Off he goes...

Listen,
So Brady started Kindergarten today...kinda crazy if you ask me.  Perhaps more crazy is that he is attending Kindergarten at the very same school where I attended Kindergarten.  Like sand through the hourglass...these are the days of our lives.
I am very glad that Hana was emotionally stable enough to take him to school this morning, because I was a wreck.    Anyway, the picture below is outside the school with his cousins, Olivia and Oceana, who I believe are in sixth and fourth grade.  It is fun for him to go to the same school they do...I never went to school with any cousins until I went to BYU. 

It was very strange to hold baby Bronson today and remember so vividly when Brady was so tiny and helpless and here he is starting school.  From all accounts he did really well and is even excited about taking the bus.   He is truly an amazing kid and I am a very proud dad.

And so it begins.

Brady, Evan, _________!!! Come up for dinner!!!

Listen,

The baby is due in less than 2 weeks… yes, less than 2 weeks.  If I were hand-writing this blog post, you would see how badly my hands are shaking right now.  I am nearly in full panic mode… maybe about 85% of capacity.

Let's go through my list of things to get done before the baby is born:

- Trade in the X-terra (and my soul) for a  minivan…check*

- Move easy-E into Brady's room…check

- Buy a new carseat…check

- Get baby clothes and stuff out of storage…check (Hana did most of this)

- Figure out the work situation…check

- Decide on a name for the baby… … … …D'oh!

What to name him… that is a tough one.  Brady's name was decided on within an hour of the ultrasound when we found out we were having a boy.  Evan took a little longer, but I'm pretty sure we knew at least 2 or 3 months before he arrived.  This child, this poor nameless child…

Hana and I have been going back and forth and side to side and up and down on names for this baby.  We've scoured the interweb, read dozens of baby name books (well, Hana has anyway).  We've had it narrowed down to 2 names at least 10 times, but without fail, one of us decides to veto one or both names and we start all over.  I am getting desperate…I am open to suggestions, but don't want anything stupid or lame, so go ahead and share your thoughts.  Who knows, if we end up using your idea, you could maybe even win a prize**.

 

* I am actually quite surprised how much I like our minivan.  I have been meaning to write more about it, but have not yet.  For all you guys (and ladies) out there who hate the idea of a minivan let me tell you, I love it.  I am not ashamed to say it, I love my minivan.  Never thought you'd hear that come out of me did you!?!

 

**Prize limited to the change I have in my pocket or the value of the empty soda cans sitting on my desk at work if you were to take them to be recycled, whichever is more.  I do drink a lot of soda and I am lazy about crushing the cans, so they tend to pile up.  This could be a real money making opportunity for you.

 

 

Diet Mountain Dew

Listen,
So I was just about ready to go to bed tonight when I decided to add up how many ounces of Diet Mountain Dew I drank today.  For the rest of this post, I will refer to Diet Mountain Dew as DMD.  I do not usually call DMD "DMD," but I am now for the sake of saving precious energy on keystrokes.  Though now that I think about it, I probably will spend more keystrokes and energy explaining this than if I had just typed out "Diet Mountain Dew" several more times.  So, here is my list:
8:30 am: I had a 44 ounce fountain DMD from the gas station near where I work. 
11:30 am: I drank one 12 ounce can of DMD.  I had finished off my first DMD and I had a Coke Zero after that, so I was back to the DMD at 11:30.
1:30 pm:  I drank 1 can of DMD
6:00 pm: I drank a glass of milk with dinner, but had a can of DMD for dessert

8:30 pm: I played ward softball tonight from 7 pm until 8:23pm.  Hana was nice enough to buy me a 52 ounce Diet Coke at the gas station near the softball field which I drank during the game (the Diet Coke, not the softball field).  When I got home, I filled up my cup with 2 cans of DMD and drank them as well.  It was hot outside.  In case you were wondering we won 22 to 10.

It is now officially Wednesday, so I can tally my fluid ounces of DMD:
44+12+12+12+24=104.  Not too bad eh?

