Gold to Me

Rocky's favorite songs pt. 10; "Kick Drum"

2012-02-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

What started out as a way to post all of Rocky's favorite music videos in just a few days has obviously taken a little longer than that. One of the reasons I took so long on this final one was because I wanted to post the video of her dancing. It's not going to happen, but just know that she always sings along, and she knows to wave her arm slowly above her head on the introspective bridge of the song.

The first time that Rocky heard this song, she said "This song is magic!!" Thanks to Mark for introducing us to The Avett Brothers, they're definitely a family favorite.

Rocky's favorite songs pt. 9; All the pretty girls

2011-07-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

Because it's been over two months since Rocky's birthday, because I'm sick of this series and because today is the fourth of July and nothing is more American than breaking a piñata, here's the second to last song, with a bonus video of Rocky's interpretation. I dare you to try and listen to this song all the way through without tapping your feet or dancing around a little bit. Go ahead, give it a try.

I told you that you wouldn't be able to do it.

A huge thanks to Derek for introducing us to fun. We had to pick this member of the band (Jack Antanoff) to piñata-zize, because he is the lead singer of another group (Steel Train), which was Rocky´s first ever concert (in utero).

Rocky's favorite songs pt. 8; Hey, Hey

2011-06-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

I've been out of school for a week and half now, and I really don't have any more valid excuses as to why I haven't updated this in forever. So I'm resolving now to put up the final three music videos for my Rocky series so that I can finally move to other things that I've been meaning to write about.
This song is the one that started it all. It was Rocky's favorite song since she was old enough to know what a song was and has always called it "Hey, hey". Aside from having a seriously infectious beat, I think her predilection for the song stems from the fact that she really thinks it's her song; i.e., it opens "I'm on a rocky road...". Also, it was the soundtrack to her breakout hit zombie movie that she always asks to see. Enjoy.

Update: Unfortunately, for some reason this reason is blocked from embedding, so you'll have to go to the link to see it on Youtube.

Rocky's favorite songs pt. 7; Rocky's all right, Daisy's all right

2011-03-31T16:53:00.000-07:00

When I originally started doing these, I was going to post a video a day, and it was going to be over in a week and a half. Five months later, and there's still a few more songs that Rocky feels should be on here. On top of that, because of my blogosphere dormancy, I've been forced to look at the Train song every time I check in on my blog over the last few months. I don't know that Cheap Trick is a huge improvement, but at least it's a change of scenery. Rocky riffs on this song by inserting her name into the chorus in place of "mommy", saying "Rocky's all right". Then she names everyone else in the room the same way, concluding that they're all just a little weird.

On a completely unrelated-but-worth-mentioning-anyway note, I'm pretty sure that I saw a red-breasted sapsucker outside my office yesterday. Not a big deal, but I was excited.

Rocky's favorite songs pt. 6; Radio

2011-01-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

Rocky's obsession with the song can be directly attributed to my mom and my younger brothers and sisters. My mom and my three youngest siblings came to visit us for a week in the summer. They drove back to Utah five or six days before us, and they took Rocky with them so that she could have some good hang-out time with all our family in Utah. Apparently the had the Now! music compilation number 31-ish repeating this song for the entire 15 hours that it took them to drive home. Now when we walk into the grocery store and this song is playing (which is just about every time), Rocky shouts "Radio" and starts doing her bum-dance.

I'll admit that this song is catchy, but it's definitely one of those songs that loses considerable appeal if you actually listen to the lyrics. Also, I liked it much less after having seen the video. I feel like it's my obligation to show you a video with the "animation-through-constantly-repainting-over-and-over-thing" done right.

Rocky's favorite songs pt. 5; We will Rocky you

2011-01-16T16:54:00.000-08:00

Before I introduce this song, I have to provide an addendum to song #3: After seeing the Joseph video again, Rocky stated "Jojo has a diaper-change" (for Rocky,the poop-catcher itself and not the action are called diaper-changes).

Ever since Rocky heard "We will rock you" on the radio, she is constantly walking around the house with improvised "drumsticks", beat-boxing the sound of two bass drums and then a symbol: bumm-bummm-tsizz. It's not exactly the same as Queen's version, but it is pretty dang good for a two year old. I struggled to choose between these two videos, so I decided to put them both up in all of their glory.

It's no surprise how Señor Mercury became an international rock star when you look at that hair/glasses/teeth combo. Just like with David Bowie, Rocky told me that she liked Freddie's hair the first time she saw the video.

Rocky's favorite songs pt. 4; David Bowie

2011-01-04T20:56:00.001-08:00

We borrowed David Bowie's greatest hits from the library a couple of months ago, and now Rocky asks us to sing "David Bowie" to her at night sometimes. After seeing this music video, her only response was "I wike his hair Daddy". Actually, I like his hair too. I've always wondered what Carol Burnett would look like with a mullet, and now I know.

Rocky's favorite songs, pt. 3; the Jo Jo song

2010-12-07T22:02:00.000-08:00

In all truth, what else needs to be said than Donny Osmond in a loin-cloth? A: nothing. We checked out this version of Joseph from the library a couple of months ago. Now, Rocky asks us to sing the Jo Jo song to her every night before she goes to bed. Marci knows all the words, but I usually just hum the tune and then say "go go Jo" a few times.

Right about the same time that we got this from the library, Rocky mysteriously began talking to "Jo Jo" every time that she pretended to talk on the phone. She's either pretending that she's talking to her friend Joel whenever she picks up the TV remote, or she's talking to Donny. In a loin-cloth. With really bad hair extensions. Bum-bum-bummmm.

