What do you do when there is a writer's strike #4

Since the writer’s strike continues I was at church today and found enough material to write installment #4 of what you do when there is a writer's strike.

This week was not a typical week. You see last Sunday evening the president and prophet of our church passed away. Yes it was a sad event but also a happy one. You see he lived to be 97 years old and served up until he passed away, so he lived a full life. I say a happy time though more for him then anyone else. You see he now gets to be reunited with his sweet loving wife who passed away in 2004.

Now the first Sunday of each month is what we call fast and Testimony meeting, it is where members of the congregation can get up and bear their testimony with others. The standard Testimony meeting has tears, smiles, laughs, reflection, and the occasional winces when someone over shares. This meeting though was a bit different with the recent passing of our beloved leader who was adored and respected throughout the world. We also had a lot of kids get up and share their testimonies, for those kids that were a bit nervous there is always someone to help them through it. Today the biggest helper was not parents but a little girl that was more than happy to help her friends share. There was also one parent who got up holding her little girl who started to choke herself as a way to signal to mom, "hey times up, say Amen and lets go...."

But never fear just because there was a higher level of emotion and more people being reflective than perhaps on other Sundays it doesn’t mean that all children have suddenly decided to behave and become the picture of angelic perfection.(sorry to all your parents out there who were hoping that might happen) It also doesn’t mean my attention was so riveted I was not able to find some entertainment in my surroundings. I mean the writers strike is still happening after all.

So today I tried a little something different and took my life into my hands and sat int the 3rd row from the back and was in the action a bit more. I say I took my life in my hands not because of the chaos I had placed my self in the center of but because I removed myself from the back row and I still wasn't sure if there was some official proclamation saying singles must sit on the back row. But hey no lightening strikes, crashes of thunder and the building was still standing. Phew that was close..

So now onto the entertainment portion of the day. How many of you are familiar with the carnival game called “Whack-a-mole”? I am sure most of you have seen it where the little animated critter pops its head up and you brutally bash it down with a mallet, and the person who bashes the most wins the game. Well I think there is a new version of the game taking place every Sunday at church called “grab that child” which I eluded to in last weeks installment. Now the great thing about this game is there is no real rules, well okay there are rules but only the children know them and they are under a strict “not tell “ policy where adults are concerned. Don't worry there is not any hitting of the children, well except by other children.

So here are a few variations on the game I saw being played today.

-While parents are distracted by the people bearing their testimony make a break for it. This can be done by simply walking or crawling away towards the closest open door, crawling under the pews or chairs, jumping over the row in front or behind you, or getting voluntarily handed off to another unsuspecting adult.

-For those children that have siblings or whose parents are unwise enough to sit by other families with children (Which is almost impossible to avoid) there is a tag team version. One or two children distract the nearby adults, and if you think small infants are not part of this game guess again, they are the best little distracters out there. Now this can be done in a number of ways.
There is the more in your face tactics like
-screaming like you have been dismembered for no good reason.
-Having a diaper blowout. (this is more of the “in your nose tactic”)
-Projectile spit up.
-Throwing toys and hitting people 3 rows up, so parents have to mouth apologies and then sit a little lower in their seats

Then there are the more subtle and gentle tactics:
-look at what I drew/colored/made for you.
-Can I have a snack?
-I need to go potty.
-I need a drink of wawa.
-I need to blow my nose (there are those boogers again).

Plus the list goes on as I am sure you are all aware.

Once the distraction has occurred and the child has made the break for it is where the real game begins. Parents try to grab the kids without having to actually get out of their seat and chasing after them. Then there is the grab by other parents than the hand back to the real owners of the child, with the child kicking and screaming the whole time.

Another game that came to mind today while sitting there was "Memory". Basically this is played by all age groups. The kids have to try and remember where their family is sitting after they wander off. Then there are the parents that have to remember what their own kids look like since they could have as many as a dozen different kids that come to visit. One family decided to mark their kids and place paper hearts on their foreheads. (yes Ginnie I saw that).

As always food plays an important role. The snacks range from goldfish, cereal, pretzels, fruit snacks, granola bars, cookies, crackers and the like. some parents can't decide what to bring so they throw a little bit of everything in the bag. I call it lazy but I guess if I had kids I would see it as genius. :) For the kids whose parents don't bring snacks they make sure to grab a fistful of bread as the sacrament tray passes, and then there are the ones that grab the water and spit it back out into their cup and pour it over the rest of the tray. Yea yummy huh?

