Caution: Contains Nudity

Junk.

It is what my infant, baby child has.


Here's his face....
Hands/Arms over his face...


And the junk... oh yeah.

So, the due date is Sept. 23rd... his name will be Campbell Stokes Bryan... and he will go by Stokes.

The 8 of you that read this... enjoy.

The Trevor: is complaining about Facebook.

Before I begin, I realize the inherent irony/hypocrisy in sharing the following the story via my blog.

I'm going to rail on technology for a second, as it is severely limiting my generation's ability to compute on their own.... or maybe my generation is just lazy. Probably both.

Jen is pregnant, this is the first time I've mentioned it on the blog or anywhere on the Internet. So feel special all 8 of you that read this blog. I don't think it is something that needs to be broadcast in an overt way through Facebook statuses or 'tweeting'. However, because every single person in my generation thinks that all life news, from the PBJ sandwich they had for lunch to the details of their various illnesses, needs to be shared via Facebook, not mentioning the pregnancy on Facebook can lead to some confusion.

I had a friend of ours approach me and timidly ask, "Are you guys pregnant?" After replying in the affirmative and the obligatory "Congratulations!" and "Thanks!" She followed up, "I heard that you were from some people, but then I checked Facebook and didn't see anything about it, so I wasn't sure."

Ugh. Really?

(This friend is an intelligent person, too. No offense to them if they read this, but I think even they can see the ridiculousness going on)

For my peeps...

I read a column on ESPN.com called "TMQ" (The Tuesday Morning Quarterback) that is written by Gregg Easterbrook. He writes about the NFL... kind of. About half of his weekly articles (during football season, with a few in the off-season) deal with politics, pop culture, religion, and high-tech science stuff/astronomy. His main gig is as a Managing Editor at the Atlantic Monthly, a magazine of some repute.

In an column last week, he talked about the timing of Easter in relationship to Passover... I thought it was a great read, and I agree with his thoughts. Just wanted to share.

WWJHE -- When Would Jesus Hold Easter? Last year, Easter fell almost a month before Passover. TMQ complained that Easter should always fall on the Sunday after Passover begins. Jesus, after all, just before his crucifixion had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. So why doesn't Easter fall immediately after the first night of Passover? Dating for Passover has always been determined by the ancient Hebrew calendar; in 2009, Passover began on the 15th of Nisan, exactly as it did when Jesus walked the Earth. Easter dating involves a complex formula having to do with the vernal equinox and paschal full moon. During the Middle Ages, the Roman church established that Easter dating formula in part to de-emphasize Christianity's relationship to Judaism. Protestant denominations decided to accept the Roman dating, though nothing about the equinox-and-moon business is mentioned in scripture. Formally linking the observance of Easter to Passover would benefit both Christianity and Judaism, by emphasizing common history. Actually, it would benefit Western Christians. As pointed out by readers, including Sylvia Denisov of St. Louis, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Easter always falls on the Sunday following the first night of Passover.

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Alex Wong/Getty Images "Western dating of Easter has about as much in common with scripture as the Easter Bunny."

Changing the Western dating formula for Easter, to sync with Passover as is done in Eastern Christianity, would be both historically accurate and a nice ecumenical step. This spring, Easter in the West did fall on the Sunday after Passover began. Turns out that for the next six years, Easter as observed by Western Christianity will follow the first night of Passover; the schedules aren't out of whack again until 2016, when Easter falls on March 27 and Passover does not begin until April 23. That creates six years in which Western Christians could stage a campaign to restore the Passover-Easter relationship. How's about it?

How to Trap a Jew

For those who do not have a sense of humor, stop reading. By sense of humor, I mean tolerance of mild, jocular intolerance. Cool? Cool.

So, if Beyond Balderdash is to be believed, the word 'Jubate' means 'fringed with long hair'... however, I was interested in a different kind of Jew-Bait.

My good buddy Lish is of Jewish descent, and happens to live down the street from us. The trapping was more due to his place of residence, not his ancestry.... so relax.

After Mark and I started a war with some other students in my program (re: we threw some water balloons at them)... I still had 5 water balloons leftover on Sunday. Jen and I were looking for some fun, our conversation went something like this:

Trevor: "Hey! Let's go throw water balloons at Lish!"
Jen: "How will we get him out of his house?"
Trevor: "We'll bait him with Candy Beans!"
Jen: "He won't eat them off the ground"
Trevor: "We can put the Candy Beans on some napkins!"

The plan in place... we trotted over to the Harris residence. (note: While one may immediately think of Gold or "Buy-One, Get-One" Sales on Yarmulkes as appropriate Jew Bait, a little known fact is that Candy Beans are more effective.)

So, in a quiet way, we placed 5 napkins leading away from his door, with a handful of Candy Beans (SweetTart JellyBeans) on each napkin. Jen then went up to the landing of the apartments above Lish's door and I knocked on the door and hid behind some bushes.

Lish opened the door, happily surprised by the Candy Beans that had been sent like Manna from Heaven. As he walked away from the door, I scurried to cut off his escape back into the house and launched a water balloon attack as Jen dropped balloons on his head from above.

We then ran away laughing. Included is a diagram of the sneak attack.