Quasimodo's Revenge

If you happened to have been on BYU campus on Friday around noon, you would've heard some strange tunes coming from the carillon (yes, the infamous bell tower).

My nephew, Six, has been taking a carillon class this past semester (because he just has to take every weird class that's offered) and this was his big performance. We all met at the base of the tower (where his mother, Lorna, tried to take a picture of him with her tape recorder -- she gets crazier by the minute).

Those of us who didn't know better followed Six up the 105 steps up to the top (yes, we counted -- and we were very surprised that Jorge with his gimpy leg could make it up all 105!).

Six's first song was very pretty, but sounds vaguely familiar. Babs asks him the title. Six replies, "Tetris Theme A."

What? The theme music to a video game? Six is so weird. How can he possibly top that? Oh, just you wait.

Then he plays a few classical carillon tunes (for those of you who are bell tower groupies) and surprises us with a few modern favorites ("If I Were a Rich Man" from "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's").

Then he says, "This is for my brother, Fred."

And proceeds to play "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath.

Oh, he's going to the Standards Office for that one.

And then just to make sure he gets kicked out of the university, he finishes up with a rousing rendition of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly.

I'm telling you, I'll never be satisfied with "Come, Come, Ye Saints" again.

Tagging Along

I've been tagged. Again. I guess I'll do this one (I wimped out on the other one because there was no way I could compete with GEO's and Compulsive Writer's great lists of imaginary college courses to take -- besides I still hate school, even pretend school -- and GEO, why do I always write your name in all caps?). Here goes:

5 things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago:

1. Making Nigel get me club sandwiches at all hours of the night while I was pregnant with Frances
2. Giving birth to my first little baby, Frances (who did not want to be born and it took the doctor yanking with forceps and a nurse on top of me pushing on my belly to get her out -- I hope she's not the same way when it's time to go to college)
3. NOT working (I took a whole year off after Frances was born -- my best year ever and I have video proof that my house was clean)
4. Breaking my back getting Frances in and out of her car seat in our little Toyota Tercel (which I still miss, but have you ever tried to fit THREE car seats in a hatchback? Can't be done)
5. Living with Rena and her family for a month and trying not to boil to death or be stung by scorpions, but it was worth it to see Maureen's "happy dance"

5 Things On My To-Do List Today:

1. Clean/straighten the house (OK, that's on my list EVERY day and I have yet to do it)
2. Go to work and NOT work more than eight hours (didn't do it)
3. Take Frances to piano lessons (did it -- how could we miss a lesson with the adorable Babs?)
4. Balance my check book (did it)
5. Write a post for my blog (doing it now)

Snacks I Enjoy:

1. Cherry Blow-Pops
2. Pringles (I like to stick them to my lips and pretend I'm a duck)
3. Cheetos (but I don't like the orange fingers)
4. Cherry Slurpees
5. Flea's rum nougat candies

Things I Would Do if I Were a Billionaire*:

1. Pay a ton of taxes
2. Buy a house with an art studio for Nigel and a garden with fruit trees for me and lots of land for chickens and goats
3. Travel and visit family
4. NOT WORK!!!
5. Share

*Note -- isn't it funny that now we have to say "billionaire" instead of "millionaire"?

3 Bad habits:

1. Speaking before thinking
2. Biting my nails (yes, even the hypnotism didn't work after a while)
3. Not finishing what I sta...

5 Places I've lived:**

1. Clover City, CA
2. Parvo, Deseret
3.
4.
5.

**Note -- yes, I'm pathetic. I've only lived two places my entire life.

5 Jobs I've Had:

1. Clerk in charge of the freezer full of dead dogs at a veterinary hospital
2. Sales girl at a floral shop (which was hard for me because I don't like cut flowers -- I didn't even have any at my own wedding)
3. Waitress (at a tiny cafe in a small town where they once raffled off a mule)
4. Typer of library cards to computer databases -- did I mention the cards were all in CZECH?!?
5. Transcriber of TV news programs and interviews for a certain CNBC financial reporter

5 Things People Probably Don't Know About Me:

1. I'm in an ad for Polaroid cameras in the October 21, 1974 issue of Newsweek (pages 54 and 55)
2. I detest cheesecake
3. I'm scared of horses
4. I was president of my high school's Chinese Club
5. I used to work as a nude model for artists (one of the many reasons why I can't run for public office)

There. I did it. And just like when I was a young girl playing the real game, I'm not going to tag anyone.

Ladies Who Lunch

Sometimes my husband surprises me.