Rocky's favorite songs, pt. 2; School of Rock(y)

2010-11-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

I don't consider myself that much of a Stevie Nicks fan; in my ignorance, I always just assumed this was a Fleetwood Mac song. Rocky, on the other hand, was singing along to this song when it came on in the car before the end of the first chorus: "Ooohh, baby, oohh, baby oooohh". As far as music videos go, this one is definitely the lamest of the bunch, if it can be considered a music video at all. On the pros side of the list though, check out those boots that give Stevie another nine inches to her stats sheet. Also, what doesn't say consummate sex symbol like a cockatoo and frizzy hair back-lit by a blue light? HOT!!!!

Rocky's favorite songs, pt. 1

2010-11-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Rocky loves music, and always knows exactly what she wants to hear to satisfy her aural cravings. I'm going to post the music videos to her favorite songs (in no specific order) once a day for a few days so that Rocky can share what she loves. It will also be nice to have all the videos in one place for the times that she needs to be kept busy doing something other than tormenting her sister.
This first video is by the male acapella group at the U of O called On The Rocks. Another of their videos for this same song went viral, and now has over seven million views. Consequently, they've been invited to be on a new acapella group TV show that starts in a few weeks, so you'll have to look for them. It's a cover of a song called Bad Romance (the original singer is Lady blah-blah, or Lady Gaga or something; apparently she's kind of famous). Rocky asks for this song by saying "I want romance", and really, how can you say no to that. After watching the video today, she said "I can't see romance, where's the romance daddy?"

Rocky's Babies

2010-10-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here's Daisy and Rocky's latest featuring Rocky's current favorite song.

You can go to Marci's blog for the details on why Rocky picked the names that she did.

How Daisy combats writer's block

2010-10-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have about ten blog posts swimming around my head, and I don't have the time for any of them right now, so this isn't officially a post, it's just a reminder that Daisy is ridiculously cute, especially when she's not doing anything (which is all the time).

Daisy got her shots today and slept most of the day. So now when she should be asleep, she keeps herself busy by destroying an innocent piece of paper. She's probably noticed that every time her dad isn't paying attention to her, it's because he's reading something for school. Therefore, she has taken it upon herself to destroy all the paper in the house so that there is not anything competing for her attention. Sound logic, if you ask me.

Paul the prognosticating octopus or why I love soccer, Pt. 1

2010-07-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's been over four months since I've posted (even though I did write a post the other day, but I couldn't get the video to work and I never published it; I'll try to get it put up in a few days) and there's been plenty of stuff that I've wanted to write about, and hopefully I'll get to them before I go back to teaching. The main reason I haven't written despite not studying and not teaching is that we've been absorbed in Spain's amazing run to the World Cup finals.
I consider myself a huge soccer fan, but the truth of the matter is, I don't really pay that much attention to it most of the time. But then, every four years, the greatest sporting event in the world takes place (note: not the Olympics) and I live and breathe soccer for a month straight. In four years I'll probably have some real responsibilities/something resembling a career, so I'm pretty sure that I'll never be able to follow the World Cup so closely again. Luckily for me, Spain has had their best World Cup tournament ever, so it's been perfect that we've been able to support "La furia roja" so much.
I love soccer because it is so much more than a game or a sport. There are some people here in the US for whom football or basketball stops being a game and becomes a way of life, but it's never on the global scale that soccer is life for billions of people around the world. The World Cup is able to freeze entire continents in its tracks and make whole countries hold their breath at the same time. The craziness that is soccer is also able to create national heroes/villains in the most unlikely of places. In Germany for example, there is an octopus names Paul that correctly picked all of Germany's games as they steamrolled their way through the tournament, and he/she/it quickly became a celebrity in the fatherland. Before the last semifinal though, it picked Spain to beat Germany, and it was easily swept underneath the carpet because Germany was also supposed to pound Spain. But a beautiful header from Carles Puyol ensured that Paul kept a perfect record and sent Spain to their first ever World Cup final.

Announcing...

2010-03-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

After much hoopla and brouhaha, it is my great pleasure to announce the arrival of Daisy!!!!! She was so eager to see this big world that she had heard all about, and for that reason, she rushed through that whole labor thing so fast that the doctor hardly had time to get into the room to catch her on the way out. Not only is she the most beautiful I've ever seen, but in a paradox that would knock Confucius on his back, she is beautiful and she looks like the squinty old guy on Big Trouble in Little China, as evidenced by this picture:

You should go to Marci's blog here to see the rest of the pictures and videos that we put up.

¡Guau, Guau! ¡Cra, Cra! ¡Miau, Miau!

2010-01-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

Here's Rocky's latest foray into multimedia. She wanted to take a more active approach to contributing to my class. The chapter we just began is about the environment and nature, so she decided to just whip up this little instructional video of animal sounds in Spanish. She knows a few more animals with their corresponding onomatopoeias than she shows off here, but she was having trouble finding the motivation to perform.

For the record, frogs in Spanish don't say rib-bit, they say cra.

