2

I will do my best to catch everybody up, but my memory is not great as it used to be.  I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning.  It is pretty rare these days for me to have much to do on the weekend anymore, other than chores around the house.  The last three weeks have been an exception.  Some might even say they were exceptional.  The first of our exciting weekends began with a Saturday night trip to the Taylor County Expo Center to see Jeff Dunham.  He was absolutely hilarious, and we had a wonderful time, despite the fact that it was warm enough in there to cook a turkey.  Ethan had a great time that night as well.  He stayed with Vicki and Carl, and when we went to pick him up he didn't want to leave.

On June 29, Ethan turned 2 years old.  It's funny how time flies, and yet somehow it seems like he has been here forever.  I guess we are getting into the Terrible Twos, although most of my friends assure me that the 3s are worse.  That's comforting.  We had a small party with extended family here at the house on the weekend following his birthday.  It's nice at this age when they have no concept of actual dates and you can hold the party when it is convenient for everyone.  Ethan wasn't big on presents again this year.  The first package he opened had stickers in it, and he pretty much didn't care about anything after that.  What is so fun about stickers anyway?  He did get a trampoline from my parents, which has already gotten quite a bit of use.

This past weekend, we were graced with the company of our good friends Matt and Lisa.  They brought their kids as well, and we all had a great time just visiting and lounging around the house.  Lilah and Ethan had so much fun that they hardly seemed to notice the rest of us were even there.  Monday we had Ethan's yearly check-up with the doctor.  There were no shots this time, which was nice.  I guess he is doing fine.  They didn't tell us we were bad parents or anything.  Here is what I can tell you.  He weighs 28 pounds, is 36 1/4 inches tall, head circumference of 19 1/4 inches, and a BMI of 15.  If you are looking to compare, here are the percentile numbers respectively: 50, 90, 50, 10.  In layman's terms--average weight, super tall, normal head, skinny.

As far as I know, the next couple of months should be pretty calm around here.  I still have a million things to do today though, so this is all you're getting right now.  My mom took a bunch of pictures from the birthday party.  I will try to weed through them this weekend and get some of them posted.

Easy Rider

I realize I have been off the grid for a little bit.  What can I say?  Life is happening everyday.  It could be that I just didn't have anything to say.  Possibly it could be that the heat has fried my brain.  I would like to know what has happened to Spring.  We have had some days here where it was 110 degrees!  I am thinking about hibernating for the summer.  Ultimately I am going to blame sleep deprivation.  For the last few weeks, Ethan has decided that he doesn't want to sleep.  It is strange to us, because he has always been good as far as bedtime goes.  Now, not only does he not want to go to bed (which I am blaming on Daylight Savings Time), but he has decided that 1:30 AM is a good time to get out of bed and wake everyone else up.  Seriously, if he wants to get up in the middle of the night and do something quietly in his room, I'm all for it.  The fact that he feels the need to crawl up onto our bed and keep us up is another thing entirely.  Last night he did stay in his room all night.  I'm hoping that wasn't a fluke and that he has finally decided to just stay in there.  I have been told that it is illegal to handcuff your kid to the bed.  I will point out that when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he isn't screaming or crying.  I think he is just waking up and wants to see what's going on.  Tiffany thinks that the reason he doesn't want to go to bed on time is because he finally figured out that we weren't going to bed at the same time.  He's afraid he might miss something exciting I guess.  All things considered, we are doing fine.  Ethan will be two years old in less than three weeks.  I am most looking forward to being able to state his age in years like a normal person.  I will admit that I have been referring to him as "almost two" for quite a while though.  Twenty-three months sounds stupid.  This past weekend we made a trip to the big city.  Saturday night we saw Bowling For Soup in Fort Worth.  Although I have seen this band probably a dozen times, they are always fun.  Sarah and Josh took care of Ethan, and they even said he was good.  I'm not sure if I believe them or not, but they seemed like they didn't mind.  Sunday we had planned to stick around for a while, but after breakfast we decided we needed to get home.  Apparently we are too old to be hanging out at bars all night.  No, mom, we were not hungover--just exhausted.  We did make a planned stop in Arlington, which I will now just refer to as the Babies R Us incident.  I could probably fill up another ten pages on that, but that is a story for another day.  The pictures of Ethan that I have included are the most recent ones we have.  I know, because I took them about an hour ago.  The tricycle was a gift (I think at Christmas) that has just been sitting in the box.  I finally got it put together a couple of weeks ago, and Ethan loves it.  He was using the word bicycle before I even got it put together.  I don't even know how he knows that word.  He is not great at riding it by himself, but he loves me pushing him up and down the driveway.  I will probably enjoy this more when it isn't 110 outside.

