Tim Stevens has four new movie reviews for y’all: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Terminal, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

Adrienne has a funny joke, but it’s not family-friendly, so parental discretion is advised; click at your own risk. :)

The love of my life, Becky, turns 22 today.

This means she is “caught up” with me, agewise, for the next 4 1/2 months. :)

Happy Birthday, darlin’!

(More photos of yesterday’s Roosevelt Lake boating/fishing trip to follow later today.)

UPDATE: Photos now online! Behold: boating and fishing in the desert! :)

And here (from the shuttle ride down to the boat) is the obligatory, camera-at-arm’s-length, happy-couple shot:

It’s a good thing I have such a hot girlfriend… otherwise I would have to say that I look totally dorky in that picture. :)

Adrienne emerged from her blog-exile yesterday with a great post about “two of the most hellish weeks academia’s ever managed to force on me.” Excerpt:

average number of hours of sleep per night: 5
all-nighters: 3
red bulls consumed: 15
mochas consumed because was sick of red bull: 6
pages written while hyped up on caffeine: 31
pages written that probably should have been edited by a slightly more lucid third party: 31
presentations given: 1
rehearsals of said presentation prior to giving it before the client: 0

And so forth. Heh. (Congrats on the A’s, Adra!)

Elsewhere in the Brendansphere, Tim explains why John Ashcroft “really makes my heart sing,” and Sasha offers a critique of Robbie’s table manners.

Some very funny stuff from ChrisTheBear’s blog.

In the wake of my dad’s epic Mowing of the Lawn :), the AdollyaCam is now pointed more downward, so you can see more of the driveway and our front lawn. Also, it’s in focus:

(The above is a static, archived image; for a live view, click here!)

(more…)

Although I neglected to mention it in my “eventful week” post on Monday, today is my Mom and Dad’s 27th wedding anniversary!

The above picture of them was taken on the Staten Island Ferry last summer. I rather like it. (The bunny at bottom right is named Knubbles.)

Anyway, Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

On a tangentially related note, two years ago, on my parents’ silver anniversary, an e-mail inviting friends and relatives to view an online photo tribute produced a “flood” of traffic and a new daily hits record for BrendanLoy.com: 80 visits in one day! That such a mark would be a record seems remarkable to the point of absurdity now, considering my current daily record is 3,326 hits, and I average around 300 to 400 per day. We’ve come a long way, baby.

My possible future mother-in-law — also known as Becky’s mom, Ginny Zak — celebrates her birthday today. Happy Birthday, Mrs. Zak!

I won’t mention anything about her age, but rumor has it this is a “milestone” birthday of some sort. Sources close to the Zak household would neither confirm nor deny those allegations. :)

The “fam” is coming to town this weekend — specifically, son Casey, daughter Jen, and son-in-law Soren — for a birthday and Memorial Day get-together.

Earlier, I posted that today had been “fairly uneventful.” That was true for me, but not, as it turns out, for my better half. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the saga of Becky of the Nine Toenails and the Carpet Deodorizer of Doom.

P.S. Becky’s characterization of her reason for going grocery shopping isn’t quite right. But I guess we’ll call it poetic (bloggetic?) license…

ChrisTheBear, a newly minted 2Q 1L, is miffed that the 1Q 1Ls (or is that 1L 1Qs?) don’t have class until 10:30 AM. Wimps!! What’s-a-matter with kids today? “What we need at Baylor is more hazing,” he says. Heh.

Having officially completed his first semester of law school and begun a weeklong break, ChrisTheBear doesn’t quite know what to do with his newfound freedom:

Ah, sweet freedom. I can do anything I want–go home, read a book, see a movie, anything. And it’s already driving me crazy. Don’t I need to be making flashcards or something, maybe working on my outline or doing hypotheticals? For some reason, it seems like the day’s just not real if I haven’t been to the law school at least once.

Heh. After complaning that “something just doesn’t feel right,” Chris very rationally concludes: “I blame the communists.” LOL! Normally, I would disagree and say that he should blame John Ashcroft instead, but it being May Day and all, blaming communists is even better than blaming Ashcroft.

Speaking of May Day, I meant to (but forgot to) include in my earlier May Day post the following change-of-pace photo from my mom in Connecticut:

The first of May isn’t just about commies and labor movements, you know! :)

Funny, funny stuff from ChrisTheBear (who, by the way, is approaching his 10,000th hit).

And yet more funny stuff. Who knew law-school finals could produce such comedy?

In other Brendansphere news, Becky is sick, and Adrienne is 22. Happy Birthday, Adra… and get well, darlin’! (And don’t get me sick, dammit! :)

Just uploaded my photo album of pics from our visit today — “us” being me, Becky and Robbie — to the Quail Run dog park in Mesa, which we take Robbie to almost every day. A few highlights:

Man, I loved that pug (above). So cute!! The basset hound shown directly above him, Daisy Mae, is one of Becky’s favorites. And at the top, you can see Robbie and a golden retriever hamming it up for the camera.

The park is great — you see a lot of the same dogs and people day after day, so you end up making various friends and acquaintances, canine and human alike. Lots of fun. Oh yeah, and Robbie has a good time, too. :)

Here’s a story about the dog park (or “Bark Park”) that ran in the local paper earlier this week.

Also newly online: my mom’s photos of spring in Newington.

The flowers in our yard are dedicated, as they are every year, to the memory of my Grandma Loomer, who loved our flowers (we would always bring her the best ones, back when she was living at a nursing home in town).

In addition to the flowers, the gallery also contains photos from a recent ‘rental fishing expedition — including my parents’ close encounter with Gothmog the Snapping Turtle on the Bridge of Wetherzfad-Dum. (”You cannot pass!”)

I am utterly remiss in failing to note previously that yesterday was the 17th birthday of my “honorary sister,” Kimberly Stone. (I had it marked on my iCal calendar and everything, but still somehow managed to forget. D’oh!)

Anyway, happy belated birthday, Kimber!!

Weight Watchers, Catholicism and marriage: “discarded thoughts” worth reading on Becky’s blog.

Becky also posted yesterday on the SHA girl blog, about a particularly heinous injustice in the “war on drugs.”

Elsewhere in the Brendansphere, ChrisTheBear continues to give us a inside peek at the stress and drama that is final exams at Baylor Law School. And Adrienne needs cheering up. (Well, okay, she needed cheering up like a week ago. But hey, I’m just getting caught up here.)

Jen turns 24 today.

My best friend is twenty-freakin’-four. My God, we really are growing up!

Well… getting older, at least. :)

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Jen!