Ooo, look, it's me again

And here I am, once again. If it feels like I just posted, I did.

I had a most enjoyable week off from work. Yay! Although I was very productive, my mornings often reminded me of what summer used to be to me: wake up late and watch The Price is Right. It was beautiful. Two highlights from TPR: One day a Corvette was part of the Showcase Showdown, and a different day, a dude Jose bid $250,000 on his Showcase. Um, hello? Easy win for the other contestant with a bid of $1! Bob did talk him down from his initial bid to $60,000, but the other contestant still won with the good old $1 trick.

We're sitting at less than T-4 weeks to the most blessed event of the year. A few weeks ago I told one of my friends, "We've got a location, a pastor, a photographer, and the beer – what else do we need?" Well, we now have quite a bit more, including one important aspect (i.e., marriage license) and also rings, shirts & ties for male attendants, a suit, a dress that isn't screwed up, female attendant found her dress, musicians, rehearsal dinner location and menu, shoes for both of us, etc., etc. One day there will finally be no more on our To Do list. That day will be sometime on the wedding day, but you know. At least it's not too far away!

Yesterday we got a chance to help with one of the less glamorous parts of the planning. This is not a complaint (in fact, it was proved to be quite enjoyable working together with B), and I want to let it be known that B's parents have spent hours and hours working on these less glamorous parts. We got to help work on getting the algae out of the pond. This means getting into the pond with pitchforks, gathering it together, and hoisting it out onto a trailer on the shore. I'm sure I was a sight. I just wish we had some pictures!

. . . the good life: beatrice installment

I've been blessed to live the good life two weekends in a row now! Don't tell me you don't know what it means to live the good life! If you don't, please refer to Illustration #1.

This time, the good life was partaken of in Beatrice. It had been, I think, two years since the last time I visited the Thimm homestead. I had a great time catching up with Tine, watching entertaining movies, and eating oh-so-well (should I even admit that one breakfast I ate consisted of four pieces of french toast and 3.5 zweiback? um, probably not, but there you have it). We also visited the recently redone Homestead National Monument OF AMERICA!! In case Kathy ever wanders over here, I took a special picture just for her so she can see I immediately placed my HNMOA magnet in its proper place on my refrigerator (Illustration #4). I look smashing in this picture.

Time for some good ol' pre-dated entries

Well, I've been away for a while, so even though I'm posting several on one day, I'm gonna be tricky and mix it up with a little change-o-date-o. A common and sophisticated term for what I'm doing.

On Sunday, B's extended family had a lovely shower for me and were all way too generous with their gifting. It was a lot of fun, and his family is just so nice. Check out that beautiful spread of eats!

It is so. True.

Words of wisdom from a sheet about fitting/wearing men's suits:

Maintaining proper shirt sleeve length [out of the cuff of the suit jacket] is one of life's greatest challenges.

In somewhat reverse order

Last night was supposedly the peak of an awesome meteor shower, so we went out to watch. We saw some, but this "meteor" "shower" was not as spectacular as others I've seen. Still a lot of fun though.

I was in Omaha over the weekend for my cousin's wedding. Good times. Except when I started feeling sick at the reception.

And I finished the last Harry Potter this weekend! My review is that it was very good. My favorite line: "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" It sort of gave me goosebumps.

And in unrelated news:

Here's what I have for you

Today was a great day for this reason: I saw three modmates!! What fun! Not enough time with any of them, of course, but still, how wonderful.

Frustration: Who would have guessed that an envelope fitting a half sheet of 8.5" x 11" is not a standard size?! We have spent over an hour (B more than I) separately trying to get at least one of two different printers to print on our envelopes. WTF? Neither Word nor printers are my friends. Put them together...what a nightmare.

[EDIT: I now officially hate the printers I have dealt with tonight. Especially for trashing more envelopes than printing on them.]

I wish I had time to even think about blogging

Did one of my neighbors mow my lawn?

I think, maybe, yes. Odd. But awesome too.

...

I feel like I need a new entry, but I'm not sure about what. I am so busy I can't even think of anything of interest. Perhaps this: My cat is going to be boarded at the vet while we're on vacation. I'm a little worried for her and feel sorry that she has to spend so much time in a cage. Of interest? That we'll be spending slightly more on our cats' lodging during this time than we will on ourselves most nights.

I went to California. Here are some pictures.

I was sent to a conference in San Jose last week, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. [All pictures can be enlarged by clicking or opening in a new tab.]

This is the pool at our hotel, which was the probably the nicest hotel I'll ever stay at in my life. The pool was saltwater and on the roof.




Here's my delegate table, which was great. We had a lot of Table 20 Spirit! And I really loved being a delegate.



Here's a group of [mostly] Bethel folk deep in a discussion about mythology and the Bible. I had so much fun with the other young alums.


At the end of the week, we all traveled to San Francisco for some touristy things. One of those was Alcatraz, which is inhabited by many seagulls. This mama seagull was feeding its babies. Feeding them another bird. Our youth pastor said, "That was their brother."


This gelato place in Chinatown had the most interesting flavors I'd ever encountered, including ginger root, toro (the meat the comes from the belly area of a tuna), avocado (pictured here), and Budweiser beer (sign pictured here). I really wanted to sample the Budweiser, but my "tact over truth" personality took over and I decided I didn't want to get any disapproving looks from the person right behind me.


A street in Chinatown, including a branch of my bank, Bank of the West. Too bad I didn't get the whole Chinese name in the photo. Now I won't be able to find my bank when I go to China.











Picked these dudes up in Chinatown.



















Good job, TSA. This is a display at the SF airport, most likely about items prohibited on airplanes. Not that I would know for sure because the display wasn't at all labeled. Items were just haphazardly thrown in as far as I can tell. Notice the dust marks indicating more items used to be in here. Upside down brochures. And if I were going to take poison on an airplane, that's exactly the kind of container I'd put it in. One that's clearly labeled "poison."








The thing I most wish I had a picture of and would have taken a picture of had we not been en route to a public transportation connection and had I not been pushing a stroller was a sign in front of a restaurant in Chinatown that read, "Special Shat in Chicken!"

Planning guide

A couple weeks ago when I was looking through the Yellow Pages for bridal shops, I came across this guide for planning a wedding. I thought, "Hey, this might come in handy." And then I saw the guide started at twelve months before the wedding. I only ever had about 3.5 months. So I thought I'd chart our progress. Of course, some of the unchecked items are unnecessary, so it's like they're checked. [click on the picture for a larger view]

Kristine...

This is just for you! Sorry it's not much, though.

Sunny California is indeed sunny AND California. Who wudda thought. I can't believe I just typed "wudda."

Well, I didn't find internet access intending to post to my blog, so I really have nothing prepared to say, and judging by what I've written so far, I should have stopped a long time ago.

In need of some marketing help?

At Wal-Mart I walked past a rack (haha – you'll see later...) of training bras. One of the available brands was "Sweet Nothings." Seriously? As if girls who wear training bras aren't already self-conscious enough about their cup size?

62626

Sorry, just had to commemorate the turning of 26 on 626. Someone told me today that this is considered a Golden Birthday. I always thought that referred to turning 50. Which I did not. Well, Wikipedia supports this Golden Birthday idea – when your age corresponds with the day of the month – and says an alternate name is Champagne Birthday. I like that better. Too bad I didn't know that and drink some champagne. I did have boxed wine that had a little fizz to it, so maybe that's like poor man's champagne. Maybe people wanted to associate that with this phenomenon but Boxed Wine Birthday just didn't have the same ring.

