Again!

Here I was doing so well. I hadn't spilled water on myself in days! And today, at 4:45, 15 minutes from the end of the day, I took a small sip of water (really, it was nothing), and it overflowed. DANG IT! One of these days I'll go a whole week without spilling on myself. That or I'll get a sippy cup.

Shanny and Lauren

Here is a picture of Aunt Shannon and sweet baby girl Lauren. I just thought the world needed to see how cute my niece is! (Check out those cute new shoes!)

The Question Song

I got this in my daily laughs. Usually the video clips are not so funny, but I actually liked this one. It's the actor who plays Biff in Back to the Future singing a song. And now the song is stuck in my head.

http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=5500

Weekly Quote

New weekly quote up!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Yesterday our ward had its annual Primary Program, which is always a treat. Kids are funny, they just start saying things, or they get shy, or they are waving at their parents, it's entertaining. And it is always good to remember the innocent spirit of children, it was great. But the absolute best part of Sacrament Meeting yesterday was looking at the clock. They started singing a song that was listed in the program as the closing song, and the congregation was supposed to sing a verse of it, so Clark nudges me to get the program so we can have the words. I am thinking, wow, it's the end of the meeting already? Time just flew by! I glanced at the clock, and it indicated that we were near the end of the meeting. Then I did a double take. The second hand of the clock was moving quite rapidly, just going around and around. Time really was flying! Turns out they were just singing the song in the middle of the program, as well as at the end. Turns out we still had another half hour. And it turns out that song, while it felt like it was only about 3-4 minutes long, was 45 minutes long according to that clock. Now that is a long song. Even better than discovering this fact for ourselves was watching the row in front of us look at the clock and realize what was going on. And then the row behind us. I was dying, it was so funny.

My Scary Movie Research

Speaking of dark movies, I decided last night that I was uneducated about some of the most well-known scary movies of all time. So I did a bit of online research. Now, notice that I didn't say the best scary movies of all time, because after reading up a bit, I don't know that anyone could really say they are the best. But then again, I haven't seen them, so what do I know?

I started out by looking up the Halloween movies. They have some official website with pictures and plots of all the movies, of which there appear to be 8, with another one in the making. After that, I looked up Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Kreuger on wikipedia, which is actually kind of funny because they all have full-on biographies, even though they are fictional characters. I was reading all this, and I couldn't help but think, "Really? This sounds so dumb!" Especially when you get to things like Freddy vs. Jason, who on earth thought that was a good idea? Let these people die! Find new villians! Think up new storylines! I mean, honestly. I can see how the first movie or two would have been scary. In fact, I was a little scared sitting there by myself reading about psychopathic serial killers. But once you get to these people trying to kill their grandnephew, and being raised from the dead by lightening, it gets to be a little ridiculous. It just turns into an excuse for gore. So, while I now feel that I at least know what all these movies are about, I still have no desire to watch them.

Dark Movies

So, I mentioned once before that I played that M&M Dark Chocolate game, and it was rather fun. I just thought I'd include the link, because it really is a good concept, having all those movies hidden in a mural. Of course, it's all scary movies, so I was not really very good, but it's still clever. Oh, excuse me, they are "Dark" movies, so really that can mean a lot of things. But most of them are scary. Enjoy!

http://www.mms.com/us/dark/?zjxj=01200004W5932471W24W0

Tidbits

I just heard a couple of interesting things in the news, and I thought I would share:

1) Apparently they have a new merit badge out - an anti-piracy badge. Here is a quote from the online article:

"Troops will choose from a number of activities that qualify them to earn a "Respect Copyrights" patch. Activities include creating a public service announcement demonstrating the importance of copyright protection or visiting a movie studio to learn about people, time and costs required to make a movie, as well as the economic impact the movie industry has on the state of California. "

It also says that they can learn to identify counterfeit CDs and DVDs. I thought that was interesting.


2) In the paper they mentioned that firefighters responded to a fire at the Salt Lake Mausoleum. The cremation of a 700 pound man apparently got a little out of hand. This is funny to me, although I feel guilty about it, because situations involving obesity and death should not be funny. But I still laughed.


