Em in SLC

2011-09-22T22:40:00.002-06:00

Here is the link to my new blog:

kura2025 dot tumblr dot com

See you there!

September 3, 2011

2011-09-03T21:46:00.004-06:00

After 4+ years on blogger I think I'm ready for a change.

The type of blog I'd like to have as well as my life situation are very different from what they were when I started and now feels like the right time to make the switch.

I've been playing around with other blogging sites and from what I've seen of the format, it's a better fit for the type of blog I want to have.

While long, wordy posts are still an option, it caters more to the smaller posts I tend to favor these days.

I also purposely chose a format that is very simplistic so I don't have to worry about backgrounds or music or "about me"s.

If all goes well, I'll start sharing the link soon.

September 3, 2011

2011-09-03T18:40:00.004-06:00

My UT friend Mon and her husband have been in Louisville for the past week so today I went down to spend time with them.

While I was there we visited the Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY.

Since it was Labor Day weekend there were hordes of children everywhere so we didn't spend as much time looking at the small displays as I would have liked but there were still alot of fun things to see.

Japanese Spider Crab

The creepiest thing I've ever seen!!

They had a little bayou-like staged area for the gators to hang out in.

The otters were so cute but they had some serious teeth.

I'm sure they're actually little demon creatures.

Shark Tank!

They had a petting area for some of the smaller sharks.

I stuck my hand in to pet one of them and it was surprisingly non-slimy.

The worst part was the lack of handwashing opportunities after sticking my hand in the shark tank.

Yack.

Speaking of aquariums....

Melissa of So About What I Said posted a link to this video the other day:

August 25, 2011

2011-08-25T12:00:00.000-06:00

Another reason to love NPR.

Tiny Desk Concerts

The Avett Brothers:

If you're interested in hearing more of these concerts, open this video in youtube and it will give you a "Tiny Desk Concert" playlist option on the right.

August 23, 2011

2011-08-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

I took way too many pictures and videos of K last weekend while we were helping JiMercy move to MI.

Okay, there's no such thing as too much K but I definitely took a lot.

On this trip I discovered my amazing pack-muleness.

Being the super efficient person that I am I hate making multiple trips to load or empty the car.

When we got to the Hotel, Mom took K and 2 of her bags while I took the rest.

1 purse

2 backpacks

2 duffel bags

3 rolling suitcases

It was slow going and I sure looked funny but there were no mishaps and it only took one trip.

Yeah baby.

It's a special skill that I honed during my years of grocery shopping without a car.

K really loves dancing to music and anything shaped like a ball.

At one point I took him to the playground nearby JiMercy's new house and once he saw the big boys playing basketball he made a beeline for the courts. It took a lot of effort to distract him while we were there.

He loved the balloons Gma brought him!

Helping the big boys put his crib together.

Look at this stud!

Still a stud.

August 22, 2011

2011-08-22T21:38:00.000-06:00

This video oozes mushy gooey sweetness and I love it.

Courtesy of Melissa at So About What I Said

Also, in case you haven't noticed, I've been shamelessly using the blog to keep track of the new artists I've fallen in love with. I don't download music anymore since my funds are needed elsewhere so I have a hard time remembering them all.

Kristian Matsson:

Courtesy of Brunette Bombshell who, incidentally, commented on my August 21 post.

Woot.

August 22, 2011

2011-08-22T07:29:00.000-06:00

Abandonator shared this on facebook and I can't NOT repost:

August 21, 2011

2011-08-21T12:00:00.000-06:00

We found it amusing that our hotel in Novi this weekend had little signs posted in the room about reusing linen and towels to conserve resources yet there wasn't a single place to hang wet towels in the bathroom, the toilet used about a gallon of water each time you flushed, and the AC was constantly running no matter what temperature we set it at.

Bravo Crowne Plaza. The planet thanks you.

I'm enjoying Joy Williams right now.

She is also 1/2 of the folk duo The Civil Wars who I love even more.

Check 'em out.

August 20, 2011

2011-08-20T10:58:00.000-06:00

I feel safe posting this now since it hasn't happened recently enough for any one person to feel like I'm ragging on them.

It drives me nuts when someone drops me off at home and then drives away before I'm anywhere near the front door, let alone have the door open and am safely inside.

Or, if someone is leaving my house I watch to make sure they're safely in their car before walking away from the door.

It doesn't matter what time of day it is or the gender of either person, I think it's important.

