Manly Names: Villain Edition

Ariane is now entering that last four weeks of her pregnancy, or at least she hopes she is. We’ll just wait and see if the boy decides to stay in an extra week or so.

Having still not settled on a name it’s time for another poll. We’ll consider the last poll the Manly Names: Heroes Edition, where Maverick really cleaned house in the polls. That makes this one the Villains Edition. So here are some of our favorite manly villains. Disney characters seem to dominate this one, but that’s because Disney creates such memorable villains. Here is the next set of names in no particular order.

GASTON: There’s no one in town half as manly as you can see he’s got biceps to spare. He is defiantly one of the manliest of Disney villains. No one's slick as Gaston, no one's quick as Gaston and no one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston's. All qualities every man would want. The drawback is he’s defiantly lacking in the brains department. But on the plus side every last inch of him is covered in hair.

VOLDEMORT: I’m sure with the popularity of the Harry Potter movies and books this name is going to really take off. We could even refer to the boy as He Who Must Not Be Named, though that may get a little long when paired with Bredthauer.

JAFFAR: This gives us some ethnicity. It would really throw people off when they ask where his family is descended from and the boy tells them Germany. We would need to get an obnoxious parrot to go with the name and I'm not sure how long I can put with that.

DARTH: I can’t have a name list without someone from Star Wars being on it or in this case two someone’s. His middle name would be based on who ever we chose to name him after, either Vader or Maul.

MEGATRON: He is the leader of the Decepticons in the Transformers movies and cartoon show. He’s a pretty bad dude but he’s never r been able to finish of the Autobots and really put them away. He’s kind of a failure but you’ve got to admire his tenacity, every time he flees you here him yell, “Next time Prime” (referring to Optimus Prime, his arch nemesis) The guy just doesn’t know how to quit.

COBRA COMMANDER: We would just call him Cobra; maybe make Commander his middle name.  Leader of a group of military terrorists from the G.I. Joe cartoon show and movie.   Same story as Megatron, leader of an evil group and he can’t seem to beat the good guys but always promises to be back again. For the record this movie was terrible so that is another drawback. This name does have the snake that we could use instead and drop the Commander from the middle name. It is one of the most poisonous snakes in the world.

SCAR: I’ve always wondered why his parents named him this. Was he born with a scar, did they not name until after he had the scar, did he get the scar during delivery or is it just a coincidence? Either way it would force me to give the boy some kind of scar on his face which may be borderline child abuse, but maybe it doesn’t count if you name your kid Scar and you are just helping him live up to his name sake.

There you have it, our manly names for villains. Let us know which one you like and we’ll let you know of the boy arrives early; otherwise we’ll see how many of those polls we can do in the next four weeks.

Lucys First Stiches

The other afternoon I was working at the fire station when I got a call from Ariane, who told me that Lucy had fallen in the bathtub hitting her chin on the metal part of the shower door. She said it was bleeding pretty bad and looked pretty deep. I told her to come by the station and I would check it out. After looking at it we decided Lucy would need some stitches.

We went out to the Insta Care in Layton and the nurse agreed it would need stitches. They numbed her up pretty good but Lucy still cried a lot, I think she was more scared then in pain.

The doctor and nurse were really good and both very patient with our scared little girl. They were really quick, we still had time to make it up to my cousin Carries wedding reception. Here she is four stitches later.

Lucy is really falling (no not following) in her mother’s footsteps. Lariann also had stitches right underneath her chin when she was a little girl, must be a genetic thing.

Redecorating: Family Room Edition

I was inspired by the recent blog post of my friends Dave and Kristen about their recent redecorating. I decided to chronicle the redecorating efforts of Ariane and myself.

Our home décor has always been a difficult subject for Ariane and I. She would prefer each room to have a simple theme with only a few things on the wall. I prefer to have various family pictures and much of my sports memorabilia displayed. Over the course of the last year we have negotiated much of how the house is decorated.

The family room became a sore subject for us. I wanted to have some of my sports stuff up but Ariane wanted a theme in the room, so her compromise was to make the theme for our family room a sports theme. At first I was sure it was a trick of some sorts but as it turns out the only catch is, this would be the only room in the house that has sports stuff displayed. I was totally on board with the plan. I’ve actually had family pictures taken with us wearing our sports gear, so that way is still within the theme of the family room.

My St. Louis Cardinals stuff remained where it was and Ariane gave it a few improvements.

We used one wall for the Utah Jazz. We even purchased a few new pennants so we could display the evolution of the Jazz logo.

The Denver Broncos wall hanging that had been in our bedroom made its way down on to the Broncos wall.

I have a pretty good sized collection of baseball pennants that I have been collecting since I was a kid. There were too many to display so I hung up the ones from baseball stadiums that I have been to.

And of course the Los Angeles Clippers sign hanging over the door that leads down to the basement, perhaps a little poetic since the Clippers find themselves in the NBAs basement quite often.

Why the Clippers? Well what can I say? I feel bad for them.

The only thing left is to find a spot for the University of Utah and Weber State. I’ll keep working on it.

Manly Names

As many of you know Arianes due date is coming up at the end of August so we only have about six or seven weeks to come with a truly MANLY name for the boy.

THOR- This one is for my brother Greg who is really pushing for this name, I’m sure my brother in-law John and his wife Liz would be on board for this name too.

RAMBO- Technically his first name is John but we could go with Rambo for a first name. Sylvester Stallone could work if we only used his last name for the boys first name, just like with Rambo.

