Star Wars Silent Film

I have never tried this before, and I thought I'd be adventurous. I got this video in my email, and I thought it was funny. Here we go, the big test to see if I can make this work. . . Oh, by the way, it's Star Wars made into a Silent Film.

Star Wars - Silent Film Watch Video Clip

Weekly Quote 1/29/07

Last week's quote, "I'm hot. Want a fig newton?" was from The Parent Trap. New quote up!

Adie Nicoca Cola

I figured that I should post a picture of the adorable Adelaide Nicole Millar so that those who aren't on Brett or Sabrina's email list could see how very cute she is. This is my favorite picture they sent, she's just so beautiful! And Clark and I have taken to calling her Adie Nicoca Cola. It really rolls off the tongue, don't you think?

Kinder Surprise!

For Christmas my sister Kim gave me some Kinder Surprise eggs that she got while she was in France. They are chocolate eggs that you break open and they have toys inside. I opened one a while ago and got some monkey, it was cool, whatever. But I opened another one a few days ago, and I don't even know what I got. Here is a picture:It's some sort of odd looking creature (maybe a mix between an elephant and a parrot?) with the number 7 painted on front of it, and a small die is inside of it. It also came with some papers, I thought those might shed some light on it. Here they are:

So I guess it's a ghost, but it is sure a weird looking ghost. And I have no idea what the die inside is for, it does shake, so I guess you could "roll" something, but then what? If anyone has any insights, I'd love to hear them.

"That's very boring."

I've discovered that my blog has become pretty boring. I am just having a hard time coming up with things to post, which is funny because it's not like exotic things were happening in my life last month, I just seemed to pick up on different things. And I think I've figured out the problem. I work from home, and my job is very boring. Very boring. I mean really really boring. I can't complain because I get paid pretty well to do it, but it is really mindless work. Data updating. I do a lot of cutting and pasting to find things and then change them. I'm glad it's only part time, because I think I would go absolutely crazy if I had to do this 40 hours per week. Anyway, there is just something about filling your time with tedium that sucks all the creative juices out of you. Or at least that is how it works for me. Because, really, I do see funny things from time to time. I read the paper, I go to the store, I have a walking buddy, I'm doing stuff. But by the time I've finished working for the day, it's all left me and all I can think of is, "Today I updated 84 records! And I saw one from Bulgaria!" And nobody wants to hear about that. I don't even want to hear about that. So, sorry about the lack of excitement here. I've made a goal to improve that.

Maybe I need a snarfblat to get me going (that is in reference to the title).

Flier on the door

As I was sitting on our couch and eating lunch the other day, I noticed someone walking around outside, putting fliers on all the doors in the complex. While I am not a fan of people doing this, it's not too unusual, and it just means that there is another piece of paper that I promptly throw away. So I retrieved said advertisement and found two pieces of paper stapled together. The first one states boldly, "REAL ESTATE INVESTOR SEEKS APPRENTICE." That is pretty common around here, real estate is a big thing. Of course, I think it's a big thing everywhere. But that is beside the point. The second page is all about fibromyalgia. This is what I found odd. Real estate and fibromyalgia. . . do those have anything to do with one another? Not really. So I have no idea why they are being promoted together. Any thoughts?

Welcome to the Baby!

It turns out the M's have had their baby - HOORAY! She was early, but all is well with them. I just thought that it warranted a post. They don't have a name yet, but I imagine they'll have to pick one out soon.

Weekly Quote 1/22/07

Last week's quote ("Who, what what?") was from Archimedes in The Sword in the Stone. New quote up!

A Big Thank You

This weekend Clark and I have been having lots of fun. We've gone shopping, we've gone out for ice cream, all sorts of stuff, and we've spent. . . nothing. We decided to finally use some of our Christmas/Birthday (yes, my birthday was in August) money/giftcards. I felt that I should thank all those who made our weekend of fun possible.

First off, thanks to Stewart and Michelle, who rented us 2 movies last night (2!). We watched "Clueless", which Clark had never seen and I think is pretty funny. We also got "Four Weddings and a Funeral" because neither one of us has ever seen it, and we hear it's pretty good. Or, really, we heard about 10 years ago that it was good. We went for some older movies because, well, the new release section was highly underwhelming. So thanks to the Baby Andersons!

Next I'd like to thank Carrie and Clint, as well as my friend Kim, for the ice cream from Coldstone. We got their Everybody bucket, with banana ice cream (which is delicious, I was wary but Clark convinced me, and I was not disappointed), double brownies, double butterfingers, and double peanut butter cups. Wonderful! And we still have some sitting in our freezer! Thanks to the Shaefers and Ms. Locher!

