By Brendan Loy
Over on my photoblog, I've posted pictures from my trip to Phoenix and Denver.
We're back safe & sound in Knoxville, by the way. Loyette was once again a champion flyer -- though I think we'll be paying for the disruptions to her schedule in the form of weekend fussiness.
By Brendan Loy
Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days. I haven't moved up the date of my blog retirement, I promise. :) I've just been super-busy in Denver. And speaking of Denver, here's a cool photo of the D&F clock tower and the Moon last night:
During a previous trip to Denver, it became something of a running joke among Becky, the SHA girls and myself that I was constantly taking pictures of the clock tower. But I think that one's actually pretty neat!
The Moon and clouds weren't the only things in the sky over Denver last night. All evening long, a pair of military helicopters was circling over downtown. They were making a lot of noise, but at some points their lights appeared to be off, as if they were operating in some sort of (admittedly rather ineffective) stealth mode. I have no idea what that was all about ("we're being invaded by Utah," I hypothesized at one point), but it was a little creepy.
Oh, and speaking of, uh, security and stuff: I'm now at the airport waiting for my flight back to Phoenix. This will be my third of four flights in less than a week (Nashville to Phoenix, Phoenix to Denver, Denver to Phoenix, Phoenix to Nashville). So I've been spending a lot of time in airports, and I have a question. It's now been almost two years since the implementation of the "new" security measures involving liquids and gels. Yet all the signs and announcements still talk about these as temporary steps, due to "increased" security. At what point will we end this charade, and acknowledge that these measures are here to stay permanently, or at least indefinitely?
By Brendan Loy
Becky, Loyette and I spent Memorial Day communing with nature, as we hiked the Porters Creek Trail, a roughly 7-mile walk through the woods in the Smoky Mountain National Park.
It was very fun, if somewhat exhausting. (The hike to the campsite at the end of the trail was relentlessly uphill; the walk back was, naturally, downhill, and therefore mercifully less tiring.) We carried Loyette in her Kangaroo Korner slings, Becky using the fleece one and me using the mesh one, as we always do. We passed her back and forth throughout the roughly six-hour hike, and whoever wasn't wearing the baby would wear the backpack. So that worked out pretty well.
Loyette was amazingly tolerant of the long day. She got cranky exactly three times -- twice just before taking a long nap in her sling (i.e., she was tired), and once just before lunch (i.e., she was hungry). She's a great baby that way. :) Throughout the vast majority of the hike, she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and seemed very interested in all the new sights, sounds and smells. Of course, that meant not just the natural wonders of the forest, but also the more mundane "wonders" like the feel of cold condensation on the outside of our water bottle, and the way a plastic bag full of peanuts (a handy trail snack) changes shape when you grab the outside of the bag. To a baby, everything new is exciting and wondrous.
Anyway, the trail we hiked is renowned for its beautiful wildflowers in early spring. Since it's late May, there aren't as many wildflowers now, but there are some, and they're pretty. Here are a few that I photographed:
See also this one and this one.
Oh, and the trail also has a somewhat scary bridge, quite reminiscent of the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm (although with a railing, admittedly):
It's hard to tell from the photos, but there's really quite a steep drop-off; the water is maybe 15 feet below you in the middle. And given the narrowness of the bridge, it's legitimately somewhat nerve-wracking to walk across.
I really wanted to find a large stick, hold it up, and proclaim, "You cannot pass! I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. Dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn! Go back to the shadow! You shall not pass!!!"
But alas, there was another pair of hikers sitting on a rock nearby, well within earshot, so I had to contain my weirdness. :)
I did, however, do what my dad and I call the Indiana Jones pose -- notwithstanding the fact that, to my knowledge, Indiana Jones never did any such pose.
Anyway, I'll upload some more pictures of the hike to Flickr shortly, and link to them here when they're online.
P.S. I think this photo is cool:
UPDATE: As promised, here's the Flickr gallery. It's two pages long. Enjoy!