Forbidden doughnut, ummmmmmmmmmm

2009-12-26T19:04:00.001-08:00

** Spoiler alert** This post involves scrumdiddlyumptious doughnuts that helped us announce a surprise that should not be a surprise to anyone that reads this blog because it's been a few weeks since the bomb was dropped. But, just in case you didn't get the memo, consider yourself warned for the proverbial un-bagged cat.
On our way home from Eugene, we stopped in Portland at the world famous Voodoo Doughnuts and picked up two dozen for our families. Voodoo Doughnuts are famous for their doughnuts that have eclectic (to say the least) toppings and flavors. They all have special names, but I don't know what they are, so all the pastry purists out there will have to excuse my crude descriptions.

They have the pentagram doughnut because it's made out of devil's food cake mix.

The Fruit Loops doughnut that isn't as good as I thought it would be, probably because by the time I tried it, the Fruit Loops were a little soggy.

The marshmallow doughnuts that have marshmallow cream, topped by grape, strawberry or pineapple drink mix.

They even have a maple bar with bacon on top that I've heard is bangarang. Probably their most famous doughnut though is a voodoo doll doughnut that has raspberry jelly in the middle for blood. We had the doughnut artistes put extra jelly in a voodoo doll so that it would look pregnant, and then they wrote "It's a girl"...Because Marci is...And it's a girl

Surprise!

In honor of the chairman

2009-12-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

Rocky is getting really good at her animal sounds, but there's still a few issues to sort out. According to her, all cows and cats are inherently communist, because of instead of saying moo and meow respectively, they both say mao.
I'll post a video of the phenomenon when I get it on film.

Part II: I posted this earlier today, and I was planning on posting a video of Rocky performing animal sounds when I got home. Instead of the confused cat and cow sounds, I got Rocky's adaptation of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". She came up with the sound effects all on her own, and so then I changed the wording to go along with her interpretation.

Did you here the one about the little girl?

2009-11-23T21:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's a riddle for you:

How do you get an adorable little girl to look like one of the most vile, despised despots of all time?

Give up?

You just add a bunch of snot!!!

This is an older picture from a few months ago, but I just wanted to point out that this is not the first time, nay not even the second time that Rocky has had an uncanny resemblance to a certain German führer. You can see the other two times on Marci's blog here and here.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

2009-10-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

The long awaited teaser trailer:

So long sweet summer...

2009-10-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that everyone else thought that summer ended a long time ago, but our classes at the U of O just started on Tuesday. So, we bid a fond farewell to a wicked-awesome summer by making a Spanish dinner starring pretty much the best summer food ever: Gazpacho. Gazpacho is a tomato-based soup that you eat cold; kind of like V8, but much better. We made it from a family recipe that our friend Pilar gave us when we stayed with her this summer in Barcelona. I know that this isn't a cooking blog, but gazpacho is so good (and healthy) that I would recommend it to everybody, so here's the recipe; first in Catalan (because it just sounds and looks cool), and then in English with some additional notes.
Gazpacho
250 Grs. cogombres
100 Grs. pebrots verds
1 KG tomaquets
una ceba
2 Grans d'all
una tassa d'oli
1/2 tassa vinagre
una pastilla avecrem
1 litre i 1/2 d'aigua
sal

es passa tot pel pimer i es serveix amb davets de tomaquet, pebrot, ceba, pa fregit, etc.

Gazpacho
250 grams cucumber
100 grams green peppers
1 kilogram tomatoes
one onion
two cloves of garlic
one cup of olive oil
half cup of vinegar
one bouillon cube
1 and 1/2 liters of water
salt to taste

Chop everything up in a food processor (chop it very finely, but don't puree it), and serve chilled with garnishes of diced onions, peppers, tomatoes and croutons.
Here's some additional things that I learned when I made it:
-Don't worry too much about the metric measurements, you don't have to be very precise, just make sure the ratios of vegetables are similar to the recipe.
-I don't know if metric cups are a different size, but I think I put in way too much oil. You could probably put in a half cup of oil and it would be perfect. I would also add a little more vinegar than what it calls for.
-After making this recipe (it makes a ton and freezes well), you should allow the flavors to blend at least overnight.
I know it's not the ideal time for a refreshing, cold soup, but you'll have to let me know if you try out the gazpacho.

P.S. when you're just not feeling that good, there's nothing better than curling up with a good book and your snake.

Fourth anniversary

2009-09-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

In loving memory of what would have been the beard's fourth birthday (rest his soul), I propose first a moment of silence and reflection, and then I suggest you watch his theatrical debut:

If you go to the actual Youtube site for this video, it gives a little more explanation to the movie.

It's a savvy kind of a feeling, a suavey kind of feeling

2009-07-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's now been over two months since I've blogged. Many of you were probably beginning to wonder if I was ever going to return. I'm sure even more of you don't care or didn't notice the absence. But luckily, my journal writing experience (I'm still "writing" in the same journal that I started when I was nine) has taught me exactly what to do. I'm just going to start back up where I was and act like nothing happened.

With that said, this series of bewhiskered bedizenment is from when I shaved in preparation for the marathon.

Here's the before picture:

I call this first style "the king's adviser" for obvious reasons.

This one is "the Mario". That's a spicy meataball!!!

This next look is called "good cop, bad cop". I'll let you decide which one this is.

And finally, because I did this all to become more streamlined for the race, I decided I had to pay homage to the patron saint of Eugene, Steve Prefontaine.

Rugged, self-assured, adult. These are the words that describe a man that wears a mustache.

Rocky at the playground

2009-05-23T13:23:00.001-07:00

Our apartment complex has a little playground in front of every building, and then a bigger one in the middle of all them all. The one-two combination of really nice weather and Rocky's dislike of being stuck in our small apartment means that we've been spending a lot of time at the various playgrounds. This first set of pictures is from a series that I like to call "Rocky-in-the-swing-looking-very-melancholic-but-really-she's-just-curious-because-she-loves-to-watch-the-other-kids-at-the-playground". They're from my blue period.