It seems like most of the kids today had the wiggles, and were very vocal, singing their own versions of the hymns when they felt the spirit move them. I didn't see one little boy no matter the age able to sit still today, well that is until one particular child showed up. This adorable little boy with his big bright blue eyes and his little faux-hawk, has the most serious look on his face and sits so quietly, he puts all the other kids to shame and most of the adults too..... But while he sat silently eating his cookie and drinking his little yogurt the rest of the kids were practicing their kleptomaniac moves. They will take anything from anyone from books, to makers, coloring books, food, and toys. It is actually rather amusing to see how the kids react when something has been taken from them or they get busted during a heist. Some have got some real skills and who knows where it will take them. Now don't go thinking the parents are not trying to control their pack of thieves, they just strategically disguise it as showing affection and locking them in a bear hug, which to an outsider looks like a great show of affection but to the budding klepto it feels more like a straight jacket,,,,

But the highlight for me was when Cole pointed to me and said "EWWWWWW" not one or twice but three times, can you feel the love? I sure did…

If you missed the previous answers to the writer strike you can find them here.


Episode #1

Episode #2

Episode #3

I would also like to thank just a few of those that have made this entertainment possible
So thanks in no particular order to the Skinner’s, Johnson’s, Milmont’s, Orr’s, Hall’s, Stratton’s, Flinders, Maxwell’s and Bunker’s. For those I might have missed I apologize.

What do you do where there is a writer's strike Part 3

This is my third installment of blogging about solutions to the writer's strike and finding new entertainment. When finding entertainment in your every day life is not working turn to the internet and youtube. There is a group called Improv Everywhere that has been prepared for a writer's strike for a long time and they don't just go looking for entertainment they create their own as you can see in the below videos.

This is one I saw on another blog earlier today and it made me laugh and inspired today's post so I thought I would share it with all of you here. Man I would have loved to be there to take some pictures.



A lot of people refer to Abercombie and Fitch as the naked boy store since for a clothing store they sure do use a lot of half naked guys for advertizements. Enjoy.



Now if you are like me and are not a big best buy fan you should like this one. I think they captured what a best buy employee does perfectly, such great likeness.



For more information on this fun group and their missions they have a website here and you can also see how best buy responded, another reason they are not very likable... Plus lots more funny videos for your viewing pleasure. Now that you have seen the no shirt mission be sure to check out the no pants missions... Or the red heads protesting the Wendy's logo.
Improv Everywhere

Happy Ground hog’s day

I know that big rodent Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, saw his shadow today in Punxsutawney, PA. SO yes that means six more weeks of wintery weather, have to say that Phil is not my favorite oversized rodent of the moment.

However I have always been a fan of groundhog’s day. Why? Well it sure isn’t because I believe that a fuzzy little critter ripped by someone from his little stump where he sleeps can predict how much winter we have left. I just have a thing for little odd holidays and having grown-up in PA I have an odd attraction to this particular holiday.

I had thought since it fell on a Saturday it would be a fun day to throw a party and when I ran it by a few people they thought it was weird so I nixed it. But what do the rest of you think? Would it have been fun to throw a party with a summer/beach theme? Have everyone where the most hideously gaudy Hawaiian shirts, throw on some shorts or capri’s and favorite pair of flipflops. Serve summer foods like hamburgers and hotdogs, fruit salad, potato salad, and the like. Of course the party would not be complete without a screening of the movie “Groundhog’s Day”

The Super Bowl E-del style, another solution to the writer’s strike.

As a few of you know I mentioned when there is a writer's strike and not much on TV you have to find entertainment on everyday life. I used Church as my first example. But what do you do when there’s a writers strike and church is only one day a week, well you go bowling with your team from work. Instead of our team having another holiday party to cram into the busy month of December we have started the tradition of going bowling at the end of January. January, 30th 2008 was the 2nd annual E-delivery Super Bowl.

I would say there was 45-50 of us that went this year so naturally there was lots of entertainment to be found. You know you are in for a range of skill sets when you have one guy that shows up with a little suitcase on wheels carrying his bowling ball and another guy that asks. “How do you hold the ball?” Toss in a few other guys that had never been bowling before, some beer, and eclectic group and you have something that could be better than just about any episode of the office.

Instead of trying to describe how things went I will let the pictures help out.

Here is the ring leader of this crazy bunch, Mark. I think wearing that shirt in public should be punishable by law.



Here we have Mike and Mike. The Mike on the right(yea the one in the ugly shirt) is our score keeper and the one who picked the teams (So anyone who wasn’t happy about who they ended up with see Mike)



Now there were a lot of different styles of bowling seen through out the day.

