Have lots of ideas now of where NOT to build my house

Visited L**** last weekend and had an illuminating sing-along session with GH's 5-yr-old nephew. He learned "The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock" in Primary and sang it for us. We didn't film him singing it (tragic) but here's a different cute Internet kid giving it his all. (I couldn't get the computer to just embed the flipping link. Will be pouring Tang inside said computer later while laughing maniacally.)Anyway, so the sweet nephew is singing and does the verse about the Wise Man and his house and how it stood still, and then the verse about the Foolish Man and how his washed away, as it will do. He has a speech impediment that makes the song extra cute, so just imagine a kid singing & talking with a cold and you'll be close.What we didn't know is that there are apparently...

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Nightmarred and Dreamscarred? I hope not! Hell forbid!

Although tomorrow is a public holiday and I will be relieved of school and its related social ennui, I don't feel exceptionally jovial about it. Why?Well, just fathom having your mother having almost 3 instances of fainting in less than 4 to 5 days, you might, then, have a vague idea of my current emotional state. One of which I can't do much to relieve her of the distress of a near collapse because I was away in school for another good few hours or more, the factor of not being able to see that she has regained equilibrium and me prosulating several scenarios in my mind was quite a torture. That is not inclusive of the text message she sent that reads - "如果妈妈一天倒下不起，你要好好照顾自己和好好爱爸爸。“, which translates to "If mom were to collapse for good one day, you must take good care of yourselves and love...

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Because cheapness is eternal

I tend to think ahead. Like years and decades and eons ahead. And then I speak these thoughts out-loud and expect to be taken seriously. GH usually humors me marvelously during such times. There are exceptions, though. A few weeks ago I wanted to talk about our teenagers and how much cell phone usage they should be allowed. Because it is Just That Pressing of an issue.Him: "Look, they won't even have cell phones by then. They'll just implant something into your head and it will be AWESOME. Also? What do we do when they develop the technology for people to just start FLYING ALL ON THEIR OWN???? I mean, do we set flying limits??? How much flying...

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Kept waiting to see this woman's grisly death reported in the news

On Friday we drove downtown to try our hand at the Wicked lottery. Again, some more. (Fourth time, if you're counting.) GH dropped me off so I could at least get my name in while he parked. And then without me seeing him in the crowd, GH made it with one minute to spare and was the last one to put his name in the cauldron. Some lady right by the front snipped, "Well, HE'D better not win." Except, um, why shouldn't he win? Because he didn't stand there as long as she did? I wish I'd been with him so I could have given her the Eyebrow and started something.Only guess who did win? This lady. She won and proceeded to do this hysterical witch cackle laugh that may or may not have been an affected mannerism (although, considering what's to come, it wouldn't surprise me if she taught herself to...

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If I had to look like the 80s threw up on me . . .

Recently I visited a friend at her in-law's house and noticed that her wedding pictures were up on the wall, as well as those of another couple. Judging from the woman's dress, it appeared that they'd been married sometime between 1984 and 1989. Wanting to see how close I was, I asked my friend when the people in the picture were married.My friend kind of smiled and said, "Oh, that's my sister-in-law and her husband. And they actually . . . weren't married that long ago." I must have looked confused because of the awfulness of the dress, because she quickly added, "That was somebody else's dress. A relative came to my s-in-l and said it would mean so much if she would wear it, and since my s-in-l is really nice, she said okay."Okay, seriously, relative-from-the-80s? Shouldn't it mean enough...

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So you're caring about the Earth today?

I got you beat. I care about it ALL the days. Neener.Did not even remember today was Earth Day until I started going through my Google Reader and noticed everyone else mentioning it.Remember that one time when we were in Elementary School and they aired that big ol' Earth Day special on TV? The one where Michael Keaton pretended to be an executive confessing to dumping toxic waste, and where Dana Delaney chewed everyone out about their water use? Yeah, it was awesome. You should go watch some of it. Here's a tas...

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Warm weather is not conducive to blogging, turns out

But here's my feeble attempt.Over the weekend we had a little reunion of people who were in certain editing trenches together at the Lord's University back in the day. It was fun to see people I'd lost touch with and it made me reminisce about the good ol' days and the things that made our office great and also insane.Treat Days on Friday. We took Treat Days to new heights. Fondue Day and Soup Day were my favorites. Everyone else got to smell our food and suffer. We even created a cookbook in Adobe FrameMaker, which I own to this day.Promotional Fridays, wherein we were blessed to wear awful, hideous shirts every Friday but no jeans. Year 1 (in what was clearly a post-9/11 move) was a long-sleeved navy blue polo top with American flag patches on the sleeves. Year 2: The Safari Shirt. I spent...

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Paradise Lost?

So my 6 week long school vacation has sounded its death knells and I am now almost halfway through the first week of the second year of my studies in Radiography (still trying to grasp the concept that I am really in this career).I am mostly glad that I am back in school, to shift my attention away from certain *negative* emotional upheavals pertaining to one of my favourite hobbies that involves finding ways to shuffle pasteboards and largely, underhand, very unemotional ways of fellow hobbyists to their lofty projects and what not. Sigh. So yes, it does feel refreshing to momentarily forgo that sense of emotional aridness and utter isolation, and to immerse myself in simpler tasks like learning and idle chit chat with classmates. Even that latter option is appealing to a person like me,...

