New phone number.

I got a new phone number.

I had planned on keeping my 801 phone number forever, because I had discovered that area codes don't matter anymore. While in school it became apparent that the 7-digit phone number had given way to the 10-digit phone number; when everyone has cell phones, long distance is no longer an issue. We'd moved a step closer toward having one phone number that you have for your entire life.

What I hadn't considered is that in the real world, people aren't all from different places like they were at BYU, and many people still use landline phones (which makes long distance an issue again). Our apartment complex has a call box from the front gate that goes to your phone... but not a long distance phone. And when I got here and started telling people my phone number, they thought the 801 was the first three digits instead of the area code.

So I got a new number. I'm not crazy about putting it on the blog, for the whole creepy public to see, so send me an email or something if you need it.

New blog.

We've got a new blog, for the two of us.

angerpimentel.blogspot.com

I kid you not.

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was at my house Saturday night. I absolutely kid you not.

I was at my parents’ house, and they were arriving back from the evening session of stake conference. My dad is the branch president of the singles branch, so the branch members were coming over for root beer floats following the session. One of these people was the driver of said Wienermobile — his name was Jeff — and he just happened to be passing through at the right time. So he came to our house. In the Wienermobile.

He didn’t seem to mind showing people the inside, so I got some awesome pictures. Notable are the cool seats, the mustard detailing on the floor, and the sky-themed ceiling (“It’s always blue skies in the Wienermobile,” says Jeff, pictured second to last below). Also awesome is the Delorean-style door to get in.

The only thing that could compare with having the Wienermobile at my house was seeing it tower over the rest of the parking lot at stake conference the next morning. With Elder Richard G. Hinckley, the prophet’s son, in attendance.

Highlights from a fantastic day.

There are a lot more. But these are my favorites.

New rule.

Every time you go to a Mexican restaurant, get carnitas. It's the best.

By request.

More details and pictures from the Office Premiere Party. This will conclude coverage of the party. Keep in mind that every detail is an Office reference – I'm not going to explain them all here, so it's up to you to correctly identify their origins.









Decorations:
Whoreish orange streamers
Paper doves
"Office" sign on the door
Mustache on the bathroom mirror





















Food:
Hot dogs (polish dogs, actually)
Awesome Blossom from Chili's
Potato salad
Bagel Bites
A bowl of jelly beans
Baby Ruth bars
Count Chocula cereal bars (for dessert)
Mexican Lemonade
Grape soda



























































Activities:
People started showing up more than an hour before the episode was to begin, to start eating and to watch a rescreening of The Job, the finale episode from last season. After The Job, and right before the premiere started was the musical number – a performance of "Pam Pong," by Sweet Diss and the Comebacks, performed by myself on the guitar. Following the watching of the episode, we put it back on again (thank you Tivo), and screened t-shirts until people had to leave. It was great fun.

It's Creed! And he's in a band!

Creed is my favorite character on The Office. No one else really comes close. He mentions in a deleted scene in the Booze Cruise episode that he was in a band called the Grass Roots – and I heard that the actor (Creed Bratton) actually was. But I had no idea that the band played songs I actually know.

First of all, the deleted scene is here. So you know what you're watching, it's an actual clip of Creed playing the guitar on the Booze Cruise, plus a clip of him talking about going on tour with Janis Joplin and Cream. Turns out that's true.


But now to the good stuff. The Grass Roots did a song called "Let's Live For Today," which you probably know. To get your socks blown off, watch the video of it on YouTube. Creed is playing lead guitar, he's in the striped sweater – check out the close-up at 1:31 and his solo starting at 1:48. That's Creed, all right. And I know that song! La la la la la la, live for today.

The Grass Roots also did a song called "Midnight Confessions," which is also somewhat well-known. Video here. If you're looking for close-ups of Creed, though, watch "Let's Live For Today."

Turns out Creed did pretty well for himself before The Office. Coming up: more dirt on other Office characters, as I can dig it up.

Times the Post Office is not open.