By the way, for you people on the go, this blog (if you are reading on Blogger) is now optimized for mobile devices.  Don't read it while you are driving. Otherwise you might not make it to the end, which is where all the good jokes are.  http://brianjasonmurray.blogspot.com/

Kate Middleton is hot!

Something amazing happened this morning, and it had nothing to do with wealthy English people.  My child slept until 9:00.  For those out of the loop, he usually rised between 7 and 7:30. I have to admit that I did check a couple of times to make sure he was breathing.  When he finally did wake up, he told me he wanted Cheerios for breakfast.  Then he proceeded to eat three bowls.  He has been eating pretty well the last few days.  Last night we grilled pork tenderloin and he ate nearly as much as I did, along with plenty of peas and mashed potatoes.  As for the big wedding, nobody in this house got up early this morning to watch it.  Tiffany did ask me to record it for her.  Since I personally don't know any of the people involved, I could care less.  Piers Morgan said the other night that Americans seem to care more about it than the English.  Weird.

A lot has happened since my last post.  Because time is a factor here, as it always is, I will do my best to bring you up to speed.  My sister, her husband, and their baby came to visit a couple of weeks ago.  It was wonderful to see them.  While they were here, we had a big family picture made.  I am going on Monday to check out the proofs.  I will be amazed if any of them turned out.  Ethan wasn't in a bad mood, but he also wasn't in a sitting still mood.  I hate portraits like this, but I know my mother will love them no matter what.  Once again, we had the Murray family reunion at Lake Brownwood.  It is always a good time, and this year was no exception.  Ethan spent a lot of time playing in the dirt.  In addition to the endless amounts of food, it is always fun to see everyone.  For most of us, it is the only time of year that we get to spend together.

This past weekend, also known as Easter weekend, Tiffany and I took a little mini vacation to the west coast.  Technically we weren't on the coast, but we were on the western side of the country.  We flew into Las Vegas and spent a night before traveling to California for The Big 4 concert.  I probably mentioned this before, but this was a giant event featuring Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, and Metallica.  I know that you are either thrilled for us, or completely mortified.  All I have to say is that heavy music is alive and well in this country.  If you don't like it, you're probably just in denial.  All four bands were good, and as an added bonus, my cousin Morgan went out for the show as well.  We had a good time hanging out with her and her friends while we were there.  A couple of interesting things did happen at the show.  First, there was a mosh pit with an actual fire burning in the middle of it.  We kept waiting for some authority to come put it out, but it didn't happen while we were watching.  The other first for me was a guy in a wheelchair who was right up front moshing during Metallica.  How he managed to get into that crowd is beyond me, but he was there having a good time along with everyone else.  We spent the night in a resort hotel in Indian Wells.  If we had been there during daylight hours, we probably would have enjoyed it a little more.  Two other things are worth mentioning about California.  In N Out Burger is awesome.  Gas prices are terrible.  We paid $4.23 a gallon to fill up the car, which was easily the cheapest price we saw anywhere.  It made me feel a little better about paying $3.69 for it here in Texas.  After meeting Morgan and Angie for a late breakfast, we headed back toward Vegas.  Along the way, we made a stop at an outlet mall.  Tiffany bought something in nearly every store I think.  We spent the night at the New York New York before heading home on Monday.  Thanks to the weather, we did have some trouble getting home.  After spending about seven hours at DFW, we finally got on a flight to Abilene.  By the way, while we were out having fun, Ethan stayed home with Tiffany's mom.  They hunted Easter eggs and had all kinds of good fun.  I will try to procure some pictures of these events.  I do have some video.  Alas, I didn't even take a camera on our trip to Vegas, but I will leave you with a couple of pics that my Aunt Vicki took while Callie was here.

Bonus blog info:  If you are looking for any new music, I will currently recommend Bowling For Soup's Fishin' For Woos and the Foo Fighters' Wasting Light.