For those of you keeping track at home, I used 262 keystrokes to right out my explanation of using DMD instead of just writing out Diet Mountain Dew.  I am not sure if when you capitalize a letter it counts as one or 5 two keystrokes, but for the sake of this blog, I am only counting it as one.  "Diet Mountain Dew" takes 17 key strokes (as I count them) without the quotation marks of course, and DMD takes only 3 (as I count them).  This is a savings of 14 keystrokes.  I used the abbreviation "DMD" 12 times after my explanation of why I was using "DMD" in place of DMD.  This includes the one time used during the explanation and two times since adding up my total.  I am not counting the times I placed quotation marks around the letters because in those instances, I was not abbreviating DMD as "DMD."  Crap, that makes 14 times now I think.  Why am I writing this at 1:00am?  So, by my calculations, which are slightly impaired at this hour, I

saved 196 keystrokes by using the abbreviation.  If you recall, I spent 262 keystrokes writing my explanation so I wasted 66 keystrokes by using the stupid abbreviation.  What a freaking waste.

Hey look its Mario Lemieux, the greatest #66 of all time.


I actually had other stuff I was going to include in this post, but lucky for you I am going to stop now.  I am really going to regret this tomorrow.

The following is an image of Mathman as seen on Square One TV.  I don't belive that this is the real Mathman, but rather an artist's portrayal of Mathman... I hope that will suffice.

T-minus 2 months...

Listen,

Today is June 11, 2010.  You may be asking yourself, "What is the significance of this day?" or "why would Bob blog today of all days?"  Let me remind you that in 2 months, we are scheduled to receive another "bundle of joy" into our little family.  Yes, only 2 months until the new baby boy is due for delivery.  The other day, Brady asked Hana how the baby gets out of her belly.  He thought maybe through her mouth.  Hana told him it is kind of like magic.  Now, I have been by Hana's side during the birth of both Brady (C-section) and Evan (the old fashioned way) … never mind I am not going to go any further with that train of thought.

 

So with only two months to go I am kinda freaking out a little… just a general low-grade freaking out with occasional exacerbations. 

 

In other happenings…

The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup.  I am surprised I didn't blog at all during the playoffs.  It was great to watch some games with my dad.  I had Brady watch with us when they handed the Stanley Cup to the Blackhawk's captain Jonathan Toews (rhymes with haze and phase).  He thought it was a cool trophy and asked if anybody ever ate out of the top bowl.  From my understanding that has happened on many occations.  One member of the Blackhawks, Duncan Keith, lost 7 teeth in a game against the San Jose Sharks during the playoffs.  That is just cool.

 

The cherry tree in my backyard fell over when it snowed back on May 24^th.  It was crazy.  Our backyard feels bigger now without the tree taking up all the space it did.  Don't get me wrong, I really liked the tree, but part of me really likes that it is gone. 

 

The World Cup starts today.  I always get a big nostalgic during the World Cup.  I was in Brazil for the 1998 World Cup.  That was an amazing time to be there.  Them folks really like soccer (futebol). 

 

I am tired

 

Right now I have 8 empty soda cans and 1 unopened soda can on my desk right now.  Here is the breakdown:

4 – Coke Zero (empty)

3 – Diet Mountain Dew (empty)

1 – Diet Mountain Dew: Code Red (empty)

1 – Coke Zero (unopened)

 

I will stop wasting your time.

 

 

Nine Years…

Listen,

 

I graduated from High School in 1996.  I graduated from Pharmacy School in 2005.  That means that it took me nine years to graduate from college.  Granted, I took a couple years off and talked around southern Brasil, but still.  Looking back at those nine years, they seemed to last an eternity (some more than others).  The first years seemed like 7 years and the second year seemed like 5 years.  The third year seemed like 7 years again and the fourth year felt like 8 years.  The fifth year I got married and that seemed like just a year, but then Pharmacy School started later that year and it started seeming like 2 years, so in September of the fifth year it seemed like 2 years spilling into the next year and that started feeling like 4 years.  So at the end of the fifth year and into the sixth year seemed like 5 years.  The seventh year felt like a year and a half.  The eighth year seemed like 1 regular year and the ninth year seems like 2 years too.  So even though it was only 9 years it seemed more like 37.5 years… maybe that is why I feel old.  If you tack those extra 28.5 years on, I turned 60 in February.  It is all starting to make sense now. 

 

Anyway, back to the task at hand.  Nine years.  It was nine years ago today that I spent my last night as a single guy.  That is right, tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of my wedding day; the day that I tricked Hana into marrying me.  She had no idea what she was in for.  Those of you that know me and those of you that know Hana know how lucky I am.  She is truly an amazing person and I am grateful that she puts up with me and all my "me-ness."  Nine years seems like a long time, but we're just getting warmed up.  With baby boy #3 on the way we are ready to tackle yet another adventure together. 

 

I would keep going on and on about how amazing she is, but she never reads my blog (except when I make her read it so she can see how funny I really am), so I won't waste your time…that and I'm hungry.  Off to the vending machines...oh wait, Hana packed me left overs today... 

A "Simple" Milky Way?

Listen,

I did not bring a lunch to work today.  I don't bring a lunch to work a lot of days.  Usually I can keep the hunger at bay by downing another Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew Code Red, Coke Zero, or the like, but not today.  I decided to peruse the vending machines in the break room.  I try not to do this very often, because the food sold in vending machines is generally not healthy food.  There are exceptions to this, like down on BYU's campus I used to buy sandwiches or apples out of vending machines.  One of the vending machines here has yogurt, string cheese, milk, and Pop Tarts.  Maybe Pop Tarts aren't healthy.  Last time I experimented at the vending machine, I ended up with a strange and unsatisfying bag of Sun Chips: Spicy Chipotle and you all know how that turned out...   Well I saw something there at station F4 that caught my eye, a Milky Way Simply Caramel candy bar.  I have a long standing love of the Milky Way candy bar.  I don't remember exactly when I was introduced to the Milky Way Dark candy bar, but I enjoy them a great deal as well.  Don't get me wrong, I like the Snickers candy bar, but I am not always in the mood for something "packed with peanuts."  The 3 Musketeers candy bar is not one that I like very much at all, especially since the reformulated them.  Last Halloween I stole a 3 Musketeers Mint candy bar from Brady's stash and regretted it dearly… yuck!!!  Back to the Milky Way Simply Caramel candy bar;  I thought to myself, "Hmmm… a Milky Way candy bar is simple enough as it is, caramel, nougat, and chocolate."  Then I thought about See's Chocolates.  (They are my favorite kind of chocolates, by the way.)  I thought about how my favorite favorite is the dark chocolate truffle, but my second favorite is their standard caramel.  "What the heck," I said out loud, but not loudly enough for people to think that I am crazy and talking to myself.  The Milky Way Simply Caramel candy bar is just caramel covered in chocolate.  It was a darn fine treat!!!  I am grateful to report a pleasant vending machine experience to you all.  I think Steve would like this candy bar. (I am speaking specifically about my brother Steve, not just any random Steve, but you never know who might enjoy one of these)

 

In case you were wondering, here are my top 10 candy bars in no particular order.

Butterfinger Crisp

Take 5 Peanut Butter

Take 5

Milky Way

Whatchamacallit

Almond Joy

Kit-Kat

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups*

Caramello

Snickers

 

*I am not sure if these count as a candy bar since they are "cups" but I am counting them anyway.  I did not count Peanut Butter M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, or Junior Mints cause they are obviously not candy bars.

 

 

In other news, we went and saw How to Train Your Dragon.  I loved it and so did Brady. 

 

 

My three sons...

Listen,
Well we found out that baby boy #3 is on his way...  We are open to suggestions for names. 
Now I must sleep

Tomorrow is a pretty big day...

Listen,

For those who do not yet know, my wife is pregnant.  Yes, Hana is pregnant.  I am not sure how it happened, but my dad promised to explain it to me.  I think she ate some food off my plate a few months ago... I don't know.  Tomorrow we get to find out what we are having.  I have my suspicions that it will likely be a human child, but Hana has been reading a lot of Vampire books lately, so who knows what we are in for.   We asked Brady if he wanted a bother or a sister and he decided that he would prefer a sister because "Evan is mean."  Evan likes to tackle things.  He'll tackle just about anything; the cats, Brady, Hana, me, you name it, he will tackle it.  I think he has attempted to tackle his own shadow a few times even.  That is one rough kid.

In other news, I went and tried another new hamburger place in Sugarhouse.  It is called SmashBurger.  Dang tasty burger.  Kinda pricey though... it cost me and me alone over $11 to eat there.  I'd give a full review, but I am just too tired.  I think I still prefer Five Guys' Burger, but I prefer SmashBurger's "Smash Fries" which are tossed with olive oil, rosemary and garlic... very good indeed. 

Anyway, guess that is all for now.  I'll try to post the big news tomorrow if not then on Thursday for sure.

