It's a...

P.S.
This was supposed to be set to a great John Lennon song covered by Regina Spektor, but the YouTube police didn't like it.  You can click here then start the video to get the general idea.

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Spreading the News

I love it when a blog post writes itself...

I think most of you reading this blog know that Ruth Ann is a kindergarten teacher.  As her belly is a bit harder to hide these days, she decided last week to tell her class that a baby was on the way.  And being the great teacher that she is, she used everybody's favorite (maybe?) word game, Hangman, to make them work a little bit for the scoop.

Once they got it, the reactions were priceless:

"a for real live baby?"
"and you can bring it for show & tell!"
"Mrs. Timmons, are you really fixin to have a baby right now?"
"Mrs. Seay (RA's assistant whose daughter is pregnant), then you have a baby too!"
"when are you going to take it out?"
"I bet Mrs. Timmons is going to have a too cute baby!"

And after a couple days of the news settling in:
"I'm just so excited about Mrs. Timmons having a baby I can't think anymore!"

Kids are funny.  I hope our kid is funny...

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Are You a Warrior?

Why yes, yes I am.  

And so is Ruth Ann.  Our friends Charlotte and Quique discovered this event last year and after about .002 seconds after they told me about it, I was sold.  So last May we took a trip down to Mountain City, GA to participate in the Warrior Dash.   I can't recommend this event highly enough, but in this blog post, I'm going to do my best to convince you to sign up to do this with us in 2011 (Ouida, I'm talking to you, too).

If you didn't check out the link above, the Warrior Dash is a 5K adventure race.  Sure you get the standard event t-shirt, but that's not all.  With your entry and t-shirt, you also get a medallion and a fuzzy warrior hat. This is not your typical 5K by ANY stretch.  Think obstacles and costumes.  Think free beer for the finishers, and let's don't forget that classic fair food staple, the turkey leg.  The company that organizes the race has a series all across the country, and each race is a little different.  There are, however, some common elements in all of them.  Namely, the warrior roast (aka, fire jump) and muddy mayhem (aka, barbed wire mud pit).  We also slogged through water, climbed a cargo net, and clambered over some broke down cars.

You can look at all of our pictures from last year here, but these should give you a feel for the awesomeness.  This year, they added an event in Huntersville, NC, and we've got quite a crew signed up (holla to Jimmy, K-Woo and Jon, Ginger and Christopher, and Suzy and Jeff).  Won't you join us?  And won't you suggest large group costume themes?  Ruth Ann will be mega pregnant and just spectating this year, but Juno/Bleeker has a nice ring to it, I think.

Here's the link you need, right >> here <<

Pre-race (Popeye, Olive Oyl and Mr. T's Marauders)

Action Shot!

Entering the mud pit

In the mud, barely (I was in a hurry after being heckled urged on by the peanut gallery)

Finished!

(Dirty) Warriors

Shoe graveyard/recycling

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Bag of Crap!

Yes, you read that right.  I am the proud owner of an elusive Bag of Crap from Woot!

For those in the know, I'm sure you can understand the excitement and sense of accomplishment actually landing one of these things provides.  Most of the time, you will get, well, crap (see below).  There are, however, the legends of amazing bags - TVs, electronics, entire pallets of goodies, etc.  So you really have to approach this as an $8 lottery ticket, cross your fingers and hope for some magic.  People go a little nuts over these things - just check out the message board where you can see what some other people have gotten (start at the end).

For those that don't already know about Woot!, it's a daily deal site.  Occasionally, they will have a Woot-Off, where they offer a deal until it sells out, then offer something else and so on.  At some point during the Woot-Off, they'll have a bag of crap.  Their servers will instantaneously crash and it's up to your connection and the internet gods to see if you can get through.  On extra special occasions (think Christmas and April Fools' Day), they will do something sneaky to offer the BOC.  In the 4 years I've watched Woot!, I've gotten two bags of crap.

This was my first (crappy, right?)

(I got this in November and those are 2010 page-a-day calendars, haha)

I landed the latest treasure from April Fools' Day.  They used this game to prove your worthiness.  Go ahead and play it for about 3 minutes and you'll get the joke (it's made to be randomly unwinnable).  Are you getting that the folks at Woot! have quite a sense of humor?  I gave the game the old college try but to no avail.  Being the crafty tech person (aka, nerd) that I am, I found a way around the game and successfully scored my second bag!

Craptastic!

If you're keeping score, that's a bag of 10 random USB connectors, a screaming monkey keychain that's kinda busted, a $40 lampshade, and a reusable zebra tote bag.  Not great, but not bad.  And heck, if JCPenney will take back that lampshade, I've more than financed my next pursuit of random crap...

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Baby Mama

No, not the movie (although it is fantastic).

As of this post, Ruth Ann is just over 16 weeks along, showing a little bump, and enjoying some comfy maternity jeans (have you ever seen those things?!?).  Still no real sickness to speak of, and after that 12th week the zombie-style tiredness took a vacay.  The other night she had her first "was that the baby moving?" moment - exciting stuff!

