Link-a-palooza

You'll find a bunch of new links to the right. A lot of them are to sites powered by members of Just Starting Out, our Bible class at Memorial Road.

If I could only live in Springfield ...

(By Erik)

It took me several tries, but I finally got an idea of what I would look like if I moved to the mythical town of Springfield.

Not too bad, if I do say so myself. And, as you can see, they nailed the wardrobe!

Take a photo of yourself and try it at simpsonizeme.com. (There's a lot of traffic ont he site right now, though.)

I'm still trying to get a photo of Jeanie to work on the site. I'll post it if and when.

I'm definitely looking forward to The Simpsons Movie this weekend.

This cracked me up

(By Erik)

Since it looks like I'm going to be a dad sometime early next year (or later this year, if the kid comes early) I thought this opinion piece from The Onion was particularly funny. (Apologies if you see any off-color content in other Onion stories if you follow this link. There's a bad word that appears in an ad that pops up on the right next to this story — but only on occasion. The actual opinion piece itself is "clean" — and really funny near the end.)

Adults Have Misclassified Me As A Handful

Quick baby update

Jeanie got a quick look at the "young-un" recently. Still can't tell if it's a boy or girl, but she's pretty much confirmed that we have a thumb-sucker. (Jeanie was a chronic thumb-sucker when she was little.)

To quote James Brown …

(By Erik)

Actually, I’ll get to that in a minute.

This story begins back in May, when my lovely wife handed me a home pregnancy test. She was convinced it was positive.

Here’s what I saw.


Now, come on, that looks like a sideways minus sign, right? Sure, if you squint you can make out a horizontal line, but that’s hardly a plus sign.

Unfortunately, we had thrown out the instruction sheet. (It was one half of a two-pack of pregnancy tests I bought a few years back — and that time it was undeniably negative.) So Jeanie got online and consulted the manufacturer’s Web site. I took a look at it and felt my heart jump up to the back of my throat.

That vertical line … it’s the “I’m pregnant” line. The horizontal line is the control line.

My pulse racing, I tried to rationalize. “That thing still looks like a minus sign to me. How do we know it’s a plus sign? When was this thing on the Internet written, anyway? What if someone in the factory put the thing in sideways?”

So, off to Wal-Mart to buy another test. Looking nervously over our shoulders to make sure we didn’t recognize anyone in the pharmacy section, we bought a three-pack of tests. These have two parallel lines, so I figured there would be less confusion.

We returned to the house and, after some prompting on my behalf (“Do you have to go again? Here, have some water! What about now?”) this was the result:


Still inconclusive, in my book. That one line looks awfully faint. Perhaps she’s just a little bit pregnant. There has to be a way to tell for sure.

So, finally, I took drastic measures. Unless these things are completely faulty (or I’ve somehow defied medical science, a la Gov. Schwarzenegger in “Junior”) we should have a clear indication of a what a negative reading looks like.


After seeing this, all I could think of to ask was, "Pink or blue?"

So, as James Brown would say, “Baby baby baby, baby baby baby, baby baby baby, I got that feelin.’”

That was a whole trimester ago. We’re 14 weeks along and, aside from the nausea and weird food cravings, we’re feeling fine. (Jeanie’s doing OK, too.)

Nonetheless, we’re both really squeamish about blogging about this in case something bad happens. But so far everything looks good.

I always thought I wanted a boy, but the second this happened, I didn’t care about that any more. It’s weird. Actually, I’m convinced we’re having a girl. Jeanie’s guessing boy.

Jan 17, 2008, is our anticipated big day. Please pray with us for a happy, healthy baby.

Big news coming ...

(Pending spousal approval. Keep watching this space for more details.)

Some photos from Puerto Rico

(By Erik)

This is cool. I usually don't have Internet access in the places I visit, but the San Juan Holiday Inn is helping me out. So here are some shots from my first day in Puerto Rico.


Not too shabby, huh?

But here's one just so you'll know I've been working.


Here's a photo of a couple of ministers I met today. Leroy Smith, left, is minister for the Park Gardens Church of Christ. Jose Cheo Colon is minster for the Los Angeles Church of Christ. Both of the churches are in San Juan.


More later.

Mmmmm ... hot links

(By Erik)

We've added some new links on the right-hand side of our blog. Feel free to check them out. Some are people that Jeanie knows from college. She was checking their blogs a lot, following links through other people's blogs, so I'm saving her a step.

A few other links are people I know from college. Amy helped me link up with them.

Cyberspace is just one big alumni association, ain't it?

Online at last — Luke Bowman

(By Erik)

We’re happy to announce that our nephew, Luke Bowman, has finally launched his own blog. It’s a project two years in the making.

You’ll find Luke’s thoughts on issues ranging from politics to broccoli and bath time at lamaramyluke.blogspot.com.

Here’s my favorite picture of Luke. It’s from more than a year ago.


Here’s a shot of Luke with his dad, my brother-in-law Lamar. I took this when they visited OKC last April.


And here’s a recent photo of Luke from his blog.


(I should point out here that my sister, Amy, helps out with some of the blog editing.)

Episode IV: Return of the Jones

(By Erik)

If you’re tired of looking at photos I’ve taken, here’s one by Tryggbløg guest photographer Steven Spielberg. Steven’s trying to promote this little film he’s got coming out next summer, so I thought I’d give him a hand.

