What a great day!

This has been a pretty eventful day! I was at work today when Chris called and told me he was on his way to the doctor. He ended up breaking his finger playing touch football at work. He's in pain, but he's fine. We went to the hospital this afternoon, and had an ultrasound of our baby! We are having a baby GIRL! I am so excited! I would have been happy either way, but a little girl will be so fun! She'll be able to have princess parties with all of her cousins. I just wanted to let you all know! It has been an exciting day for us! Have fun, and thanks for reading!

Lazy Blogging

I think I've had a rash of lazy posts lately, and this is one more of them. I saw this on SNL this weekend and thought it was hilarious! Kristin hasn't seen it yet since she was asleep beside me (cute, exhausted pregnant wife). Sometimes you've got to wonder about the sensationalist journalists like those on Dateline. In other news, we find out the gender of our baby tomorrow! We are so excited!

The Choke Award and the Unsportsmanship Award

The Academy of Choke Artists is pleased to present BYU #15 Max Hall with the Biggest Choke Award for the 2008 season. Hall threw 5 interceptions, had 6 passes swatted down, and who knows how many hurries. The Academy credits Hall with the Cougars' loss.
Up until the last Cougar offensive play of the first half, I really thought that BYU had a chance. They were standing up very well against Utah's offense and defense. It was a very competitive game! But once Max Hall was shaken up by that intercepted pass and personal foul, it was game over for the Cougars. Everyone else on the Cougars played a stellar game, even the secondary that has been plagued by injuries this season. BYU should have been keeping pace with Utah the whole game. It is unfortunate that Max Hall doesn't have the mental toughness to put a mistake behind him. He's shown it again and again this season, so I peg the loss mostly on him. Hopefully next season he'll be a stronger player mentally. He has great skill as a quarterback. Now he just needs to match it with an ability to shake off bad plays and show everyone that BYU is a BCS-caliber school. 
I can't wait to see my Cougars in action during their bowl game next month! I am predicting right now that they will go to the Armed Forces Bowl (the same bowl game that Utah went to last year).
The other award I would like to give out today goes to the Utes. We all know that there is a huge rivalry between Utah and BYU and that it is a heated one. But what happened when BYU was doing their ritual haka dance before the game was unacceptable.
The Cougars had just done their ritual haka war dance and Utes crossed over toward the other sideline for some words. Officials kept the confrontation to pointing and shouting and no players got close enough to each other to turn it physical.
That was the report this morning from USA Today. When I saw it happen, I was ticked! BYU does the haka in a very respectful way. They don't face their opponent when they do the dance. They just use it as a way to pump themselves up for the game. To see that Utah would try to pick a fight before the game had even begun was just low and classless, so I award them with the Unsportsmanship Award. Good job, Utes! You've really shown your true colors.

Last Political Post, I Promise!

I just wanted everyone to know that I am fair in my political views, and although I am very passionate and decided in my political views, I can also look at the politicians that I disagree with and see them as human beings. I was very impressed with this video of Sarah Palin. I think that she speaks very honestly and openly in her home with CNN, and sheds the thick fascade that she wore during the election. I just wish that all politicians could speak honestly and without spin all the time.

Giant Candy

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, failblog.org, when I noticed this advertisement.

Here's the description beneath the image:

GIANT Gummy Bears on a Stick are equal to 88 regular-sized gummy bears! These deliciously large gummies are handmade in the US.

GROSS! Why would anyone want a gummy bear that big?

The BYU Cougars are making the 45 minute trek from LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo to Rice-Eccels Stadium in Salt Lake this saturday to face The University of Utah's Running Utes. The Cougars head into this game with only one devastating loss against TCU and some injuries in the secondary, as well as a possibly injured Tight End, Dennis Pitta, whereas Utah heads into the game with an unblemished record and a healthy team. Us Cougar fans have faced tough odds and beat them before, and I have no reason to think that this year will be any different!

My ward in Lehi is one of the most mixed wards I've ever been in as far as allegiances are concerned in the BYU-Utah rivalry, so I'm expecting to hear some healthy banter and predictions right here in the comments of this post! Just remember that we all have to see each other on Sunday, and we do want the Spirit to be present, so let's keep things civil.
Everyone else, please post your predictions too (and just because I don't have to see you on Sunday doesn't mean you can be uncivil!).
My prediction? BYU will fall behind early, and at the half will be down 10-21. In the second half, BYU will lay it on thick, and after a key interception, they will set their sights on the win. After a final play touchdown, the Cougars will win 44-42. Book it!
Go Cougars!

