fall tv you should be watching...

i know it looks like we watch a lot of tv at my house.

it is just my job to screen the good stuff so you don't waste your time on stuff that is

bad for you.

here is the line-up on our TiVo so far:

monday nights:

chuck

just too much fun to watch.

no, the acting isn't brilliant, but the action is.

and they keep entertaining us on this family friendly spy/action comedy/drama...

mostly comedy.

watch just one and see if you like it.

i know many opinions, but can only give you mine.

house

this season is going to be great.

some of the sexual tension from the past few seasons

is finally relieved, so we shall see what that brings.

we do know we will see a new side of house

and we will continue to see some brilliant dialogue and witty scenarios

in which doctors will make sense of stupid people that get themselves into medical trouble.

yum.

this one may not be as family friendly, but only due to the sometimes bloodiness and stuff.

and apparently, in this one, some lovin.

 

tuesday nights:

glee

this season is going to be badder than ever with all new music,

some additional cast,

and as we know- some artists that they will make you love again.

[admittedly, i purchased the glee remake of a lady gaga song. 

and you KNOW how i loathe her.....]

 these kids rock and mr. shue is takin em to new york so it should rock even harder.

 

sadly, at the very same time is

biggest loser

this one i watch religiously and you should too.

what is not to love about a group of deserving fat people 

 getting healthy and happy?

this season's contestants come from all over (they were hunted down in their communities)

to be sure we can affect as many people as possible.

we like to watch this one live so we can talk in the commercials 

and eat healthy snacks.

i will be updating on the peeps as we go 

cause this is the kind of reality drama that is fun to follow...

 

wednesday nights:

 the middle

this one i don't think you really need to see sequentially to suck the fun out of it.

it is just funny and yes a little over-the-top (purposefully) to enjoy the ridiculousness that is 

being a mom these days. 

pretty funny stuff. check it out.

 

right after the middle on the same channel is

 modern family

this might be the one i am most excited for.

it is charming and real

and so much fun to watch. they established a family with relationships

everyone can relate to and none of them are over-the-top. 

feels almost reality tv-esque and it's hilarious.

if you haven't seen one, this week is the time to start!

  

thursday nights:

community

this is one of those random shows that just makes me giggle.

it is totally my humor.

since cc and i met in our brief stint at community college,

this is one we love watching together and LOL-ing much.

it doesn't hurt that this thing is brilliantly directed with a pretty great cast.

almost every episode is dedicated to another hilarious excerpt from your experience in one of the stupid classes you had to take in jr. college.

enjoy reliving that (you-didn't-know-it-was-so-hilarious) time.

(if you miss this one, 

they are usually online so you can watch em real quick for a taste to get your abs workin...)

friday nights:

tgif

aka- get out of the house you couch butt!

try these guys out and let me know what you think.

and definitely let me know if there are others i should be knowing about.

dear ladies who need this

really?

is this what the world is coming to?

implants just so you can be like me - get over yourselves ladies.

[hint- if they come in XL, you don't need them]

long-winded movie review - despicable me

so,

arriving in our new place last weekend,

we had no boxes, no furniture.

nothin.

so we went out to dinner and a movie.
dinner was not amazing,
but we are finding that most things in our immediate town are not...
have to drive a bit to get the good stuff.
noted.

the movie?

this one:

despicable me



the characters are fun and the dialogue is witty...
the girls are adorable.


the minions are hysterical. you want one.
and if you go you have to download the app they tell you to translate them at the end.
so funny.

the 3D is fun in this one too- they ride a roller coaster,
and the minions come out at you...
pretty cool.


and honestly, i forgot it was steve the whole time! The cast does a great job at creating new voices and characters... cept for that kid from 30 rock- he's pretty blatant...

good flick. great story.
completely entertained for an evening
in our charming little small-town movie theatre.
(it has stairs and it's never busy, just minus the stadium seating...)

i would give it a 4/5
rent or own? probably own.

weekly contest - baby's got talent

i think the last one is my favorite...

i hope my kid comes out dancin too.
hold the chubby cheeks.

no, keep em.

weekly winner - final countdown

stumbled upon a gem.

you didn't even know we were having a contest,
but you won it.

i will let you come up with the title of said award:

where is the "grad school for dummies book" when you need it...

i am starting school again in a few short days.

i feel like this.

so whats & chicken putts

started the new job last week.

i have been observing all this week.

yesterday, we took a 45 minute break to watch a bunch of dudes chuck rubber chickens down the isle and they get points for getting them into carefully placed trash receptacles or a plant at the end. they yell "trees-ies" if someone gets the said 20 pointer.

