Writing Letters: Fudgesicles

The first letter I ever wrote as a consumer was to the Popsicle company. I was in college, and had purchased a box of Fudgsicles. The picture on the front of the box was beautiful, showing a nicely oblong fudgsicle with rounded edges and tempting grooves:


Don't you just want to lick it?

When I opened the box and pulled out a fudgsicle, however, it was more like a little brown brick:


And even that picture has more curves than did mine that day.

Sincerely disappointed, I wrote a letter to the Popsicle company and told them what happened. I also told them how much I loved Fudgsicles, and how much better it would have been had the thing in the box looked more like the one on the package. I sent the letter off and forgot about it.

Some weeks later, I received a reply in the mail, thanking me for my concern and saying some other such nice stuff. The real good news, however, was that they also sent me two coupons for a FREE box of fudgsicles each! Woohoo!

When I went to the store to redeem my first coupon, I noticed that the Fudgsicle packaging was slightly different than I remembered: the picture on the front was not quite as stylized or curvy, though it still looked delicious. When I got home and took out a fudgsicle, I was further pleased to see that it actually had some shape and form to it. In fact, it looked more or less like the one on the box.

I never thought that my letter would make a difference. I thought it would just go to an empty void and I would feel better having vented my frustration. But someone actually listened! Someone read my letter and, whether because of that or other factors, changed not only the packaging but the product inside as well. Who knew?

That was the start of my career as a consumer letter writer, and now I want a Fudgsicle.

Sure Sign of Spring

Today's laundry contained ZERO sweaters.

Ward Talent Show: The Hose

Since I usually work in the evenings, I don't often get the opportunity to attend ward dinners and socials. I also use the "I work evenings" excuse when the activities are held during the day or on the weekends. Sometimes, however, I make an exception to my antisociality and show up late to FHE, or do something crazy like sign up for the ward talent show.

The last time I performed in the ward talent show, I did my animal sound impressions. I don't know what I was thinking, really, doing a seal and a horse and an eagle and all the rest in front of an actual audience, but people still talk about it to this day (not only because the animal noises sound interesting, but also because I look positively ridiculous while I'm making them--I know because Olive's sister photographed me once while I was doing some). The next time the talent show rolled around, I stayed safely in my cave.

Tomorrow, however, is yet another ward talent show, and I foolishly gave my name to the organizers. I debated about what to do--shadow puppets? opera singing? magic tricks?--and finally decided on the hose. By the way, my shadow puppet book is at home in a box in the garage, I don't actually sing opera, and I only know one magic trick, which is a card trick. But I considered those options anyway.

Have you ever seen anyone play the hose? My horn teacher in high school gave me my very own hose once, fitted with a funnel on the end (guess where that hose is now? I'll give you a hint: it involves a box and the garage). It's about the same length as a horn, but it doesn't have any valves or anything. Kids get a real kick out of someone playing the hose during elementary school demonstrations, so why not adults too?

Thus, this evening after work I headed over to Lowe's to pick my hose. They had a LOT of different kinds--I never knew there were so many types of hoses! I looked at them and poked them, but I couldn't tell which one I wanted without trying them out. Unfortunately, the hoses happened to be on the main aisle headed towards the garden area. Blast.

Nevertheless, when the area was pretty clear, I picked up a little 10' hose and placed my lips to the coupling. Yes, I know that's totally gross, but how else am I supposed to play it and hear what it sounds like?

Let me just say that sometimes I amaze even myself. I never really thought that I would have the gumption to try out various hoses in the middle of the hardware store. I'm sure glad I did though, because some of them had a better range than others, and some had a better tone than others. The one I finally decided on was a 25' marine/camper water hose.

I was delighted to find that the funnel Lowe's carried matched the stripe on the hose, and the duct tape came in several different colors, so I could jazz it up a bit:


Looks pretty much like a horn, no?

Anya wasn't so certain about it:



I haven't yet decided what story I'm going to tell or what I'm going to do with it, aside from play "Popcorn." For some reason I feel like it would be fun to play "Popcorn" on the hose. My ward members would laugh, and that's what I love the best about performing, making people laugh.

Finally!

At last, my five years of keeping an umbrella in the trunk of my car has paid off! It was raining last night, I had to get from the parking lot to the grocery store, and I was wearing a white shirt. Hooray for my umbrella!

It's Like Being on a Mission Again...

Every night it is my goal to go to bed by midnight, and I have finally figured out how to do it. All I have to do is create a snowstorm that knocks out the power at 9:15pm. Ta-da! No internet, no light to read or study by (I do have a couple candles and flashlights, but most of my candles are at home in CA in a box in the house*), nothing to do but go to bed! I was in bed by 10:30.

Unfortunately, owing to the fact that I have gone to bed between 2-3 AM for the past several weeks/months, I didn't get to sleep for another hour (and who can blame me? I was 4 hours ahead of schedule!), and I had to get out of bed twice to re-stretch (I have to stretch my legs each night to "get the energy out"--restless legs). And I woke up at 1:30 for some reason and went to turn the light off downstairs (yay! the power is back on!). But when I woke up in the morning, I did feel more rested than I normally do, so I suppose that all in all it was a good night.

*The candles would be in a box in the garage, but it gets too hot in the summer (they would melt), so they're in the house instead. I think. If Mother Edit reads this, perhaps she can tell me if my candles are still there.

While We're on the Subject...

One of my favorite things to do is critique advertisements, and this one was just too good to pass up. I was surfing the web when I found this standard sidebar ad. First came an announcement:

After a few seconds, this text flashed up in its place:

Ignoring the question of how on earth someone was able to measure the exact amount of stomach fat lost, by now you are probably on the edge of your seat wondering what that

1 Simple Rule! is!

...

Do you want to know?

...

Really?

...

The secret is to put on a shirt: