Another One

I hate to have the reputation of a fanatic You Tube video poster, but this one is hilarious. :P

For Lois

This is for Lois. ;) Yes, yes, I know that she's the other author of Confessions, but it's in honor of her. :) I LOVE the look on the guy's face, though. LOL

P.S. You might want to turn down the sound since the music is a bit...weird.

Pure Pleasure

There's nothing like rumbling through the streets of Anaheim in a Jeep Cherokee with the Low Country Boys blaring next to one of the three best brothers in the world. Gotta love it. :)

What, you haven't moved on to bigger and better things???

Frequently updated. What a joke. I nearly forgot we even had this. Much like somebody else who also owns a blog. (KYLE! POST ALREADY!) *cough* had to get that out...sorry. So, what to post....what to post. Oh, I went shopping today. (duh) Why waste a perfectly awesome Saturday doing anything else. Notice how the period at the end of the previous sentence indicates the question was rhetorical. Nothing is more wonderful than wandering around the mall on a Saturday with a fistful of cash.
Or Home Depot, if you're a guy....or wherever guys shop... Hmmm. Where do guys shop, anyway? Do guys shop?
**
Jimmy: "Ugh!!! Lo!!! Grooooooossss!!!"
Me: "Pardon?"
Jimmy: "Real guys don't shop! What's wrong with you? That's like, equivalent to moisturizing, or buying shoes...or....or (he draws a shuddering breath) wearing--(he squeaks out the last word)pink!!!!"
Me:*cough* Sorry.

***
Speaking of shopping, though. Teenagers these days give regular, responsible, sensible, quick-witted, generally perfect, droll, clever adolescents like me a bad name. I see them at the mall in groups of four or five, conversing at an IQ level way below that of a rational person, laughing at dumb jokes like its nobody's business, drinking decaff, soy, chai, lattes and I think to myself...is that what we expect of our young people today? Surely there are some young people that think. It must be an act. And then, I run across this. I was in line at McDonald's, waiting to get my free water, listening in on some young people. (If every other word out of one's mouth is "like" does that still qualify as talking?)
Guy: Hey man, we should, like, totally eat at, like, McDonald's.
Girl: Omigosh, do theylike, have, likesalads????
Second guy...he doesn't open his mouth all the way when enunciating words, so his words come out slurred, in what he supposes is a lazy drawl:
"Dude, we can't eat here man, like, what's wrong with you?"
"Omigosh, likewhynot??"
" Dude, McDonald's, like, kills animals. That's like, seriously wrong, dude, we can't, like, support something like that, ya know?"
"Hey man, he's, like, totally right. Man, and I was so stoked about getting a burger!"
Girl: *small gasp* "Rully? (She's one of those people who says really so often it comes out like that.) I, like, totallyforgot about that."
"Hey man, what about, like, Carl's Junior???"
Girl: "Yeah, totally!!!"
"Dude, you're great! They don't, like, serve meat there!"
And thus died all of my ideals and high hopes for high school adolescents. But there's always the chance that they were putting on an act, like, right? Rully. I'm so ashamed.
** This conversation with Jimmy didn't really occur.
***Unfortunately, this one did. Almost word for word.

A Bit of Nothing :)

This picture completely captures my mood...

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine.

--Morris West

Can.

Can't by Edgar A. Guest

Can't is the worst word that's written or spoken;

Doing more harm here than slander and lies;

On it is many a strong spirit broken,

And with it many a good purpose dies.

It springs from the lips of the thoughtless each morning

And robs us of courage we need through the day:

It rings in our ears like a timely-sent warning

And laughs when we falter and fall by the way.

Can't is the father of feeble endeavor,

The parent of terror and half-hearted work;

It weakens the efforts of artisans clever,

And makes of the toiler an indolent shirk.

It poisons the soul of the man with a vision,

It stifles in infancy many a plan;

It greets honest toiling with open derision

And mocks at the hopes and the dreams of a man.

Can't is a word none should speak without blushing;

To utter it should be a symbol of shame;

Ambition and courage it daily is crushing;

It blights a man's purpose and shortens his aim.

Despise it with all of your hatred of error;

Refuse it the lodgment it seeks in your brain;

Arm against it as a creature of terror,

And all that you dream of you some day shall gain.

Can't is the word that is foe to ambition,

An enemy ambushed to shatter your will;

Its prey is forever the man with a mission

And bows but to courage and patience and skill.

Hate it, with hatred that's deep and undying,

For once it is welcomed 'twill break any man;

Whatever the goal you are seeking, keep trying

And answer this demon by saying: "I can."

A little bit of self satisfaction...

