Popcorn Balls

Ok, seriously, someone has got to figure out that putting ethanol in gas makes your car get bad mpg and causes popcorn to be outrageously expensive.

IT'S POPCORN!!!

It shouldn't cost almost $7 to make 2 dozen popcorn balls! Granted, I went to Randall's and paid my *don't have to drive to Walmart and stand in line for 20 minutes* convenience tax, so that probably added a buck or two to the total - maybe.

See you at Trunk or Treat tomorrow night! My PB's will be the peach colored ones. I made the sugar mixture orange, but when I poored it on the popcorn, it turned out peach! LOL

Oh well! :)

My New Favorite Movie

Ok, so I'm a bit late in discovering the movie Dan In Real Life. I knew about it and remember seeing the trailer, but it didn't catch my fancy. In watching the trailer, I came away feeling like it was going to be just a goofy movie about a bungling dad. Nothing against bungling dads, but I felt I had better things to spend my money and time on. I also knew Steve Carell was the main character and the last thing I knew he had done was The 40 Year Old Virgin; not exactly my favorite genre of movie. Lets just say I had a couple of preconceived ideas of what this movie was going to be like.

How wrong I was! For the past few months I heard people make reference to it and how much they loved it, so the other day I decided to breakdown and watch it and I'm so glad I did!

This movie is nothing like I thought it would be. I was expecting a funny haha movie, but instead was treated to a gorgeous, real story of a man raising his three daughters, his wonderful extended family, a beautiful house and his finding love again. The superb soundtrack was a character unto itself and I'll be buying it soon (music by Sondre Lerche).

If you haven't seen this movie, go straight out and rent it. If you're on a budget, you can borrow my copy.

I LOVED IT!

Sign Language

The wonderful things you can stumble across while surfing the internet!

Could someone direct me to the Pro's bathroom?

Is that what's going on inside the car on the family road trip or the conditions outside?

Could I launch a nuclear missile in front of that point?

Why settle for subtly??

Hopefully that's for the adult babies of the house!

Why Is It?

Why is it that 95% of the time I get along famously with my friends, but then along comes a day where they say something and it gets me so riled up that I want to yell at them and cry at the same time?

Why is it that just about everyday I drive in cruddy traffic and it doesn't bother me, but along comes a day where I'm not about to let the guy next to me into my lane even if he has had his blinker on for a while? Most days I just let it roll off me like water off a ducks back when someone cuts me off, but then comes the day where I want to scream at the top of my lungs and smack the steering wheel as if that's going to make everything better.

Why is it that most days I'm happy and content with who I am, but then along comes the day where no matter how good my hair looks, no matter how much weight I've lost, no matter who smiles and says hi in the elevator, it's going to be the day that my friend gets on my nerves and I day dream of rear ending the guy who just cut me off?

UPDATED - Early Voting

So, I thought I'd do my civic duty today during lunch and go vote. Great idea in theory. Bad idea when I showed up. There were at least 40 people standing outside the building waiting to go in.

I only had an hour so I saved my early voting for later and had lunch instead!

I'll stop by on the way home and see how things look.

For anyone interested, the Early Voting station is the Sheriff's office on Franz Rd. (link to map below).

Katy Early Voting station

Update: Who knew that Early Voting meant they closed the polling station early?!? I show up after work only to be told, "Sorry ma'am, we closed at 4:30." GRRRRR!!!

What the...?!?

I came across this contraption while working on a different floor last week and had to take a pic with my Blackberry.

My only guess is that it's a manual bidet.

I've come across bidet's in my travels, but never any of the "hose and nozzle" variety.

Bursting My (gas) Bubble

I went in to work for a few hours Saturday morning and on my way I was checking gas prices. I knew I needed to fill up that day, but could wait to see what prices looked like on the way there and back before making a decision on where to fill up.

At the time, all the stations on Fry were around $2.79, but as I drove past the Volero at Eldridge and I10 they had it advertised for $2.69. I hadn't seen it cheaper than that anywhere, so I deteremined to look no further and make my purchase there. I pumped the gas and was pleasantly surprised that it cost less than $40 to fill up. I felt great! I had found the bargain and saved a little money. WOOHOO!

After working until 2, my co-worker and I decided to go to lunch at Chili's on Hwy 6.

Confound it if the VERY first gas station I drove past didn't have gas for $2.49!!!!!

Not 5c cheaper, not 10c cheaper.

A full 20c cheaper!!! I could have saved another $3!!

{{{POP}}}

AAARRGH!!

It's only happened three times, but it's seriously annoying! Random people leaving anonymous comments on my blog that have nothing to do with my post.