"They said my friends were just an unruly mob"

I can't even begin to tell you how exciting my life is these days.  I would somewhat liken it to Will Ferrell's speech from Old School right before he does the beer bong.  You know the one about Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond?  Today was family haircut day.  I know that got your attention.  No?  Well, we are having a family picture made here in a few days, and Tiffany thought we should all look presentable.  I personally don't think my hair is any shorter than it was this morning.  I'm getting to the point where there isn't that much there anyway.  Ethan was in bad need of a haircut though.  He was beginning to look like Cousin It.  He sat in the chair just like any other person without any screaming or kicking.  I haven't figured out yet why he behaves so well in front of other people.  This may be an early sign that he could pursue acting.  Now we all look fantastic.  Now a decision must be made regarding clothing for the aforementioned picture.  By the way, when I say family picture, I mean all of us.  My sister and her family will be here on Wednesday, as well as my parents.  I can't see a real point in this picture.  If you have access to the internet and are able to read this blog, you already know what all of these people look like.  At least we are good looking.  If you are lucky, I will post some of the shots on the blog in a couple of weeks.  That mostly depends on the photographer I guess.  I wouldn't want to do anything unethical.  Also, coming up this week is a meeting with a lawyer about a will.  Probably this is something we should have done a long time ago, but until now have never gotten around to it.  The whole thing seems kind of ridiculous, since I have nothing to leave anybody anyway.  If I have anything that you want, you better start sucking up to me before Thursday.  Otherwise we are leaving it all to the cat.  Oh, I mean the kid.  I think.  I'll check with Tiffany on that one.  I mentioned that my sister would be here.  This is our first chance to meet our nephew Murray.  I guess he is about four months old, though I will have to consult my earlier post about baby math to make sure.  He and Ethan are separated in age just about the same length of time that Callie and I are.  Hopefully that doesn't mean they will hate each other for sixteen years.  We are excited about spending time with all of them, as well as the rest of the Murray family at the big reunion in Brownwood.  The following week, Tiffany and I will be taking a quick trip to Vegas, with a side trip to California.  We are going to see The Big 4 (Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, and Metallica) at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.  It's the same place they hold Coachella.  This is the only show that these guys are all playing in the US, and Tiffany said we had to go.  As for life around here, Ethan is beginning to talk more and more by the day.  He has nearly mastered the alphabet, he can count to ten, and as of yesterday he can tell you left from right.  Two new abilities we are not as happy about are climbing out of his crib and opening doors.  We may have to look into one of those invisible fences.  I guess that is everything I have for now.  I know that these blogs are becoming less and less frequent, but I do try.  For more immediate updates, there's Facebook and Twitter.  I will clarify that if you follow me on Twitter, you are not likely to read very much.  I don't really see the point.  Maybe I'm just old.  Finally, for those of you who can't get Rebecca Black's Friday video out of your head, I encourage you to check out the Stephen Colbert/Jimmy Fallon version.  I posted it on Facebook about a week ago, but I still think it's awesome.  I know I said finally already, but one more thing just occurred to me.  Ethan and I caught the last of the VH1 Top 20 this morning.  Two of the top four videos have the F word in the title of the song.  Can you believe what the kids are listening to these days?  As somewhat of a connoisseur of music, I can tell you that the stuff our parents listened to was just as bad.  They will argue that is wasn't, but they are wrong.  Besides, it's hard not to love that Cee Lo Green song.

Winning!!!

I don't have a lot of time, so here goes nothing.  No really, I mean nothing.  I guess technically these pictures count as something, but if you are looking for any interesting commentary you can count me out.  This weekend was full of exciting things like laundry and getting the oil changed.  Sunday night was the series finale of Big Love.  I also watched Pee-Wee Herman's Broadway show on HBO.  Maybe nostalgia played a part here, but I loved it anyway (then why don't you marry it?).

I have been surfing the internet in preparation for our Vegas trip next month.  It is going to be a quick trip, but a little Vegas is better than nothing at all.  Also coming up in April is the big Murray reunion.  I am very much looking forward to spending some time with my new nephew Murray.  Wrap your head around that--a Murray family gathering featuring a baby named Murray.  It sounds like a party to me.  Enjoy these pictures.  I told you there wasn't much here.

