Spoon on the SNL

I've had trouble finding good blog time the last week or so after starting a new job, but I'll get back in the groove soon.

In the mean time I wanted you all to know that Spoon, my brother Rob's band, will be playing on Saturday Night Live on Oct 6th. Pretty big deal. I'm really happy for him and the other guys in the band.

That's way past my bed time, so I'm glad the DVR works. It's been a few years since I watched that show. Is Chevy Chase still on there? He's funny.

Word,

HTF

Shout Out to Moms

Just a little musical tribute to the moms out there.

Happily, my mom never had to say any of these things to me!

The Spontaneous Sex Talk

(that blog title should get the search engines pointed my way!)

So we had a big event at the Pope house the other night. And it came from out of the blue, thanks to my always spontaneous wife. We had just finished dinner, but 3 of us were still at the table – Traci, myself, and Ethan (our 8 year old). As he got up to leave Traci blurted out to him, “Ethan, do you know what sex is?”

Talk about a question that’ll turn heads and make ears perk up!! Ethan quickly said “no” and tried to escape to the family room. But this was hopeless. I knew that Traci had some kind of plan and that Ethan was in for it.

As she got him to sit back down she asked, “Do you friends ever talk to you about sex?”

Even before the sentence was finished Ethan said the fastest “no” that I’ve ever heard.

Traci then proceeded to explain a lot, in a whole lot more detail than I would’ve. To my credit I only busted out laughing once (on the outside). Some of the highlights were:

- Traci asking Ethan where babies come from . . . his answer: The Hospital . . . (That's my boy!!)

- Traci asking how babies got in Mommy’s tummy

- The repeated use of unmentionable, but completely appropriate anatomical and biological words

- The always useful question, “What’s the difference between male horses and female horses?” This was the one where I failed to suppress my laughter.

- Ethan trying to get up and leave a bunch of times.

- I got some words in at the end, and got to ask the question of my now all-knowledgeable 8 year old, “Why do people have sex?” Now I could think of some pretty funny, and some pretty sad answers to that, but he gave the right ones. You can call Traci if you don’t know the “right” answers. Don’t call me, cuz I’ll probably just give you the funny ones.

Poor Ethan was finally allowed to leave . . . I hope he eats dinner with us again someday . . .

Nice Teeth!!

One of the chocolatey benefits of being in the bishopric. . .

All I have to do is . . .

Ethan (8 yr old) happily and proudly announced this morning that he was going to get a new scooter. His brother has one and Ethan has coveted it for quite some time now. I was intrigued to hear how his 8-year-old income was going to fund such a purchase. When I asked how he was going to do it he said,

"All I have to do is be the third grader to raise the most money in the fund raiser."

Oh, good.

I guess that meant that I was gonna buy the scooter vicariously if we go that route. I'm ok with school fund raisers, ensured that some of the money goes to a good cause at the school. But I'm also pretty sure that somebody, somewhere, has a pretty good business going having adorable little kids beg their parents, neighbors, grandparents, and even their elementary school friends for money. The most deadly effective and cheapest sales reps there's ever been.

We'll see what happens with said scooter. But I sure hope that all the other third grade parents are mean/nasty and say no to their pleading kids. It would sure make it easier for us to win!!

Spoon on Leno . . . the Video

Spoon performing Black Like Me on Leno
Uploaded by dtrip01

Spoon on Leno tonight

The title kinda says it all. My brother's band, Spoon, will be playing on Leno tonight (Sept 11th). Their song, The Underdog, has been getting quite a bit of radio play lately, so I'm assuming that's what they'll play. I'll try to get the video posted here if I can find it.

J.D. and The Muggles (my new favorite band)

So over the weekend a buddy loaned me the unabridged book on CD of Harry Potter #6. This is the one that follows the most recent movie, so I'll at least get the story. I read the first book last month and have thoughts on reading them all, cuz I'm the only person in either hemisphere who hasn't done that yet. But today I popped in the first disc and listened to Jim Dale tell me the story as I commuted to the office. I got 3 different phone calls as I drove, and let's just say none of them merited me turning J.D. off. He is absolutely amazing - but I know that's not news to many of you. So in my new spirit of "recommendation" (see last post), I'm gonna recommend that you find some way to listen to the Potter books being read to you by my new copilot. Hopefully you have a great pal like I do who can just lend it to you. Otherwise you can download or buy, and if all else fails there's a library nearby where you can get on a decade-long waiting list or something. One way or another if you do it, you may get a sudden urge to take a long drive around the country . . . a few times.

