And the winner is...

Well, fine people of blogland, quite a remarkable thing has happened! A TIE! Sisters Jane and Marie both pulled off 13 out of 20 on that last movie quotation quiz. Unfortunately, I got them all correct so I will be accepting the prize. Thank you, Thank you. "They love me! They really love me!" Thank you to everyone who participated. Impressive display of movie knowledge...actually not really SO impressive with the winners only getting 65%, but that is what people always say.

This pic is to uphold my "no non-pic posts" and to introduce awesome brother dave to the blog, and because the pic just makes my day.

So Part two of this blog post is that my blog has become so much LAMER since marie got on the blog scene. Her blog is cuter than mine, and so is Jane's now that it's been all spiffed up and mine feels outdated, left out and..."she could be a farmer in those clothes." So I'm trying to tell my blog it's okay and you can never go wrong with black...it's just a rough patch for her self-esteem. We'll get over it.

Part three. Technological snubbing. This is a post that has been long anticipated on the blog, and it is a subject I feel quite passionate about. Somebody is out there just coming up with more ways for the rejects to be rejected. Oh you thought not getting a response to your letter a month later was bad; how about knowing the object of your pursuit is at the other end of the telephone line.... And it's only gotten worse with time. Let me list for you the ways I can currently be rejected: Telephone. Text messaging. Gchat (the silent killer). Facebook. My blog. Email. Snail mail. Real time real life say it to my face you coward! Am I forgetting any? Perhaps in the world of BYU, you could consider not recieving those annoying flyers on your door a sign of rejection.

Let me clarify--lest you start getting crazy ideas, I am not walking around feeling rejected all day or making a tally of who has responded to me. I am just saying the world is getting complicated and George Banks is saying no! The biggest problem with technological snubbing is that it's never totally clear if you have been snubbed or if the connection has gone bad and the message was never delivered. This may seem like a favor to the people who are actually being snubbed--they never have to accept the harsh reality that someone doesn't want to talk to them. I don't think it is favor...I'm all in favor of harsh realities.

A Quiz! a little friendly competition

Okay people. The following post is part of an innovative new campaign to make this blog more interactive. Name the movie. There will be rewards, and no cheating and looking at other people's answers when you post your own. I don't actually know how that is possible; that is where the innovation comes in. Some of these are dead giveaways for most of you...that couldn't be helped. And remember competition--beating out your friends and the person in front of you, I mean really pummelling them--is key here, not accuracy. For extra credit, post your own quotations.

Posts with no pictures stink. A mix between feta cheese on a frying pan and dead animal in the desert. So here are the faces of competition. Fierce.

(props Jane for finally making it on my blog)

GET THE LEAD OUT. THAT IS ALL! (this line is not part of the contest.)

1) "House of Laughs. What's your problem?"

2) "Not you--I don't even know you people!"

3) "There's a lot going on at this school...Wow."

4) "And may I remind you, it does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty!"

5) "All right Joanne Greenwald, you horrible thing."

6) "If it had pained me, I would not have come."
"You take pleasure then?"
"Yea, as much pleasure as you take upon a knife's point."
"Hahahahahaha."

7) "Don't be hasty."

8) "I'm not European, I don't plan on being European, so who gives a crap if they're fascist dictators?...As John Lennon said, 'I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.' Afterall, he was the walrus. I could be the Walrus, but it still wouldn't change the fact that I have to bum rides off of people."

9) "I am no man. I have no name."
"Well that may explain why you're having trouble seeking gainful employment."

10) "Rule number one John, don't propose to a girl on a tour bus. Rule number two, don't tell her it's because you had a bad dream."

11)"Nobody's going to rob us going DOWN the mountain. We haven't got any money going DOWN the mountain...morons. I've got morons on my team."

12) "I love weddings! Drinks all around! I know, clap him in chains, right?"

13) "The one who pinched it, done him in."

14) "I forgot to vote."
"What?"
"I forgot to vote. The last election, I got a manicure and forgot to vote."
"Since when do you get manicures?"
"Oh, that's not the point!"
"Alright--I forgive you."
"You forgive me?"
"Shhh!"
"A hot dog is singing. You need quiet while a hot dog is singing?!"
"You forgive me."

15) "What are you looking for?"
"The Russian circus...I think it's still in here!"

16) "American components, Russian components--they all come from Taiwan!"