i was in awe.

later in the day, we watched as the janitor chick walked around to tend to the plants and trash and noticed the orphaned battered plant.
she exclaimed, "something happened here huh..." no one responded....
she continued to communicate silently with her plant and eventually walked away.
(plant whisperers have a 6th sense. they just know.)

the cubicles nearby just laughed.
the guy next to me said, "it said on her little cart, 'save the plants.'
i just couldn't bring myself to tell her that we were chuckin rubber chickens at her plant!"


then this morning,
i get to my new trainer's desk where he had a putting green lined up from the night before
(apparently a morning ritual).
the men lined up,
"welp, lets see what kind of day its going to be..."
i made one in heels. (thanks, dad.) he didn't get a one.
apparently that's a good day.

this, friends, is why we go to college.

to get salary jobs that they make sitcoms out of.

but seriously, its going to be great.
in fact, it is already proving to make for some blog-worthy material.

new calling in life:

7-8yr-olds.

today as i was getting to know my new crew, amid the crazy name game,
i would ask them a question that they all answered so i could get to know them...

one was simply:
what would be your all-time favoritist candy in the whole wide world?

ryan (cute little girl): milk duds... and sweettarts
nathan: m&ms. plain.
hunter: me too.
me: you too, what?
hunter: plain m&ms. i like em, but they aren't my favorite.
me: what IS your favorite:
hunter: can you give me a minute?

me: k, kyler, what would your all-time favorite candy in the whole wide world be?
kyler: [dead-pan face] i don't like candy.
me: any candy? like nothing at all? hmm.... what would be your favorite food?
kyler: dunno.
me: so say, its your birthday and mom could make anything... what would it be?
kyler: nothing. i would ask for $20.
me: ok, what would you do with the $20, then?
kyler: invest it...... in microsoft..... that's what i do.

what is wrong with the world?

not in the cards i suppose...

i am not sad to say that the super bowl is just a great excuse to throw a party.

and so we did.

the game was exciting for the last half,
and if they would have brought the same A-game from the first half to the second half
...good things might have happened....

we were still entertained, though only slightly saddened for the loss
...but not really.

remnants of the red spread:

highlight #1:
all the cute people watching the 3D commercials
(CC + his cute family + mine)

highlight #2:
bruce. and his amazing sliding skills.

maybe we rewound this 4 times, and laughed harder every time....

highlight #3:
wetting my pants....

thanks for a fun party... ooh, quick,
think up somethin to celebrate!

(pictures stolen from mac and cami...)

mom moments...

mom: did you run today?
me: yeah, but i could only really make it like a mile.... then my ovary was going to pop out...
peg: i went running too and then i felt like my... wait, i have no ovaries....
me: really? they took those too?
peg: yeah- duh. that's why i'm an "it"!

oh- and don't forget to vote -->
just for fun mostly,
but i may have a few job opportunities
on both ends soon that could matter...
crossing fingers is appropriate here...

one man's pivot is another man's wingwo

a friend of mine always says:
things that don't change, stay the same.
i like that.

and i like that it means that
every time i get back home
i can count on spending some QT
with some dear manfriends of mine
that always have stuff going on:
new girls (or not), new jobs (or not),
usually new music or places to eat...
new songs they can play
to impress me (and always do...)

i have one crazy friend (we'll call him paul) that needed a *wingwo (only he calls them a "pivot") to go with him to church. unbeknown to me, we had a practice-run of my newly appointed role earlier in the week when we went out to lunch...

paul and i sat down to eat at pei wei where the tables are almost uncomfortably close to strangers. after checking out the girl adjacent to me, he announced that she is really hot... oh good. time to perk up, i thought.

he made a few more comments about how he wanted so badly to talk to her but didn't know what to say...etc. and i got an idea. i went to open my fortune cookie and squeezed the bag till it popped. of course, it made the girl and her mother jump/squeal and then paul started in... he was a champ. flirted up a storm and made the girl laugh. flattered the mom...

i thought, sweet, i totally started that! it was like starting a clap-a-long with a cheesy country song at a concert... "hey, see that? i started that... i did! (looking around for validation...)

then i made my mistake. she asked me, "is this your man?" (in my head, i was thinking, tell her no! no, he is free and willing to date you... in fact he's interested!) so i answered, "me? no. not at all... in fact, on our first date i was sure to tell him that!" oh no! i suck as a wingwo! objective #1 is to build him up... make him look awesome so she totally wants what i got! dag.

