Boredom-Inspired Lists

Top Names for Our Forthcoming Son

1. Max Power
2. Lance Uppercut
3. Rock Strongo
4. Dr. Death
5. Horatio Caine

Bands I Would Like to Play In

1. The Travoltas
2. Alkaline Trio
3. Millencolin
4. Streetlight Manifesto
5. Nada Surf
6. Bouncing Souls

Reasons Why the TV Writers' Strike Has Got to End

1. Traci is now watching those shows on TLC about families with 16 kids
2. Snoop Dogg's "Fatherhood" is the best thing on our DVR (There were obviously no writers for the show - if there were, they should never work again)
3. I've already watched every re-run of 30 Rock at least twice
4. Without new episodes of The Office, my coworkers and I have nothing to talk about on Friday mornings. Silence. Eerie silence.

President Hinckley

Our beloved prophet passed away on Sunday.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695247765,00.html

Romantic Vacation Getaway: SLC in January

Our friend Rhett and his girlfriend Liz spent the weekend at our house. When we heard the doorbell I said, "Paige, let's open the door."
"Open door!" she parroted. But then the second she saw them, her eyes teared up.

Over the next three days, every time she made eye contact with Rhett, she'd either say "bub-bye friends" or "open door?" She finally decided to warm up them about 30 minutes before they went back home. When they really left, the sad "bub-bye friends" were replaced by happy "see ya's," kisses and hugs. She then napped peacefully for the next two hours.

I don't know how much fun Rhett and Liz had, but I had a great vacation. In just one day I ate at both the Chuck O' Rama and made my first trip to Benihana. I kept thinking of that episode of The Office when they go to Benihana and Dwight can't hear anything anyone is saying. And Michael brings the Asian waitresses back to the office, but has to mark one of their hands with a Sharpie because he can't remember which is which.

There was one really sad part of the weekend. Liz shattered my entire world view when she told me CSI:Miami, with all of its white, linen suits and aviator sunglasses, is not really filmed in Miami. It's actually filmed in Long Beach, California, right around the corner from Liz's college. I wonder if Snoop Dogg knows what kind of shenanigans are being pulled, right in his hometown.

Thug Life/Ghetto Consequence

Recent Pics can be found here.

Join Me or Die. Can You Do Any Less?

Traci and I watched the snooze fest that is the Simpsons Movie over the weekend. Rather than get myself worked up over what I didn't like about it, I'll focus on better times. Mr. Sparkle. What a brave corporate logo. Awesome power indeed.

i wondered how fast is lightspeed

Modern communication goes thusly:

--Spencer writes post about high school dance with Katie.
--Katie lives in Wisconsin. Her blog links to mine.
--Katie's dad is a mission president in Argentina. He used to be Traci's bishop.
--Katie's dad reads Katie's blog and clicks on the link to my blog.
--Katie's dad was shocked that Spencer and Traci were "making out" in his kitchen.
--Katie's dad wants to leave a comment, but is scared that doing so will "put a virus on his computer."
--Traci reminds me that "we weren't making out all, we just kissed a couple of times."

Recent Paige-isms

Paige is learning new words and phrases all the time. Here's a few things she's cracked me up with lately.

The Birthday Party

Paige turned two a couple of months ago. All of my family came over to our house to celebrate. Paige generally gets upset when everyone's around, as she doesn't like losing out on any attention. She'd been practicing the happy birthday song for months (always singing "Happy Birthday, Dear Ryan (her cousin)" for some reason), but when everyone started singing to her, she went into hysterical crying. She had finally mellowed about right about the time everyone was ready to leave. As all of the cousins were getting into the car she stood on the porch and waved to everyone. "Bub-bye, party! Bub-bye party!"

Amen, Brother

Church isn't really Paige's thing. She throws toys at kids at nursery and sneaks out of the chapel during sacrament meeting. She does, however, love saying "amen." One amen never really suffices, though. At the end of each sacrament prayer, the whole congregation hears one little voice saying, "amen, Amen, AMEN!!!" You can only imagine what testimony meeting is like.

Last week we went to Traci's parents' ward for baby Maika's blessing. Paige was actually pretty good during the whole meeting. During the closing prayer, she broke rather significant wind and proclaimed "Toot!" While we were a bit embarrassed, we were more impressed that she got the word right, as she's been referring to that sound as "burp" lately.

Uh, Number 4

Traci bought Paige one of those Christmas calendars that is filled with a chocolate for each day. Paige loved it. The problem, of course, was that she never wanted to settle for just one chocolate. We kept the calendar on top of the fridge (theoretically out of reach). At random times throughout the day Paige would stand in front of the fridge and say, "number seven?" Meaning, "can I have the candy in door number seven." When I'd tell her no, she'd say, "uh, number three?" I never fell for it. Well, sometimes it was too cute so I had to fall for it.

We have also noticed that Paige is already trying to play us. Whenever she falls down, gets hurt, or is crying for any reason, through her tears she'll always manage to propose "uh, can-dy?" If that doesn't work, she'll just wait a little bit and then present the request as a brand new, great idea. "Can-dy?" If we say no, she usually rattles off all of the other acceptable options, one after another. "Snacks? (fruit snacks)" "Elmo? (brushing her teeth with her Elmo toothbrush)" "Toot Toot Chugga" (a Wiggles movie.) She's nothing if not persistent.

A Miracle?!

After at least a year of begging, In Utah This Week magazine finally published some of my work. Read some record reviews here that you already read on the Manifesto.