Maybe it's just my hangup.

I have a hard time even going to bed until everyone I live with is in the house (cats included).

What think you?

Does that bother anyone else?

August 18, 2011

2011-08-18T12:00:00.004-06:00

I'm off to Ohio and then Detroit this weekend to work on a project I like to call:

Help JiMercy move.

And by "help" I mean "moral support" and lots of time with K.

Abrupt change of topic:

Dear Abandonator,

I found something to brighten your day.

I'm not sure how "official" this video is but it's still pure awesome.

I think I still like this version better though:

Have a happy Thursday.

Love,

Carcinogen.

August 17, 2011

2011-08-17T22:57:00.005-06:00

School starts on Tuesday.

I won't be quite the full time student I was planning to be since out of state tuition is not just out of state but also out of this WORLD! and the government seems to think I have a sugar daddy buuut that also means that I'm being forced to take my time and do this right.

It also means I can work more than I was planning to which opens up the job field a little.

I've spent my free time this week prepping for school.

My desk at home is all organized.

I bought my textbooks today and they're thinner than I had anticipated which is good.

I have a new planner just waiting to be marked up and stuffed full of random post-its.

I paid $230 for a parking pass that still doesn't guarantee that I'll have a spot come Tuesday.

Good times.

We also spent a few hours at the state fair last night.

It was great weather for wandering which also means it was uber crowded.

As we walked through the cow building we saw sleeping bags down in the hay between cows and some farm families had a nice little setup going with chairs, microwaves, and tvs.

I guess if you're going to keep an eye on your animals you might as well do it in comfort.

Being at the fair brought up all sorts of fun memories from my 4-H days.

Sewing projects, fashion shows, cake decorating, gift wrapping classes.

My grandparents buying me a lemon shakeup at the county fair.

Elephant ears.

Drool.

I wish I'd brought my camera but this one picture will have to suffice.

Mom decided we couldn't leave without riding the ferris wheel.

Just wouldn't be the fair without it.

August 15, 2011

2011-08-15T10:57:00.004-06:00

Things I learned last week:

1. This is not new information but it always merits sharing:

I rock at road trips.

2. If you're in the ghetto and you shake your booty when a car drives by blasting ghetto-tastic music, you will attract attention.

And not the good kind.

The ghetto kind that wants your facebook info.

3. A lengthy diatribe about the evil time-suck that is "Facebook" will distract would-be ghetto suitors until reinforcements arrive.

I went to Ohio twice last week.

The first trip was a overnighter with people from my YSA group.

We drove up Sunday afternoon, spent the night at someone's house, and played at Cedar Point amusement park all day Monday.

It was decent weather and once it got too hot the wet rides took care of that.

We didn't leave until after the park closed so it was a late drive back.

I got home around 4am and there were others that got home even later.

Luckily I didn't have to be productive the next day :)

Later in the week I drove back to Ohio to spend a couple of days with JiMercy and this kid:

That's right. He's a "kid" now.

And yes, he's wearing a ninja costume.

He's obsessed with balls so I brought him a basketball hoop.

It didn't take long for him to catch on that balls go in the hoop but in the beginning he preferred to set the hoop on the group and then put the balls in it.

He's wearing swim trunks over his shorts and a onesie over his shirt.

Stylin'.

In other news, I'm having serious baby snuggle pangs.

Usually they're easy to ignore but every Sunday I'm surrounded by babies and pregnant women.

I'm also in that awkward place where no one in my ward really knows what to make of me so they don't approach me and I've never really been an approacher.

Not to worry.

We have a "getting to know you" RS activity coming up which will be the perfect opportunity for me to share my love of all things pregnancy/birth/baby with all those young baby-wielding mommies.

We'll see how that goes.

August 2, 2011

2011-08-02T23:35:00.002-06:00

Forget perma-vacation.

My life has now turned into perma-Saturday.

Occasionally productive but mostly you just hang out and recover from the workweek.

Except that there is no workweek preceding my Saturday.

It's just Saturdays.

As far as the eye can see.

I've been trying to think of updatey tidbits to share but they're hard to come by nowadays so I will leave you with these until I come up with something better:

July 27, 2011...again

2011-07-27T22:38:00.008-06:00

Me again.

I'm semi-watching "Beastly".

By "semi-watching" I mean mostly paying attention to the interwebs and not the movie.

