Spoon can't get back to sleep, so he decided he would blog a bit.

My thoughts on the holiday break so far (and I guess 2010 in general):

Got to go home to Tooele and see the Mom and Dad and Sister for a few days. Thus getting the only thing I really wanted for Christmas: to make it safely over South Pass. Freakin awesome. I feel like my good friend, Adrienne Hanrahan, (AKA the little redheaded gal I been kinda in love with for the past year) said it best:

I think there is a multitude of buttons in our brain. And of these buttons one of them is named “The Home Button”. And with “The Home Button” comes the “Eat Junk Food” and “Don’t Sleep” buttons.

Ahhh. Home.

Family is one of them things I take for granted way, way, too much. I always roll my eyes at the old adage, "blood is thicker than water" but goshdangit if those words have not rung ridiculously true over the past year.

I hope with all my heart you Phisters know how much gratitude I have for you guys taking this little punk-a-washed-up-wannabe-cowpunk-who-talks-too-much-with-his-foul-mouth kid into your home...

I was in a tight spot. I was in denial of being in said tight spot. I was prideful and scared. I got an invite to a Thanksgiving dinner in Riverton, Wyoming to hang out with some cousins I barely knew.

I didn't want to go.

Thank The Lord or Buddha or Muhammed or Tom Cruise or The Flying Spaghetti Monster I did. Not to get any kind of specifically spiritual, but that Thanksgiving weekend, I don't know what it was, but I felt some kind of seriously good spiritual JuJu. It was this crazy awesome electric-blanket-you-turn-on-a-few-minutes-before-you-go-to-bed-so-its-nice-and-warm-when-you-crawl-in type of feeling. It was safety. It was love.

DANG It's gettin mushy up in here. So before the strange salty liquid in eyeballs blurs my vision any more, lemme say this: Dan, Lorri, Hope, if you're reading this- thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you to pieces.

I could go on and on about how much I love and respect my father and his far-out ideas and his enormous heart, and how I love that fact that I can give him crap bout bein a pudgy old bleeding heart treehugger, and he,without missing a beat, will throw it right back at me, noting the equal amounts of my quirky shortcomings. At the end of the day, he is my favorite person in the word to talk to.

How my dear, sweet, constantly-worried Mother, who, if she isn't digging around in my ear with a Q-tip, (she's slightly obsessed with making sure everyone is ear wax free) will be found repeatedly hugging me for no apparent reason and squeezing and staring at my hands, because they are her Father's hands (seriously, me and Reed have the same bippin hands...aside from the fact that his are way more manly and calloused and scarred up than mine can ever dream of becoming). I keep entertaining the idea of getting the classic "MOM" in the heart tattoo... It would be fun cause it would kinda freak her out, but I know it would also totally make her smile (plus I totally know she's secretly super jealous of all my tats). I like Lorri. She's a good 'un.

Hopie Girl is one of the raddest chicks I know. It's strange, when I moved out, she was like 11 or 12. Just this little kid. I always wanted to be that big brother who stood at the door, sharpening my over-sized Crocodile Dundee knife, putting the fear of God into all the boys that came to pick her up for a date or whatever. But I never got that chance. I am so very,very thankful she has turned out to be such a good kid. Lord knows I didn't set the best example, and I fear if she woulda pulled the same kind of crap I did, it mighta killed my poor mother. Thanks for bein awesome, Sis.

Special shoutout to my boy Matthew. You rock my socks off, Sir. Thank you for lightin the fire in my belly. I love you heaps and scads.

Holy crap, guys, all y'all are just bippin awesome and I gots mad love for yous dudes.

So now that I have officially gushed and mushed this here blog post to an almost unrecognizable point, I shall try my best to wrap it up:

I've been here in the great state of Wyoming for almost a year now. It's been absolutely awesome. I love the bippin bip right outta this little college. I have a passion for what I'm learning that grows bigger, stronger and more gnarly every day. Makes me all excited and jittery and what not.

Life is good (It's kind of a profound statement when said sincerely) Life is good.

Wishing you all a safe and happy transition to 2011.