By Brendan Loy
I neglected to mention it at the time, but this past Tuesday was the one-year anniversary of my graduation from law school, and Wednesday marked one year to the day since we moved to Knoxville. Wow!
It's hard to believe it's been that long. Time flies, I guess, particularly when we're talking about a year that began with Loyette being the size of a kidney bean and ended with her approaching five months old, growing and learning and changing every day -- so much so that it sneaks up on you, and you're amazed when you ponder memories or look at pictures from even a couple of weeks ago, let alone a couple of months. At this point it's hard to remember what my life was like in February, never mind December... and as for May? Fugghetaboutit.
Anyway, I guess this milestone means I've now officially concluded my first year in the "real world." And wow, what a year it's been. I know I don't talk about my own life in this space as much as I used to; I guess the combination of having a baby and starting my career have caused me to show a wee bit more discretion in terms of what I blog about. But suffice it to say that, on all fronts, things are going very well, and I'm really, really happy. And the anniversary of my graduation seems like a good moment to stop, take stock, and give thanks for all my blessings -- most especially the one who is currently sleeping soundly in the other room. :)
By Brendan Loy
Loyette, Becky, Casey (visiting for the weekend from Rochester) and I went on the March for Babies this morning on UT's campus. It was fun!
That's Becky pushing Loyette's stroller above, and Casey next to her. Here's a photo of Loyette and me, relaxing after the walk:
My t-shirt, if you're wondering, says, "Fatherhood: the toughest job you'll ever love."
Anyway, thanks again to everybody who sponsored us! We ended up exceeding our goal, with $620 in donations!
If you didn't sponsor us, but would still like to donate to the March of Dimes, why not sponsor the Neudorffs? They'll be marching next weekend in Rochester.
After the jump, some more photos of today's march here in Knoxville.
UPDATE: Welcome, No Silence Here readers! If you didn't know, "Loyette" is our baby's blog nickname, not her actual name. :)
By Brendan Loy
A big thank you to everyone who has donated to our March of Dimes "March for Babies" fund! As you can see at right, we've reached our goal of $500. A blog reader's donation of $65 this evening put us over the top. Woohoo! All that money will go toward research to help sick babies. Good work, everybody!
The march is tomorrow. I'll try to get a cute picture or two for the blog. :)
By Rebecca Loy
Brendan, Loyette and I will be walking in the Knoxville March for Babies, sponsored by the March of Dimes, later this month. The march raises money for research to help babies born with health problems. (Here's a more detailed blurb about it.) If you want to make a donation to support us, and more importantly the research, you can do so here.
By Brendan Loy
I totally forgot to plug this earlier, but if anyone has Sirius satellite radio, and happens to see this post in the next half-hour, tune to Channel 110, Indie Talk -- I'm scheduled to be on their "Blog Bunker" program from 5:00 to 5:20 PM EDT.
I have absolutely no idea what the topic(s) will be, so if I seem stumped or surprised, now you know why. :)
By Brendan Loy
Eight years ago, Becky and I were freshmen in college. I was 18; she was 17. I still thought I was going to be a journalist when I grew up; she had no idea yet what her major, never mind her career path, would be. Like a lot of kids our age, we had a whole ton of options, a whole bunch of newfound independence, and no clear idea what to do with it all. Neither of us, I think it's fair to say, had any kind of a grand plan for what paths we each wanted our life to take. Heck, we barely even had rough outlines. We were too busy enjoying the adventure of being young and carefree to think much about the details of the future.
And yet, amid all that glorious chaos, we found each other -- and we somehow managed, each of us, to make the best decision we've ever made. We decided to get together, to make a go of it as a couple. And the rest, as they say, is history.
February 25 is the date Becky and I used to call our "anniversary"; it was on that day in the year 2000 that we "officially" started dating. Of course, when we got married, December 31 supplanted February 25 as the day we celebrate our anniversary each year. Even so, I think it bears notice that, although our marriage is just a smidgeon past the two-year mark, our relationship is, as of today, eight years old.