And finally, while not in the actual news, a funny thing happened to me on the way to work this morning. I was driving along 700 South, where the speed limit is, oh, 30-35ish. Of course, I am behind a van going 20mph. I was slightly annoyed, but I just chalked it up to the van being a little slower. Whatever. However when we hit the flashing "School Zone" lights, where the speed limit drops to 20, he sped right on up to 30. What is that all about? Was the van out to annoy all drivers and hit small children? Luckily, I turned. But I thought in my head, oh, I'll be blogging about this, stupid van. The public will know of your crimes. Wait, what public, all the 3 people that read this thing? Dang it, foiled again!

Tune in

St George is not what you would call a large town. It's bigger than most of the towns in Southern Utah, don't get me wrong, but there are some areas where it is definitely lacking. One area in particular is radio stations. Back in Salt Lake, I had all of my radio presets full of stations for good music, all 18 of them. Now that we are down here, I've got 6. After much fiddling around, I found 5 or so stations that seemed to play good, modern music. The stuff I like. Then I realized that there were 2 channels for many stations. So that left me with 3 music stations. I then found an oldies station, so I've got that on there.

I set #5 when I discovered NPR. I used to listen to NPR on a fairly regular basis, I would listen on my commute. So I was sad when, on the drive down here, it faded out. But I found another channel that had NPR, so I was excited. Turns out, we get Nevada Pubilc Radio, as well as Utah State University NPR. This is good, the only problem being when I go home for lunch the Nevada station has some local program on, and no offense, but I really don't care that much about Nevada. And the USU station has a classical music hour. So those are pretty well ruled out during the drive home at lunch. This led me to further fiddle.

I discovered the final station on my preset during the aforementioned lunch hour, when nothing else was on the radio. I turned to a station that was playing good music, music that is not normally played on the radio, songthat I didn't actually know, but I liked them. And when the song ended, no commercial. No tagline either. It was great. I set it immediately, but #6. I was excited. I found out that it is the Dixie State College radio station, and unlike the one at the U, it has great reception. Needless to say, I was very pleased. Until I listened to the station that night. It was not the alternative/emo/rock music that I so adore. It was latin! Very latin! In Spanish and everything! Turns out this station plays the latin music in the evenings and in the mornings. I guess it's just the middle of the day when they play good stuff. But hey, when I need it the most, Dixie State is there for me. Go Rebels! (that is their mascot, right?)

This is just to say. . .

This is just to say that I did it again. I took a sip of water, and we had a tsunami of sorts, and now I am all wet. I rock.

"Keeping tabs on the mayor! MmmHmm!"

So, I realized that one of the highlights of our trip to Colorado has not been posted yet. How foolish of me! We went to Bishop's Castle, which is a castle being built by one guy. He's been working on it for something ridiculous like 40 years. All by his onesy. It's actually pretty cool, he has done an amazing thing. This place is huge, and it even has a dragon on the roof! But this man is also insane. He has all these signs posted up about how it is his constitutional right to be here building this castle, and the government has tried to take it away from him, and he goes on and on. There are a lot of signs. And of course, he is there working away. So, someone was talking to him and got him all upset, he was yelling all sorts of things, adding to the "crazy" title we all gave him. Very nice man, just don't ask him about building codes.

This reminds me of an interesting man we met once at Denny's. He was "keeping tabs" on everyone - the mayor, the governor, the emperor. And he's got his eye on all of them, believe you me! And he did not like any of us, except for poor Spencer, and he wouldn't stop talking to him. Oh man, that was funny! Good times.

I seem to have a drinking problem.

I seem to have a hole out the side of my mouth. I was just taking a drink from my nalgene bottle, and low and behold, it didn't all make it in the mouth. Lovely. So now I've got water all over me. Good thing it was just water.

It looks like I'll be working here at Watts Construction until Nov 6. It's good to get some extra cash, and this is a nice place to work. But it's also good to know that I am not locked in. For some reason it makes it better to know that I'm not going to be here for an indefinite period of time. I'll end up working here for about a month - which is 3 weeks longer than I had thought. But taking it week by week really helps me. Makes me feel like I have some freedom. And I've actually had things to do the past couple of days, so it's going by much faster.