after the conversation got back to paul and i, he reprimanded me... and i knew i had failed... he picked it up of course by flirtatiously asking the the girl, "are you trying to find out if i'm single?" she loved it. totally blushed. he gave me a 6 out of 10. right, i know. like a D. good thing Ds still get degrees...

so on my next outing, i was determined to do better. i went to church with paul, straightened his tie, sat and chatted and laughed (not fabricated laughing of course...) and then i was supposed to be right by him when he wanted said girl to see him with what he called "eye candy" (i think the term alone convinced me of the unpaid position). yeah- missed that opportunity cause i was a bit distracted. then i was supposed to announce myself as a visitor in RS and say, "i'm 'just visiting' paul" i was suddenly too embarrassed to stand at all! if i coulda gotten that far i mighta said what i was supposed to!! again, he told me i failed. you're right, i know... exactly the reason i don't sky dive...

on the other hand, when out on a lunch date with my other paul friend, we ended up at Shar's (yes, that would be a cooking supply store where Shar teaches free cooking classes and feeds you. can you say awesome?). paul is into canning these days (naturally..) and so we went to check out the place, but the class was on pressure cookers. (so of course we stayed!) they made the newbies introduce themselves so he raised his hand and said our names. shar smiled and said, "oh, a husband and wife team?" "no," he said, "but someday!" all the ladies and the one other male in the room looked back and smiled like we were seriouslysoblessed...

we sat like we always would, an arm around and whispering how much we loved this and how cute shar is... the whole time...

his bishop's wife texted him a day or two later and said, "hope you enjoyed the pressure cooking class... and are you engaged?!" ha!

i would say that was a successful wingwo moment....


*wingwo: a chick a guy will bring with him to a social outing
to make him seem cooler to other chicks.
generally she is just friends with the guy and knows
she is mainly there to help him get some attention....

oh- and side note: there is a new poll on the right to check out
(for those who have reader).
as well as a peek into my little homemade etsy shop on the left.
soon to feature some askthebooth aprons...

i will buy you a big house, where your garden can bloom

searching for housing has been a joke...
i really shouldn't even be looking until i have a job, i know parentals...
(who are so trying to get me to stay)

all i have to say is that some of these girls could be psychos...
so maybe i should wait until i can meet them in person!


on one of the posts:
"three other roommates who hold regular book club meetings.
we like authors like jane austin...etc."

...whoah... done.
not that I am against reading, or jane austin for that matter,
but when it must be advertised that you meet and discuss her in depth,
that most certainly means that you are also deciding why all men are gay and you hate them...
(thanks, but no for me...)

another great one:
"three other roommates are endowed,
so we will be looking for another roommate who is also endowed."

really? really?
do you make us flash our undies at the door...?
the recommend?
i can't even imagine the other judging that goes on in that house!


I am looking for one that looks kind of
like this:

• close to the city and metro
• 2-3 bedroom townhouse
• furnished & wood floors
• in-house washer/dryer
• back porch with grill
• fairly large kitchen
• master bedroom includes a man and a ring

... i don't think that's asking for too much do you?

see what i mean?

i got an email from one of my students that just said,
"hi ms. moffat, we miss you at duke."
(when she replied, she let me know that the boys did their
"ms. moffat" dance for everyone at the christmas party... awesome.)

a friend of mine who teaches at the school IMed me this morning
and said that in response to:
"who would you choose for Time's person of the year 2008?"
a student put me... even funnier....

i think it is because they love that i am part black...
as evidenced here:

(note: I am new to this editing program...
there is one profane word that i tried to cover...
get over it. $--- happens, right?)

INSTALLING A HUSBAND

i got this from my mom last night... and it was exactly what i needed, slash it also feeds into a hint of marital fear... oh well.

Enjoy!

Dear Tech support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a

distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower

and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as

Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable

programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the

system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband

1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to

download Tears 6.2

and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works

as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications

Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers

35.

But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to

default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that

Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download

the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother- In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the

background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources)

Also do not attempt to

reinstall Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are

unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory

and cannot learn new

applications quickly. You might consider buying

additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking

3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,

Tech Support

i am the choir director

which means i am in charge of the christmas program.

this ward is pretty conservative. they don't want anything but the traditional, recognizably christmas stuff so that all the non lds-ers can come and "feel safe" (as if our non-caroling music would intellectually alienate them...)

i was thinking something more like this...

what dya think?

what my kids are saying...

[after shaking it down for a minute] "damn, ms moffat. yous like white chocolate!"

[student raises hand mid-sentence on some topic about medieval history]
"can i just say something? you look like a mom."

