"Swinging" refrigerators

Today I witnessed an amazing feat of strength and strategy, the likes of which I have not seen since the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Two guys from Sears brought us a new fridge. 

Now, you might think that the previous two statements are unrelated, but in fact, they describe the same event. For not only did the two 20-somethings (Benny and Sergio) hand deliver our beautiful new refrigerator, but they managed to wrangle our gigantic old fridge out of the house and into the garage using nothing but brute strength and a couple of straps. 

How did they do it, you ask? Well, by "swinging."

Yes, that's the technical term... and yes, it did quickly digress into a snarky joke among the four of us. These guys proudly claimed to be "Professional Swingers."

So, basically, they intertwined two large straps, looped them under the fridge and over their shoulders, and then hoisted it off the ground. As if this wasn't hard enough, they proceeded to slide the massive machine through our narrow 1950's-sized door frames by alternately opening and closing the fridge doors as they adjusted the angle of the large metal box, squeezing it neatly through the doorway without a dent or a scratch. 

Even more impressive, they managed to do it without cussing at each other. 

But most impressive was their uncanny ability to manage all this while simultaneously flirting with us. 

AMAZING.

In other news, Nate the Plaster Man also spent the afternoon at our house, fixing and painting the kitchen ceiling. Due to all this excitement, yours truly was stuck babysitting all (two) of our valuable possessions while strange men came and went from our abode. Just to be clear, spending a Saturday trapped in my own home, ticking away at an endless, boring to-do list is not enough to keep me mentally occupied. So if you notice an unusual amount of activity, by myself, on certain social networking websites, it's because I was going flippin' stir-crazy. 

Please don't judge me. 

Am I the only one?

While visiting some good friends last week (in FLORIDA...more on that later), I found myself in strangely familiar conversational territory. While we were getting pedicures (Ritzy, right?), a familiar tune started playing through the salon's speakers. 

"Hey, who can name that tune?" I asked my friends, feeling certain that they'd recognize it straight away. Instead, all I got in response were dual blank stares, then furrowed eyebrows, followed by that curious, quizzical look I get sometimes when people are questioning my sanity.

"I don't know!" one said, and my jaw dropped.

"Seriously? It's the theme of Man From Snowy River!" I exclaimed, fully expecting her to smack her forehead and wonder how she could've forgotten. 

More quizzical looks ensued.

"You guys have seen that movie, right?" I asked into the cricket-chirping silence. 

Both shook their heads, glancing at each other and shrugging.

"What's it about?" one asked.

"Well, it's about this mountain cowboy whose dad dies and the other cowboys say he can't live up in the mountains anymore because he has to earn his status as a real man, and in the meantime he falls in love with the daughter of the rancher that he's working for, but then he tries to chase a herd of wild horses and loses a really expensive horse..."

About halfway through my summary I'm hit by a realization: This movie sounds REALLY DUMB. And I can tell by the looks on my friends faces that they think so too.

"...but, yeah. It's actually a pretty good movie, so, um...and the soundtrack is really good too...yeah, so..." I muttered, trailing off in embarrassment. 

The girls blinked at me, looked at each other, and I stared intently at the person painting my toenails, trying to come up with something clever or witty to change the subject.

"So, are we going to play Euchre again tonight? That was fun yesterday, huh?" I finally managed to squeak out, effectively ending the awkwardness. 

All of this got me to thinking, and my thinking turned into musing, and musing into blogging (naturally): Does anyone else have a few movies that they genuinely liked, but are ashamed to admit it? Now, I'm not referring to "Adult Movies" here (because we like to keep it PG-13 here on Kate's Little Adventures), but your typical guilty-pleasure flicks, or even just some obscure or older movies that it seems like nobody else in the world has seen. If a summary of the plot reminds you of a certain Kraft pasta product (it's the cheesiest), it belongs on the list.

For your reading pleasure, I'll post a few of my personal faves here in hopes that you folks will add to it via the comments part of this blog. Let's go interactive, people!

1. The Man from Snowy River -- 'nuff said

2. Mulan -- Disney's first real attempt at an empowered female lead character.

3. The Newsies -- a young Christian Bale singing and dancing? Yes please.

4. Twister -- I always wanted to be a storm chaser. So sue me.

5. Romancing the Stone -- a 1984 film starring Michael Douglas. So bad and so good.

So, I'm sure I could come up with more, and I will post them as I do, but feel free to add your own personal favorites. I promise no one will judge you... or at least if we do, we'll keep it to ourselves. :)

HEALTH

1. Drink plenty of water

2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar


3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants


4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy


5. Make time to pray and read your Bible daily


6. Play more games


7. Read more books than you did in 2009

8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day


9. Sleep for 7 hours
a night

10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.