-A.W. Spoon

Sweet moves

This was filmed the same night as the Christmas video. A few clips made it in, but this was just too awesome to not share in its entirety. We love the winter weather! Enjoy!!

bip

I think in light of the trip to Mexico and the fact that Christmas is next week, we let this one run for 2 weeks--. I'll put on some holiday tunes and we'll relax. Even us sad sacks in Utah will try and find a way to relax in our igloos while you Mexico people do your relaxing at the beach. Haha just kidding! It was 52 degrees today! No igloos in sight! (No beaches in sight either though....)


Here's your quoty quote:

Person #1: How horrible our Christmas will be!
Person #2: No- how "jolly"!
Person #1: Oh. How jolly our Christmas will be.

#two

Are you a gambling man, Santa?



#three -only one guess so far!

"An interesting reaction........but what does it mean?"

#four -this one has GOT to bring in some wright guesses...

"Attacked by Christmas toys? That's strange, that's the second toy complaint we've had."


This is your last one....

"[singing] And on a dark cold night, under full moonlight, he flies into the fog like a vulture in the sky!
[in a deeper tone] And they call him, Sandy... Clawssss...! "

WTB Hook

Hey guys. Sorry I'm late. It's finals time and I am ridiculously busy. Haven't had time to do much of anything besides scramble to get last minute projects done. My bad peeps.

Hook! I loved this flick when I was a kid. Blah, blah, blah... clever comments about Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams...yada yada yada.

Em and George both got it on Monday, but Em edged the old man out by like 10 minutes. Bummer George. Then it was Sue, Haley, Dan (who submitted two wrong guesses on both Monday and Friday. HA!) and Amy.

Sorry again for the late start. Although I am having a really hard time finding sympathy for those of you who are having a short WTB week on account of going to Mexico. You poor dears.

All yours, Em!

WTB movie quote guessing game thingy

Hey hey. Just rolled in from a PBS shoot in Cody, good times up there, I'll tell ya what. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is freakin phenomenal. I absolutely loved it. It was awesome cause we were doing the mojority of our shooting while the place was closed to the public so we had the entire place to ourselves. Whenever we had a break (which was quite often) I got to wander around and go wherever and do whatever I pleased. It was so sick.


I saw this and thought of George. It's the original gun Dan Blocker ("Hoss") wore in the show. They have one of the most comprehensive collections of firearms in the world. I got lost in that section of the museum...twice. It's ridiculous.







So I guess I won again. School of Rock is one of my all-time faves. There was no bippin way I was gonna miss this one. I loves me some Jack Black.


Did you know: the writer, Mike White, who also played Ned Schneebly in this movie, also co-wrote and produced Nacho Libre and Gentlemen Broncos with Jared and Jersusha Hess and he produced a whole bunch of episodes of Freaks and Geeks. Also, I love his cameo in Zombieland (he gets eaten whilst sitting on the toilet) it cracks me up.


Here we go troops... Gonna start off as obscure as I can cause I think this is gonna be a fairly easy one.



Monday's quote: "Eat what? There's nothing here. Gandhi ate more than this."

Man it's hard not to give it away...pretty dang quotable flick.

Wednesday's clue:
Person 1: I remember you being a lot bigger.
Person 2: To a ten year-old I'm huge.


Alright folks if'n ya ain't got 'er by now, here ya go...

Friday giveaway:

Smee: Smee, Smee. What About Smee? Smee! Smee! Smee. Smee. What about Smee? Smee's me. What about me?

Good luck boys and girls.

WTB--School of Rock

Jack Black as a rocker shaking up a private school made for a fun flick that at least most of you knew and seemed to like. Sue was the only one who said she didn't think it was funny. My dilemma was finding quotes that weren't too easy, as this whole movie is dominated by Black and his craziness and unique personality and ways of talking. In the movie, loved the recurring theme of "the Man," along with the legend of the rent, the teacher down the hall who hears music coming from Black's classroom so obviously she is on crack, Joan Cusak (my Teri Garr stand-in this time) as the uptight principal who only goes nuts and acts like a real person when she listens to Stevie Nicks, and tons more. Anyway a movie that I crack up at and that Hope (my partner this week) and I have watched a half-dozen times together.

Our winner, the only one getting it from the first clue, was Alex. Haley was next, and the only one getting it from the Tuesday "kaboot it" line. Cat was our one and only correct guesser after the Wednesday "face melt" clue. Thursday's giveaways saw Pops, Emily, Sue, B, and Amy get it. Nice job all of you!