For some reason, I've got "Here Comes Santa Claus" running through my head. It's not like I've heard that song in almost a year, I have no idea why it's there. And yet, it brings a smile to my face. Christmas is just around the corner. Has anyone seen Christmas displays at the store yet? I've only seen it at craft stores, but I think those have a special exception because you've got to start early if you're going to make Christmas crafts. I think I'll end on that happy Christmas note!

Weekly Quote

Well, look at that, it only tooke me 1 minute to decide to post something else! I just wanted to direct your attention to the new Weekly Quote section. I was just going to post it every week, with the source, but then it was suggested that it be a guessing game, so I suppose it is. If you would like to guess where it came from, feel free. But, I don't expect that I'll come up with anything that is very hard. I just want something else to post about (since my life remains pretty much the same).

The Colorado Adventure!

Well, Colorado was certainly an adventure! My companions have already blogged about the trip, which I find funny seeing as we got back last night. Ah, the joys of having a laptop and hotels with Wi-Fi. So, you can look at their blogs for more details. I'll just give my highlights.

The drive out there was not too bad, since we broke it up into 2 days. Really, that is the way to go. It made me think about how fun it could be to just go on a road trip, and not really have any destination. Driving is fun, but it could be more fun to just go and see what is out there. Just go, and if you see something that looks interesting, pull off and check it out. I don't know that I will ever do this, mostly because there is definitely a part of me that needs to know where I'm sleeping at night, but I think it would be fun. It was also fun to experience so much weather! We left from St George, land of warmth and sun, where it is just early fall, no leaf changing yet, and then it just got a big colder, and a bit colder, we saw some snow on the ground, etc. Once we got into Colorado, we saw the yellow leaves, fall in full force. And then we went up Monarch's pass, where it was snowing. Winter, full force. But once we got off the peak, we were back in fall. It was kind of funny.

The biggest highlight: Sweet baby Lauren! She is adorable, and such a good baby. At least while we were there, she never really full out cried. If she was fussy, or started crying, you just give her a bottle and she's fine. Very easy to please. Such a sweet baby. I only wish we lived closer so we could see her more often! And it was fun to see Carrie and Clint. Again, I wish we lived closer. I love it when you can visit someone you haven't seen in a while and it's just comfortable. I am a nervous soul, Clark can attest to that, I worry so much about what to say to people and what to do, but this weekend was just so comfortable. I loved it. It was relaxing.

Relaxing until Saturday evening, that is. That is when we were in the car accident. Suzanne's blog has more details on that, I don't need to type it all up again. Everyone was fine, except for the poor car. But it was startling, and it got me a bit worked up. It was cold, waiting there for the cops and the tow truck to come, and I was shivering, but I don't know if that was from the cold or from just being unnerved. Needless to say, that was not relaxing. And there is so much to figure out after an accident, where to take the car, call insurance companies, how you will drive (particularly when you are in another state), etc. And this wasn't even my car! But it all worked out.

On Sunday we went to church to see Lauren's blessing. It was a good experience, just to see what another faith believes, and what their Sunday meeting is like. I guess I've never really realized how different we Mormons are. We really are. Most Christian faiths have some common threads, and they do similar things. We are the crazy, whacked out Mormons, who do weird things. And I do love that old building, it was very beautiful. The people in the congregation were very nice, as well, I was impressed with all of them.

So there, you go. You thought when I said highlights that this would be short, didn't you? Well, you were wrong! I might think of some other funny tidbits later on, we shall see. But then, I might just be so busy at work that I won't have time to do anything. HA, I really am quite funny, aren't I?

Oh, the boredom.

I am dying a slow, hard death. All of my energy is being sucked out of me slowly, flowing into the computer screen, leaving me an amoeba. I am bored. Yesterday, I had some periods of boredom, but I had my book to read. I finished it yesterday at about 4:45. Which was fine for yesterday, 15 minutes and then I was homefree. But today, no, I have no book. I am forced to look at things on the internet. Which is fine, but the computer screen is not optimally situated, and so my neck hurts, and my eyes hurt. I feel like I just woke up and my eyes are still puffy. This makes me feel tired. And then I have no desire to do anything. You might think this works out, as there is nothing for me to do, but you would be wrong. Because I think they would look down on me if I curled up on the floor and took a nap. Ah, the joys of a desk job. Particularly a desk job as the receptionist, with nothing to do. This might be my last day here, no one is quite sure. I'm going to be gone tomorrow, and they are looking for someone, but I don't know that they've found them yet. We'll just have to wait and see.