Ethan has a million toys, but he would rather play with the furniture.

Here is Ethan investigating a crime in the backyard.

I did have a birthday this month.  It was relatively uneventful. Today is my mother's birthday.  I can't tell you how old she is, but it rhymes with bixty.  Happy Birthday, Mom.

waterboarding

Last night's Academy Awards might have been the most boring television since the second season of Lost.  I can't even quite put my finger on it, but I was basically uninterested from start to finish.  I will admit that I have hardly seen any of the movies that were nominated.  In fact, there were only two movies that were nominated for anything that we have actually seen--Alice In Wonderland (costume design, art direction, visual effects) and Salt (sound mixing).  There have been years in the past where we have seen almost everything, including some of the foreign ones.  These days its hard to find time to sneak away to the movies.  The problem I had wasn't with the films or the actors.  I was glad to see Trent Reznor win, as well as crazy Christian Bale.  Someone should get that guy a razor.  The hosts were alright I guess.  The whole thing just seemed to drag on.  I would like to add a few suggestions to make the show a little better.  They seemed to make no effort to run people off the stage during their lengthy acceptance speeches.  I know they have a lot of people to thank, but maybe some of that could be done with a phone call later.  I don't need to hear you thank your childhood babysitter or your first pet.  I also hate to cut music from anything, but movie songs are for the most part just boring.  Randy Newman is way past his prime, but somehow he gets to perform every year.  Also, listening to Celine Dion sing is like being stabbed in the ear repeatedly.  Some people might argue that she has a great voice, but does she sing anything that anyone wants to hear?  In the great Farrelly comedy Dumb and Dumber, the question is asked, "Do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?"  It turns out, that the sound in that movie is not the most annoying.  How Celine sells any albums at all will always baffle me.  Another way we could trim the fat on the Oscars would be to take a note from the Grammys and give the technical awards in a different ceremony.  I know those people deserve awards, but how many viewers can distinguish sound mixing from sound editing?  Finally, I wasn't a huge fan of the finale of awkward kids singing together with all of the winners.  I'm sure some people thought it was cute.  I would like to know why they used school kids from Staten Island.  Does California not have schools?  Perhaps none of these things would have been a problem if we had just recorded and watched it later.  Then we could have just skipped the boring parts.  I guess none of this even matters in the overall scheme of things.  It's Monday.  By Friday, I will probably have forgotten all about all of this.  Have a great week.

I wonder if Ebay has flux capacitors

 

As of today, 2011 is 15% over.  As they say, time flies when you are having fun.  It seems like there isn't much time for fun these days, but we have certainly been busy.  This week has been especially crazy.  I have been trying to get this blog done all week, but Ethan has been sick which has kept me from getting much done around here.  Right now he is occupied with his crayons, so maybe I can get a few words written.  A couple of weeks ago, we made a trip to Dallas to see Cirque du Soleil's Ovo.  It is probably one of the better shows that we have seen--at least as far as the touring ones go.  Tiffany's mom went with us to watch Ethan while we were out.  We lived our three hours to the fullest, each enjoying our $14 margaritas.  I asked the bartender if they were the best margaritas ever.  They weren't.  The next day we spent most of our time shopping and eating.  For any fans of Cafe Brazil, I can seriously recommend the breakfast relleno crepes.  If you don't live in the Dallas area, it might be worth the trip.  Seriously.  Ethan was pretty good the entire time, though he was definitely exhausted by the time we got home.  As for things going on in Abilene, Monday night we left Ethan with my Aunt Vicki and went to see Beauty and the Beast at the civic center.  The show is pretty girly, but as far as production and performance go, it was one of the best we've seen.  The last show of the season is not until April, and it is Legally Blonde.  Clearly there are too many women on the Abilene Cultural Affairs Committee.  How about something like Terminator--The Musical?  This week, on and off, Ethan has been running a fever.  His nose has been running, and there is lots of coughing going on.  I took him to the doctor on Tuesday.  He tested negative for the flu.  Basically, it's some kind of viral infection.  The doctor said the runny dose and cough may last 7 to 10 days.  Yea.  I am going to wrap this up for now.  I know it was short.  Give me a couple of days, and perhaps I will have more to say.