New Additions-New Traditions

My sister has a blog where she mostly writes about her kids. If you've read her blog, you may have seen that they have a tradition where they take a picture of the boys on their birthday wearing Danny's letter jacket from high school. Here is one the pictures:

Well I don't have kids, so you would think that this tradition would not pertain to me right now. Well I shouldn't let a little thing like not having kids stop me from doing this myself, should I?

If you have read my other posts you have read about my IPhone situation. A week after I got my new phone Apple announced a new version. I tried to pretend that I didn't care...like it didn't bother me that they came out with a better and cheaper model a week later. I bottled up those feelings I had, but I was fuming...FUMING! Ladies and Gentlemen...I am no longer fuming. I would like to present the newest addition to my family...Da da da daaaaaaa!!! (pretend that a trumpet played that, or a kazoo if you prefer) IPhone 3G:

It is so beautiful and fast. I love it like a real son, except a real son couldn't give you point by point directions using a global positioning system. It will be a part of my life for the next two years, barring any fatal drops or water damage. But in that case I have Apple Care, which will replace it for free. I've never seen a baby come with that kind of guarantee? I feel like I need to start my traditions with it. My letter jacket is packed away somewhere at the 'rents house in San Antonio, so I used another jacket to get the job done:

We have so much fun!

Jeff vs Chris

Most of you know the story in the bible about Jesus in the temple. Where he gets mad at all the people, flips over the tables and throws around chickens and sheep and camels? Yea that one.

Ok, so I'm visiting a friend in Victorville this weekend. I called him up earlier to tell him that I was coming in this weekend and he said to come on over. Then on Thursday he informed me that his church had two air conditioner units stolen. Not window units. Like ones that cooled the entire sanctuary. These guys skipped the electronics and went strait for bolted in appliances. All I can say is ...Wow! So because my good friend Chris is such a good guy, he volunteered to sleep in the church sanctuary until the repairs have been made. So, because Chris volunteered, I'm also sleeping on the floor of my old church.

Chris and I have different views on how God should take care of the situation. He thinks believes that God should show them mercy, convicting them with blessings, love and kindness. I think he should convict them with pain and suffering. I believe that the Lord should smite them. Smite them good. Since we were at a church all night, I figured that we could pray about this. Here Chris is, praying for mercy and blessings, while I am praying for pain and suffering:

As you can see, I'm praying twice as hard so I get more points, because most good Christians know that prayer works on a point system. Obviously I won, so pain and suffering it is! They've just been smited, or smooted, or smit...whatever. Somewhere across town this guy is getting home from a long day of stealing ACs, walks in the door and says, "Why the heck is my table upside down...and what is a sheep doing in here?" Sorry man, that's how Jesus rolls.

Popeye- Spinach and Poorly Planned Workouts

So I've literally spent the majority of the last 2 weeks in front of the tv watching the Olympics. I love sports, but I've never been as captured by an event as I have been lately. With so much time watching the Olympics, I've seen a plethera of commercials. One commercial in particular caught my attention. It was of one of my old favorite cartoons...POPEYE!!!

I remember growing up that Popeye was the man. I saw him in a boxing match and after he ate some spinach he punched Brutus not just out of the ring, but through the roof of the arena, flying across town. Who, in our generation of super-cartoons is able to do that? I never saw a ninja turtle do that, or even spider man! No, only Popeye. Seeing this commercial gave me a sense of nostalgia. I remembered waking up early on Saturday morning to watch cartoons, trying not to wake up the parents. Now that I'm older, I have a few questions about Popeye. Questions that never occurred to me as a kid.

First...Why couldn't Brutus ever win in a fight against Popeye? Brutus was made to fight. Look at him...I would not mess with the dude, especially if he has that thing of TNT with him. He also didn't play by the rules, which is evident by his willingness to commit first degree murder, waiting for Popeye to get close enough to blow him up. Now I'm not saying the dude is a bright guy, but after several dozen fights with Popeye, he should have gotten the hint that after Popeye ate his spinach, he developed super human strength. So here is my question...why didn't it ever occur to Brutus that he too could eat spinach? In a battle of two super humans, the stronger super human should win. With Brutus' raw strength, he surely would have been the stronger super human.

Now on to my next question about Popeye. You're working out at the gym and look at yourself in the mirror...at what point do you say to yourself," I really should focus on something other than my forearms"?

Chewy, the Bad Toaster

Ok, so say you have this friend named...Chewy. Chewy always makes your sandwiches, and he is good at it, because making sandwiches is kind of his thing. He knows that every night you will want a turkey sandwich with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo on wheat bread. Chewy knows exactly how much of everything to put on the sandwich because every night you say, "Chewy, this sandwich is perfect! You are the man, Chewy!" Then one day you get home and Chewy starts making your sandwich. You get your sandwich and it is a tuna sandwich on rye. Chewy knows you hate tuna and you are allergic to rye bread, so you say, "Chewy, what the heck?!"