Tilt-Shift Photography

This is so cool! A classmate showed me these images that looked like they were macros (extreme close ups) of little model towns. He then showed me time lapse photography of one of these models moving. The video below is of a beach scene. But here's the trick: they're not models. These are real people on a real beach! Tilt-shift uses a special lens that severely limits the depth of field of an image, making it look like the subject of the photo is a macro scene. Here is the Wikipedia entry on tilt-shift photography.

This next one is my favorite. I think it perfectly captures the feeling of toys, but these are real, life-sized boats on the open sea. Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Culprit Discovered!

I knew that with the amount of people that have already told us face-to-face what they think we're having, that the results couldn't have been that lopsided. The culprit confessed last night via text message. I respect the culprit too much to out them publicly. If he/she wishes to comment on his/her escapades, he/she can do so here, but this is the last I shall speak of it. The culprit, after seeing that there were only four votes for girl, decided it would be funny to make girl reach 1000 votes, which would have really scared us and made us privatize our blog if it actually did reach over 1000 votes. But it was all in good fun. But the culprit did apologize for ruining the fun. That was not his/her intentions. It is now just a week until we go in for the ultrasound. We are so excited! This is like Christmas, only we're even more anxious! We're like children on Christmas Eve. Kristin's little belly is really starting to poke out (I'll post pictures soon). We really couldn't be happier right now. Life is good.

Fun Ruined

Well, someone had definitely found a way to manipulate the poll. In an hour, it jumped 50 votes for girl, and 0 votes for boy. So, if you want to make a guess, leave a comment or email one of us, because I have removed the poll at Kristin's request. But we still want to know what you guys think! So please comment!

A Case of Vote Early and Vote Often?

I seriously can't believe that over 200 people have viewed our blog, let alone voted in our poll. That's more than 50% of the friends I have on Facebook—which would account for 99% of those that could know about our blog. If you have voted more than once, fess up. We're just kind of shocked by the numbers and want to know if any of you are just trying to skew the numbers for your own pleasure.

Don't worry, we're not mad, just very surprised by the numbers, especially considering that by far, the majority of people that we've talked to in person have said we're having a boy. I guess we'll find out in a week!

Make Your Guess!

Kristin is going in for her ultrasound appointment on November 25. We want to make sure that everyone that wants to can get their guess in before we find out. I'm putting a poll up here in a moment, so please, put in your guess and leave a comment if you'd like!

Tagged...8 Things

Cool! I've never been tagged before. And, despite Kristin asking me to do the 4-4-4 that Andrea tagged her in, I am going to let her do that one, since I wasn't tagged in that one. However, I was specifically mentioned in this tag, so here we go.

8 FAVORITE TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH
Heroes
The Office
Survivor
The Amazing Race
(four more. . . seriously?)
America's Funniest Videos
Myth Busters (I don't see this one very often, but I like it a lot)
Law & Order (this always used to be on at mom and dad's)
And one guilty pleasure. . . Wizards of Waverly Place (forget all about this one, please).
8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
Happy Sumo
Carrabba's
PF Chang's
Fortune Cookie
McGrath's Fish House
Macaroni Grill (very fond memories)
Tucano's 
Goodwood
8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY
I went to work
I got a flu shot and though I wasn't the first one there (I had the first time slot—there were about ten people per time slot) I was the first one to have my paper work filled out, so I got my shot and was out of there before anyone else
I drank a vanilla soy protein shake for both breakfast and lunch (this will play a roll in a later activity—ewww, not like that)
I convinced a sick co-worker that she needed to go home
I stayed at work an hour late dealing with one of the most frustrating clients I have
I watched Survivor and The Office with Kristin
I worked out using our new Wii Fit, and found that I had lost an additional 2.2 pounds since the day before (thanks in part to the soy protein shakes).
I finished the evening by playing Wii Music for way too long.
8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO
The Holidays
The end of the semester
My dad's 50th birthday party
Our baby's birth
Our baby's firsts (first smile, first laugh, first tooth, first crawl. . .)
Graduation
Getting a job in my field
Reaching my goal weight
8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST
A house
A biweekly maid to do all the deep cleaning
More time with Kristin
My own website for my freelance work
Travel outside the US
That more people would adopt the attitude that "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."—I just feel that I can't express myself and my values in Utah County without having daggers thrown at me a lot of the time. It would just be nice to have a discourse without resorting to over-simplifications and name-calling.
Live completely debt-free
Win a 5K race
8 PEOPLE I'M TAGGING
RaeLynn White
Shannon Heath
Mikey and Karie Peterson
Mae Miller
Mike Painter
Devri Granados
Jackie Sarager
Ryan Goulding