Yay for me! I've managed to go three weeks without having one bloggable event happen in my life. Okay, so that's not quite true; I just haven't actually blogged about anything that's happened. I'm a bad, bad blogger. :)
As I type, I'm sitting in my uncle James' house in Maricopa, AZ (pronounced "Mary-COPE-uh" by normal people, and "Muh-RIH-coh-puh" by me because I suffer from brain damage). I decided to tag along with Alex (pronounced "Al-icks" by normals and "Al-eeeks" by brain-damaged me) when he returned home after coming up to EskDale for Pesach last weekend. (I feel this is as good a point as any to warn you that I didn't have an outline of where I wanted this post to go when I started, so we can all be confused by the lack of direction together.) When we left EskDale, the weather was doing its best imitation of mid-December Anchorage - and being very convincing I might add. From what I gleaned from the Facebook statuses of the poor souls left behind, it only got worse after our departure, with an onslaught of as high winds and hell – er, I mean hail. Maricopa, on the other hand, is enjoying its Spring season, characterized by warm temperatures and sunshine: the perfect time to do some yard work, should we choose to entertain the notion that such a time actually exists. After debating whether to go to the Dumb Hippo (Home Depot) or Wool's Prome Imhoovement (Lowe's Home Improvement), Alex and I set off to buy some of the necessary supplies to install a drip system. (Those nicknames are Alex's doing; as you can see, I'm not the only brain damaged one.) As we're both impulse buyers, the extensive selection of flowering plants at the Lowe's nursery called to us, and we planned to buy some flowers for the rather barren yard. We're both geniuses who would never be lulled into forgetting the blazing Arizona summer by the perfect Arizona spring, so we naturally selected two plants that are genetically engineered to withstand extremely high temperatures without withering: calla lilies and geraniums. (In case you either don't know me or are completely daft, that's sarcasm.) Alex is determined to keep the lilies alive until June, and I wish him the best in his all-but-impossible task. We did get the drip system installed - and I use the term 'we' very liberally here: Alex was very lazy and barely helped at all while I slaved away. (I trust no sarcasm disclaimer is necessary here.) All 'we' need to do now is fill in the trenches in the back yard, and the work will be all done. I think I'll let Alex handle that since he needs to put more 'sweat equity' into his home or some other lazy copout reason.
Anyhoo, I'll be heading back north on Tuesday to rejoin the Esquimaux tribe up at EskDale. I sincerely hope the weather has improved, because now that I've gotten used to spring, I don't want to go back to winter. Also, you'll have to forgive me if my speech is a bit fouled up. The non-native population of this area with which I have been spending time has some most peculiar linguistic patterns.
Nude guyt, and nave a dice hay mootorrow. Or mater lis thorning, as nit is ow clun ewok tocal lime.
(Keri Hilson)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Here Comes the Weekend
Tomorrow is Friday, and I couldn't be happier. It's been a really long week, and I'm ready for a day of rest. Plus, Net and Cary are coming out with their adorable children, and that's the icing on the cake. The coconut pecan icing on the rich, chocolaty German chocolate cake. Mmmmmmm...
After several beautiful Spring-ish days, the weather soured today. The wind picked up considerably, and we even got a few drops of rain this afternoon. Most depressing, however, was the accompanying drop in temperature. Not to be deterred by a wee bit of moving air, Grandpa felt it was important to remind everybody he talked to at lunch that "we just haven't been having the Spring winds this year." Normally we all take this in pretty good humor, but when one has spent the majority of the day being battered about by something-that-feels-an-awful-lot-like-wind-but-apparently-isn't-wind, it becomes more difficult. Buoyed on by his inability to hear any opposition to his claims - he's apparently lost his right hearing aid - he proceeded to articulate his standard for "strong winds": 90 miles per hour. It's little wonder that we don't frequently have "strong winds". :-)
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm picking on my dear grandfather. Even at 93, he's still one of the nicest and smartest people I know. (It also helps that I hadn't been out in the wind today, so I found the above situation rather amusing.) He's remarkably independent, and in spite of a few significant problems with his memory, he still knows all of our names, where he is, and most of the other important information. While he struggles with time, he lives in a world where it's perpetually Spring and never windy. Old age could certainly be worse.
(Roxette)
After several beautiful Spring-ish days, the weather soured today. The wind picked up considerably, and we even got a few drops of rain this afternoon. Most depressing, however, was the accompanying drop in temperature. Not to be deterred by a wee bit of moving air, Grandpa felt it was important to remind everybody he talked to at lunch that "we just haven't been having the Spring winds this year." Normally we all take this in pretty good humor, but when one has spent the majority of the day being battered about by something-that-feels-an-awful-lot-like-wind-but-apparently-isn't-wind, it becomes more difficult. Buoyed on by his inability to hear any opposition to his claims - he's apparently lost his right hearing aid - he proceeded to articulate his standard for "strong winds": 90 miles per hour. It's little wonder that we don't frequently have "strong winds". :-)
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm picking on my dear grandfather. Even at 93, he's still one of the nicest and smartest people I know. (It also helps that I hadn't been out in the wind today, so I found the above situation rather amusing.) He's remarkably independent, and in spite of a few significant problems with his memory, he still knows all of our names, where he is, and most of the other important information. While he struggles with time, he lives in a world where it's perpetually Spring and never windy. Old age could certainly be worse.
