onomatopoopa

Tonight was the Christmas party for the South Philadelphia Branch. It was a wild ride. Katie "volunteered" (according to Brother Ariizumi -- who asked Katie to do it) to write, direct, and costume a Nativity pageant for the evening. No one came to the single rehearsal, but since that's normal for the branch the script was designed for such a contingency, so the whole play was done on a wing. We'd like to say that the play went off without a hitch, but that would be a lie. However, it was awesome and we had a great time putting it together. Pictured above are two of the Primary children who played very important roles in the nativity. To the left you will see an angel, yes, that's a crooked halo that is about to poke someone in the eye, but that is quite appropriate for this particular child. And to the right--Katie's personal favorite--a sheep. We didn't take a picture of it, but the Branch had the best potluck food---EVER. (If you like eggrolls, of course.) Now that it's over, there is peace on earth (until 10am tomorrow, that is).

You can pretend like you're John and Betsy Ross. C'mon. You know you want to!

These are some of the friends we made at the Purina Challenge National Dog Show, held in Philadelphia. (Consult "Best in Show" for a documentary of what the experience is like.) We were on National Television. For this week's challenge: who knows what types of dogs we are petting? Bonus challenge: which breed of dog was our favorite?

Hi family,


We would like to give the distinguished award to the person who guessed most correctly. (Let it be known that no one was 100% right.) Honorable mention goes to Julie for the following reasons:

A. Some pumpkins were carved with power tools
B. It was at a party-type gathering
C. She guessed (quite kindly I might add) that we carved the most intricate pumpkin, which of course, we did not.
D. It was a combined effort (because Katie wouldn't know how to use a sharp object without hurting herself and because Bart wouldn't want to clean out the pumpkin guts, hee hee).

We would like to thank all of you for playing. Stay tuned for next week's game: Pin the Feather on the Hand Turkey.

P.S. We actually carved Bat Guy. The proof is in the picture.
P.P.S. the pumpkin representing Bart's profile was the pumpkin we carved last year.

Okay, we let you practice with our Sol LeWitt art. Now for a real test. For all of you who think you have a good handle on our creative styles, answer me this: which jack-o-lantern(s) did Katie and I carve?

Left to Right:
a. Little guy
b. Stupid guy
c. Bat guy
d. Derek
e. Witchy guy


P.S. If you click on the picture, it will show you a larger version so you can study it more closely.

As a special reward to those who faithfully check our blog, we have decided to announce our Christmas itinerary via the world wide web. Drumroll, please (each of you will have to make your own drumroll). Ta da!

Christmas time is here.
We want to see everyone.
Please give us a ride.

We get to ice skate,
open presents and eat food,
spend time with fam-ly.

We arrive Thursday.
December 20th, yay!
Coming to Logan.

We arrive Thursday.
December 27th.
Coming to Layton.

We leave on Tuesday.
January 2nd, boo.
Going to Philly.

Don't miss us too bad.
You can come visit us too.
We'll give you a ride.


Translation:
We will be flying into SLC on Thursday, December 20th. We plan to go directly to Logan. (So if anyone wants to pick us up from the airport at 8:25pm, please volunteer!) We'll stay in Logan until the morning of Thursday Dec 27th. (So if anyone wants to drive us to Layton, please volunteer!) We'll be in Layton until we leave on the afternoon of January 2nd. And if [read: WHEN] you come visit us in Philly, we'll give you rides anywhere you want to go (and you want to go to Pat's for cheesesteaks).


**Haiku: A poem consisting of three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second line seven syllables, and the third line five syllables.

After repeatedly expressing my fear of being pooped on by birds and Bart repeatedly making fun of me for this very real and very serious fear, I finally feel vindicated....

While walking to our car today, completely engaged in stimulating conversation about world peace, Bart stopped mid-sentence and peered into the sky. I, too, turned and looked up expecting to see some type of miracle from heaven. No. It was no miracle sitting atop the electrical wire. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It was a devilish bottom-of-the-barrel bird. When I looked closely, I saw it laughing at Bart. "Why?" you might ask. Well, that very bird had decided to have its morning bowel movement on top of my husband. Lucky bird. It was a two-parter. Not only did he get bright red disgusting fecal matter on Bart's pristinely white shirt, he also targeted the top of his head in such a way that it could drip down the back.

Moral of the story: Karma is real. You make fun of one of my fears and you're going to get pooped on by a bird.

Katie: "Did anyone comment on our blog?!"
Bart: "No. . . ."
Katie: "What is the deal? C'mon people!"
Bart: {Sorrowful silence}
Katie: "Sniff, sniff."


**Note: Granny, you are exempt from this pathetic guilt trip due to your excellent commenting record, including being the person to comment most recently.

Philadelphia, because of its long history, is the City of Firsts - the first and oldest of everything in America is here. And recently, here in Philadelphia, Katie had a first of her own . . .

Last night we walked a few blocks into Center City, ate dinner at El Azteca restaurant, and another block to see Man of La Mancha. We loved it!! I don't know how many of you have seen that musical, but we highly recommend it. The production here was great, too - excellent casting, great voices, and fantastic stage work. We saw it at the Walnut Street Theatre, Americas oldest theater (founded in 1809). {It's very cool living in a city, especially one with as much history as Philadelphia.} We saw a small production there once before, and decided to subscribe to their main stage productions this season, so we have tickets to all five of their big shows this year. Between yesterday and next June we'll see: Man of La Mancha, Peter Pan, The Odd Couple, Arther Miller's The Price, and Les Miserables. But I digress. Go see Man of La Mancha. It is both entertaining and inspiring.

After attending the temple this weekend, we remembered a video we took last month while stuck in traffic on the way to Washington, DC. No, it's not an EZ-Pass sequel--it's way better. I think we'll let the video speak for itself...


