Testify

So testimony meeting is always agonizing. Nobody actually testifies, they just get up there and give mini talks about stuff that happened to them. It's like show and tell. Most people just want to talk about shit in their life, and somehow tie it into the gospel. Many times people forget to tie it into the gospel at all. Many people just get up there and talk about how they love the ward so much, or how they love their family. Mel and I keep score: Team Jesus and Team Storytime. Team Storytime usually wins.

So yesterday was probably the absolute best example of what drives me nuts about testimony meeting. It went 15 minutes late, 4 people took at least 5 minutes, and only 3 people strictly bore testimony.

The best part was this huge old man, maybe 60 years old gets up there and just starts telling this story about when he was a young man, just out of the police academy. He had to make an arrest in a bar, and one of the bar patrons said, "You don't have to go with that pig." And he said to the congregation, "What would you do in this situation...I said, 'yes you do!'" He went on to tell us about the knock-down drag-out fight he had with this criminal. How his glasses got busted and he was bleeding all over the place, then he said a little prayer and the culprit promptly gave in.

He then said, "You can do anything. Never give up. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Melanie and I sat there with our mouths open. I was trying to stifle my laughter. THE NEXT 2 TESTIFIERS BOTH COMMENTED ON HOW GOOD HIS TESTIMONY WAS!??

I just can't believe people think they are actually edifying others when they make the meeting about themselves and not about Jesus. Also, I can't believe some people feel edified by this fluff. Honestly people, follow the example of the General Authorities. They've got way more to say than us, but they never go over time, and they never vary from strictly talking about the gospel when they testify.

Team Storytime : 14 Team Jesus : 3

youtube

It's driving me crazy. Everything is a copyright infringement. I just had my anniversary video taken down for using a Rivers Cuomo song. I don't understand.

Is Weezer complaining? Is it just a general thing they are regulating right now? Is it cause I used the whole song? I have other songs that I used just parts of, and they were not taken down.

The funny thing about it is I had a friend who saw the video. He likes Weezer and had never heard of Rivers' solo album. He went out and bought it. You're welcome for the free advertising. I had the same video loaded on facebook, and they took it down. My blog is the last known location. Please don't take it down. Please.

Oh, by the way. I didn't blog about the Weezer concert yet, but it was awesome.

Second Trip to NYC

Well, Mel and I were fortunate enough to get a free trip to NYC this last week. My company did a seminar there in Manhattan and we went out a few days early and spent them all with Rake, Jeagan, and Piper.

We had fun hanging out in Times Square. We went to a Knicks game as well. I wasn't too impressed with Madison Square Garden. It's kind of a dump. We had a 6:15 am flight Sunday morning so Reagan and Mel stayed up all night talking. Jake and I both got an hour or two in. Reagan and Mel were having a wild time. I kept on waking up to their giggles. Reminded me of Reagan/Deanna days growing up.

Piper is amazing. I can't believe how much progress she has made. When we first walked into her room she puked all over the place (which was especially funny to me, 'cause I am reading a book by Hamburger where he talks about puking every time he gets super excited). She is pretty strong and her personality is so cute. She has this little DVD player that showcases a low-budget Sleeping Beauty animated movie. Piper is obsessed with it. Her nurse turned it on and she freaked out, rolled over and grabbed the DVD player and pulled it in close. She has a chair that she sits in at school and just bangs stuff together. She can't get enough of that noise.

We ate like crazy. My stomach felt so heavy. Pizza, burgers, fries, falaffle (sp?), Dunkin' Donuts, etc. Mel and I rode the subway ourselves. Not too bad. Reagan had stories of other friends that have visited them and couldn't follow directions or find their way around. I rode the subway in DC by myself when I was 10 so I guess this wasn't too big of a deal. You really get harassed by bums in the train cars though, and people don't talk. I tried to talk to my neighbor and he completely ignored me. I guess it's because most people that talk to strangers on the trains are nuts. I am crazy, but not the scary kind.

We had lots of fun and once again wish we could have stayed longer.

First Anniversary!!!

