remember that banana

Today is the Great American Grump Out Day when one is supposed to try
to go for 24 hours without being grumpy, crabby, or rude. Of course,
missionaries are supposed to go 24 MONTHS,eh? And frankly, disciples
are supposed to go for LIFE. According to the Grump Out website I
visited (and I believe them), choosing to be un-grumpy can strengthen
your immune system, diminish tension in your central nervous system,
relax your body, improve circulation, reduce stress hormones, and
possibly help in making new friends. For help surviving those 24
Un-grumpy Hours (Months, years – yikes!) they suggest Number 1, wear
a smile. Secondly, carry a banana around with you. (If going for
Months, Years, etc, I would suggest frequent changing of the banana –
DO NOT carry the same banana around with you your whole mission!!!)
The banana is the Grump – Out's official fruit. It provides good
nutrition. And if you hold it up correctly, it is a smile. In the
event that one experiences discomfort with this Grump – Out business,
one can turn that smiley banana upside down and stare at it for a
moment when no one is looking.

One can get a lot of free games on an iPod. Kent put some on and I
found a couple more. I spent most of the week last week during my
commute catapulting penguins. The back story - shown in a little
cartoon at the beginning – is that the polar bears bowled down some
penguins with a snowball, captured them and have them in a cage. Our
heroic penguins are trying to rescue their friends by being catapulted
at the bears and knocking them out of the picture. It takes several
missions to rescue the penguins. For each mission you have a set
number of penguins, who – wearing their cute little but useless as far
as I can tell hard hats, - lower themselves down to swing from a rope
over the catapult. You tap the screen to launch the catapult. If you
time it right, the penguin flies out the tunnel. If not, it's penguin
on the rocks. After a certain level, you earn an upgrade and try to
launch your penguins through a flaming ring in the tunnel so that you
get flaming penguins who can melt ice. Once all your penguins have
been catapulted, you switch to where some polar bears are - some
standing under rock ledges or ice bridges. You signal your
(surviving) penguins when to dive to hit a bear or break through the
ice or push a button. If you whack out enough bears, you move on to
the next, more difficult level. Like I said, it took me a week of
commuting to save my penguins. (Don't think about the casualty rate!)
While waiting in line at Costco Saturday, I showed it to Joseph. In
line, walking through the parking lot, and in the car, he solved it in
little over an hour. We showed Ben who solved it in less than an
hour. Sunday, Debi breezed through it in minutes. Plus a few other
games. Boy, do I feel old and lame.

The house is almost straightened up enough that I should sign up to
feed the missionaries. Must find time and energy. And then there is
this thing about missionaries always wanting to challenge you to do
missionary work. Hate that part. Not that I am theoretically opposed
to doing missionary work, the gospel is true and all , but I am not
such a great person that people are falling all over themselves to
find out why I am special and all that. It is not always easy to find
openings for a missionary moment.