Technology Challenged

Today, I finished the BYU Harold B. Lee library challenge for employees. I didn't do it to learn anything....I mean, I was learning anyway. I've been training myself on wiki coding and created a page for myself on the library intranet (sorry, that means you can't see it) and was thinking of tinkering with PB Wiki. I also started this blog, started a LibraryThing account, and have been teaching myself the intricacies of XMetal encoding (I prefer normal HTML templates).

In this midst of this technical jargon, I thought to myself, "Self, why don't I record this on the library challenge so I can receive a free $50 BYU Bookstore gift certificate?" So I did.

This is coming from a guy who has had a cell phone for almost a year and my brother discovered for me two days ago how to turn it to speaker phone.

Let's face it. I'm technologically challenged. One of these days, I may actually remember all of the coding I've been doing. Just think.....I won't have to use the online tutorials.

So, let's all give a cheer for us quasi-technologically savvy persons! We'll get it someday.

Quelf

This weekend saw the advent of a new party activity. Last week, I had been perusing through Amazon.com and I stumbled upon a game I had never heard before......Quelf. "Hmmmm.....," I thought to myself. "This looks interesting." I read the reviews and within a couple of minutes, I had placed my order (with the addition of the Piano/Vocal book for the musical Hairspray in order to qualify for "free" shipping).
On Saturday, Patrick and I ventured to the house of Nate Gross' fiancé. It was to be a classic games night. The invite mentioned bringing your own games, so I brought Quelf. After a few quick games of Fluxx (another great card game), we had enough players to play Quelf. I don't think I have laughed so hard in my life!


Quelf is what happens when someone couldn't decide whether to play Cranium, Curses, Trivial Pursuit, or Imaginiff. They think, "Why not combine all of these games into one?" So that's basically what they did.
In the course of the game, Patrick was cursed with having to say 'yes, sir' (or ma'am) every time he was addressed. His neighbor was then directed to perform a Shakespearian sonnet (pure improvisation) towards Patrick professing his undying love. Patrick could only say "yes, sir". It was pretty amazing. And every time someone landed on a red square, the last person to yell, "Quelf in the land of the farm," had to move back a couple of spaces. My favorite was , "what's 1111111 x 1111111?" The answer was 123454321 or something like that. It said that if you got the question wrong, you are normal and may advance another two spaces. If you got it right, it said something along the lines of, 'what kind of freak are you?" Good times.

We did finish the night playing a couple of rounds of Bang!, but this post is not about that.

Sunday morning, Patrick suggested that I invite Andrew and Nancy to play Quelf with us. I readily complied. It happened that yesterday was also my niece's half-birthday yesterday. This may not have been such a big event, but Rachel has yet to turn one, so Nancy made a cake and brought their family over to our house.

We ate dinner and settled in for our game of Quelf. It was just as good as Saturday. Nancy was cursed with having to put the game box under her shirt. She put it in her back and we called her 'square butt'. That was nothing compared with Patrick, however. He was cursed with having to put his thumbs in his mouth while it wasn't his turn and if he spoke, he had to touch his shoulders. The card was kind and gave him the hint of crossing his arms.

Garion had to do a rain dance while the timer ran out. Nancy had to do disco dancing (with the square butt) and Garion kept flipping the timer while her back was turned so it never ran out. I don't think I've cried that hard for a while. :)

So, that is Quelf. It is probably one of the best games I've ever played. As we were leaving Caroline's on Saturday, Nate told me, "Don't bother bringing this game the next time you come over......I'll already own it."

Murphy's Law

It was one of those cases where something ominous was said and we forgot to knock on wood. It's not that we expected anything bad to happen but that may just have been our downfall.

Yesterday, Josie really wanted to go ice skating. Now, this is generally not a problem and it wasn't today. The plan was that Josie, Nancy, Andrew and I would go ice skating while my mother tended Rachel. Preparations made, we went to Nancy's house, visited a little and prepared to embark on our ice skating adventure. Moments prior to leaving, Mom said, in a joking attitude, something to the effect of, "Now I don't want you to break a leg or an arm." We joked about this for a while, nonplussed. Not once did we think to knock on wood.

Well, skating was fun. Nancy and I skated circles around Josie and Andrew at first and then got to the business of helping them. It was the first time Josie had been ice skating since we moved to Utah and even then, she only remembers being pushed around in the stroller as a child on the ice (something which ironically is banned at Peaks Ice Arena). She did remarkably well and by the end of the afternoon was looking like a pro. I even taught her to "snowplow" to come to a stop. It was fun.

Unfortunately, the glee of skating came to a sudden and abrupt halt for some of our party within half an hour of arriving (minus the fifteen minutes it took the zamboni to putt around the rink). Nancy, skating around the rink by herself, was suddenly cut off by a rather large woman, who cut in from a weird angle and stopped directly in front of her. Now, the first thing Nancy had said to me as we entered the ice was, "I still don't know how to stop." Needless to say, she did not learn in half an hour. When you have a one-hundred-seventy or so, pound woman against Nancy, there isn't going to be much of a fight. The woman hardly budged (she may have felt something mind you). Nancy flew backwards, landing on her back with her arm bent under her at a funny angle.

The EMTs tended to Nancy and Andrew stayed with her to help her ice her arm. Josie and I skated more and we finally returned home. We weren't sure if Nancy had broken it or not. Arriving home, we found a thoroughly happy Rachel (happy for her mommy to return home) and an equally joyous Grammy (happy for Rachel's mommy to return so that she'd stop bawling like she had been). Our first words were, "Remember when you told us not to break a leg...."

