bloggie blog

A few items from my Thanksgiving in Utah:

When I landed, my brother Nathan was about 20 minutes late in picking me up, so I bought the Salt Lake Tribune and learned that Donny Osmond and Real Salt Lake were big winners locally. Nice. (BYU beat Utah just minutes before my return flight, but either way there, there was going to be a big local winner.)

My sister Julia bought a great old house this year. She’s put a lot of work into it, and on Black Friday she rounded us up to do the same, without even resorting to Tom Sawyer reverse psychology. I swore not to participate in Black Friday, but we forgot and went to The Home Depot for some lighting supplies. It was quiet.

I was cold. Inside. My parents and my sister keep it cool.

Used Windows 7. Okay, I guess.

The Farming Game has stupid rules regarding “a” winner vs. “the” winner.

AT&T’s network in Los Angeles is the real problem. Works great in Utah.

Downloaded very fun iPhone app called iCaroler. Great way to start the Christmas season! You play with carolers, or even better, multiple people play with carolers … which I haven’t quite tested yet.

Received random, unexpected email from GOGII: “Dear _____, Your password has been reset.” Should I be worried?

As I flew back to Los Angeles last December, Delta bumped me and gave me a $400 voucher. Which I Tweeted. Which I told myself I wasn’t going to forget. Which I forgot completely, of course, as I bought a ticket several weeks ago.

Well whaddyaknow, late last night I was cleaning — minor miracle — and saw the voucher as I reached the bottom of a pile. Couldn’t believe it! And since it’s about to expire, I quickly schemed to buy a ticket for Thanksgiving. I wasn’t going to travel for Thanksgiving, you see, in order to save some $$$, but my crappy memory ended up serving me well inasmuch I’ll be home for T-day! I am thankful for forgotten vouchers. I am thankful to be losing my edge.

Some months ago, I met with a color specialist and learned what colors look best on me. Since then, I’ve bought brown not black, cream not white, gold not silver. No royal blues, no grays, nothing cool. Warm, warm, warm.

But here’s the thing. Most uniforms (literal or figurative) are cool. Waiter, cop, Maytag man, lawyer: the trend is for cool colors. Sure, some cops and lawyers wear brown, but you know what I’m saying.

So why did I buy a black shirt? Because the choral group I’m in wears all black, and I didn’t have a black shirt, and black is the uniform of large on-stage ensembles.

It’s for this. Which is, shall we say, cool.

Dude. This rawks! Click on over to check out this neato zoomie thingy from the University of Utah. You start with visible objects like coffee beans, and zoom in on smaller and smaller things.

Nice! But I could never wrap my head around the very large or the very small or the very long or the very anything. (Hat tip to Neil Jenkins.)