Dear Boysin'

I feel that I may never get tired of writing these fun little posts. Welcome to this week's....




Dear Ampersand,

Today, I make a commitment to use you much more often, on account of your awesomeness & classy ways.

Sincerely,
English Nerd


Dear ZL,

I listed you as my celebrity crush today, but I also listed Robert Downey, Jr (I can't help it; he's Iron Man & Sherlock Holmes!). Anyway, watch your back.

Sincerely,
Little Ol' Me


Dear Ross,

Today I found out you were an engineering student....'nuff said.

Sincerely,
Rachel


Dear Puppy,

You live in Salt Lake with my brother now & I am sad (though I must admit to not missing the fur all over). People can call & text; dogs cannot. Why don't you just grow some opposable thumbs already?!

Sincerely,
Former Dog Semi-Owner


Dear Decades Guy,

I did not foresee a Southern accent coming out of you. Nevertheless, thanks for selling me that rad vintage purse. I will visit again, I'm sure.

Sincerely,
Girl Who Loves Old Stuff


Dear Tiresias,

FYI, one week more. Also, I kinda like your beard.

Sincerely,
Girl with an Interesting New Theory On Beards & Such

Right now...

Here are things I should be doing right now:

~laundry so I can wear clothes
~packing for my move in the near future
~proofreading the employee handbook for a coworker
~working on my quilt so I don't have to keep using the old comforter that really belongs to my mom

Here are the things I am actually doing:

~checking Facebook
~browsing Pinterest
~watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory
~watching the numerous commercials for that new show on TBS and trying to convince myself that I am not attracted to Danny Masterson now that he has better hair and a beard and is not playing a stoner
~continuing my week-long phase of super wanting to be at Disneyland
~blogging about all of the above

Oh, well. Life is still good :) In the meantime, please enjoy some love from my last trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Thanks for reading.

Dear Boys Time

I guess if I'm going to keep doing this, I should start numbering them or something, a la this gal. Nonetheless, I give you this week's Dear Boys:

Dear Semi-Seemly (formerly known as Unseemly),

Where are you, my friend? I want to hear about your life!

Sincerely,

An Interested Party

Dear Tiresias,

Aaaaaaaauggggghhh.

Sincerely, 

The Over-Thinker

Dear Tahiti,

I would very much appreciate if you got over yourself and committed to my friend, rather than breaking her heart. She deserves the best.

Sincerely,

Fiercely Protective

Dear Mariachi,

Have you left the area? Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Sincerely, 

Anglo-phile

Dear Mickey,

I miss you and that place you live, the Happiest Place on Earth. Becca and I might come visit you in December, now that we don't have retail blackouts to stop us from taking vacations then.

Sincerely,

Princess Michelle

Duck Rescue!

Attend the tale of the Great Conservice Duck Rescue of 2012! (title borrowed from the video title.)

So, Friday started out as a pretty normal day at work...but turned out to be pretty exciting! There I was, minding my own business and typing away with my headphones on, when I noticed a couple of my coworkers standing by the windows. They seemed to be watching something across the road very intently. I didn't think much of it until I realized that several people across the office were looking out the window, yelling out exclamations every few seconds. I decided to get up and investigate.

I couldn't figure out what was going on at first, so I had to ask my coworker. She replied that there was a mother duck across the street who had started out with 14 ducklings walking down the gutter. Apparently, they were on their way to the creek a ways off when a sewer drain got in their way. One by one, all but one of the ducklings had fallen down the sewer drain! As I watched, the final duckling fell down the drain and I joined in the painful yelling in which the entire department was now taking part.

None of us really knew what to do. Should we call animal control? 911? Someone stated that if the water was going down in the sewer, the ducklings probably has been washed away. This caused several of us to feel very sad.

Suddenly, we saw someone running down the sidewalk and toward the ducks. It was one of our own! This brave young man was going to save the ducks! It was incredible! He laid down in the gutter and stuck his arm in, immediately rescuing the first few ducklings. This led us to believe that the gutter wasn't all that deep, but soon we saw him climb down into the sewer! It was so deep that we could only see him from the shoulders up. More ducklings were saved.

Meanwhile, another guy from work had left and was walking home. He stopped to help, pulling out the remainders of his lunch and tearing bread from his sandwich to lure more of the ducklings to safety. He also assisted in keeping the mother duck and ducklings away from the open sewer (that's what was going on when it appears that he is kicking the duck in the video - he was not injuring the ducks).

