CrackMice: FOUND!

From my 11/1/05 post:
"We got a pack of 6 and all 4 of the ones we’ve given them so far have disappeared. Completely disappeared, each within a day or two of having given them to the cats. It’s like there’s a black hole out there that the kitties drop them in."

I found that black hole.


I moved my large bookcase and found exactly what you see here (note the markings in the carpet where the bookcase was). The only opening at the base of the bookcase is in the back, so the cats had to have kicked them behind and then under.
Tricksy kittieses.

So there you have it. The CrackMouse Saga comes to an end now that we're moving out of our apartment.
"Good story, good story."

Free Samples: Baby Carrots

As seen in the produce section at Target on Monday.

The Chronic-WHAT?-cles of Narnia!

This is a hilarious rap video Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg did on SNL recently. I missed it that night but it's been flying around the internet.
Shout out to Neal for the hook-up.

http://youtube.com/watch.php?v=HNKE4Fr03jU&search=lazy%20sunday

"I Am" vs. "I Do"

I am returning to my great love after a long hiatus.
I feel the freedom, financially and schedule-wise, to start taking ceramics classes again.
(cue choir of angels)

I love ceramics. I've loved it ever since that first day in high school when I plunged my fist into that lump of cold clay. With the slightest movement of my hand, I found I could move it, shape it, redefine it.
We're clay in The Potter's hands, the Bible tells us, and that is one of the most meaningful images to me with regard to my relationship with my Creator. I am that cold lump of clay and with the slightest movement God can move me, shape me, redefine me. It's beautiful.
It gives me goosebumps.

I was just reading a friend's post wherein she addresses her question: Is she a poet, or is she a person who occasionally writes poetry.
This has been a question that I asked myself when I was deep into developing my craft. Am I a potter or am I a person who does pottery?
Does it make a difference, linguistically? It does if you want your words to be meaningful. I have wonderful friends who encourage me in my craft and they would call me a potter before I would. The title frightens me somehow. It's as though once I officially call myself a potter, then all kinds of responsibilities and obligations tumble after that word. If I am a potter, then I must produce great works of art, I must sell my art, I must be brilliantly creative at all times. I hesistate to create that mental business card that reads Potter.

I feel it would be arrogant to give myself that title. Am I worthy of such a title. I don't feel brilliant, I just feel happy and inspired.
But then I look at friends of mine who "do" various forms of artistic expression and I don't hesitate to call them artists and actors, poets and writers. I see it and believe it in them, but it's harder to see it and believe it for myself.
Perhaps this will be a project for me: as I am changing the form of my lumps of clay I will also try to change the picture of myself as....an artist.

Showcase: Edwin

This weekend I went to Kiawah Island, SC to cheer on my friend

Eddie

who ran his first marathon.

(Cue standing ovation)

Eddie, you are a super hero in my book.

Do I Need a Jacket?

My coworker Neal shared this secret with me after I asked him if I needed a jacket to go outside.
Now, my friends, I share it with you:
www.doineedajacket.com

The answer? (and I quote)
"YES
Why? Because:
It's chilly"

Gotta Get A Dell

FABULOUS!
I just got my laptop! I've wanted one for years and here it is!
It's a Dell Inspiron 6000 and I can't wait to figure out all the cool stuff it can do. I unpacked it on Thursday night and stayed up until 1am playing the demo version of Scrabble that I found. I was totally addicted and played through the whole 1 hour demo until it kicked me off. It's $20 to download the game and it's lookin' mighty tempting. I'm such a Scrabble nerd.

Celebrity Watch: Keith Paugh

I've been keeping an eye out for some high school classmates' film projects in-the-works and it looks like two of them will be coming out in early 2006. Keith Paugh was always the brilliant class clown type of guy.
In the short film "Run to Jay's" he's the guy you see in the still shot on the webpage before clicking to play the trailer. The short won all kinds of cool awards. According to IMDB, Keith is a camera operator on this one.

What's even more cool, he is an actor in the feature length film "Think Tank". He's the guy with the red 'fro, first seen during the trailer carrying the massive gun. The movie looks hilarious. (You'll notice Aaron Ruell of "Napoleon Dynamite" fame in the first scene attaching the invention to the guy's knees, reminiscent of Kip's time machine.)