(Roxette)
Monday, March 01, 2010
Square One
On our way back from hauling chairs to Baker last week, dad told me an interesting grammar puzzle that he was given when he was young (typically known as the Pleistocene Era). I'm posting a modified version of it here, and the first person to correctly solve it will win an Oatmeal Butterscotch cookie. Must claim prize in person; approximate retail value $.10. :-)
Punctuate the following sentence correctly:
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
Does it make me strange that I find that incredibly interesting?
(Coldplay)
Punctuate the following sentence correctly:
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
Does it make me strange that I find that incredibly interesting?
(Coldplay)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Here It Goes Again
True to form, I'm already beginning to neglect my blog. I've done the three-week wait now, so I fully expect it will be nearly two months before I write again. Anything sooner than that is nothing short of miraculous.
I'll forego my traditional warning about rambling and issue a new one about whining. So be prepared for whining. Possibly both whining and rambling, but I can't be sure of that until after I've written it.
It's been an interesting week for me. Firstly, everyone who had been here for grandma's memorial suddenly departed, heading back to reality and leaving me to suffer from quite the letdown. To make it worse, Sharon jetted off to a foreign country for six weeks. As she is primarily the person I annoy when I'm bored, this created a job vacancy that I would normally fill by annoying Crystal instead. However, Crystal wandered off into the woods somewhere and got lost, so I haven't seen her for some time either. As you can see, this has created the Perfect Storm of insurmountable boredom, which I have been attempting to alleviate by eating. It's only partially working. I suppose if I were really committed to overcoming boredom, I'd increase my work hours, but I'll save that for a really rainy day. Like the Apocalypse.
Instead, like most Americans, I'm filling my time with food - as I said above - and television. Or movies. Whichever strikes my fancy at any given moment. And I have to say that television has been incredibly disappointing this week. I suppose that it's the Olympics' fault that absolutely none of my shows are new, and to be honest, the Olympics just aren't that interesting this time around. So after watching filler for several hours while griping about nothing being on, I decided to watch a movie. Sharon is allowing me to use her Netflix account while she's over in the land of the moose and the maple leaf - no, sorry, it's the land flowing with milk and honey - and she'd ordered a movie called "Adam" about a guy with Asperger's Syndrome. Perhaps it's because my standards have been recently lowered by hours of shizzle on the telly, but I really quite enjoyed it. Had it a better ending, I would probably buy it so it could sit undisturbed on my shelf for years. Whatever the case, if you have the opportunity, I'd certainly recommend it, though I'll include a warning about certain parts being inappropriate for younger audiences.
Well, guess I'm done now. Looks like I should have left in the warning about rambling after all.
(OK Go!)
I'll forego my traditional warning about rambling and issue a new one about whining. So be prepared for whining. Possibly both whining and rambling, but I can't be sure of that until after I've written it.
It's been an interesting week for me. Firstly, everyone who had been here for grandma's memorial suddenly departed, heading back to reality and leaving me to suffer from quite the letdown. To make it worse, Sharon jetted off to a foreign country for six weeks. As she is primarily the person I annoy when I'm bored, this created a job vacancy that I would normally fill by annoying Crystal instead. However, Crystal wandered off into the woods somewhere and got lost, so I haven't seen her for some time either. As you can see, this has created the Perfect Storm of insurmountable boredom, which I have been attempting to alleviate by eating. It's only partially working. I suppose if I were really committed to overcoming boredom, I'd increase my work hours, but I'll save that for a really rainy day. Like the Apocalypse.
Instead, like most Americans, I'm filling my time with food - as I said above - and television. Or movies. Whichever strikes my fancy at any given moment. And I have to say that television has been incredibly disappointing this week. I suppose that it's the Olympics' fault that absolutely none of my shows are new, and to be honest, the Olympics just aren't that interesting this time around. So after watching filler for several hours while griping about nothing being on, I decided to watch a movie. Sharon is allowing me to use her Netflix account while she's over in the land of the moose and the maple leaf - no, sorry, it's the land flowing with milk and honey - and she'd ordered a movie called "Adam" about a guy with Asperger's Syndrome. Perhaps it's because my standards have been recently lowered by hours of shizzle on the telly, but I really quite enjoyed it. Had it a better ending, I would probably buy it so it could sit undisturbed on my shelf for years. Whatever the case, if you have the opportunity, I'd certainly recommend it, though I'll include a warning about certain parts being inappropriate for younger audiences.
Well, guess I'm done now. Looks like I should have left in the warning about rambling after all.
(OK Go!)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Money Money Money
Must be funny in a rich man's world. Yeah, that's right, I have ABBA in my head. If you get easily bored by rambling, I highly recommend you stop reading. In fact, you should probably just not ever check this blog again.