The Show Must Go On

Great song by Queen, although I don't know if it has anything to do with my blog. Melanie keeps bugging me, "You never blog anymore." [Marge Simpson voice] so here I go with possibly my worst blog ever since I have nothing interesting to say [sarcasm, everything I say is interesting], but am striving to satisfy the powers that be.

I got my first birdie of my life, yesterday. I was playing with Bret Allen at Cedar Hills. It was a par 4. I crushed my tee shot and was on the green in 2 about 30 feet from the pin. I had a good line, but not enough distance and left it about 6 feet short, but sunk it for par. "But Nate, you said you got a birdie?!!", you may be saying. Well I thought it was a par 4, cause that's what the sign said, but they had recently made it a par 5 as the scorecard indicated. I didn't even know until about 30 seconds after I sunk my putt. Pretty exciting. Please don't ask what my final score was.

Mel quit her job as a personal assistant and is now working as a secretary for a collections agency. She is still looking. She is interested in working for a private school as a receptionist, or once again being a nanny. Cross your fingers.

We spent the 4th of July in Pocatello, Idaho for Jon Lowry's wedding and a night of fireworks with cousin Jeff. That's all I have to say about that.

We have spent a lot of time with Mel's sister's family. They are gracious enough to treat us to dinners and RSL soccer games (also Jeff Dodge ends up with spare tickets and has invited us a few times). We have a lot of fun with them, and of course enjoy every minute of Ella who has recently discovered how funny tantrums are.

We are excited for the upcoming Palmer Reunion. All my sisters will be in town with their spouses. I think this is the most complete a Baker family gathering will be since Christmas 2005 (pre-Melanie, Jake, Pyper, and baby Kate). The whole family will be there, minus precious little Pippy who will most likely spend the week relaxing and kicking her feet.

An Accident and a Mouse Hunt

So, I am trying to catch up on my blogging. Both of these events happened last week, but I couldn't find time to write about them with Mel's parents in town, and me busy at work.So we were traveling about 70 mph when this 10 lb piece of metal was kicked up by a diesel truck and flew into our windshield. It seems to be one of those stands that trailers rest on, when they aren't hooked up to a truck. Anyways, the base of it penetrated through our windshield and got stuck in the dash, while the shaft crashed into the windshield kind of flatly, so it didn't poke through. I wonder if it had hit another way, would it have penetrated right through and jacked me up? We are lucky/unlucky, depending on how you look at it.

So we had a mouse, which we sadly killed since Wal-Mart's humane traps were out of stock. So we thought we were done with mice. Melanie was cleaning up and found another, much to her distaste. She was almost in tears. We brought Danny the wonderpet in, who sniffed the mouse out and chased it into the bathroom. Me and Danny cornered it, and did tag-team like on the poor rodent. Danny snatched it up in her mouth, but lost control. I followed up by dropping a box on it, with it's poor little legs sticking out like the Wicked Witch from the East. I picked up the box and Danny put it out of his misery. Kind of sad, but very exciting.

Mel's parents are in town, and we've had a righteous time. We went to see Indiana Jones yesterday, which was embarrassing, but we still had a lot of fun laughing at it. Reminded me of the Temple of Doom video game we had as kids on our Apple IIC.

New York

Well, it was cool trip, but not really what I expected from NYC. For instance:

We didn't any Ninja Turtles
We didn't see a Troll in Central Park
I didn't even see a Rat!

But we did see a lot of Pippy, and a Yankees Game. It was a lot of fun chumming it up with Rake and Jeagan, as Mel accidentally calls them from time to time.

Melanie's First Race

Melanie ran in the SLC 5K last Saturday. She decided she really liked running about 2 months ago. She ran it in 31:18. It was a good experience for her and she was nervous. This d-bag really ran the whole race with the Spider-Man costume on, mask and all. Eventually she wants to run a half-marathon. Can't wait for the next one.

Sabrina

So Melanie's friend Sabrina totally hates Steve Erkle and Andy Milonakis. I am serious, she doesn't just think they are annoying, she gets angry and passionate when she sees them on the tube. Screaming, "I HATE that faggot!" is her socially incorrect reaction to them.