"i'm serious, ms moffat, your downward dog is fierce... we talk about it all the time"

"when do you leave duke?"
"well i guess it is a month from today..."
"NOOOOOOOOO! what if we all wrote letters to [the principal] to give you a job here?"
"um yeah, that'll do it. get right on that..."

awesome.

alaskan windsong and GB

i know i know... get back to work!

i am.
and i really am almost done
with the project that will soon eat me alive.

but i found this which made me laugh...



tina fey as tina palin. priceless.
she really is a genius at what she does.

and then this one that made me cry...



again. i just love this kind of thing... and glenn beck

...so much so, that it keeps me from productive work.

oh- and something to look forward to:

...remember that i was going to be

megan marie mraz?

just wait till monday when i will meet my love in person!

yeah- that's right. live high. live mighty. live righteously.

blame it on the rain...

dear sister,

please forgive me in advance for the exploitation that is about to occur here on this little bliggity blog about your awesome junk in your trunk and how we put it to good use this weekend.

SO. first, my sister let me know about the stash of eighties spandex that she happened upon as my mother was attempting to clean out her hoards of ugly ancient clothes that she keeps tied up as pets in her closet. (she did, however, mention about 4 times within the first hour i was home that she threw away more than 7 denim jumpers! yay peg. we proud.)

so we immediately have a fashion show, sporting our spandex and sports bras and prancing around the house for my parents' amusement.

after said event, i crashed, in my spandex, and awoke with the realization that these golden finds should be used to broadcast the need for exercise.

we dusted off those inspired christmas gifts we got for our parents two years ago that have been used and reused till they are sore... awesome lonely bikes. we filled em up, and went for a ride.


now, understand that it was rainy.
my bike had a splash gaurd on it—maddi's.... did not.

after a few miles of weaving in and out of streets, pretending like we own em, we turned down a familiar road and i happened to see Bro. Anderson! maddi was in front, so i yelled to her and she turned around immediately, afraid that a possible son of said man would see her back side that now looked like she had sweat her crack....bad.

it wasn't tyson after all though, it was MY people—Devin and Marian—and it was almost just as comical that i might be riding a bike in the rain on my weekend home. we told them of our fear of embarrassing maddi and showed them her wet crack anyways.

we rode on for a while and she told me story after story. it takes a while to catch up with sisters—i don't care how long you've been away from em. when we got home, we were both sore and had an incredible laugh. good times.

this is what she was when the rain was done with her...

did i have a—? no. no— we're good....


and now i am in need of a bike....

perhaps like this one... ya know- for kids!

so if anyone knows where to find one- preferably green or red... or i guess it doesn't matter as long as it functions... let me know- cause craigslist in utah is failing me already!

thoughts from an airplane...

Oh please lady, you and your baby are not allowed to sit here… there is a thick, invisible 10-foot radius… but that row back there looks good…

No really, why be grumpy to flight attendants? All they do is serve you, and then mock you all flight long for not knowing that there is in fact an off switch to your (yes it is an electrical device) ipod.

Did she just say the words, "once outside the aircraft?" Um... no thanks- I tuned out to the rest of that shpeal... don't think I want to know or care what will happen to me at that point...

"We don't expect that there will be a change in cabin pressure on this flight, but if one should occur..." So... is that only on special flights then....er....

This is me repenting for just realizing that I used to wish to see the tops of the clouds like Mary Poppins… and meanwhile, I have smiled at that thought on every flight for the past two years… which, my friends, has been a-plenty...

And speaking of that, I have learned to calm my fear of being blown out of the sky by imagining that we are a skipping rock on the top of water... If i close my eyes, the turbulence can be more like a bouncing boat on water... minus the sound, and the sun and the water... but kind of the same...

I love how the colored plots of land from up here remind me of a quilt… like an “earth” quilt, perhaps made in one of those cult quilt clubs for members to eventually put in a glass case, never to be touched again…

These clouds look more like lumpy chunks of cotton in a crappy pillow today… (the kind that your cousins would loan you on an overnight.) I think if you get closer to them it looks like that pretty whimsical cotton candy… apparently they weren’t going for romantic today…

Damn, that baby has a lot to say today…

I also love how my upbringing forces me to giggle a little as the landing gear rumbles underneath us to land and I think, “it’s a male plane…” —martin short.

Stephen Colbert should be in the pocket instead of these magazines and puking directions… he definitely makes the flight a breeze—laughing out loud next to this grumpy old man is even funnier…

Are we there yet?


stay tuned for pictures and updates from this weekend...
the much needed venture to DC with best friend was a success I must say...

Dear long lost brother...

what took you so long to find me?!



this is apparently the inspiration for the jig...



and in case you needed a lesson in coolness...