My Office Does "The Office"

So, I'm sure you've heard of the NBC Sitcom "The Office." It's a hilarious spoof on modern office life and everyone who I work with at my own office loves it. In fact, we love it so much, that we decided to dress up as characters from the show for Halloween. And someone was nice enough to take a picture of us, in our warehouse, ironically enough, stuffed with printed paper products.

To add to the merriment, we also decorated our office space with pictures from The Office including a "World's Best Boss" mug and Official Seiko Timepiece Certification for our Michael Scott, a Dwight Bobble-head for our Dwight Schrute and more cat pictures than I could even imagine for our Angela. We even had the whole thing topped off with sign at the entrance to our area of the building that said "Welcome to Dunder Mifflin Scranton."

While we didn't have all the characters (we're missing a Kevin, an Oscar, a Creed, a Stanley and a Toby) we do have several. See if you can name them! That is if you watch The Office. And if you don't you really should. It's hilarious.

By the way, I'm including a picture of the real characters so you can see the comparison. Some of our characters are pretty close. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Angela and I carved our annual Halloween pumpkin last night. While it's a bit hard to see based on the photos, the pumpkin is supposed to be a singing pumpkin. As usual, we watched Nightmare Before Christmas and enjoyed pulling guts out of the pumpkin.

I'll have some pictures up from today's activities at work. I dressed up like Dwight from the NBC sitcom "The Office" as part of my entire department's efforts to turn our part of the building into the Dunder Mifflin Branch depicted on the show. It's hilarious.

Anyway, enjoy and have a spooky halloween!

Do You See What I See?

So, um, yeah. This post has been up here forever without any supporting text. I should probably put some in, so here goes:

This picture was taken before the weekly, Thursday night rehearsal of the Tabernacle Choir. As you can (or maybe can't) see, the orchestra is rehearsing and Craig, as usual, is telling all the arriving choir members to please be quiet. Boisterous group that Tabernacle Choir.

Since I usually arrive pretty early (my office is about 15 minutes from the Tabernacle) I get to sit there and soak in the spirit of the empty tabernacle. Well, not completely empty, but not filled with people either. It's a fun experience to just sit there and ponder. And for anyone who knows me, they know I like to ponder.

Anyway, thought you'd like to see this. I'll be posting about our trip to L.A. next weekend (Go Trojans!) and then about the Holiday Concert with the choir. Since the King's Singers are coming, I hope to snap a few fun pics for all of you to see.

Eat. See a Show. Repeat.

As I'm sure all four of my faithful readers know, Angela and I visit New York every year. We love it. It's where we went for our honeymoon and we go back every year to enjoy the sights, sounds, food and wonder of the big city. The smells...not so much.

But before we get to all the hippity-do in the city, we usually spend a few days with Angela's sister Heather and her family on Long Island. Heather and Daniel have two children, Isabel and Aubree. Aubree is 2 and a half and is the wildest, craziest little girl I've ever met. She's also lots of fun and she and I got along famously, as you can see by the picture below.

While on Long Island, we also visited the beach near Heather and Daniel's home. I've never been to a beach this far north, and it was interesting to note just how rocky the shores are and how cold the water was at first (you get used to it after a while.) Yes, that means I spent some time in the water.

Daniel and I went out and did some light body surfing in the waves and that was fun. At one point, I was even brave enough to dive head first into the oncoming wave and swim through it. However, when we tried to get Angela into the water, she came out for a little bit and we discovered that she was, um, too short to stand up to the oncoming water. So, we tried to get her back to shore, but unfortunately we were slightly washed under by the water and she was driven into the rocky ground, scraping up her leg. As I tried to pick her up, another wave hit and slammed my head directly into Angela's back. Fortunately, that got Angela moving and she was able to get out of the water without further incident. Unfortunately for me, I was a little dazed for the rest of the day, but I'm still in full control of my faculties. I think.

The beach was also significant as the memorial for TWA flight 800 is located at the beach. It was just off the shore that we were swimming in where the plane went down. As usual, the memorial was solemn, but it was also quite interesting. The entire story of the flight was etched into the marble along several different panels giving it a certain permanence.

Upon leaving Long Island, we made the trek into the city where it was our plan to see three shows and eat at three different restaurants. On our first night, we visited Serendipity. This is also tradition for us as we discovered this place a few years ago on a trip and must return each year. They are famous for their desserts (including the Golden Opulence Sundae. Cost: $1000) as well as their Frozen Hot Chocolate. But the best part? They have this remarkable open-faced turkey sandwich that is divine. It has brie cheese, russian dressing, fresh apples, sprouts all on raisin-pumpernickel bread. Oh yeah, it's so good.

The statue below was looming over us while we were eating. It's kitschy (you know, like most modern restaurants, the walls are decorated with stylized junk) and this particular head was our dinner companion. Plus, it's got a vine coming out it's nose, because, dinner isn't complete unless it comes complete with a giant stone head that has foliage protruding from it's orifices

After Serendipity, we saw the revival of Les Miserables. It's by far the best Les Miz cast I've ever seen. The show had a life and vitality that I had not really seen before. Not to mention the fact that Lea Salonga (the original Eponine on the London Cast Recording) was now playing Fantine so that made it really fun to watch. I was truly stunned at how good this show was.

