1. The worst part about showing a house when trying to sell it is you can't find your stuff anymore. For example, Kathryn straightens up before each visit, and stashes things. I spent 15 minutes the other night trying to figure out where the new tube of toothpaste got tossed, and never did find it. I used the Dora toothpaste instead.
2. I had a 7 a.m. Stake Priesthood Meeting this morning. Josh didn't want me to miss it, so he was "kind enough" to set my alarm clock last night (unbeknownst to me) for 4:20 a.m. It woke up me, Kathryn and Samuel...which meant I had to get up with Sam...which dominoed into the other kids waking up. Thanks Josh! (Kathryn did spot me at 5:30 and let me go back to bed for 30 minutes).
3. I don't know where the nail trimmers are either.
4. I put on my list of things to do this weekend: Eat a lot of chocolate. I made that goal. I think my problem with creating lists is I've ben adding the wrong items to the list!
Don't have much else to talk about tonight...need to go catch up on my sleep!
Mark
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
I've returned from a one-week hiaitus
My apologies to the legion of readers who wondered why I didn't post last Sunday. I was in Toy Fair mode, and was simply exhausted. But with Toy Fair in my rear view mirror, I'm back on my game.
1. Consumer Alert! Delta no longer allows you to buy a half-price ticket for a child under the age of 2. If you want a child to have a confirmed seat, it's full price. This just went into effect the end of December...even the Delta clerk I spoke with didn't know that.
2. I'm a "run out the clock" kind of guy. Whenever there is something I dread, I think forward to determine the number of hours/days until the unpleasant task will be done. Then, I count backwards and create a comparison by figuring out what I was doing in the same amount of time in the past. Then I'll say: "The bad thing will be all done in the same amount of time it has taken to get from when I went to Church last Sunday to now. That's not so bad! I can make it".
Initially, I played that game as a child to while waiting for Christmas to arrive. As an adult, I started doing that with bad things when I traveled with kids. "In 6 hours the plane will land and I'll be done with this experience of traveling on a plane with kids. 6 hours ago, I was going to bed...that doesn't seem that long ago. I can make it!"
3. You heard it here first: the hot toy for Christmas 2007 will be Squawkers McCaw, a Furreal Friends Parrot for $69 that is very cool and really realistic. (And yes, we rep that toy).
4. It pains me to see jetBlue enduring their PR nightmare. It's such a domino effect...how do you ever even fix the problem once it starts?
5. Sammy looks really good in yellow...it matches his hair well.
6. If you are the last speaker in a church meeting, it is your responsibility to make sure the meeting ends on time. I spoke in a Spanish unit today, and I didn't stand up to speak until 2:35 p.m. (the meeting ended at 2:40 p.m.) In that situation, bare your testimony and sit down. Nobody learns anything...and the spirit leaves....after the scheduled close of the meeting.
7. Miracles happen every day. We are still living in an era of miracles.
8. This whole house-buying and house-selling situation has given me such an increased understanding of faith and being led by the Spirit. More important than what the Spirit has directed me to do is learning better HOW the spirit works and having more trust in it.
9. I saw George Lucas this week. I didn't meet him, but saw him 3 different times as he toured the Hasbro Showroom and checked out the Star Wars toys.
10. Looks like we're going to get the new Monopoly: Here & Now game set on to the next Shuttle mission. I've been invited to watch the Shuttle launch, but don't think I'll be able to make it due to the time commitment involved.
11. I'm fearful that "The Office" has not necessarily jumped the shark, but just lost it's sharpness. The last 3 or 4 episodes have been weak.
12. The NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas is a good idea.
13. Someone routed a list of Ten Good Reasons to Elect a Mormon President. My favorite: At the inauguration, he would swear on the Bible 'as far as it is translated correctly.'
See you next Sunday night!
Mark
1. Consumer Alert! Delta no longer allows you to buy a half-price ticket for a child under the age of 2. If you want a child to have a confirmed seat, it's full price. This just went into effect the end of December...even the Delta clerk I spoke with didn't know that.
2. I'm a "run out the clock" kind of guy. Whenever there is something I dread, I think forward to determine the number of hours/days until the unpleasant task will be done. Then, I count backwards and create a comparison by figuring out what I was doing in the same amount of time in the past. Then I'll say: "The bad thing will be all done in the same amount of time it has taken to get from when I went to Church last Sunday to now. That's not so bad! I can make it".
Initially, I played that game as a child to while waiting for Christmas to arrive. As an adult, I started doing that with bad things when I traveled with kids. "In 6 hours the plane will land and I'll be done with this experience of traveling on a plane with kids. 6 hours ago, I was going to bed...that doesn't seem that long ago. I can make it!"