He's that good, and I guess we should give a little credit to J.K. too.

Facing the book

It's been a few days since I posted - been kinda busy at work and then I got sick. I figured you wouldn't wanna read a play by play of that. So a few days ago I made my first visit to Facebook. I'd heard SO much about it I thought I'd check it out plus I read all the time about the social networking thing. I'm usually several years behind "cool" so I thought it might not be too "happening." Since joining here are a few things I've learned/observed.

- Wow, am I old. Trying to find "friends" on there my age (early 30s) was pretty difficult. But finding people I know in their teens or early 20s - super easy. And they came out and "added" me too. (most of my seminary class is out there, which is awesome) It's hard not to feel like I don't belong or like I'm some kind of creepy guy, but my few 30+ aged friends make me feel better. And it's cool that the younger folks will even entertain me as a "virtual friend." I'll take it.

- One of my friends posted a message on my page calling me "Brother Pope." It wasn't a surprise or anything, but I just wonder how old I have to be to get used to that.

- When you're a Werewolf, "Biting chumps" is pretty easy, but it's hard to get them to join your army.

- Some people must really like themselves, cuz they post loads of pictures, some not so flattering, right there on their sites for the world to see. (not me)

- I had expected that I might encounter a lot of vulgar/inappropriate stuff out there, which would've made me walk away. I found almost the opposite to be true. (But then again, I'm hopefully not looking in the right places for that stuff)

- I'm wondering if parents know their kids are out there doing this. For a parent of teenagers, this would seem a wonderful way to keep tabs on the kids during the times when you're not on speaking terms. (I'm serious about this)

- The term "reconnecting with friends" gets overused, but I'm here (virtually) to tell you that it's happened with me, and that's in just a few days with very little effort.

Anyway, for now at least, I am recommending to you readers (both of you) that you set up a Facebook page (and add me as a friend of course). It just takes a few seconds and it's very self-explanatory. (as demonstrated by the fact that teenagers everywhere can do it) Oh yeah, and one other thing, when my werewolf bites you, which it will, you really need to join my army!

Stunning accusation!!

We are in St. Louis staying with Traci's sister and her 4 kids. (for those of you doing the math at home, that means we're here with 8 kids) This afternoon we knew that we needed to get the troop out of the house and wear them out a bit so they'd fall asleep sometime before church tomorrow. So we chose to take 'em on a long hike in the woods - hoping to return with most of them. It actually went wonderfully, but as you can imagine, corralling 8 kids in the woods and getting them to all move in a similar direction for 3 miles or so can be a little taxing. Plus it was kinda hot outside.

During one of our many rest breaks (as if the adults had any control over when those happened) we ate some snacks and drank water. Ethan had been predictably kinda driving us crazy by not staying with the group and just doing what he usually does . . . (meaning whatever he wants.) During our stop he grabbed a package of crackers, sat down for a couple miliseconds, and then took off to climb a rock, contemplate dirt or kick a tree or something - having decided that he wasn't down with eating the crackers. Traci, of course was all over this - she made Ethan return to the scene of the crime where he dumped the perfectly good crackers down on the ground conveniently hidden behind a log. Now you should know that he habitually eats the middle part of the crackers (the cheese) and then discards the actual crackers. He got a strong, justified, rebuke that we all watched from a safe distance. Traci had had enough. But the moment that we'll never forget was at the height of her rage - she looked down at Ethan, and with all the anger and conviction she could muster said:

"Ethan, YOU ARE A WASTER OF CRACKERS."

Whoa - there's just no good comeback for that. He knew he'd been beat. Traci tried to maintain the scolding eye contact, but by this point Krista (Traci's sister) and I were laughing so hard that the squirrels were coming down to see what all the commotion was about.