Have fun with this week's contest! Hope for the ability to tolerate another playlist from Alex!

UNDER THE RADAR The Book of Eli

This movie takes place 30 years after the "War" or "Big Flash". I don't usually like much apocalyptic movies, i.e. Mad Max, ThunderDome, WaterWorld, etc. but this one I liked a lot. Denzel and Gary Oldman are always good. As an added smile, Tom Waits has a small part if you look close. It takes a while to see where this drab landscape movie is going, but the action scenes are awesome with 'ol Denzel a killing machine with a heart. Violence and F-bombs scattered throughout the movie. But there is a nice spiritual side to the movie and it I thought was well spaced and carried out. Worth a look for you that can stand arms being whacked off with a machette and can overlook the F-bombs.

I just had to post this little nugget after giggling about it so much while watching the Neil Christmas video. Marcus and I just watched Ace Ventura on tv the other night so that's why it was fresh on my mind. You can just picture in the diary things like, "Holly Holy", "Sweet Caroline", and "So Good So Good" instead of "laces out." Hehehe.







Have a Cherry Christmas everybody!

CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY FOR POPS

WHOOO, HOOO!! I got a new imac yesterday. It is so sweet. There is no tower, all the plugs and the disc drive are all in the flat screen. It has 4 gigs of RAM memory and 1 T hard drive.

The keyboard and mouse are wireless.
It has a 21 inch screen. The latest OS X Snow Leopard system. Anyway, it is the latest and greatest (well, not the greatest. There is a 27 inch screen and a little faster Processors. And I didn't need the MAC PRO) I did get the middle range processors and had Microsoft Office for Mac installed, so I am ready to go. Don't know where I am going, but I'm ready.

I have some long, put off projects having to do with family film and slides and now I have the equipment to start and finish many things I have put off. Also I don't have to bother Matt and use his stuff. Well maybe his nice new slide scanner for awhile when he is not using it. Be happy for me, Peeps. I am!!!

Have a very merry, holly holy, cherry cherry Christmas!

Oh Neil, you're just the best.

WTB

Picked a movie for this week that I think everyone will be familiar with. Not a Teri Garr flick, but it does have a neurotic woman in it who is pretty funny though she's more of a role player. I'm starting decently obscure here, but I think it's recognizable to big fans. After that, I think pretty much every line will be giveaways, so guess early!

Write me at Facebook with your guesses.

Person 1: __________, what do you like to do?
Person 2: I dunno... Burn stuff?

Tuesday clue:

One character teaching another character a handshake:
"Slap it." (performs the action)
"Shoot it." (performs the action)
"Kaboot it."

Wednesday clue:

"Dude, is my face okay? I think you melted it off."

Thursday giveaways:

"I have been touched by your kids... and I'm pretty sure that I've touched them."

(from a separate scene):

"In the words of AC/DC: We roll tonight... to the guitar bite... and for those about to rock... I salute you."

Bippin Beethoven

Alright, so I figured because I had the WTB for the week of Thanksgiving, I would do a movie that had something to do with turkey day. The only one that came to mind was Beethoven, although I'm not sure if there is even a Thanksgiving scene in the movie, I just remember the cover of the VHS. I watched this movie a lot when I was little. I don't really remember really super liking it or anything, just watching it a bunch.

Its a pretty lame flick and not very quotable. I figured it would be kind of a tougher one so I didn't count on getting too many guesses, in fact I was a little worried anyone would get it.

Dan submitted the first correct guess on Wednesday. He said Hope helped him out. I know help from one's spouse is allowed, but I dunno what the rules are for children, especially smart kids who routinely beat their Phd-weilding fathers at scrabble..... Just sayin'

B sent in the next Wright guess 1 hour 14 minutes later. Tough break, B! Then on Friday and Saturday it was George, who apparently is a Charles Groden fan, Em, who claims she was fairly oblivious to the existence of the film, followed by Matt, Amy, and Cat.

So I guess Dan wins. But I think he kinda cheated by askin Hope. You guys figure it out. If he is indeed found guilty of this heinous crime, then B wins and I like it when B wins. It makes me happy.


