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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Warning: Shopping with the Hayleys Can Cause the Giggles

I think I laughed harder last night than I have in some time. That usually happens when Kelly and his family spend time together - they feed off one another and, if the moment is right, things become funnier than anyone could imagine.

The visit started off well enough. My mom would be pleased to know I was packed into a truck and driven off to a hayfield to examine whether recently cut hay was ready to bale or not. She thinks that I need a visit to a farm every now and then to keep me humble. I disagree, but I digress.

Kelly and I got the giggles listening to my father-in-law debate whether the hay was ready. To clarify: he was debating with himself. That just laid the foundation for the evening ahead.

We came home, cleaned up and went out to dinner. Cheddars seated us in an atrium with more than 20 teenage girls out for a fun, adult-free evening. Evidently, Cheddars thought we could serve as the chaperones.

I can gurantee: it wasn't fun for us.

That was the only down moment. When we got back home, Kelly realized he'd forgotten jammies and I realized we didn't bring any golf balls (we're hoping to hit the links this weekend with my sister-in-law). Sandy, Kelly and I headed off to Target for last-minute, late-evening shopping.

I don't even know what all was said and I'm sure if I was able to type it the humor wouldn't translate as well. I just know that I nearly had a couple of wrecks and finally pulled into a parking lot to laugh. Just terrible!

(And even as I'm typing this, Kelly is looking at the half-blind diapered rescue dog that's joined the Hayley household and telling his mom, "I swear Mom, the next dog you get has got to be normal.")

I wonder how many calories you burn laughing?

5 comments:

  1. don't tell me you didn't expect an answer - *just a little googling goes a loooooong way*

    Using the results, the scientists then went on to calculate that just 15 minutes of laughter a day will burn 10 to 40 calories, depending on a person’s weight and the intensity of the laughter. That’s enough to shift between 1 and 4lb a year.


    The idea that laughter benefits health has been around for many years, possibly because it reduces muscle tension, increases the amount of oxygen in the blood, exercises the heart and produces happy chemicals in the brain called endorphins. It certainly makes sense that laughing would burn more calories too, as a result of the extra movement and increase in heart rate linked with laughing.

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  2. Yep. Definitely time for a visit to a farm. And I seem to remember another occasion when a fit of laughter caused an urgent turn into the nearest parking lot .....

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  3. I wondered if you remembered that. It WAS your fault for just having told a story about a wooden arm not long before a near-collision in an intersection...

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  4. No, it was YOUR fault for asking me if Grandma ever threw her arm across the passenger (like I did to you) to protect you when I had to make a quick stop ...

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