BLDer in NCAA championship game

Who would have guessed?

E&J Gallo Winery

I fooled them into giving me an offer. I fooled them again into offering me a bit more money. They fooled me into accepting offer #2. It's official - Devon and I will be moving to the scenic Modesto area this summer as I join the ranks of the employed. I will be working in the unholy art of financial analysis in the holy art of winemaking. It should be glorious. I ended up with four offers from Intel, Agilent, HP, and Gallo. It's nice to have options, but it made the decision process that much harder.

Oh, Devon and I celebrate 2yrs of marriage on Feb 7 (where did 2 years go all of a sudden?). We're still newlyweds which is cool.

We're planning a two week European vacation after graduation. It'll be a mix of college-style backpacking and mature hoteling. I'm trying to finalize the places to visit. It's an attempt to balance some new places I've never been and showing Devon the places where I've already been.

Devon's had a hard couple weeks after finding out her grandmother died on Jan 23. It was very unexpected. We went down to the LA area for all of the planning and events with the family which was good, but hard.

That's all from here... When's the next BLD wedding?

Nothing better to do

So Jill is in the middle of a speaker phone conference call, which is making it impossible for me to work on the old dissertation, so I figured I would respond to Hursty's call for posts. Unfortunately, there's not really much to report from the Land of Ahh's. (Yes, that is an official Kansas motto.)

The highlight of the last week or so had to be Jill and I stumbling across the end of a truly great movie the other night, Men with Brooms. Since we only saw the last twenty minutes or so, I can't give it a proper review, but I'll tell you there's nothing more exciting than two heart-stopping curling moments in the space of ten minutes. I have to believe Doug could describe it in more detail, since a Canadian movie lover couldn't really call himself either unless he had seen this flick.

Once we actually manage to meet enough people, Jill and I are planning a curling movie theme party. You are all invited in advance.

alright, blders

why so busy? i've been checking almost daily for updated commentary... but... nothing.

surely there are interesting things going on in your lives.

thank goodness the swim season is almost over. i've got about 3 weeks left. it's been a good season on the whole, but i am tired of dealing with all of the inevitable drama. it will be nice to finish up work and go home, and NOT have to get up at 5am for practice this next morning.

my house continues to come along, but still slowly. the kitchen is repainted and most of the wallpaper in the foyer and upstairs hallway is off. what a pain in the butt.

hillary and i are still doing well. she came to my swim meet last night, then we made our own pizza and watched television. a rocking evening, to be sure, but it was fun.

hope you are all well.

Jonathan

"a guy Neal has in his office"

Spectacular, Jon. At least they spelled your name right.
Hopefully it doesn't cause too much of a stir. Anyone who has the smallest amount of sense about how a small business works could understand you working for someone who is suspended. Neal could be an illiterate pig farmer who never had an agent's license... he can still own the company, and you can do the agent-ing.

The Globe was just looking for news since they were not prepared to have the Patriots not playing football this week.

Besides, you couldn't possibly be worse than Rosenhous. Now the NFL Network is doing commercials making fun of him.

Anyway, I'm bored and trying to find a new job. If I start a company, I'm still going to try to call it BLD. I will probably need a CEO, laywer, salesman, agent, and at least one theologian. And I might hire a socialist and a doctor as consultants. Anyone know any?

Mazzucco


P.S. BLD New Year's in Figi, 2006. It's only a 23 hour canoe ride for Adin.

haha

Thanks, Doug. I was going to email that out this morning for everyone's entertainment. Actually I still might since a lot of people don't check this very often. Hopefully that article is a good sign that I am not going to be disciplined - that was my focus last week in responding to this whole mess. We'll see what happens. Talk to you all soon.

Show Hurst the money

It's always cool to see a BLDer's name in print. Follow the link and scroll down to "A suspension of disbelief."

there ain't no motive for this crime

A little dissertation help

So I'm still working on incorporating my Princess Bride reference in the dissertation, but I need to come up with some other examples to go along with it and thought you all might be able to help.

Here's the pertinent passage from my current dissertation draft:

"Second, when viewed from the perspective of the whole of salvation history, Satan is not only deceived when he tries to claim Christ on the cross, in a certain sense Satan was deceived in leading man into sin. For it is the ultimate success of mankind that is the final indictment of Satan, and mankind’s ultimate success was only possible following mankind’s struggle with, and Christ’s conquest of, sin. In Ambrosiaster’s account of salvation history, Satan is like the villain in countless tales who wounds a young innocent and consequently motivates the youth to become the hero who will ultimately defeat him."

So obviously the Princess Bride fits, with Count Rugen being Satan and Inigo representing mankind. The problem is I'm having trouble thinking of some of the other "countless tales" that follow the same structure. Can anyone think of some other good examples? I would prefer examples from the classics or classic literature. So far the only other examples Jill and I can think of are all from movies or recent kid's books (Batman, Harry Potter, etc.). While I've enjoyed those works, I'm trying to avoid giving the impression that my cultural knowledge is limited to the last decade or so.

Any ideas?

hmmmm

I wonder if we'll hear from the BLD Blog Creator again before next New Years?

How is everything going out in BLD land? I thought I would share some amusing correspondence between me and Jess Ellsworth yesterday. I don't know what I was thinking, but it sure was funny.

> Dear Jessica Ellsworth, Esquire,

> You should have come to New Years in Richmond. You were missed.

> And Lincoln was there with his boyfriend, so I think he was a

> little more toned down than usual.

> Anyway, I hope you had a splendid holiday season. How are

> things going?