BTW - The blog was awful quiet this week. Heck, I didn't even get one complaint about my playlist. Lame! I was really hopin someone was gonna comment on it. Especially the Flogging Molly song, cause it's super interesting if you research the lyrics. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to cook up a nice batch of twangy little nuggets for next time.

Peace and blessings. Peace and blessings.

UNDER THE RADAR

I recommend this book to you that read. David Baldacci is just about my favorite author. He writes crime thrillers but I saw this small novel in the library and read it yesterday. Very nice and well done. Kinda "To Kill a Mockingbirdish" Set is the eary 40's. 13 year old girl, 7 year old boy, bad red-neck man, lots of humor, adversity and love and triumph. New York City family has car accident and the childern and comatose mother go to live with the 80 year old great, great grandmother in the hills of Virginia and it's the story of their experience and adventures on the farm. Nicely done and read it for an uplift of spirit if you haven't already done so.

Al Pacino is still awesome

I thought since the blog was so quiet, and I have already done the crickets bit, I would post this video because it sure gave me a good laugh!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS61hWuh43Y&feature=related

Lame, this video doesn't allow for embedding. But there is the link.

Guess the Mippin Bovie

WooHoo! Go me! So this was a total fluke- Saturday night I went to go hang out with the girls who live in the apartment upstairs from me, they fed me some pie and we all sat down and watched Taken.

To be honest, I don't care for the movie much. I'm not a huge fan of ridiculous plots and unnecessary, over-the-top action flicks. The daughter was so stupid she made me wanna slap her around a bit. But on the upside, I do likes me some Liam Neeson, and he definitely was a B.A. in this movie.

Even having seen it the night before, I probably wouldn't have won if I hadn't spent so much time quoting and laughing and making fun of Neeson's character. So cheesy, so macho, too easy to poke fun at. I remember when Kyle made that prank call , 'twas a glorious moment in comedic history.


Here's your Bippin Monday Quote:

"I'm so excited. That was my very first felony. I've commited a lot of misdemeanors, but I do believe that was my very first felony!"

It's Wednesday and I have yet to receive a guess...you guys are making me nervous. Think! Thin! Think!

Wednesday Clue:

"We're goldfish people, we're antfarm people. We're not dog people."


Let's give this sucker away....

"No matter how many showers I take I still smell Beethoven all over me."


Good Luck...Bart Luck.

WTB: Taken

Alex won!!! Yay Spoon!!! He saw the movie Saturday night, and then got it at noon on Sunday. Lucky choice of film!! Pops got it next, I have to share his message because it was so dang cute. "It's the girls dad. She gets kidnapped in Paris (ha, Paris, France, B.) Laim Neeson goes after her and kills a bunch a guys. Good action flick and revenge plot. My favorite plot and I saw this again about 6 weeks ago. I am pretty sure the quote is from "TAKEN". It took ahwile to put it together." I didn't choose it because it spends a lot of time in Paris, but that's such a cute thought. Also, LAIM Neeson. Lame Neeson, hehe. Anyways, the rest of the Wotherspoon family got it on Wednesday after the second clue, then Emily, Amy, Susie and Haley all got it after the Friday giveaway.

I've only seen this movie once, but it was very entertaining. SOO unrealistic, but still fun. I remember making fun of a lot of things, the giveaway line being one. How stupid the girls are, how the daughter runs everywhere she goes, how laim :-) it would be to follow U2 around Europe, the girl wanting to leave her father's side and run to her mother after her ordeal, etc. It's one of those one in a billion scenarios that's still fun.

I'm going to miss my playlist :-(

The Best Second Kiss in Movies ???

I was watching the last 30 minutes of "Last of the Dogmen" last night before work. It is the best Tom Berenger movie I have seen. Anyway, near the end and he leaves Barbara Hershey with the indians. The have developed a relationship but short of physical, he gives her a kiss goodby and gets on his horse and starts to ride off, the stops and turns the horse around and rides back and gets off the horse and gives her a great big passion kiss. Nice! I thought to myself, there is a subject for a posting. Whats the best second kiss in filmdom.


If I remember, The Jack, kisses Helen Hunt a second time near the bakery after the first was rather lame. Anyway, there are two to consider. Let's hear comments from you movie peeps regarding this important subject.

Can't get enough super golden crisp

So...
I don't post things here, in fact I rarely comment. It's nothing personal, just not my bag.