Soon enough, Animal Control did appear on the scene, apparently someone had called them after all. The officer loaded the ducks into a kennel of sorts; we believe he safely transported the ducks to their destination. We didn't see because we were called back to work. A few minutes later, the duck rescuer returned to the building, where applause rang out.  And now...enjoy the video, courtesy of my coworker:

At the very end, you can hear our boss telling us it was time to get back to work. I thought it was pretty cool of her to let us watch for a while, though. Hurray for my new workplace!

As always, thanks for reading.

May I ask a small favor?

So, here's the situation, friends: I've been to ward prayer (a Sunday gathering in singles' wards in which we gather to pray and eye prospective eternal companions) a whole three times in the year I've lived in this ward; I enjoyed it well enough in other wards, but I never made a whole lot of friends in this ward so I feel quite awkward. Yesterday, however, I was asked to give the prayer and was therefore obliged to attend.

My current ward has this tradition of passing around a "talent stick" a green, oddly shaped (yet somehow endearing) homemade clay vase thing. It looks like this:

Just for fun, here's what it looks like after I accessorized it under the recommendation of Facebook friends:

The point of my post is this: I have chosen to share my blog as my talent. I have a book "published" of the first year and a half of my blog, so I'm going to take that to share. I'd also like to read a post, and that's where you come in! I'm sure you all have a million and a half things to do, but if anyone out there happens to have a post of mine in mind that they particularly enjoyed, please let me know! It doesn't have to be from the early days; I can certainly print a post out to take. I'm just worried that the post I might pick on my own may not be much of a crowd pleaser, though I will look into my blog stats to see which posts were more popular.

So anyway, thank you so very very much in advance. I appreciate your help.

As always, thanks for reading.

Never tell me the odds! But if you do, could you maybe include a smolder?

Friends (especially the nerdy ones)! The day has finally come to write the post comparing three fabulous characters: Harrison Ford's Han Solo, Nathan Fillion's Malcolm Reynolds, and Disney/Zachary Levi's Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert. I had intended to do this post in time for unofficial Star Wars day (May the fourth), but I was waylaid.

 Now the point of this post is not to prove that Han Solo any one man is better than the other, but merely to point out the similarities between three awesome heroes.  You may be tempted to say that all movie/TV heroes have similar characteristics. To you I say: I am a nerd and this is my post. Also, I apologize for not including the Venn diagram I originally planned to draw up. You can all draw it in your minds as you read ;)

So let's get started! One of the most obvious comparisons is the fact that all three men are involved in illegal occupations. Mal and Han are smugglers, while Flynn is a thief. Han and Flynn even have bounties out on their heads and are eventually caught, but are able to escape with help from their friends. All of them are the adventurous types, whether it's flying through space, joining up with the rebel army, or helping Rapunzel see the floating lanterns while avoiding palace guards. They even have wild escape plans when necessary; Mal has the Crazy Ivan, Han hides the Millenium Falcon underneath the Imperial ship, and Flynn escapes a near hanging with the help of Maximus and a group of thugs. Mal and Han are both captains of their own ships...and Flynn gets tied to the wheel of a ship by "the Weasley brothers on steroids", as Nikki calls them. A stretch, but there it is. Going a little deeper, Mal and Han both display a disbelief in what Han calls an "ancient religion", the Force in Han's case, and God in Mal's case. Both come to believe a little more throughout the "episodes". Flynn isn't quite the same, but he does come to realize that trying to base himself on a children's book character isn't the best way to live.

Other similarities: their appearances. Behold:

Mal and Han pictures from tumblr.com; Flynn from fanpop.com

Note the vests on Han and Flynn (I regret that I was unable to find a picture of Flynn in his black vest at the end of Tangled; he looks much more like Han there) and the similar style in Mal's dress. They even all have the same belts/holsters! Also, they have similar hair, and I suppose it couldn't hurt to make a slight mention that all three of them happen to be quite handsome (What? It's okay to think cartoon characters are handsome, so long as you don't get carried away and create the inappropriate fan art I came across while looking for these pictures). 

Now, for one of my favorite similarities: their relationships with the leading ladies. The bickering that hides attraction is always amusing, even if they're not fooling anyone. (Not sure if this is necessary, but SPOILER ALERT: ) Han and Flynn both manage to gain the love of princesses before their stories end, and I think we all agree that Mal and Inara may someday be able to put their various differences aside and end up together.

So there it is. I know that Han and Mal have the most in common, but there were enough similarities with Flynn that I felt that he needed to be included. I hope that at the very least you were amused by the fact that I put all this thought into such a post. I think part of it is my English degree rising up and demanding I use my analytical skills. Either way, it's done.

Thanks for reading.