In some ways, I can't believe it's been that long. Man, time flies -- I've now been with Becky for almost one-third of my life. Wow. Yet in other ways, I'm amazed it's only been eight years. Our lives are now so fused together into a single, cohesive whole that it's almost hard to believe there was ever a time they were otherwise. It's difficult to remember not being in love with Becky.
When I really stop and ponder all the many memorable stops on the amazing journey we've travelled together since this date eight years ago, it's simply overwhelming. I've been trying to think of something meaningful to say about it, but frankly, I'm not sure how to put it into words -- at least not without being too unbearably sappy, if I haven't crossed that Rubicon already. :) But what I thought might be fun would be a little photographic retrospective: one picture per year, from 2000 through 2008. What a long, strange trip it's been...
2000:
Still my favorite picture ever of us -- and it was taken by me, holding the camera at arm's length and pointing it blindly back at us, along a hiking trail in Scotland. Really an incredibly lucky shot. And speaking of incredible, look at those beautiful blue eyes and that gorgeous blonde hair. (Oops, did I say I wasn't going to be sappy? Sorry...)
2001:
At Jen and Sören's wedding in Germany -- the event where I really first started to feel like a part of Becky's family. And wow, look how young we look!
By Brendan Loy
Almost seven months after finishing the Colorado Bar Exam, about 4 1/2 months after learning I'd passed, and over 10 weeks since my application for admission was officially approved, I just minutes ago took the Colorado Attorney Oath of Admission -- administered by Judge Susano here in Tennessee -- and thus I am now officially, finally, a lawyer. (Alas, in a rare oversight, I didn't think to get a photo or video of myself being sworn in. Uh-oh: does that mean it didn't happen?)
Of course, the Colorado Bar doesn't know yet that I'm its newest member. I still have to send them my signed oath form in the mail, along with a bunch of other paperwork. But I think that mailing, and everything that follows it -- the receipt of my license, etc. -- is just a formality. I believe that, as of today, I could, if I wanted to, jump on a plane to Denver and, upon my arrival, dispense legal advice. :) More consequentially, I believe I can now accurately describe myself on a resumé as "certified to practice law in the state of Colorado."
The long delay, by the way, wasn't engendered by some character & fitness problem or anything like that. My formal approval was delayed first by the need to fly out to Denver for that CLE ethics class, and then by delays in sending in my driving records (which are perfectly clean, I just procrastinated the process a bit), and then it took me forever to deal with all the back-and-forth paperwork that was necessary for me to take the oath out-of-state. I didn't really have much motivation to hurry, since I don't need that Colorado certification as long as I'm clerking in Tennessee. But anyway, now it's finally done, and I can call myself an attorney without any qualifications or caveats. :)
So... you may all now throw your best lawyer jokes at me! Have at it!
P.S. The next time I'm in Denver, I think it would be proper to formally celebrate my admission to the Colorado Bar by going to a Colorado bar. Kristy? V? You in? ;)
By Brendan Loy
This is how you know Becky and I are both huge dorks. We had the following exchange in bed last night, as we were each starting to drift off to sleep:
Brendan: "You know what would be awesome?"
Becky: "What?"
Brendan: "If there was a superdelegate with superpowers. He could be called Super-Superdelegate."
Becky: [pause] "That would be awesome."
Heaven help poor Loyette. ;)
By Brendan Loy
My parents are coming to town this weekend to meet their grandbaby. They're on their way right now, actually -- should be arriving any minute. It'll be their first time in Knoxville since the summer of 1982, when, on their first-ever road trip with me, en route to visit my Grandpa and Grandma Loomer in Arkansas, they (and I) stopped in Knoxville during the World's Fair. I was about eight or nine months old, give or take. Here's a photo of my mom and me in front of the various national flags:
Hey, I know where that bridge is! The flags are gone, though. :)
Alas, my parents apparently didn't take any pictures of brand-new Brendan in front of the brand-new Sunsphere. Now that would have been awesome. But after the jump, you can see a picture they took of a very shiny Sunsphere and a bunch of other fair-goers.