Aren't you guys all dying to see a baby bump?  Ruth Ann started showing a little bit a couple weeks ago:

(14 weeks)

Since then, she's done some shopping for comfy-er clothes and that baby has done some more growing:

(16 weeks, and hello Cooper)

Ruth Ann is handling pregnancy like a BOSS.  It's far too easy sometimes to forget that she's got an overly full plate on top of growing that little person.  She just pretty much rolls with it and most of the time, it's the same ol' awesome RA.  There are days when I get tired of trying to keep things afloat on the home front while she's at class or trying to catch up on work, or heaven forbid, rest.  I have to keep reminding myself that (even if she doesn't act like it) she's on the business end of this deal and I've got to suck it up...

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The Avett Brothers

Most everyone that knows me is aware of my massively eclectic music collection.  As a rule, unless it's "tear in my beer" country twang, there's a good chance I like it or at least appreciate it (yes, Lady Gaga, I'm talking to you).

We just had a chance to see one of my favorite bands last weekend when the Avett Brothers came to Charlotte for a homecoming show.  These guys are from Concord and have started to make a bigger name for themselves over the last couple years.  Their music is hard to classify (punk bluegrass, maybe?) so you likely won't hear much of them on the radio, but I encourage you to check them out as they bring energy to the banjo and acoustic guitar like nobody's business.  Their songs range from ballad to full-blown hollerin' jams.  One of Team Timmons' favorite Avett tracks is "Murder in the City".

Here it is live, from Saturday night:

Some people (ahem, Ouida) don't seem to appreciate this song, and take the lyrics just a bit too literally.  Does Scott Avett really think he's gonna get shot down and have his posse avenge his death.  Doubtful.  For me, this is a storyteller's song about family and it gives me chills every time I hear it.  Go ahead and listen again - what do you think?  Trashy or tender?

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Jimmy Fallon

I'm just gonna be honest here, I'm addicted to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  Period.

If we're friends on Facebook or if you're within my IM range, you've been subjected to my "why you should watch Late Night" campaign, and you've probably seen a fair share of brilliant clips from the show.  For those that haven't, this a media-heavy post so scroll down, I've included some faves below.

I've actually been a Fallon fan for a long time, back to the SNL days.  Without fail, the best sketches are those where someone in the cast breaks/cracks up, and when Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz got together, it was nearly impossible for them to keep a straight face, which was awesomesauce.  Post SNL, Jimmy put out a comedy album (yes, I own it) and did some stand up shows.  He came up to Boone and his set was hilarious.  The crowd was great and even after he ran out of his A material, he just kept going and making stuff up on the fly - "uh, sorry guys, do you want to hear some songs?".  Very cool.

Back around the holidays, we made a trip to NYC to check out the sights and sounds (check out Ginger's excellent recap of the trip here).  As part of the trip, we managed to catch a taping of Late Night and even managed to get on TV for a quick second.  At the end of the show, I got a Fallon high five.  Sweet!

(proof, suckas!)

(it's OK to squint, can you see my Christmas faux sweater t-shirt?)

For our entire crew, the taping was a big highlight of the trip.  We got to go down into the depths of 30 Rock, get shuffled around by some NBC pages (although no Kenneth sightings), and of course got to see Studio 6B.  It's always cool to see behind the curtain and watch what goes into taping a show.  Once we got seated, one of the writers came out to tell some jokes and warm up the crowd.  After we were sufficiently primed, it was time for The Roots.  An added bonus for the studio audience is that you get a mini-concert from one of the best bands on the planet.  For everyone else, not only do you get good music, you get comedy.  The guys in the band are all game to participate in a sketch and you can tell they just genuinely have a good time (don't even get me started on their uber clever/snarky walk on song choices).  I've never watched Silent Library on MTV, but Jimmy and The Roots were on an episode and it just goes to show how much fun they have (check out some behind the scenes clips of that episode here).

I've never been a huge fan of late night TV, but I am now.  We DVR LNJF every night, and I think that you should too.  It's a tall task to pick just a handful of clips to sway your opinion, but I think these should do the trick.

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:


Exhibit C:


Exhibit D:





Is your DVR set yet?

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A New Look

Back in the winter when I started to grow my seasonal face insulation, Ruth Ann mentioned that she had never seen my chin.  She's right - in the time that we've known each other, I've always had some kind of scruff growing on my face.  We decided that when spring rolled around, it would be time for a clean shave.

Inspired by Zach Galifianakis and his "looks", we documented the transformation.

Just give me...

The Outdoorsman

 

The Backstreet Boy

The Ol' Standby

The Zebra

The Fu Manchu (this one almost came to work with me today for April Fools)

The uh, keep an eye on that weirdo

The Uncle Rico (thanks Quique!)

The Flavor Saver

The Learner's Permit

Is there a clear winner here?

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