> Jonathan

-----Original Message-----

From: Jessica L. Ellsworth 98 [mailto:Jessica.L.Ellsworth.98@Alum.Dartmouth.ORG]

Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 2:57 PM

To: "Jonathan R. Hurst"

Subject: Re:

More to follow, but do you know something about Lincoln that I don't know?!? Has he been watching too much Brokeback Mountain?!?

I heard you brought a girlfriend as well. Very interesting developments...

----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan R. Hurst [mailto:jhurst59@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 3:02 PM
To: 'Jessica L. Ellsworth 98'
Subject: RE:

Hahahahahahhaa

Oh that gave me a good laugh.

I have no idea why I wrote boyfriend or didn't catch it before I sent it.

Oh goodness, that made my afternoon.

Hope you are well and talk to you soon.

JH

Dudes,
I'm very jealous that I missed a good time...a very good time.
Also, I'm jealous that I missed a taboo game. Lincoln's clapboard question did remind me of Taboo..it's a board that claps. Or (Doug, close your eyes)...it's a bag with pipes....

my list

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Winning Family Business
2. Winning rock, paper, scissors against Shan so that I could use the Purple Gang
3. playing various games of darts on Kevin's surprisingly sturdy $15 dartboard from Target
4. going on a morning run with Dan, Rob, and Laura
5. Hillary enjoying herself and not running away after meeting the BLD
6. hillary bonding with Laura and Devon, and talking a lot with shan and jill
   
7. discussing dental hygiene (and learning a great deal from betsy) for a half hour with all women. and christian.
8. passing my cell phone around for about an hour after adin called
   
9. getting to know chad, devon, and laura
10. getting invited to the "big girl" room by mary grace, then playing "swiper NO swiping" game for at least a half hour
11. pretending that i am playing blocks with one of the kids, but really just building my own stuff because it's fun
12. making plans to buy my own building blocks
    
13. playing the "aidan knock it down?" game
14. eating (devouring) shan's hors doeuvres
    
15. watching amanda slack walk off in her princess outfit to three weddings in one day
16. meeting christian
17. laughing at kevin's jokes that aren't funny
18. talking to doug and josh about "god of war" and other video games
19. playing bocci ball
20. seeing that jason agreed to come back for a second BLD new year
    

LOWLIGHTS

1. Getting 2 points on my first round of Taboo
2. Playing a miserable game of pong with Rob (sorry Fasani)
3. not watching the Princess Bride (this pains me to write)
4. not seeing kristin, adin, or tommy inglesby
5. trying to drink bud light fast in pong. failing.
   
6. drinking bud light at all
   

Papsdorf Favorite Things about New Years

Josh
- I can't speak for him. He'll have to write his own blog.

Jill
1. Shannon's fantastic mint chocolate chip cookies
2. The game of Taboo where a dental hygiene conversation scored many points.
3. The same game of Taboo where we guessed Betsy loves her dentist, but no one suggested Dan. (I'm sure he would have been the next guess.)
4. being able to stand in the dining room to watch Pong without going in the cold
5. hanging out with Hilary, Laura and Tiffany's family (and everyone else, too)
6. sleeping in with Caleb until 9 am (what was wrong with that kid?)
7. watching Caleb play with Mary Grace, Aidan, Wesley, Amanda & Caitlyn (Christian didn't do much playing. He mostly slept.)
8. hearing the old stories all over again
9. catching up with everyone, even the people who don't post on the blog that much
10. not hearing Lincoln's snoring

Caleb
1. watching The Lord of the Beans with Aidan
2. watching Sumo of the Opera (twice) while Mom and Dad went to church
3. running around like crazy with Mary Grace
4. minosaurs in the bathtub (dinosaurs, for those of you who don't speak toddlerese)
5. learning Mom and Dad have names (Jill and Josh). (We're still working on teaching Caleb that while we have names, we don't necessarily want him to use them.)
6. the bus at the park

suggestions for next year
1. take a group picture
2. watch The Princess Bride
3. choose the next location soon so maybe Adin could use frequent flyer miles to join us
4. Anne and Kristin should come. (We love you Doug, but we missed Anne.)
5. more babies. Christian was such a darling. Surely he convinced some of you to wait no longer!

What happened at New Years

The highlights of new years for me were:
1) getting to know Hillary, Chad, and Laura, the new years' eve rookies
2) hanging out with the kids (even though Caleb didn't even pretend to like me)
3) not playing "Imagine If..."
4) the book of questions
5) sleeping in until 6:00

Lowlights included
1) Being dominated by Doug and Josh in pong
2) Being crushed in family business by Ma Barker
3) the book of questions
4) not watching the Princess Bride
5) Dick Clark

There may have been other highlights and lowlights that I don't recall.

Clapboard and more details request

Lincoln, I actually think it's called a clapboard. No shit. http://images.google.com/images?q=clapboard&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-18,GGLD:en&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest

Anyway, can someone please give those of us (me) who were unable to attend New Year's...sigh...a play by play.

And, curses to you, Doug. I got all excited and thought that someone had actually posted a picture of beautiful MG and I could see her and enjoy watching her do something so totally cute. Who wants to see a stupid real lion, when I could see her smiling face instead?

Hope all is well. I've missed you all...you've been quiet since you saw one another. Spill the gossip. Who's lost hair?

That's better

Finally figured out how to get this template working with the sidebar again. Turns out it was Blogger's doing. If you're curious, check out their layout solution.

New Year's was a blast. Kevin, Shan & MG were consummate hosts and it was amazing to see the 2nd generation of the BLD running around.

breaking my back just to know your name