In Memoriam, Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008)

"I wish to exercise a personal privilege. Six months ago, at the close of our conference, I stated that my beloved companion of 67 years was seriously ill. She passed away two days later. It was April 6, a significant day to all of us of this Church. I wish to thank publicly the dedicated doctors and wonderful nurses who attended her during her final illness. My children and I were at her bedside as she slipped peacefully into eternity. As I held her hand and saw mortal life drain from her fingers, I confess I was overcome. Before I married her, she had been the girl of my dreams, to use the words of a song then popular. She was my dear companion for more than two-thirds of a century, my equal before the Lord, really my superior. And now in my old age, she has again become the girl of my dreams"--President Gordon B. Hinckley "The Women in Our Lives" Liahona, November 2004

Not a dream anymore. Congratulations on a life well-lived, in service of God and your fellow men. Rest peacefully. You will be missed. Thank you.

Today's List of Things That Must Go

I need to put this disclaimer out yet again, so as to avoid any possible complaints of my non-originality. It's true, I got the "Things That Must Go" idea from X96 in Salt Lake City. But I like it, and it will stay a (mostly) weekly feature. However some days, like today, I don't have a ton of things to complain about. I think I should try to write them down during the week, that will help me to be a little more bitter on Mondays.
1). Not realizing I left my keys in my office before I make it to the Metro--Not a huge deal for most people, but my situation is different. I work on the top floor of my building in Rosslyn. That's 31 floors. and then I walk the whole distance to the Metro, which works out to be about a block (not a huge deal, but a lot of little deals can add up). I enter and go to the platform, which at most stations wouldn't be anything big, but this is Rosslyn, and I swear it is the largest escalator in the world. Every morning I walk it, and I get 86-90 stairs (that's not including what I am moved, as it is an escalator after all). So I reached the bottom and double-checked to make sure I hadn't left anything, and I couldn't find my keys, and realized I would have to make the trek back. I was none-too-pleased, and this must go--at least never happen again.
2.) Balding men with long hair--I've heard it referred to as the skullet. This is wrong and must go. Mullets, for all that matters, must go too!! I have an acquaintance who seems to be growing one now. It looks kinda/really bad. It kinda reminds me of Nancy McKeon, you know, Jo from the Facts of Life in the later years, when all the ladies from the eighties had mullets.
3.) Ladies hand bags with all the letters on them--I don't care who made your bag, I see them and then my mind starts to wonder "what do those letters mean?" Then I get frustrated cause I can't figure them out. Luckily, I have a gay friend, who has helped to figure these things out. It sets my mind at ease, but then I have to feel weird sometimes cause I know what the C stands for, or what an LV combination means. Anyway, they're stupid bags, and if you paid full price, you're an idiot. If you bought a knock off, it's a better choice, but you still probably paid too much for something to hold your crap.
4.) Since I am on women’s fashion, those ugly ballet flat shoes, are ugly and they must go. I sold shoes for over a year. I look at what shoes people wear. Some of these aren't all that bad, but a lot are, and as such, they all should go.

I think that'll have to suffice for today. As a side note/follow-up to last week. I made toast yesterday, and the smell of it made me want to puke, and my personal toast has never done that to me before.

Sur La Table

I got a table at my house on Saturday. It is really nice to have one after living in my house for 4 1/2 months. Actually, before that, I didn't have a table at my apartment for the six months that I lived there, and before that, we didn't have one at my house in Fairfax for the six months that I lived there.
So, in honor of the momentous occasion, my roommate and I decided to have a couple of folks over for dinner. It was delightful. We had stir-fry and salad. For dessert, brownies a la mode, with chocolate syrup and M&Ms.
It's really nice now. We can have people over now that we have a relatively clean, decently-furnished house. It's exciting!!

This is our dinner party. From left Adam, Eric, Sarah, Melanie, my spot and Sydney.

Afterward, we played Cranium, in which Melanie and I came in a very close second to Eric and Sarah--damn you Oscar Wilde!! After that, I think what was the longest game of Scene It was barely won by Melanie and Me. Kudos to Adam and Sydney on a well-played game.