Hmph.

Currently, the other Mennonite colleges do not have me as their biggest fan. (Not that they ever do, but even less so now.)

Throw another...pancake on the Barbie?

I use an online service to keep track of foods/calories eaten and activity/calories burned. It has a database of foods, so even if I don't know nutritional information for everything, I can get a pretty good estimate. I enter search terms and it finds any foods that include those terms. This morning I searched for "Breakfast Bar." The most surprising result was "Breakfast with Barbie." Now, what the heck is that? I googled it and didn't come up with much except for a toy that was a joint venture between a milk processor board and Mattel that features Barbie at a kitchen table with milk, Honey Nut Cheerios, and a newspaper. Back to the online service I use, I clicked on this food known as Breakfast with Barbie to see what the ingredients are. None were listed. But one serving of Breakfast with Barbie is worth 124 calories. Which just serves to further the argument that Barbie is damaging to people's self images. I mean, heck, apparently just being in the presence of Barbie causes you to get fatter! :)

It's true

The Salt-N-Pepa station on Pandora plays the best selection of songs.

WOOF!! WOOF!! WOOF!! WOOF!!

I just spent my afternoon listening to a motivational speaker. WOW.

Know what's gross?

Gross was the other day when I was working out and got to the ab curl station. I used the machine right after a guy I was already annoyed with – annoyed because he kept jumping around from station to station not following a pattern, which more than once caused me to have to not follow a pattern. And I like following patterns. So anyway, I get to the ab curl machine. The guy before me did the regular front curl and then also curls turned 90 degrees in either direction (so his armpit was right on the curl bar thing...I know lots about the actual names of the things I'm trying to talk about here). That in itself didn't annoy me; I do the same thing. But this guy had some super bad B.O.! I got to the ab curl and got the bar adjusted to the height I wanted it to. Being a female, I find it more comfortable to have the bar a bit higher than others might, so the bar was very close to my nose, and all I could smell for the duration of my curls was nasty, nasty B.O. Sickenating! [photo illustration below; too bad you can't really see the expression on my "expertly" inserted face]

Where have I been?

Check out the first headline under "Top Stories."












I saw this yesterday on cnn.com and was all, "Whoa! What?! The Cold War is over?!?! Where have I been?!" Not really, of course. My reaction was more like, "Way to state the obvious..." Upon reading the story, the headline made sense, but it sure was funny out of context.

I'm a walking disaster

I just attempted to put a lid back on a pen (by holding the pen cap still and sliding the pen into it). I missed the lid and got my finger instead. I must have been very serious about putting this pen away because [*slightly graphic detail to follow] when I looked at the pen tip, there was a piece of skin hanging off of it. Gross.

P.S. I have also shut half of my fingers (not all on one hand) in a door or drawer today. Hard.

Dumb.

Yesterday I fell off my bike.

Holy matrimony!

It was a weekend of weddings. I went to both the wettest wedding I've been to and the shortest wedding I've been to (mutually exclusive). Both weddings were outside and with all of the rain we've been getting around here, I was curious to see whether they would actually occur outside.

We were convinced that Saturday's wedding would be at the church instead of outside since it had rained, but when we got to the church, there were no cars in the lot. Out at the farm, I was somewhat worried that my car would get stuck in the mud. I got a kick out of the pastor thanking God in a prayer for the break in the rain providing a window of opportunity for the wedding and then probably five minutes later, it was totally raining. Umbrellas went up throughout the crowd, which of course resulted in blocking some people's views. My dress was pretty wet and my program was pretty soggy before the pastor said he was going to ask us to do something pretty unusual -- to pick up our chairs and take them to the large tent set up about 50 yards away where the wedding would resume. The meal afterward was crazy delicious, and the "cake" was really cool; it was tiered tables of cupcakes.

Sunday's wedding fared better in terms of weather. It was late evening and very beautiful. And it was very down-to-business, lasting less than 15 minutes, I believe. One guest was a bit late and missed the whole thing! I loved the atmosphere in the reception tent because by that time it was pretty dark outside, and the tent was lit with paper lanterns. The dinner was really, really good (as were the beverages). I had so much fun at the reception with a group of friends from high school, including of course the conversation that could be titled, "Remember Mark Smith's girlfriends?" during which I (perhaps a little bit tipsy) blurted out, "Remember the one that looked just like him?"

Oh, plus, bonus! I got to get a [share of a] water buffalo in their name through Heifer International as a wedding gift! And I have had a years-long wish to gift someone with a water buffalo!

Is this something that only happens to women?

Have you ever tried to get the DMV to change the figure in the "Weight" category of your driver's license when you get it renewed? It's been four years since I last renewed mine and it's still good for a few years, but the times I have tried, the conversation has gone something like this:

Me: Can you change the weight?
DMV Lady: Oh, we don't really need to do that.
Me: Well, it's quite a bit different from what's on there.
DMV: How much different?
Me: 1** (which of course, is still not quite at what it should be, but it's getting closer)
DMV: Oh, well, that's not that much different (even though even my fake figure was a good 20-25 lbs more than what's listed). I'll just increase it to 1** (about 10 lbs more than what was listed).
Me: Ok...

I'm surprised I haven't been accused of having a fake I.D. based on weight alone since it's still listed as a number from sometime when I was in high school! Goal: Next time I get my license renewed, not even need to ask that the weight be changed. Halfway there already!

Up in smoke

I was just thinking it will be cool to watch my ticker at the right end up at zero. Except I'll probably miss it like the times I wanted to watch my odometer roll over to 100,000 or 30,000. What will happen when it hits zero? Will the ticker thing blow up into a little puff of smoke like when you remove an application from your Dock on a Mac? I love that little animation and sound. Sometimes I add an application just so I can remove it into a tiny explosion of smoke. Poof.

Change

Today I have new housemates. And while I'm so incredibly socially awkward around people I don't know, I'm excited about the change. Also, we will no longer be an all female household, which is a difference I think will be good.

Ha!

I just had a good chuckle with my co-workers. So I was checking out the NHS website and was thoroughly pleased to find they still offer Hobby Club as a club that meets during some specified period of the school day. Here's the description from the website:

Hobby Club is for those who wish to share their hobbies and promote them to other students. It is a time to share activities and interact with students who have similar hobby interests. Activities may include guest speakers, student presentations, and other gaming and hobby activities.

One year I and my three best friends joined Hobby Club. At least at that time, the way Hobby Club operated is that everyone in the club met in the same room, but you'd break into groups based on your respective "hobbies." My friends and I realized this would be an excellent way to get to spend time together at school basically doing nothing. We told the sponsors we collected stamps and named our sect of Hobby Club "Stamps 4 Life." The ruse was aided by the fact that I had in my younger years been a stamp saver (I wouldn't call myself a legitimate stamp collector since I didn't know anything about collecting stamps), so I would bring in my stamp books, and we'd have them open around us during club time, but we'd just talk the whole time. If a sponsor would come by, we'd tell them we had a good lead on a possible guest speaker. I had totally forgotten about S4L (as we called ourselves for short), and I am so glad I was reminded of it today.

Bonus!

A cd I bought over the weekend came packaged with what are, as far as I can tell, two identical cds. Sweet! Two for the price of one. Except it would be better if they weren't the same cd.

I haven't been hungry for Chinese food in a really long time.