If anyone has some entertaining websites, send them my way. I spent a considerable chunk of time yesterday playing the M&M's dark chocolate game, it was entertaining. 50 "dark" movies were hidden in this mural they had going, it was a fun concept. I got them all, but with some help from others on the interweb. And seeing as I have only seen maybe half of those movies, I'd say that is pretty good. Maybe I'll go find some games to play.

"I wanna wash my hair in SNOW!"

Finally, we will get to see some snow! Well, probably. We are beginning the trek to Colorado this evening, and it is much colder there than it is here. And they are expecting some precipitation this weekend. So, I'm hoping we get to see snow. I am a winter person, which makes it kind of funny that we moved to St George. Of course, I do like fall as well, with the crisp temperatures, and the fall down here is much longer than it was in Salt Lake. We get these nice, cool temperatures without being cold for like months, rather than a week. Well, months might be an exaggeration, but considering that it doesn't get so cold here in the winter, it will feel more like fall. The only thing that I miss about fall is the changing of the leaves. There are a lot of palm trees here. Maybe we'll get some red leaves when it gets even colder, but I'm kind of getting the feeling that it will go from green to brown in a hurry. And we don't have mountains with trees to see all the leaves on. We've got red rock, which is beautiful, just not the best environment for trees to grow. But this all leads us back to the fact that I am excited to go on vacation. I'm even excited for the road trip part of it, we've got some books on CD, and good music, we'll be good. You have to be in the right mood to spend 11 hours in the car each way, and luckily I'm feeling that mood this week. It will be quite nice. And of course, we get to see sweet baby Lauren!

As a side note, washing your hair in snow does not work, and just the thought of it makes me very, very cold.

"Where are the suds?!"

Last night we did our laundry. This entails going to the laundromat, which is always an experience. Now that I'm working we have to go at night, and I make Clark go with me because, hey, then we can spend time together. During the day there are a few patrons there, but the place is generally empty. But at night, that is a different story. Last week when we went, it was pretty empty when we got there, but by the time we put our stuff in the dryer, people started pouring in, all of the washers were full. And I don't really know how to put it without seeming to have racial bias, but they were all of hispanic descent. It kind of turned into a latino party: there were all sorts of people, all speaking Spanish to one another, and kids were running around. At one point there was a pile of baby carriers in the middle, with about 5 babies, all just quietly sucking on their pacifiers. It got to be a little crazy. We went a bit earlier in the evening this week, I wanted to avoid the mad rush, which we accomplished. However, there was still an experience to be had. Some people came in while we were waiting for our washer to finish. Their mere appearance was indicative of the type of people they were. Clark made the comparison to the clientele on the UTA bus system. So, they get their clothes in a washer, and I am just reading, not really paying attention to them, when I realize that she seems to be getting worked up over something, and staring at the washer. She keeps saying, "Do I need to put more in? Look at it, there are no suds, it's not even washing them." At which point she puts more soap in. And then the process repeats. When I looked over, I could see suds, and yet she was convinced she needed more soap. I began to wonder if this woman knew how a washing machine worked, particularly when she complained of no suds a bit later in the cycle. We were also wondering if she was expecting something like the cartoons - lots of suds, soap everywhere, like a bubble bath. Shortly thereafter, we moved over to the dryers, and then some friends from our ward came in, and we talked to them for a bit. I really like them, they are nice people. And we got to see their new baby, so in the end it was a good experience.

They did the mash!

First off, we have some random comedic items:

Monster Mash came on the radio just now. I just think it's hilarious that they play that song on the radio, it's the only Halloween song that gets any credit.

I was looking on a friend's blog and found one of the funniest websites I have seen in a long time: www.improveverywhere.com. Their "missions" are just hilarious. For the first time in my life, I want to live in New York so that I can see these guys in action. "Rob!" is my favorite thus far, although I did rather enjoy the "Aspen" mission as well. If you are bored, head on over and have a few laughs.