Like the time I commented briefly about how much I liked so-and-so's hair. For my birthday, he had called so-and-so, got the name of her hairdresser, made an appointment for a cut and color (back in the days when I did cut and color -- now I go gray and let Frances do the cutting), and paid for it.

I always complain that my favorite Mexican restaurant with the mango salsa no longer exists. He researched on the Internet and found another Mexican restaurant that served mango salsa. Then for my birthday, he arranged for my dearest friends and family to be at that restaurant for all of us to have a special lunch together.

There I was with my sister, Lorna, my nieces Babs and Ginger, and old friends, co-workers, and neighbors. What a great time we had. From the owner who refused to take our order ("No, you don't want that. You want this. No, this is much better. Don't order that.") to my friend talking about wanting a Prozac lick in her kitchen, to Lorna knowing a little TOO much about poison -- we laughed until our sides ached.

Thank you, Nigel, for making my birthday so special and for knowing that I needed that. Sometimes you just need a good lunch with your best girlfriends to realize how lucky you are.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

When Nigel and I were first married, we always had a real Christmas tree (or one that I made out of construction paper if it was an especially bad year). One year we were buying our Christmas tree at one of those home improvement places. As always, Nigel got distracted by something shiny and left me alone in the store to pick out the tree, buy it, and drag it 6,000 miles through the parking lot to the car (OK, so maybe it wasn't 6,000 miles, but I was NINE MONTHS PREGNANT with Jeffrey at the time, so it felt like it).

Anyway, after that fun little experience, I decided to buy an artificial tree. I picked out a good one that was on sale and then couldn't fit the box in my little Toyota. I had to call my nephew, Fred, and have him pick it up in his truck (I swear, I get more pathetic every year).

We had that tree for many years. Like most pack-rat Americans, our living room got more and more furniture and less and less room for a Christmas tree. My niece and her husband, Babs and Spike, offered us a skinnier artificial tree that would take up much less space. We gladly accepted and put the new tree up.

What to do with our old tree? Nigel put it up on FreeCycle and I was afraid that it was much too late in the Christmas season for anyone to want a tree. Boy was I wrong. We had at least 25 people who wanted that tree. Nigel quickly dismissed the ones who wanted it because they didn't want needles on their "brand new carpeting" or bought a bigger house with "higher ceilings" and wanted a bigger tree. Being Nigel, he picked a family who wanted to give Christmas to a woman whose husband died three years ago, leaving her with two children to raise on her own and she just lost her job. They picked it up and I must admit it filled us all with the Christmas spirit. Way to go, Nigel.

Oh, by the way, I'm having the kids decorate the house for Christmas this year. Our new skinny Christmas tree is only decorated 2/3 of the way up (as high as my kids can reach), but I'm keeping it that way.

"Do You Have My Quarter?"

This is a blog I stole from Babs about her paper route as a young girl:

"...speaking of those 8 doors i delivered to, there was an old man that lived at one of the houses and he was always on his porch when i came by. When i would hand him the newspaper he would be kind enough to give me a quarter. well, this happened so much that i came to expect it. One day he wasn't on the porch, so i rang the doorbell and when he answered the door i gave him the newspaper and said, do you have my quarter? yes, I'm a selfish little girl, but who cares, i got my money!"

(Note to Babs -- what's with the lowercase letters? Are you taking a stand against the hierarchical nature of capitalization?)

Super (Supper) Club

So in my never ending quest to save money on food, we've started a Supper Club (I once accidentally typed it "super club" in an e-mail and that's what my husband constantly refers to it as -- that's what I get for making fun of his cake we got at the Mexican bakery that had "Hoppy Birthdoy" written on it). Every Saturday, me, my sister Lorna, and my nieces Babs and Ginger (and sometimes Molly when she's in town), each make a big dinner and then divide them up amongst ourselves. That way we have a variety of meals for almost the whole week.

I have to say that I love it. It actually makes me excited to go grocery shopping because I have a plan (instead of wandering the aisles moving things off and on the shelves -- yes, the can of peas in the diaper aisle? That's me). It makes me look forward to cooking and then I get to hang out with my wonderful sister and nieces.

Oh, and the food! It's been great. The best part is that Lorna goes totally nuts. She can't just give you one or two cookies with your meal, she has to give you a whole package! She doesn't just do a serving of lasagne, it's a whole pan full! Everyone should have a sister like her (me? I'm the slacker who willing sits back and receives -- it's not my fault she's an overachiever).

Seriously, this is the best thing ever. Not only do I stay in my food budget (of course, that's also thanks to Frances), but I get lots of delicious dinners ready to eat. Yum!