Monday, June 2, 2014

Being Polite

Let's go back to biblical times, 1823! - Book of Mormon (The Musical, duh...)

I went to the park with Mini.Chaos for band day to sit and relax and listen to music. He had a great little time there. Mini.Chaos loves when we clap for him, and every time a song would finish, a whole audience would applaud and he would go CRAZY happy. I presume he thought there were hundreds of people clapping for him.

On the walk home a couple of mormon missionaries were biking by and I smiled and said "hi," causing them to stop their bikes and say hi back. A brief awkward exchange followed.

"Have you ever talked with missionaries before?"

"Yeah. I hope you guys have a great afternoon." Start to resume walking.

"Well, do you have time now to talk with us?" Pause walking to be polite.

"Nope - I've got a baby to get home, I just wanted to wish you a good day." Start to resume walking.

"Okay, we'll maybe we could have your address. We could swing by a more convenient time."  Pause walking to be polite.

"No, sorry.  Thanks, have a great day." Start to resume walking.

"Well, is Christ in your home? We really would love a chat." Continuing walking away...

"Yep, Christ is in our home.  Have a great day!"

In general, I think the Mormon missions do a good thing, and every time I've talked with Mormon missionaries they have been nothing but nice and polite and a little bit pushy. So I always do want to say hello, wish them well, but rarely am I casually sitting somewhere with time on my hands just ready to start chatting.

So what is the best way to have a polite and brief conversion? Or to end the conversion politely without providing them my address or phone number.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Chug the Espresso

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. - T.S. Eliot

"No, coffee doesn't suppress the appetite." I heard my mother-in-law say this from across the room and turned to interject in the conversion. "Yes it does. It's well known. What do you want to bet?" People turned to look if she would take the bet and she weighed her confidence versus mine and finally decided it wasn't worth it.

I work to hard to keep my reputation as the person in the family who debunks the craziness. Both sides of my family have a habit of reading this one thing this one time and related it back as known fact. "Did you hear that the Paleo diet has been proven to cure autoimmune disease?" I hear this stuff, read the peer-reviewed studies in medical journals, and debunk the insanity.

Long story short on this one (too late), science is now inconclusive if caffeine is an appetite suppressant. More recent studies have not shown a link. Nicotine is an appetite suppressant and caffeine does increase the effects - but just caffeine alone? Inconclusive.

Oh well - it wouldn't be science unless it was sometimes proven wrong. I'm still going to drink all that coffee - it protects from all sorts of stuff like liver cancer and liver cirrhosis.