Anne - here it is:

I consumed 2 (TWO) of your diet colas.  I will return this evening PROMPTLY with a CASE of diet cola - please join with me in its consumption.

See, the fact is I had a rather salty meal… and the diet cola was calling out to me…

-Amy

Kate, Darlene, and I just got back from our road trip to St. Louis. We were originally planning to go in February, but the weekend we were supposed to go there were snow and ice storms in Missouri. Our trip was postponed, and this past weekend was gorgeous (though a bit cold and windy).

Since Kate will be going to school at Covenant Seminary this fall, she wanted to get some of the tourist-y things out of the way before she becomes a resident of St. Louis. …So, Gateway Arch, here we come!

The trip was great. The campus visit was awesome. St. Louis was terrific. I’ll fill you in on more details later. Right now, I’ve got a beagle next to me begging to go on a walk, so I’m going to take care of him first. I promise to tell more soon!

More examples of the wonderful game Telephone Pictionary (which I’ve blogged about before) can be found here.

Last year (November/December 2006) a friend from church asked my sisters and I to help with her movie. She is a film and new media major at UNL, and for one of their production classes, they produced short films. Lindsay co-wrote and was cinematographer for her production, and when it was time for her team to think about the soundtrack, she asked if we’d be interested in providing the theme song for the movie. I was intrigued, but tentative and nervous about such a big task. The only composing I’d ever done before was for class (”Write a short piece in the style of Mozart”), and this was obviously a very different situation.

Lindsay told us about the film’s premise, and provided us with a script. Bess quickly came up with some brilliant lyrics, and then passed them on to me. Since the tone of the movie was supposed to be light and comedic, I was trying to compare the style with something I knew. The idea I kept coming back to was the SNL sketch “Middle-Aged Man.” With inspiration from Bess and SNL, I dove in and came up with a theme song. One piano and female vocal trio part later, I was done.

The singing Ghormley sisters and my mediocre piano skills would never have been enough, so we asked our friend George to play bass. His contributions made the entire thing possible (musically speaking). He improvised ALL of the solo bass stuff, and he was invaluable during the somewhat primitive recording process.

Anyway, for those of you who haven’t seen it (or for those of you who just want to watch it again), here is Randall Wry, Private Eye.

Person #1:  I can’t name any baseball players besides Babe Ruth and the one who got what’s-it disease.

Person #2:  …Lou Gehrig?

I’ve seen this before, and I cry every time. Copious amounts of tears.

At every homeschool orchestra rehearsal, I ask the students a get-to-know-you question. There are only 10 kids in the ensemble, so it’s a small enough group to hear everyone’s answer without wasting an unreasonable amount of time. Also, it’s important to me to give them a choice between two related questions, so they don’t feel locked into answering a question they’d rather not talk about (for whatever reason).

Some questions I’ve asked in the past:
— What is your favorite vacation spot? OR… What is the farthest place from Lincoln you’ve visited?
— [Post-Christmas] What was the best gift you got for Christmas? OR… What was the best gift you gave for Christmas?
— What is something you’ve learned recently? OR… What is something you’d like to learn about?
— What is your favorite book? OR… What is your favorite movie?

The only get-to-know-you info I asked about without giving them an alternate choice was:

— Think of a scar you have on your body, and tell us how you got it.

This question is one that I’ve used before, and it has always successfully gotten everyone to talk. I don’t know what it is, but people love talking about how they almost died, how their brother made them break their arm, or why they had to get 16 stitches.

So, I’m wondering if you, gentle readers, have any suggestions of questions I could ask these students. I’m having a bit more trouble coming up with them as we approach the end of the semester. Do you have any cool ideas?

Also, feel free to talk about your own scars in the comment section.

Props to my sister Bess for the image used in my new header.

Person #1:  So I got a different type of deodorant this week.  I’m still getting used to it.

Person #2 [Anne]:  Do you like it?

#1:  I’m not sure… I’m still getting used to it.

#2:  Is it just a different scent, or is it a different type?

#1:  Well, both.  It’s a completely different brand than I was using before.

Person #3:  You should definitely keep us posted on this topic.  Maybe you could blog about it.