Oh one last thing... If you have not seen The Fantastic Mr. Fox yet, do yourself a favor and watch it.  I really enjoyed it and so did Brady...

Mo' Bettah Steaks

Listen,

This is not a food blog, but it is a Bob blog and food is very important to me; probably more important that it should be.  Well, we decided to go try a new restaurant last night and it has cracked the top 10.  I have been hearing advertisements for a new Hawaiian  place called Mo' Bettah Steaks on sports radio.  I LOVE Hawaiian-style plate lunch so we gave it a try.  This place is freaking amazing.  Hana shared the teriyaki steak plate with the E-Train and I had shared my Ekolu Special Plate with Brady-wan.  The Ekolu Special has teriyaki steak, teriyaki chicken and kalua pig.  Their plates are served like any other Hawaiian plate lunch with rice and macaroni salad.  The steak and chicken were tender and juicy and the kalua pig was amazing, not too wet and not too dry.  Their teriyaki sauce is very tasty and the amount of ginger gives if a nice kick. 

 

Maybe even better than their food is the authentic shave ice that they also have for dessert!!!  They will even put a scoop of vanilla ice cream and/or azuki beans in the bottom and top it off with sweetened condensed milk.  The only thing better would have been macadamia nut ice cream, but that would be too good to be true.  They have 28 flavors and let you pick up to 3!  Brady was shaking with excitement as we watched them create his giant shave ice.  The crazy kid ate almost the whole thing.  I don't think I've ever seen him so excited about something non-Star Wars before in my life.  He was possessed. 

 

Simply put, you must go try this place.  It is fan-freaking-tastic.  And lucky me, I have left-overs for lunch today!

 

In case you were wondering, here are the top 10:

1. Tucanos Brazillian Grill

1a. Braza Grill

1b. Rodizio Grill

4. Aloha Mixed Plate

5. Mo' Bettah Steaks

6. The Greek Island Café: Seaport Village

7. Five Guys Burgers and Fries

8. La Puente

9. The place that we ate at in Progressso where we at tacos al pastor at night while sitting on the sidewalk/street

10. In N' Out

Sleep Deprivation Quiz

Listen,

I love the Olympics.  I know that I have written about the Summer Olympics before, but now its the Winter Olympics.  Here is what bugs me.  I despise the fluffy, sweet, emotional stories about the athletes.  I get it; they are better people than I could ever hope to be.  Last night, Hana and I watched the Olympics on DVR and cut 5 hours of coverage down to about 90 minutes.  What crap.  We enjoyed making fun of the figure skaters teeth.  Lots of them had wonky teeth.  I also enjoy watching them fall.  It is my opinion that if you fall you should not be allowed to receive a medal.  The guy on the gold medal winning pair nearly dropped his partner and still won gold.  That is dumb.  Every other event requires perfection or very near perfection.  In figure skating the medal goes to the pair/individual that screws up the least.  I also hate sequins.

 

Here's another thing that bugged me today.  I opened up my Internet Explorer today (work won't let me use Firefox) and there on the MSN.com homepage is this helpful article, "5 Signs You're Sleep Deprived."  What an outstanding piece of literature that was.  So, inspired by MSN.com and their fountain of useful information, I bring you the Bob Sokol Certified Sleep Deprivation Quiz:

 

1. Do you feel sleepy all the time?  Yes    No    Maybe

 

Results/Interpretation

- If you answered yes, chances are you are sleep deprived

- If you answered no, chances are you are not sleep deprived

- If you answered maybe, chances are you are an idiot.

 

Bob and Hana Sokol
bobandhana.blogspot.com

Sun Chips: Spicy Chipotle...My thoughts

Listen,

So I just finished eating me first bag of Sun Chips: Spicy Chipotle, which claim on the package to have a "great multigrain taste!" Generally speaking, I like Sun Chips. I do not know the names of all the different varieties of Sun Chips, but I know that I like the ones in the blue bag and the ones in the orange bag. I do not care much for the ones in the green bag. Well, the Sun Chips: Spicy Chipotle come in a red bag. If you know me, then you know that I like spicy stuff. I'm not sadistic or anything, but as the previous "Next Food Network Star," Aaron McCargo Jr. always says, "I like a little heat in there."

