So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Alas, my blogging days will have to be put on hold until who knows when.

My messy house, my unfed children, my mounting loads of laundry and the impending arrival of yet another school year are calling my name and I need to respond.

Also, I have been called as second counselor in my ward's Primary Presidency and I feel that this is where all my creative juices need to be flowing right now.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments you've made and for all the terrific blogs I've read. It's been a great 10 months.

So long, farewell, adieu, goodbye, ciao, sayonara...

Brangelina Babies!

Sure, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is fighting his indictment for war crimes committed in Darfur and the wildfires in California have now turned to mudslides, but what was the news all about yesterday?

Brangelina babies!

Yes, Angelina Jolie gave birth to twins (is there anybody who DOESN'T have twins these days?) in Nice, France. Of course, I'm thinking that the explosive amount of news coverage for this blessed event is really because all the reporters and crew really wanted to just hang around the French Riviera for a few days.

Oh, I also suspect that the person doing the closed-captioning for NBC doesn't approve of the rapidly expanding Jolie-Pitt family. Every time it was supposed to read "Brad Pitt," they typed in "Brat Pit."

I've found a new love...

I've found a new love -- it's NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" radio news quiz show.

I guess this program has been on for the past 10 years, but I just discovered it. I'm not much of a radio listener, but I saw a story about it on TV (oh wonderful TV, is there anything you can't do?).

It's funny, it's topical, it's witty, but best of all it makes my job of watching the news worthwhile.

"WALL-E"

Back when we were doing our "Family Camp" staycation, someone surprised us by leaving on our porch a bag of goodies (soda pop, popcorn, candy) plus a gift card for a local movie theater.

We ate the goodies right away and saved the gift card for "WALL-E."

Jeffrey loved the movie (robots, space, trash -- all his favorite things). Frances liked it (bonus -- she actually did NOT throw up while in the theater). Alice-Grace was fine through the opening credits and then the craziness began (that girl can't sit still to save her life). Nigel liked the movie.

I thought it was OK, but just too darn LONG! Is that a bad sign that I can't even sit through a children's movie? I felt like a child again playing "Risk" with my brothers (where I would always be France so that I could get invaded quickly and stop playing that mind-numbing game).

We did have a great time, though, seeing a movie when it first came out in a nice cinema. Thank you, movie pass and candy fairy!

Please note that I haven't posted lately because I've been so busy at work. Here are my favorite closed-captioning mistakes that I've seen lately:

"John McCain" was typed as "John Muck Contain"

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt's daughter "Zahara" was typed as "The Horror"

Fuelish Endeavor

Yay! I did it. For the first time in a long time, I kept within my gasoline budget for the month. In fact, I only filled the gas tank once in June and had $2.18 cents left over and a quarter of a tank to spare.

This is no easy feat considering that gas is over $4 a gallon and our only car is a 20-year-old minivan that gets 16 miles per gallon.

I tried to walk whenever I could, consolidate my trips, and no idling (sorry kids, no drive-up dinners for you!). If I was really good, I'd be like UPS and only make right turns (but then I'd end up in a lot of dead end streets).

I've noticed that I'm not the only person trying to save gas. I see a lot more people walking, riding bikes, riding scooters, driving golf carts -- I even saw two guys going down the street on Segways!

Oh, did I mention that I still haven't turned on our air conditioning this summer? I'm trying to see if I can last the whole summer (just ignore the sweating husband and kids panting in the corner).