This is pretty cool. Unfortunately, you can't test your answer because in order to receive the excel file I would need to e-mail you. But it's fun anyway. :) Put your answer and how long it took you to solve it in the comment section, if you'd like. (I'll tell you if you got it right, although, once you've solved it, my telling you is rather pointless.) It's a lot of fun to do amongst family members... Naturally Jimmy lorded his victory over us for a whole week. :P


It is said that engineers take 3 minutes to resolve this, architects 3 hours, doctors 6 hours, and maintainers/services/LRS/IMers probably forever.

Guess the 6th number, you can open the excel file by using the number as the password. Once you discover it, put your name into the spread sheet, save it and send the saved copy on. This is not a chain letter, there's no prize, and no jokes. Just a little bit of self satisfaction. You need the answer to open the attachment. What is the 6th number? (Don't forget to time yourself!)

1, 2, 6, 42, 1806, ______?




Dad: Solved it in 5 min.
Mom: Didn't feel like solving it.
Jimmy: Solved it in 2 min.
Me: I solved it in 2 1/2 min.

P.S. I don't know how accurate the above statement is...(it proved VERY inaccurate according to the above results.)

Have Fun! (And don't spoil the fun, if you've figured it out, by telling everyone else what the answer is.) :D

Caption This!

You know, looking back on it now, this picture isn't entirely posed.

(Who knew four years of karate would finally come in handy?)

(Lol, Johnny's face.) =D

It's a bird, it's a plane....it's an UPDATE!

I think it's high time for a post on my part.

Wow, my attention span is incredible... "A car!!!" Dork. We were picking flowers on the side of the road after a long day of hiking, and Dad just picked these up and hung them on his head. Fortunately, I don't think Dad reads my blog. I know, I'm terrible....but he's so funny! I love you, Tati!

Here we are at Bridalveil Falls. It's really poor quality...(hey, I'm no Andrew)... but hopefully you can see a little bit of what's going on. :) It was gorgeous, even though we got soaking wet...at 7:00 in the evening.

You probably can't see the sign, but it's a strict warning. Do NOT climb on top of this rock! *shrugs* Rules were made to be broken. Actually, no....but let's give Dad the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn't see the sign. :)

I'll be doing a post about the vacation on my official blog, which is now http://www.loisicuta.blogspot.com/ soon. (I hope.) Xanga just takes too much patience. :)

Roxy likes creepy-crawlies. I don't. Worms are gross. The camera is shaking because we're running down to catch up with everyone else... (**duh**) Which has nothing to do with the fact that I'm swinging it wildly from side to side. ;)

Randomness.

Frequently Updated? ;)

(Hm, maybe we should re-think our advertising slogan ... ;D)

A glimpse of school days at our house ... in case you were dying to know, which I highly doubt you were. :P

School Time Blues

“Get the books out, Emily!” Mom calls above the roar of the vacuum cleaner. Emily gives an earth-shaking yawn and clicks the exit button on her email. Another day, another dollar, or more appropriately--another day, another grade fits this Monday morning.

Ricky winds up the vacuuming and gives another yell to half-awake Emily. By now she has moved to the bathroom—at the pace of a snail—to wrestle her bangs into submission.

Richard, the ever diligent, begins to round up the chewed herd of commentaries and Greek New Testaments. It's a motley lot--most of the covers are long gone, and the spines are covered in aging duct tape. But they do the job at a considerable rate.

Mom rushes about doing a few dishes, getting notebooks corralled, and in between all this, answering the phone’s persistent ring. Grand Station doesn't have anything on this school time rush hour.

One last call to Emily, and Mom settles onto the couch with a worn out Bible, a bowl of cereal, and her glass of water. Richard has already studiously begun working on verses as Emily gets a pair of socks … a glass of water … oh, and of course her Bible.

“Alright, what do you want to say?” Mom asks between a bite of oat flakes. Emily mumbles something like, “...chapter two,” and she’s off on jumbly version of I Peter 2.

Half-way through, the phone lets out another whiny ring. “The answering machine is broken … so *ahem* you have to answer it …” Ricky reminds Mom, hoping and praying it’s someone like the chatty Mrs. Whiffle.

Mom sighs and pushes a few dogs off her lap to grab the phone. It’s Mrs. Whiffle! Never, in all history, has anyone ever been more of a hero than Mrs. Whiffle was to Richard and Emily at that very moment. Air-high-fives are given and a few stifled cheers. It should be noted that Mrs. Whiffle has long ago entered the hall of fame as being the best person to call Mom during school. She's fast and furious when it comes to using the toungue, and can keep the most politically incorrect person on the phone for hours.

