Sunday, October 14, 2007

Disclosures on Jake T.......

Andrea....there are a few things you should know about my brother Jake before you go any further.
  1. Straps-on a superman cape and jumps from high places (bunk beds, landings, bleachers, etc), so try to hold his hand when he walks near the edge or climbs up on things.
  2. Speaks in parables. Just go along with this as it's his version of deep thoughts. Ask him about the parable of the lawn mower and blades of grass from his mission farewell to hear a good example.
  3. Fanatic about car cleanliness. He won't let your future kids ever eat in the car. Ever! This is not his fault. It was handed down through both family lines from the past few generations of car cleanliness budahs. Also, no feet on the seats!
  4. Potty humor. Hereditary...but this comes mostly from his older brothers. Sorry.
  5. Mama's boy. Be patient with him and expect lingering (yrs) separation anxiety on his part and his Mom's.
  6. His hair must never be cut. He likes it long and luscious. There is a story behind this. Jake was born with straight hair, but my mom admired Michael Landon, you know...from little house on the prairie, the dad? So, when Jake was young, she sculpted his hair (along with Shea's and Zak's) to be Michael Landon-Esque. She perfected it with Jake's. (She went over-board with Shea's and didn't do quite enough on Zak's. At least if we are using Michael Landon as the barameter.)
  7. Techno-geek (some call it savvy). He will speak in acronyms (TCE, J2EE, ATM--not the bank kind either, RFID, RFP, RFQ, RFI, SPD, TSG, OMS, TQC, RMA,...the list goes forever), will mis-use words (such as integration, architecture, solution, backbone and the ATM mentioned above) and may create words or phrases of his own epitomology. (just like I did with "epitomology"...not a word)
  8. Can do like 50 pull-ups with a 45lb weight strapped to his xtra-wide leather weight belt.
    Scales rocks like a gecko. Goes with the freakish pull-up strength. (however, see point #1 and the associated precaution)
  9. Vein on his forehead. Don't worry, it won't burst, he's not hemorrhaging, just laughing or straining. (remnant from the Shea-cloning process.)
  10. He struts around like a "Rooster", but don't mistake his confidence for haughtiness. There is no haughtiness in there, just pure goodness, he is Jake-a-Roo.
  11. Finally, he is a great brother. Absolutely terrific. Maybe overly caring, giving, concerned for others and considerate. He'll be a great dad and husband.


Congratulations! May all your wildest dreams come true.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll agree to most of those points; although my months at Cisco have greatly decreased my pull-up ability. You have to wonder, though, how the influence of 4 older brothers plays into some of those strange inclinations ;) I am very fortunate to have so many great examples after whom I can pattern my life.

EuroScan said...

Wow. That's really all I can say about that. I would add one thing: Always take him at face value and don't presume that just because he's not talking that he's mad about something. Sometimes Jake just likes to be alone with his thoughts... "and eat his brownie in peace." If you're lucky, he'll let you read his memoires which is a work in progress. :)

Heather said...

I'm going to reemphasize the car cleanliness fanatacism. It's bad, but good. You'll always have a clean car, but sometimes it would be nice to quiet the kids with a few chicken nuggets.
Jake's a good kid, and if he's Shea's clone, you'll be eternally happy!

Andrea Marie said...

Haha! I love it, Todd! Thanks for the heads up. I noticed a lot of those things about Jake. Actually, one of the things we found we had in common was keeping a clean car! I guess I'm just a lost cause like he is!
He is an amazing guy, though! I kinda like him. ;)