"the break-up song"

The other morning on the radio they were having people call in with songs they hate to admit they love. One of the callers' was "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men, and the dj was like, "Oh! The break-up song!" which struck me as sort of funny because my memory of it is a get-together song. I know that doesn't make much sense given the lyrics, but I don't know that I ever heard/read the lyrics too closely, so... The song fits in my story as the last song played at my eighth grade rec (the party for 8th graders at the end of the school year). I think it was the only song I danced to all night, and as the song was ending, my date asked me if I wanted to go out with him. Aw. And that's the memory "End of the Road" always conjures for me.

The difference

The difference in response to the VT tragedy as opposed to the Nickel Mines tragedy interests me. First off, I will fully admit I am not comparing apples to apples when I talk about responses: The response to the Nickel Mines tragedy I'm talking about is what I got from mainstream media; the response to VT I'm talking about are informal responses (i.e., Facebook). So I know this comparison is flawed (I will note that searches for "Charles Roberts," "Charles Carl Roberts," or "Nickel Mines" result in few Facebook groups and only one that is profane; this is not surprising to me since I think the Facebook community would feel more connected to a tragedy at a college.). I remember how amazing, humbling, and peaceful it felt to go to cnn.com after the Nickel Mines tragedy and read as the top story headline, "'We forgive them.'" Has the response to VT in mainstream media been the opposite? No, it hasn't. But I am terribly saddened to see so many hate-filled Facebook groups in response to VT. Some examples:

• Cho Seung-Hui is pure evil
• Cho Seung Hui, if you had a myspace, Tom wouldnt be your friend.
• Cho Seung-Hui can go to hell
• Cho Seung-Hui never got laid!
• Cho Seung-Hui was efffed up yo!
• Cho Seung-Hui Is A Douchebag
• Cho Seung-Hui is a coward and will rot in hell!
• Cho Seung-Hui IS A pile of SHIT!!!
• Cho Seung-Hui is a fucking dumbass
• Cho Seung-Hui should not be buried in America
• Cho Seung-Hui is a pussy
• FUCK CHO SEUNG HUI [several variations of this one]
• If I Met Cho Seung-Hui I'd Mess His Life Up
• I HATE Cho Seung-Hui !
• I Hope Cho Seung-Hui Burns in Hell

And the list goes on. A search of his name results in 177 groups. Are there group names of compassion? Sure there are. Thank goodness. But it is still so sad, disappointing, scary to see so much hate. People are angry. I get that. Would I be able to respond with such immediate compassion like the Amish affected by Nickel Mines were a similar tragedy to happen to me? I couldn't guarantee it, but I know my response would not be like some of these groups. I would venture a guess that many of these groups' creators and members are not directly related to VT; I don't know. How will our world ever get better if we don't care for each other? If we don't care that so many people are hurting? That so many people need help? That includes people who commit terrible acts against others.

On a much lighter note, the last sentence of the following I've read in several articles about VT puzzles me:
A doctor at a Blacksburg hospital described the injuries he saw Monday as "amazing" and the shooter as "brutal." "There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in them," said Dr. Joseph Cacioppo of Montgomery Regional Hospital.
Because wouldn't the sentence, "There wasn't a shooting victim that [who] had less [fewer] than three bullet wounds in them," (emphasis on the had, not my other comments) mean what he intends? So one would think that saying "didn't have less" would mean the opposite. And, yet, I don't think it does. This has been bugging me for days, and I keep thinking through it slowly in my head trying to work out where the double negative or something is to make it the opposite, but it seems that they do actually mean the same thing. But I welcome someone to prove me wrong because then all would again feel right in my grammar world.

One weight off my shoulders

Yay for getting my taxes done before April 14 this year. Well, not really – I still didn't get them done before April 14, but since tax returns aren't due until April 17 this year, it's like I got them done April 12. Good job, me. And, you know, almost done...I still have to mail in my signature page.

It was a good weekend. Friday's weather was crazy. Snow coming down. It almost foiled my attempt to get some good eatin' this weekend, but we were successful on Saturday, and I greatly enjoyed the best verenike and ham gravy ever and bohne berogi whatever that word is that I'm realizing I don't know how to spell and new year's cookies with glaze, not sugar (the best way). Mmm.

Also in the good weekend was the calling of our youth(?) associate(? I don't remember what the title is) pastor, which passed with 98.5% of the vote. Sweet. I'm really excited about it and really excited that the family will be in our congregation for at least the next three years. What a good addition.

Lunch time! And off to the post office.

What in the hell?

So I'm auditing this theology and pop culture class taught by a theology prof that meets in the science building, specifically on the physics wing. Any more disciplines want to jump on board? Anyway, today there was this odd burning smell that came about partway through class.

Someone said, "It's probably just a chemistry experiment gone wrong," to which the professor replied, "Now, why do you automatically assume it was a chemistry experiment gone wrong? How do you know it wasn't a theology experiment gone wrong? Trying to summons Satan or something?"

Funny stuff!

To the max!

I had a great weekend in Denver with my modmates. It mostly consisted of hanging out and eating. Always good times to get together with those girls.

Easter weather was pretty...off. It snowed here on Thursday, which was a rare opportunity to see blooms and buds with a pretty thick layer of snow. Weather for traveling was ok, though we did see a number of vehicles in ditches, including a couple of RVs. It snowed on each day in Denver, and I don't remember the sun being out. This caused the odd phenomenon of not seeing mountains while I was there because of the thick clouds.

I would like to say I hope I can avoid ever eating at Chipotle again. I was filling out my calories from the weekend, and, dang, the chicken fajita burrito (so not even any beans in it) is 1219 calories. WTF?? That sucks. Not to say I didn't enjoy it though... Other fun food experiences were the Ethiopian place we went to last time I was out there, which I enjoyed even more this time, Beaujou's Pizza, which was delicious, and Kaladi Brother's Coffee, which was quite tasty.

All in all, when thinking of what my weekend was and was not, I'd say it was to the max, but it was not stranger drugs.

First, second, third

First of all, shout out to local businesses! I went to one yesterday, and the guy gave me a $3 discount for no apparent reason. This in and of itself would be sweet, but factor in that it was $3 off an $8 purchase and wow. At a 40% discount, I should have spent more money!

Second, a chalkboard in our office proclaims, "This has been a bird-free work zone for 3 days." We have had a high population of fowl in our office this spring. It's always really sad because we have a lot of windows in the office, so the birds run into them a lot trying to get out. If only they would try a little lower where there's actually an exit to the great outdoors through the windows we open for them. I bring this up now because of Monday's incident. Due to my eternal non-promptness to work, I actually missed out on the excitement, but it's still an interesting story. So my co-worker gets in and sees one of the large plants in the room broken on the floor. Then she sees it: the dead bird on the floor. Gross! And poor little guy. There was also a lot of bird poo around the windows. Dude must have been stuck in here for a long time over the weekend trying to get out.

Third, I'm going to Denver tomorrow, and I'm super excited about it. I only wish it weren't so short a visit. Oh life with all its silly responsibilities and all. Work, psh.

Sure, it's common sense for most people

But others may not yet know of the precautions one must take with one's grillz (open image in new tab and see "Cautions" at end). The only Care Instruction I have violated it #7.

When I grow up

I just spent a little bit of time reading online profiles of cats at the San Francisco SPCA, and I decided that what I want to do when I grow up is adopt cats. I love them! Except I don't want to be the weird cat lady, and I don't think there's much money to be made in adopting cats, but except for those minor details...tails, heh heh

Jesus is coming – duck!