I have really wanted to do an ode to Emily for her birthday, which has been fun (kind of)

First-
I love Emily. I love Emily!!!
When we first started to work together I always thought her name was Sue, and I thought she was snooty and stuck up...but she was just dead sexy (is that ok to say here?)
I really loved her smile, and her eyes, come to think of it I just loved her whole face, it was refreshing.
After working together for some time I realized that she wasn't too stuck up. She had a sense of humor that cracked me up. We watched a show of some people getting hit by cars, not a really funny scene unless you watched it with Em, then it was a riot...just flipping feet over heads.
I'm pretty shy, and though I really liked Em it took me a long time to ask her out-and then it wasn't like a real date, it was out for a drink. (a stiff coke at V.I.)

Emily and I are pretty different. She likes different music, she likes movies, she likes reading and stuff that makes people smart like artwork and junk. I like good music, not so much with movies, I only read church books as lame as that sounds, and I like things that make people dumb like sports...
Emily has this infectious way about the things that she likes, she makes you feel like her smart people stuff is neat and that you should get to know it. I discovered over the course of us dating that some of her tastes are tasty to me too.
I still marvel and learn so much from her and her passions.

Married life has been a blast with Emily. Rarely do we find dull moments, and our conversations are rich and fulfilling. She has to be some kind of woman to put up with me. I'm pretty stubborn and thoughtless, and she is just good.

I love my 2 daughters. They both have so much Emily in them. I love to watch Emily with them. I come from a home with a crazy mother, and a less than stable environment, so I get taken back to see what a good mother my wife is. Em is the most tender and compassionate selfless person I have ever know or heard rumor of. She has the ability to love people that few people possess.

I remember when she moved to NY and I went to visit I had great expectations of all the time we'd spend together...One day I was wondering what we were going to do together, and I was informed that I could do what ever I wanted, but that she was going to go give service at a homeless shelter/soup kitchen called 'loaves and fishes'. I cannot tell you how that touched my life, I think about it often still- you have a young, beautiful girl who is in NY on some (to me) pseudo extended vacation, who took the time and felt the inner calling to serve at some christian outreach place.

I love Emily. I Love Emily!!!!

Em, you are the best thing that has happened to me, and that continues to happen to me. Thank you for loving me, thank you for being such a good mother. And thank you for being you.

HAPPY BIrTHDAY!

Good Luck Bart Luck

Just going through older posts and thought Dan needed an answer to his inquiry regarding "good luck-bart luck"

Well, I guess to understand this completely, you have to know (and you probably already know, being a part of the fam) that in this family-

#1 Nothing slides. If you do something even a little embarrassing, it doesn't go unnoticed. You don't get away with anything.

#2 It is usually repeated and quoted for years and years, and ends up being a TOTAL exaggeration of how it was originally spoken or done.

So, about 5 or 6 years ago, Amy, a few of her kids, and I were playing the game "Pit" on the Phisters living room floor. It was REALLY late at night and we had been playing a long time. If you aren't familiar with the game, it is based on the stock market and you all play at the same time without taking turns, trading commodities by yelling "2!!! 3!!! 3!!!" and so on. It makes for total chaotic maddening fun.

Well, in between games we got talking about our individual game strategies, and Amy wanted to say something like "I always have good luck trading barley"

But- it didn't quite come out like that. (I think you can probably see where this is going now)

She said "I have always good luck...with...bart...luck" HAHA!!

I'm sure we have all started a sentence wrong, and it just goes downhill from there. You just can't seem to bounce back and pronounce your words right, or you can't stop making crazy word combinations as your brain tries to correct your earlier mistakes. Perfect Wright laughing material.

Not only were the words totally freaking awesome, but I seem to remember a very monotone, tired voice saying it. Which has now transformed into putting your hands in nerdy "Spock" position and saying GOOD LUCK... BART LUCK in a robot voice.

**********Update*************

I happen to have a picture of "good luck bart luck" in action!

This picture took place while Matt was on his mission and we were together playing games and things got a little silly. We missed Matt, but we happen to have a cardboard cut out of him (well, of George Bush with Matt's face on it), so we parked him with us while we played games and did "good luck bart luck" so we could send it to him.

(Special note: Cat got the hands wrong if you look closely).

