'sno joke

Houston broke a record today. Today is the earliest day in the year (for all of recorded history) that houston has had buckets of snow. Last year we made a snowman and gave him a cowboy hat and a sniper rifle. This year...well, the novelty is starting to wear off. But hey, I guess it beats hurricanes. And we'll be back up to the 60's by Monday. Now to figure out where that ice scraper's been hiding...

USB garbage

Retro baby! At the height of ridonculousness (although they freely admit what they are doing), an enterprising company has come out with the USB pet rock. I really want to know how many they sell. I would almost be willing to pay to know. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Oh, and I was wondering why I've been seeing these disclosures at the bottom of all the blogs I follow. Apparently you can now be fined up to $11,000 for not disclosing ties to marketers! So no, I have no ties to anyone from whatever company the Pet Rock company is, other than the fact that I am sometimes jealous of the guy who came up with such a profitable an idea. At other times, I do not know how I would live with myself.

Destiny

Somewhere for free I acquired a calendar of motivational pictures and phrases that I have kept at my office. It has been interesting through the months to see the phrases coincide with my life. When I needed to rely on coworkers and stretch to meet my goals, it would be a month of 'Teamwork', and so on throughout the year.

December is 'Destiny' and the phrase is, "You decide your own direction, so make your journey one you'd want to read about." This is perfect for me as I just finished crossing some major milestones in my life. I am ready for a change. I am ready for the next obstacle that life is sure to present me. I want to rise to the challenge and overcome what faces me.

Manny and I watched "Paycheck" over the Thanksgiving holiday. That movie always reminds me that seeing our future is NOT how life is meant to be lived. Struggling to mold ourselves into something is what life is all about. It is up to us to decide what we want to be. So before the break was over, I cut my hair shorter than I have in the last 20 years and smiled while the pieces feel to the ground, never looking back. This year is going to be a good one.

Oh....possum

The stairwell that I usually take up to my office (gotta get that morning exercise in) was blocked off this morning, with a huge metal grate that said "the bathrooms are closed for maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience." "What a curious way to block the bathroom," I thought. I looked around to see what was going on and peeked up into the stairwell. Didn't find anything. When I had the grate half removed, I looked over in the corner and saw a huge possum! For those of you not familiar with the south, possums (short for opossums) look like huge multicolored rats. And they smell. And they might have rabies.

Anyway, I pushed the grate back, ran away, found some friends, and came back. There was a lady from Houston dept. of Wildlife Management (they actually share the building with us) with gloves and a net. She scooped the critter up, and carried him outside to who knows where. Maybe under my car. He bit her hand in the process.

For a clear image of what went on, here is part of the wikipedia article on opossum:

When threatened or harmed, they will "play possum", mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. The lips are drawn back, teeth are bared, saliva foams around the mouth, and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands. The physiological response is involuntary, rather than a conscious act. Their stiff, curled form can be prodded, turned over, and even carried away. The animal will regain consciousness after a period of minutes or hours and escape.

Yee-haw.

Expense reports

The irs has just hired thousands of new employees to raise more money for the government...specifically, investigating certain areas for compliance, including expense reports. Frankly I never did understand the system: If you spend $900 on a client for a business meeting it is cool but if you lost your receipt for getting yourself a sandwich then it is trouble city. At least at my company it always was. Anyway, now receipts are always required so instead of the sandwich, it is the two Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers you got at Wendy's that will get you into trouble.

Apparently (according to Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion") there is a correlation between food and a party's compliance. That's why legislators are swayed over meals and fund-rasiers involve plenty of food. Just like Pavlov's dogs, people will associate the pleasant feeling with the person across the table from them, instead of the food, and trick themselves into compliance.

Maybe that's also why people always propose over fancy dinners.

The first words ever stored on a hard drive were...

"This has been a day of solid achievement."


While you're pondering this, here is a picture of our politicians hard at work:

Blog puke

The things that I have been wanting to write about, but haven't had the time to refine. I still think they deserve to be said, though, so here it comes, in unprocessed chunks:

President Uchtdorf came down for a conference a couple of weeks ago, and we got to talk with him a bit. He has an iPhone. His wife is so hilarious, and such a bright personality.

We got an article published in the ensign, sort of! They bought the copyrights to a piece we wrote like a year ago, but don't know when they can fit it in the magazine. So keep an eye out!

I had a 32 oz. chocolate shake the other day at Whatabarfer. Never again...

We booked tickets to Panama for our anniversary, woot woot! No matter how many economics courses I take, I don't think I will ever understand airline prices. Cost of flying roundtrip from Houston to Panama on Continental: $800. Cost of flying roundtrip from San Antonio to Panama on continental, connecting through Houston on the same days on the same flight: $380. wth?

Working in the family history center I found names on my dad's line in Spain back to about 1700. Actually, the church did most of the work - it's pretty amazing. I'm planning on making a family history book for when we go down there. Also, a guy came in one day who wasn't a member but his ancestors were. He showed me a family heirloom he had - a ticket to the dedication services at the Salt Lake Temple! It was neat. I helped him find his line back to like 1600 in Sweden. He was so grateful because he had been looking for that info for a long time.

Finally, our garden is growing. We tried square foot gardening this fall, which I would totally recommend if anyone has at least a patio. It's good stuff.