Earlier this week we watched Johnny English, and one of the extra features is "Observation Test" that shows you a short clip of the movie and then gives you multiple choice answers, and if you get them right, you automatically earn your license to kill or something equally cool. My title is one of the choices given to the question of what some character had tramp-stamped on him (the real answer was "Jesus is coming – look busy"), and I distinctly remember finding the "duck!" answer quite hilarious. But I suppose that could have been the gin and tonic talking laughing.

Saturday marked the 2nd annual "Screwed out of green beer on St. Patrick's day." When, oh when will it ever become a reality? I just know that green Coor's light tastes infinitely better than boring old beer-colored Coor's light – why must I be deprived of this succulent beverage? Haha.

This week I did something I hadn't done in a very long time – spent the entire evening from when I got home at 6:30 until 11 reading for pleasure. I finally finished a novel (another thing I hadn't done in a while). I know it was good because it made me cry (not the only criterion for a novel being good, but if it's there, it usually is). And it was one of my favorite kinds of cries – the one that you're doing while thinking both, "This is so sad and also so beautiful."

The story of my first memory of crying over a book: In fifth grade we read Where the Red Fern Grows. During one of our in-class reading days, I unfortunately reached the last section. It was so sad! I cried and cried. Trying to shield my face from the rest of the class by putting my head down and the book up only resulted in getting my desk all wet. How humiliating! Of course fellow fifth graders had absolutely no qualms about pointing out my crying and laughing about it. Next time I'll have to relay the story of what stands out as my worst public cry experience.

This commercial's song has my favorite lyrics ever

My boss gave me this mug today. So awesome.

When I was home for lunch

[I'm in the kitchen and hear a knock at the door. I wasn't expecting anyone, we rarely get drop-ins, and one of my housemates was home, so I figure it's for her and ignore it. Then the doorbell rings. I wait, assuming the housemate will get it. She doesn't. So I go over and open the door to someone I've never seen before.]

Me: Hi.
Her: Hi.
Me: [blank stare]
Her: I'm here for a massage.
Me: [The blank stare comes back for a bit while my mind races, trying to come up with an appropriate response.]
Her: Am I at the wrong house?

Luckily at about the same time, I think of the woman down the street who gives massages and direct her there. But I sort of wish I would have invited her in and had her lie down on the couch in the living room. Or maybe the broken futon in the back room. I wonder how long it would have taken her to realize I wasn't a licensed massage person. Or if I could have made some money off of her.

New personal best

Time: 1 hour
Strides: 9300
Miles: 6.5
Calories: 770

That's like 2000 strides more that my previous personal best. And the nicest part was that that last 30 minutes went by like nothing. Just watch, now tonight or Saturday will probably be hell. Why is that?

In my possession

Because, what else were you going to do on Sunday?

Not sure what would tie this all together

Some days I think I could be an exercise nut. You know, one of those people who runs like daily. And enjoys it. Like yesterday I felt this way – I ran* for 50 minutes straight and felt like I could have kept going. But I wanted to make sure I could get in my 15 minutes of stairs and have time to stretch afterward, so I quit. (*and when I talk about "running," I'm talking about on the elliptical; I'm not so good yet(?) at the pure running) But I haven't forgotten those other days that are not so good. Like last Saturday. My personal experience is that it takes me a little while to enjoy running – like usually about 15 minutes. Those first 15 minutes are sort of painful and I want to quit, but I just force myself to keep going. Last night it was only 10 minutes. But last Saturday, ugh, last Saturday was 35 minutes. And that really sucked. Great! I got to enjoy the last 10 minutes! Woo hoo! I'm glad the vast majority of times are not like that; I'd probably give up all together.

Random stats from my workout last night: 3 out of 4 cars of the people who shut the place down last night were new model (2003 or newer) Toyota Corollas; 3 out of 5 people who shut the place down last night were BC grads.

What else of interest from life recently... Last Friday I went to a pool hall with one of my friends. When I think pool hall, I think smoky/hazy, dim/dingy, but this place was well lit and not too loud and didn't seem that smoky (though the clothes I wore that night beg to differ...even six days later). It was fun except that I'm incredibly poor at pool, so playing in a crowded place devoted to the sport was quite embarrassing at times. But it was fun. And I even got hit on. Evening=success! Haha.

When I was leaving, it was time for songs that evoke memories. The first song that came on the radio was Kokomo, which always reminds me of this friend who I had been with that night since it's in the movie Cocktail, and we watched that a lot in middle school (she loved Tom Cruise). The next song that came on was Rock the Boat – that wonderful song that Travis the Trout sang. Can I just say I can't wait for Easter to get here?! Then there was song disappointment: My most hated song currently is Lips of an Angel. I can not stand it. And what came on the radio? A country version of the song. Gag.

Last night I watched a movie that totally reminded me of a movie the mod would watch. Not only was it a stalker movie, it was a stalker movie with Shannen Doherty.

And the logic here is...?

"When you're a war hero [like McCain], you have less to prove on the character front."
–Richard Land, head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention

From our launch party last Thursday

I even broke my six-months-of-no-dessert-or-candy challenge and had a piece because, hello?!, it's a cake with an effen picture of the website on it! Plus, I justified it this way: Let's say I didn't drink alcohol on principle but my church used wine for communion; I'd drink it then, right? Right?

Bluffton bus accident

Le Sigh

I easily worked over 60 hours this week. Easily, not as in it was easy for me to do, but as in I have no doubt that it was over 60 hours except I didn't keep track exactly. Hm. If I'm doing that, shouldn't I be making three times what I am now? And have a J.D. after my name? Alack, alas. But the end is in sight! Thank goodness, because I can't take another day of working until 2 a.m. like last night, er, this morning. Must. Sleep.

Dream

Last night I had a dream that one of my college professors started playing in the NFL, which apparently had been a life-long dream of his (in my dream, not in real life...well, as far as I know anyway). Who knew?! I must have been living or working in California or something, and his NFL team was in Colorado, but it wasn't the Broncos because their jerseys were black and silver. Well, in one game he ruptured something huge on/in his leg (yes, I'm being very scientific here), and the injury was life-threatening. For some reason Brian's boss flew him out to Colorado to go check on former professor. Brian emailed his boss about his condition, and when I tried to read it, the boss said I couldn't because if it were intended for me, Brian would have said so. So of course at this point I was incredibly worried about former professor. Then there was this mass pilgrimage of BC grads to Colorado to show support for former professor...in the form of a parade. It was all very touching. The last thing I remember before waking up was that I was attending some huge concert at the football stadium with lots of Hip Hop/Rap artists that Brian was loath to attend with me, so I don't know what ever happened to former professor. Apparently I had more important things to do.

