!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right folks, I'm excited. And here's why.

I know, he's not much to look at, but when this man sings, it's just amazing.

To be seconded only by when this man sings.

And when all ten of them sing, well, I couldn't be happier. Unless, of course, I am hearing them live and in person.

Which thing I will be doing in a short 37 days. Why they are not doing a concert anywhere in Denver is completly beyond me, but that's ok because I get to hang out with my cousins and their kids before the show, and my cousin Elaine is coming with us to the concert, so I'm excited about that. I seriously have been looking forward to this concert since they announced it way back in September or something like that. I'll look on their website every once in a while to see where they are on their tour (oh, wouldn't it be fabulous to be in (insert random little town somewhere in Germany) right now? If I were, I could see The Ten Tenors today!). I debated long and hard about whether or not I really needed to see their concert twice, but in the end decided against it, eating on a regular basis is probably a better thing to spend my money on. But, for those of you dwelling in Utah, they will be there March 8! I nearly went to that one- hey, I can visit my friends/siblings and see a great concert all at the same time. Alas.

As you can tell from the picture of my precious concert ticket, my camera is fully loaded nowadays (thanks, dad!). So that's good news, too.

Tip o' the day: Man, back to yesterday's tip, just go to bed! Jeeze, you're exhausted but instead of going to bed to get the much needed sleep you need (see, you can tell I'm tired, totally ridiculous sentence right there) you sit here wasting time for no apparent reason (obviously, if there was a reason, it wouldn't be considered "wasting", now would it). Especially when you know that the next opportunity for sleeping in will be next Saturday (Feb 2, unless something comes up that day too). Ok, ok, I get the point, I'm going to bed! Right now!

Driving queries

Why is it that the only people with dirty back windsheilds are those with back windsheild wipers? Have you ever noticed that? Sure, the middle is clean. But the edges are completely covered, you can't even see through them. Yet you look at everyone else's car, and you can see through their back windshields just fine. Why is that?

4 way stops. I think everyone has a love-hate relationship with 4 way stops. So here's my question. Are you allowed to go at the same time as the car across from you, even if you got there after the car adjacent to you? Example: you get to a 4 way intersection, and the car directly across from you is about to go. There are cars waiting on both sides of the street adjacent to you. But they can't go yet because it is the turn of the car across from you. So technically, it's stupid for you to just sit there while he goes, and then the other cars go, and then you go. But the rule says that whoever gets there first goes first, so you have to go last. But there's plenty of time for you to go before, and it doesn't interfere with the other folks at all. So are you allowed to go?

Seriously, I have faced this issue several times in the last month, and I never know- half the time I go, half the time I wait, or sometimes it's another car in the situation and I think they're so dumb for sitting there waiting just because they got there last, but shouldn't the rule be that first this side goes, and then that side? Am I making any senses? Any insight would be appreciated.

Tip o' the day: Don't go to bed at your usual time, and wake up 3 hours earlier 4 days in a row. When your fabulous 9+ hours of sleep a night are suddenly cut to 7 or less, it's just not a good situation. Not that I would know....

The elevator's still broken

So today I got to work and got on the elevator, along with another woman who works on my floor. The one that opened was on the left (which, as you'll recall, was broken the other day). The doors close I'm chatting with this other lady, and pretty soon we notice that we're only on the 3rd floor. About 10 seconds later the thing beeps and we're on the 4th floor. 10 seconds later it beeps again and we're on the 5th floor. Etc, etc. So it took a while, almost a minute I think, to get to the 8th floor. It's a weird sensation, being on an elevator that you think is moving, but you can't quite tell.

Tip o' the day: Comment on my blog.

What, your finger is more powerful than mine?

So a funny thing happened when I got to work today. There are 2 elevators. The one on the right only goes up, and the one on the left goes up and down. So sometimes you push the up button and the system thinks it has to wait for the right elevator, but the little red light above the elevators says that the left one is on the 1st floor. So you push the down button and the left elevator opens. You with me so far?

