty food bag)

(sleeping on Grandma Kelli's couch)

(wrapped up in our Papasan cushion, like a doggy-burrito)

(Yoshi hiding from Jazz by getting on top of his crate)

VICTORY!!

We (Kyre, Richie, and I ) finally got over the hump, in a big way, and won our 1st IM Bowling match. By a score of 10-0, we crushed our opponent, giving us momentum going into the playoffs next week.

Because of the blowout, we only bowled 2 games, not 3... my personal scores: 128 (horrible) and 159 (acceptable).

Week 3 Average: 143.5

Total IM Average: 150.3 (Still above 150)

Diet is going well, Jen is mostly happy and healthy (about as happy and healthy as one could be during the 7th month of pregnancy), and the summer semester is finally winding down (thankfully).