Thurston Blogging

Am I crazy?

My wife is pregnant for the uninformed.  So, if we want Baby Thurston (The Chosen One) to be born healthy - no booze.  Well, Sharon loves the beer, and has to give it up.  So, starting tomorrow, so will I. 

Is that nuts?  Probably.  But, if she can do it, I can as well.  A few caveats, however.  Sharon has said that beer drinking (by me, not her) is acceptable for our winter Poker Night, and when we cruise to Lafayette to return to casa de Jackson.

The other caveat is I can drink liquor.  So, The Jay will be drinking vodka in social situations when the moment calls for imbibing.  This will be no easy task.  I brew beer.  I work above Founders, one of the finest breweries in Michigan.

Here is what I'll be giving up:

This is a few of the Christmas Ales that Parker and I brewed this month.

June 22nd, please come soon!

Baby Thurston is at 15 Weeks

"Every day is interesting around here." - Jay Thurston, in reference to our pregnancy.

Tomorrow morning, we hit fifteen weeks.  Our little baby is a thumb-sucker.  Baby Thurston's bones are getting harder each day.  In fact, if Sharon were to have an X-Ray, we could see the baby's skeleton (as the bones are ossifying).  The baby weighs about almost 2 ounces and is a bit larger than a fist but closer to a softball.

If we had an ultrasound today, the external sex organs are defined and we could possibly tell the sex of the baby.  The Chosen One is about 4 inches long and is growing at a rapid rate. 

The ears and eyes are developed and are moving into the proper position on the head.  Baby Thurston's toes and fingers are now formed as well.

People ask me if I am nervous.  People ask me a lot of things, as I'm a man of the people.  However, am I nervous?  In a word, no.  I have no reason to be nervous.  Sharon is doing well, we have a roof over our heads and a good support system of family and friends to offer help and support.

Drunken Detroit Lion

This may explain the 2-13 season.  I have a drunken Detroit Lion in my house right now.  He won't leave, and he's demanding chili.  Well, he can get bent - I ain't making Lions Chili unless they win a game, so it's a vicious cycle.

If you have any ideas on how to get this joker out of my family room, let me know.  He continues to drink all of my Atwater Block Vanilla Java Porter.

The Duck is Dead

While watching the CMU Chippewas win the Motor City Bowl, I was playing with Wrigley and Kennedy.  They got some new toys for Christmas, and they both seem to truly enjoy Kennedy's new Christmas duck.

Merry Christmas, My Ninjas

We (and by "We" I mean I) here at Thurston Blogging hope that everyone had a super-fantastic Christmas.  We (you know what I mean) sure did, and I wanted to share one of the gifts that we got.  A book.  Not just any book, but The Official Ninja Book by Robert Hamburger.  The aforementioned book will double as a gift and serve as the next "Jay's Book Club" book.

You may be asking yourself - "What is a ninja?".  Or you may be thinking "How did I end up in a Turkish prison?"  Cannot help you with the latter, Bobby.  However, to find out more about being a ninja, you have the right to learn all that there is to know here.

Here is a Christmas message from another fellow ninja:

I love Veronica Mars

Sharon and I have been completely taken with the television show, Veronica Mars.  My sister-in-law Joanne thought that we'd enjoy the show, and lent us the first season on DVD.  She was dead-on.  For a show about teenagers, it appeals to adults with its well-written duologue and interesting plot lines. 

On the surface, people will say - who would want to watch this show?  It's on a lower-tier network, and has guest stars like Harry Hamlin and Steve Guttenberg.  Yet it is awesome, as it has no elements of a 90210 or The O.C. with corny plots and horrible acting.

As an early Christmas gift, I gave Sharon the second season of VM.  Costco had it for under 23 bucks.  If you have a few extra bucks and some time on your hands, I strongly recommend giving the show a chance.  Kristen Bell, who plays Veronica, is a fantastic actress.  Bell, from Huntington Woods, has been in shows like Deadwood and The Shield.  Also, she as appeared in the movie
Spartan with Val Kilmer and the opus Pootie Tang.

In 2007, Bell will star in a movie that looks funny to me.  Fanboys is a comedy about a group of slackers who want to view Star Wars I - The Phantom Menace (or how I learned to hate Jar Jar) .

Here is a YouTube video montage of  season 1 of Veronica Mars set to one of the greatest covers ever, Mad World by Gary Jules.  Hope that you enjoy it.

Santa is off the wagon

Santa and his evil twin (who we will call Peppy for the purposes of this blog) decided to get bombed this afternoon.  Why?  Well, like me, Santa and Peppy are on vacation.  So, the two of them rolled into Ada today to drink the finest ales and dine on wonderful meats and cheeses. 
 

With any luck Peppy will get Santa out of here before Mrs. Claus calls looking for him.  I don't need her mad at me, or she will instruct the (stupid) elves to give me a dang Go-Bot like Cy-Kill as opposed to  Leader-1.

What's in the box?

The SNL Digital Short has found it's stride once again.  Not since Lazy Sunday has Andy Sandberg put on such a hilarious skit.  Check it out here:

There haven't been any videos on YouTube that have made me laugh like this, so I hope you enjoy it.

It's Official - We are pregnant

For those who don't know, Sharon and I are pregnant.  We are just over 13 weeks along and our expected due date is June 22nd, 2007.  Despite all of the bullsh!t that Jackson keeps sending out about raising their first child, Hunter, I'm really excited.

According to the Ancient Chinese Birth Chart, the baby could be a boy.  I'll wait a bit before I put my faith into a crazy website, but it is interesting.  We'll be able to find out the sex of the baby in about seven weeks.  At that time, we'll decide whether or not to share the sex of Baby Thurston (aka "The Chosen One").

The XBOX Room will become The Chosen One's Fortress of Solitude.  So, that means a new and improved XBOX Room will be erected in the basement.  Small price to pay for another little Detroit Lions fan. 

If you have any questions, comments or thoughts you'd like to share about the upcoming birth of Baby Thurston, e-mail us here.

The Next Book

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas (What I will now refer to as simply IV for the rest of this post) is the next book that my loyal follower should read.  Klosterman is the author of three other great book that I've enjoyed this past year while traveling:
Fargo Rock City
Killing Yourself to Live
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

Thanks to the great Grand Rapids-area public library system, I've been able to get all of these books for free.  This is my second pass at IV.  The first time, I took it on a trip to Italy, and never got to it as I read Howard Stern's two books Private Parts and Miss America.

This author is my age, and while he possesses an odd affinity to crappy 80's rock, his insightful views on popular culture are witty and laugh-out-loud funny to me.  The fact that there are published authors my age, discussing things that are relevant to me makes me feel both happy and old.   He's no Tucker Max with the women, but not many people (with the possible exception of Saylor) are in his league.

IV is a collection of essays on a wide variety of subjects ranging from tribute bands to eating nothing but McNuggets for one week.  Like the great Bill Simmons, Chuck will also pen great sports-related articles for ESPN's Page 2.  To view Chuck's Page 2 archive, click here.  Give any of the four books a read and decide for yourself if this guy is a slacker hipster doofus, or modern-day Jack Kerouac or Charles Bukowski.  Or both.