So today I walk into the lobby, and right behind me is this lady. I push the up button and nothing happens, but the left elevator sign says it's on the 1st floor. So I push the down button. It does not light up, and the elevator remains closed. I say hmm, that's weird, push the button a few more times to no avail, and so figure it must be broken or being worked on or something, and commence waiting for the other one. Well this other woman had come up and stood right in front of the elevator on the left, like with her nose 6 inches from the door. So she looked confused, backed up a little, and then said well that's weird, it says it's on this floor. We stood there a couple seconds, and she then proceeded to start pushing the down button. I'm standing there thinking you've got to be kidding me. You just saw me push that button several times and nothing happened, what you think it'll magically open when you push the botton? Because I'm not versed in the art of proper button pushing? Well, of course, she pushes the down button several times and nothing happens. So most people would then assume as I did that the thing is broken and just be happy waiting another 5 seconds for the other elevator. Not this woman. She proceeded to stick her fingers in the little crack and try to manually open the elevator door. Who are you, Data? You think that you can pry the door open with your little fingers, and then the elevator will say oh yeah, I'm supposed to open when people push that button and then it's business as usual?

So the other one comes, we get on it, I push my floor and she just stands there. Now I know that this woman does not work on the same floor as I do as I've seen her around before, so I'm standing there thinking is she going to push the button for her floor? Or at least tell me which floor she needs so I can push the botton? I should have just let her ride up to the 8th floor, but I was nice and when it was about at 2, asked her which floor to which she responded 3 and I got it hit just barely in time for us to get there. She got off and I just shook my head. Some people.

Tip o' the day: Always make sure your heater is on before you leave work, so your office isn't like 50 degrees when you get there the next day.

The Subway: Part 1

Melinda hurried out the door still putting papers into her bag. How did this always happen? Every morning she seemed to go through this rush, off to the subway barely in time and barely on time to work. Not today, she had said. Today is going to be different. Sighing, she pushed the elevator button one more time. Ok, well, maybe tomorrow.

Once outside the building she remembered all the things that she had forgotten, but it was too late now. Nothing too important. Hurrying through the crowd of people on the sidewalk, Melinda mentally went through all the things that she had to do that day. Sharply at 9 was the meeting with her boss that she couldn’t miss, and then was her presentation for her new project. Lunch was with her new coworkers, who would have a great influence on future promotions, followed by an appointment with a potential new client. The afternoon would be spent working on the many kinks the boss was sure to find in her project and planning her new presentation, which would be sooner than she could possibly be ready for. Invariably someone would come up with a new crisis that she had to fix which would keep her at work until 7 or 8 at least.

Melinda ran down the stairs, glancing at her watch. If she was lucky she would catch the subway and be semi on time to work. She saw with relief that the train had just gotten there and people were still loading and unloading. The doors closed right behind her as she jumped onto the train. A man stood up and offered her his seat. No thanks, she said, I’ll just stand. He smiled and said that he wanted to offer her his seat and he would be really happy if she would sit in it. Again Melinda declined and said she preferred to stand. A man with a twitch on the other side of the car gave her a look and then smiled; he was missing a few teeth. Melinda tried to smile back at him and look cheerful with little success. The man who had offered his seat had stood up even though she declined his offer and was now standing in a corner. She looked at him, contemplating the situation. That is a perfectly good seat right there, and if he’s not going to sit in it somebody should. But I told him I didn’t want it, how can I just go and sit in his seat now? That would be ridiculous. Besides, do I really want to sit in that seat? She turned her attention over to the people sitting in the seats next to it. On one side was an elderly looking lady, someone’s grandma. She looked nice enough. The guy on the other side though, he was questionable. It wasn’t just the way he seemed to be mumbling to himself. It was more the bright blue hair that intimidated her. He was reading a book and seemed to be completely engrossed in it. She looked at him, wondering if he was really reading his book or was just waiting for the perfect time to strike. The thought of the old lady sitting right there near this psycho sent chills up Melinda’s spine and suddenly she wished very badly to be somewhere else. The man with a twitch was still watching her, and the other man who had given up his seat seemed quite perturbed to see her still standing. Pretending not to notice these things, Melinda took a notebook out of her bag and began perusing her notes for her presentation later that day. She soon realized that she wasn’t really reading any of the words and immediately thought of the man with the blue hair doing the same thing. Quickly she glanced up at him to see that nothing had changed; he was still apparently engrossed in the book. Melinda gulped. She was apparently engrossed in her notebook yet not a word of it was reaching her brain. Oh how I want to be off this train! I would even be late for work to be off this train!

