How do you spell "quality"?

As part of my job responsibilities I was researching stock photography trying to find a photograph to depict "quality." I went to various websites that sell stock photography and every website I went to pulled up pictures of a slaughterhouse and/or cold cuts!

I don't know about you, but when I think "quality" my first thought is not of a slaughterhouse. While I am grateful that slaughterhouses undergo vigorous quality inspections, I just don't think that if I saw a picture of a slab of meat hanging in a freezer that my immediate thought would be, "oh that is a quality item." Seriously what is the reasoning behind the correlation of quality and dead animals? I just don't get it.

Why are you talking?

Why is it that some people think it is okay to be chatting early in the morning? I am not a morning person, nor do I pretend to be. In fact for my last 2 years of college I didn't have classes in "the single digits" (before 10 am). So I don't really get why people feel it is necessary to talk to one another prior to 8 am. (A quick "good morning" may be acceptable, that is it!)

Why am I telling you this, you may be asking? Well, last Friday morning my roommate needed a ride to the airport at 4:30 AM!! While 4:30 is early I figured that I could get up and drive her to the airport and then come home and go back to sleep for a few hours before going to work. Not a big deal. So Friday "morning" (it was pitch black outside, not even a hint of the rising sun) rolls around and we were off to the airport. I was hoping for a relatively quiet ride to the airport - you know, half asleep, no talkng, maybe a mumbled word or two. The thing is Kara is a morning person and she was WAY chatty Friday morning. Both of my roommates are morning people and really chatty. WHAT is wrong with them! Bless their hearts. I wanted to say "Why are talking!?" but I didn't. I was just too tired.

Why do people think that early in the morning is a good time for talking? Don't they know that most of us don't have all of our neurons firing? We are trying to just function and keep our eyes open, not really in the mood to talk about politics or work, not even idle chit chat.

So before you launch into a story early in the morning, think twice, make sure the person(s) that you are speaking to are morning people. Those of us who are not will thank you for your courtesy.

Family Reunions

I have to say that I just love family reunions. I realize that I may be in the minority here, but because of family reunions with my Mom's brothers and sisters, I have grown up with over 50 1st cousins that I know by name and with whom I have a relationship. As my own immediate family is "growing up" and have been scattered through out the US, we have decided that it is now time to start the tradition with our family. Thanks to Tedi, we had the 1st Annual Lorin & Trudy Clements Family Reunion over the 4th of July weekend. We had a great time. Everyone was there (minus Reubs who is serving a mission, so I guess we will excuse him this time)and it was the first time that we have all (or most of us) have been together in several years.

It was fun to play with my adorable nieces and nephews, visit with siblings I haven't seen in over a year and just enjoy being at home with my parents. I spent the nights sleeping on the trampoline like I did as a kid, swimming, playing at the river and attending a good old small town 4th of July parade... no 4th of July parade is complete with out at least 1 marching band, classic cars, politicians, horses, beauty queens, tractors & a float or two. Fun times! although I have to say that the Pasco 4th of July parade was one of the quietest parades I have ever been two. They needed some more music and definitely another marching band or two.

Friday night we enjoyed what I affectionately called "The Man Dinner." Dad smoked some pork and turkey in the smoker and then we had dutch oven potatoes and peach and apple cobbler. It was delish! We definitely ate REALLY well.

After the parade we went home and had some lunch and prepared for "Swimming Pool Olympics" Sadly I did not get any pictures of this event, but needless to say it was SUPER fun. We had to play "over & under" with a beach ball, passing over the head of one person and through the legs of the other, once the ball got to the end of the line, the last person had to run to the front and start again until we had rotated through all participants being in the back. I am surprised no one broke any bones. I have to say that my brothers and brothers-in-law are EXTREMELY competitive. We also played a form of ultimate Frisbee in the water and a game where we had to collect ping pong balls one at a time, trying to get as many balls into the basket as possible. It was pretty ridiculous, but honestly loads of fun. Other people who were also at the pool asked to join in our fun, and of course we let them. It was all fun and games until Arina got trampled at the bottom of the pool. (She decided that it would be a good idea to swim under us when playing ultimate. None of us were looking beneath us, we were just trying to win!)

Saturday we spent the day at the river - jet skiing and enjoying the water, sun and the company of siblings. We relaxed in the evening and then watched a movie outside on the back of the house. I think that almost everyone fell asleep before the movie was over.

I am so blessed to have such a fantastic family. Every time I go home I am reminded of how much I love being there. All of my worries just disappear and I am completely content. I think it must have something to do with the atmosphere of love that is there.

Anyway, much thanks to Tedi and everyone else who put it altogether. Enjoy the pics!

Miracles

I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago (or maybe months.... I don't cook very often these days) when I discovered what I consider to be a small miracle food - Lactose free cheese! Some of you may be thinking, "yeah, so, what is the big deal?" The big deal is that I am lactose intolerant . I have to say that I was a little afriad that it was going to be discusting. Turns out lactose free cheese tastes as good. It could be argued that it tastes even better than regular cheese. I am not sure the chemical processes that are involved in making cheese lactose free, but it is a miracle.

I have also come to the conclusion that it a miracle that anyone every gets married. Really if you think about it, very few relationships actually work out. If even one relationship makes it, you are lucky. Typically only one relationship ever works out. That two people ever meet, are attracted to each other, fall in love and get married is an act of God. A miracle second only to child birth.

