UCLA! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Okay... more Trevor pictures... the reason you're here.

This is before we left to go watch the really sorry UCLA/Memphis game. It was like watching a high school basketball game.

Trevor went all out with his Bruin gear.

Here's Andrea teaching Trevor the 8-clap.

random updates

1. Andrea and I both wanted to write something about illegal immigration, but neither of us could do it in a nice way.

2. How did people come to the conclusion that there are some jobs that Americans just won't do? I'm growing weary of a certain elitism that's becoming less subtle every day. That's about as political as I'll get. (Clyde, I still owe you a political discussion. I haven't forgotten.)

3. Tonight, Andrea and I played a new game called Carcassonne. It buries Sudoku. Ha ha, I couldn't resist that one. It's not even the same kind of game, and I've never even tried Sudoku, but when has that ever stopped me?

4. It's been my busiest tax season yet. And it's not even April yet. That's scary and comforting at the same time.

5. I miss the Orange Mocha Chip Frappuccino. It was the first drink I ever got from Starbucks, and it was free because of a coupon I received in the mail. I was reminded of this great loss on Saturday night as I shook my head at the very skimpy Frap menu at the new(er) Starbucks on Newbury Road in Thousand Oaks. Starbucks gift cards are always enjoyed.

6. We had the best seat in the house at the wedding reception on Sunday night... right next to the band. Read Andrea's post for the rest of the story.

7. I like how all these high school students ditch class to show that illegal immigrants should have the right to get an education. Ignorance is alive and well in the... the... whatever century this is.

8. How did it get decided that the classically-trained voice was the ideal? Who was part of that conversation? And why did the vote swing that way? I'm not a fan of too much vibrato in general, but if it sounds like you're singing with a mouth full of water, something is wrong.

9. In the comments for the last post, I mentioned that I don't know what [Francis] Schaeffer would have to say about free jazz. That's not really true. I know what he would say. But as I said before, I could spend many posts discussing those issues.

10. Andrea and I started a 1000 piece puzzle. I know... 1000 pieces is kind of wimpy... but we're not very motivated to finish (especially in light of #3 above). I know... we tend to live on the edge.

11. Andrea found it ironic that global warming is supposedly causing polar bears to drown in the arctic while parching the ground in Ethiopia. Why don't they just transport the extra water where it needs to go?

12. Finally, another classic from the Family Christian Stores mailer. I'd thank our apartment's previous tenant by name, since she's the one who signed up for the mailing list, but she still goes to Grace, so she's not fair game yet (i.e. someone who knows her may read this, though it's highly unlikely). I'm not surprised that she didn't choose to update her address. I saw a book by a prominent pastor. It was called something like ____ ______'s Bible Study Tools.

"Ha!" I said. "I know what those tools are!"

random thoughts and pictures

I haven't had much discipline to blog lately. But I'm not ending this blog. Not at all. I've just been too scatter-brained (wow, haven't heard that phrase since the nineties). I started a political post... somewhat rare for me, but I waited too long to post it, and now it's not even news anymore. Too bad, because I think there was some substance there. I wrote a bit on how to deal with strife that may or may not see the light of day. [EDIT: both have now seen the light of day and been posted] I have half a dozen other ideas floating around my head, but nothing concrete enough to warrant public posting. I guess I'll just leave you with some random thoughts and then some Trevor pictures... the real reason you're here.

1. I discovered a new food item last week. Andrea's homemade granola mixed with Granny Smith apples. It felt like I was eating dessert, except it was healthy. I did kind of feel like a... well, fill in the blank with whatever you're thinking about people who usually eat granola (I was thinking of the word for the kind of food that apples are, and also someone who hugs the things apples grow on). But it was sure tasty.

2. We had a nice lunch with our new Bible study shepherd and his wife (and kids). That's the Mainstream Bible study, not Farside. Speaking of Farside, Trevor wouldn't go down for bed, so we had to leave early on Friday night. It was really unfortunate because we're really enjoying Young's OT survey. It just doesn't look like Trevor is happy about going to Bible study on consecutive nights. Also speaking of Farside, June is now the proud owner of the Best!Spice!Rack!Ever! We're glad it's not sitting in our hallway anymore. June, that's the hallway inside our apartment, not the one outside. You won't wind up with any funny diseases from the spices, but if you do, it's not our fault... and we'll even bring you flowers in the hospital. Ha ha.

3. Free jazz is the perfect soundtrack for working on Saturdays. Also, I remember the days when good rap existed. That doesn't have anything to do with free jazz, except there's a reason why I'm so thankful for free jazz when I work Saturday mornings, and I'll leave it at that.

4. I pulled another "secret" day last Saturday. Since I was on schedule with work, my supervisor said I didn't need to come in. I got up, got ready, and left, but instead of heading to work, I gassed up Truck, returned our Blockbuster movie, and got breakfast to go from Corner Bakery Cafe. I think that leaves us with about a dollar on our Corner gift card. I headed back home and opened the door...

Andrea: What are you doing here?
Jeff (thinking): So... are you happy I'm here or not?

Not quite the welcome I was expecting, but I caught her a little off guard. She told me whenever the lock starts turning when I'm supposed to be gone, she wonders, "OK, who is coming in the apartment?"

I rock \\m//

Just kidding. These surprise things are really nothing to be proud of... just something fun to do.

(My wife just informed me that I never do anything romantic. I guess she forgot about the summer we spent in Paris visiting all sorts of nice cafes and such.)

If you believed any of that Paris bit, you really are... something else. [I wrote another sentence here that had us both in tears, but we decided that no one else would get it, so it's gone... ah, the things that could have been.]

5. Uh, there is no number five. On to the pictures. The really perceptive ones out there will probably notice that most of them were taken on the same day. And the chair picture was taken while Trevor was watching the Little People DVD that came with his garage play set.

from the 24 forums

I almost laughed out loud when I read this on the 24 message boards:

Sorry if this is really dumb, but I totally missed how the druggie boyfriend
knew WHO and HOW to contact the right people to bribe regarding the keycard. I
mean, are the terrorists listed in the Yellow Pages? Did they take out an ad in
the paper? "Wanted: CTU keycard" Did the boyfriend post on eBay?

A few posts later, someone answered:

"Ebay... he [Bierko] chose to "buy it now."