Favorite Quotes

Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
- Mark Twain

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."- Mark Twain

"Either you think--or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world." - Marilyn Monroe

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."- Yoda ('The Empire Strikes Back')

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."- Martin Luther King Jr.

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it."- George Bernard Shaw

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."- Thomas Alva Edison

"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact."- George Eliot

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."- Samuel Johnson

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."- Edmund Burke

"I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!"- Will Rogers

"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?" "- Will Rogers

"The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame."- Benjamin Franklin

"God gave men both a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time."- Robin Williams, commenting on the Clinton/Lewinsky affair

Have Your People Call My People

You know why I love email? Because I can communicate, and let people know I'm thinking about them without having to make small talk. I suck at small talk. I wish everyone used email. It would make life so much more convenient for me. :)

I've got two phone calls to make, which I am actively avoiding for silly reasons. It's time to cowgirl up and get them over with.

Gah.

Let the Games Begin

We spent a lovely week with my family in Salt Lake. I promise to post pictures as soon as I get around to it possible. We ran out of time, though, to do all that I wish we could have. I would love to have had a few more days to visit people and places. We arrived the evening of the 25th, and opened presents at Grandma and Grandpa's even though Santa left a couple of small gifts earlier that morning. Then it was off to bed.

Day 1: Family/Cousin gift exchange = mayhem, chaos, foolishness and cacaphony all in one house. Alex absolutely loved running around with his cousins, and shooting his marshmallow blaster at his uncles. It was fun to see everyone and watch all the lasanga that ended up on the carpet.

Day 2: Took the kids skiing. And by "took the kids skiing" I mean we signed them up for a half day of ski lessons. Mark and I would be foolish to get on skiis without Dr. Tuten in the same state. Both Sarah and Alex LOVED skiing. And by "LOVED",  I mean "didn't shed any tears, but don't want to ever ski again". The drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon was gorgeous, though, making all of it worth it. Mountains just don't look like that over here.

Day 3: Went to see "The Princess and the Frog". Cute movie. Dinner at Bambara. Mark has been dreaming of filet mignon  from that restaurant since August of 2001. Alex and Sarah went bowling with their cousins, which they LOVED. And by "LOVED" I mean, have talked about how much fun they had at least three times every day since then. Alex has made a specific request to a) go bowling with cousins more often or b) add more kids to our own family.

Day 4: Afternoon tea party at Grandma's house. Delightful. Alex won a whoopie cushion at the arcade while we had the tea party. I've never seen a happier 8 year old boy. That evening, it was the Nutcracker for the ladies, and Utes basketball game for the boys. The Capitol Theater is lovely, and the music was exquisite. Of course, the ballet wasn't bad, either. Except for Clara. The girl had two dead fish for feet. Ack.

Day 5: Had lunch at Hire's with a friend Sarah has reconnected with via blogging. Our families knew each other from med school in Iowa City. In the evening, we visited another set of cousins, and played wii for a couple of hours. Lots of fun catching up with them! Night cap with an old friend from high school before returning to the hotel.

Day 6: Met a group of old friends for lunch at the Dodo. So fun to see everyone. Wish we had had more time to chat and reconnect. Restaurants can be limiting that way. Afterwards, we took a walk with Grandma through the snow at the park behind her house. That night we celebrated New Year's Eve with appetizers and dessert from our favorite restaurants.

Day 7: Packed our suitcases and headed to the airport. Lots of hugging and crying.

Here are the things I wanted to do but ran out of time:

• Visit Great Grandpa. He even set up the train for Alex!
• Visit my other brother and his wife and kids 
• See my friend's house and her hubby & kids
• See my friend's parents
• Go see the lights at Temple Square
• Go to the Planetarium
• Go to Thanksgiving Point
• Go shopping at Taipan Trading Company
• Ride Trax

Happy Holidays....

Please accept with no obligation, expressed or implied, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.

Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms.

The Management

This Guy Drives Past an Indian Restaurant

The other night, we were headed out to dinner to celebrate Mark's birthday. We drove past a restaurant which serves Indian food.

"Yuck!" Alex said "Who would want to eat Indian food?"

"Yeah!" Sarah said "It sounds disgusting".

"I like Indian food. You should try it some time" Mark said.

"Why would I want to eat Indian beef?" Alex asked.

"People from India don't eat beef. They believe the cow is sacred" Mark explained

"So they put cows on the top of their Christmas trees?"Alex asked.

"No, people in India don't celebrate Christmas" Mark continued, once he stopped laughing.

"So that's how Santa does it", Sarah said "He just skips past India entirely. And probably China, too. I bet that saves him a lot of time".