First date

Fifteen years ago, I went on my first date. I don't remember exactly which day of the month it was, but it was for Valentine's Day, so it was sometime around now. I had just started "going out" with the guy about a week before Valentine's, so of course we wanted to do something for the special day. We decided we were either going to go to a movie or go roller skating with another couple. I preferred the movie option, and that's what we ended up deciding on. I remember being so nervous to ask my parents whether I could go, and I kept putting it off. Our desks were in the same module of four in fifth grade, so he would ask me every day if I'd found out yet if I could go, and for several days I had to report that I'd "forgotten to ask." After a few days of that response, he finally wrote me a little reminder on a scrap of notebook paper that read: "Ask About Movie." I'm pretty sure I still have that note tucked away in an old diary somewhere...and I think that old diary includes doodles of his name with hearts around it and such...yeah, it's a real piece of work. I finally did get up the courage to ask my parents, and by their response it seemed like no big deal, so I guess I shouldn't have been so worried. The next big worry was a Valentine's gift. I don't know why, but I ended up buying one of those large Hershey's bars. Another excerpt from my diary I think reads something like, "I hope he doesn't think I'm cheap!" Haha. On the big night, they dropped me off at the theater, and I met my boyfriend there, and he brought a friend! Too funny! We exchanged our gifts in the back of the theater before the movie. He'd gotten me little heart-shaped, gold-colored earrings. And I'm not sure he was too impressed with his large candy bar. (Oh well, I made up for it by the time his birthday came around with a KU t-shirt. His birthday was about two weeks before mine, and sometime in those two weeks, he broke up with me, so overall, he came out much better on the gifts—sort of a recurring theme with a couple of boyfriends I've had...) Then it was time for the movie—Hook—and we sat in one of the side sections, and his friend (who I will always remember as the boy who had the coolest sparkly silver retainer) sat right behind us. And I can honestly say that I had the yawn move used on me during that movie. I love that.

They wanted us to get the scarlet fever!

This is a sentence spoken to me by my grandma yesterday when I visited my grandparents to deliver some Valentine's candy and flowers. Grandma has a lot of stories, and one of the ones she told me yesterday went something like this:

When we [she and her sisters] were younger, we always made our own valentines. Norma, she could draw real well. We made these valentines where we cut out a little door and put tin foil behind there, so it would look like there was light in the windows. One year, our neighbors all had the scarlet fever. And if you had the scarlet fever, you weren't supposed to send mail, and you had to have your house fumigated. Well, I guess those boys were mad at us that we didn't have the scarlet fever and we got to celebrate Valentine's, and they sent us Valentines in the mail! Now why would they do that?! They wanted us to get the scarlet fever! Well, we put those Valentines real quick in the oven and burned them up. We didn't want to get the scarlet fever!

I know "the scarlet fever" is no laughing matter, but I was trying so hard not to let a huge smile overtake my face. "They wanted us to get the scarlet fever!"

Paragraphs beginning with "This"

This is pretty cool-lookin'.

This weekend I saw and excellent movie: Flags of Our Fathers. Like a review I read, you can't help but make the mental connection between the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and the now infamous "Mission Accomplished." I had no idea of the story surrounding that famous flag-raising picture. Incredibly interesting and a great movie. Now I really want to see Letters from Iwo Jima.

This past Saturday I tried my first sushi with actual raw fish. We tried the salmon. I thought it was really quite tasty and didn't feel at all grossed out about it. I'm anxious to go back to this place and try more kinds. Plus, they have plum wine, which I think goes really well with sushi.

This was Super Bowl weekend. I didn't know who won until I got to work this morning and looked at CNN. In lieu of watching "the big game," I watched various tv shows I had taped last week and read from Rethinking Christ and Culture, which is a text for my class and which I found myself mostly agreeing with. Also yesterday we had another successful young adult potluck; I made barbecued pulled pork sandwiches.

This was not a good weekend for my uncle in terms of college basketball. He's a WSU fan and a KU fan. On Saturday he went to the WSU game in the afternoon, and they lost, and then he drove to Lawrence to watch the KU game in the evening, and they lost too. That reminds me I failed to mention a few weeks ago that he gave us his tickets for a WSU game he couldn't make it to, and my dad and I went; that was a lot of fun. And they won that game.

This is feeling really boring to begin every paragraph with "This," (though I'm not so naive as to think that's what's making this post boring...) so I think I will call it quits.

I guess somebody's gotta do it

Well, last night I got to see BC MBB break a losing streak...a 45-game losing streak...of the other team. Oops. That team hadn't won a game since the first game of last season.

Nervous as a little schoolgirl

So I'm taking (auditing) a class. It begins today, and I'm really scared about it. I think mostly because I'm afraid it will feel really awkward and also because I'm not entirely (at all) sure about what expectations are / how much I should participate and such. Well, wish me luck. T-15 minutes!

Congratulations, universe, you win

The title is really no reflection of life at the moment, but it was my favorite Office quote from the last new episode.

What this post is really about: all of the weird weird movies I've seen recently.

1. Stay Tuned was quite the gem with John Ritter and David Tom. The day I watched it, I thought to myself, "This is the weirdest movie I've ever seen." Luckily, the week wasn't over yet. The best part of this movie was when Three's Company made an appearance. At that point, I laughed out loud. Plus, Salt-N-Pepa is in it.







2. Copper Mountain is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The plot was basically non-existent, and the bulk of the movie were concert scenes of Rockin' Ronnie Hawkins.











3. 
Like I said, the week wasn't over yet. Which brings me to Super Sucker. I can't think of a weirder movie I've seen. So weird. I don't even want to explain it. If you want to know of its weirdness, you'll just have to see it for yourself. One user on imdb remarks, "Its [sic] like 'Leave it to Beaver' meets a soft porn movie."

Conclusion? Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in these movies by themselves, terrible. But put them together in Dumb and Dumber? Pure awesome.

Currently, I'm in the middle of Wise Guys. Now this is a classy movie. It really is pretty entertaining though. Can you really go wrong with Joe Piscopo? No way. The answer is, No Way.

How very Brecht-ian/Verfremdungseffekt-ian

The use of the flute, that is.

2 eProps to Maine

Maine rejects Real ID Act

The coolest snow thing ever. Ever.

Hold out until the end of my post to see the best snow thing ever.

So it snowed this weekend. No, really, as in snow on the ground. For days even. Not just the, "I think those might be snow flurries, but I don't know, it's hard to tell, it might just be rain." I was pretty sure we wouldn't really get a good snow this year, and I was ok with that, but I was wrong, and it turns out that I'm glad I was; I've really enjoyed having the snow.

Except for not getting to go to an out of town showing of An Inconvenient Truth. Oh well, better to have been safe and not venture out on the roads. Church was canceled on Sunday, but Nate and Esther had some neighborhood people over in the morning, so we went over there for some hymn singing and what not. Later in the day we went out in search of wabbits. To our surprise, only one was spotted. Mmm, also B made up some snow ice cream that was tasty-tasty.

And now...for the best snow thing ever! This was the start to my work day. How cool!

After months of reluctance,

I finally made the switch to new Blogger. My resistance to change shows. :)

Already the 17th day of the month?

So New Year's came and went. The par-tay we were going to go to got canceled the morning of due to hostess illness, so we all hung out as a family, which was fun, and learned the "wildly popular" catch phrase "at loggerheads."

Not a whole lot interesting has been going on. Work is very busy with a huge project that needs to be finished by the end of February. Scratch that, make it two huge projects to finish by the end of Feb.

Last weekend the fam went to a new restaurant in town. After dinner we checked out the lounge—who could pass up dollar draws and 25 cent pool? So dad bought us all a round of cold ones, and we played a few games. Not what I might have guessed my Friday night would be like, but sometimes those are the best ones.

It's been really cold here. The office is finally starting to be warm. On Monday I almost brought my coveralls to work to wear for the afternoon, but I decided to stick it out in a fleece jacket and gloves. Brrr. I think it will start warming tomorrow though.

I miss my brother b/c he had to go back to school. In his honor I used a Christmas gift from him last night and made a Dr. Pepper chicken. Pert tasty.