So here is how it went down. I was sitting at my desk around 1:30 this afternoon. I brought a chocolate muffin from home for breakfast, but ate my apple instead which left my muffin for lunch. I ate my chocolate muffin at about 1pm and I was feeling like I wanted a snack, you know, something to chase the chocolaty goodness with. I got to the vending machine and put my money in, with the intention of buying the Sun Chips: Orange Bag Flavor when out of the corner of my eye I saw the red bag of the Sun Chips: Spicy Chipotle. My interest was piqued, so I decided to go for it. Besides, I hadn't opened my third Diet Pepsi yet, so if they were indeed spicy I would be covered. The walk back to my desk was excruciating, as I could not wait to open this new snack food item. With trembling fingers and salivary glands in full action I opened the red bag of Sun Chips: Spicy Chipotle. I wafted the scent of the chips toward my nose. They smelled good, but not spicy. I plunged my hand into the red bag and withdrew a single chip. They have the general appearance of all of the Sun Chips that I have previously encountered with the additional of some flecks of red powdery substance, which I assumed to be the "Spicy Chipotle". I placed the entire chip into my mouth, dove in headfirst if you will. What a letdown. While they tasted pretty good, the "Spicy Chipotle" seasoning was not nearly spicy enough. I finished the bad without requiring one swig of my Diet Pepsi!!! What sadness I felt after discarding the empty bag of chips into my garbage receptacle. Now I am left with a Sun Chip: Spicy Chipotle after taste which my Diet Pepsi is not curing.

-On a scale of spiciness with 1 being milk and 10 being the hottest thing I've ever eaten, I would give these a 2.5.

-On a tastiness scale with 1 being unsalted, unbuttered popcorn and 10 being my sister Hayley's Pecan-Cream Cheese Pie, I would give these a 1.5. For reference, I would give Sun Chips: Blue Bag Flavor and Sun Chips: Orange Bag Flavor a 2.5.

-On likelihood a of buying again scale with 1 being a prescription from Smith's Market Place Pharmacy ever again and 10 being an ice-cold Coke Zero on a hot summer day, I would give them a 1.

Oh well.

That is all.

Pie and Donuts

Listen,

I had to turn in my "End-of-Year Self Review" at work last week.  What this means is that several months ago I wrote out some "goals" for work and now I have to assess how I did.  In case you care, I performed way above my expectations.   Maybe that's due to the fact that I set the bar low for myself.

 

Anyway, I just finished reading Dave's Blog and it made me laugh on the inside a bit and inspired me to write out something for my blog.  Last night, Hana and I rewatched the move Juno.  In case you have forgotten, we named our cats Juno and Bleeker after the characters in this movie.  It made me laugh too. 

 

Today at work one of my coworkers brought in donuts.  I really like donuts, but they sometimes make me feel a little sick when I eat them.  That is probably because sometimes when I eat them I eat 5 or 6 of them.  When I eat just one donut like I did today I am just fine.  No need to worry about me having an upset stomach today unless I pass by the desk where the donuts have been placed and grab another one later on, in which case look out. 

 

On Sunday my mom made pie.  Many people enjoyed the pie, but I know that she really made pie for me to enjoy.  Some pie is made for a special occasion like Thanksgiving or whatever.  These pies were simply made out of love.  No special occasion needed.  Thanks mom.  I really like pie… even more than donuts. 

 

I have really great kids.  They make me crazy on occasion, but overall, I think having them was a good choice.  Here is a story: The other day, we (Hana and I) were tending our nieces (Steve and Kristin's daughters).  The younger daughter is 5 months older than Evan.  She was just sitting/laying/cuddling on Hana's lap.  Hana said something to the effect of "I wish Evan was more of a cuddler."   While she was saying this, Evan was dancing/stomping his feet on the coffee table and then dove off the table onto my lap as I was sitting on the couch.  His forehead slammed into my chin as I was ill-prepared for his sudden arrival on my lap.  He then proceeded to climb up on the table and jump off onto me, the couch, or the floor about 10 times. He was giggling and laughing and smiling the whole time.   I then said something like, "would you really trade cuddling for entertainment like this?"  I sure wouldn't. 

 

In other news, the Colts made the Superbowl again this year.  If you don't know, the Colts are my NFL team.  I chose them as my team after the Raiders had their meltdown during the Superbowl they lost to the Buccaneers.   I like the Saints too, but will be cheering for Peyton Manning and the Colts on February 7. 

 

That is all.