Now, on to the weekend report. The Millars came down for the weekend, and we had us some good old fashioned fun. We stayed up late playing Mexican Train and Fantan, saw Silver Reef (it's a ghost town), hiked in the red rocks, ate Coldstone ice cream, and just chilled at the apartment. It was all very relaxing, and highly enjoyable. I miss doing this more often, the Millars are fun people. The pictures are on our home computer currently, so I'll try to post some this evening. I'm hoping that we can get up to Provo sometime soon and do this again. Of course, we've got Thanksgiving coming up, and then Christmas, and then they'll have their baby, so we'll probably see them sometime inbetween all that hullabaloo. But I'm really thinking we might need to take a weekend other than a holiday weekend to get ourselves up there - you just keep that in mind, Brabrina.

In related news, we are going to Colorado this upcoming weekend to meet our niece, Lauren. We are very excited about that, even if the drive is long. I'll keep you posted.

Lovely Names

I just wanted everyone to know that Clark David Wilson Blockburger is a funny man. He has created 2 names that are simply ridiculous, and I love them. Combine them and we could name our first child Bethletard Darpooth Blockburger. Where these came from I can never be sure, but they provide me much joy and entertainment. I hope they provide you with the same. Yes, we're weird.

"Truly, a sight to behold." - name that quote!

I love an easy meal. Anything that you can just pop out of a can or a box, I am all about it. One of my favorites is just a box of macaroni and cheese, a can of chili, and a can of corn. It's easy, it's got the nutrition of the corn, it's filling, and it makes great leftovers. We had this meal for dinner last night. I decided that I wanted plenty of it, so I doubled it. 2 of each. Things were going fine until I added the 2nd cans of chili and corn. It was then that I realized that my biggest pot was definitely not going to work, but I was not about to dirty another pot when we were done preparing. All I had to do was stir. Now, it takes real talent to stir a very full pot and mix things around. Particularly when the pot is so full, it is over the top. Enter Clark. And what do I do the second I hear the door opening? I start laughing. Heartily. So he comes in and finds me laughing and trying to stir this ginormous pot of chili-macaroni and cheese, and that just makes me laugh harder, because how funny is that, he comes home to a crazy-woman wife. I just wanted to share that thought with you. I managed to mix it all up, and it was delicious, and we do indeed have a ton of leftovers. But the process to get there was indeed a sight to behold.

SOS

Today is a rainy day. I love rainy days! This past week I have decided that I would love to live in Seattle. I've thought that before, but really, I could wake up every morning to the sound of rain, or at least the overcast sky. And the cool weather, I can't get enough of it! And now I live in St George, with the heat of the devil in the summer. Oh well, maybe someday. And I'm sure it's cheaper to live in St George than it would be in Seattle, or San Francisco. That city is very expensive, but it is so cool. Fog is almost as cool as rain. I would love to live there.

I went in to SOS staffing today for my interview. It was good, went well. Not that I didn't think it would go well. I took my office skills test as well, proving that I can add, subtract, multiply, divide, spell, use commas, and type like a maniac. So, that went well. Now I just wait. I think it will be good. I'm sure I can get a job. The biggest thing is I want to do temp stuff so that I can take time off when I need to, you know, for vacations and Christmas and stuff. I'm not sure how much temp work there is here, but we shall see. I'm optimistic.

One funny thing happened at SOS. I brought my passport in for my proof of citizenship, instead of my social security card. I was mostly excited because I had a passport to bring in, I figure I might as well use it for something, even if it's not international travel. So, I showed it to them, and the guy had to go ask his boss about something, and asked if it was new. Turns out on most passports under Authority it lists a city, like San Francisco or Boston or something. But on the new ones, and thus on mine, it says United States Department of State. Interesting, eh? So now you can all go check it out on your passports, see what it says. That will be your fact of the week.

Responsibility. Boo.

Well, I feel like an adult now. Not that I didn't before, but now I really do. Clark got paid, and now it's time to pay the bills. When we lived in Provo, we had rent and the electric bill. Wymount paid for gas, water, sewer, garbage, phone, everything but electric. Now we've got the phone bill, the utilities bill, gas bill, rent, all sorts of things. And we just purchased a couch. We haven't received the couch yet, it'll be here in a few weeks, and we don't actually have to pay anything on the couch right now, it's 6 months same as cash. But I think we want to get it paid off quickly. It's a cute set. Couch and love seat, microfiber suede, beige, comfortable. And it came with a coffee table and 2 end tables. Once we get it, I'll post pictures.