I found this:

Here

Not sure why that video is so ridiculously large...

Okay...there's a redeeming quality to this movie.

Neil Patrick Harris.

Anything is worth watching once when they throw in a little NPH.

July 27, 2011

2011-07-27T22:20:00.003-06:00

Interesting article from Tophat about the double standard surrounding naked male/female breasts.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/05/18/dossier-mag/

I'm still working out my own opinions on this issue but I'd love to hear what you're all thinking.

July 24, 2011

2011-07-24T18:58:00.007-06:00

On Saturday the 23rd Mom, Dad, and I went to Turkey Run State Park to do some hiking.

We left the house around 8 and drove the hour to the park.

We had originally decided to use the drive time to continue my dramatic reading of "Twilight" to Mom but I decided to take pity on Dad and give it a rest.

After paying our way into the park and finding a parking space we crossed the suspension bridge to the beginning of trail #4

The majority of the trail is through the woods with just enough views of Sugar Creek to make you wish you were down in the water with the rest of the smart folk.

However, if you survive the 2 miles of stairs, dripping sweat, spider webs, and kamakazi mosquitoes then the end of the trail is totally worth it.

Towards the end of trail #4 you join up with #3 in Rocky Hollow.

This is the point where I stop talking and let the pictures earn their keep.

The specific point is called the Punch Bowl. Depending on the time of year sometimes there is a waterfall pouring into the bowl and the water is a lot deeper.

That day it was easy to see the bottom of the shallow pool and even easier to imagine how creepy that place would be if you didn't know what was lurking in the water.

At this point in the hike it was a relief to be in the cooler temperatures of the hollow. It was also a relief that I was wearing my Chacos so instead of picking my way back and forth across the dry places in the hollow I just walked right through the stream. Heavenly!

Crossing the narrow suspension bridge on our way back to the car was another adventure in itself. There were dozens of people walking across the bridge in both directions making it wobble and sway back and forth to the point that it was difficult to walk in a straight line. I chose to park it and hold on for dear life until it cleared out a bit.

It's best not to fall off a bridge when you're uninsured :)

Between drive time and the hike the entire trip only took about 5 hours.

There's a moral to this story as well:

I've been having trouble using the word "hike" to describe what midwesterners do out in the wilderness since I associate that word with walking up mountains. However after this little trip I came to realize that, despite the relatively flat landscape, the bugs and humidity make midwestern hikers hardcore in other ways.

Lesson learned.

The end

#FleetFoxes on Groove Shark

July 20, 2011

2011-07-20T11:00:00.000-06:00

Mmmm...I love a good hair trim.

What I don't love is having to go home for a different form of payment because they don't accept mine.

I believe my relationship with AmEx will be very short lived.

In other news....

My life pretty much revolves around these two socially inept fluffballs.

Chicago July 2011

2011-07-19T21:32:00.015-06:00

Mom and I just returned from a quick one-nighter in Chicago. My decision to join her was made at the last minute after she read reviews of her planned hotel and it was described as sketchy and run down. Hmmm...

We left around 2 on Monday and to pass the time on the way I read the first 5 chapters of "Twilight" out loud to Mom. Mahahah!

We stopped in Glenview (near the Chicago temple) for a 5 mile speed walk through the neighborhoods.

It was HOT

and HUMID

and NOT AT ALL BREEZY.

Yay-er baby!

After a quick stop at the grocery store for some blessedly cold Gatorade we headed to the hotel in Palatine.

At first sight it looked like the reviews were right. The surrounding area was looking pretty sketchy in the dark and then we saw their sign:

Hello there increasing creep factor!

Fortunately, it went uphill from there.

Our room was very cute and had a unique beach theme.

The unique theme and furniture did a great job of drawing your attention away from the fact that they're still in the process of updating a once rundown hotel.

My favorite detail was the white beams they added to the ceiling of the room to create a faux exposed beam look. It added a wonderful detail to the beach theme while drawing your attention away from the actual ceiling which was your usual outdated popcorn-textured mess.

(Can you tell I'm watching Design Star right now??)

Tuesday morning mom did a short walk while I slept in and then we headed to the city.

We took the train in from Cumberland and then a bus to The Corner Bakery for lunch.

On the bus we noticed a weird smokey cloud hanging out across the city and it was still there after lunch and coming our way. Dun dun dun!

At this point we were fairly certain that it was an actual cloud coming from the Lake so we decided to bus over to Navy Pier to check it out.