So a few of you may know that I recently have discovered that I totally dig english muffins. Love em! How I just figured this out 26 years into my life is a little odd, I know. But I've been eating english muffins a lot for the past few weeks. I've gotten my toaster,"Chewy", to the exact perfect setting for a deliciously toasted english muffin. So tonight I give Chewy my last english muffin and then start taking out the trash. I'm not really worried about my english muffin, knowing that Chewy knows how toasted I like them. But Chewy forgot:

Bad Chewy!

Now my house smells like burned popcorn.

The Perfect Push Up

Ok, here is my beef with marketing these days. A few months ago I bought the Perfect Push Up. I have had for a little over two months, and I gotta say...not so impressed. They guarantee results and I must say that I do not look like this:

Or this:

This is kinda what I look like:

I know that in order for something to work, you actually have to use it, but they make it look so easy. They make it seem like the the guy doing the push ups on tv and on the pictures looked like me six weeks ago. Then you get all excited, thinking that could be me in 6 weeks only working out 10 minutes a day. Of course I'll buy it for the low price of $39.99 + tax. Wouldn't you pay that for the perfect body? Then you get it, and you want to cry every time you use it. Shame on you Perfect Push Up...shame on you!

Brooke and Trever's Wedding

So last month some good friends of mine got married. I've known Brooke since I was in 8th grade and she was in like...3rd. Then she met Trever. He was a freshman in college and she was in like...4th grade. Haha. They are both awesome people, but that is not why I am writing this.

Cyndie is my favorite sister in law. After college I lived with Michael and Cyndie while Michael and I started a thriving recording studio. With Michael typically having jobs with unconventional times, Cyndie and I have spent a lot of time together while he's gone. People are sometime confused by us showing up at rehearsal dinners together with Makenzie, or going to get ice cream and paying seperately with debit cards with the last name Norwood. Because Michael was in the wedding, I once again had my sister-in-law as a date. Here are some pictures:

I guess I forgot to tell her that we were taking funny pictures.

Note to self: Cyndie does not appreciate close ups. (I wonder what she's going to think about me posting this)

Now to the real meat and potatoes of this post. As I was looking through my pictures of the wedding, I was able to find a picture of something I oh so desperately wanted. Here is the picture:

Now even this picture is of the cutest flower girl in the world, that is not what this picture is about. This is about the the father of the little girl, my brother, crying like a little girl in the top right of the picture. Love you Michael!

The Joys and Sorrows of the IPhone

At the end of May I finally broke down and got an IPhone. Yes, they cost way too much, but you can't argue the fact that they are rediculously awesome. I was having a really hard time finding one. I was working in Tucson one week when I finally tracked one down. This is how I felt after I bought my IPhone:Well, the honeymoon was short-lived. I found out why I was having a hard time finding an IPhone when a week later Apple announced that they were coming out with a faster, better, and cheaper IPhone. This is how I felt after I hear the news:

But I still love my IPhone even though it's a slower, weaker version of its little brother. Michael relates well with this phone. WHAT!!!

My Nieces

Now I know that I am very biased, but I have been told by people outside of my family that I have the cutest nieces in the world...yes the world. I agree. My brother and sister have a daughter. Not together, but with their respective wife and husband. They have the cutest personalities. My whole family is kind of spread out over four different states, so I don't get to see them nearly enough.

I am able to see Makenzie, my brother's daughter, much more because they are at least within driving distance. We have always had a great time when we see each other, but for some reason I end up playing dress up with her a lot. Maybe it's because she's fun to play with, or I hate to say no to her, or my dad never let me feel pretty growing up. Here are a few of the results of our playtime:

Now Aly, my sister's daughter, has been much harder to win over. She was never a fan of me until I visited them one week last year. She came up to me, looked up, and said, "You wanna play in my chichen?" I have to say, I do not speak fluent 2 year old, so I had to look to my sister for translation. My sister said "She wants you to play in her kitchen". So we played in Aly's "chichen", eating plastic eggs and pizza and she has liked me ever since then. Aly is quite the girly girl. She lives in her princess outfits and tutus. Here we are this past Christmas:

Why am I doing this?

I've been thinking about how to start this. My brother has a blog for his photography, which makes sense. My sister has a blog pretty much devoted to her kids, which also makes sense. My mom has a blog...just kidding. My mom doesn't have a blog. That would be as crazy as her having a myspace or facebook page. Oh wait.

So what is my reason for having a blog? I don't really know. I like to think I am an interesting guy. I've done some pretty awesome things in my life, but is that a reason to start a blog. To merely chronicle the events in my life? I'd say so. I'm not going to offer a lot of insight in my blog. I think that all too often people try to display brilliance in their writing, only to prove their ignorance. I hope you find this interesting. If I make fun of you, please know that I do it all in fun, in hopes that you will retaliate.