High hilarity

I would like to plug some laugh-outloud comedy.

Television has truly outdone itself. I recorded two shows on my DVR this past week and I have just been able to watch them. If it has been more than 1.5 months since you let out a boisterous laugh, I suggest you tune in to NBC on Tuesday nights.

For years I have found complete entertainment by way of Japanese game show video clips on YouTube. And now, America has brought it home! To an extent. If you haven't already seen, there is a new show about ten Americans excited to be on a new reality show only to find out that they are competing in Japan on a real Japanese game show! Note: Japanese game shows rarely abide by any rules which equals: total fun and ridiculousness. I laughed my head off.



The second show I can't get enough of is "Wipeout". I laughed so hard I practically cried. Now that is a whole lot of laughter.

Fuzzy Love

I will be gone for the rest of the week at a super exhilerating work "getaway/sit and listen" conference in Orlando, FL. Which mean, this post will likely be my last chance to get any blogging in until next week.

With that forethought, I feel confident and comfortable leaving my blog under the watchful eye of two of my favorite fuzzy friends:

- this hamster I received on a card from Christy Wallaker. His paws are too cute!

- And representing my new favorite animal breed, Knut, the polar bear that at a young age, captivated the world.


Until next time, be pleasantly overwhelmed by cute overload!

And as an addition, Erika (McCall) Johnson, now so wise in her years, makes a good point. Kimball, my nephew, makes the overload complete. This is Erik, Kimball and I at "Bug's Life" at Disneyland. Bring it.

Boyce Avenue

I know what you're saying, "Miriam, are you getting paid to promote?"

And my answer to you is: I wish!

I have nothing much to talk about these days, which is usually a sign that I am not busy. I find that when I am most pressed for my time, my brain is its most active and creative. So, considering I spent the entire day at the pool on Saturday and not doing much else any other time, my brain is pretty much waveless right now.

So, I resort to plugging other people's talents and hard work.

One day not too long ago, while tooling around YouTube I found this band called Boyce Avenue. They do a lot of their own stuff, but they have promoted themselves through their covers of other material. They have a long list of cover songs that are all pleasant and unique to their style.

Introducing my favorite YouTube group: Boyce Avenue with their version of Coldplay's "Viva la Vida". (How that boy can keep a drum beat, play a guitar and sing all at the same time is beyond me!)

Who needs Vogue? I prefer Eliza.

I am not much into fashion magazines. In fact, I don't even find myself reading the front covers of these publications while in line at the grocery store. I think my disinterest stems mostly from my disregard for keeping up with changing styles, trends and definitely, high fashion.

In general, I consider myself a pretty simple person and I prefer squeek by with what I have in my closet or whatever I can find on my frustrated tirades in the mall after I realize my outdated clothes and style of dress are offensive to current trends.

All that being said, I am not opposed to new options...

"Eliza" is the one exception to my disinterest in fashion.

"Eliza" magazine is one chicky magazine that I recently picked up and was immediately interested in. I browsed through it actually liking a lot of the styles being modeled and showcased. I thought the articles were engaging and fresh and there was nothing of an offensive or questionable nature throughout the magazine. It was full of ideas for the modest and style-minded consumer as well as, the everyday "I wear clothes" consumer such as myself.

Check it out for yourself. Eliza magazine, a modest and modern fashion magazine.

http://www.elizamagazine.com/

Priceless gifts

Last year's birthday gift...courtesy of Eva Jane Hirt...

Two "Hebrew National" weiners:
$1.24 on WAMU Debit Mastercard

Two generic hot dog buns:
$0.16 on WAMU Debit Mastercard

4-minutes and enough time to change out of my work clothes:
A few kwh and some burned calories.

Two perfectly toasted hot dogs in warm hot dog buns, only slightly charred:
Heaven.


When you thought preparing a hot dog couldn't get any simpler: Priceless.

For everything else, there's probably a specialized appliance too.

The Oh Ho Down! Yee haw!

What better way to celebrate my 31st birthday than in a country bar in Long Beach with my close friends?! (KJ suggested hanging out at Baskin-Robbins 31 Ice Cream, which is also not a bad idea I say...)

For some reason, every year I get a birthday party. I don't know how or why it happens, but I guess I just get lucky or maybe I have some pretty great friends and family who love me enough to willingly do whatever I want.

This year, we headed out to "Cowboy Country" in Long Beach, CA. Not the most ideal setting for a country ho-down, but after the night we had, we weren't complaining.

Thanks everyone for making 31 fun!