She noticed that the subway was slowing down and she wondered where they were. She looked at her watch and was shocked to discover that she had been riding for her full 7 minutes. They were now approaching her stop and her dream of getting off would be a reality. Melinda stepped off the train and said a quiet thank you when the man with blue hair went in the opposite direction as she did.

PS So as Laura obviously found too easy, and nobody else seems to care, the quote for last week, "Stay on target, stay on target" was from Star Wars. Of course. This week's quote nobody but maybe Julie will know, and even then the only reason I know it is because I was watching this show last week and I just thought this quote was so funny. From a Star Trek:TNG episode. You don't care about the details. But it's a funny quote.

26 and counting...

So in honor of me turning 26, and because I really like lists, here, my friends, are 26 of my favorite movies, books, TV shows and songs in no particular order.

1. Pride & Prejudice- the book, although I did see the BBC version finally and enjoyed it, the book is top notch.

2. Star Wars- the originals, of course

3. Return to Me - one of the most predictable movies ever made, and yet I still love it and watch it over and over again.

4. James Bond - I like all of them, really, but have a special place for Sean Connery and Peirce Brosnan. I did like the new guy too, Daniel Craig.

5. Remington Steele - continuing on the Pierce Brosnan theme, I really like Remington Steele.

6. Harry Potter - really, what list is complete without mention of good ole Harry?

7. Star Trek - I am particularly attached to Star Trek: Voyager, but really love all things Star Trek with the possible exception of the originals. Mock me if you will.

8. Twilight series - Yes, yes, it's a hokey love story involving a 17 year old girl and a 100 year old vampire. Your point is.....

9. Slipper and the Rose - If you haven't seen this movie, you really should. A Cinderella movie, with a couple of twists and some pretty funny lines. "Make sure she has teeth! He has an obsession with them having teeth!"

10. Ever After - More on the Cinderella theme. Classic.

11. To Say Nothing of the Dog - by Connie Willis, a great book, loosely based on Three Men In a Boat, to say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K Jerome. Highly recommend both. Great for a laugh.

12. Les Choriste - Song by The Ten Tenors I can listen to over and over and over again...and have. I'd include a sound clip if I knew how to do that...

13. Thumbelina - I can't quite figure out why I love this movie so much, but it's great!

14. Bringing up Baby - Oh man, seriously one of the funniest movies ever made. Cary Grant is my hero!

15. Leave it to Psmith - by PG Wodehouse. Laughed on almost every single page.

16. Hairspray - This movie I think is fantastic, every time I watch it I'm sad when it's over.

17. The Wizard and I - Ok, so here I could just put anything from Wicked, but if I could only listen to one song, it would probably be this one.

18. Goose Girl (and following 2 books) - by Shannon Hale- fun fairy tale books

19. Casablanca - "Here's looking at you, kid."

20. Home Improvement - I've seen every episode at least 3 times (with the exception of the last season, I kind of missed those). Funny every time.

21. I was a Male War Bride - another classic from Cary Grant, he is so funny!

22. David Copperfield - no, not the magician, the book by Charles Dickens.

23. Smallville - Do the plot lines get more and more ridiculous with each season? Yes, yes they do. But I still like it.

24. Superman Returns - Speaking of Smallville...."I think those are coordinates, chief."

25. Spiderman - Might as well continue with the superhero theme here. "Hi. This is really heavy."

26. Cast in Stone - Song by The Ten Tenors. I love the whole CD but this song is my favorite at the moment...

Tip o' the day: This morning I got to work, parked my car, and then sat in it for a couple minutes so I could hear the end of the song on the radio. I was parked in front of this duplex type place. As I'm about to get out of the car, this guy walks out of the door of this duplex- wearing no shirt, the biggest beer belly I've seen in a while, several tatoos, talking on a cell phone (and I'm seeing him smoking too, but that's probably not true...). I said to myself man, I didn't need to see that. So, although most of my readers I believe are female, my tip for today is if you don't want to see it, neither does anybody else. Keep your shirt on.