There was literally zero visibility of the lake and from the pier this was the view of the city skyline:

I'm sorry...what skyline??

Later, in Wrigley Village we visited a used bookstore that I don't remember the name of but I found an annotated edition of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I thought about buying it but they didn't take AmEx. Ah well. They just saved me 6 bucks.

We also checked out Uncle Fun's Toy store. Mom is always on the hunt for new and different toys for the grandkids but this was more of a retro/slightly raunchy knick knack store. Interesting stuff but nothing really toddler friendly.

We took the bus back to the blue line and then headed home.

On the way I read another 5 chapters of "Twilight" to mom. I also devoted some time to convincing her that she would enjoy the second movie more than the first since there is very little RPatz in it.

Like our reading of the book...it's a work in progress.

One of the highlights of the trip was the severe scolding Tuffy gave us when we got home. She gets lonely when the girls are gone :)

Vacation Report

2011-07-17T19:17:00.010-06:00

I took a greyhound bus to visit Jimercy and K for a few days before family vacation officially started. The bus broke down and we were stuck in Dayton for 90 minutes longer than planned but other than that it was a pretty uneventful ride.

While staying with Jimercy, they got a kick out of K's reaction to me. Anytime they would leave him alone with me, even if they were only across the room, he would scream bloody murder. If it wasn't so amusing it might have hurt my feelings.

Saturday July 2nd

We all drove up to the condo in Harbor Springs. It was a long drive but K behaved really well and I got to nap and read the whole time so...high fives all around.

Sunday July 3rd

We attended church at the local branch up there. It was your typical tiny tourist town branch meeting (A+ for alliteration) where most of the tourists cut out immediately after sacrament meeting but we stuck around for 2nd and 3rd hour.

Sunday school was a repeat of our lesson from the previous week but it was interesting to get another teacher's perspective. Our teacher tends to fill the time with discussion and very little scripture while this teacher spent the majority of the class reading the scriptures out loud to us. I'm sure there's a happy medium out there somewhere :)

Relief society was very small and mostly locals. I don't remember what the lesson was about but eventually it devolved into a discussion on the evils of political correctness in relation to the gays and freedom of speech. At that point I was paying complete attention and having a hard time not rolling my eyes every 2 seconds.

News flash: No matter your opinion on any of those topics, RS if NOT the appropriate venue for that discussion.

After church, we spent the rest of the evening talking and playing mexican train dominoes.

At least we think that's what we were playing since we were missing tiles and didn't have the official rules until we were almost done playing.

Monday July 4th

The Petoskey 4th of July Parade

Fab had her nose stuck in "The Hunger Games" for the first few days of vacation.

It was definitely a small town parade but it was still fun. I got a little bored towards the end though and ducked into a local bookstore.

After the parade we headed to nearby Bear River Park for a picnic dinner.

After dinner we went our seperate ways. Dad to reserve seating for the fireworks, Jimercy+K back to the condo, while Mom, Fab and I took a walk down the bay.

At this point I relinquished my camera to Fab so she could play snap-happy tourist.

While were walking Fab requested a piggy back ride.

She thanked me for the ride by biting my ear.

Then she wiped the spit off my ear. Classy

We walked out onto the Harbor Springs break water to get a better look at the bay and to watch the kids jumping off the end.

It also made for some excellent sunset pictures!

We watched the fireworks at Bay Front Park in Petoskey. It turned out to be pretty far from where they were launching them but that made it easier to get a seat.

During the fireworks I was commenting on how, because of the distance, we were missing the earthshaking booms which are my favorite part. Dad told us that he was forever spoiled for future fireworks shows because of the ones he saw as a kid. Growing up in Lafeyette they would go to the stadium to watch the fireworks. They would launch from one of the stadium and he would be laying in the grass on the other side. The earth would shake when they exploded and he could feel the cinders and ash falling down from the sky. You could also hear the firetrucks going out into the neighborhood to put out fires on people's roofs.

Tuesday July 5th

We were expecting to have a rain on Tuesday so we planned a movie day. We never got the rain we were expecting but we were lazy anyway.

Our movies that day were "Cool Runnings", "The Pursuit of Happyness", and "The Mask of Zorro".

It was also my day to make dinner so I took the easy way out and warmed up Bosco sticks in the oven and we ate them with pizza sauce and leftover watermelon.

