Some more pics

Gracie is growing fast. She is now up to 8 pounds, 3 ounzes. That seems like a lot to us, although I realize that baby Lukas (congrats, Jayme & Katie!) is over one pound heavier and he was born this past weekend! She is starting to smile a little bit, which is really fun.

The Office

What did everyone think of the season premiere of The Office last night? I thought there were some funny parts, especially Dwight's gay-dar, but I was a little disappointed. I guess I was bothered by the fact that the opted to go with a major cliff-hanger at the end of last season and that they just told you how it got resolved over the summer as part of a sub-plot in the first episode. This episode would have been more satisfying, I think, if it were the second or third episode of the season. Everyone wanted the juicy details about what happened with Jim and Pam.

Stuck in an Elevator

The other day, I got stuck in an elevator. I was heading home from work at about 5:15 (ah, government hours) and hopped in an elevator and pressed the button to take me to the first floor. Well, the doors shut, but the elevator didn't move. I pressed all the buttons there were to push, but no luck. I had to call maintenance and wait for almost an hour and a half while the elevator maintenance guys came and got me out of there. It was miserable. You might think that being stuck in a broken elevator on the fifth floor alone for an hour and a half might have caused one to do some self-reflection or soul searching or something like that, maybe turn into a life changing experience (kind of like a near-death exprience). But it didn't. I wasn't scared; just bored and glad I didn't have to use the bathroom. Maybe if the elevator was shaking or something; that might have lead to a more significant experience. But I just sat around and scared Katie by pretending that I might run out of air (at least my phone worked).

Gracie

She's making a funny face here, but I thought this was a cute picture.

Soccer and YouTube

As some of you know, especially Katie, I really got into the World Cup this past summer, even after Argentina crashed out of the tournament. And momentum has carried my interest into the current European club soccer season. I like keeping tabs on the Argentinians playing abroad and on things generally. The problem is that I don't have satellite and I don't have Tivo (which makes it almost impossible to watch any games). But I have found that highlights from most of the major games get posted on YouTube. So, every once in a while, I will search for the names of the teams that played and get to see a few highlights.

Here's a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrREN6kzm-w. The early stages of the Champions League started this week, and Lyon beat up on Real Madrid pretty bad. I searched in YouTube for "real madrid lyon" and it brought up a number of different highlight videos. I thought I would share this one because it has some really cool highlights (mostly from Lyon b/c they dominated almost the entire game). The other thing that makes this link awesome (at least for Spanish speakers) is that it is taken from an Argentinian highlight show (at least the announcer is Argentinian--you can tell because his accent is way cooler than any other spanish accent imaginable!). He's got some great expressions.

But you can find more than just highlights of recent games on YouTube. I have also found some cool highlight videos on certain players--just search for Leo Messi, Carlos Tevez, Cesc Fabregas, Ronaldinho, Steven Gerrard (this one's awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWzQn-FpEOU), Maradona, Zinadine Zidane, etc. There are also highlights of teams as they have made their run through tournaments and seasons.

Book Review: All the Kings Men

Just in time for the release of the new movie, I finished All the King's Men. When I started the book, I actually didn't know that they were remaking the movie (there was a movie made in the 50's I think), but the movie has quite a star-studded cast (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405676/). I haven't heard any buzz about the movie, but I hope its good.

I quite liked the book. Robert Penn Warren (America's first poet laureate) wrote the book. At times, he gets a bit wordy and goes off on long meditations/diatribes (I found myself skimming fairly often, especially the first 50 pages), but, still, the language is spectacular. The book is most often sold as a political masterpiece (its loosely based on the life of Huey Long, the Louisiana governor/demagogue who rose to power by championing the cause of the lower classes), but I read it much more as a classic character study. The characters, especially the main characters, are all rich and deep. They are complex and real. The book charts the reactions of these characters, who are all very different and who act very differently as they encounter a variety of circumstances. The political/historical background is only an instrument that Warren uses to explore the psyche of his diverse characters and to explore rich themes such as fate, right and wrong, the nature of justification.

The book is fascinating and highly enjoyable. I recommend that you all read it before the movie comes out.

The Power of the Internet

So here's a cool story: my friend Rob flew into SLC from Florida last Thursday and we met up for some lunch. After considering a number of options, we decided to revisit Pat's BBQ (in addition to having great food, it had the advantage of being out of the downtown area, which was a little hectic b/c of the visit from our good friend Bushie). Anyway, we went and had an excellent meal. It confirmed the fact that Pat's is the best bbq in Salt Lake (see my previous post). But the cool part of the meal came when we went to pay. As they were processing our cards up front, I was looking around the restaurant. They have a wall where they have posted newspaper articles, thank you notes, and, apparently, blog entries--including my blog entry! I was shocked. I started reading one that started out, "Judd, Cblakes, and I . . ." and my jaw dropped. It was my post on the best BBQ in Utah. I have no idea how it found its way into Pat's restaruant itself, but I was very excited. I know Cblakes gets a lot of outside traffic because of his movie reviews, but I thought my audience was always pretty limited. At least in this instance, I was wrong. Anyway, I thought that was cool.

Here are a few more pics of baby Gracie. She is going great and is so much fun.