The cutting room floor

I tend to batch-process photos for my blog, and when I'm writing, editing, and trying to fit the words and the pictures together, inevitably a few good pictures get left out. Which isn't to say that they're bad pictures; they just didn't fit the post, for one reason or another... So without further ado, seven pictures from the cutting room floor:

While we were walking down to the lake to see the sunset, one of our neighbors (whom I don't know) invited us out of the blue to use his lawn chairs and enjoy the show. So we did.

The cat, alas, didn't want to join the others on the tricycle.

Slaving away in the kitchen, putting books together. I built these racks last time we were making books; they've held up quite well. The only tricky bit is getting them out of the rack, and into the box to go to the binder. To my amazement (and great relief) we've never dropped a stack.

No, Aiden, I get to drive first. We can switch off when we get to Albuquerqe!

In reality, I think Aiden is just fulfilling his role as little brother by pulling Fiona's hair.

There were all sorts of people at the Harry Potter book launch. These two held my attention for some reason, and didn't mind a photo.

One, two, three! Fiona and Aiden help Uncle Paul wash dishes. Children love to help until they are able.

Sunlit Fiona.

Oh, that was written for someone else, not me...

Since the first edition of You Know You'r an MK When... people have taken up the book and started reading it, chuckling over items, asking questions, etc. And then they get to number 70.

70. You really do enjoy Oriental folk music.

Every single one of them looks up, and says, "You do?"

I don't, actually. It's one of the items in the book I've never liked, and it's one that I've gotten voted down on for changes in the last five editions. But tonight, Deborah relented, and we can choose a new item to go in it's place. My short list of contenders:

You frequently say, "I don’t know, I was out of the country."

If someone asks what school you went to, you reply, "depends on the year."

You miss people before they're gone.

A more telling question than "Where are you from?" is "What countries are you following in the Olympics?"

When your parents say "home church," you're not sure which one of the dozen or so they're referring to.

Which one would you choose? Any items in your copy that bother you, or that you think are no longer relevant, or dated? Speak now, or hold your peace for another few years!

Editing and Ice Cream

Many years ago, I participated in an editing contest at work. (For those who don't know, I work at a publishing company.) The prize was a Subway gift certificate, and the goal of the contest was to see who could best edit a single sentence and correctly identify all the errors therein. To my surprise, I won. (This probably has something to do with the fact that all the professional editors were barred from the contest.) Aside from pinning down most of the grammatical errors, I was the only participant that actually did any fact-checking — turns out that a major premise presented in the material was false, and my entry was praised above all others for catching that.

Returning to the present day, as I've been working with Deborah to go over the text of YKYAMKW for the next printing, one item caught my eye:

271. You get excited about ice cream, but think that Baskin Robbins might be a legal firm, Häagen Dazs a European conductor, and TCBY a mission organization (Taking Christ’s Blessing to Youth).

Now, aside from some punctuation issues, it's always bothered me that I'd never even heard of TCBY as a missions organization. TCBY frozen yogurt, yes — I'd had it twice, back in California, with the LACC youth group — but missions, no. I always thought it was a weird name, anyway. So, after having this entry in the book for over ten years now, I decided to look it up.

Guess what?

It doesn't exist!

Or, maybe, it did, and it was so obscure that there's no mention of it anywhere on the web outside of YKYAMKW. Have you ever heard of it? Have I been duped for over a decade into thinking this was a real organization? I would dearly like to know.

In the meantime, I wonder what I should do... leave it as it is? Found a missions organization by that same name? Make up an alternate ending involving Ben and Jerry, those obnoxious twins from the other dorm? Go have some ice cream....? Hmm, I answered my own question...