Today we went shopping. For this, we need to thank the Blockburgers, Steve and Christy. Thanks for all of the cute clothes from Old Navy (and thanks to Old Navy for having an excellent sale). I got a sweater and a pair of pants last week, and this week I got 3 shirts and 3 more pairs of pants! Then I went and picked up a candle (in a lovely scent), as well as a new dish scrubber for the kitchen. Clark got some new shoes. Thanks Blockburgers!

Finally, after all that shopping, we decided that we needed to eat some lunch. So we stopped at Little Caesar's Pizza and Grandma and Grandpa Hurst got us one of their Hot and Ready pizzas as well as some crazy bread. Grandparents are so good at feeding us! Thanks G & G Hurst!

And we still have money left! You'll have to stay tuned for the second installment of thank yous. But thanks to all of you who made the past two days possible. We have had a great time.

Charged

Today I went to the grocery store, and the first thing I did was get a cart. ZAP! I got shocked. Then I went to get some eggs. ZAP! I got shocked on the metal shelf where the eggs were. Then I went to get some sour cream. ZAP! I got shocked when I opened the dairy case door. Then I went to get some canned goods. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! I got shocked 3 times on each can. After that it was mostly non-metal items, but my good word, what is up with the static electricity today? And I would like to point out that I was pushing a cart, and each time I was zinged I had just been touching the cart. It must have been my swishy pants. Serves me right for going to the store looking like a scrub.

Background

And suddenly I'm all about postings with pictures. I just thought that people should see what I have set as my background on my computer because, well, I think it's funny. It makes me laugh just about every day. I'm glad I found this gem of a photo. And yes, that is Kim in the foreground, and Whitney in the background. Mmmm. . . duck. . .

Stalagmites

I came back from my walk this morning and found this little guy:


It appears that when Clark used the outside faucet last night, he didn't quite get it turned all the way off. Our very own stalagmite, how cute.

Baby Shower

On Saturday we threw a Baby Shower for Sabrina. I thought I should put up a couple pictures. I was so good, I actually pulled out the camera and took more than 1 picture! However, most of them are from Sabrina opening her presents, and I don't think she would like it very much if I posted some of those - taking a picture of someone who isn't looking at the camera and is in motion doesn't always make for the best images. But here you go, one of Sabrina opening presents while Kim looks on, and then Sabrina and Karen, the pregnant girls (notice how very small Karen is - she is due on Feb 12, the same day as Sabrina! [not that Sabrina looks huge, she just looks more normal for someone who is that far along]). It was very good to see everyone. I wish we didn't have to wait for someone to get married or have a baby to see each other. Come on, girls, let's work on that.

The Hanukkah Make-Up

Back before Christmas, I came to the realization that I was running out of my Mary Kay foundation. This is unfortunate because I don't actually have a Mary Kay representative that I regularly go to. I had one, but she was constantly calling me to see if I wanted more, and while I realize she is just doing her job, it got to be very annoying. I didn't want to encourage her to call me, so I couldn't get it from her. For the last 6 months I've just been randomly finding out about the friend of a friend who does Mary Kay and getting it that way. Well, now we've moved to St George, and I don't know anyone down here who does the Mary Kay. So I decided to order it from online. This was on December 15, so I thought that would allow plenty of time for it to get to me before we left for the holidays. Alas, on December 21, the last day we received mail before we left, it hadn't come. My tube was looking emptier and emptier every day, and I was just sure that I would run out on Christmas Eve or something, and then I couldn't get any until the day after Christmas, and, since I'm a girl, the world would end without my make-up! (I'm not really a make-up kind of girl, but the few things I wear, I can't go anywhere without them.) So I bought some at Target, Cover Girl to be exact, which has always been hard for me to do because, as I just said, I'm not a make-up girl, and I don't know how to try new things. There are just too many brands and types and colors. But you have to do what you have to do, right?

Fast forward to now. Um, that tube of make-up still hasn't run out. I am squeezing every last drop out of it, and every day I feel like that will be the last day. But no. It's still coming. I received the Mary Kay stuff in the mail, and I still haven't opened Cover Girl stuff. Clark asked me how the non-Mary Kay make-up was working out yesterday, and I told him that I was using my Hanukkah make-up still. Because that is what it is like - a miracle occurred so that I wouldn't have to use the other stuff. It's a tale that I think will be told at the Blockburger Hanukkah table for years to come.

Weekly Quote 1/15/06

Last week's quote, "I'm barren!" was from Raising Arizona. Come on, guys, that is a classic movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.

New quote up!

A Few Random Items

First off, Carrie has made mention that she can't comment on my blog. I, of course, don't know anything about how to fix that. So what do I do? I ask Clark to fix it for me! And he has! So comment away, you anonymousers!