The movie doesn’t even have a title yet. So far they’re just calling it Indiana Jones 4.


As you can see, Harrison Ford is decked out in the classic fedora and khakis of Indiana Jones — for the first time in about 18 years. Ford, who turns 65 on July 13, is reprising his role as Indiana Jones one more time. George Lucas is the executive producer.

I really have mixed feelings about this, because this film could go either way. I’m hoping it will be a fun, action-packed adventure worthy of the franchise. After what Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels, though, I have my misgivings. (Revenge of the Sith has many great moments, but on the whole the prequels just weren’t as good as the original trilogy — Episodes 4, 5 and 6) But if Spielberg’s directing, that’s a plus.

Harrison Ford is one of my favorite actors, of course. He’s never won an Oscar, in my opinion, because they don’t have a category for what he does best — great facial expressions in the middle of action sequences. And generally looking cool.

The actor himself reminds me a little bit of my dad. Have you ever seen Harrison Ford do a TV interview? He’s very quiet and dry. Doesn’t say too much more than he has to. Pauses a lot while he’s speaking. You can see Leno and Letterman really struggling to get him to open up. But you can tell he’s got this quasi-mischievous side underneath. Dad’s kinda’ like that. (Luckily, though, dad isn’t currently dating Calista Flockhart. That would just be weird.)

Back in the early 1980s, Indiana Jones made kids across the country believe that archaeology was the most exciting profession in the world. (I decided early on it was far too dangerous for me. Too great a chance of having my face melt — or having my still-beating heart yanked out by a Hindu mystic madman — or Sean Connery hitting me over the head with a vase.)

Indiana Jones has made a sizeable impact on my wardrobe, however. I am Mr. Khaki when I travel. (And whenever I fly internationally, it’s hard not to think about the red line and dots on a brown map that showed the audience where Indy was headed next.)

And yes, I actually have a fedora in my closet.

Two more Guatemala photos

(By Erik)

I took these two photos (and all the ones in the previous post) during an April trip to Guatemala with Health Talents International. I've been late getting all of these photos online.

I attended the dedication ceremony for Clinica Caris near Chichicastenango. I wrote a feature about two Health Talents workers from Colorado who moved to Guatemala to work among the Mayan people. You can read it here (and see a few more pictures in the photo gallery). The missionaries are Kemmel and Dr. Lisa Dunham. Great folks. Lisa's sister and brother-in-law are in our Bible class here in OKC.

It was the first time I had to be treated by a physician I was writing about. During the trip I got a severe bout of "el bug de stomach." It was also my first international puking incident. (No pictures of that, though.)

I'll post more about the trip later. Jeanie needs the computer. She's giving a presentation tomorrow at the hospital — probably about stomach bugs.

Guatemala photos

Revised lyrics to the Law & Order theme song in light of Fred Thompson's departure

(By Erik)

Well, the lack of response to my riveting Baboon Fiction proves that it was simply too far ahead of its time for today’s audiences. Perhaps I should return to the safer waters of TV theme songs.

And, whaddaya know, fate intervenes! Here is the newly revised a cappella theme to TV’s Law & Order in the wake of the news that Fred Thompson is leaving the show and forming a fund-raising committee to consider a possible White House bid.

(Singing …)

Law-aw-aw and Order!
(well-el-el-what-do-you-know)
Doesn’t have Fred Thomp-son!
Well-ell-ell will this show even be worth watching
now that he’s gone campaigning
Whoever will deliver
all of those down home sayings now?
(say-it-isn’t-so)
And Jerry Orbach’s gone forever
(bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bow-bow-bow-bow-bow-bow)
Law-aw-aw and Order!
Make McCoy … your vice prez

Now, here’s my list of possible replacements for Fred on Law & Order:

Jill Hennessey: Let’s bring her back, from assistant to Jack McCoy to elected District Attorney. The only complication — they actually killed her off Law & Order. But they can write around that.

Dame Judi Dench: She can play M in the James Bond movies, so why not? She’d be just as good as Diane Wiest was in the part.

Neil Patrick Harris: Doogie Howser, D.A.



Jodie Foster: Trust me, after Flightplan she’ll take the job.



Damon Wayans: Provided he plays him like Major Payne.



Barry Bostwick: He’s been a media-savvy lawyer on the show. Why not? He was the mayor of New York on Spin City.


Tim Curry: Thinking about Barry Bostwick got me thinking about the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I’ve never seen, by the way.

Carrie Fisher: You thought I was going to say Susan Sarandon next, didn’t you?


Bradley Whitford: Presuming he’s not busy filming the second season of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (shouldn’t be an issue).


A CGI likeness of Jerry Orbach: His dialogue would just be wisecracks recycled from previous Law & Order episodes.


James Earl Jones: And they could get him to re-dub the “in the criminal justice system …” voiceover, too. “These are their stories, and this is CNN.”

J.K. Simmons: This would ROCK, provided he did all his lines in the J. Jonah Jameson voice from the Spider Man movies.


Spider Man himself: “I dunno, McCoy, my Spidey sense says you should cut a deal for man-one.”


Judge Lance Ito: Hey, a real-life judge! It’s not like he’s doing anything else.


And of course ...



Shatner: No explanation required.









But my top, number-one pick has to be the legendary John Cleese — provided he enters the office every episode in the manner depicted below.