Anyway, who'd have thunk that, 25 1/2 years later, I -- born and raised a Connecticut Yankee -- would be living in Knoxville, with a gal from Buffalo who I met in Southern California and married in Arizona, and a brand-new baby who we conceived while living in Indiana? Heh.
Continue reading "The Loomer-Loys in Knoxville, then and now" »
By Brendan Loy
My friend Diane Krause (née Huffman) will be on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? today and tomorrow -- and my voice may or may not be on as well. (You might recall that I was one of Diane's phone-a-friends.) That's all the powers-that-be want me to say for now, but... tune in to find out what happened! Check your local listings to find out when it airs in your area. Goooo Diane, Beeeeat Meredith Viera!
Also, I'll be on Silvio Canto's Blog Talk Radio show at 12:30 PM EST today. Silvio contacted me after one of my recent Instalanches and asked if I'd be willing to chat with him on-air about... uh... politics and stuff, I guess. Anyway, if you don't catch it live, it'll be archived here after around 1:30 PM.
UPDATE: Here's the radio interview; it's about a half-hour long:
As for Millionaire, the first of Diane's episodes has already aired in a lot of places, but not everywhere. As best as I can tell from the show's local listings page, the last place in the country where it initially airs each day is in St. Louis, where it's on KDNL Channel 30 from 10:00 to 10:30 PM CST (11:00-11:30 EST). Therefore, I will refrain from posting anything further about it until 11:30 PM. Stay tuned for a new post at that time. :)
By Brendan Loy
Or rather, a new minivan/SUV type thing: the Mazda 5.
It's pretty sweet. And it'll fit two adults, a baby, three cats and a dog way better than the Camry can. :)
By Brendan Loy
If you have any sort of pre-emptive strategies for preventing yourself from coming down with a cold/flu/fever, and your wife is getting into the latter stages of pregnancy, employ those strategies, immediately if not sooner.
There is nothing more miserable, I have learned, than being sick while your wife is super-pregnant. I've had a severe sore throat and a wildly fluctuating fever (as high as 101.3°, as low as 97.4°) for the last three days, and it totally sucks. I mean, being sick always sucks, but it especially sucks right now, and it sucks for both of us. Why? Because 1) I can't dote on Becky as much I normally would when she's 38 weeks pregnant, and 2) Becky can't dote on me as much as she normally would when I'm all sick. Oh yeah, and 3) I have the added stress of worrying that 3a) I'll still be sick when Becky goes into labor, which technically could happen at any moment, and/or 3b) Becky will catch what I have, won't be able to take the medicines I can take, will be totally miserable, and it'll be all my fault.
As it is, we're both basically sitting around the house in a somewhat zombie-like state, each trying to do what we can for the other, then periodically stopping to wallow in our respective islands of discomfort: my stuffy nose, hacking cough, eyes that feel like they're on fire, chills trading off with hot flashes, and oh yeah, the horrible pain whenever I swallow. Becky, meanwhile, gets to deal with getting kicked in the ribs, feeling stretched, smooshed and crowded all over, and being exhausted... all... the... time. (And so forth.)
Actually, Becky has been a saint through all this. Despite my efforts, I daresay she's been doting on me more than I have on her, and with very little complaint. Personally, I see this as further evidence in support of my longstanding theory that Becky is the most awesome wife in the world. Here we are, at this unique moment in our lives when I ought to be waiting on her hand and foot, and instead, she's trying to nurse her sick hubby back to health. (For example: homemade chicken-noodle soup tonight!) Becky rocks.
Oh, and one other piece of advice, albeit perhaps of the somewhat more obvious, damn-Brendan-you're-a-dumbass variety. If you wake up with a fever of 100.8°, and you still have ambitions of going to work, and you decide to take a shower in pursuit of those ambitions... don't take a hot shower. I had chills when I got in, so it felt good... for about 30 seconds. Then I started to feel very nauseous, which in retrospect I realized was because (duh) my body temperature was starting to spike. I got out after about ten minutes, and after maybe five minutes of evaporative cooling, my temp was at 101.3°. Who knows how hot it was when I first got out. In conclusion, I'm a dumbass.
