A Full Quiver

It started on Sunday night, a lone car heading south on 37. True, very few marked this event, seemingly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, little did they know that "the invasion" had begun.

As the middle child stepped from his car, his foot shod in the readiness of conquest, it was as if a light broke forth in the night. A solitary glow emerged from the darkening night, heralding a week full of wondrous events unexpected, unseen, un-looked for by the simple folk of the small town of Bloomington.

"Welcome brother" spoke out a voice from the shadows, "I trust your journey was pleasant and uneventful." The speaker emerged from the shadows and the traveler could see it was his elder brother. Benjamin the Bearded they called him; simply "Ben" to those who knew him well. "Yes, an uneventful journey indeed, but hark, we must away to the refuge of your home. There are eyes that may pierce even this darkness and the wind bears a whisper that I dare not trust."

"When do the others arrive?" asked Benjamin, as his under-aged brother drained the last drops of his non-alcoholic brew. Thomas, for so was the middle child's name, bowed his head between his shoulders. His eyes darted around the room as if some unseen evil lurked in the shadows. "Soon" he said in one breath, barely a whispered. "Nathaniel, the Painted, arrives by coach at noon tomorrow, the others are close behind."

"Then it has truly begun. I dare say I never fully believed that this day would come and now it is upon us."

"Verily, the day is here." Thomas leaned back in his chair. A broad smile overtook his face and he laughed. The shadows flickered and darted. "The evil will linger no longer, the Family Crum will soon be fully united."

"Well it's not like the stars are aligning with the planets" broke in Benjamin's wife, Michal the Wise, "you boys are really way too full of yourselves." But the men had not heard her. They were already deep in thoughts of conquest and glory; and the wind continued to whisper though it's tone had begun to change.


To be continued...

The Return of the Dog

It was about 2o minutes after I posted the most recent Dlog that I got an email letting me know that Matt Drudge had caught wind of our new stuff. Here's what he put up at his site, I though you might like to see the buzz...

Bad Words: Part One

NOTE: For those of you at home (under the age of David), you may want to read this one quitly to yourself thus avoiding a possible bar-of-soap in the mouth.



BUTT (root: buttocks, the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on)

When we were kids there were certain words that we were not allowed to use. It is interesting to think back on what some of these words were. For the life of me I can't figure out what's wrong with the word butt. If we had known to, we could probably have used the word 'buttocks', but for whatever reason, shortening that to just 'butt' was unacceptable.

Granted, the context was more than likely attached to the word 'head', thus creating one of the most clever insults in human history. To claim that a brother's head was in fact a butt would have been as painfully insulting as kicking him in the... neck.

One of my favorite games to play (when I got old enough to forgo getting my mouth washed out with soap) was to trick Mom into saying some 'bad word' and then repeat that word over-and-over, claiming "Mom said it, it must be okay!" This was most fun when, somehow, it coincided with watching Dr. Quinn.

Homeschool Family

Well, this really shouldn't offend anyone (since the Crum's are no longer a homeschool family). Actually, it could be a lot more scathing (Michal wants to rewrite the lyrics)... enjoy!



PS. If you watch this and respond by saying something like, "really funny, but not all homeschoolers are like that" it means you probably are.

Cool Stuff

As a child I loved playing with Legos. In fact, I would still love playing with Legos, I just don't have any. I really look forward to Daniel being old enough to play with those great plastic bricks without trying to consume them. I just hope that I'll be able to find some good, old bricks, not the newfangled sets that require no creativity (or even construction). I still remember building our first aircraft carrier upstairs(?) in the house on Maire Island, the first of many Carriers to come. I know there were a lot of toys that we had as kids. Maybe even some that, at the time, we thought were "better" than our Legos, so what do you guys think? What were (or are) your favorite toys?

The Pats

What was it that made the Superbowl so satisfying this year? Maybe it was how annoyingly cocky the patriots are and how great it was to see them get beaten. I think the game would have been good if the Giants had dominated and just slaughtered the Patriots, but the fact that they went ahead with 35 seconds to go... that was heart-stoppingly amazing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Giants fan. I like Manning, but really only because of his older brother. What I was watching for was anyone to beat the Patriots (and also watching for a good half-time show). What I got was one of the most exciting football games of the season.

So were any of you dissapointed? Did anyone actually want Pretty Boy and the Pats to win?



....sucks to be you!

District of Columbia Montage

**Notice the synchronization of Pop saying the word "how"**

Update

This post could very easily be all over the map, so I'm going to do my best to be organized and concise as possible.

In 2007 I officially became old, and I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with that. No matter how I approach it, 30 is old. I remember Mom and Pop watching the show 'Thirtysomething' back when I was a kid, and I thought it was terribly sad. Then, the other week I noticed something in the mirror; a white hair in my beard. I'm not sure wether I think it's cool, or very depressing. Then I realize that just by allowing myself to think it might be cool makes me even older. Now some of you have passed the point of no return and are already old like me and therefore are beyond help. For all those younger than me, please, I implore you, don't take youth for granted.

In 2008 I get to be there for my brother Matt's wedding, and it's going to be sweet. I'm sure that like me and the family out here in Colorado, the rest of you have got a busy year ahead. Even if it doesn't look busy now, it'll fill up pretty quickly. What is great though is that we have this central event looming just over the horizon, a time to celebrate together, there in Indiana wih Matt and Emily. 'm pretty excited, this ranks up there with going to Disneyland.