Does anyone else think this is weird? Especially coming from someone who thinks Wild 'N' Out and Yo' Momma are hilarious shows? Anyways, I just thought I might get a laugh out of Mel using photo-shop.

Trip to St. George

Anybody want to know how crazy our trip was? One of our friends got a life-time ban from the Oasis Hotel & Casino in Mesquite. Pretty good stuff.

SNL

So when Mel and I found out that Jonah Hill was hosting Saturday Night Live, we decided to tune in. You have to understand that growing up I was a huge SNL fan, up until probably about the time Will Ferrell left. I had only watched 1 episode in the last few years, when Peyton Manning hosted which actually was a very funny installment.

SNL seems to go through cycles. The actors become stars, the show peaks, then the actors leave. The show then stinks for a little while until they start building up the new crop. Like I said I stopped when Will Ferrell left with the intention of coming back when the show was good again. It has been so long, so what better time to come back to SNL than with Jonah Hill hosting?

It was awful. It was like a bad episode of Mad TV, and that's bad! The skits were horribly written and terribly executed. The only saving grace whatsoever was the news spot, minus the 2 minute plug for Barack Obama. It really shouldn't be this bad. The show has talent in Poehler, Samberg, Hader and Armisen. I will give it another chance when Christopher Walken hosts next month. I just don't know if I can handle the disappointment.

Recent News

Well, we've had a busy few weeks. We attended Nate and Kylie's wedding where Melanie was a bride's maid, and I was a groom's man. It was fun. We are so happy for them, and Kylie looked so pretty. We have spent a lot of time with them over the last year, and now they have made a more permanent move to St. George so we are sad about that. We are excited to have them visit this weekend.


At the Jazz Game

Melanie's taken up sewing. She's really good at it. She is taking a beginners course and made several useful things: pillow cases, pajama pants, dish towels, and blankets. I have been occupying my time watching Tennessee and BYU beat most everybody in their path, and I have been reading a lot. I am currently reading The Creature from Jekyll Island. Pretty good stuff

The biggest news is that we are moving, which I am excited/not excited about. My house proved to be a bad investment when the market took a downturn. I'm OK, I will break even on it, but it's upsetting because we had potential to make a lot, and my partner is probably going to hurt some from the deal. We are most likely moving to Alpine now. We wanted to live a bit farther South, but my company has a vacant house here that needs tenants, so they are hooking us up. I am glad to be moving from Suncrest, though I hate the process of moving. This seems to be the worst winter people can remember, and rest assured it was worse on the mountain:



So we will probably be moving by the end of the month. Anybody want to help?

My Favorite Movies

I guess since I am totally obsessed with film, my first blog should be about my favorite movies. These are all by category. I believe that Godfather is the best crime, and drama, but there is only 1 category per flick.

Overall – Godfather
Documentary – New York Doll, honorable mention King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Romance – Gone With the Wind
Romantic Comedy – Annie Hall
Comedy – Raising Arizona, honorable mention Forrest Gump
Dark Comedy – The Big Lebowski, honorable mention Rushmore
"Stupid" Comedy - Superbad
Sports – Raging Bull, honorable mention Rocky
Sports Comedy – Major League
Drama – Shawshank Redemption
Thriller – Taxi Driver
Adventure – The Great Escape
Action – Gladiator
“Pure” Action – Die Hard
Biography – Walk the Line, honorable mention Cinderella Man
Foreign – Cidade de Deus, honorable mention Life is beautiful
Crime – The Departed, honorable mention Goodfellas
Fantasy – The Wizard of Oz
Horror – Alien (pretty dumb by today's standards)
Indy – Apocalypse Now
Musical – The Blues Brothers, honorable mention The Pick of Destiny
Mystery – The Sixth Sense
SciFi – The Empire Strikes Back, honorable mention Donnie Darko
Western – Lonesome Dove, honorable mention Tombstone
War – The Deer Hunter

I imagine people might say, "What!? Is he crazy? Casablanca is the greatest romance of all time." Just keep in mind, this is my opinion and I haven't seen every movie...yet.