P.S. For any worry-wort fathers and ex-medical-professionals-in-law who may be reading this, rest assured: I went to the doctor, got a strep test, and it was negative. I was told it's just a run-of-the-mill upper-respiratory virus, and that I just need to take it easy, drink lots of fluids, and get plenty of rest. So that's what I'm doing.
By Brendan Loy
WOOOOO HOOOOO !!!
P.S. The fact that I passed was actually announced on my blog, by a commenter, almost two hours before I found out myself. LOL! God bless the Internet.
Two Colorado bloggers who've been anxiously counting down to the results, Frustrated Bar Examinee and BlawGirl, also passed. Congrats to them!
P.P.S. The pass rate was 72% overall, and 79% among first-time takers.
By Brendan Loy
By Brendan Loy
Exactly a month and a day ago, while en route from Buffalo back to Knoxville after Becky's baby shower, I wrote: "When we re-enter the state of Tennessee this evening, I think we'll be there to stay for a while. With my job starting on Tuesday and Becky's pregnancy getting further and further along with each passing day (obviously), this promises to be the end of our recent interstate rambling."
Well, as Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend."
I'm flying out to Denver tonight for some interviews and stuff. (Just me this time, not Becky. She has work and doctor's appointments, so she couldn't come.) These interviews are forward-looking, future-related. My current job is going fine (great, actually); I'm not leaving it early or anything. And my current boss knows all about these interviews. Alas, that's really all I can say about them, in keeping with my policy of not blogging about work-related matters. (It was, I realize in retrospect, a mistake to publish even the bare-bones details that I blogged about my Phoenix interviews in fall of '05 and my summer '06 job. It's best, for various reasons, to really keep this stuff under wraps as long as possible.) Please try to refrain from publicly speculating; comments that do so, or that otherwise cross the ethereal I-know-it-when-I-see-it line that defines the boundary of impermissible career-related discussion, will be deleted, as per usual. Nothing personal.
Anyway, the point of this post isn't to be evasive about my future plans and sneer "I know something you don't know." :) It's just to say that I'll be in Denver the next few days -- from tonight through Sunday morning, to be exact -- so don't be surprised when I post, like, pictures of the Rocky Mountains or whatever.
Speaking of Rockies: there will be playoff baseball while I'm in town! Game 3 and, if necessary, Game 4 of the Rockies-Phillies NLDS will be played in Denver on Saturday and maybe Sunday. So that's kind of exciting. I imagine downtown will be especially hopping this weekend. I don't plan on going to the game, though. If I do anything sports-related on Saturday evening, it'll probably be the Notre Dame Club of Denver's ND-UCLA game watch at the Tavern Downtown. "Tavern's gorgeous rooftop bar, leather sofas and chairs, and its seventeen 43-inch plasma screens, will provide plenty of viewing and atmosphere for all." Sounds pretty nice!
Afterwards, I'm thinking about going to see Brian and Brendan Clancy (no relation, I don't believe, to the Clancys, but they sing a lot of the same songs) perform at the Irish Snug. I've had a hankering to listen to some good live Irish music ever since Tommy Makem died, but the Irish music scene here in Knoxville is mostly Celtic instrumental type stuff, which is nice, but it isn't quite as rousing as "The Irish Rover " or "Finnegan's Wake." :) Anyway, Vikki says the Irish Snug is a cool pub, and I figure, what could be a better follow-up to watching Fighting Irish football than listening to Irish fighting music? (Who knows -- maybe I'll even get to raise a pint of Guinness and toast the first Irish victory of the season, and another ignominious Bruin defeat! I doubt, but an Irish Trojan can dream, eh?)