It just rained for about 30 seconds. Interesting.

Anyway, what else is going on here. . . Oh, I'm going in to SOS Staffing for an interview and skills test on Monday morning. So, that will be good, increase the cash flow. I don't really know what kind of temp work they have down here, but even if it's a permanent job, hopefully it will be something that I somewhat enjoy. We'll just have to see what is available.

Today is "clean the bathroom" day. Good old Fridays. It really sucks the fun right out of the excitement for the weekend. But it needs to get done, and then we can enjoy cleanliness. So, with that, I'm going to go be a toilet-scrubbing fiend. Look out soap scum, here I come!

I Love to Laugh!

Well, I've been told I need to post more often, so here we are. I wish I had something exciting to say, but alas, I do not.

I finally applied for a job with a temp agency. Well, I really just turned in my online application at SOS. They should be calling me, and they'll probably want to do a personal interview first. We shall see how that turns out. Clark didn't have the best experience with them, but I had a really good one right after graduation, so who knows. I don't know how much temp work there is in St. George, but that would really be perfect for me. I can work, but then I don't have to, I can take time off when I need it, it just sounds good.

We watched Roxanne last night, the Steve Martin remake of Cyrano de Bergerac. I love Cyrano, he is such a marvelous character, so poetic and yet comedic, he is just great. And while I love the old movie (I guess it's based off a play?), it's just such a sad ending. It's nice to see a happy ending on that story.

After the movie I had a laugh attack. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why, I mean, Clark was saying funny things, but not THAT funny. I was dying, tears streaming down my face, I could hardly breath, talking was a joke. I just got started, and then it just built on itself. It felt good, though. A great workout. Hey, I've got a degree in Exercise Science, right? I should market the "Hearty Laugh" workout. I'd make millions, toning people's abs through the power of laughter! Whaddya think? Am I the next overnight sensation?

Spastic Brownie

I've decided that those of you who read this blog need a reward for coming here, something that will make you laugh. So, I'm posting a picture that I think it just fantastic. Shannon: Brownie Scout. Enjoy!

The Conference Report

Well, in in-laws were in town this weekend. It is kind of funny that while droves of people flocked to Salt Lake City for conference weekend, the Blockburgers left to come to St. George. Anyway, it was good to see them. It's nice having people visit us down here, so if anyone else feels any inclination at all don't hesitate, just act! Ok, so we don't have a couch yet, so it might be better for all involved if you wait until that comes, but that isn't so far away.

So, as said before, General Conference was this weekend, and boy was it good. I really do love it, I feel so uplifted and invigorated with the desire to live a better life, to do more for other people, and to keep the Savior the focus of it all. My favorite talk (though there were a lot of good ones, and many many runner-ups) was Elder Wirthlin's. He is one of my favorite speakers, I loved his talk from last conference about making our lives a masterpiece. And the man is funny. He has such a stiff demeanor on camera (not that I know how he is off-camera), but then he says these hilarious things that are made even better by his lack of expression. Anyway, he also says some amazing things, things that really stick with me. He talked about the crucifixion and the resurrection, and how the one was so terrible, the worst day in this history of the world (a Friday), and the other was so wonderful, the best day in the history of the world (a Sunday). So, my new favorite quote, and perhaps my new life motto, is, "We all have our Fridays. But Sunday will come!" What a great message of hope! There have been some less than perfect days in the last year (some people may have heard me say that 2006 is just not my year), but Sunday will come, things will get better, things will be great, it just takes time. So there is my insight from the conference, and the thing I will remember the most.

In not so related news, we finally got a newspaper! We ordered the Deseret News on Sep 21, it was supposed to start on the 23rd, after much calling and waiting on hold, we finally got our first copy on Friday (Sep 29), and it was the Salt Lake Tribune! I called to get it changed, but that hasn't happened yet. At this point I'm just glad to be getting news delivered to my house, and the Trib is actually a pretty good paper. I'll start the calling and waiting on hold tomorrow (it really does take about 15 minutes per call, and 13 of that is on hold), but for now, look at us, we're liberal!