The next day, we had lunch at Trattoria Trecolori (below) an Italian joint just off Times Square. It. Was. Awesome. It's the best Italian I've ever had. As usual, I had my shrimp fettucine alfredo, and at this restaurant, they actually butterfly the shrimp and remove the inedible tails. Amazing! Plus, it was fresh, savory and reasonably priced. I would go back in a heartbeat. As you can tell, Angela really enjoyed her meal as well.

Following lunch at the Italian joint, we went to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." For the most part, it was hilarious. The best part of the show was that as the fictional contestants were given a word, they would almost always ask for the definition and for the use of the word in a sentence. For example, one of the words was "jihad." When asked for a definition, the judge gave the answer: "any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle." When asked to use it in a sentence, the judge replied: "Billy, let's get away from this wailing wall. There is a jihad about to begin on the other side."

However, the show did have some parts that were over-the-top and, I thought, inappropriate for a family show, but that's just me. Later on in the show, it tries to delve into the psyche of children and comes off a little sanctimonious. But hey, the definitions and sentences were funny.

To conclude our trip, we ate a the famous Johnny and Frankie's Steakhouse (good, not great) and saw the wonderful Curtains with David Hyde Pierce. The show is a murder mystery, but gosh darn it, if it isn't so upbeat and pleasant that I found myself enjoying every minute of it. And David Hyde Pierce is so excellent that the stage simply lights up whenever he's on it. Here's hoping he stays on Broadway for a while.

So, there you have it. Next year, I think we may do something very similar...

I'm a Web 2.0 Junkie

So, I'm scouring the web for all the fun little bells and whistles I can post on my blog. You'll notice now that you can see my mood and my facebook page (you must get on facebook--I have so few friends on there now) and other fun stuff may show up in the future. Mostly, it's a way to keep me entertained on a boring Friday afternoon where I am LITERALLY one of two people here. Hopefully, you can peruse and enjoy. And add me to your facebook friends list. I seriously need some more friends.

August 16, 2002. Five Years Ago Today.

It's been five years since I took my sweetheart Angela to the temple to be married. I remember the day vividly as I count it as the most memorable day of my life, if not the most memorable for plenty of reasons, but mostly because I don't think I've been happier than on that day.

As a memory, here are five things I remember about that day, and five things I love about Angela (that you may or may not know about.)

About that day:

• Sitting in the Celestial Room waiting to go in - I remember Angie and I sitting in there and just talking about whatever. We were, as per our usual, checking out all the other couples to be married. Many of them were very quiet and one couple in particular looked as though they hadn't spoken, let alone to each other, for many years. We marveled that you could be that stoic on your wedding day.
• Picking up McDonald's on the way to the temple - Anyone who knows me, knows I have a weakness for breakfast sandwiches. Angie and I drove together downtown and on the way stopped at McDonald's for breakfast. If I remember correctly, we had a coupon to use and it expired on our wedding day.
  
• Waiting in the "Groom's Hall" for Angie - Before you go outside to get your picture taken, there's a hall where all the grooms sit and wait for their new brides. I remember sitting in there and seeing Angie come down the hall and having the older brother who was watching the hall say "Whoo! Caught a good one, didn't ya?"
• The infamous garter scandal - You may remember that I had a bit of a time trying to take Angela's garter off to do the customary throwing. In fact, one of my favorite pictures has me with head stuck up under the dress, Angela laughing her head off and her brothers Mark and Trent howling in the background. I'm not sure I'll ever live that down.
• Don't drop the glass - When we did the arm linking and drinking of the customary sparkling apple cider, the only thing I could think was: "don't spill! don't spill! don't spill! don't spill! don't spill!" Fortunately, I didn't spill.
  

About Angela:

• Angela is one of the kindest people I know. More than willing to help out with anything, she's routinely taking on more than she needs to, just to help family, friends and even people she doesn't know. She's always considerate of others feelings (especially mine) and always shows forth a great deal of compassion.
• We love the same things. Angela is essentially me in girl form. The fact that we love doing the same things together really strengthens our relationship. We never fight about how to spend our free time together and it's usually very easy for us to decide what to do.
  
• Her priorities. Angela has always had them straight, which really helps me. I've never doubted for a second that I'm the most important person in her life and that she cares about me more than she cares about herself. She's routinely spoiling me with gifts and other things, but more than that, she's always considerate of my requests and my idiosyncrasies.
  
• Her energy. Since I'm such a low energy guy, Angela brings a great deal of balance to my life. She's always had an effervescent personality, but her energy and excitement and bubbliness (if that's a word) always keep me in positive spirits. And for a slightly brooding and serious person like myself, it's refreshing to spend so much time with someone with a little more bounce in their step.
• Her curiosity. Since Angela comes from a small town in rural Utah, it's been fun for me to educate her about city life. For example, I've been able to introduce her to all sorts of new cuisine that she had never considered and she's almost always tried it, if not enjoyed it (sushi notwithstanding.) But watching her maintain an almost child-like curiosity about things has really opened my eyes and made me look at things with a new point of view.

I love you sweetie! Happy Anniversary!

It's Up to You New York

This blurry picture was taken of Heather, Daniel and Aubree Adams as we went to visit them at their home on Long Island. Every year, we head out to their place to spend a couple days and then head into the city to catch a few shows. This year, we started off our trip with a visit to Cozymel--apparently, the only Mexican Restaurant on Long Island that's worth eating. The food was great! After hours of airplane fare, it felt like a real meal.

I have several more photos to post about this trip later, but suffice it to say, we had a great time.