Okay, now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way, on to the main thrust of my post - aka the reason I have ABBA in my head. As Annette mentioned on her blog (likely the portal through which you traveled to reach this storied destination), Sharon and I went to Salt Lake this past Sunday. Sharon had to pick up some costumes for some event, and I had to drive the 15-passenger van for her (an interesting experience in itself, but that's another topic). Really, I just wanted the extra time with the niece and nephew, who are possibly the sweetest and cutest kids on the planet. Me, biased? Pshaw.
Where was I? Oh, right. Somewhere in that long rambling paragraph was supposed to be a segue into a story about us going to Home Depot. To heck with that. So we went to the Home Depot. Since CareNetAidEl are embarking on a path toward the American Dream and we're all quite excited about it, we went to look at flooring and tile. The first thing I learned through this experience (re-learned actually, since I've been aware of it for some time) is that I have unrealistic aspirations. I want caviar on a processed-imitation-cheese budget. (Metaphorically, of course, because I don't actually want caviar. Ewwwwww.) But the second lesson made me feel better because it turns out I don't necessarily need these things for myself. (I said, "Necessarily." Obviously I want them!) For now though, I'm perfectly happy to live vicariously through my dear sister, whose tastes are usually quite similar to mine. And I'm seriously excited. :-)
Just an aside, I am aware I use the word 'rambling' quite often to describe my posts. I'm also aware that this word is an accurate description of my posts. So you don't need to tell me. ;-)
(ABBA)
Okay, now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way, on to the main thrust of my post - aka the reason I have ABBA in my head. As Annette mentioned on her blog (likely the portal through which you traveled to reach this storied destination), Sharon and I went to Salt Lake this past Sunday. Sharon had to pick up some costumes for some event, and I had to drive the 15-passenger van for her (an interesting experience in itself, but that's another topic). Really, I just wanted the extra time with the niece and nephew, who are possibly the sweetest and cutest kids on the planet. Me, biased? Pshaw.
Where was I? Oh, right. Somewhere in that long rambling paragraph was supposed to be a segue into a story about us going to Home Depot. To heck with that. So we went to the Home Depot. Since CareNetAidEl are embarking on a path toward the American Dream and we're all quite excited about it, we went to look at flooring and tile. The first thing I learned through this experience (re-learned actually, since I've been aware of it for some time) is that I have unrealistic aspirations. I want caviar on a processed-imitation-cheese budget. (Metaphorically, of course, because I don't actually want caviar. Ewwwwww.) But the second lesson made me feel better because it turns out I don't necessarily need these things for myself. (I said, "Necessarily." Obviously I want them!) For now though, I'm perfectly happy to live vicariously through my dear sister, whose tastes are usually quite similar to mine. And I'm seriously excited. :-)
Just an aside, I am aware I use the word 'rambling' quite often to describe my posts. I'm also aware that this word is an accurate description of my posts. So you don't need to tell me. ;-)
(ABBA)
Friday, February 05, 2010
The Space Between
With the new layout template that I've chosen, my formerly sophisticated blog title, TheRepublic, just looked stupid. In all lower case, one was left confused. Is it There Public? Perhaps There Pub, Lic. Less likely but still technically possible is T Her Epu Bli C. No, I don't know what it means; at this point I'm just rambling.
Long story short (too late, some might point out), I've chosen to go the pedestrian route and put a space in the proper location. When the shock and outrage wears off, I'm sure you'll agree it was a necessary change.
(Dave Matthews Band)
Long story short (too late, some might point out), I've chosen to go the pedestrian route and put a space in the proper location. When the shock and outrage wears off, I'm sure you'll agree it was a necessary change.
(Dave Matthews Band)
Discovery
Darnit, somebody discovered my top-secret, very-well-hidden blog. I've managed to keep it secret since I started it back in 2005, mostly because I forgot what my username and password combination was. If it tells you anything, Blogger hadn't yet joined the evil Google Empire when I signed up.
I fear this blog is essentially pointless. You see, the great benefit of most blogs today is that they include pictures. For the modern audience, photographs are an absolute necessity to capture and hold the readers' attention (or in the case of this blog, the reader's attention). As you can plainly see (I assume you can see, as this blog is not available in braille), I have no pictures. Sadly, that's not the only thing this blog lacks; it also suffers from a complete lack of subject matter. If you're keeping score, that means: 1) nothing pretty to look at, and 2) nothing interesting to read. Fantastic, zero for two. What a brilliant start.
I fear this blog is essentially pointless. You see, the great benefit of most blogs today is that they include pictures. For the modern audience, photographs are an absolute necessity to capture and hold the readers' attention (or in the case of this blog, the reader's attention). As you can plainly see (I assume you can see, as this blog is not available in braille), I have no pictures. Sadly, that's not the only thing this blog lacks; it also suffers from a complete lack of subject matter. If you're keeping score, that means: 1) nothing pretty to look at, and 2) nothing interesting to read. Fantastic, zero for two. What a brilliant start.
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