Praying Mantis Test

Two goals. First, to show you this weird praying mantis we spotted at school today, with his arms in the air like he just don't care. And second, to see if I can email video to my blog via my phone. Lemmeknowifitworks,kthanksbye.

Few of my favorite things

I love it when Tony puts the laundry away and a few days later I find Cord's jeans hanging in my closet. He must think I'm super la petite! He holds up a pair of size 12 boy's jeans and says to himself, "These'll definitely fit my wife, they must be hers." And then he hangs them in my closet where my shirts go. Isn't that nice?

Other nice things include real-life glee clubbers...

...the return of candy cane Hershey kisses (aka, my breakfast for the next month)...

...and people who think they are bigger Harry Potter fans than me just cuz they've read them over 100 times and have a lot of drawings and permanent tattoos and junk:

Psst:

Get this and other HP countdowns at LeakyNews.com

These people got into Harvard.

Huge Harry Potter fan, here. Quidditch is easily my favorite sport, second only to competitive drama. But watching muggles play makes me giggle/secretly wish I could run around with a broom betwixt my legs.

Only 5 more days til Deathly Hallows, my friends.

5 days, something minutes, and something seconds.

The Power of Nonchalantness

Things I've been meaning say about Ragnar...

2010 Las Vegas Ragnar Relay Team

"Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt"

Ages ago, my cousin Anna (seen above in the white hoodie) invited Tony and I to join her 12-person Ragnar relay race team, and I said heck yeah, even though I really didn't know what that was. It turned out to be the most painfully fun thing ever!

Anna took care of all the arrangements, all the rest of us had to do was learn how to run good. And I tried. I really did. I ran a lot.

(Actual picture of me running not suitable for Internet)

Our team ran a total of 195 miles, uphill both ways, over barren desert terrain, and it only took us about 37 hours.

We had two vans, carrying 6 runners each.

Van #1:

(BIL Dwight, Me, Memzy, Shed, Uncle David, my home-turf BFF Ally)

Van #2:

(Cousin Kerra, Tony, Dave, Hotpants, Trent, Anna, Anna)

Our van (#1) got up at 4am, after getting to bed late the night before, to make it to the starting line on time, and it was during that early morning ride that I realized that what we were about to do was actually physically impossible. And when you find yourself in an impossible situation, with a group of people who also find the situation impossible, the whole thing suddenly becomes hilarious!

"What were we thinking??? We can't do this! Hahaha! This is silly. We're already exhausted and the race hadn't even started. That's hilarious! Hahaha! More cowbell. Hahahahaha!"

Believe me, it was 37 hours of funny. You had to be there.

And it turned out, it wasn't completely impossible, because we did finish the race. We placed 251 out of 256 teams. I feel sooo bad for whoever got in last place. Pathetic!

Much thanks to Anna for including us on her team! Both Tony and I had a ton of fun.

Anyhow, you can see more pictures and read more about the race HERE and HERE (if you haven't already). I'll (fingers crossed) also have a Ragnar video montage for your viewing pleasure as soon as I can get Anna's video clips formated correctly--technical stuff only I understand, etc.

If you want to know where our team name came from (Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt), see the following obscure YouTube Video:

Notice that dude was clearly hit by a lightning bolt ball multiple times, yet he didn't flinch until that girl prodded from behind with a stick. Cheater.

Obscure YouTube videos are a great place to find a team name. Don't argue with me.

Take for example, this video:




I'm confounded at 1:08. Not by Lil Markie's voice, but by the entire congregation, who are just sitting there. Watching. Who ARE these people? I must name a team after them.

"Lil' Markie's Enraptured Audience"

Various things...

First:

On behalf of Nevada, I'm sorry we're sending Harry Reid back to Washington, but the GOP candidate, Sharon Angle, was too extreme for Nevada, too extreme... for America. She srsly needs to try out for the X-Games, she's that extreme.

Second:
Here are my kids+BNFs (Best Neighbors Forever) on Halloween:

Aren't my kid's costumes interesting/creative? Homer is something the color white, Gus is something the color black, and Cord is something the color orange.

I sent my kids out Trick-or-Treating with Tony, and I stayed home to pass out candy. At about an hour into the night, I started to wonder at the fact that no one from our ward had come by our house yet. Half our ward lives in our neighborhood, practically. Then Tony sent me this text:

(see last bubble)


Yeah, so, no ward members came by our home. Oops.

Third:
I made this crock-pot lasagna:

Hmm. It doesn't look as good as it tasted. Trust me. I got the recipe from watching Oprah, but it's no different from making it in the oven. I just didn't know you could make it in a crock-pot. I'm a nube.

Fourth:
Speaking of Oprah, in case you aren't watching her final season cuz it's too cliche, or because you wrote her a nasty letter one time and now you can't watch anymore, or because you're busy being busy, here is her interview with JK Rowling. Who doesn't love JK Rowling? Who doesn't want to listen to her talk? Hear her rag-to-riches life-story? I never get tired of it. Sigh.

You might also like Oprah's interview with the whole cast of Sound of Music. Single tear!



Fifth:
I've been watching lots of old movies on Netflix with the kids lately (movies that stream instantly to your TV, which is awesome/addictive), and I thought I'd remind you of a couple sweet movies that you might have forgotten about:

Young Sherlock Holmes
The Journey of Natty Gann

And I also wanted to warn you not to talk/beg your boys into watching the documentary Babies with you, because within the first five minutes you'll realize that the women in Namibia don't wear tops, and sometimes that hippy mom from San Fran goes topless too, and you'll have to shoo the boys out of the room immediately.

Sixth:
Speaking of Sherlock Holmes... Have you seen the cool, modern BBC version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes airing on PBS's Masterpiece Theater, simply called "Sherlock"?



I recommend. There are three 90-min programmes (with an extra m and an e--so cute.), and the best part is, you can watch the programmes that have already aired right here on the PBS website.

Side note: Notice that Dr. Watson is played by Martin Freeman! Tim, from The Office! Not Jim, Tim! From the BBC version of The Office! Duh! He's also cast to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit!

Seventh:

iLike this song:

• Hang With Me (Acoustic) by Robyn
• Hang With Me by Robyn

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