“Well, I’m doing school at the moment … ” Mom is saying.

Noooo, that was not what they wanted to hear!

Mom finally escapes from the clutches of that certain talkative lady, and hopes of the “enslaved” fall to the ground. “Now where were we?” Mom asks, fingering her Bible to see which verse Emily was on, “Verse ten?”

Two hours crawl by with the usual interruptions—dogs escaping from the back yard, a hunt for a lost pencil, and salesmen wanting to sell trips to Hawaii ... But that’s life for you—it’s a constant adventure from the first bounce out of bed. You can’t help but love it.

Caption This!

I'm starting a new trend. Every time you see the above title...its time for all of our fans, er blog readers, to get their thinking caps on. Try and come up with a funny caption for this picture. I'm really going out on a limb here, peoples...in fact, as soon as you read the next sentence...I've officially cut it off. I'm setting myself up for some major embarrassment. Em, if this works, you owe me BIG time.

What am I thinking or thinking about? And please, have some dignity and don't say shoes. Thank you.

Hecticity

Hec-ti-city -The state of being hectic; in a frenzy.



Hey, if Shakespeare could do it...so can I! Granted, Shakespeare had a slightly larger audience, and his words were added to the dictionary, and mine...aren't. You know what else should be added? Funner. Funner should have been a word, like, yesterday.



Quick note: This is going to be a long post...if at anytime you fall asleep, don't say I didn't warn you.



Ok, getting back. Mom and Dad went out today, leaving us kids to (oxymoron alert!)sit around productively. We dallied around for some time, 4 hours, to be exact. In our defense our cousins from Romania and Austria were on Skype....at the same time! We spent a long time talking to them. During all this time no one noticed that the phone was flipped open. We have cellphones, since we don't use the regular land line phones anymore. Yeah, welcome to our 21st century home. Anyway, as everyone knows, when the phone's open...you can't get any calls, because the phone doesn't ring. Turns out, Dad was really steamed when he walked through the door, because we hadn't picked up the phone...after he'd called us 5 times. Oops.



Mom and Dad tell us we need to get the house cleaned up because our Aunt and Uncle are coming from Santa Cruz and they might be staying overnight.
*simultaneously, jaws drop around the room*
Aunt Grace and Uncle Daniel are VERY neat people. When we go over to their house, every thing's spotless. It's so clean, you could eat off the floor. Seriously.

If anything had ever been pounded into our brains, it was this: The house must be maintained in pristine condition at all times lest anyone walk through the front door unannounced. What can I say? We're only human...

Aaand, the house was a wreck. A major wreck. Not one of those little wrecks where the breakfast dishes aren't washed and the beds aren't made. I mean one of those wrecks where you think you've had new flooring put in 'cuz you can't see the laminate anymore. On the bright side, we had five minutes to clean it up before Grace and Daniel walked through the door. Did you know it's possible to clean up a living room, a kitchen, and two good sized bathrooms in 7 minutes flat? Wow! "Mom," Jimmy said, "we only clean like this when we're in Red Alert mode."
Shyeah, no kidding!
You know what else I discovered? Little sisters actually know how to make their own bed. They just pretend ignorance, so that big sisters can make it for them. Yes. All you little siblings out there....we know where you live.

Moral of the Story: CLEAN YOUR HOUSE PEOPLE!!!



Oh...just to clarify. In our first post I mentioned baking something. Well, we did. It was a delicious pound cake. We took pictures of the entire process and everything. You know how we know it was delicious? We ate it. And then we remembered we hadn't taken any pictures of it. That was some goooood cake. :)

The Cutest Couple Around

(Here's an "Emily post" to help the blog along ... or, more correctly, crash it altogether. :D)

My mom and dad! :)

One of those priceless "Dad" moments ... :) Have a splendid day!

~Emily

We Rule The WEB!

....not.

Ok, so, Em and I have created a new blog. (That was your **duh!** moment for the day...) We're planning on updating it frequently with little snatches and tidbits of our daily lives...exclusive stuff that you can't find on my regular blog or hers.

(Feel free to comment on those...*cough**cough*)

Tidbit 1!....We're baking something....actually we're going to... I'm not sure what, but we'll post pictures of the unknown mouth-watering delicacy after we're done. :)

Oh, and real quick....tell us what you'd like us to post about! Funny stuff(funny stuff is relative,) serious stuff,(again, relative subject...for ex: acorns are of the utmost importance to chipmunks...) or would you like us to record our deepest, innermost thoughts and desires...(YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE!)...like we're really gonna do that. :-P Anyway, drop us a comment. :)