• Before work
• After work
• Holidays
• Real hours on weekends
• When I need to go
  

My grandma's reaction to Andy, on The Office last night.

"Wish he didn't look so much like Elder Holland."

How to suspend a stapler in Jell-o.

Or, The Office Season 4 Premiere Party Stapler Jell-o Mold.
You've seen when Jim puts Dwight's stapler in Jell-o in The Office pilot. Then he does it to Michael's mug. Then later to Andy's calculator. It's a classic. And if you do it wrong, it's going to fall apart. There are a few tricks—some that we learned from cast member blogs, and some we figured out on our own. Here's how we did it successfully.

1. Find a bowl large enough for the stapler. Our was Pyrex, and that worked great. I can't speak for any other kind of bowl.
   
2. Use thread to suspend the stapler away from the edges of the bowl. As you can see in our previous attempt, we made a little hammock for the stapler to lay in, by taping thread to the sides. It worked perfect. I wish I'd taken pictures this time.
3. Mix up the gelatin. We used standard Knox gelatin. Our first try was with Jell-o and it was unsuccessful—this worked much better. For standard gelatin goo you're supposed to use one pouch for one cup of water. For this we used 16 packets, for about 4-6 cups of water. I'd recommend a really heavy concentration like that.
4. Add food coloring. That way it looks like Jell-o. Yellow is recommended because it's easy to see through (and it's authentic to the show).
5. Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl, that already has the stapler suspended in it. The stapler might float a little because it will be full of air. You can pry off the rubber bottom a tiny bit with a knife if you want... it will let a bunch of bubbles out.
6. Refrigerate. Overnight.
7. If you've used a Pyrex bowl, there's a pretty surefire way to get the mold out. Fill the sink with hot water, and then lower the bowl into it (make sure the water doesn't spill into the bowl, onto the gelatin).
8. Flip the bowl over onto a plate, or whatever you're putting the mold out. If it doesn't slide right out, put it in the water for a little longer.
9. Ta-da! Stapler Jell-o mold.

When you're done with it, it's easy to get rid of: Put the mold under hot running water, and the gelatin will melt away. The stapler will be totally salvageable, so you can use it in another mold later. If you want to hang on to it, it will last for a couple of days unrefrigerated—then it will start to sprout other life forms. Then you'll have real Jell-o... mold (chuckle).

The Office Season 4 Premiere Party T-shirt Designs

Huge, huge, massive props to Andrea for these designs. These are Office-inspired t-shirt designs. They're not lame fan swag — they're way cool. And they're not just shirts with boring words on them. They're pretty much the coolest thing ever. Those in attendance at the party brought their own shirts, and we printed these designs after the show was over.

The Office Season 4 Premiere Party Soundtrack

This is the first of probably several posts detailing our awesome Office Season 4 Premiere Party. This first item is a soundtrack, that will be playing as people arrive and leave. It comprises 20 songs that show up somewhere, somehow in the Office — and at the same time, it creates a nice trivia game. If you can identify where all of these songs show up in the show, then you're obsessed. Try it.

The tracklist:

1. The Cardigans - Lovefool
2. The Police - Roxanne
3. Jewel - You Were Meant For Me
4. The Cranberries - Zombie
5. Indigo Girls - Closer to Fine
6. James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover
7. Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire
8. Elton John - Tiny Dancer
9. Travis - Sing
10. U2 - With or Without You
11. Styx - Lady
12. The Tokens - The Lion Sleeps Tonight
13. R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts
14. Sarah McLachlan - The Rainbow Connection
15. Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
16. Bobby Day - Rockin' Robin
17. Eddie Money - Two Tickets to Paradise
18. Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Teach Your Children
19. Buster Poindexter - Hot Hot Hot
20. Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - Islands in the Stream
    

Thank you, JetBlue.

I flew JetBlue on my recent trip to New York. I find no need to use any other airline. JetBlue is the best.

First of all, it was the cheapest flight I could find to New York and back on short notice—and that was even into JFK instead of LaGuardia, which is usually more expensive.