So, yeah, it should be a fun weekend. On the down side, I'll miss Becky. You might think, pregnancy stereotypes being what they are, that some part of me would be relieved to get away for a few days, but that's actually not the case at all. Pregnant Becky is really quite adorable and endearing. Admittedly, she has her occasional moments of hormonal irrationality, but they're relatively rare and relatively tame; I think I get irrationally cranky at least as often as she does, and I don't have an excuse! And besides, I think Becky's cute when she's cranky. So I'll totally miss her... a lot. But it's only a few days, and it'll be nice to see Kristy and V and hang out in Denver -- even if it does mean I won't be able to talk to the belly again until Sunday. :( But I figure that's all the more reason to have as much fun as possible, so I'll have lots of fun stories to tell the belly when I get back!!
Anyway, wish me luck, and stay tuned for Denver-blogging! My flight leaves Knoxville at 6:40 PM EDT, and after a 2.5-hour layover in Dallas/Fort Worth, I land in Denver at 11:05 PM MDT... if all goes as planned. Which hopefully it will, because I have an interview tomorrow morning!
By Brendan Loy
Becky just roasted her first chicken.
It was delicious.
Mmmmmmmm... chicken.
Aww, Becky is becoming all domestic and stuff. :)
By Brendan Loy
My mom has been doing some genealogical research, and has apparently found the answer to a question I've long wondered about: just how many generations ago did the Irish side of my family (the McNamaras) emigrate from the old country and come to America? It seems the answer is six. My dad is a fifth-generation American on the McNamara side, and I'm sixth-generation.
According to my mom's research, my great-great-great-grandfather, John McNamara, was born in Ireland in 1822. His wife Mary, my great-great-great-grandmother, was also born in Ireland, in 1828. I don't know when they got married, but it seems they had their first child in 1855 or thereabouts, in Connecticut. Their fifth child, born in 1863 (also in Connecticut), was Daniel, a second-generation American and my great-great-grandfather. Dan McNamara begat Joe McNamara, who begat Helen McNamara Loy, my paternal grandmother. And the rest, as they say, is history. (Though as Nana Loy would point out, "What the hell do they know? They're a bunch of horse's asses anyway." Or words to that effect. :)
My understanding is that the McNamaras always claimed that they had come over before the Great Potato Famine, but we've never been sure if that claim was accurate. It has been speculated that certain proud members of the family might have wanted to separate themselves from the riffraff, if you will, by pretending they weren't forced to come here because of starvation, as so many other "shanty Irish" were. Well, now we finally have some dates, and let's see: if we assume that John and Mary were married in Ireland, and that she was at least 18 when they got hitched, that would mean they left Ireland sometime between 1846 and ~1855.
The famine was from 1845 to 1849. Ahem. You do the math.
So my ancestors, it seems, were quite likely refugees of the Great Potato Famine. Interesting.
UPDATE: Belatedly, it occurs to me that my logic vis a vis the timetable may not be entirely airtight. All we know, I think, is that John and Mary were both born in Ireland; we don't actually know that they emigrated together, as adults, as opposed to emigrating separately, as children, and then meeting and marrying in America. The latter is also possible, and it would not be at all surprising if two first-generation immigrants met in this country and married each other; immigrant communities were very tight-knit in those days. If that were the case, it would mean the McNamaras did indeed come over here before the famine.
Of course, the other thing that's odd about this whole train of thought is that, although I talk about these great-great-great-grandparents as "the McNamaras" because they are the ones who carried the name McNamara, the reality is I'm really only talking about a small sliver of the Irish ancestry from the "McNamara side" of my grandparentage (i.e., from my Nana Loy). One-eighth of it, to be exact. John and Mary McNamara were Nana Loy's great-grandparents; they represent a mere 12.5% of her bloodline. Yet she was 100% Irish. That means seven-eighths of Nana's (and my) Irishness came from other ancestors, who may have emigrated at other times, under other circumstances.