Next, I just have to say that it's great to see some previous "lurkers" commenting on Clark's blog. Now I've got another blog to add to the mix. And I must say, Wendy is a very clever woman.

Finally, I went to my first Enrichment Committee meeting last night. It was good. I have no idea why they wanted me on this committee, but oh well. Seriously, the leader is the most cutesy/crafty/creative person I know. I walked into her house and about died, everything was so, I don't know the right word, decorated? But in a good way. My house will never look like that. And then we got to talking about what Enrichment Activity Groups we wanted to get going, and everyone seemed to be all about the crafts. I was sitting there thinking, um, I don't do crafts, let alone teach others how to do them. So I am in charge of the "Specialty Group," which is really just the everything else category. It's a good fit, really, because all I have to do is find people who know how to do things, and then ask them to teach us. For instance, there is a lady who wants to share her knowledge about cake decorating. That is fabulous, but we aren't going to come up with a cake decorating group, it's more of a 1 or 2 class deal. So, the specialty group does that. And then maybe the next month we'll do something like a self defense class. I guess you could say it's the Random Self Improvement group, and we all know I am all over random things. Now I've just got to work on the self-improvement. . .

Fun Veggies

I was looking through the weekly Albertsons ad, when I came across this item:


Look at the package in the back on the right. Yeah, you read that right. Broccoli Wokly. I think I need to buy that just because of the name.

Sensitive Shopping

I went to Target today to purchase some. . . feminine items. I found the correct aisle, and was about to peruse the selection, when I noticed someone else was already on that aisle. Someone of the male persuasion. Not wanting to make an embarrassing moment for us both (OK, let's be honest, mostly for myself), I walked down another aisle to look at something else. I took my sweet time, allowing him all the time he needed for, well, whatever he could be finding down there. Then I came back. Still there. So I looked at something else for a while. Came back. Still there. I did this once more, and then decided that I'd just have to get over it and go find what I needed. So I went back to the aisle, and saw the guy grabbing what he needed - a whole bunch of condoms. I stalled for just another minute before actually going down, and miraculously he left right before I finally entered the aisle. So yeah, I thought it was kind of humorous that this guy took a good 5 minutes pondering what type of condom to get. The selection isn't that big, kiddo, just pick one and be gone. And I'd have to imagine that most guys would want to get away from the feminine hygiene section as quickly as possible. I guess not for this guy.

Weekly Quote 1/8/07

I've got to keep up here, it's Tuesday night before a new quote is posted! Anyway, last week's post was indeed from "Hard Days Night." And a new quote is up!

Churchings

Clark mentioned that we got a new bishop. As a result, we got a new Relief Society Presidency. You see, the old RS president is married to the new bishop, so rather than kill the Fakahuas, they decided to release her. They did the calling and releasing yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. A bit later, I went to Relief Society, to see Sister Fakahua still conducting the meeting. Makes sense, I guess, the new presidency hadn't been set apart yet. And according to our little program, she was teaching the lesson as well, presidency message and all. I thought that was appropriate. As it turns out, instead of actually having a lesson, the bishopric came in and set apart the new members of the presidency, and then we had some testimony bearing by the new and old, and then we were done. I thought that was kind of interesting. I don't think I've ever been there for the setting apart of a new RS president. Or at least I don't remember it. It's not something that happens all that often, so I'm not sure. But in any event, we've got a new presidency, and I'm sure they'll do a great job.

As a side note, it turns out that I'm going to be on the Enrichment Committee. I don't know if it's an official calling or not, because I just got a call from the Enrichment Leader asking me if I wanted to be on her committee. No priesthood involved as of yet. Either way, I'm excited to be involved in our ward.

Visiting Teaching

Yesterday we brought dinner over to someone in our ward. I'm her visiting teacher. Actually, Clark is her home teacher as well, and my companion and his companion are married. It's a funny little circle. Anyway, this woman had some back problems before, and then she fell, had to go have rods put in, quite the ordeal. And now she can't really do anything, even getting up to go to the bathroom is a trial, so we brought her dinner. She happened to have some friends over when we dropped by, and one of them asked, "So, are you from the Relief Society?" Come to find out that these friends are Catholic, and she has been amazed at the programs in place in the LDS church to help people in need. It really got me to thinking how fortunate we are that we have a whole network set up for us if we are in trouble. We have visiting teachers, we have home teachers, we have a whole relief society full of people willing to help. One of the concepts that was hard for the Catholic friend to grasp was the fact that everyone in the church has visiting teachers/home teachers, and almost everyone in the church is a visiting/home teacher. She asked if we got paid to do this, or if we volunteered. And I guess we did volunteer, but we aren't these incredible people who stand out as volunteers to help those in need. We're just like everyone else in the ward. I'm certain that my visiting teacher would do the same for me. It's just such an incredible thing that I take for granted. So there you go, just a thought I had last night.