Case in point is a comment posted by "Mike Knight" on my Hurricane Ike - Galveston post.

Mike Knight said...
I disagree, HEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT do things like this because it hurts the feelings of the innocent bystanders like myself. I am deeply hurt and plan on suing if I do not get an immediate and resounding apology.I am just sick of people treating others like this, with a complete disregard for their feelings.
18 October, 2008 13:47

Um.....what?? Who? Why? Huh?

At first I thought he must have made a mistake, but how do you mistakenly leave a comment like that on a blog?

How did he find my blog?
Why was he reading it?
Is he just a troll out in bloggerland who's only goal is to leave stupid comments on strangers blogs?

Does anyone else get spam comments?

Hurricane Ike - Galveston

I'm a little late, but here are the pics from the work party that went to Galveston back in late September.

Here we are gathered around waiting to see where they are going to send us. We had a Sacrament Meeting a little earlier. It was awesome.

This was our first house. Holy cow!! This pic was taken early in our quest to muck out the house. The piles got a little bit higher by the time we stopped for lunch. Good thing for you they haven't invented smell-o-vision!!

Sister Allen in the kitchen.

The road where the first house was located.

Lunchtime on the seawall.

Here's our second house. It was WAY easier than the first. The people who owned this house had already taken everything out. All we did was go in and pull sheetrock out. Not that that is especially easy, but at the least the smell didn't want to knock you over every time you stepped inside.

A little down time before we left.

Just before you leave the island there is a huge lot of land off to right where they bring all the trash and flooded out cars. You can't tell from the picture, but this place was massive!

Another angle of the trash lot. People mucked out their houses and large dump trucks and front end loaders would go down the road loading up all the trash. This is where the trash wound up. Mounds and mounds and mounds of what used to be people's treasured belongings.

Joke of the Day

Why do chicken coupes only have two doors?

Because if they had four doors they'd be chicken sedans!!

Ok, so it's a bad joke, but you know you're going to tell it to everyone in the house! :)

Agree to Disagree

I'm seriously not happy right this second. During lunch I was personally attacked by a fellow co-worker for my political beliefs and I'm so pissed off about it I feel like I want to hit something. Why can't we all just live and let live? Why can't we just agree to disagree? I don't go around telling folks they're an idiot if they vote a certain way, why can't that same deference be shown to me?

I don't know why I'm surprised. I've been personally attacked because of my religion, so why not my political views???

Mission Reunion a la Facebook

I have a Facebook profile and a few days ago, out of the blue, I got a friend invite from one of the sisters on my mission. We were never companions, but we knew each other and were friends. With that one invite, I have begun finding many of my old companions and friends from the mission.


President Christensen!! The BEST Mission President EVER!! You can tell from the picture that he was fun loving. :) The picture was taken July 24, 1997 at the This Is The Place Monument during the sesquicentennial celebrations while waiting for the wagon trains to arrive.


Sister Tipton and I at the Salt Lake Temple two days before we went home. Each missionary, the Tuesday before we went home, would go to the Temple. It just happened to only be the two of us going home that month. (Don't laugh to loudly about the hair!! I thought it was a good idea at the time.)

This was taken the P-day before I went home. We hung out at the bowling alley on State Street. We loved that place. They owners gave us a huge discount. One of the cool things about being in Salt Lake were all the places that members owned and would give us huge discounts or free stuff. One of my areas had a cool little restaurant that would feed us whatever we wanted for $1 and a Subway that gave us free subs. We would go to Subway Saturday evening, get a sandwich, chips and drink, drink the drink and save the sandwich and chips for lunch on Sunday.

I'm not sure what possessed me to wear my hair in a pony tail that day!! It's not the best look for me! President Christensen wanted to have a mission photo, but with 180 missionaries, there was no way to get us all in one picture. So we broke it up into 6 group photos. Sister Yamanita (left) was my companion at the time and we were serving in Magna. Sister Hall (right) and I would become companions the next month and be together for 6 months; until the day I went home.

I have no idea what was going through the mind of the guy on the front row!!

Sister Connor (left) was my second companion. If not for her, I probably would have seriously considered going home!! My trainer and I never really meshed. I didn't dislike her and I don't believe she disliked me, but she made it very clear that she did not want to train me. It was definitely a strained relationshipt!! Sister Latu (right) was my sixth companion. We got on great. I'm glad I stuck around just so I could be companions with her!

It's been so awesome to reconnect with old friends and to see how well they are doing. It reminds me of the scripture, Alma 17:2.

2 Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.