"What's next?" you may ask. The Superbowl Shindig next Sunday, of course. I hope it'll be loads of fun.

Oh and a very special shout out to Sarah's roommate, Karen, who donated the table to us. We invited her to dinner, but she didn't get the message until after she had eaten dinner with her own family. We'll just have to wait until next time.

Scam

I got my first African Bank Scam Email today. Though it flatters me that Mr. Ronnie from a reputable bank in South Africa, wishes to do business with me, I am a little skeptical. I will post it for all to read here below. It reads:

PHONE NO........27839966090
FROM: MR RONNIE
JOHANNESBURG
SOUTH AFRICA
MR RONNIE

Dear Sir/Madam, I am Mr.RONNIE, Bank Manager of a Reputable bank in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province,Republic of South Africa. I have an urgent and very confidential business proposition for you.On feb 27, 2001, a British Contractor with the South African Mining Corporation, (Name deliberately with held) made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at US$50,000,000.00 (Ffity Million Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers, the South African Mining Corporation, that the depositor died from an automobile accident. On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless.I therefore made further investigation and discovered that the depositor did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents,US$50,000,000.00 is still sitting in my Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it. According to Laws of Republic of South Africa,at the expiration of 10(Ten) years, the money will revert to the ownership of the South African Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand in as THE NEXT OF KIN to the depositor so that the fruits of this old man's labour will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials.A bank account in any part of the world that you will provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin.The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 60%for me and 35% for you and 5% for any expenses that we are going to incue.There is no risk at all and if you are interested, please reply immediately via the private email address.Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction. Please send me your full name,age,occupation,address, confidential telephone and fax numbers for easy communication and also,Please observe utmost confidentiality, and be rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country. Thanks and Regards.CONTACT EMAIL : MRRONNIR2007@YAHOO.COM

I'm sure that Mr. Ronnie would be happy to hear from anyone who wished to contact him, but I shan't.

Ode to My iPod

Oh, how I love thee--well, most days, that is, when your battery isn't acting up.
It's really a fantastic invention the iPod. Even if it is one of the oldest models possible. I have an iPod Mini. "A what?" you may ask. I repeat, a Mini. It is the predecessor to the Nano. It's quite a bit bulkier than the first Nano models, and even more so than the latest Nano. Like the Nano (at least one of them) it holds 4 gigs, but now about 2 1/2 years old, and is showing its age. I hate to upgrade because that would mean I would have to actually pay for an iPod. You see I got this one for free as part of the incentive program at Franklin Covey where I worked 2 1/2 years ago. I got a Nintendo Game Cube too--both are now pretty much obsolete, but I gotta say that MarioKart is still pretty fun, but I digress.
It's like an old pet too, we've been through good times and bad, it's loyal, pretty dependable, sometimes it's gotten into trouble (read, somehow lost all 1000 songs on it, luckily I had backed them up a month before). However, sometimes lately (actually for about six months) the battery just gets really weird, in that it can be charging for hours, and then I play it and it shuts off because of "low battery power." Then I have to spend about 10 minutes playing with it for it to work, and it's good to go for a few hours, provided I don't play around with it too much. It tends to work fine for when I go to the gym, and for my rides to and from work, and once I am here, I plug it into my charger and it runs like a champ.
So, returning to the pet analogy, I guess it's just ailing, and it's not yet time to put it down. But, my desire to have the latest and greatest kinda makes me want to euthanize this puppy and get an 80 gig classic iPod--that and the fact that I magically aquired a substantial amount of music files from a friend, means that I can't hold them all on my Mini. So I am torn. Thoughts?