It looks like Keith has networked with some of the folks who created and starred in "Napoleon Dynamite." I figure it's a BYU thing. He's a really great guy and I always wanted him to marry my best friend Rachel, but they were just good friends.

Also check out Keith's faculty page at the Albright Academy of Cinematic Arts.

It's so cool to see people you know do the stuff they love!

By coincidence, last night as I was sorting through boxes of random stuff I found an article my mom had sent me from home years ago. It was about James "Teddy" Franco's big leap to stardom in the TNT movie "James Dean." He is another kid I knew (but not well) who has made it in "the Biz." Again, it's fun seeing people make it in the professions they love.

It's Good to Be King

I thought it would be fun to get a Burger King crown for my friend who turns 28 today. Who doesn't love those crowns? I was surprised to find written on the inside of the crown The Laws of the Crown. Essentially, if you're the first person in your group to put your crown on, you get to be king and reign until something makes you... not king. It gets more interesting

Advanced Play
1. There can only be one king.
2. The king always gets his/her own way.
3. The king must speak with some kind of cool accent. (!!!!!)
4. The king makes all the important decisions governing selection of TV channels, movies, radio stations... The king also determines who gets the remote, who rides shotgun and, of course, who pays.
5. Rule ends when crown is removed (accidental or otherwise) for more than 3 seconds.
6. Disagreement with the king results in a penalty. This is decided by the king. Common penalties include: forfeiture of fries, surrender of video game controller and banishment from office cubicle. (I love that they take into account the 28-year-olds playing the game!)

Coup D'Etat
If everyone agrees you completely stink as king, your rule may be renounced. This constitutes a Coup d'etat. A new king may be crowned if the group can reach a unanimous decision...

Kingdom
If you are eating in a Burger King restaurant, your rule extends all the way to the edge of the parking lot. Off restaurant grounds, your rule extends to a radius of 10 ft around you in any direction.

Warning
This Burger King crown is made of paper. Your rule may end prematurely if crown is exposed to water or flame.

I love it!

Kids Crack Me Up

Another bit from the music studio.
Our violin instructor was telling me about one of his little students who is always trying to play lightsabers with him. It turns out that the kid has been signing his sheet with fake initials. One week he signed it A.S. and another week it was O.W.K.
Yes, you guessed it. He was signing as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I love kids.

People Crack Me Up

In the last 24 hours I have witnessed people doing and saying some really entertaining things…

1) At work last night I make a follow-up “how are things going” call to the parents of one of our new guitar students at the music studio. His grandfather answered. He had a very strong, southern mumbly accent so I didn’t always catch what he was saying. He started off with “he’s liking the lessons” and then somehow got going on “we were gone last weekend and caught at 20lb fish (in which I feigned interest) and how his grandson likes to go camping and they’re going to Puerto Rico in the summer. I had no idea where it was going, and I couldn’t find a moment to slip in a conversation-concluding “well I’m glad his lessons are going well.” The man went mumbling on about how his brother was a natural musician and all the people he knew who had talent and how isn’t it interesting how some people can just pick up an instrument and play, and then even a rabbit trail of “they were Liz’s kids. No, I think maybe they were Bonnie’s kids. Well, there were about six of them and they kinda had a band goin’…” I couldn’t believe it; he went on like that for 10 minutes and I only understood about half of what he was saying. It was such a bizarre conversation. One for the books.

2) A woman at my other job this morning is totally intent on giving one of my coworkers a special surprise treat to celebrate her 5 years working at the Center. A fantastic idea and very sweet. She asked me what her favorite kind of cake/cookies were and I said I didn’t know, but then added – totally jokingly – that I see her eating a lot of sunflower seeds and drinking a lot of Mt.Dew. So suddenly she got all inspired and excited and snuck into the woman’s office to look in her lunch bag to see if she drank diet or regular Mt.Dew. I’ve been laughing to myself this whole time, incredulous that she’s totally serious about lavishing the woman with sunflower seeds and Diet Mt.Dew. She thinks it's a quality treat, despite the fact that the woman eats/drinks them all the time.

Never a dull moment at the places I work. I think I’ve laughed at the actions of people more in the last 24 hours than I have in a long time. Not the malicious kind of laughter, but rather the “people are wonderfully entertaining” kind of laughter.




P.S. "I caught you a delicious bass."
(Sorry, I couldn't help it.)