One hour and many grapes later...

The following awards and honors go out to those individuals who correctly identified the artists and their work:

Granny - Gold Star
Richelle - Ten points
Becca - Thumbs up

Valiant effort for trying: Diane.

Honorable mention for guessing the trick we should have played: Derek.

Good work everyone. Thanks for participating. We love you!

**NOTE: At the time of publication the current exchange rate was 10 points = 1 gold star = 1 thumbs up; Please check your local bank branch for the most current conversion rates.

Sunday night I made some curly fries for dinner. I brought over our plates, and Katie commented that I put more fries on her plate than on my own. To diffuse the situation, I promised that after I finished my own fries I would help her finish her fries. A few minutes later, having eaten all the french fries on my plate, I reached over toward Katie's plate to begin fulfilling my promise. She literally snatched her plate away from me, scowling. Do not, I repeat DO NOT try to eat any of Katie's fries -- not even if she asks you to.

Bart took me on a wonderful date last Friday. Thought you all would want to see what we did...

First, we like to eat--a lot. Because we like to eat so much, we get tired of the same ole foods. And because we can't afford a chef, we like to experiment making new things--ahem--and they are almost always delicious!

For our date, Bart thought it would be fun to make Indian curry. It WAS fun (and tasty). These are some pictures of our chicken curry.


After we stuffed our faces, Bart surprised me with an art project. A few weeks ago, we had visited a new museum in town and saw art that this dude Sol LeWitt made. He is an artist who thinks of himself as an artist the same way a composer or an architect is an artist. Rather than produce a finished piece of visual art, he provides a set of instructions so that you can become the artist. We used some of his instructions and made the following works of art. I'm sure the Philadelphia Museum of Art will call any day now asking to display this work...

Wall Drawing #340, 1980, Sol LeWitt:
Six-part drawing. The wall is divided horizontally and vertically into six equal parts. 1st part: On red, blue horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a circle within which are yellow vertical parallel lines; 2nd part: On yellow, red horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a square within which are blue vertical parallel lines; 3rd part: On blue, yellow horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a triangle within which are red vertical parallel lines; 4th part: On red, yellow horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a rectangle within which are blue vertical parallel lines; 5th part: On yellow, blue horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a trapezoid within which are red vertical parallel lines; 6th part: On blue, red horizontal parallel lines, and in the center, a parallelogram within which are yellow vertical parallel lines. The horizontal lines do not enter the figures.


As you can see, Bart and I have very different interpretations of quite simplistic instructions. It was really fun to create our own art and to see the other person's perspective.















P.S. Bonus points if you can guess who created which work.

2 cans Texas style biscuits (not the regular size - too small; they have to be Texas Style or Jumbo).
1 stick butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 Tbs cinnamon

Quarter the biscuits.
Mix sugar and cinnamon in a large ziploc bag.
Shake the biscuits in the cinasuger.
Put the sugar-goodness biscuits in a greased bundt pan.
Melt the butter, and mix with remaining cinasugar. Pour over top of biscuits.
Bake 350, 30 minutes.
Turn over onto plate.
Let cool for as long as you can stand to wait.

[Flanagan family conference tradition.]

P.S. And if you like those, wait until Christmas when we let you try our sweet potatoes.

P.P.S. For the sake of truth in blogging -- the bread doesn't have monkeys in it; the monkeys make the bread.

P.P.P.S. Shawn, did you say banana bread because monkeys like bananas?

I was so looking forward to today--who doesn't look forward to General Conference? One of the things I love about it is being stuck at home for the entire Saturday. As always, I decided to make a brief to-do list of things that could be done while I listened or in between sessions. Throughout the week when Bart would see if I wanted to work on a particular chore around the house, I would answer, "Nah, I'm going to do that during Conference." Needless to say, that list got pretty long:

go to the dollar store
hem curtains for closet
watch neighborhood t-ball game
clean living room
clean bathroom
make homemade chili
clean kitchen
clean bedroom
catch up on my correspondence
fill prescription
fix pillows
hem other curtains
cut Bart's hair
laundry
change sheets
fix photo albums
make monkey bread
make monkey bread for our VT/HT
make something to take to the branch potluck
fix blinds
post on blog

Including the last one, I have actually done 15 of these. Pretty incredible. And Bart kept making fun of my seemingly impossible list. Little did he know that I was going to make him help!

Since Becca and Derek cued off our Sept 19 reference and posted the shoulder parrot (very cute - go check it out on their blog if you haven't yet), we decided we better get this video up. They may have beat us on posting, but at least we celebrated on the right day.

We decided to make a blog to be like everyone else. Unfortunately we don't have any cute children to take pictures of. So instead, our lives consist mainly of amusing ourselves with inventing words and finding the humor in the banal* events around us--and the not so banal ones. We welcome your comments; there's no pressure to be as funny as us (or as self-promoting).


What you can look forward to in upcoming posts:
1) A preview of the accomodations you can expect (and ENJOY) when you come visit us in Philadelphia
2) Missionary experiences in South Philadelphia, and why we now own a club
3) Good parenting in Philadelphia
4) How we celebrate September 19th
5) Many, many pictures of us eating





*Banal: (adj.) Drearily commonplace and often predictable; trite.

I don't really know what to say in this post. I exhausted most of my creative energy in helping Bart write the other one.

Luckily, this video pretty much speaks for itself.

Onomatopoopa (ŏn'ə-măt'ə-pūp-ă)
noun
A word whose pronunciation imitates the motion or activity it is describing, suggesting its source. Examples include “yawn” and the archetype “poop”. The word is a synthesis of the Greek word "onoma" (name) and the English word "poop" (verb meaning "to defecate") thus onomatopoopa essentially means "poopy name".