3. You heard it here first: the hot toy for Christmas 2007 will be Squawkers McCaw, a Furreal Friends Parrot for $69 that is very cool and really realistic. (And yes, we rep that toy).
4. It pains me to see jetBlue enduring their PR nightmare. It's such a domino effect...how do you ever even fix the problem once it starts?
5. Sammy looks really good in yellow...it matches his hair well.
6. If you are the last speaker in a church meeting, it is your responsibility to make sure the meeting ends on time. I spoke in a Spanish unit today, and I didn't stand up to speak until 2:35 p.m. (the meeting ended at 2:40 p.m.) In that situation, bare your testimony and sit down. Nobody learns anything...and the spirit leaves....after the scheduled close of the meeting.
7. Miracles happen every day. We are still living in an era of miracles.
8. This whole house-buying and house-selling situation has given me such an increased understanding of faith and being led by the Spirit. More important than what the Spirit has directed me to do is learning better HOW the spirit works and having more trust in it.
9. I saw George Lucas this week. I didn't meet him, but saw him 3 different times as he toured the Hasbro Showroom and checked out the Star Wars toys.
10. Looks like we're going to get the new Monopoly: Here & Now game set on to the next Shuttle mission. I've been invited to watch the Shuttle launch, but don't think I'll be able to make it due to the time commitment involved.
11. I'm fearful that "The Office" has not necessarily jumped the shark, but just lost it's sharpness. The last 3 or 4 episodes have been weak.
12. The NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas is a good idea.
13. Someone routed a list of Ten Good Reasons to Elect a Mormon President. My favorite: At the inauguration, he would swear on the Bible 'as far as it is translated correctly.'
See you next Sunday night!
Mark
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Post Super Bowl Musings
Well, the Bears lost. While I went into the game knowing that I'd be happy no matter which team won, I've always been a Bears fan. Why? When I was in kindergarten, my friend (who is also named Mark) and I were playing football in his backyard. He said "I'll be Dallas and you be Chicago". Ever since I was assigned that team, I've been a Bears fan. (Do team affections ever have more rationality to them than that?)
I remember gettinga Bears jersey in kindergarten that I still have -- mainly because Santa brought a XL instead of a Small, so it had to be hemmed, which meant the "60" on the jersey was completely cut in half. I ended up wearing it in high school.
I also got a Bears helmet that year, too. That came too small, so my dad had to cut off the foam padding over the ears so I could get it on.
Needless to say, I was super excited in 1985 when the Bears won their only Super Bowl appearance before tonight.
I've liked the Buccanners (pardon the spelling..it's late) from Tampa, too. I think I was always drawn to them because they were the biggest losers EVER in the NFL. Kind of like how people like the Cubs or Red Sox because they always lose and you like to root for the underdog. When I was young, the Buccs were a new team, and lost every game one season. In a weird way, I can very much relate to the Buccs more so than, say, the "America's Team" Cowboys. Call me a Charlie Brown, but I think all of our lives have more failures than we care to admit, and as such, I could easily relate to the losing of the Buccs.
So you can imagine my excitement a few years ago when the Buccs won the Super Bowl.
In an interesting twist, the coach of the Colts, who won tonight, was the coach of the Buccs until the season before Tampa won it all (he got fired when he couldn't get them to the Super Bowl). So while I'm sad the Bears lost, the Colts victory is kind of a victory for my Buccs, too, and that's OK.
I remember gettinga Bears jersey in kindergarten that I still have -- mainly because Santa brought a XL instead of a Small, so it had to be hemmed, which meant the "60" on the jersey was completely cut in half. I ended up wearing it in high school.
I also got a Bears helmet that year, too. That came too small, so my dad had to cut off the foam padding over the ears so I could get it on.
Needless to say, I was super excited in 1985 when the Bears won their only Super Bowl appearance before tonight.
I've liked the Buccanners (pardon the spelling..it's late) from Tampa, too. I think I was always drawn to them because they were the biggest losers EVER in the NFL. Kind of like how people like the Cubs or Red Sox because they always lose and you like to root for the underdog. When I was young, the Buccs were a new team, and lost every game one season. In a weird way, I can very much relate to the Buccs more so than, say, the "America's Team" Cowboys. Call me a Charlie Brown, but I think all of our lives have more failures than we care to admit, and as such, I could easily relate to the losing of the Buccs.
So you can imagine my excitement a few years ago when the Buccs won the Super Bowl.
In an interesting twist, the coach of the Colts, who won tonight, was the coach of the Buccs until the season before Tampa won it all (he got fired when he couldn't get them to the Super Bowl). So while I'm sad the Bears lost, the Colts victory is kind of a victory for my Buccs, too, and that's OK.
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