Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like my iPhone. I’m a long-time AT&T customer and recently upgraded to an iPhone 4. The elitist attitude held by most users of Apple products has always rubbed me the wrong way. But I wanted a new phone and the whole family of Droid phones is confusing to me. Julie has used an iPhone for quite some time now and I knew she was satisfied with the service. I upgraded online and received my new phone in 2 days (super easy, by the way). I’m still learning the ins and outs but I really like it. Calling it a “phone” seems silly since I’ve made less than 5 calls in the 2 weeks I’ve had it but, if anything, I like my new phone for my social media outlets.

This week, I love baby showers. As Graham’s arrival gets closer and closer, the gifts have been piling up. He’s received a lot of toys but the majority of the gifts have been items that we’ll need to clothe and raise him. Julie and I are extremely thankful for your generosity and I can’t wait for him to get here! I have been made aware of some side bets pertaining to my reaction to all of the attention Graham is receiving. My mom once told me that once you have a baby, it’s not about ‘you’ anymore. I think I’m starting to realize exactly what she meant. It already makes me feel good to see so many people doing nice things for our son.

This week, I don’t like the direction of the new Three Stooges film. As you know, I am a huge fan of the Stooges. Lots of rumors regarding a Stooges movie have been making the rounds for the past few years. At one point, Sean Penn was pegged to play Larry along with Jim Carrey (Curley) and Benicio Del Toro (Moe). Casting these three stars was thought to add significant muscle to a Stooges bio-film, something that’s never gained any traction in Hollywood. But, as stars will do, all three actors lost interest in this Farrelly Brothers project and production was put on hold. It now appears that a lot of work has been done since that point. A photo of a revised cast was recently released and I have to tell you, it ain’t pretty.

That’ right…Will Sasso as “Curley”, Sean Hayes as “Larry” and some Greek guy as “Moe”. This movie just went from the top shelf to the basement. Check out the film’s website and you’ll see that the cast of Jersey Shore will make a cameo in the movie. So, these will be modern-day Stooges. Ugh, we get Snooki but no Shemp.

You may not think the Stooges are funny but they are indeed comedy legends. Maybe I am an old soul or maybe they are just an acquired taste. Either way, there’s no denying that their careers were built on a platform (short films) that had a brief life. They were never considered relevant enough to catch on in TV or movies. The Stooges deserve a great movie made by great stars but it appears we’ll just have to keep waiting.

Just try to watch this without laughing:

Making of a Nursery - Part 3

Several new updates on the nursery front.  Again my goal is to have it completely done by Thanksgiving...so only a few more weeks to go!

Since the last post we have accomplished a good bit.  For starters our crib now has a mattress.  Several of my co-workers went in together and surprised us with the mattress which was so sweet! 

I also made some fitted sheets from a blue and white swiss dot fabric.

Our changing table arrived and we have put that together.  Still working on storage options for the bottom portion, but hopefully I will post about that next time.

My mom gave us this sweet little rocking chair, and Nick painted it a fun orange!

Speaking of orange....for a slit second I was considering painting the bathroom orange (no thanks to Kiley), but since it took me over a month to decide on a blue/gray for the nursery I quickly realized that I didn't have near enough time to mull over that decision.  Not to mention I am such a coward when it comes to decorating...I always take to safe route....even though I know the bold approach would probably look better.

All that to say...we decided to paint the bathroom the same color as the bedroom (Benjamin Moore Gray Owl), but managed to spice it up with a fun orange and white horizontal stripe shower curtain.  I am so pleased with the result and cant wait to get a new bath mat and towels to tie everything together.

You may be wondering where all of this orange is coming from...well I did manage to pick some accent fabrics which will be incorporated in the room.  None of the work is done so I don't have any pictures to show, but here is a peak at the fabrics. 

Stay tuned to see where these will be used!

Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like my pencil. Several years ago, shortly after the beginning of my career, I decided to use a mechanical pencil as my daily writing utensil of choice. I purchased a two-pack (not to be confused with 2Pac) of Pentel’s P207 model. I can misplace a cheap pen without even trying but somehow, I’ve managed to keep both of these pencils. I use one at home to balance the checkbook and one at the office. The office pencil has a significantly greater amount of wear and bite marks. Both pencils are due for an eraser reload but let’s face it – I rarely make mistakes. I’ve noticed that being identified as a pencil user in the professional world brings untold credibility and commands respect from coworkers. Maybe you will enjoy the same benefits. GET ONE TODAY!

This week, I love Twitter during college football season. It could be easily argued that Twitter users get the most value out of this social media outlet during college football season, especially in the south. Fans can tweet their opinion during games, follow their favorite players, receive updates from in-the-know sports writers and much more. It is almost as if Twitter was invented for college football fans. Unfortunately, Tweeting while at a football game can be made difficult if cell phone networks are over capacity. This is often the case at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn. But this twitteruption (see what I did there?) is fleeting and normal service resumes once the crowd of 87,000+ disperses into the night. Listen, if you only use Facebook, you’re really missing out. GET TWITTER TODAY!

This week, I don’t like all of these occupying hipsters. So you don’t like the tax system? I don’t either, bro. You don’t like the ever-increasing gap between the middle class and the upper class? Same here! Let’s band together and elect officials that will meet our demands! No? Oh…you and your dirty friends are going to camp out on Wall Street? You think that chanting and playing your bongos will lead to more jobs and a better economy? Do you have a job? Do you even want a job?

Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like planning for parenthood. Julie and I have attended a few classes over the past few weeks that were suggested by our doctor. We spent almost a full Saturday (as opposed to several nights) at the hospital, learning everything from where to go when it’s show time and how to clean a newborn. We even watched some....detailed videos that helped us get a better idea of what the delivery will be like. We also attended a hands-free CPR class and learned what to do when infants and adults stop breathing or show signs of choking. I did not reassure Julie about my capabilities when the head came off of my CPR baby. The Branches attended both of these classes with us - having good friends go through this with us is so much fun and makes the classes much more tolerable! Here are some photos:











This week, I love Catching Hell. I’m a Chicago Cubs fan. We don’t have much to celebrate, but that’s part of the deal. When the future starts to look bright, a dark cloud always manages to loom over Wrigley Field. There’s no better example of this than the Steve Bartman incident. In the 2003 National League Championship Series, the Cubs were just a few outs away from winning game 6 and advancing to the World Series. All looked well until a fan named Steve Bartman made an attempt to catch a foul ball and interrupted a Cubs’ outfielder from making the final out of the inning. As fate would have it, the Cubs blew their lead, lost Game 6, lost Game 7 and the Cubbies still haven’t won the World Series since 1908. Steve Bartman has never appeared publically to discuss the play and receives all the blame for the Cubs’ collapse to this day. Catching Hell is a great documentary that not only examines the Steve Bartman incident but also the Bill Buckner incident from 1986, in which the Boston Red Sox first baseman made a crucial fielding error in Game 6 of the World Series. Just like the Bartman incident, the Red Sox lost Game 6, lost Game 7 and Buckner received all of the blame for the Red Sox’s collapse. The film explores why we make Bartman and Buckner the scapegoat despite plenty of evidence of other factors that led to those losses.



This week, I don’t like football players wearing pink. I love women so much that I married one. I understand that breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States. But I just don’t get the NFL’s breast cancer awareness tactic during the month of October. The NFL’s website explains it all but I just don’t know that this makes any sense. Breast cancer awareness is clearly the winner here: the NFL is a great vehicle for getting your message out there. But who is getting this message? I know there are lots of female NFL fans but wouldn’t the league do the majority of its viewers a much bigger favor by putting this effort behind prostate cancer awareness? You have to believe that the NFL would save many more lives of men by touting prostate cancer awareness than the number of women it is reaching with its current campaign. Ugh, everything is PINK – that’s the real issue I have. There is no franchise in the league that can mix pink into their color scheme without the result looking like something that came from the 90’s.