You know you have a major caffeine addiction when...

"911, what is your emergency?"

"I have kind of a stupid question for you. Do you have a Starbucks there in Baker?"

"Sir, is this an emergency?"

"Well I told you it was a stupid question!"

WOOT!

IT'S SNOWING!!!!! A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just had to share. :)

Our Dog Isn't Worthless, Part II

Bandit has once again proved that he isn't completely worthless, which has made his momma so proud!

My parents came up this weekend to see the play (which is now over, sigh of relief). On Saturday morning, Nathan and Dad got up at the butt crack of dawn to go duck hunting, taking Bandit and Lizzie (dad's dog) with them. After a few failed attempts to get a flight of ducks to head their way, they finally scared up some ducks over the 203 pond and dad shot one down...into the pond.

Up to this point, the extent of Bandit's training consisted of retrieving a floating toy out of high-mountain lakes. We had yet to have the opportunity to let him retrieve an actual bird, so we had no idea whether he would agree to put a bunch of feathers in his mouth, let alone swim in icy cold water to do so. But as soon as they let Bandit out of his crate and pointed out the bird, he dove into the water, swam right to the duck, grabbed it by the neck and brought it straight back to shore. Not wanting to miss a training opportunity, Dad threw the duck back into the water and Bandit retrieved it again!

So there you go, our dog not only scents down and flushes birds, he's also an accomplished water dog! And as a result, we had some delicious asian duck salad for dinner that night. Yum!

Here's a great photo Nathan took of Bandit yesterday as he was testing out his photo gear for a shoot he had yesterday.

Not sure how Nathan got him to sit still long enough to take this. I know, it's kind of sad how excited we get over him, but until we have an actual kid, this dog is our child. And for all of his bad habits (being clingy, digging up the back yard), he's definitely a keeper!

Phone Call to Heaven

My father in law sent this to me and I just had to share with all of my Oregonian friends and family out there!

Phone Call to Heaven

A man in Savannah, Georgia, decided to write a book about churches around the country. He started by flying to Boston, Massachusetts, and started working west from there.

Going to a very large church, he began taking photographs and making notes. He spotted a golden telephone on the vestibule wall, and was intrigued with a sign that read, "$10,000 per minute."

Seeking out the pastor, he asked about the phone and the sign. The pastor answered that the golden phone is, in fact, a direct line to Heaven, and if he pays the price, he can talk directly to God. The man th anked the pastor and continued on his way.

As he continued to visit churches in New Jersey, Milwaukee, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City and around the United States, he found more such phones, with the same sign, and the same explanation from each pastor.

Finally, the man arrived in the lovely state of Oregon. Upon entering a church, behold: He saw the usual golden telephone. But, this time, the sign read: "Calls: 25 cents"! Fascinated, the man asked to speak with the pastor.

"Pastor, I have been in cities all across the country and in each church I have found this golden telephone, and have been told it is a direct line to Heaven, and that I could use it to talk to God.... But in 20 other chu rches the cost was $10,000 per minute. Your sign says 25 cents per call. Why is that?"

The pastor, smiling benignly, replied: "Son, you're in the Pacific Northwest now, and it's a local call."

Tagged Again

So, Carly tagged me to give you six things you dont know about me...I've literally been thinking about this all day long and still haven't come up with six things, but hopefully they'll come to me as I go along.

1) I'm a closet OCD. It isn't very bad and I try to keep it under control as much as possible, but every once in a while it sneaks out. One of the big ways that it hits me is counting things. When I'm bored, when I'm nervous, when I can't get to sleep, I count the most random things. My most regular thing to count is the dashes that make up digital numbers on clocks, to see how many dashes make up the current time. For example, right now it's 15:21...that's 14 dashes. The time with the most dashes in it (12-hr time) is 10:08...it has 21 dashes. I do this one a lot when I can't get to sleep. I also count steps taken from one place to the next.

2) I kind of a list maniac. I make lists for EVERYTHING. Chores, errands, shopping, goals, gifts, etc. If I mess up on a list, I start all over again, because I like my lists to look nice...that kind of goes along with fact #1. I get so much joy from crossing things off of those lists as I get them done. And if I'm going to be leaving the list for a while to come back to it later, I usually rewrite the list to only include the thing I still need to do, so it will look nice and neat when I get back to it.

3) I want to adopt a child. I believe that there are a lot of children out there that don't have loving homes, and that Nathan and I have more than enough love to give. I'm also very VERY against abortion (yes, I went there), so if I was ever given to opportunity to provide an alternative to a friend or kid in that position, I would gladly do it. Ideally, we would have our first child naturally, and then adopt one of the opposite gender a couple years later, but we'll see what happens. I don't know why I feel so strongly about this, since no one in my family has ever adopted, but I have several friends who were adopted.

4) I am constantly singing. If it's not out loud when I'm home alone or in the car, then I'm singing in my head. Sometimes I even mentally sing the random thoughts that are running through my mind. I'm really not sure how much other people like my voice, so a lot of times when I'm in public (like at Young Life and not leading songs) I will sing like I have no musical talent what so ever. But I absolutely love to sing, and there's never a song very far from my lips. I blame you, Ike.

5) The sound of chewing bugs the heck out of me. I don't know why, but if someone is chewing around me and there are no other noises to drown them out, it makes my skin crawl. It's just NOT an appealing noise! And the worst of all of it is gum! Not only does it make that regular chewing noise, but it also snaps and pops. It's even worse if the person thinks that it's cool to chew and pop their gum with their mouths wide open! Gross!

