Sicko

Loni was sick when Stevie was here. I hope she and Beau didn't get it, because I did. There is some bug going around. Head, chest, phlegm. I love that word. Phlegm. It could more easily be spelled "flem", but how much fun is that? What other language uses ph to make an f sound when they already have an f, AND throws in a silent g to boot? ENGLISH ONLY, BABY! I might start tossing in a free word of the blog here, just for fun. I have a secret site I go to when I want to put other people down and sound smart. It has a list of weird words. Like "impennate" for featherless. I mean, you could just say featherless. Or fatherless. But that would be impapate. Wait. No. Sorry. Or without a grandpa which would be impoopate.

Ok, sorry, it's the Nyquil talking.

I've been co-writing a paper on "What if the Nashville flood occurred in East Tennessee?" with our intern at the office. Fun, but a lot of work. Basically, it would make Nashville look like a cake walk, because we have more terrain issues and the Tennessee River. I'm presenting it at the AMS conference in Seattle in two weeks.

My boss is throwing me a goodbye lunch/roast January 14. That is nice. I appreciate it very much. He said he was sure people would feel the need to roast me. I told him they should not do it in front of Cindy, who is coming. Then she told me she was going to do it, too. At least I think she said that.

I am getting a bit emotional about leaving. I love Morristown, even with all it's warts. But I really believe we will grow to love Elko, too. We didn't love Morristown right off the bat. One thing I learned about Elko is that the church has twice the stakes we have here, way more wards, but they are small like ours and we will be needed. It's good to be needed. I don't want to end up like Kurt as the second junior assistant ward sub-greeter on alternate fast Sundays. At least he knows how to have fun in any situation.

Kurt (extending hand to stranger on his first week): Hi, I'm Kurt Bockoven, the second junior assistant ward sub-greeter on this, the appropriate alternate fast Sunday. Who are you?
Man: uh...hi. I'm brother Smith. Mike Smith.
Kurt: YOU'RE Mike Smith? Oh, you're the one Bishop said was speaking today.
Mike Smith (gasping and convulsing): I'M SPEAKING!? Nobody told me I was SPEAKING!
Kurt: Nah, you're not speaking. I'm just magnifying my calling by meeting everyone. I just say that because it never gets old.

On second thought, I think I want that calling. Who says I can't do it every week?

And I'm finally adding two more vids of Beau in action. Briggs should have a blast with these. We did. Poor Stevie was attacked and Loni started it all.