Rocky has not quite mastered walking on her own, but she's already moved on to bigger and better things. We tried to get her to at least use a harness and ropes, but she feels that they hamper her style too much.

If we could only teach her how to yodel while doing this, she would look exactly like that game on the Price is Right.

We're obviously still working with Rocky on pumping her legs at the right time on the swing.

On an unrelated/closing note, we only have one more week until the marathon (and I only have six days left before venturing into the scary, uncharted waters known as my thirties). This is officially my last audition call for any song suggestions for my race playlist (as well as any ideas for things that I have to do before I turn 30). I'm looking for nice, peppy songs that will put a spring in my step down the final stretch, but I won't rule out any suggestions, especially not if they're for Burt Bacharach. So let me know if you have any epiphanies.

Spring in Oregon, a.k.a, the early runner gets to see the early bird get the early worm

2009-05-09T10:46:00.001-07:00

Marci and I have been training for the Newport Marathon that's at the end of this month. Two weeks ago was our 16 mile run, and we tried to get it done as early as we could, because we had so many things to do that day. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not a natural runner by any stretch of the imagination, but Eugene is the perfect place to learn how to love running. There's tons of great trails everywhere throughout the city. We've been doing our long runs on the Amazon Creek bike trail that follows a cool little creek, and it passes some beautiful wetland areas as it winds through the city. Because we left so early, we were able to see some awesome wildlife up close. Aside from the fauna that we typically see, we saw a great blue heron, a pair of great egrets, a nutria, a painted turtle sunning itself in the stream, an American kestrel, cinnamon teals, a killdeer and we saw one of these trekking across the bikeway that I later found out was a Ranchman's Tiger Moth caterpillar:

All of these new sights, plus the fact that we used power gels for the first time (it makes you feel hardcore), combined to give us a little boost. Although seeing all the new animals was great, the animal that gets the sixth-man/cheerleader award for helping us out is the red-winged blackbird.

We saw dozens of them, and they have a really cool song that kept us going. You can hear their call by going here.
Oh, and my brother-in-law Matt definitely gets an honorable mention for making our runs a success. A long time ago, he gave us the audio book of World War Z, and I've been listening to it a little bit at a time as we run, and I finished it the day of the 16 miler.

I obviously haven't posted for a long time, so I have a few more random, spring in Oregon pictures.

I rowed with the UO Crew team in the fall, and they had their home regatta at the quaint little lake where we practiced, so we took a trip out to Dexter Lake to cheer the team on. This picture is actually of the women's crew team.

This pair of massive magnolia trees are right between the building where my office is located and the building where I teach. The picture doesn't even begin to convey how impressive and beautiful they were when they were blooming. Oh well, traduttore/traditore I suppose.

Top o' the mornin to ya!

2009-03-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

I know this video is a day late, but Happy St. Patty's day anyway. I really wanted to post it yesterday, but I was up to my ears in my finals, not unlike the flatterers of Dante's eighth circle of hell. Inferno was one of the many, many books that I had to read this term. I dare you to look up the reference. Go on, I double-dog dare you.

Kazoo playing superhero elephants with comb-overs?

2009-03-07T15:00:00.000-08:00

Caleb told me that I make a lot of lists when I'm talking. I've noticed ever since then that I do make lot of lists. I think that they're really helpful to delineate the different points in an argument. They're also great if you have a bunch of completely unrelated things that you want to talk about, such as:

A. Earlier this week was the anniversary of FDR's first inaugural address where he said "The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself". While the idea makes for a great quote, in the interest of self-preservation, I would add rampaging elephants to the list of things that we should fear.

B. I was talking to some of the other graduate students this week, and somehow we stumbled upon how you say comb-over in Spanish. I found out that in Bolivia they call the person "un prestamista", which basically means a lender, in the sense that one part of the head has to lend the other some of its hair. I thought that was pretty good, but I like the Spanish version even more. In Spain, they call it a "código de barras", meaning a bar-code. I love when a description is so vivid that it conjures an instant image in your mind.

C. If I ever start to go bald, and I need to shift some of the side sod over to cover the playing field on the top of my head, I have a plan. I'm going to grow the hair long on both sides, and then comb them both to the middle. They'll meet in the middle and form a comb-over mohawk. It's astounding to me that nobody has ever tried this before.

D. So everyone knows that Mozart was a musical prodigy, playing and composing at only three years old. But not even he was performing a concert-worthy solo on his instrument at nine months old.

Eat your heart out Wolfgang.

E. I just read on one of the forums on Wordreference.com that in Mexico they call comb-overs Robin Hoods. As in robbing the rich to give to the poor.

F. Marci is at the temple today with the Young Women, so it's just me and Rachmaninoff hanging out. I'm really good at taking care of babies as can be seen in the pictures. Notice that the bib that is supposed to protect the said baby's clothes has on its own accord become a superhero's cape. Holy cute baby batman!

And in this corner...

2009-02-14T09:10:00.001-08:00

Weighing in at 17 and a half pounds; reigning champion of the baby bare-knuckle brawler's cuddly monkeyweight division; the dribbling dynamo drubber, the punctilious pugilistic pixie, the bib-wearing basher from the bronx,

Rocky!!!!!!!!