There was the cute little sashay done by “Z”



The let me see how far I can throw the ball down the alley, done by a few of the bowlers.





Then there were the bowlers that kept the ball on the ground







Then there was the “manly” ballet move while winging the bright pink ball down the alley.



There were a few who also tried to run down the alley and kick the pins down but I missed getting a shot of that. Actually I was probably laiughing to hard to actually get a good shot of it. I also didn't capture the shot of when my own team mate slipped and fell.

While waiting for his next turn my team Leader, Jeff, is just observing the action with Diba, and Sachin.



Uday, Mr. South India, was a first time bowler and did really well. Even better than me, but let's not talk about that....



For those of you wondering why there are all guys in my pictures, well I am back to being the only female in e-delivery again and since I was taking the pictures I didn’t have to be in them. Yes I did bowl also and managed to break 100 2 of the 4 games we played. Not great but not the worst(that honor went to Diba and Sachin). My team was fun and that is what really counts.. If you are really bored and want to see all the pics from the day they are Here… Bowling Pictures

What do you do when there is a TV writers strike?

Oh the writers’ strike for TV needs to end. Sure there is still a few new episodes being aired here and there, and I am very excited Lost is starting back up but let’s face it with the lack of new shows we have to find entertainment in other places. I found myself turning to church meetings for my entertainment. Now some might think church is more of a drama series then say comedy. I would have to disagree though, I think you can find anything from drama, comedy, a little reality, some action adventure, inspirational and occasionally even stuff for the food network.

You see I sit on what I have dubbed singles row. It is the last row in the very back of the church and there is always a few of us single women that sit back there. We run the gammit from never having been married, widowed and divorced. No we are not banished to the back row because of our single status, well at least as far as I know there is no official decree stating we have to sit back there. It is however one of the most entertaining places one can sit. (plus it gives me a great view point to scope out if there are any single men in the congregation, and no ladies I am not counting Brother Hope.)

Now today from my back row view point I was able to observe my very own 1 hour variety show. Naturally there was inspiring talks given. I have always admired Sandy so I really enjoyed hearing her speak today. The rest of the variety show ranges from a little girl happily enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, to parents that could be auditioning for wrestle mania, or American gladiators while they try and keep their kids seated in the pews. There are parents that have to make a mad dash out to the mothers room to change diapers before it becomes a complete disaster, other parents racing to the hall as their kid wails loudly(Personally I think they pinch the kids just so they can go out into the hall), and of course the mom’s that need to feed their little ones. Too some all this activity might be distracting or even annoying I find it all very entertaining.

But wait there is more. There are the parents that play gate keepers trying to keep their children contained on the row between them, and this would work great if kids did not crawl under the seats and pop up 3 rows away or do acrobatics and flip over into the rows in front or behind them. Then you have the parents that are alone with their kids due to the other half being ill or serving in another building and feel completely inept to deal with their rowdy kids and just sit lower in their seats hoping no one notices. You have the kids that stay put but are drawing on each other instead of in their coloring books and pinching, hitting, biting and stealing food from each other. Then you have the kids that the parents must have either bribed or drugged that sit quietly and reverently maybe reading a book or coloring. If I ever have kids we all know they will be in the acrobatic, escape artist range then in the reverent range.

Just to make things more interesting today they tossed in a musical number, which was beautiful by the way. However this now meant parents that had been entertaining, comforting or wresting with their children now had to leave them and go up front to sing. So there is a quick hand off here and there, as the singers make their way up to the front. Some have people come sit with their kids and take over the wresting duties while others are handed to people that can make a quick exit when the child decides to test their own singing skills to express how unhappy they are to be handed off. Each parent would occasionally nervously eye the spot where they left their children, or flinch when they heard a scream they recognized as belonging to one of their off spring. But not one wavered in their singing and that is a feat within itself.

Now if you think the entertainment is just from the children guess again. Sure there are the adorable couples that sit there with his arm wrapped around her and her head on his shoulder as they listen intently to the speakers, but there are always people dozing off, picking their noses, (yes there are boogers even in church but don’t tell Trevor), stomachs growling loudly, and people trying to steal some snacks off the kids in the row in front of them.

I will end my tale here, I can’t ruin all the fun for you as you decide to look for your own next top 10 show while sitting in church, but if you think it is all downhill after the first hour I have one word for you. “poop” . Feel free to elaborate on this word if you would like. See I REALLY need the writer’s strike to end soon.

Some random thoughts

What disease did cured ham actually have? And is it really safe to eat?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

Thoughts?????