New jobbings

First of all, I was checking things out online this morning, doing the rounds on the blogs, and not much was going on. This afternoon I've been busy at work (my new job, woo hoo!), and I just checked Adam's linkfest. WHOA! Here I've been checking it for days, and then within less than 2 hours, BAM, 7 posts. I just thought it was funny.

So, as I stated just a moment ago, I started my new job at Novell today. It's just some data updating, nothing too glamorous, and I am working from home, which is wonderful (Novell is in Provo, for those of you who are unaware, and yes, I got this job through our dear Sabrina). Anyway, I got started. It took a very very long time for me to just get going. I had to download software, which was much more painful that it should have been. And then there were numerous other technical problems, which added up to the fact that I probably spent something like 3 out of 4.5 hours of work just waiting for things to load up, or re-opening Internet Explorer for the 1,000th time. Maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but really not by much. Then again, those 3 hours of waiting allowed me to figure out how a few things work in this system, so in the end it all works out. Now I am tired of the computer. And hungry. I didn't actually eat lunch. (This is the part where Clark says, "See? Now you know how it happens to me!") So yeah. What a boring post. I'll have to find something to spice it up tonight.

Fear of Salmonella

I know, I know, you all thought that 3 posts in 1 day was a record or something (unless you are Adam, and then it's a low number for the day), but now you are getting big fat #4!

I was just in the kitchen working with some raw chicken breasts, cutting off the fat, putting each breast in a Ziploc bag, and then sticking them in the freezer. I hate raw meat, ew, it's just gross and slimy and all I can think about are all the germs that are found therein. I pulled the chicken out of the package, and then I had to wash my hands so that I could get a knife and fork. And then, once I cut all the fat off, I put the breasts in the bags, and then I had to wash my hands again because I didn't want the bags to have chicken germs (technical term) on the outside when I sealed them up. So I sealed them up, and then I had to wash my hands again just in case there were chicken germs on the outside of the bag. Then I took out the trash, because no one wants rotting chicken fat in their home, and when I came back in I had to wash my hands. And then I rinsed off the cutting board and put it in the dishwasher, and then I had to wash my hands again because of potential chicken germs. And then I just couldn't stand the thought of all those chicken germs that could be out there, so I had to use a cleaner with bleach to wipe down the counter, the sink, all the drawer handles, and the front door handle, just in case. And then I had to wash my hands again. And then my hands still smelled like bleach, so I washed them one more time just to try and get that smell out. So, the big question I'm putting out there is: Do you think I've got OCD when it comes to raw meat? Or is this what most people do?

And now my hands are dry. Good thing I got some good lotion for Christmas!

No mail for us

While on vacation we stopped our mail. I thought it was a wise thing to do, considering that we would be gone for over a week and our mail box isn't that big. And I still do think it was a smart thing to do. I went to pick up our mail today, and alas, the post office is closed. President Ford had to go and die and close the post offices on January 2nd. So we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get all our mail. Sad.

On a happier note, Clark has decided that I need to learn how things work. Actually, I keep asking him how things work, and then he remembered that he has a book titled The Way Things Work. It was stashed at his parents' house. So we brought that back with us. I learned how a zipper works the other day. The goal is to learn 1 new thing every day. Today I'm gonna learn all about keys!

"Please leave a message. . ."

We made it home from vacation! It is always bittersweet to come back after Christmas break. There is part of me that is very glad to be back in my own home with my own bed and all of my own things around me. And it is nice to get back into daily life. But then again, you have to get back to daily life. It's not always fun! Clark had to head off to work this morning, and I have to do all the household chores, including laundry, unpacking, and grocery shopping (the last one is less like a chore and more like a fun outing for me - I love food!). And errands. Good old errands.

We got home last night to find 3 messages on our answering machine. 3! That is a lot! And nobody calls us anyway, to find that we had 3 messages was astounding, and very exciting! So we listened to them. Message 1: "This is a personal message for Javier Gonzales. . ." It's totally a machine. Some pre-recorded message for someone that doesn't even live here. Message 2: "This is a personal message for Javier Gonzales. . ." The same message. And message 3 was the same as well. 3 messages, all from a machine for someone who doesn't even live here. LAME. Oh well. Better luck next time, eh?

Weekly Quote 1/1/07

Last week's quote, "Ahhh, ahh, seven years bad *oooh* luck. That's what it is. Besides, you broke your mother's mirror," was indeed from Robin Hood (I love that movie). New quote up.