This 5-layer cake was a mouthful, and couldn't hold all 31 candles, though, still glowed like an inferno!

This gentleman really made the night! He asked all of us girls individually to dance and taught us all the 2-step. It was so much fun and he was so nice!

My sister took care of the evening for all of us. It was good to see her. Now that she lives in Orange County and travels all the time, we rarely have time to catch up.

No one really wanted to come, but once we all got there, it was a blast! No bar brawls...darn!

Such gentlemen! My redneck (self-proclaimed so no hurt feelings) and I, and KJ and her cowboy. Do men still really ask girls to dance? Yes!

KJ organized the evening and perhaps selfishly because I think she knew she would have the most fun. Obviously.

We learned one line dance. Turbo. It was country-ish. Line dancing is hands down fun!

Esther brought the fringe and tassles.

I got some girly clothes and accessories from my sis.

We danced as much as was possible.

It was such a fun night! Topped off by some domestic violence in the parking lot (no physical harm, only shouting, cussing, wife-beater t-shirts and poking), the night couldn't have been more enjoyable!

Thanks everyone! You are good sports and the night was just as I had hoped it would be! All country, all friends, all fun!

Letters from Dad

I am convinced that the excitement I get from receiving things in the mail (besides junk mail and bills), is the same level of excitement my dad experiences when he gets fun mail. So, with an unspoken mutual understanding, we send little things to each other the old-fashioned way, by post. Though, where I find our mail exchange fun and entertaining, he may just see it as a normal way of staying in touch!

Yesterday I got a cute card from my dad. Unexpected, but oh so welcomed! This card from anyone else would have made think dorky thoughts, but from my dad, it just made me feel a little bit warm inside.


He is just so thoughtful and so sweet! Lucky me, he is my dad!

Though sometimes I wonder why my parents gave me a name they can't spell...oh well, I know his heart is in the right place!

The land of the beautiful

Yosemite never fails me in awe, beauty and enjoyment. Even if I just sat in my camp chair doing nothing staring up at the towering walls of natural wonder, I would still get as much satisfaction and peace out of it as much as I would packing my time with activity. It is my favorite natural destination so far.

All together there were 13 of us.

The first day we did the 7-mile round-trip steep and as we found out, a bit strenuous hike to Upper Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in the United States.

The hike up to Yosemite Falls was amazing with Half Dome in the distance.Reaching the top of Yosemite Falls was worth it for the view.

The next day, most of us were wiped out from doing Yosemite Falls. Poor planning? Possibly! But 5 of us still got up at 4:30 am to start the hike to Half Dome Sunday morning. We drove 45-minutes through the Park and began our hike on the Panorama Trail. The trail took us down to Nevada Falls, then we began our long ascent up to Half Dome.

I was trying out a new pair of boots. Not super smart...The hike can be deceiving because when you get to the granite portion, you think you're at the cables, but not so. You still have to hike the stone steps. It's the top part as shown in the picture that the cables begin. Getting to the cable was the easy part...waiting the 45-minutes to even start the climb up the cables was the grueling part. I had done the cable once before, this time was scarier. I just didn't remember it being so steep...and so scary! And anytime a waterbottle came tumbling down, I imagined myself careening off the side. Frightening!But we made it and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, Eva wasn't able to join us and as we were frolicking in the snow and taking awesome pics, she was doubled over at the bottom of the rock waiting for us to come back. Poor kid...I tried to make an angel but I wasn't all that successful.
This is at the top of Vernal Falls which gives the Misty Trail its mistyness. I've never seen the water flow this powerful! Sarah and I were able to get away for a few moments Sunday morning to try out our new binoculars. I've always wanted to check out the climbers on El Capitan, but that morning, we just weren't able to find any...It was still nice to sit and relax and enjoy El Capitan.

I hate gas

I have a 2004 Acura TSX. It's a four-door sedan. I am in love with it and some day I'm going to blog about my obsession with it.

Today though, I want to gripe about gas. I have a sedan. Not an SUV mind you. It cost me $71.70 to fill up this evening. I honestly got in my car disgruntled after filling up. This situation is out of control.

What is the average profit a gas station makes per gallon?

Cash transaction: $0.12 per gallon
Credit transaction: $0.03 per gallon

I'm not interested in researching reasons why or why not the big oil companies are or are not swindling money from consumers, but I am completely annoyed at the fact that for my cute little low emissions vehicle, I am now paying what SUV owners were paying for a full tank of gas not too long ago.

Bothered. Super bothered.

Yosemiteeeeeee

I am off to Yosemite again this weekend. There's just no place like it...

