Games We Play: Game #1 - Name the Band

Lee and I have a few games that we play on a regular basis.  Not like Scrabble or Monopoly (though we do love our board games!). They're more like games to amuse ourselves while we driving in the car, shopping at the supermarket, or just walking from one place to the next.  This is the first of a blog series called "Games We Play", so that when you're not really doing anything, you can play them too!

 In our car playing a game of some sort

The first game we'd like to introduce is one that started with my siblings--Name the Band.  It's simple--whenever you hear music of any sort, you shout out the band name and promptly state the score. "The Killers! 1 to 0!  I'm kicking your trash!" is something you may overhear in our car. This game is ALWAYS on.  Anytime you hear music, there is a chance to score a point.

My crazy siblings when we were young warthogs

Unfortunately, I am terrible at this game.  I only know a handful of bands and it's usually because I like one of their songs enough to go look up who sings it.  Lee especially makes fun of me when I don't know bands from my "generation".

So, he helps me out by giving me so-called "awesome" clues--he can't figure out why I still don't get the band name.  I'll let you decide if Lee's clues are truly awesome/I'm musically clueless OR if Lee's clues are less than useful.

This brings us to a little contest for all of our readers:  below are 5 of Lee's hints.  Please comment on the blog what you think the answers are.  Whoever has the most correct will win a family skating pass to Hollywood Connection (good for 6 people). Woot! 


Lee's Clue #1: "Me at a dance"                                     Answer: __________________________
Lee's Clue #2: "Touted as the next Beatles"                    Answer: __________________________
Lee's Clue #3: "What doctors and nurses do"                   Answer: __________________________
Lee's Clue #4: "Pencil lead in a limo"                               Answer: __________________________
Lee's Clue #5: "The first former lead singer of Genesis"      Answer: __________________________

Five awesome clues, people!

In the event of a tie, we will randomly choose a winner from the people involved in the tie.  Please submit your answers by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 and we'll announce the winner on Thursday, September 2.

Take luck, everyone!

If I weren't Asian, I'd be Italian!

Last weekend, I met our Italian relatives.  Our Grandma Italy (from thwarting-the-granny-scam post) and her cousin Joye organized the Giorgis Family Reunion.  So, Lee and I got up early and headed to Fort Bridger, Wyoming (of all places!) to meet the Italian side of Lee's family.

Lee's great great grandfather, Giovanni (aka John the Barber) came from Italy to the United States way back when.

John the Barber had 4 children--Joe, John, Erma, and Guido.  John the Barber's son, John, is also known as Grandpa John to us.  He's actually Lee's great grandfather and the only surviving child of John the Barber.

Grandpa John

Four of Grandpa John's extended relatives from Italy (Turin) also came to the family reunion!  To Fort Bridger, Wyoming--of all places!  There was Marisa, a spunky, white-haired whom Lee had visited before in Italy.  Then there was Adelina (Marisa's niece), Giorgio (Adelina's husband), and Eugenio (their son).

Marisa and Adelina were in charge of making some true Italian dishes for the group of 75+ people.  We got to help!

I'm cutting chilled polenta and The Ballerina (my sister-in-law) is grating some Pecorino Romano cheese

Marisa is supervising Lee mixing the polenta...clockwise, of course

The food was wonderful!  These Italians just know how to eat!  Who knew you could do so much with polenta!

Lee and I were asked to do Italian sodas.  We always have a lot of fun bartending--we usually get to mix up weird flavor combinations for people!

Lee seemed to really hit it off with Eugenio.  They ended up playing a throwing game with golf balls hooked together by a string.  They were having quite a bit of fun.

Really, I think I could be Italian. Don't get me wrong, I love being Chinese and all that I am.  But if I had to choose somewhere else to come from, I'm leaning toward Italy!  They eat great food.  They use their hands when they talk.  They know how to have fun!

If you could be from another country, which country would you choose?

Much Ado About Tickets, Cars, and Cedar City!

Lee and I finally went on a mini vacation this last weekend!  Woot!
It was actually a working vacation. Boo!
But it was a lot of fun!  Woot + Boo = Boot!