Baby steps

2009-01-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

The reason I have never been able to consistently write in a journal for longer than a month is because I inevitably have a lapse in writing, and then the need to "get caught up" looms over me in the back of my head, until my journal gets put away again for another few years. I'm telling you this to let you know that although this looks like a real post, it's really a just a list of a few random things to get me back in the swing of things. A way of getting back into that ol' proverbial saddle you could say.
1. The new classroom that I'm teaching in this semester also has a fireplace in it, except that this one isn't boarded up! It has been quite chilly lately, so I've encouraged my students to bring a log so that we can study Spanish by firelight. So far no one has taken me up on the offer. Maybe we'll roast s'mores on the last day of class.
2. I was just thinking the other day that It'll be sad when Rocky's teeth come in. Without teeth to get in the way, Rocky is able to do this cute grin that's really flat and wide and makes her cheeks appear even chubbier than they are (which are very chubby). The morning after I voiced this thought out loud, Rocky's first nubbin of a tooth emerged. I don' t know if me saying it out loud had anything to do with it, but just in case, I have to say that I'm going to be really sad when Rocky is potty-trained. I said, I'm going to be really sad when Rocky is potty-trained.
3. This video is from one of my studly students from last semester. He wrote this song based off of the things that we learned in the first chapter of 101.

4. This picture is of Rocky and Ginny hanging out during the Christmas break. I just wanted to point out that Rocky, who has a whopping three weeks worth of real world experience more than Ginny, is always trying her best to impart the knowledge and wisdom that she has skimmed from life. For example, it's evident here that Rocky is instructing Ginny in the finer art of flipping someone off.

One down, fourteen more to go

2008-12-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

As means of gaining closure to my first semester of grad school and teaching, I thought I would put up a few pictures of the University of Oregon. This is Gerlinger Hall where I taught last semester. Gerlinger has a lot of moss growing on it like anything good and established at the U of O. In fact, some of the best professors here are also covered in moss. My classroom is the room at the top left of the building in the first picture. It's a pretty typical looking classroom, except for the boarded up fireplace.

I'm pretty sure that someone was entombed alive behind the fireplace, and I'm pretty sure that I think that because I had to read the Cask of Amontillado in ninth grade. I was able to use the fireplace to my students advantage though. I told them that multiple studies have shown that students do better on exams when they feel more comfortable. In order to make it a more inviting atmosphere, I hung a Christmas stocking on the fireplace before they started the test.

I don't know what this video is from, but I showed it to my students at the beginning of the semester.

What I'm thankful for

2008-12-04T22:52:00.000-08:00

I'm well aware that these Thanksgiving pictures are late, but I'm swimming in my finals papers. As if that's not enough, my students had final projects and two tests this week, so I have to get all those graded and uploaded as well. I know: wah, wah, wah.

The absolute best part of Thanksgiving for me is to be able to play football with my brothers. All of my brothers are great athletes, and it makes me very proud in a big-brother sort of way to watch them knock the socks off of somebody. I obviously didn't have brothers to play with, and I drove all over town (in vain) looking for a football game to join. I ended up playing a pretty hardcore game of Ultimate with a bunch of hippies. Ultimate is also called Frisbee football, and the hipsters do frequently refer to each other as bros, so I guess it was logically the next best thing.

Despite the lack of brotherly bonding time, we still had a great Thanksgiving because we had what any good Thanksgiving needs, namely:

twelve layer jello,

the type of listlessness that only tryptophan can provide,

and really big, tasty, turkey legs.

Ummmmm Boy!!!!!

Just doing my little bit to save the world, three lives at a time

2008-11-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

As I was going through the questions to make sure I was safe to donate blood today, the nurse looked at my driver's license, and said "You don't look like the Mormons I've known before". I figured she was probably referring to my face-fro. Like most mammals in northern climates, my fur gets thicker and wider distributed in the colder months. Obviously, she has never seen a picture of Brigham Young or Lorenzo Snow before. I felt it was my duty to free her of any other misconceptions of Utah that she might have. So I told her that in this past election, Utah had the highest percentage of people voting for a Democrat since the 1920s, to which she responded by giving me a high-five and bumping up the waiting list to get my blood taken.

When the phlebotomist was getting me unhooked and ran through the list of Coban bandage choices, I promptly told him to make it purple, because Weber will always hold a special place in my heart. I must have said purple a little too quickly and possibly too enthusiastically, because he gave me a look that said "Ohh, purple, eh? You sure you don't want to read over some of those donation questions a little more carefully?" My first thought was to tell him that I bleed purple. But then I realized that he had physical evidence to the contrary in his hands. I couldn't risk making him think I was lightheaded, because then he would have made me lay down for even longer.

I was a little nervous at first about riding my bike home after donating, which is why I caved in and ate one of the free chocolate chip cookies to replenish my waning blood-sugar levels. Actually, I had two of them. And a Capri Sun apple juice. And a packet of trail mix.

The city of Eugene is prepared though in the event of any fainting/narcoleptic college students on bikes. I think that it is precisely because an emergency of this nature could arise that the city has not picked up any of the fall leaves. Every street in the city is lined by corridors of dead leaves at least four feet high. Before when it rained and the rim brakes on my bike basically became a "just for show" feature, my commute was a little scary. Now I ride with a lot more confidence knowing that the leaves are there if I ever need to launch myself off my bike for any reason.

On a completely separate note, this picture was staged - I needed it for my PowerPoint for my class today- but it's still pretty cute.