Love,

Emily

There you have it! I can't wait for our next victim... Oh, and you better believe I have been the brunt of many family laughs. But mostly it's Catherine.

LOVE YOU!! KISSES!!!

Whoops...

I'm a spaz (surprise of the century) and accidentally posted the new playlist in a whole new post instead of just embedding the code. So I made a blog post that I can't figure out how to delete, so I figured I just might as well say something. So, why don't I do a review of a documentary Matt and I watched a little while ago?
We watched Imagine: John Lennon. It. Was. SO. Good. I have to say that Paul McCartney has always been my favorite Beatle, partly because his music is just a little more my style, but I gained SO MUCH respect for John Lennon throughout this movie. I also had a fairly stereotypical view of Yoko Ono before I watched this (Yoko was partially responsible for breaking up the Beatles and was selfish and demanded John's attention all the time, etc.) and boy was I wrong! I know it's probably a fairly biased film, but they were SO CUTE together. And he was just such a normal guy, it was so funny/sad to see how some people got obsessed with him to the point of showing up outside his house, thinking that he'd written a song for/about them, and shooting him. So here's some things that struck me about the film.

Holy cow, the Beatles were REALLY FAMOUS!!!!

Fame sucks sometimes.

Famous people are mostly normal too (unless there name is Kanye, or Henifer Lopez).

Matt looks like a young John Lennon.

Trying to use your fame for good (bed protests) brings out the people who try to say that anyone famous is doing it for the money.

Give peace a chance.

Yoko and John were really cute together.

It really really really really really really really really really sucks that he died when he did.

What the bippin bip.

Ok. Movie time. This one should be (hopefully) slightly harder than Wayne's World, and everyone needs to Facebook me their answers so that there is no confusion.


"That is what happens when you sit behind a desk. You forget things, like the weight in the hand of a gun that's loaded and one that's not."


Happy pondering!!


All righty, here's the Wednesday hint.

"You know, we used to outsource this kind of thing. But what we found was the countries we outsourced to had unreliable power grids. Very Third World. You'd turn on a switch - power wouldn't come on, and then tempers would get short. People would resort to pulling fingernails. Acid drips on bare skin. The whole exercise would become counterproductive. But here, the power's stable. Here, there's a nice even flow. Here, you can flip a switch and the power stays on all day. Where is she?"



Friday give away... For those of you who haven't seen this movie, you've probably still heard people make fun of this line. And you can probably guess the plot from this too.



Person 1: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. 

Person 2 [after a long pause]: Good luck.

Happy Friday!! 

WTB! Christmas Vacation!

What a quiet week for What the Bip! I picked this movie because it is hilarious and the holiday season is closing in. And, I just couldn't help picking something that Randy Quaid is in. I have really enjoyed reading about his and his wife's latest adventure. The Hollywood Star Whackers!?! Anyway, as I said, this movie is very funny and I always look forward to Christmas time so I can watch this movie and Elf.

Bronwyn was the first to get it! Way to go B! She guessed it real quick, the day I did the posting. Laura was next and that was it! Everyone has seen this movie, right?

Take it away B......

WAY UNDER THE RADAR

You dog lovers: Watch this movie only if you want a good cry. Or not so good cry. I saw this sappy, predictable, rated G movie last night and blubbered at the end. Loyality has always been one of my favorite vertures and I am a sucker for it every time. So, when you have an extra 90 minutes and want to watch a cute puppy and good dog be on the screen a lot, give this one a looks. Keep a Kleenx close.

Attention all members of the JWMCC

Jack white is going to be Conan's first musical guest TONIGHT on TBS.

Thought you'd like to know......

Is there anything better?

Is there anything better than two incredible legends (both deceased) covering one of the best Bob Marley songs ever? Is there anything cuter than this picture?

If you haven't heard this before, I now present Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash in their performance of Redemption Song.

What The Bip!

Yay! I won, I won! That was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. Loved John Denver! And George Burns was so cute.

Here is your first quote for the next WTB! Oh yeah, Laura, if you are wondering what is going on, we do a movie quote thing once a week. I was the first to guess last week's movie correctly, so I get to pick the movie for this week. We do a quote on Saturday, a second one on Wednesday, and then a final one on Friday. You send the person doing the movie, me for this week, your guesses through Facebook messages. The winner also gets to pick the music that plays on the blog for the week. I decided to go all David Bowie for this week. I've been in a Bowie mood lately.