The end is in sight!

So I've been working on this quilt off and on for the last year or so, and finally it looks like something now, and the tying party is Friday. Wahoo! I'm pretty excited to slap this sucker on my bed and admire it's greatness every day. In case you were wondering, there are 1,184 pieces of material that I had to cut out and sew together to get it to look like this. First, I cut out all 1,184 pieces (2 different sizes, 2 different materials, making four piles). Then I sewed 592 pieces to the other 592. That is what took the most time, because they are curves and turns out it's really hard to sew curves. Then it was just a matter of sewing 16 pieces together to make a square, 37 squares, sew the squares together and voila! You get this cool design that only looks that way when you put it together, just looking at one square you'd have no idea that it would do what it does. I'll try to post another picture when it's all the way done, but it shouldn't look too much different.

PS Did anyone guess my movie quote of the week (top right corner)? It's kind of obscure I guess, probably the only people who would know what it's from are my siblings and Julie....look for a new one tomorrow!

Heaven forbid they lose interest!

So I listen to the radio online most days. For some reason they can't play regular local commercials online, so you get a whole lot of public service ads, most of which are just ridiculous. A couple that really get me.

The first one is partly from the Girl Scouts. A little girl is singing a lullaby to the baby, and is singing all about how sleep works and REM dreams, etc. etc. Kind of a funny song, that part's fine. And then comes the voice over:

A lot of girls lose interest in science by middle school, so it's up to their
parents to keep their dreams alive.

Here's what gets me. If they've "lost interest", whose dream is it that you're keeping alive? I mean, ok, if they've lost interest to more trendy things, but really wish that they could keep doing the science thing, I can see that. So teach them about doing what you like and want to do, even if it isn't cool. But seriously, you have to keep alive every dream that a kid has when they're 7? Every 7 year old wants to be an astronaut. So when they are in middle school and lost interest in that dream for, say, math, that should be discouraged? Yes, you want to encourage young girls to have ambition and follow their dreams, but if they lose interest in their original dream and move onto something else, what's wrong with that?

The second one is from Faith Hill. She says that kids should be involved in learning some sort of instrument, it will teach them all sorts of valuable skills that will help them in other areas of their lives, etc. Well, of course being into music I totally agree with that. Again, the last line of the ad is what gets me:

And remember, your kids all have an instrument that is free and sounds
great: their voice.

Ok, so technically that's true. And I do think you should encourage kids to do what they enjoy. But here's the thing. Not everyone is good at everything. Yes, your kids all have a free voice, but I'm sorry, they don't all sound great. Some people just can't sing. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just the way it is. If everyone was good at everything, that would be pointless.

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts for the day.

Yay for Wednesdays!

Chorale starts again today. Hooray! I really just don't know what to do with myself when chorale takes break. Apparently we're starting music for Easter concerts, which we've never done since I've been singing with the chorale. Pretty exciting stuff.


Tip o' the Day: There's an old adage "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." I disagree. It should say "If at first you don't succeed, find out what you're doing wrong before reattempting." For example, if you put tapioca in your jello salad and it turns into a cement mix type substance, don't just go buy more ingredients and do the same thing again. Call somebody first and discover that you indeed need tapioca pudding, not just tapioca.

Fast Food Adventures

So the other day I went to get some fast food. I hate getting pop at a fast food place. I drink like a quarter of it maybe, and then either give it away, throw it out, or let it sit forever going completely gross and then throw it out. I'm just not a pop drinker. But on this particular day I didn't feel like going through the whole thing of telling the person behind the counter that I don't want the drink, and then getting the blank why-in-the-world-would-you-not-want-the-drink look, whereupon they inform me that the ridiculously priced drink is included in the price of my combo, and if I don't get the drink then the sandwich and fries are actually more...tell me how that makes sense.



