A Day on the Farm

On Friday last week, my five year old niece, Rebecca, called and invited me to her house for a game night. We used to get together at least weekly for games and activities throughout much of her youth, but that changed when her family moved to Layton (33 miles each way, which is a lot of gas when finding an extra $5 for a prescription at the Smith's store is frequently too much). The whole blow up about Prop 8 and Equality Utah's Common Ground Initiatives in the Legislature didn't help either, but that is not the focus here. The point is, Rebecca had issued an "Operation and Candy Land Throw Down" and as I had been "served," I simply couldn't stay home.

Being clever as I try to be, though usually unsuccessful, I arranged for the whole party to "go down" at my brother's house instead of my sister's. This allowed us to include my niece, Londyn (age 3), in the games and to see my newest niece, Irelynd (yes, they are saving Antarctyca for their next baby).

The kids were super cute. It ended up that Operation (the original plan for the evening) was shelved because Londyn didn't like the loud noises it made (the new version has the guy sneezing at the most inappropriate times just to throw you off. When I played it with Rebecca at the New Year's party, it was not long before I wanted to throw the whole game into the dumpster.). We did play Candy Land (Londyn won) and Hi Ho Cherrio where I was the victor. Rebecca didn't care. She was more interested in just spending time with all of us, though she was already planning a rematch before the night was over.

For Christmas, I gave Rebecca a set of hand puppets and a stage from IKEA (LOVE that store). This was my first time to see the puppets in action, though it was Londyn and not Rebecca who had the most fun with it. The puppets are a pig, frog, chicken, horse, cow and a lamb. There were also a collection of safari finger puppets. Not sure at this point which pictures will make the cut. They were all cute, but Londyn stole the show.

Which one are you?

This cartoon was passed around work the other day and it made me laugh and then made me wonder. The poor swimmer thinks he is going to help someone and will soon find he has been deceived and will himself need assistance.

Those sharing a certain circumstance with me will understand when I say we feel like the swimmer carrying on dangerously close to a situation we will not approve of later. Those in another circumstance with me just now will understand how I feel a bit like the shark or others may say the proverbial spider to the fly. I won't bore you with the details of either as it may incriminate me and/or those I associate with. But, you know who you are and none of this should be a mystery. So, please enjoy the cartoon as much as I did.

Schadenfreude

This video was passing around work yesterday and I just couldn't help but laugh and say, "Holy Crap" except I didn't say crap. So much for good Samaritans. Sometimes work pressures and money woes make a good laugh as valuable as gold. I really needed this laugh when it came.

The Germans have a word to describe my taking pleasure at this guy's misfortune: Schadenfreude. I was first introduced to that word by listening to the soundtrack to the Broadway musical, Avenue Q (track 16)
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Even though Avenue Q robbed Wicked of the Best Musical Tony award, meaning I'll be forever bitter, I would still like to see it some day. It deals with a lot of real-life issues in blunt ways others merely cower at like Schadenfreude, masturbation and internet porn, everyone being a little bit racist, the sensuality of aging strippers and people you love who turn out to be complete bastards. The fine people who bring Broadway to Salt Lake have commented that this show is to adult in nature for the local audience. The same thing robbed us of the touring Sweeney Todd last year for the awful Annie (remember my review about fat orphans and wrinkled sets?). So, if any of you would like to go to New York or another city not afraid to grab its balls and admit they have people who would like to see such a such, let me know.

Switching to all Digital.

This sure feels like me when something goes wrong and I can't just push the start button. Internet and computer savvy as far as they have "dumbed" down the technology. Luckily, I have satellite television (hooked up by someone else), so this won't happen to me in a few weeks.