No 'mas, no more

As in, no Christmas, no more. 'Tis over. Oh wait, I have one more gathering this weekend, so I guess it's not quite over. Christmas weekend was very good. Incredibly busy and I'm incredibly tired still from late nights (ranging from 1:30-4 a.m.) basically every night for six nights with only one sleep-in morning. This old gal just can't take it anymore. It was a good time for seeing friends I don't get to see very often and lots of family too. Santa was generous too, and I am now well supplied with (among other things) The Office, Animaniacs (vol. 2), a chicken cooker thing that is both a good companion to my new meat thermometer and a beautiful stoneware, a dove bucket, and some new Palm games, written for me.

This week at the office has been fairly boring because I see almost no one all day; it's so empty here. Mostly I'm just trying to stay unfrozen enough for my fingers to work. Tuesday and yesterday it was so cold in here, so today I just gave up and wore a hooded sweatshirt. I figure it's not like anyone's going to see me anyway...

Happy New Year!

//edit
This is the state in which I've been spending most of my day—the face/neck warmer sweatshirt and the space heater at my back combo. I tell you, it is cold in here. B's trying to get me to instate a "Bring Your Cat to Work" day. It would be sort of nice to have a little warm cat body on my lap, but there are too many plants and nooks and crannies and probably other things that could go wrong, so I think I'll leave little Nibbert out of it.

Overheard in the North Newton post office

The conversation of two elderly women behind me:

#1: Let’s see, I need to choose my stamps, but which ones do they have?
#2: It looks like they have snowflakes and virgins.

Ah, yes, the old popular series of stamps: virgins!

Some funny signs around town

This one was actually just taken down. Now it says, "If your not first your last. Ricky Bobby." Love the grammar on that one.















Ok, even despite the missing "B," this is just weird. Is this something parents actually want their kids to get excited about? Think about it: If the sign read "Come swim with a half-naked old dude," would you really want to take your 5-year-old?

The recent sign I'm most disappointed about not documenting was a genuine winner from Long John Silver's. It was at the time that McDonald's (how do you make an already-possessive name possessive??) advertising was centered around the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie and had signs up like, "Arrrrr, Pirates be ye here" and such. LJS is located across the street from McDonald's here and totally won the advertising war by putting up a marquee advertising simply, "Real Pirates Eat Here." Hilarious.

I bought a meat thermometer!

I cooked my first whole bird last night (well, once I crockpotted a pheasant; I didn't use a meat thermometer, but I probably should have). Is it strange to view this as some sort of life milestone? I made one of those beer butt chicken things, and it was tasty. I should perhaps get one of those stand things for the future. The little guy stood up for quite a while, but I guess he got a little tired after an hour and 45 minutes. I'm just glad not enough of him was hanging over the edge of the dish to start a grease fire or something. Especially since I left it unattended for a while to go do some Amnesty International holiday card action.

Life in the recent past has been sweet. This past extended weekend was spent in Colorado visiting Tine and skiing at Loveland. It was much fun. An interesting and yummy highlight was eating at Abyssinia, an Ethiopian restaurant (my first time to eat Ethiopian). Even though we were told that some of the things "you cannot eat!" I'd say we still had very delicious fitfit.

This weekend begins family Christmas get-togethers for me, and I am indeed looking forward to that.

Brrrrrrr

Yesterday when it was snowing, snow came into my office on either side of my window air conditioner. I noticed it at about 10:30 a.m. The picture below was taken at 4 p.m. One would think that snow inside should melt, but it didn't all day. Also please notice the proximity of the snow to the heat register, which was definitely operational. So much cold air was coming in around the air conditioner that it kept the snow despite the heat rising from the register. After 2 1/2 years, I finally got tired enough of this cold air on my back that I rotated my desk away from the windows.

Bob Saget overload!

You wouldn't think it would be possible in 2006 to have so much Bob Saget, but the other night I sure did: He first popped up on Law & Order: SVU and then was on Jay Leno right after I finished watching my tape of L & O (at least he didn't get arrested after the Tonight Show!

Thanksgiving was wonderful, just too short. I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving since August because it's the first break from work after Independence Day. And now it's all done. At least it's not too long until Christmas. And actually, we're planning to head to Colorado for a couple of days next week, so that will be another nice break.

I had an annual check-up at the optometrist earlier this week and told him of some increased problems I've been having with my vision. The solution? TWO different sets of glasses. Woo-hoo! I've just been waiting for the chance to drop $300 on eyewear. And the strange thing about it is that my vision tests in at 20/20... I think my brother had the best idea of all though: Get one of the devices the optometrist uses to determine your prescription and wear it around—then the possibilities are endless. I still have to chuckle when I think of that one. I like to imagine asking my optometrist about that possibility with a straight face.

This weekend will be a quiet one with not much going on. It will probably be a lazy one for me (since that's so much different from every other weekend...) because it's cold and snowy, and I like to hunker down under my covers when it's cold and snowy. But maybe I'll venture out for some Christmas shopping and to a Christmas vespers thing. Perhaps tomorrow evening I should continue my Bob Saget theme and watch 1 vs. 100, which I've never watched before. I recommend looking up Bob Saget on YouTube and watching the video of him rapping and also the video of him singing, "Danny Tanner is not gay." And always remember, "Bob Saget is a Dirty Bird."

Yum, Thanksgiving!

So this book almost made me cry in Border's on Saturday. It's a winner. Plus, local author and illustrator!

Well, it's starting to feel like "the holiday season," if you will. And I am very excited. We got things kicked off yesterday with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house. I will continue on Wednesday and Thursday evenings with two more Thanksgiving dinners. Wonderful.

And in the true spirit of Christmas, I wish I could afford the Nintendo Wii...for myself. **cough, cough** Well? It sounds like so much fun. Maybe later.

Bethel VB and FB did not end up winning in their post-season play. However, if you haven't, you should check out the new athletics website, launched back in September, I believe. Love the drop-down menus.

One of my favorite uncles is down from Alaska, yay! He's coming to have supper and hang out tonight with us, and I am oh-so-excited. I'm really liking this yearly visit thing, although this second annual visit might be the last in the annual visit series since he's been coming for my cousin's hockey tournaments, and my cousin is a senior now. Hm. I don't want to go another ten or so years again until I see him.

I just wrapped up a huge project at work, so that feels great.

Well, in the words of a student-announce from Emily Kerbs today: Happy Tofurky day

Just an update

Afternoon, fair readers.

The last few weeks have been fun and busy. Work is really busy, and I feel like I'm not getting things done as quickly as I should be. It's also the busiest time of year for the church committee I'm on, so we've been having pretty regular meetings for that, lasting 2.5 hours each, which more or less eats up a whole evening.

Earlier this week, Brian and I met Emily (the friend I recently reconnected with) for supper, dessert, and a performance by Trevor Stewart. That was fun; although Emily and I have been hanging out about once a week, this was the first time she and Brian spent time together.

Last night Bethel's volleyball team dominated in the post-season tournament semifinal match; they looked awesome. We're going to the final match at Tabor tomorrow night. If we win, it will be BC's third win out of three matches against Tabor, who was the regular season conference champ and only lost three conference matches all season. I love watching volleyball, so I'm looking forward to that. Too bad it will be over after that. BC football has a possibility of becoming conference champ tomorrow too. It depends not only on them winning, but on another team losing, so we'll see. Either way, they've had a great season with only one conference loss so far.

Tonight we're going out for supper and to Borat, which will be the second viewing for me since I went with my brother on opening night. Ooo, but first, I'm going to a jewelry party (or par-tay, as I wrote it to her in an email today) with my mom, so I should start to think about shutting things down around here.