Eugene's sparkling glitterati

2008-11-14T15:45:00.000-08:00

Hey, how's it going? [insert lame excuses about how busy I've been here]. [insert profuse apologies and unfulfillable promises here]. Wheww!!! I'm glad we got that over with. So, Marci and I have been called to go to the Spanish branch and we went for the first time last Sunday. We had already made a lot of friends in our other ward, so we were a little bummed but also excited to go to our new branch. Plus, our other ward had somebody that mysteriously looked exactly like Cillian Murphy (the scarecrow from Batman Begins) and a guy that was a foot-and-half taller version of Vincini from the Princess Bride. So, I was especially excited to see what near-brushes with fame awaited us in our new branch. Possibly an Antonio Banderas lookalike or a Ricardo Montalban doppelganger. Well, I'm sorry to report that there were no Rickys or Tony Flags impersonators, but the guy that I sat next to in Elder's quorum did sound exactly like Machete from the Spy Kid movies (also known as the bartender from Anchorman if you don't watch those kiddy shows).
As if these almost celebrity sightings weren't enough, I just got an e-mail from the UO president, Dave Frohnmayer. Now most of you probably don't have an entire hemisphere of your brain dedicated to the minutiae of 80s movies, but Dave Frohmayer is the name of the sausage king of Chigago from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's reassuring to know that if the president of the university gig ever seems like it's not going anywhere, Dave can totally go back and reign over the land of stuffed meats. As a footnote, the sausage king of Chicago is really named Abe Frohman, but lets not get nitpicky.

All this for just four easy installments of $39.95

2008-10-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Our bikes were taken the weekend right before school started, so I've been commuting to school on my longboard. It has worked out fairly well. I look like a hip college student riding my skateboard to school, especially when I hit a patch of sidewalk that's been pushed up by a tree root and I go flying off of my board. But, I'm going to start practicing with the UO Crew team (more on that later), so I really needed a new bike by this weekend. On Friday, I found some possibilities on Craigslist and I went to check them out. I drove up to Coburg (a quaint little (which may or may not be a redundancy) farming town), which is about 15 miles out north of Eugene. I went there to buy one bike-

and I ended up with two-

But that's not all, if you call now we'll also throw in two enormous pumpkins-

Three watermelons-

And two cool-looking fall gourds-

But wait, we're not done yet. If you're one of the next 15 callers, we'll throw in at no extra charge 9 ears of the most delicious corn you've ever had in your life-

And a big bowl of tomatoes

The best part of the story isn't the fact that I wanted one bike, and ended up with two bikes and a bunch of produce. He actually tried to give me a third bike for Rocky, but we couldn't fit it in the car. No the best part of the story is that he didn't actually give me all those vegetables. We drove across the street to his neighbors farm, and we stole them. For the record, stolen vegetables taste so much better than store-bought ones.

The joys of student housing

2008-09-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

The people upstairs have recently began to play Rock Band with a bunch of friends until about 2:00 in the morning every night. At least, that's what I think they're doing. It's either that, or they're doing sweating to the oldies while on crack. But little do they know that we have a plan for full retribution. We have Rocky set to go off every morning at 1:30, 4:00 and 6:30.....Suckers.

Book one, chapter one. "It was a dark and stormy...

2008-09-28T16:10:00.001-07:00

So, it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted. How's everybody doing? I'm okay, aside from the fact that our brand-new bikes were stolen last night. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
A week and a half ago, we loaded up a rental truck with all of our junk, and headed west to our new home. My orientation started on Friday the 19th, so we left early the day before and just drove straight through. We almost made it to Eugene (we were about 40 miles away) when the truck became leprous and started dropping pieces everywhere. Luckily, we were in the middle of nowhere (about 30 miles from a town on either side), so we felt really good about just abandoning a broken-down truck containing all of our earthly possessions on the side of the road. Even though it was a huge hassle, everything worked out really well. Nothing was stolen (until now), we didn't have to worry about parking the big truck in the tiny motel parking lot, and Budget even gave us some money back. We got all moved in, have already made lots of friends, and are really excited about our new home (minus the theft). I'm sure this is only the first of many, many adventures that I like to call "The chronicles of the Rigby Family at grad school." I'm going to end this post with a list of the things that I learned about Budget trucks during our trek.

Our good 'ol, not so trusty rental truck in front of the lava fields on Santiam Pass, with the volcano Three Fingered Jack in the background.

The volume of a Budget gas tank (including fumes) can be exactly defined as the distance between Layton and Boise, and/or the distance between Boise and Bend, Or.
Good idea: Driving the Santiam Pass scenic byway. Bad Idea: Driving the Santiam pass in a truck that is as wide as the road itself.
While baling twine is excellent at securing hay into bales, it is also pretty good at securing car seats into the cab of a truck that only has two seat belts.

Strawberry jumpsuits forever

2008-09-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

We put Rocky into these pajamas for the first time the other day. To me, it looks like what you would get if Evel Knievel and Strawberry Shortcake started a clothing line together. I don't understand why the people who make baby clothes think that the world can never have too many ruffles. I think that these clothes makers can be lumped into the same category as those people that dress their dogs in tutus, or those people that make posters with a chimpanzee in a suit and toilet paper all around the room that says something like "I should have stayed in bed this morning." In other words, they feel better about themselves by making something else look as ridiculous as possible. As a side note, I still think that Rocky looks really, really cute in these pajamas, but that just proves how biased I am towards my own offspring. Another side note: we didn't pose Rocky like this. I think she was trying to emulate the only other people who would actually choose to wear something like this. Namely, Liberace or Siegfried and Roy.