Okay, here is the quote:

I love it here. You don't have to put on your coat to go to the bathroom.


Here is your Wednesday quote:

Person #1: I hope he falls and breaks his neck

Person #2: I'm sure he'll fall, but I don't think we're lucky enough to have him break his neck.

Here is your Friday quote:

Surprised? Eddie If I woke up tomorrow morning with my head sewn into the carpet, I wouldn't be anymore surprised than I am now.

"Oh, God!"

I'm not cussing in the post's title above but giving the name of this week's WTB movie, the fun and endearing movie "Oh, God!" starring George Burns as the Almighty and John Denver as the average Joe (named Jerry) that God chooses to be his spokesperson. It's a film that is certainly reminiscent of Bruce Almighty, which some of you guessed during the week, but also very different in that God never gives his powers to Jerry, and Jerry has to wrestle with the ridicule of his public claims about God speaking to him rather than Bruce learning lessons for himself. Really lots of fun and some good, thoughtful ideas about God, society, how we treat each other, etc.

I am glad so many of you got it wright, meaning you were aware of and had affection for the film (at least several of you told me that you like this film when you guessed it). In picking it, I admit to pulling a few shenanigans on you again as this is the third film in a row (Tootsie, Close Encounters, and now this) with Teri Garr in a leading role. Hee hee. I also threw some clues into the playlist again by including several religion-themed songs. Almost put a John Denver song in there but figured it might be too obvious as I don't really ever play his music other than a few spiritual ones (and they aren't too well known, so I thought one of them would cause a bunch of attention to it). Speaking of John Denver: isn't he sort of a Wright classic? Somewhere in my brain is the idea that several/many of you were decently passionate fans of his before he died. Am I amiss thinking this?

Congratulations, Sue! Sue was the only one to get it before the Friday clues. Em said she thought of it Wed but didn't write in. Bummer! Following Sue's getting it Thursday, we had a nice run of wright guesses on Friday. The finish order for the runner-ups was Cat, Emily, Amy, and then George. Nice job all of you guys! I feel bad because both Haley and B got some guesses in this week that were good ones even though not correct. My sense is that this is just too old a movie to be on their radar screen. Sorry for that young'uns. Love you guys playing, though, and I hope you'll find a chance to see this flick!

Matt's Test Video

Fall is a time of change, and my business is undergoing a lot of changes. Mostly regarding new equipment-but also a new name, commitment, website, pricing, and more time to devote to it since I'm done with school (at least for now).

I thought that using all this new stuff was going to throw a difficult learning curve ball at me, but I was very pleased with how easy it was to put together this little film. I even edited quite a bit of it while hanging out in Phisters living room on my laptop with Kyle's Utah Jazz headphones.

Hope you enjoy! Gotta love Pops and his dogs!

Happy Birthday Jonny!!!!

Love you!!!!!! Kisses!!!

Some fluffy and useless information...

They've chosen who's going to play Renesmee for Breaking Dawn. Her name is Mackenzie Foy, and she's, of course, adorable.

Maggie Grace, from Lost, is going to play Irina. I hope she annoys me less in this. I was trying to get a picture of her, and scary things started popping up, so you can all just look at her in Google Images. Just be careful what you click on.


This is Sue, and I am adding a little something to this. I heard a couple of days ago that they have cast Christian Camargo to play Eleazar. I was pleased to hear that. For those of us who are Dexter fans, he played the Ice Truck Killer.

Grampa's Funeral

First of all, we want to thank Sue for another awesome hotel experience. Thanks for helping us with our room reservations and with the great rates. We were very comfortable, the breakfasts were awesome and the staff was among the best we’ve ever seen. They were very friendly people who even went to far as to make our waffles, complete with warmed butter. They also gave Matt a USB computer cord from their graveyard of lost and found items.

Now for the funeral post.