Hugs. And don't forget to watch Teaching Mrs. Tingle tomorrow! :)

Middle school fun

Nibbert's Halloween costume

Well, I got a collar sort of like this one for Nibbs, but she didn't wear it yesterday. This is due partly to the fact that I was meat canning for the whole evening and mostly to the fact that Nibbert is still really freaked out because of all the roofing commotion. She did wear her collar the day I got it for her, and she looks sufficiently ridiculous in it, especially when she's flying through the air chasing one of her mouse toys.

What my morning was like

I'm sleeping during my first "snooze" of the morning, so it's about 7 a.m. I hear "nyeaaaaa hee hee hee hee heeeeeee" (think something like a laugh you might hear on one of those Halloween sound effects CDs) and then a lot of other chatter and then some banging around. I think there must be a large group of kids/teens walking past my house, and I also for some reason wonder if they're trick-or-treating, but that's just an aside. Then Nibbert starts freaking out, running around the room, from window to window. This of course gets my attention a little more and I am fully awake and look out the window where Nibbert is at and, whoa, there are legs. I realize what is going on and I go get Nibbert and force her back onto the bed and try to pet and calm her, but the whole time she is struggling to get free and also struck with bouts of trembling. In conclusion, I think I speak for everyone in the house when I say, "It would have been REALLY nice to know that our house is getting re-roofed today!"

things and more things

One thing I like about xanga is its "currently" feature, so I'll just rip it right out of there and post it in here.


The birthday celebration mentioned in the last post was a blast. It’s funny (and fun) how sometimes you can feel like you’ve just been transported back to a different time in your life. A couple of times—especially when we were laughing at her dad’s jokes—it felt just like we were back in middle school, giggling like crazy. I had to think of one of our P.E. teachers and her nickname for us, which she always signed to us whenever she saw us: giggleboxes.

We did the homeless shelter again Monday night. It was crazy busy. There were 27 residents (one of those a 5-year-old and one a baby, but still—SO full!), and I felt like I was running around the whole time. Other times I’ve had more of a chance to sit and relax and talk to people, but it didn’t feel that way this time. I did color with the 5-year-old for a while. I do say, my seahorse picture turned out quite nicely. But that was fun; some interaction time with the kid and her mom. Real sweeties. Having that many people there (and, in my opinion, so many young females) brought about more drama, and there were several interpersonal conflicts, and I had to tell a couple of women’s rooms to be quiet and go to sleep several times. The place is maxed out, and they can’t accept any more people.

Ok, this fork cracks me up. It came with some “just add water and microwave” “Thai” dish that advertised “fork included!” It’s seriously so small and frail. Yeah, I think I’ll eat a bunch of spaghetti noodles with a fork that will most likely break under the weight of them...



Its size does, however, provide for some nifty magic tricks:

What a difference a day makes

Ah. **sighs with relief

No, life's problems weren't magically solved, but I'm feeling so much better today. Despite my best efforts to be down and out, yesterday just kept getting better and better. The goodness of the day was not limited to the two following things, but they definitely played a big role. I had a voicemail from the aforementioned middle school best friend asking me if I want to go out for her birthday tonight. Sweet. And when we talked later yesterday evening, it was for an hour. How fun. While I was talking to her I was outside of Barnes & Noble, and who would happen to come out but a friend from high school who I hadn't seen since high school. She ended up going back into B&N and coming back out later, so I got to talk to her too. This is like the month of random reconnection (I also saw someone I went to elementary school with in Victoria's Secret on Saturday). Anyway, here's to possibly rekindled friendships...at least I'm successful sometimes at that...

Totally depressing

Wow, I've really dumbed down since college. I've recently been reading through some of my papers and wondered how I came up with some of that stuff. Not to say they're really great or anything, but I wrote things I wouldn't think now. I used words in high school papers that I don't even know the definitions of today. Like I said, totally depressing. I really need to do more to keep my mind active, thinking more substantial thoughts. Maybe I should go back to school. Of course, I need to work to make my car payments, insurance payments, etc., etc. Eh, it's one of those days.

Wow, this is one of the saddest

things I've read in a while:
Lynx and Lamb: thirteen-year-old twins...and white nationalist singers

Chance encounter

I happened to run into my middle school best friend over the weekend—at a restaurant she will soon be doing the interior design for, no less. I hadn't seen her in seven and one half years, and before that had only seen her once in the three years previous (she moved out of town after our freshman year). Needless to say, people's appearance can change a lot in ten years' time, especially the ten years between freshman in high school and whatever it is we'd be classified as now. We were across the restaurant from each other, and I could only see her side profile, so after we'd sat down, I thought that it could be her, but I couldn't be sure. I kept looking at her, several times making awkward eye contact with the guy at her table, and after a while I was convinced. Or I was at least convinced that the gal looked similar and had the exact same mannerisms. Memory and recognition are so intriguing; I wasn't sure based on her side profile, but the way she gestured with her hands and the way she held and drank from her straw was just as I remembered. Isn't it odd what your mind holds onto? Well, she eventually turned my way and looked at me and pointed, and we exchanged waves. And then she came over and we chatted for a bit. What a bright, unexpected spot in the evening.

mm hm

I thought this was a great concluding two paragraphs to the article Dobbs: Are you a casualty of the class war? By Lou Dobbs, posted on cnn.com:

Perhaps one of our nation's leading business magazines would like to create something called a Forbes or Fortune 250 Million list, which would reveal the dire financial pressures that our public policies have produced for working men and women and their families. It's time for all of us to focus on that deep chasm we have allowed to open between the wealthiest Americans and the middle class and those who aspire to it.

Otherwise, there will be 250 million casualties in what has become nothing less than class warfare.

[In case it expires, find the full text here: Dobbs: Are you a casualty of the class war?]

Where did the weekend go...

Monday again. Where the weekend went: Saturday from 11am-7pm (with maybe a 45-minute break in there to watch an episode of *cough* onetreehill) I was cleaning. Glad that's finally done. I really wanted to go on a bike ride because the weather was great, but by the time I was done with my cleaning I was hungry and tired and feeling dirty...in a dirt/germ sort of way, you sickos. I felt more tired than I do after a 10-mile bike ride. And I still had to make my food for the potluck the next day. And Sunday was completely full too, mostly with a birthday party for my aunt, which took a good seven hours of my day.

Something to look forward to: Possibly going to Dallas at Thanksgiving. Mark (no idea if you read this), did you know that Dougs are going to be in Dallas over Thanksgiving? McDougles.

Most recent favorite discovery

Well, I actually discovered it a few months ago but at the time was too lazy to do anything with it. Glad I finally did.

pandora

Great for listening to music at work—especially since I've recently been mildly bored with my iTunes Library on Shuffle.

How's that?

Ok, you know the recently declassified docs that say that terrorism is a threat more now than ever? I wouldn't have thought those could be used to support what the U.S. has been up to in Iraq. But no, they found a way:

For Republicans, the excerpts of the document -- declassified under orders from President Bush on Tuesday -- are more evidence that Iraq is central to the war on terrorism and can't be abandoned without giving jihadists a crucial victory. (from cnn.com)

Eh? How is it not obvious that what we've been doing for the last five-ish years is the cause of an increased terror threat?

S&B GOLDEN CURRY SAUCE with VEGETABLES

I was just cleaning out a box in my office that has various food items in it. For whatever reason, there was a bag with a can of tuna and a box of curry (full name above); probably possible lunch items. I got to reading the back of the box of curry and wanted to share a few fun parts with you. P.S. It is a product of Japan; I got it at the Asian Market.