You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, lifeless, hairy hands

2008-09-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I went shooting with my Father-in-Law Dick. I had never shot a pistol that wasn't air or water powered before. As you can see from the picture, I did pretty well for myself. It would be natural to chalk my shooting up to beginner's luck, but my secret is much simpler than that. I have logged countless hours playing Area 51, which is an arcade game with a gun, and it's your job to put the kibosh on an alien-uprising in a top-secret military compound. Normally I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I do have to point out that I have personally averted the end of the world many times, as well as found two bonus rooms along the way. What's the point of all these wasted hours spent at the front of Smith's making aliens explode? Well, I think that it's obvious that I'm your go-to guy if we ever get invaded by body-snatching, zombie aliens. Or if there is ever a surprise attack from stationary Granny Smith apples. And if the day should ever come that there is an uprising of zombie Granny Smiths, then I'm quite possibly the only person qualified to face that onslaught.

Stars and piñatas forever

2008-08-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

Rooting for the good ol' US of A during the Olympics has put me into a patriotic mood lately. So I submit to you a few pictures of piñatas and birthday cakes as quintessential Americana to help bolster your national pride. It's not that cakes and piñatas are more inherently American than other things. We all know that the tradition of breaking piñatas came from Mexico, and the fount of all knowledge (Wikipedia) has taught me that birthday cakes originated with the Romans. But if you think about it, nothing is more American than taking someone else's culture and acting like we've been doing it all along.

Marci and I made a piñata for Caleb for his birthday because he always said that the piñatas were broken by the little kids before his turn came up at the family parties when we were younger. Strong Bad was a natural choice because he has the most balloon-shaped head out of anyone.

Hey batter, batter, swwiiiingg batter!!!!

We made this cake for our friend Lindsay's birthday. The fro was made out of little cupcakes, and the pick was, ...um, just a pick. You can't really see it in the picture, but the grill on the teeth says Happy B-Day.

I know this last one strays slightly from my theme of piñatas and birthday cakes, but I had to put it in. This is our actual wedding cake. Marci's cousin made it for us, and it turned out awesome! The base was made out of Twinkies around a real cake, with Lil' Debbie brown and white cupcakes at the very bottom. Then it goes ho-hos, red zingers, yellow Hostess cupcakes, and orange Snowballs. The bride and groom at the top are Han Solo and Princess Leia.

How not to do it

2008-08-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, in the listlessness of summer afternoon's languor (that sounds really poetic right? I got that from the inside of one of those Dove Chocolate wrappers), I decided that it was the perfect time to take my longboard for a tour of the neighborhood. At the end of my ride, I realized that I was going way faster than I was used to (and yes, my normal speed is somewhere between wussy and three-legged goat). So I did what any quick-thinking person would do in my situation. I decided to launch my body off the board, and then use said body to stop the board.
The following is an inventory of the new holes in my clothing/appendages:
New running shoes - 1
Cargo shorts - 1
Ankle - 2
Leg - 2
Hand and forearm - 6
My red shirt from Savers that I think says "We came to party" in Danish - 17

Hot chicks...

2008-08-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

As Marci can attest to, I get giddy like a school-girl when I can see cool wildlife up close. A couple of weeks ago, I found a nest of quail just behind our patio that were in the process of hatching. By the time I got the camera, they were already trying to get out of their nest.

I like to think that the little slip that the first quail does is, in fact, one quail giving his little quail brothers a flying elbow-drop. That's right buddy, you show them who is going to be calling the shots around here. Then, why don't you just step on someone's head to make sure that they got the point. Well done.

This was only about five minutes after they hatched. It's awesome how far they jump. I'm sure what he was thinking was: "Walking was so two-minutes old; that's baby stuff."

True Pioneers

2008-07-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

Rocky wore the bonnet that came with her blessing dress in celebration of Pioneer Day. Unfortunately, it was a little too small. Considering that it was made for a burial, I guess I should just be grateful that she could wear it at all. She looked more Amish than pioneer, but I think the Amish are cool, so I was down with it. We took her to the parade, which was awesome as always. The Ogden parade is always about 15 hours long, but I insist on going every year. I remember going with my grandma and will continue to go until I can watch it with my own grandchildren. This year had the usual marching bands, floats, and horses. I like the Shriners the best, but this year there were only a few. I was also disappointed because last year the Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile was the grand finale. They gave everyone a weiner whistle. This year, no weiner. What a drag. But, despite the obvious downer, we had a good time.

That night Brandon and I felt that we should remember the pioneers by cooking over an open fire. We had the family over for some hobo-dinners.

I'm pretty sure that the pioneers didn't have aluminum foil, or cream soda, or ice, or popsicles, or seven layer bean dip, or chips, or paper cups and plates, but other than that it was exactly like the pioneers.

Oh give me a home, where the horseflys swarm

2008-07-21T16:03:00.002-07:00

On Saturday, I ran in the Xterrra Antelope Island 12K. I thought that because I was running on Antelope Island I would be able to see some really interesting wildlife. For the record, I didn't see any buffaloes roaming, nor any deer and antelope playing. I did, in fact, hear more than a seldom discouraging word when I was running up the hills. There was an article about the race in the paper, and this is what the race organizer said about the hills: "You can actually run all the way, but you've got to be a stud. It's steep enough most people will probably power hike it." I don't want to imply anything, but I didn't have to walk at all. Okay, I'm lying. I did have to walk about a hundred yards, and I was trying really hard to imply something there.