Anyway so I got the drink, and I had a drink for somebody else too, so I got one of those cardboard cup holder things to put them in. So I'm holding those in one hand, and my bag of food in the other hand. Open my car and put the drinks on top, throw in my bag and start the car. I then got out to get the drinks. Well a hole was already developing in this high quality cardboard holder thing, and drink #1 went sailing out of my hand, landing top down on the pavement, splashing my pants, shoes, and car on it's way down. I groaned, assessed the damage and decided it wasn't too bad, and I didn't really want the drink anyway (it was a red punch sort of concoction). Went to get drink #2 and it inexplicably sailed out my grip as well, landing itself right on the driver's seat of my car (which, for easy clean up convenience, is leather- the one upside to this story). Drink #2 happened to be a milkshake. SIGH. Did I mention that it was like 5 degrees outside and very windy?



So now my car door sticks a little every time I open it. Go figure.


Tip o' the day: Just use the drive thru.

Bob the Ant

Welcome to the story of the week! It is my intention to have a new story, or piece of a story, every week for your entertainment pleasure. These first few weeks I'm going to cheat a bit and put up stories that I wrote a while ago. This one I wrote a few years ago while sitting on my parent's front lawn, watching my mom sprinkle ant killer all over the driveway and front steps.

Bob the ant was having a bad day. He had gotten up early, as usual and could sense that something was awry, but didn’t think too much of it. He emerged from his hill to begin gathering scraps for breakfast. As soon as he came out he heard a horrendous sound. He looked up just in time to see a huge black boulder with spikes rolling towards him. He started to run away, but the boulder was too quick: he was going to be smushed. Fortunately, there were many little grooves in the boulder and he escaped unsmushed. Right behind it was another one but he was able to get away before it hit. Shaking a bit from the shock, Bob went on. The previous day he had found a landmine of food. Although he had gathered as much as he could and had enlisted the help of nearly everyone he knew, there had still been a lot there by the time he decided to call it a day. Soon his friends were joining him outside of his hill, talking excitedly about the boulder that had just passed by, asking Bob to tell them again and again how exactly he escaped. Some didn’t seem too impressed: they had heard a similar story hundreds of times, from hundreds of different ants. Bob himself had heard stories, but before he had never believed them. It was a long journey to the food, but that didn’t dampen their spirits any. Bob got more and more excited as he passed landmarks that he remembered from the day before. Finally, they were there- he knew it was the same place. When they got to the spot, however, there was nothing there. The ants were outraged, and scurried around for a bit, thinking that perhaps they had misjudged and were actually at the wrong spot. Finally, they decided that a bird must have taken their food and sadly turned around to go looking somewhere else.

As they slowly made their travel back toward home, Bob noticed that there was a great commotion going on in the front of the caravan. Curiously he ran up ahead to see what was going on. He was horrified by what he saw. Hundreds upon thousands of ants were laying around dead. Half of them were so disfigured that one could not even tell that they were ants anymore. Bob frantically looked for someone he knew among them, but it was no use. He wouldn’t be able to tell even if his whole family were there. Many of the ants set out to help take care of the dead. Others decided that they might as well collect the food the ants had left behind: no need letting it go to waste. Still others were outraged at this monstrosity, and commenced arguing over what could have happened to them, and demanding immediate action. Bob gathered up as much food as he could and slowly made his way home. There was no one there- he expected that. In fact, the whole hill seemed to be deserted. Feeling more horrible than he could ever remember, he ate some of the food he had gathered from the horrific scene and went to sleep- never to awake again.


Tip O' the Day: Make your hot chocolate really hot and then put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. Yum!

Day One

Ok, so I'm not really a genius. But I do ramble on occasion. So I decided to join the rest of the world and start a blog about it. Look for new exciting features to be rolled out in the coming weeks, and maybe even pictures, if I ever buy a new card for my camera.



Tip 'O the Day: Don't put toast in the microwave. Yes it will melt the butter. It will also turn your nicely toasted bread into a big crouton.