Parting is such sweet sorrow…

So I headed back to work today and my family headed back to their respective homes. It was a short visit but as always we were laughing the whole time. With this group there is always comedy that ensues.

We did manage to get in a little shopping before the family left and we went to see a movie. At Jeff and Ryan’s request we went to see 27 dresses. They were so excited over the idea of seeing this movie we could not possibly disappoint them.

Okay Jeff didn’t really mind going to see it and Ryan was happy as long as we sedated him with movie theatre popcorn. We bought a large and poured it into ziplock bags so everyone had some to munch on then sent Ryan out for the free refill so he could have the entire bucket to munch on during the movie. Towards then end we thought he might hurl in the bucket from the sappy ending.

Some things to note after this weekend…. You apparently can inherit a lot more than eye color and nose shape from your family. For instance some how both Brad and Ryan inherited the “I despise Nicholas Cage” gene (I mean they both really can't stand the guy), Ryan and I inherited the "everything is better with movie theatre popcorn" gene. While my mother and Jamie both have the “I like to buy clothes and keep them in the closet with tags on” Gene. While Jamie, Ryan and I all inherited the Messy gene, although I apparently got a double, maybe triple dose of that one. My aunt inherited the “once you are a senior citizen you can’t eat after 6:30” gene from my grandmother. I think we all got the “we pick on you because we love you” gene. The list goes on...

All in all it was a great visit even if it was a bit short, and really cold out and poor Ryan had to be drug shopping and to a chick flick. I miss them already and I am already planning to go visit Jamie and Jeff this summer for a few days. Okay family if you are reading this leave a comment...

Brad got married

My cousin Brad got Married Saturday and it was great to see him so Healthy, and Happy after the rough year he had. Both he and his Bride, Julia looked amazing.






The church was full of loved ones there to see the couple tie the knot. We did wonder though if the teacher from Charlie brown was officiating the ceremony. It had nothing to do with the priest performing the ceremony. It was the sound system, we really could not hear what was being said it came across as Wawa-wa wawa wa Wa wa-wa

The reception was held at Normandy farms and the facility was beautiful. The cocktail hour was very nice and the appetizers were great. There were a lot of people in that little room.

As we headed into dinner we realized we were not all sitting at the same table. Jamie, Jeff, Ryan and I were at the “kids” table and my mom and Aunt were sitting with the parents of the groom. Yea even at our age we still have to sit at the kids table, some things never change. But aren’t we cute.




The band was great, the food was tasty, and the photographer was really on top of things. The whole event was really nice. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, especially the woman that was dancng really close to my uncle on the dance floor. We even got my mom up and dancing.

Both my cousin Ryan and cousin -in-law, Jeff think they are comedians but lets face it I am the funniest in the group.

This is the reason we all got stuck at the kids table for dinner.



Here is Jeff enjoying his 4th Shirley Temple of the night.





Here are a few more pictures from the big day.











(Jamie and Ryan my little blog stalkers you better leave a comment on my blog.)

The family is here

So my cousin Brad is getting married and that means my extended family is in town for a quick weekend visit. They got in tonight and I went to meet them for dinner. (Actually I didn't eat dinner but hung out with them while they did) I am so excited to have them here even if it is just for a couple of days.


This is the adorable couple that are shown in the wedding pictures on my photo blog here.


Here is my adorable aunt and the equally adorable nugget head.

My cousin had a really cute coat and I found out she bought it at forever 21 but I then found out they now refer to the store as forever 57 ever since my aunt bought a little black coat from there. Yep thats my silly family for you. Can't wait to see what the rest of the weekend has in store

The case of the disappearing spaghetti

I chose to work from home today because I was running a fever last night and was feeling rather sick to my stomach. I decided not to take my germs to work with me and make anyone else sick for the weekend. By lunch time I was not feeling as sick so I decided to make myself some “real food” to eat. In other words I opened the freezer and chose the Lean cuisine spaghetti and microwaved it for the appointed time. Yea I know I live such a glamorous and gourmet life. After the microwave chimed to let me know my lunch was ready I took it back upstairs with me so I could eat it while working. Of course I am only about ½ way done when the doorbell rings, so I go down to and answer the door and then the dog decided he “needed” to go outside. Really just wanted to go outside and bark at anything he saw move, people, other dogs, a leaf blowing by...

So after all that I make my way back to my desk and my lunch only to find the nifty little tray I had prepared it in was licked clean. Now I knew I had not finished it and I did not have to look far to find the guilty party. Joey, my cat, was sitting next to my desk where the empty tray sat licking his paws and cleaning his face. Who knew cats liked spaghetti.