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Look away if you hate the schmoop

But I would be truly ungrateful if I didn't stand here before you today and bear my testimony of how I know my roommate is true.Last night I slipped into A Funk and wasn't sure what my problem was. I felt sluggish and super-emotional and cranky. GH suggested that I could be getting sick. And since he has been sick of and on for about the last two weeks, and since he was chugging straight out of the bottle of really nice fresh-squeezed orange juice I got us, this was possibly a good guess. (And no, I'm not pregnant, but thanks for playing.)I took Vitamin C and garlic pills, passed on the Zyrtec swabs because GH said he thought they might possibly have been recalled due to a side-effect of wiping out all sense of smell (which, hi, would hamper my ability to fully appreciate European cheeses),...

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You're still you

Yesterday I drove downtown to the Capitol Theatre to try my luck at the Wicked tickets drawing that takes place before each performance. You show up, put your name on an index card, put it in a cauldron (because hi, witches), and 30 minutes later they draw 10 names. If your name is called, you can buy 2 tickets for that night's performance. You pay $25 in cash for each ticket, which you then wave in the faces of scalpers while you tell them what they can go do to themselves.I knew there would probably be a big crowd. What I forgot was that the crowd would be made up of Utahn cultural-performance-goers. So, you know, pretty much my most favorite people in the world, right up there with suicide bombers. (Motto for both groups: Let's go ruin it for everybody!)I must send out a big thank you...

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Not-so-extreme makeover

I don't know about anyone else, but during General Conference there are always several talks that hit me right between the eyes. One of the between-eyes-hitting talks was from Elder Gary E. Stevenson during the Sunday afternoon session. He was talking about the temple, and the relationship and similarities that should exist between the temple and our homes, which are also meant to be sacred places.He issued this challenge:Recently, in a stake conference, all present were invited by the visiting authority, Elder Glen Jenson, an Area Seventy, to take a virtual tour of their homes using their spiritual eyes. I would like to invite each of you to...

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Easter Weekend Highlights

Not only did we get great sunny beautiful weather yesterday, and I got to watch cute kids in their Easter outfits at church, including our favorite Hobbit child in a white hat and gloves, but I'm still pretty much on a high from how well my Easter dinner turned out.My sister Spitfire and her Special Friend came over for the feast. And for the first time in my roasting life ever, I planned well enough (along with some smiling from the oven gods) so that everything finished cooking at the same time. This never happens for me. Ask anyone I've invited over for dinner ever, and ask them to show you the bite marks on their arms from when they finally...

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We're going to make it!

Forty minutes to go! A nine-year-old boy just gave me a hug and officially made my heart grow 3 sizes.Happy Weekend, everybo...

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Stay on target

My weekend starts in exactly 2.5 hours and I could not be more excited. I really need me some weekend.GH claims that back when we used to work at the same library, back when I was just his boss and also occasionally the girl who stomped on his heart in cruel, cruel ways, he could always tell which week of the month was Danger Week. And that sometimes he and the rest of the staff would discuss it, and warn each other of when to lie low. I am going to choose to believe that he is making this up.Whether or NOT it was true in the past, this week has absolutely been Danger Week. First ever, I am sure. Some of these kids (and adults) don't even know how close they came to death, and some of my colleagues have wondered aloud what happened to the nice girl they used to work with, and who is this...

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How to get good customer service at the library

I am going to impart this knowledge to you now, because I am a giver.If you are planning a trip to the library and anticipate that you will need more than 5 seconds of help from a librarian, do not go during the hour after the local junior high gets out. You will get less-than-stellar customer service, because that is actually the hour that the librarians morph into babysitters. They will try to help you, but their attention will unavoidably be pulled from you to things like:Is that group trying to break into the vending machine?Is that boy stealing DVDs?What's that noise in the back corner?What's that other noise in the other back corner?Is the kid I already told to leave trying to sneak back in?If I snatch that one girl baldheaded for being such a mouthy little piece of work, will I get...

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Not that I'm a vengeful person or anything, but . . .

Dear People Who Bought up All the Wicked Tickets and Are Now Attempting Unsuccessfully to Unload Them for $200-$300+ a Pop Because You Are Vultures Like That,HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!I hope you choke on them.Much love,Neme...

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Back in my lover's arms

I am, of course, speaking of the Costco. You know how some families are Ute fans and others "Bleed Blue" and still others refer to themselves as "Aggies" and don't realize that the rest of us have no idea who they even are? Well in my family we're Costco supporters. I tried the Sam's club thing up in L**** when my job came with a business membership, but it just was not the same. GH, of course, does not get this, and does not understand that Costco is The True Store and that Sam's Club is just Satan's Counterfeit.Last night a lovely friend offered to meet me at Costco because she has a membership. (The reasons why I do not currently have one...

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Best thing I've read all week

My new guilty pleasure is Not Always Right, where I get to read about customer service interactions that are (sometimes) worse than the ones I get to be a part of. It also occasionally makes me think that the aliens probably should just head on over and enslave us all, because holy cow we are a stupid race. This one the other day was priceless.(A woman came up to my counter in the clothing store I work in. She has a very distressed look on her face.)Me: “How can I help you this morning?”Customer: “What is this red sticker on the tag of this dress?”Me: “That is a clearance sticker. That dress is 40% off.”Customer: “But I was here yesterday and it wasn’t on clearance! I’vebeen eying that dress for weeks!”Me: “Well, today is your lucky day - it went on clearance this morning.”Customer: “I can’t...

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Do not get misguided by the lack of activities here as a sign that yours truly has became a total misanthrope and wallowing in the cesspool of ennui, because I am not at all!The previous week was pretty much neat, especially the weekend. On one of the weekdays, me, Valerie and Stuart went off to a phototaking trip to Lim Chu Kang area and Marina Barrage. A good change of events from my usual sitting around at the laptop on weekdays during holidays. Unfortunately, the area we are heading for at Lim Chu Kang was occupied by the military for their mission, nonetheless, it was a great trip to the side of Singapore that got me in a very calm state...

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