ROOSTER- A manly cowboy with an eye patch, we could also use John Wayne as well but I think I would pass on Jeff Bridges for a name.

MAVERICK-We could name the boy after the pilot in “Top Gun” played by Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise is too crazy to name the boy after. He could also be named for the cowboy character Mel Gibson played; I don’t know that Mel’s name is good enough these days after all the trouble he’s been in. Or we could name him after the team that won the NBA championship the year he was born, then we could decorate his room in a Dallas Mavericks theme, however I’m not a big Dallas fan so that seems pretty unlikely.

WOLVERINE- The character played by Hugh Jackman, though Hugh does not make it to our manly list, or the animal itself. Either way you look at it it’s manly.

HERCULES- One of the oldest manly names around could be for the Disney cartoon character, the mythological Greek character or the character played by Kevin Sorbo. Sorry Kevin your names not quite manly enough to be considered.

INDIANA- This might be my favorite movie character of all time. Played by Harrison Ford who’s name could be considered manly enough for this list, not quite on the same level as John Wayne since Harrison in real life is kind of a hippie.

HAN- Han Solo is the most manly character from “Star Wars”, he’s a reluctant hero, a rogue, a scoundrel and he’s been described as a space cowboy, how cool is that? Chewbacca was also considered to represent the “Star Wars” franchise but let’s face it that would just be ridiculous when paired with Bredthauer.

Please vote and let us know what name you think is MANLY enough for the boy. Just because a name wins doesn’t necessarily mean that we will use it, but I will try my hardest to convince Ariane.

Famous Fans

Famous Fans: St. Louis Cardinals Addition.

A lot of teams have famous fans, the lakers attract celebrities in droves, yankees games are always a hot spot to find celebrities, Jerry Seinfeld attends mets games and even the L.A. clippers have Billy Crystal .

Here’s a look at the celebrities, who like myself support the Cardinals.

John Goodman (Actor) - A St. Louis native, John was raised as a Cardinals fan. He is often seen at home games in St. Louis, as well as Spring Training games in Jupiter, Florida (as seen in the picture). John is also an investor in a sports station in St. Louis - 550 KTRS.

Gretchen Wilson (Country Music Singer) - She grew up listening to Cardinals games with her grandpa. She sang the National Anthem at one of the World Series games in 2004, and even released "Redbird Fever," a Cardinals version of her hit "Redneck Woman."

Billy Bob Thornton (Actor) - A native of Arkansas, Billy Bob grew up a Cardinals fan. He also narrated the Cardinals 2006 World Series DVD. He played in the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in 2009 as part of the All Star game played in St. Louis. Also threw out the first pitch at a Cardinals game.

Sara Evans (Country Music Singer) - She was born and raised in Booneville, Missouri. On her new album, Real Fine Place, she has a song titled "Missing Missouri." The lyrics include: “Tobacco fields and bubble bees, And the Cardinals playing on TV, Caught up in missing Missouri”. She also has sung the national anthem at Cardinals games and God Bless America at the 2009 All Star game in St. Louis(pictured).

Joe Nichols (Country Music Singer) - Is a long time Cardinals fan. He has also sung the national anthem and God Bless America at several Cardinals games.

Nelly (Rapper) - Born and raised a fan, Nelly often wears apparel featuring St. Louis sports teams. One of his videos was even shot at Busch Stadium and featured then-Cardinals second baseman Fernando Vina. Nelly also participated in the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in 2009 and also thrown out a first pitch before a Cardinals game (pictured).

Jenna Fischer (Actress) – A St. Louis native, she grew up cheering for the Cardinals and also played in the All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in 2009 (pictured).

There they are, the famous Cardinals fans. Some country, Some acting and a little bit of rap.

Centennial Fire Department

This last month the Kaysville Fire Department had its Centennial Celebration. I feel very fortunate to be part of an organization with such a long proud history.

To celebrate we had a banquet at the fire station. We invited anyone who had ever worked for the fire department and their spouses. There was a pretty good turnout, around 200 people showed up, including quite a few old timers, a few of which were pushing 100 years the selves. Kaysville city had it catered and the Farmington Fire Department came out to serve us.

Ariane and myself with Angie and James Wade.

The fire department was officially organized on May 4, 1911. The first piece off firefighting equipment, other than the standard bucket brigade, was a hose cart reel purchased for $75. Similar to the one pictured here. A small shed was placed on the old Relief Society grounds on Main Street to house the hose cart and fire hose.

Their first fire engine was made out of an old Hudson car in 1922. It had a water tank, a pump and a hose. They used this until 1929 when an American LaFrance Pumper truck was purchased, similar to the one pictured here. It was the beginning of a long line of different fire engines and trucks.

The Emergency Medical Service First Responder Program began in 1986. The department did not have an ambulance at this time; it was operated by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office. They would respond to calls and assist the Sheriff’s Department on medicals.

We no longer push a hose cart or build our own fire engines out of old cars. Our station is now a nice state of the art building with five bays that house two engines, one ladder truck, three ambulances, two brush trucks, one heavy rescue truck and a hazardous materials trailer instead of an old shed with one hose cart and 500 feet of hose. We have our own ambulances now and don’t rely on the county to provide one for us. The one thing that hasn’t changed in the last one hundred years is the dedication and bravery of the firefighters.

My engine Company. From L-R My Self (Firefighter Scott Boomer Bredthauer), Captain James (Jimmy) Dotson Jr., Firefighter Keri Harwood, Engineer David Snowball and Firefighter Jared Harvey