So, Funny Story.

I was heading out to a friend's house today with my brother and I mentioned that he had mail in our parents mailbox. So we drove over to their house and pulled right up to the mailbox and, by accident, he barely and I do mean BARELY touched the thing with his passenger-side mirror and the mailbox, the one stacked on top of concrete bricks, completely toppled over. It was pretty funny, but that's not the funny part. It gets better.

As soon as the mailbox was on the ground a swarm of red wasps flew out of one of the bricks and went crazy. My brother quickly backed up the car and was ready to just leave. I insisted that he stay and fix the mailbox. After all, it IS pretty rude to drive up to a house, knock over the mailbox and then just drive away, even if the house does belong to your parents. Anyway, my brother insisted that there was no way he was going to fix the thing what with all those red wasps flying everywhere. So, not wanting to be rude, I had to turn all brave and stupid and climb out of the car. I went over to the mailbox and was about to fix it when I noticed a HUGE nest tucked into one of the bricks. I decided it would probably be better to wait until the wasps were gone. ...I'm not sure why but I stood there for a while, figuring this all out. And you know what they say "Don't bother them and they won't bother you?" Yeah, I figured I'd be good since I wasn't really doing anything but standing there.

Eventually Jacob climbed out of the car too and kept saying things like "You're going to get stung!" and "Don't stand so close!" but, of course, I had to just stand there. And then, after standing there for a while, I had to get a picture. And then when I was done we climbed back into the car and as we were pulling out of the driveway I felt a sharp pain on my knee. So, I screamed. ..No, it was less like a scream and more like a yell, but not quite a yell ...What is that called? ..I don't know. Anyway I yelled and yelled again when I felt another sharp pain, and another.

My brother pulled the I-told-you-so and asked why I was still yelling. "You have no idea how badly this hurts!" I yelled not understanding why it felt like someone was continually poking me with a needle. My brother then asked, "Is it like paper cut hurt or more like child bearing hurt?" And I know I had no right to say it, because I don't have any children. But I yelled out my answer and continued to yell. I explained to him that I thought that the stinger had gotten stuck and that it was still poking me. After yelling for a while longer I managed to pull up my pant leg and see the dime sized puffy skin around my knee. I had been stung in four spots. I lifted my leg up on the dashboard to get a better look and I yelled again.

I was convinced that the stinger was loose inside my pants and that it had just pinched my upper thigh. My brother stopped the car and told me that I should try and shake the stinger out. I wasn't going to, but the car was already stopped and the whole stinging thing REALLY hurt! So I opened the door and attempted to shake the thing out. When it didn't work I asked my brother to look away and I proceeded to undo my pants and... well, pull them down. So I did. And this is what I found:



!!!!!!!!!!!

I was stung six times. One on my knee, three on my upper calf, and two on my upper thigh. ...I guess it's a good thing I'm not allergic to the stings of the red wasp. The whole idea of having a wasp crawling up your pants and stinging you consistently in the leg is really ....bizarre and I'm shivering juts thinking about it. But for some odd reason, despite what I wrote, I was actually laughing the whole time, in between my yelling that is. It was pretty funny if you think about it. And the whole time I was thinking about what it would be like to tell this story to other people. Anyways. That's the end of my story. The stinging didn't stop hurting until... Well. Actually. It still kind of hurts. But it will go away. I'm not worried. I guess the moral of this story is that when you see a swarm of wasps ...stay in your car.

The Results.

SEE ABOVE POST
Not that you particularly WANT to see my hairy legs...








Yeah. It was pretty bad. Oh well.

Despicable Me.

I saw my second Steve Carell movie today. No wait, third. I watched Betwitched yesterday.

And since I don't feel like describing the movie to you I'll just give you the generic version from Universal Pictures. Hope you don't mind.

"In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst (I like that word) to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon. (Yes, the moon!) Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes."

This movie is rated PG for "rude humor and mild action." Whatever that means. I don't remember anything particularly bad happening. I love the soundtrack and I LOVE the main characters (but not the other bad guy. He was weird. And orange). But I thought the movie was hilarious and I'd probably give it an A. It wasn't my all-time favorite but it was really funny and it had a really good message.