Likely, it will blend

For my own personal enjoyment, I would like to proclaim that YouTube is one of the greatest phenomenons of this century! You can find virtually ANYTHING in video form on http://www.youtube.com/! And for someone like me who rarely lacks in curiosity, it is the World Book Encyclopedia of our time!

Truly, there is likely way more junk than gems on youtube, but for the great resource that it is, I can handle the good with bad, kind of like listening to KOST 103.5 FM soft rock: to hear them play "Lady in Red" is worth every moment suffering through the Titanic song and anything Toni Braxton.

You can find any television clip, commercial, jingle, TV show intro, music video, and other people's wacky videos! It's quite amazing.

Recently, though I know I am behind the times, I was introduced to a series of segments called, "Will It Blend?" Who knew it would be such engaging entertainment! I watched one clip and then I just couldn't help but watch 8 more. It is just intriguing!

Here's one to start you off. A popular, well-known item that we, with the exception of my parents, can all relate to: the ipod. Enjoy!

LinkUp Loser

So, in the single world, there are several venues of concocted communication where singles can meet each other. The conventional methods of Meet and Ask Out are outdated. Now, the meeting occurs over the internet and the asking out transpires usually only after a few gazillion chit-chatty emails.

In the single Mormon world, of which I belong, there are several online networking, dating and meeting services that are mostly free. The first one I joined several years back was the infamous LDSLinkup.

It is toted as a networking site for Mormons, kind of like Friendster and Facebook. It is not really a full-fledged dating site such as eHarmony.com, Match.com or LDSSingles.com, but it has managed to evolve into a meat market of sorts. Many of my friends signed on to the site and ever since my membership, it's been a mix of sheer entertainment, total annoyance and utter confusion.

There are all types on the LinkUp and you never really know who you will meet, but in all the years I have been on it, I have never run into anyone as insolent as this character.

A friend of mine, whom many of you probably know, met this individual, we'll call him Dick, at church one day. For the past week or so they have had continuing communication over the LinkUp. He seemed charming and interested, and she was the same in return. After a few email exchanges, he asked her why an amazing girl such as herself wasn't married. She gave him her answer which was pretty much, it's not like I don't want to be married, I just haven't met the right guy yet and in the meantime, I am living my life to its fullest. Then came his response which I have attached below. Please note, he does not know her well and he has never met any of her friends. All he knows about her is information gleened from their few moments meeting each other, their short email exchange and LinkUp profile.

(Note: Don't be surprised if you are overwhelmingly infuriated as you read his email to her. Also, names have been changed to protect the absolutely fabulous.)

Sheila,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but visitng the ward you were in several times, I always got the feeling that a lot of people in it are just "playing": a lot in life and not seriously going after something....I mean, seriously, you have travled a lot and had a lot of fun times with your friends, because you didn't really want to be married and stuck with kids.... which isn't a bad thing....butcan't you honestly say that because you lived your life a certain way, you avoided marriage???
When you say you are working towards marriage...what does that really mean??? I mean Sheila, seriously, you don't want to be 40 someday and then just marry the next guy that comes along because he is lds and temple worthy ....just so you can be married becuase you are tired of being single..... Seriously, why is an attractive girl who has a good job and a normal personality not married? Is it because you enjoy being with you non married girlfriends and traveling? the freedoms??
You can make your own decisions in life....but I am really curious to know .....

Like take Mandy for example, there's no reason she's not married except that she chose not to be. She's very attractive, has a great personality, but she chose a job away for years and she likes to travel a lot.....that takes away from the time you would work on dating and finding a quality person to share your life with if you really wanted that in life. I seriously hope everyone dates for a year before getting married...... but if all you want to do is "play",,, you'll still be living the single life.

I've been enagaged twice in life, I've dated a lot....but I have also avoided trajedies and being married unhappily.....

I'm looking forward to hearing back from you......

So, there you go. Wisdom from a total jackass loser.

I don't consider myself bitter. This is not a man-hater web blitz. This is me venting my frustration about an individual that is making asinine commentary on a subject he knows nothing about and about good people who does not know.

And the fact that he is boasting about being engaged twice but patting himself on the back for dodging marriage both times is nothing for him to bragging about.

Anger engulfs me.

Email me for his LinkUp screen name and you can all have at him.

My Fave Thangs

So I saw this on Dana's blog and thought, hey, why not? I'll jump on this wagon. I love surprises!

Give three favorites, receive three favorites in return. If anything, this is my chance to spread Trader Joe's Vanilla Joe-Joe love!!!

Check out the dealy yo! Click HERE.