You are what you eat?

You know the old saying you are what you eat? Well I sure hope that is not true cause if it is I am going to start looking like a Oompa Loompa, and no not because I have been eating too much chocolate but because I have been trying to eat better and have been eating a lot of clementines while they are in season and the old standby baby carrots. Don’t worry I have been eating a lot of other things too but those 2 items have made their way into my lunch bag everyday for the last 2 weeks. So if I start to look like this to any of you please tell me to stop eating my orange colored snacks.

The fatal LDS disease

Someone asked me recently what my most unique missionary experience was. I would have to say it is one I had about 7 years ago:

I had been working some really long weeks back to back and one weekend it had reached a point where I knew I would have to work all weekend so I chose to go in and work right from the information technology center (Basically where we kept all our servers and the mainframe) which at the time was located in a different building, man that was a long time ago. There were always people there that are monitoring things. The weekend crew this particular weekend were two people I got along with pretty well so I knew it would make it a bit more bearable. We always found something to laugh about and have very similar senses of humor. Saturday had been a long and painful day (12hrs of things breaking repeatedly) so when Sunday rolled around I really didn’t want to do anymore work but knew I didn’t have a choice in the matter so I drug myself out of bed. I don’t remember the exact conversations that were had that day or the ones on Saturday but I apparently had said the phrase “being LDS…” more than once. I don’t think anything of it but forget that a lot of people don’t know what LDS stands for and apparently it stuck with the two that had been working but they never asked me about it.
I had gotten up to stretch my legs for a bit. When I got back I decided I could finish the rest of what I needed to do from home so I was getting ready to leave. Well I look over and The one guy working was writing something in the air to his female coworker and I figured I was the brunt of yet another joke. This is nothing new with this crew. We have a good time with our jokes. I have been in tears from laughing so hard down there and this time was no exception. They turn to me and say that they need to tell me something. I am thinking, “oh no here it comes”. Well apparently as soon as I had left the room to go for my short walk One coworker turned to the other and says with all seriousness and concern “What is LDS? I know it is some kind of disease but I am not sure what it is.” The other coworker just as concerned says, “Yea it is a disease but I don’t know what it is either. I hope she is going to be okay.” One of them quickly gets on the phone and calls his wife to see if she knows what this terrible disease is and the other gets on the Internet to find something on it. Then the light goes on for theone searching online when she found the church’s website.
They initially were not going to tell me but decided that they would. They go through the whole story and how they really thought I was really sick and possibly had a fatal disease. When they were done I just burst out laughing and so did they. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe, and tears were rolling down my cheeks. I assured them despite what my mom thinks it isn’t a disease and I will not die from LDS. One of them had already known I was a Mormon but the other didn’t so after the laughter died down we talked about it for a little. Now the joke in all of this didn’t die here and actually 3 weeks later it was still very much alive. Occasionally they would call to ask how my fatal disease was. Well when I got home that day I sent an email to them both titled “Yes I confess I have LDS” and it read as follows… The only major flair ups I have had recently are when I am at the ITC on the weekends. I believe you both may have contracted this disease also. Please do not worry though because although Laughing Doubled-over Syndrome is contagious it is not fatal. I believe we will all be fine. Thank you both for your concern though. I am deeply touched.
Well one of the two had to see if anyone else could figure out what it was. So she was asking everyone and then explaining the story sometimes she would make him or her call and ask me what it was. So I got all sorts of weird calls and even a couple joke get well soon cards. The fun thing is I get to tell all these people something about the church. A few weeks later one of the other women that worked with this crew called me. She was telling me she thought about me and my fatal disease when she went for a trip to see her cousin. She said when she went down to visit her cousin she passed “The Emerald City” (The DC Temple) she had asked her cousin about it and found out it was the LDS Temple. Jokingly she asked if that is where we go for treatment and my response was that it is the place where we send people that have really bad cases so it doesn’t matter and is actually a good thing if they further infect others. When someone reaches this stage of the disease the best treatment is to surround themselves with people and things that further spread the disease. I talked to her for about 25 minutes about the Temple and she made sure to visit the visitors center on her next trip down to DC.n I told her to look for the Missionaries because they are “volunteers” who like to pass on as much information as someone wants on this “disease” and how it affects the lives of those it “infects”.
So I guess this just goes to show that missionary opportunities can be given to us in many forms. I feel it is quite fitting that this one has such a good joke tied to it.