I'd like to give some shout-outs to a few things that made it possible for me to finish the race. Thanks to my "pump-it" sweat band and to my mother-in-law for giving it to me. Kudos to my Key Bank t-shirt for not chafing my nipps. And a final gracias to the Flo Rida song " Low" for getting me through that last, tough hill (it was a free download, alright?). But seriously, how can you get more motivational than inspired lyrics such as: "I was just like a clover, shorty was hot like a toaster." I mean, really, you can't top that. That is some well-crafted musical prose.

Look how cute my little family is.

The subway!!!

2008-07-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday we went to Southern Utah to hike the Subway in Zion National Park. It was awesome!!! It's like a naturalist's candy store down there. There is beautiful scenery and really cool wildlife everywhere you look. I felt like Darwin getting off the HMS Beagle at the Galapagos (minus the seasickness and the scurvy of course). We saw among other things: Eastern Fence lizards, Canyon Tree frogs, an American Dipper nest with babies, an Arizona toad, a Black-necked Garter snake, Wandering Garter snakes and tons of Brook Trout fingerlings.

You may be put in an awkward social position before the day is out...

2008-07-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

It is frightening to me how spot-on horoscopes are sometimes; it's almost supernatural how much they know about our current situations. Take Rocky's for example (she's a Taurus). Her horoscope from yesterday said "You are entering a phase of high energy bur reduced effectiveness on the job - it's a result, no doubt, of scattered interests." Incredible. It's like someone has peaked through our window, and wrote this one specifically for Rocky. Her interests really have been scattered lately between the rain forest mobile on her swing and her bouncy seat that sings this song to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: "Playful puppy up above. Kitty there for you to love. Bumblebee and bunnies too. They're all here to play with you." Between all of this, her regular office job has really been suffering lately. There have been a lot of complaints from customers, and I wouldn't be surprised if she got censured quite harshly on her next performance review.

Pinky

2008-07-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

The only thing that Rocky likes to do as much as watching T.V. on the sly is staring at the ceiling fan. We have all kinds of toys, a swing and a bouncy seat that she has virtually no interest in because her heart belongs to the circular motions of the fan. Because of the Central Air that keeps our apartment frigid, in order to run the fan Brandon and I have to sport beanies. But, because we are dedicated parents, we bundle the baby, and ourselves so that she can indulge. I'm sure there are "studies" somewhere that say that ceiling fans pretty much destroy a baby's brain or that they cause cancer or something because it seems that is the case with anything that Rocky likes.

Take the binky for example. I've read numerous sources and have been told by several people that letting Rocky have a binky is about as harmful as letting her smoke pot. If she takes it she will surely starve and will never succeed as a functional adult. Our little Rocky LOVES her "Pinky" as we like to call it. As a concerned, if not paranoid mother, this has caused me some amount of stress, especially because she is so skinny. I try to take it away and Rocky will try to suck on her wrist. Her little legs will start kicking and her voice will begin whining. I always bend in and let her enjoy herself. The first week of her life Brandon suggested that we only let her have Pinky at night but that only lasted about five seconds once we realized how much she likes it. I've noticed other mothers who use a superior tone of voice and say, "Oh, my baby won't even take a binky." Their kids are living life without the chains of addiction with which my child is already bound. I, personally, think the binky is awesome, which is why we have four of them. They are always strategically placed all around the house, like my mom's reading glasses, so that wherever we are, one is close by.

Hopefully Rocky's attachment to Gerber's Nuk brand pacifiers will stop before she goes to jr. high, and hopefully nobody ever does a study on ceiling fans.

¡Viva España!

2008-07-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

All the experts agree that babies shouldn't watch TV because it can negatively affect brain developblah, as well as offsetting the balance of blah in the blah-blah, not to mention the blah to blah blah blah. Blah. So we, like any well intentioned parents, decided before Rocky was born that she wouldn't watch TV until she was at least 38. All of this came to a screeching halt last week when we watched the European Cup final between Spain and Germany. We had Rocky facing away from the TV, and she was practically breaking her neck to be able see the game and cheer for the Spanish side. Well, in all honesty, it was more like drooling in support of the Spanish side. So we gave in and put her in the Bumbo for the last few minutes of the game. We might be bad parents for allowing something that would interfere with proper brain development. But we could never be forgiven for not letting her witness Spain win its first major title in 44 years. She was really into the game, as you can see in the picture. I think she liked it all, except that she didn't think that Torres deserved a yellow card. She promptly expressed her disgust by filling up her diaper. And those hooligans in England claim that they're passionate about the game.

Bumbo!!!!

2008-07-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Everybody likes to think that their child is more advanced and smarter than average. We're no different, but now we have empirical proof to back it up. Rocky just turned two months old, and we thought it was time to try out the Bumbo. Aside from being a word that's extremely fun to say over and over, the Bumbo is billed as the Baby Sitter (Note:two words. Not to be confused with Suzie down the street: one word). The Bumbo is made in South Africa, making it possibly the most important thing to come out of South Africa since Nelson Mandela or the end of the Apartheid.

The box says that the Bumbo is suitable for babies between the ages of 3 to 14 months. By mastering the Bumbo already, Rocky has shown that she is clearly on track to being a wunderkind. Or that or that she has a world class sitting-fanny. Or that she's just small enough that her neck can rest on the back of the Bumbo. I guess only time will tell.