I made one New Year's resolution, and unless you really know me it probably won't make sense. I have commited to avoid those upcoming movie discussion/spoiler websites. I want to see what it's like to watch a movie like an everyday, average person. Someone who says; "There's a new Batman movie out? Alright let's go see that sometime..." Instead of my typical; "Ya, I saw the new Christopher Nolan Batman film last night at midnight. It wasn't quite what I had hoped for, but then how could it cosidering that they couldn't get Katie Holmes to do the sequel because Tom is intimidated by Christian Bale". Now I'm not saying I won't be super excited about certain movies, I'm just trying to cut back on the geekiness.

In closing, although white facial hair, Matt's wedding and Batman are first and foremost in today's blog, I just wanted to say that I love reading all the family's posts and learning more about you all. In this new year hopefully there will be positive changes with our family out here in Colorado, and as always I ask for your prayers and support. Know that all of you are in our thoughts and prayers, and we're looking forward to seeing you soon.

World War II Memorial - Jan. 1, 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas

From the Crums

Johnny Come Lately

Not having a TV or regular contact with the outside world means that I usually find out about things late. I get all excited about something, like Flight of the Conchords, and want to tell everyone, and then find out that everyone already knows.

So if you already know about this, sorry... but if you haven't it's gonna be freakin' sweet! Supposedly Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are teaming up to make... TinTin!!!



There was an article about this back in May on the BBC site, but no word yet on when the movies will be out. So, does this mean that Peter Jackson won't be directing The Hobbit? I don't know.

Chuck & Huck

For the past couple years there have been "Chuck Norris Facts" floating around the younger generations. This increased popularity would be to Grandmom's satisfaction as Chuck has garnered more face time in movies and commercials.
Some sample 'Facts' include:

"Chuck Norris counted to infinity, twice."

"Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer, too bad he's never cried."

"On a high school math test, Chuck Norris put down "Violence" as every one of the answers. He got an A+ on the test because Chuck Norris solves all his problems with Violence."

"Chuck Norris owns the greatest Poker Face of all-time. It helped him win the 1983 World Series of Poker despite him holding just a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game Uno."

"Chuck Norris can do a wheelie on a unicycle."

"Chuck Norris can slam revolving doors."

"Chuck Norris can believe it's not butter."

On top of all these facts, Chuck is now endorsing a republican candidate for president.




The Crum Family Blog is not politically affiliated with any presidential candidate.

Intellectual Property

Dumb Dumb wanted me to post this link (click here after watching the Dlog) so that you could all witness his genius. Back on September 17th I posted the following Dlog over on Dumb Dumb's page, and just this weekend Sean Penn decided to completely rip off our Dumb Dumb's idea. See for yourself...

New Mexico

Back when Jude was a baby, while Jess and I were working at Spring Canyon, we took a trip down to Sante Fe. The highlights of the vacation were eating out, cable television, Southwestern architecture, and "Coyote Ugly" in the local theater (Jude loved it). So since it had been a while, we decided to take the family back for a short vacation this past week. We left Monday morning and drove south for just about five hours. It's amazing how the scenery changes gradually, and by the end of the relatively short trip we were someplace so new. The weather was nice the whole time we were down there, and we enjoyed taking a walk through the old downtown area which included the Cathedral seen in the picture, as well as a bunch of fun shops, art museums and historic buildings. We ate enough Mexican food to, well enough to fill our Mexican food quota for a little while at least. We got to go swimming three times at the indoor pool where we stayed. And once again we got to enjoy the benefits of cable television, although this time we watched a lot more Cartoon Network than last time.
I hope you all are having a great time, and had a Happy Thanksgiving. See you soon.

Guiter Hero III

Nate is definitely the best brother (or at least he was last I saw) when he it comes to playing guitar hero. Recently my friend Nat got Guitar Hero III and I've enjoyed watching him become more and more skilled. He can complete songs on Expert and blows everyone else away. I marvel at the skill it takes to do well at this game and thought this video (from GH3) was too cool...I also love this song!!

Wouldn't it be sweet?...

Now I know many of you remember this one, Wings of Fury! Hours and hours of time has been spent by the brothers Crum dive-bombing the Japanese in this World War II classic, routing machine gun nests and obliterating their bunkers. I still have the 'ping' ringing in my ears from my machine gun fire hitting a running man trying to re-enter a sandbag fortified machine gun position.

Now, I know what you're all saying, "thanks a lot Ben, bring up all these great memories and then make my current gaming experience suffer because of the nostalgia for the best game ever" Well, if you do say such a thing, have no fear, I wouldn't leave you hanging like that. There are still three ways for you to play this game:

One - Own an Apple IIc and the original floppy.
Two - Download this file (sorry Thomas, this only works on PCs). Users Guide here.
Three - Play the online Flash version here.

Enjoy

A Post for Matt

You'll like it or hate it:


and



I'm guessing you've already heard the Michael Bublé version, but just in case you hadn't.

Engagement Pictures

A few weeks ago Emily and I had some engagement photos taken. They have finally been uploaded to our photographers website, linked here for your viewing pleasure.

Ninja Parade

Peter, this is for you. I just found it on the Onion and thought I would share:



NOTE: I do not, by posting this video, endorse all the videos on the Onion, just this one!