Want to Know Something Funny?

In my bedroom... No reception.


In the middle of a dried-up creek... Full reception.

My Weekend...

My car broke down and we had to tow it home.
But don't worry, it will get fixed.
I got to spend time with my brother who rescued me.
My little sister had a birthday.
My little brother had a birthday.
I'm one step closer to the job I want.
I get to give a talk on Sunday.
And yeah... That's about it.

Got Boredom?

Well, I did. Lots of it. Yesterday. So, naturally, I went over to where my brother was and asked that he make me "un-bored". At his suggestion we went to the nearest cheap-seats and watched three movies in a row. At my insistence, we went to my parents house first and had a bit of ice-cream. After that we hit the road to see the movies.

We watched Killers first, Iron Man 2 second, and Shrek Forever After last. Iron Man 2 was the only one I hadn't seen before and I actually kind of liked it. I mean, I'm not huge into superheroes but it was good. Killers was hilarious and Shrek Forever after (in my brothers own words) was "the closest thing you can get to being a chick-flick without actually being a chick-flick." But yeah, I think he liked it.

Iron Man 2 is rated PG-13 and, like I said, it was alright. If I hadn't been with my brother I probably wouldn't have watched it but anyways. I kind of thought the plot was a little drastic and unbelievable, at least some of the characters were. The bad guy somehow magically knew how to crack every code in every computer and how to build these huge gargantuan robots and I thought it was rather silly. And he kind of reminded me of the uncle on Spy Kids and so it was very hard to take him seriously. And then of course all of the cool graphics were a little over the top and a bit much, but cool nonetheless. I'd probably give it a C. I hope nobody is offended by that...

Killers is a hilarious story about a man named Spencer and a woman named Jen. Spencer (Ashton Kutcher) is a handsome, rich guy -with a very nice car -who just wants to lay down some roots. Jen (Katherine Heigl) is a normal, average, and rather awkward girl who lives a rather normal and average life. After a lovely vacation in France the two decide to get married. But here's the catch, Spencer has a secret and it's coming back to haunt him. The couple now has the horrible task of dodging Spencer's past and in coping with their future as husband and wife. ...I mean, what would you do if your husband was a former assassin? Killers is rated PG-13 for violence and language. I'd probably give this movie a B- or C+. I'm not sure which though. The language and violence was bad but the story was good.

Dear Abby.

...Have you ever made a mistake, one that at first you didn't realize you were making until it was too late?

Here, let me put it this way. Have you ever slid your car into reverse and started backing out and in those few moments it takes you to turn your head around, you run into something and smash your bumper? Or have you ever rounded a corner in a store with a shopping cart and slammed right into the person waiting on the other side just because you were in a bit of a hurry? Or have you ever planned something with a large group of people and because you forgot a few 'minor' details everything goes horribly wrong?

What do you do when you receive that dent in your car? Or when you crash into a stranger's shopping cart? I mean, what do you do when someone looks up at you and says, "Hey, you made a mistake." ...Do you retire from ever driving again to avoid any more dents? Do you refuse to buy groceries simply because you can't steer a shopping cart? I mean, I know what they say about the horse that threw you ...you have to get back on, but what happens when the horse won't let you back on? Or when you're so traumatized by the fall that you can't seem to get yourself to try again. Ever. ...What do you do then?

..I can imagine what you might be thinking. Mistakes are part of being human. Everyone makes mistakes. You just have to learn from them and move on. And although I agree with that, I can't say that it's entirely that easy. I mean, what if your mistake actually caused some damage? What if it wasn't just the car that you dented? Or the activity that you spoiled? What if it was something more? ..What do you do then? Apologize? Somehow that doesn't seem enough..

I guess all I'm trying to say is, do you have any advice?

Gone Bowling.

My family and I went bowling tonight. This is Haylee. As you can see she had a really hard time bowling. Even WITH the bumpers she only ever knocked a couple of pins over. Anyways. I managed to catch this on film and I wanted to share.