17) "What were you doing shaving at this time of day?"
"Since when do I shave my finger?"
"You don't shave your ear either but you cut it last week."
"Well, the ear is in the general vicinity of the face."
"So is the finger when you're shaving."

18) "So much for French fashion, and French politics.... Look you here sir at this limp cravatte. And the sad state of these cuffs...oh no, no, no. Ttt, ttt, ttt, ttt."

19) "Five pounds of brown sugar."

20) "Sad to be all alone in the world."
"But she's not all alone in the world--she's got us!"

Remember. Big Brother is watching. NO CHEATSIES!

A Sunday's Pause

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.


And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.


--Gerald Manley Hopkins

Family Lagoon Day

There's really nothing like an amusement park (except maybe a water park or bath house of any sort) to get you up close and personal with a true slice of humanity. Whenever I'm wondering who I am or if there's anyone out there who understands, I'll go to Lagoon. It's truly a haven of peace and a playground organized simply to show off all that's good in the human being. That's even before throwing in enough cotton candy, churros, and plastic souvenirs to make your heart melt...literally.

And it is at this location that Dad chose to ring in a new era of family time.

Dignity, always dignity.

Growing Up Wonderful

Today I walked to 7-11 with my niece Laine. Romney was there too, of course, but quite limited in his participation, what with the stroller straps and the binky in his mouth and everything. The walk was only a few blocks there and back again, but looking through Laine's eyes, it was a grand adventure. Midway, she began collecting sticks which she stashed in the bottom of the stroller or used as batons to aid her dancing. She stopped to smell every flower, and asked to investigate more fully the features of several houses we passed--the bird houses, the rock garden, etc. She was stopped dead in her tracks by a small pile of broken glass on the sidewalk, and she was completely stumped by how it could have gotten there. Her brainstorming produced the following possibilities: maybe a mouse sat on it, or a huge mungus destroyed it, or maybe a leaf fell on it. My bet is on the leaf. I'm not quite sure what a huge mungus is.

Where'd you matriculate from?

Well, I know I'm going overboard here, posting more than once in the same day...but I've got a lot to share with the world. "I like to wake up to the smell of sizzling bacon. So sue me."

I graduated from college. At the time, it seemed like a really great thing. But now I find myself typing on my dad's computer at four in the afternoon, totally unpresentable and with nothing to show for the day and I wonder. What am I going to do now and what's in a piece of paper?

Feel free to offer job suggestions, or non-job suggestions (though those will require a little more justification.)

A shout out to my dear friends: you're all cookies. You made Provo the place that I now miss.

Let's go, Let's show, Let's RODEO!

Let's get wild, rough, rugged, and a weeee bit western!

I'm back from Dubois, Wyoming--the most remote location in the lower 48 states (true story)--where I have spent six weeks working on my cowboy walk. I was a counselor for ten girls, ages 13-16, and I learned from them that my tastes in music, celebrities, and movies are about ten years younger than me. This wasn't really a surprise; I'm the first to tell you that I'm growing down instead of up, a gravitational wonder. Anyway, Teton Valley Ranch Camp is a crazy cool place and the kids who go there are as lucky as any I know. My girls went on a four day pack trip, a four day backpack, and spent days in camp doing awesome activities.

My favorites were the petrified wood hike, and pretty much anything that involved the swimming hole, Lake Lebato. The pack trip was a five hour ride to camp, where the cowboys and trail cook had set up a sweet kitchen and sleeping tarp for us. Pack trips are the lap of luxury: horses to carry you, cooks to feed you, and large guns (courtesy of the cowboys) in case of bears. I actually slept with my hand on the bear spray...though I tried to hide my paranoia from my girls since I was supposed to be the brave one. For our backpack, we started at Jenny Lake, hiked up Cascade Canyon, took a detour to the Wall, went up over Hurricane Pass into Alaska Basin, summited Static Peak, and ended at Phelps Lake. There may not be more beautiful country in the whole world... "I won't say I'm much better than anybody else, but I'll be darned if I ain't just as good!"....

A few things I learned from TVRC:

-everything is better outside

-mice are, in fact, as gross as I've always thought

-never tell a fourteen-year-old she's being dramatic

-time will pass--it always does

-almost everything can be funny

-there is very little you need to get along, especially when everyone around you has very little too

-loving people makes living with them so much easier

-i quite like being in charge

-jackalopes are not real. i promise

Summers are made for exploring the wilderness and yourself.

It's been a good summer.