Regardless, I find this sort of stuff fascinating. I wish I knew more about my ancestors; I'd love to read their life stories, if they were written down anywhere. Even little snippets of information, though, make me feel more connected to these long-ago ages past. For my Immigration Law class at Notre Dame last fall, we had to write a brief paper about our own "immigration history," and in the course of researching it (again mostly via my mom), I learned all sorts of stuff I'd never known before, like how the Loomers (my maternal grandfather's side) are really a very old family in this country, dating back to the mid-1600s, as I recall. They didn't come over on the Mayflower, but they weren't that far removed from it either. ... Alas, very very little is known about the Loys. We don't even really know where they came from, or what the origin of the name is.
By Brendan Loy
My clerkship starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!
P.S. Of course, this is just about the last you'll be hearing of the clerkship here on the blog. :)
P.P.S. And yes, I've been waiting to post that headline for weeks. What can I say, I'm a man of simple pleasures. Though admittedly, perhaps I shouldn't be paraphrasing Mark Twain, considering what he thought of lawyers. Heh.
By Brendan Loy
Last fall, a company called Bombo Sports & Entertainment contacted me about a documentary they were making on the 2006 Notre Dame football season. They wanted to know if I had any suggestions about things like fan rituals and gathering places for them to film, and they also wanted to interview me, to include the perspective of the "Irish Trojan" in their movie. (I'm sure this will go over very well with the ND Nation crowd. ... In fact, I warned them that some die-hard Domers would hate them for including me. But they wanted to anyway.) They ended up interviewing me several times, and micing me up during the North Carolina game...
...and filming me, and the people around me in the student section, from afar. I thought the whole thing was a little silly, frankly -- I'm hardly the best representative of your typical ND fan, if that's what they were looking for -- but I didn't see any compelling reason not to go along with what they wanted to do, so I did.
Well, the movie is out. It's called "Tradition Never Graduates: A Season Inside Notre Dame Football." Bombo contacted me last week to get my address so they can send me a copy. I haven't seen it yet, but one of my NDLS professors e-mailed me this afternoon to tell me that someone had sent her a copy, and it lists me as one of the DVD's "bonus features" ... but the description spelled my name in MSNBC style: "The Irish Trojan: Brandon Loy explains what it's like to be on both sides of the Notre Dame vs. USC rivalry." [UPDATE: Confirmed here.]
Between the numerous e-mails we exchanged and the fact that my website's primary domain name is BrendanLoy.com, you'd think they'd have been able to get the spelling right. In fact, the e-mail they sent me was addressed to "Brendan." But I guess whichever department does the printing missed that memo. Oh, well.
In other ND/USC news: staying in South Bend for the ND-USC game in October is a wee bit expensive:
In South Bend, the nightly rates at the Marriott hotel — normally in the $169 to $189 range — run up to $649 the night before a game. When top-ranked Southern California visits Oct. 20, guests must stay a minimum of three nights. The story is similar at other hotels.
(Hat tip: Andrew Leyden.)
By Brendan Loy
While culling several old photo boxes recently, I discovered a bunch of used film rolls that hadn't been developed. Not knowing what they were, I took them into Walgreens to get them developed. I figured there would be a mixture of interesting photos and total duds, but actually, as it turns out, those undeveloped rolls were a real gold mine of fun memories, recalled by never-before-seen pictures, most of them from 2003. For example, here I am in my headier, more confidently pro-Iraq-war days, at a "Support the Troops" rally sponsored by the USC College Republicans:
Say what you will about the war, but that was a damn nice sign I made. :) Anyway, later in 2003, here's me and Shannon in Rockefeller Center:
And then there's these adorable shots of Butter and Sasha when they were just little tiny kittens:
Aww! They were so little!
I also developed a much more recent roll of film, a throwaway camera that I used during Andrew and Bea's wedding when Becky had my digital camera. Check out this wonderful picture of Andrew's dad and Bea's dad, all smiles just after the ceremony:
And here's a shot of Bea's maid of honor, Pardis, frantically scribbling last-minute notes in preparation for her speech, just minutes before the reception started:
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