Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the Elle-igator!

I hope you have an awesome day and get some excellent dress-up clothes, and I hope Wade gets some rocks. Black ones. Black rocks.

Oh, wait, you did? You did get those things?

Nice work, Grandma and Grandpa!

I love you Elle, happy birthday!!!

Love, Aunt Myriah

Top 13 Songs

Thank you to everyone who made suggestions for my listening pleasure.

I downloaded an embarrassing amount of songs, and after hanging with my iPod for a while, I feel like I am able to tell you which songs I am enjoying the most right now. This list includes songs I have recently purchased and songs I've had for awhile. I wasn't sure what kind of order to list them in, my iPod doesn't have a play count (as far as I know) so I will put them in order of perceived play count, highest to lowest.

1) Sam Sparro, Black & Gold (Oh man, you must immediately listen to this song. I LOVE it.)

2) Driving by Starlight, Steal Away (Strangely, I enjoy listening to this song while driving at night.)

3) From the Musical Wicked, What is This Feeling? (Excellent for running hills.)

4) The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sometimes Always

5) The Feeling, Sewn (I like the lyric, "you've got my heart in a headlock.")

6) Yael Naim, New Soul (Hello, Mac commercial.)

7) Aqualung, Brighter Than Sunshine

8) Immaculate Machine, Jarhand (I think this was a free download a year ago, and I remember not liking it. I guess things changed.)

9) Secondhand Serenade, Fall for You

10) 16 Frames, Coming Home

11) The Wombats, Let's Dance to Joy Division

12) Test Your Reflex, Pieces of the Sun

13) Belle & Sebastian, White Collar Boy (Okay, this song actually has the highest play count of this group. I've had the song for a long time, and it's also part of my running play list. So, although it has a high play count, I haven't been listening to it as frequently as the other songs.)

So there you go. It's been lovely.

Can you hear me?

Tonight Mary attempted her first apple pie-ish thing. She wasn't sure how it would turn out, so when she served it for dessert she said, "If it's horrible, don't tell me."

She gave grandma a piece. Grandma says in her gruff voice, "Well first off, the apples are raw."

Apparently, Grandma mistook Mary's request.

I said, "Grandma, you weren't suppose to say anything!"

And she said, "Oh! I forgot! But these apples sure are hard!"

So then everyone else gets some of it, and sure, the apples could have been cooked a little longer, but it was still good, and I wasn't breaking teeth.

She continues, "You know Mary, you could have started by slicing the apples thinner."

Then G-ma says, "Can you hear me crunching?"

Any Idea?

For the first time in a long time, I was with people on a temple trip that didn't make me want to throw myself out of the car while on the freeway. We had real conversations about things that I had been thinking about. We were able to discuss many sides of a topic, and I felt benefited from this car ride.

Anyway, it was a good time, and although we spoke of many things, the question that stands out the most to me was, "Where do telephone poles come from?"


Does anyone have any idea?

Calendars, again.

I have a problem.

Gary Larson apparently decided against pleasing his audience for the year of 2009.

I cannot find a Far Side calendar anywhere, let alone a Far Side mini wall calendar or desk calendar.

Maybe he has something against nines.

Since embracing this tragedy, I took a look at calendars.com, where they only show 8 calendars per page, which is ridiculous, and selected a few that I perhaps could stare at for a year.

Out of 495 mini wall calendars I have narrowed it to three. Here they are:

The Spirit of Place

The Jetsons

Renoir


This calendar search would have been easier if I were obsessed with something like cars, dogs, puppies, puppies and kitties, kitties, lighthouses or palm trees/beaches/islands.

Anyway, which calendar should I pick? Maybe I should get all three?

Exams

As I go to vote, I feel like I am about to take an exam. A major, life altering exam. I have studied the issues, I have made my decisions. I feel like I am ready.

It reminds me of my time in Idaho, holed up in the library or in my room, cramming for a test that has finally come. The magic of my school is the testing center. Professors will have a test available on certain days, and students can go and take the test anytime between 8 am and 10 pm. I was always trying to decide if I was really ready for the exam, or if I should put off dinner and study some more, and stagger into the testing center around 9 pm, hopefully giving myself enough time for the test.

I have the day off today, and I'm feeling this same turmoil. Am I ready to vote? Should I look at the issues one more time? Should I re-examine my choices for city council before I take the exam? I don't know.

The thing about this exam compared to regular exams are the results. Regular exams usually have correct answers, and you find out how well you did after a short period.

But this voting exam is different. I won't find out how well I did until after my elected officials of choice have been in office for a while. I know what they stand for now, but that doesn't mean they will do or be able to do what they said they would. Will I be kicking myself that I didn't vote for a different person? If I studied more, would I have been able to understand the true character of that person and trust in their actions in office?

First Sign

I just want everyone to know that I am watching SNL Presidential Bash '08 with my parents right now.

I never thought I would be watching SNL with my parents, but here I am.

They even laughed once.

I'm blown away.


Maybe the world is coming to an end.

Sudoku

Tonight Marie, Mom and I tried to teach Grandma how to play sudoku.

It didn't go over very well.


She wanted to learn because it is apparently all the rage in upstate New York amongst the senior citizens. Well, according to Grandma's cousin, it's all the rage. "Suppose to help your brain," she says.

After about 20 minutes of working on a puzzle and trying to understand the concept, Grandma let out a shriek and proclaimed she needed to go home and take a bath. As she was walking out the door tonight, she grumbled, "There is no way that will help my brain..."



I think I'll get Grandma a book of easy large-print sudoku puzzles for Christmas.