None of us really knew what to expect for the funeral/memorial service because we were a little left out of the planning process. It was a little hard for Mom because she wanted input but didn’t want to step on toes. We found out that one of Grandpa’s old friends, who is a minister, wanted to conduct and speak at the funeral. We thought that would be fine, but wondered about how we might be able to be involved. When we called Maryanne Sunday morning, she was all worried because she couldn’t get a hold of him. He is 88 years old and drove himself all the way from Billings, Montana. She said he had really aged since she last saw him and he seemed a little senile and disoriented. Oh yeah, and he’s almost totally deaf. Needless to say, we were a little more concerned about the service and thought we could be in for a very interesting experience. Should this surprise us by now? Somehow she found him while we were at church. We went to the whole block of church meetings in the ward that the Chattertons would be in. It turned out being a VERY good thing we did. They had an awesome ward. The people were so nice and helpful. When they found out we were here for a funeral the Relief Society President gave us her name and number and told us to call her if we needed anything, including a meal or a place to go. After church we went to Maryanne’s to visit and talk about the funeral. We met the minister, A.L. Fredricks. He was a really nice guy and wanted us to participate in anyway we wanted. He was very sensitive to how we hoped it would go.

It was decided that Matt would give the family prayer at the closing of the casket, Amy would do the Life Sketch or Eulogy, Mom would give personal memories of her dad, and Dad would do the same plus offer a little spiritual uplift. Mr. Fredricks would conclude the services with a sermon. There was no music mentioned and we found out that the mortuary didn’t have a piano or organ. (We were going to bring Annie out to play, but had already learned about the lack of musical instruments). Dad decided to call this R.S. President and ask if anyone in the ward might be able to do a musical number acapella for us. She said that she sings at funerals and would be honored and happy to do it and got a friend lined up to sing with her. We told her that Grandpa’s favorite song was “How Great Thou Art” and she said that that was one of the songs she does often. We felt pretty good about our plans and prepared a little for our parts. Nick’s children, Laura and Nick, came over and Matt and I got to meet some first cousins for the first time in our lives. Laura is married with two adorable little boys. We went out for pizza and really enjoyed getting to know everyone better. It’s been 7 years since Mom’s brother Nick passed away. He would be very proud of his kids. They are great.

Maryanne’s son John was also with us along with her friend, Karen. Karen was Grandpa’s dental assistant for years. We were an odd sort of group, but surprisingly had a great time and bonded in an interesting sort of way.

Monday morning we got to the mortuary at about 10:00 for the viewing. Grandpa looked pretty good, considering everything. He looked so thin and frail, but looked like him. Viewings are always pretty sad. It was hard on Mom and Maryanne was really grieving.

It’s really hard to know that it will be the last time on earth you will see someone you love. Matt gave a sweet prayer and the casket was closed. Five minutes later Al started the funeral and I was first up. I am usually such a blubbering fool at funerals; can’t sing the songs and would never dream I’d be able to ever speak. I composed myself pretty well and was able to get through his life sketch pretty well. Mom did a great job talking about Grandpa and shared lots of cute stories and memories about him. She was composed and able to do really well. Dad gave some nice memories and said a lot of really nice things about him and, of course, added some typical Dad humor. He mentioned how he was the “king of puns” and he would miss him. Al’s comments were very good and the timing was perfect.

The two women got up and sang “How Great Thou Art” to close the meeting and it was just beautiful. We all appreciated it so much and Maryanne was really touched with their kindness.

(Dad being Dad)

Then we drove about 25 minutes to the cemetery. He was buried in Eagle Point National Cemetery for veterans, with Military Honors. (He had served in the Navy during World War II.) He had a flag draped over his casket and several servicemen performed a really beautiful ceremony with so much respect and reverence. They saluted his casket and folded the flag and presented it to Maryanne. Taps was played and it was finished.






We drove up to his grave and Dad dedicated it.

We went to the grocery store and bought sandwich fixings, salads, chips, cookies and drinks for everybody and went to Maryanne’s for the rest of the day. We had a good time visiting. We even went through some of Grandpa’s belongings. Maryanne wanted us to have some things. We found his High School Diploma from 1934. Maryanne got out some really nice shoes that were hardly worn and they fit Matt perfectly. We also each took one of Grandpa’s hats home. As we were going up to our room we looked around the elevator and noticed that all four of us had our hats on. It gave us a good laugh. The laughing continued as Matt looked in the mirror and realized he was in a horizontal striped sweater. Soon we had a creepy visitor in our room!