{MICROWAVE OVEN DIRECTIONS}
1. Remove pouch from box. Cut pouch open and pour contents into a microwave-safe casserole.
2. Cover and cook on High 1 MINUTE or until hot, and LET STAND 30 SECONDS. Carefully remove casserole from microwave and serve over food ( steamed rice or noodles etc. ) .

So...first I have to have a casserole? And then I put the whole casserole plus the curry sauce on top of rice or noodles?

{SUGGESTIONS}
Excellent when served over grilled or sauteed cubed beef and rice. Also good with roasted chicken or boiled shrimp. If you prefer, simply add any of the following ingredients:
*Noodles, mashed potatoes, tacos, hot dog...

Hm, just add tacos...never heard that one before. If it works on this box of curry, why not try selling “Tacos In A Box—Instant Tacos*” *just add: tacos

recent things (a numbered post)

1. Like I told my brother, I'm now lusting after a Sea•Doo. Words can't do justice to how much fun that thing was. Of course I've had to have my bubble burst more than once by people reminding me that not only would I have to buy the Sea•Doo, but I'd also need a trailer to pull it on and a vehicle with which to pull the trailer. Well, I guess I'll just keep hoping that my cousin continues to provide me with opportunities to ride hers...much like I keep hoping that my uncle (her dad) continues providing me with opportunities to stay at his time-share condos during ski season...
   
   ah, bliss
   


2. My cousin's kids are adorable. She and her husband rock pretty hardcore too.


3. Confession: I love to drink coffee out of paper cups that have "Java Jackets" and lids. So even though I bought a mug that would give me 10% off of each coffee purchase at the local coffee shop, not to mention be better for the environment and not wasteful, I will almost always get it in a to-go cup.


4. Saturday is the MCC Flat Lander, so I'm trying to get ready for it. I'm going to end up only doing the 35 mile route because I haven't been able to get as much training in as I would have liked. Before yesterday, I hadn't ridden in for sure over a week because of being sick. I still had to stop for nose blowing like every two miles yesterday which sucked, but I was able to do 17 miles, which is pretty good, considering the lack of training.

nd, cool treat, b&b

Last weekend, Brian and I met up with the Kaufmanns in Wichita for some good eats at Bella Luna Cafe and then a sweet, sweet deal that Grayce had found out about—free admittance to Joyland. Woo hoo! Joyland holds a special place in my (and my brother's) heart since our family used to go there about once a year when we were younger. I informed my bro of this awesomeness, and he and his friend Sarah partook as well. Now, it's been many years since Joyland really seemed to be a happening place, but it seemed very much in disrepair now. At least the last time I was there (about seven years ago maybe), the roller coaster was still operational. When we got to the parking lot, the only letters of the sign that were lit up were "ND." Sad. Poor Joyland. Not to say I didn't have a great time though. Mark and I have fond memories of the Wacky Shack, although it hasn't been awesome or scary for many years. When we were there on Saturday, it had to shut down because the cars kept getting stuck inside. But at least we got to go on it before that. Sadly, the other sweet ride Log Jam wasn't running either, but it might not have been too much fun to go on that night since you do get sort of wet. I thought it was pretty cool that the Sky Coaster thing was included in the free admission, even though I'd never have the guts to go on it; watching Mark and Sarah go on it was enough of a rush for me.

Recommendation: chocolate malt crunch from DQ. Mmm, deliciousness. And I don't even really like malts all that much. The "crunch" are those little cookie crumbles from the orgasmic center of DQ ice cream cakes.

Except for the fact that I'm sick, I'm really looking forward to tonight/tomorrow. My uncle rented out a bed & breakfast, and he and my aunt, my parents, Brian and I, and my cousin's family are going there this evening. And then tomorrow we're going to my uncle's lake. I hope it's warm enough to do some Sea•Doo-ing. I'm excited to see my cousin's kid, who was born last December, maybe? I haven't even seen him yet, but in his pictures, he's adorable.

Just watched this again last night

and was reminded how funny I find this part.

Pretty schweet

I saw this on Inside Edition yesterday; it was all filmed in one take.

Pork and Beans?

The other night at our kick-off picnic, I walked past a group of boys (young kids). A father of one of the kids was kneeling down in front of him trying to help him with his shorts zipper, which looked to be about halfway down. I don't know if he was trying to help him get it up or down, though, because I heard one of the other kids exclaim, "That sounds like it would HURT!" Couldn't help but wonder if there was a little Something About Mary moment going on there.

At D'Angelo's over lunch

[I approach the buffet from one room as a man approaches from another room; the restaurant is quite empty]

Man: You guys got that song in my head!
Me: Huh? [thoroughly puzzled]
Man: Are you with that guy singing "The Hustle"?
Me: Uh...I don't know, I'll have to check...
Man: Now I'm singing that song. He was singing the dang "Hustle"! That song's from the disco days...

[When I return to my seat, I find out that, yes, apparently I was "with that guy singing 'The Hustle.'"]

Remember the "Mansiere" or the "Bro"?

The other day I saw the oddest thing walking down Spencer. And by that I mean the oddest thing was walking, not I was walking and saw the oddest thing. There was this man walking wearing a white...tube top, I guess. It reminded me of the Mansiere/Bro, except it wasn't covering his nipples, so it wasn't really functioning as such.

Tourism-drawing rooster killed by dog

[[ok, what happened isn't really funny, but this reads pretty funny...]]

SCIO, Ore. (AP) — Big Red, a rooster who drew tourists with his daily stroll down Main Street, died this week after getting mauled by a dog.

The Rhode Island Red was attacked Tuesday while walking to his home at the Scio Feed and Country Store in this town of about 700 people. The dog leaped through the open window of a parked car and pounced on the rooster, said Marian Heikkila, who had cared for the bird.

Heikkila said Big Red staggered for several steps before collapsing at the front door of a veterinarian’s office. The cause of death was broken ribs and internal bleeding, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported.

“I just said ‘Oh Red,’ and he took a couple of breaths and died, and then everyone started crying,” Heikkila said.

So it's been a while

In the past month or so, I've...spent a week at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp and turned 25. In fact, I turned 25 at RMMC. Gosh, I guess I haven't done a whole heck of a lot... Yeah, took the youth group on a service trip to RMMC a couple of weeks ago. We did a lot of painting (the main lodge, if you're familiar with the camp), split and stacked wood, and dug a trench for a propane line. It was good times. The group was good and without drama (yay!). It was good to be away from work and home for a while but also good to get back. On our day off from working, we went rafting on the Ark. It was fun but not quite as exciting as I expected. The trip also marked my last official duty as youth leader! A highlight of the summer occurred soon after returning from Colo.—the party at the Waltners'. It was great to see everyone there. On the 4th, we went on a historic tour of Newton, which was quite interesting. I was not aware of the Chisholm Trail stagecoach ruts that are very near to my house. I didn't blow anything up for the 4th, but my brother had some unique items to explode, so that made for good times. Also saw the Newton show, which did not disappoint. This last weekend had a couple of belated birthday celebrations—took off Friday afternoon for shopping and then ate at P.F. Chang's, and on Saturday had a family celebration at Passage to India. And Cold Stone twice. Mmmmmmm. Ok, well, looking forward to the wedding at the end of the month, heading out to Colo. another time, and probably counseling at camp.