Second, they have TV's for every seat where you can watch real TV.

Third, they have blue potato chips.

But my flight back was, even for JetBlue, a singular experience. I'd gotten an exit row seat, which is a great deal—you get extra leg room, and the plane only rarely crashes so it usually doesn't matter that you're in the exit row.

(As an aside, I don't have an extra leg so I used the space for other things. They're nice about that.)

On top of my exit row seat, though, was the huge bonus that the other two seats in my row didn't get filled. No-shows, or something. So now I not only had more legroom, but I had the whole row to myself.

My next actions were obvious: I moved into the middle seat, so I'd have optimal lateral legroom, and I tuned all three TV's to different channels. Then when one got boring or went to a commercial, I'd unplug my headphones and plug them into a different one that looked more interesting.

Paired with blue potato chips, it was a near-optimal TV-watching experience. And one heck of a plane ride.

My YouTube debut.

Turns out someone uploaded a video of me yoyoing to YouTube. It's from my last day at my internship this summer—it's me lighting a match, held in someone's mouth, with a yo-yo. You should go see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVHdMdOcFM

It's not the most amazing quality (it may have been taken on a phone or something), but it'll do. I'm expecting big endorsement deals any day now.

It's been a good day.

Today I asked my best friend to marry me.

And she said yes.

Pirate church.

I went to Anne's ward today. It had a pirate theme.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a gentleman with an eyepatch. The real-deal black eyepatch. He knew Anne, but introduced himself to me (I think his name was Smee, but I'm a little fuzzy on that). He then made some comment about how he'd been keeping an eye out for her. That was almost too much—there were guts exploding out of my back as I resisted the one-eye joke. Oh man.

The speakers were a couple who had just returnde from their mission. That meant that they had a whole crew of family in the congregation—several rows' worth—including a autistic grandson. This grandson was apparently on board (get it?) with the whole pirate theme, because he kept shouting "ahoy!" every few minutes during Sacrament Meeting. It was awesome.

There were a few more cool things about that meeting, though they depart from the theme. There was a musical number by a lady named Ans (pronounced "ahns"... like Hans without the H). Her husband? Frans. Ans and Frans. I was pumped.

Anyway, the musical number was scheduled for after the couple had spoken, but before the final speaker (high council). The musical number had already been announced, but by the time the couple had finished speaking the meeting had already run over. Unsure of whether she was still on, Ans called from the back of the chapel: "DO YOU STILL WANT ME?" They did, and she did her song. But I don't think I've ever heard anybody shout from the congregation like that.

All in all, it was a great meeting. I'm gonna go again.

Kinko's, a surprise friend, and me.

I went to Kinko's last night, around 1:30 AM.

I prefer going to Kinko's in the middle of the night—you don't have to wait for your stuff, the person behind the counter is willing to help, and sometimes they let you use the saddle-stitch stapler yourself. On this particular visit I had some portfolios cut, and went to find some counter space to settle down with said stapler. I assumed I was, as usual, alone in the store. If I was, it wouldn't be making an interesting story now.

This Kinko's had a somewhat different layout than other locations I'd been to. The counter, featuring friendly sales representatives, is on the left when you walk in. To the right are the self-service printers and copiers, and then around a corner, out sight of the staff members, is a bank of desks for plugging in laptops. And at the last desk I found my friend. A hobo, sleeping.

It was actually a female hobo (hoba). She had her head down on the desk and seemed to be sound asleep. She stood a good chance of not being discovered, because (a) she was quiet, and (b) the staff people probably didn't have any reason to go looking back there. Kinko's was probably a pretty good place to spend the night—it was a pleasant temperature, and soft music was playing. I actually enjoyed that this particularly hobo had found such a good, clean place... it's nice to see a hobo who takes pride in their work (hobo pride = hobris).

I didn't turn her in or anything. The last thing you want is to be blacklisted with the hobo community.

(gratuitous hobo picture)