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Showing posts from November, 2008

Thanksgiving Top Ten

I thought I would put together a list of my favorite things about Thanksgiving. So here's my "Top Ten": 1. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It just seems to start the day off right. 2. Football. It's the only time anyone ever watches and roots for the Detroit Lions. 3. It's the only time of the year where we sing "Over the River and Through the Woods". 4. You have left-overs for several days after. 5. It's the one day all year where it's bad form to worry about your weight. 6. It's the only time when it's ok to eat multiple helpings of dessert. 7. You have an excuse to not listen to Christmas music before you're ready for it. 8. An after dinner nap. 9. It's the only time of year you get to go around the table and say what you're grateful for. 10. Black Friday is a paid company Holiday.

So Much for Polling Research

A research firm did a national survey to measure cell phone and technology use, and how to market it. Here's a quick breakdown of the results: Texters are 49% more likely to be between the ages of 18 and 24 Texters are 24% more likely to be African-American, followed by 14% Hispanic Texters are 57% more likely to attend a hip-hop, rap, or R&B concert I guess this is the part where I say I know how to text message, and I frequently do so (although it may take me 10 minutes to send one). Based on the above information, though, I don't think I quite fit the demographic. I'm slightly older than 24, I'm white, and I prefer Reba McEntire over Rihanna. Other than that, it looks like I'm more "hip" than I thought. I'm down with that!

Most Memorable Thanksgiving

The Deseret News always runs a contest at Christmas-time about "The Christmas I Remember Best", or something along those lines. Since Christmas is not yet upon us (thank goodness), I thought I would put a different spin on it this year, and write about my most memorable Thanksgiving. It was my second year at Rick's College. Being a poor college student, I had no plans to go home. Out of the blue, my grandparents invited me to have Thanksgiving with them. They were living in St. Louis, Missouri at the time. Of course this meant that I would have to fly, and I was kind of looking forward to the adventure. I was scheduled to leave out of Idaho Falls the day before, fly to Salt Lake, and then to St. Louis. That's what was scheduled anyway. When I got to Idaho Falls, it was in the middle of a snowstorm. I wasn't aware of this, but the plane had originated in Jackson Hole, and could not leave in time because of the weather. By the time it got to I.F. (as it is

Giving Thanks

I had some minor surgery last week, so in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I would share what I'm grateful for (in no particular order). There's of course many more things for which I'm grateful, but these seemed pertinent to my situation the last week. 1. Lortab. Nothing makes surgery bearable better than narcotics. 2. Friends. So many friends were there for me. Some came and stayed with me and took care of me, some stopped by and visited with me, several called to check in, and one even took me to and from the hospital. And I know they all prayed for me. I felt very blessed. 3. Family. Everyone in my family called or emailed to check in several times. They all prayed for me. They sent me flowers. My sister-in-law ran errands for me and did my laundry. 4. Home Teachers. My dear home teacher came by with one of the other elders the night before the surgery and gave me a blessing. Because of that I was able to sleep through the night and was less nervous the

Never Send a BYU Grad to do a U Grad's Job

My visiting teaching was scheduled for yesterday, and I had invited everyone over to my place for dinner. My companion does not drive, so I offered to pick her up from work. She works at the U. Now, being a BYU grad, I am completely unfamiliar with the U. I can manage to make my way to Kingsbury Hall and the stadium, but that's about it. She sent me some maps, but none of them had any street names on them. But I figured all I needed was a little help from my friends at Google. So yesterday, before I left work, I looked up the building address and printed the driving directions. I'm usually pretty good at navigating, so feeling fairly confident, I made my way up to the U. So much for feeling fairly confident. The directions told me to take Foothill to Wasatch Drive. But apparently Wasatch Drive has been renamed or something, because I couldn't find it. I ended up going down to 17th East, then making my way past 18th East. The directions told me to turn on 19th Ea

Random Facts about Tracie

Inspired by recent posts by some of my friends, here are some random facts about me. 1. One of my favorite sandwiches is peanut and mayonaisse with dill pickles. Don't ask me where that came from, but I could eat it any time of day. 2. I still believe in Santa Claus 3. I've had a life-long crush on Captain Von Trapp. 4. I would never wash my hair or brush my teeth in the kitchen sink. It's just too gross to even contemplate. 5. I have a shot gun and I know how to use it. 'Nuff said. 6. I'm a huge fan of Rosemary Clooney (may she rest in peace). 7. One of my earliest memories is of a TV commercial for Calgon. I can still recite most of it. 8. I hate the taste of malt (yucky, cah-cah). That means please do not ever give me whoppers in my Christmas stocking or robin eggs in my Easter basket. In that situation, I would be forced to re-gift. 9. Of all the places I would ever love to travel to, Salzburg, Austria (It's a "Sound of Music" thing), and Pet

Nile Kinnick

Great news out of Iowa City on Saturday - the Hawkeyes defeated previously un-defeated Penn State by one point! Take that, Joe Pa! The Hawks scored on a field goal in the final seconds of the game. And it was kicked by an Iowa boy. I can only imagine it must have been pandemonium in Kinnick Stadium. Wish I could have been there. Speaking of Kinnick stadium, it got me to thinking of it's namesake, Iowa's only Heisman Trophy winner, Nile Kinnick. I was in Kinnick stadium a couple of times, and it was an incredible experience - almost spiritual. Maybe it's because of who it's named for. By all accounts, Nile Kinnick was a hero in every sense of the word. Not only an athlete, but a scholar, a Christian, and a patriot, who was killed on a training mission in WWII at the age of 24. He was constantly striving for self improvement, and it was important to him to be the best he could be. Stories about him and his goodness persist to this day. After he won the Heisman, a columni

Family Home Evening

I spent the evening with my brother's family last night, and got to participate in their family Home Evening. It was so cute. Their kids are still quite young, but they already have a chart that they use to determine who is responsible for which part, and the kids love spinning the wheel to see who gets what assignment the next week. My brother was responsible for the lesson - We talked about the Word of Wisdom and he read the story out of "Stories from the Doctrine and Covenants", and then asked my nephew questions about it. My nephew is pretty smart, and he talked about how Jesus does not want us to smoke or drink alcohol, and he only wants us to eat things that are good for us, like Milk and water. My sister-in-law was responsible for the song, so we sang "In Our Lovely Deseret", which talks about the Word of Wisdom. Actually, the three of us sang while the kids looked at us like we were pretty weird. We all remember singing that song a lot in primary a

Don't Mess with Finland

From last week's weird news, it seems that in Finland, "Little House on the Prairie" will now need to be shown with the rating of "Adults Only". Apparently the fact that it plays daily on both Hallmark and KBYU was not enough to convince the Finn's that it was family-friendly. Perhaps it was Pa Ingalls' (Michael Landon's) long hair, or "mean girl" Nellie Oleson's constant tormenting of little Half-Pint that finally did them in. Of course, the "official" government line is that the TV studio did not submit the series for state inspection. I don't believe a word of it. I mean, Pa cried in every episode - it definitely has to be subversive.