So, that was our great adventure. Nancy and Andrew went to the ER instead of going to their New Years party. I went to another New Years party since I wasn't going to Nancy's anymore. It was quite the eventful afternoon.

The moral of this story: Don't forget to knock on wood or don't run into ladies that are substantially larger than yourself.

(Disclaimer: Thankfully, Nancy's arm luckily was not broken. She only had contusions. Rachel will not have the discomfort of laying on a hard cast whilst trying to eat and Nancy will be able to continue her blogging and Rachel-tending, as usual....although not without discomfort for a few days.)

Christmas, Our Way

My family has a strange tradition to do every Christmas differently. It's not that we don't celebrate Christmas or lack the spirit of Christmas; it's just that every year seems to combine different challenges and/or opportunities. I don't remember a Christmas where someone wasn't sick, moving, visiting Canada or Mexico, or going through trials. We have had everything from turkey dinner to pizza (which is personally my favorite....what a better way to have a holiday than not having to cook or do dishes!) We have therefore learned to improvise.
For one thing, presents on Dec. 23 isn't too bad. The anticipation is over, presents can be enjoyed longer before the arduous trek back to school and work, and we can concentrate on the real important aspects of Christmas on Christmas Day. That will be good. Christmas really has become truly commercial. I mean, I physically bought every gift this year. Or rather, I clicked on the items I wanted shipped to my house for the most part without even stepping into a store. Crazy.
Christmas isn't Christmas, however, without a few important things.

• First, we have to have caroling. Lucky for me, Nate Gross was kind enough to host a caroling party yesterday and I was more than happy to attend.
  
• Second, the Christmas story must be read. I read it at church last Sunday, we heard it at church (family ward) today, and by golly, we're definitely going to read it tomorrow for Christmas eve!
  
• Third. Family is important. My oldest sister, Kelli, is coming with her kids and possibly several of her soon-to-be step children (this is one of the reasons for the early Christmas). We are also visiting my grandparents.
• Fourth. Muppet Christmas Carol. Need I say more?
  

So, there you have it. Four important things to celebrate the holiday. I would like to start some new traditions, especially when I have a family of my own. But until then, we shall carry on the tradition of spontaneous Christmases. Who knows, maybe next year we'll decide to go to Hawaii for Christmas. Who knows? Crazier things have happened.

Sacre Chat! (That's French for Holy Cats!)

To preface, we have three white cats. My sister got the first while I was in Brazil on my mission despite many years of objections about having pets professed by my father. No sooner had I returned home then my father proceeded to bring home another white cat to watch for my uncle while he was in between apartments. Needless to say, shortly after returning said cat, we were "blessed" with four more cats. We gave one away, let two go to a farm, and kept one. What was our surprise when we discovered that a cat can get its own mother pregnant at a month in a half old!!! Eight kittens later, we now had three cats(one from each litter). We now have cats underfoot, jumping at the door (to get in or out) whenever we near one, and caterwauling at night, not to mention the fact that not a single article of clothing does not contain cat hair. Needless to say, cats have become a part of our home and have even entered into our family folk art, as noted in the stained glass art produced by my father in the picture.

This morning, my mother woke up to noises in the kitchen. She thought to herself that no one was up, so why would there be noises? She got up and proceeded to check the kitchen. After letting Lucky outside, she turned on the light and caught Winter on the stove. She had managed to pull out one of the ranges on the stove and was digging out any crumbs that she could. It was quite the sight at 6:30 in the morning. I guess Winter likes to get herself early morning snacks - even though there was food in the bowl.

In another story, I was on my way to a friends house. Since our road was torn up, I drove fairly slowly down the road and was turning onto the street perpendicular to ours when a car stopped in front of me (in the intersection). The girl in the passenger side signaled me to roll down my window. I did and she proceeded to ask, "Do you know you have a cat on your roof?" Well, obviously I didn't. You'd think that the cat would be smart enough to jump off the car when it's starting or before it leaves the driveway at least!

At least with cats, it's never a dull moment.

Hallowe'en

Hallowe'en is a time when people are supposed to get together, have parties, bob for apples, and get sick from eating way too much candy. Unfortunately, my teacher missed that memo and scheduled a 2 hour mandatory online chat for my masters degree on Hallowe'en!!! Being the keen library science students we claim to be, Ben and I (with the suggestion of Samantha) decided that it would be great to plan a partaaaay!!! We invited all future information professionals (aka. librarians) in the area in our program to come to BYU for a Hallowe'en chat-party. Being guys, we planned the event far in advance, finally getting the invitation sent out by e-mail at 11:30 PM on the 30th and not actually booking a room (at all). To top it all off, Ben got sick and everyone cancelled....except me (who drove out from Orem), Samantha and Virginia (who carpooled from Salt Lake). We actually had a pretty good time playing Clue, talking, eating a disgusting amount of junk food, and discussing our mid-term. Oh yeah, and we kind of paid attention to the chat enough to shoot off a comment every now and then. It was quite the night. And to think we all currently have A's in the class. Go figure.

Repentence

Well, I must say, I promised that I wouldn't be good at updating my blog and I was correct. At this rate, I'll average approximately 4 posts per year. Not bad odds if I do say so myself. Posts will be coming out more often than general conference!