6) I get into a lot of different hobbies and do them constantly for a short amount of time and then move on. This probably drives my family nuts, but I get super into a lot of different things and then get distracted, busy, or burnt out on it. And then the worst part is that I feel guilty about it. It has kind of made me nervous to start up new hobbies, especially ones that take some sort of investment. And yet I keep doing it. Oh well, it makes me well-rounded, right?

There we go, not too shabby, eh what?

It's WHAT time?!

So ya know that whole "Daylight Savings Time"? And ya know how that gives us an extra hour of daylight, not to mention an extra hour of sleep on the night it switches over? Well, I was really looking forward to that extra hour of sleep, especially with working my first weekend of day shift AND having 3 performances this weekend. Basically, I needed that extra hour of sleep. But here's the problem....

I forgot.

Thankfully, it was the "fall back" time instead of the "spring forward", or I would have been really hosed. As it was, I got to work this morning, put my lunch in the fridge, and look up to see my partner grinning at me and saying, "You forgot, didn't you." Forgot what?....aw *&$%! You mean I could have slept another hour?! Of course, everyone was nice enough to offer to let me go home for an hour, but I knew there was no point since I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep anyway. Plus Scott, the dispatcher I was relieving, was going to have to work a 13 hr shift because of the time change. So I decided to be nice and relieve him an hour early, since I'm getting off at 2 hrs early anyway. I just hope he'll be that nice to me some day!

But oh man, that extra hour of sleep would have felt soooooooo good.

In other news, our second performance of Anne Frank went amazingly well last night. Friday night's performance left a LOT to be desired, but last night kinda rocked. Things flowed so much more smoothly. The couple of actors who were forgetting their lines on a regular basis had worked hard yesterday to get their lines down and did a great job. And there were none of those awkward pauses where someone forgot their next line, filled with us standing up on the stage trying to look like we were suppose sitting on our thumbs staring blankly at each other. All in all, it was the most rewarding run through we've had so far, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we keep it up.

Speaking of the play, Carly mentioned to me that she saw my picture in the front page of the Baker City Herald the other day, along with some of my fellow actors. The reason I mention this is to tell you about a lovely little tradition our departments have. If you are a member of dispatch, the police department, the sheriff's office, or any of the many fire departments, and your picture is on the front page of the newspaper, you have to buy everyone ice cream. I think it's so you don't get too cocky. So, as my partner delighted in reminding me, I now have to buy ice cream for anyone who comes into dispatch...I see those little dixie cup ice creams in everyones future.

And last but not least...big news...we do not have a worthless dog! Which is highly exciting, because we were starting to wonder! Yesterday Nathan went out bird hunting with our friend Will and took Bandit along as a flusher. Until now, the only time we've taken Bandit out into the field has been with my dad's dog, Lizzie. The only problem is that having another dog along was a little distracting for Bandit, because all he wanted to do was either run or play with Lizzie...or both at the same time. But yesterday, being the only dog in the field, Bandit became a bird dog. Evidently he scented down a pheasant, pointed it out, flushed it, sniffed it out when Will shot it, and then flushed it again. Unfortunately, the shot size the boys were using was too small and didn't get the job done on the pheasant. But the important part is that Bandit is a great bird dog! Now it's just a question of whether he will retrieve when we actually down a bird. I wish I could have been there to see him work yesterday, it's so much fun to watch a dog's best instincts kick in like that.

The latest pic of Bandito with his favorite toy...what a ham!

That's all for now, stay tuned!

Looking Back

I know, I know...Halloween has already passed. But everyone is still talking about what they did for Halloween (me: slept, went to rehearsal, came home, slept) and the Halloween candy is still definitely in abundance. The more I hear my co-workers talk about what their kids did for Halloween, the more I realize...kids today have it so freakin' easy!

Around town, there were several events going on that allowed kids to safely (read: easily) get their candy. Starting early, the businesses on Main Street all have candy available, one of the retirement homes has a "party" where kids can get candy, and a couple of churches have a "Trunk or Treat". This means that kids can now hit up the equivalent of about 20 houses without leaving an area the size of approximately 2 Baker City blocks (which are smaller than normal city blocks).

Which brings me to my point...what happened to the old-fashioned tradition of schlepping yourself through multiple neighborhoods in town in order to EARN your candy?! Back when I was young enough to go trick or treating, we always went out, after dark, to several houses in various neighborhoods, just to half-way fill my little pumpkin bucket. We braved dark corners, possibly freakish people, and questionable decorations, possibly doing so in rain or even snow (not exaggerating)! We never had things like the Main Street businesses or "Trunk or Treats", where all the candy converged in a small square area.

Speaking of "Trunk or Treat"....anyone else find this even mildly disturbing? Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% positive that it's all on the up and up, and that it's a wonderful idea, but think about it. "Here little children, come to my vehicle trunk and get some candy!" (push, slam, evil cackle) For those of you who have ever seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, this brings to mind the Child Snatcher...you know, the stringy, long-nosed man dressed in all black that enticed the children with candy then trapped them in his jail cell on wheels. Yeah, kinda dark, but it makes me giggle.

Anyway, those are my last thoughts on Halloween 2007, I promise. I simply can't wrap my mind around the fact that it is already November, and that we have less than 2 months left in 2007...crazy! And can you believe I saw my first Christmas commercial of the season last night...it's not even past Thanksgiving yet!!!.......but that's a whole 'nother rant. ;)