Movies I am Embarrased to Admit I Saw & LIKED

So I was chatting with my friend a while back and in the course of our conversation he made some comment that made me think of a movie a saw a few months ago that I found totally entertaining, but am slightly embarrassed to admit that I have actually seen. It was one of those "teeny-bobber" movies that I am technically "too old" for but I was totally entertained by it. And thus an idea for my blog was born!


Honestly how many of us have seen movies that society say that we are too old for, or that seem lame based on previews, but turn out to be really funny/entertaining? For example, I absolutely LOVED the movie "John Tucker Must Die." I seriously think I watched that movie 3 or 4 times in the theater (the dollar movie, but still..)and I purchased it a few weeks ago for my own collection. Now I realize I am not in the target demographic for this movie. It is geared more toward tweens and teens, but it was SO entertaining. I also loved Syndee White, Drive Me Crazy, She's the Man, (really anything with Amanda Bynes or Hillary Duff) Beauty Shop (w/Queen Latifa).

I know that you all have some of these movies, so go ahead fess up, what are some of your 'guilty movie pleasures?'

One of "those" weeks

Where to begin, where to begin? I have so much fodder for blogging...I could rant about the intricacies of the English language, being set up on blind dates, why people seem to think that I need to be set up on blind dates, hanging out at the ER listening to a patient who OD'd on heroin, old friends, or maybe something else. But I think I choose something else.

This week started off on a bit of "bad note" one might say. You see Sunday night I was just beginning to wind down the weekend and was psyching myself up for the upcoming work week when I had to accompany my roommate to the ER....no she was not the patient who OD'd on heroin. She has been having some heart problems and she had really severe chest pain. If you ever want to get immediate attention at the hospital, tell them you are having chest pain or that you had numbness on one side, preferably the left... They take you right back. Anyway, the unfortunate side effect when you have chest pain is that they run ALL kinds of test that take hours and hours. I mean, how long does it take to decide if you need to keep someone at the hospital? Six hours, that is how long that it took, so my plan to go to bed early was foiled. Well, technically I guess I did go to bed early, early in the morning! It was past 2:30am when I final was able to go home and get some rest... Trying to sleep curled up in the ER chair just was not cutting it.

Anyway, because I was totally sleep deprived on Sunday night, my whole week has been off! I am totally dragging and it doesn't matter how much sleep I get, I just can't feel rested. Also I have been EXTREMELY grumpy with the whole world. Monday I was so tired that I really hated everyone! The last time I could recall being that grumpy was when I stayed awake for 48 hours straight! It was kind of funny, but not really. Typically I am a pretty easy-going friendly kind of gal. Not Monday! Even I could not believe how cranky I was and I wasn't even menstrual. It was "a Clements not eating for a week" kind of bad. (and for those of you who live with or are a Clements, you know what I am talking about - NOT Pretty!)

I guess the moral of today's story is don't be a good friend. If your friend has to go to the ER on a Sunday evening (or any evening for that matter), tell them "See you later, sucker. I need my beauty sleep!" er, I mean you just go, but perhaps you should invest in a warning label for everyone else around you and be prepared to have one of "those" weeks.

What is with name suffixes?

So two weeks ago I was sitting in a VERY cramped venue attending my sister's college graduation convocation. My knees were sticking 3 inches over the seat in front of me and I was trying mighty hard not to inadvertently bump the poor kid in front of me in the back of his head. I had been sitting there for what felt like hours (it probably had been at least 1 hour) and I was zone out, wondering if it was ever going to end, when I hear a name read for some kid, followed by the suffix "the thirteenth."

The 13th?!! Is someone kidding me?! At first I thought I had heard wrong, so I turned to my mom and asked if she had also heard the 13th. She confirmed that I was not crazy(at least not then), so did the guy in front of her. Sadly some poor schumck had the unfortunate name of "John Smith, the 13th" (or some name similar to that). While I get the whole idea of passing along a name from one generation to another, or naming a child after a relative, don't you think that there comes a time when it is just ridiculous? Personally I think it becomes ridiculous at "the 3rd", even more ridiculous at the 4th and 5th, BUT a 13th? That is "off the charts" ridiculous, and I am not even talking about the ramifications of such a "unlucky" number.

Seriously, who do these people think they are? The only people with suffixes that high are kings who lived way back in "the day." Think Louis XVI, etc. Last time I checked we didn't have kings in America, but kudos to those who are holding out for a monarchy in the US. Best wishes to them but I hope they don't hold their breath.

Further, think about the pressure on the person who decides to break that chain. They would be ruining a tradition spanning ~400 years (based on the assumption of each generation beginning 30 years after the preceeding generation). That is a lot of pressure! All I am saying is that I hope there is some SERIOUS trust fund cash involved in keeping that family tradition alive, otherwise someone needs to pull the plug and end that madness!

So for all you folks out there with a little bun in the oven or who are contemplating the naming of your posterity, use a little creativity! I am not saying go crazy and make up names and spellings that are going to get your kid beat up, but mix it up a little. Give the kid mom or dad's name as a middle name or have the share the same middle name. If you really feel the urge to "pass on the family name" resist the urge to have a "Junior" or "the 3rd" running around. Give the kid a name that is unique to them (at least amongst the blood relatives.)