Before we get started, we need to introduce the main players in this week's adventure:

• Me: Playing me 
• Lee: Playing Lee 
• Ab Abber 2000: A good friend from junior/high/pharmacy school 
• Hogan: Husband of Ab Abber 2000 who knows a lot about cars  
• MJ: Another pharmacist friend 
• Sorri (pronounced sorry): Husband of MJ

I was attending a pharmacy continuing education (CE) class in Cedar City, and we just built in a little getaway.  The conference offered discounted tickets for a few plays at the Utah Shakespearean Festival and we were slated to attend Much Ado About Nothing Saturday afternoon. I love love that play--I was so so excited!

We met up with Ab Abber 2000 and Hogan there. Ab Abber and I serve on the Alumni Board together and she was attending the CE--so we sent our husbands on to the streets of Cedar City to sell a few extra play tickets the Alumni Board had while we were learning about pharmacy law and glucose meters.

Lee and Hogan started walking on Main Street in Cedar City, out to sell some tickets.  They approached a woman and told her that their wives were pharmacists at a conference and they had extra tickets to Much Ado and MacBeth and were trying to sell them.  The woman looked at them and said, "That is the worst scalper story I've ever heard!"

But it's TRUE!  (Honestly, if someone told me that story, I would have told them they were full of it too!)

After the class and the play, MJ and Sorri enlisted Hogan to help with their overheating car, and since Hogan is a car guy, he was happy to help.  Lee and I were planning on heading out after Much Ado, but were convinced to hang out for one more night, help with the car, and catch the evening showing of MacBeth (remember, Lee and Hogan weren't successful earlier, so we had extra tickets).

So Hogan, Lee and Sorri got down and dirty with the car that was overheating. They bought one of those "mechanics in a can" to see if it would repair the head gasket.

We could only hope that it worked--we let the car sit after the treatment and headed off to the play.
The next morning, we filled up the car with fresh antifreeze, and MJ and Sorri led out the caravan.

We didn't get more than 20 miles out of Cedar, which would be the hoping town of Paragonah, (pronounced para-GOO-nah) when the car started overheating again.  Bummer.  So much for the mechanic in a can!

The beautiful view from the Paragonah exit

Ab Abber 2000 and Hogan needed to be home for a party, so they took off and we stayed with MJ and Sorri.  They got a tow truck and we all headed back to Cedar.  The thought was that they would hire a U-Haul truck and a car hitch to bring their car back.  We waited at the U-Haul store for the super nice U-Haul guy till he got out of church.  We dubbed him Bishop U-Haul, because he couldn't leave till he was done conducting sacrament meeting.

This was on Bishop U-Haul's business lot.  Yes, those are sheep with the trucks.

We come to find out that it would cost about $400 to rent the truck and car hitch!  Holy canolli! So they decide to leave their car for a week and come pick it up next weekend. And we all head home together!  I realize that MJ and Sorri were having major headaches because of their car--but Lee and I agreed that we were less rushed to get home and had a wonderfully leisure time!

Lucky No. Year 7 of the Cheese & Italian Soda Party

Our annual Cheese and Italian Soda Party snuck up on us this year.  This summer, pretty much every single weekend was booked with family reunions, church outings, friends' weddings and random plans. Lee and I have joked (but are a little serious) that we're excited for the summer to be OVER!  We might not be so busy!

So, we were scrambling this year to get invitations out and things ready for the party and for Cheese Idol. But this was lucky year 7 for us!  You know why?!?  Well, I'll tell you why!

Reson 1: When we hit the Deseret Industries for a costume for Lee's "Single Ladies" dance number for Cheese Idol, we walked right up to the perfect outfit--a dark blue, bedazzled with rhinestones, velour track suit....in his size! 

Lee's mighty jump!  (courtesy of Keyra Kristofferson)

Reason 2: It was raining when the party started.  We worked around it. But, what was really lucky--it cleared up rather nicely for Cheese Idol.

Reason 3:  Lee turned to me when we were grabbing Wendy's after the party (heck, we usually don't have time to eat at the party) and said, "We're so lucky.  We have such good family and friends."  We've been able to do this party for 7 years, and every year we are always surrounded by our awesome family and our wonderful friends.

We love you and thank you for making for us feel so lucky!