1-20-2008 Today's Things That Must Go

We'll try to keep it kinda short. I am remarkably more chipper than when I got here today, so my list shouldn't be as bitter as it was looking to be earlier today.
1). Having to work on federal holidays--Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and I am at work. This should not be. So while the rest of the Washington DC metro area is off work today, I am in the office. Not that I have a bunch of stuff that I would be doing otherwise, but it's a great thought to be sitting at home and to get paid for it. My roommates are--one on holiday pay, one on vacation pay. The thing is, they are exceedingly stingy with holidays here, and the vacation/leave plan stinks too, so I don't have a lot saved up to take days off that the rest of the world gets off. Apparently, after two years, I get an extra week off per year (with that, it's still about five days less than most of my friends)...so, come October...I can hardly wait.
2). The smell of toast--I don't know why, but I don't like it. I love toast, but when I walk in the kitchen after someone has made toast, it makes me sick. I think it comes from the time that I lived at my grandma's with her and my spinster aunt, whom I affectionately refer to as Aunt Crazy. Those who have met her can attest--truly my dark days of college. She's a bit/ton OCD. She has the same routine every day, including her toast, and the bread she used just smelled awful. So when I walked into the kitchen at work this morning, someone had made toast, and I was none too pleased.
3). Tourists who don't get Metro etiquette--I ride METRO everyday. It's an un-pleasant enough experience as is, but having fools who, because of their ignorance, throw things off even more really gets my goat. For instance, today, after having to wait for 20 minutes at the Courthouse stop, I finally got to Rosslyn and proceeded to the escalator to ascend from the bowls of hell that is the METRO at rush hour. When I arrived there, what was there, but an un-attractive mid-western family with a wife standing next to her husband on one stair. This disrupted the flow, and about ten people, myself included, were backed up behind Tiffany (we'll call her) before someone, her mother I think, motioned for her to move over. Stunned that she would have to do something remotely considerate to those who were actually going to work on this cold holiday, Tiffany obliged. What do I do, but give an irritated look, shake my head and mutter "idiot" under my breath while passing. How else will she learn?
4). Election Season--I am tired of it. If the Democrats want to put up a woman who most of the country hates, thinking that some how, she'll win, let them do it. But they shouldn't be surprised if she comes up short in November. Keep in mind, that I'll vote for her if she's the nominee, but she's going to have a much more difficult time winning I think. As for the Republicans--let another multimillionaire, pro-business type buy his way into the Whitehouse. We've seen how well that has worked during the past seven years. We need change, and I don't know as it's going to happen, and every day I just get more and more sick of hearing about the election, and frustrated that I have no real ability to change the outcome. I just want the primaries over and then we can have some quiet until summer.
5). My school having spring break a week before my friends' schools--sad because they were planning a trip to Florida, and I was wanting to go, but alas, I have the previous week off, and will have classes the week they'll be going. Sad. This must go!!

Oh Canada

On Thursday, I went with some friends, including my favorite Canadian, Shelley, to a hockey game. The Edmonton Oilers were in town to take on the Washington Capitals. It was quite the game--very high-scoring for a hockey game. I could give you a full recap about it, but that would take a long time to write, so here's a brief synopsis. The Oilers came on strong in the first period, the Caps came back in the second. During the third period, there wasn't a whole lot of action until the final five minutes when the score was tied at 4-4 (I think). Then it got really intense. There was a five-minute, sudden-death overtime period, followed by a shootout that seemed to last forever, but finally the Caps made a shot, and that ended the game. Truly an exciting event. There was also a special salute to the Canadian troops, and they gave out free commemorative pucks--super fun!! Also, I learned a whole slew of interesting facts about Canada. Like, for instance, it's Kraft Dinner there, and not Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Oh, and I heard that there are more Mexicans in the US than there are Canadians in Canada (this may or may not be true).

Here are some photos for documentation of the game:

Some of the game-time action

Adam, Elaine, Sydney, me and Shelly

Shelley in her amazingly stylish, Canadian maple leaf toque

Shelley sneaked in some Canadian treats for us to share. This is a Mr. Big bar. It was a treat indeed.

So that's it folks. Each time I go to a hockey game, it gets more and more exciting. I am getting better at knowing the rules, and am enjoying the sport better. So, when they sing "The Good Ole' Hockey Game" I can't yet say, "it's the best game [I] can name" yet, but it's getting better.