Avian Flu

I think that Avian Flu has in fact, made its way to La Jolla. On Monday night we were having a bonfire (for FHE of course) at the beach. Bryan and I arrived to find Andrea and Josh happily cooking their dinner on the fire while a large seagull was keeping them company. They proceeded to tell us it was "just getting warm." Well when it didn't move whilst Josh picked up wood right next to its head, I informed them that I thought things were worse than they imagined. Growing up in Southern California, I realize that seagulls are good for only two things--pooping on your head and stealing your sandwich right out of your hands. Those birds are not your friends. Spare me with the cricket story right now, they are good for more in Utah apparently.

So, obviously, I concluded that this bird was on its death bed. Andrea became slightly hysterical at this prospect. To make matters worse, when the bird hobbled off a few feet, a large pitbull came and proceeded to try to make our "friend" his after dinner snack. When the owners finally pulled the dog off the bird, it was barely moving its wings but managed to hobble off. Sometime between then and when Bryan and Josh went to look for it, the bird apparently disappeared. This is a mystery. Regardless, a bird carrier of Avian flu is likely unaccounted for. That is no joke. (Disclaimer: This really is a joke. The bird story is real, the Avian flu is not.)

Some other recent findings:
1)I am not a good soccer mom. I drove the twins' carpool last week as the parents were off to the land of General Conference. I did ok until I realized that the 3 texting teenagers I was picking up had puffy-painted shirts at soccer practice. Apparently this is a new trend. When I was younger we just practiced soccer. Anyway, upon my refusal to allow them to bring said shirts inside Dad's truck, they were forced to put them in the bed. And put their cleats on top to hold them down. By the time we got home we had 3 very smeared shirts and 6 cleats covered in neon paint. Whoops. The girls were slightly upset but tried to play it off in order to not crush my hopes of being a successful soccer mom one day.

2)I had my first real run-in with irrational electronics. As a general rule, I have always believed that electronics/computers always act rationally. When they don't work, it is us who are acting irrationally. But the other day, this foundational belief of my universe was proven fundamentally flawed. I was trying to set up a projector with my laptop attached to show a movie at a large Relief Society function. For 1 hour I plugged and unplugged, reset, read manuals, and generally stressed. I knew I was doing it right because I had done 2 such setups successfully that week at work. Well, when I had finally HAD IT, I slammed my laptop closed and it proceeded to work. All the sudden the laptop was connected. WHAT??? The girl that was trying to help me was just as puzzled, her explanation being, "sometimes it just needs a hard start." Irrational behavior from my computer, who knew?