Wednesday July 6th

This was our big outing day! Around noon we drove north to Makinaw City. After a small wait we boarded our ferry to Makinac Island.

K loved looking over the side of the ferry but once we started moving he hung on for dear life and wouldn't let go.

There's no motorized traffic on the island so there were all sorts of horse drawn things and lots and lots of bicycles.

One of the big attractions is to rent a bike and ride all the way around the island. Our rental shop was running out of bikes so mom and I ended up on a tandem. It took a little while for us to get started the first time but once we got the rhythm down we rocked that thing!

I now present...the double mint twins! And the strange guy following us.

Fab once again played photog which is for the best since driving a tandem is difficult enough.

We stopped a couple of times to let K put his feet in the water.

After turning out bikes back in we had ice cream, picked up fudge for later that night, and hit a tourist shop.

As we were entering the store I saw a UPS guy delivering dozens of boxes to the store via horse drawn cart. I don't even want to imagine how much UPS charges to ship boxes to an island where cars aren't allowed.

The girl I checked out with told us that she grew up on the island and she back from school for the summer. She said she lives above the store so I'm assuming that her parents own the store. That is one person whose life story I would love to hear.

Once we were back at the condo, Jimercy grilled hamburgers and hot dogs on the deck and we had Makinac Island fudge for dessert.

Our movie for the evening was "Johnny English". Mom got a real kick out of that one.

After the movie, Fab convinced us to play Twister.

Probably not the smartest idea since we spent the day biking.

She won of course.

And then claimed her prize.

That's right...she's on top of me.

Good thing one of my special talents is shallow breathing.

Thursday July 7th

In the morning I went to the pool with Jimercy+K.

That night Mom and Dad treated us to dinner at Garfields and then everyone but Mom and I headed off to mini-golf.

K is a huge fan of anything ball shaped which made playing a tad difficult.

While they were golfing, Mom and I visited downtown Harbor Springs. The area immediately surrounding the harbor looked like it had been tailor-made for the yuppie-sailing-summering crowd.

Every Thursday night they have Musique on the Street so we ran across several bands giving mini concerts. The one we stopped and listened to was playing songs in the John Denver/James Taylor variety and I loved it. We didn't stick around for long though. I had a bbq sauce stain on my shirt and a bug bite on the back of my leg that was begging to be scratched and neither of those blend in with the yuppie crowd.

Our movie that night was "Walk the Line".

I was pleasantly surprised by that one.

Friday July 8th

On Friday everyone met at a local restaraunt the "Bob-In Again" for ice cream. I stayed at the condo with a headache but they brought me home BBQ pulled pork which I had been dreaming of all week! It was marvelous! Just the right amount of tang to go with the sweetness of the BBQ sauce.

That's my food right there!

Later that afternoon we went back to the breakwater we'd visited on Monday so Fab and Dad could jump off the pier at the end.

Fab went thrice but Dad said once was enough for him.

Later that day Mom and I went exploring in downtown Petoskey while everyone else went canoeing. I've heard that we didn't miss much. Lots of bushes and bugs to avoid. At one point Jimercy's canoe flipped over with K in it. Now that would have been a sight to see.

We closed our vacation that evening with a screening of "What About Bob".

It wouldn't have been vacation without that.

Saturday morning we all drove home.

Th-th-th-th-that's all folks!

K was so good the entire time trip. While we were at the condo he would run around being adorable and friendly and increasingly talkative but when we were out and about he would just quietly observe everything that was going on around him. Jimercy said that when they got back to their house on Saturday night he walked inside, realized it was his house and got very excited. He ran around the house pulling all his toys out of his toybox and the pots and pans out of the cupboards. He was very glad to be home!

Speaking of cuteness, his two favorite phrases are "vaya vaya vaya!" and "pichu pichu pichu".

Also, if you hold your hand out to K and say "cinco!" he'll slap your hand.

June 29, 2011

2011-06-30T17:24:00.003-06:00

Being unemployed leads to some strange behavior.

Strange like....getting up before 10 despite having nothing to do.

Strange like...turning off the TV after watching for only a few minutes despite having nothing else to do.

Strange like...slowly but surely befriending a cat that has hated you for 17 years.

Strange like...doing the dishes too much. That's right...I was told to stop doing the dishes.

Strange like...returning to your blog after what was supposed to be a permenant absence just because you miss typing.

In other news...I'm as settled in as I can get.

I have a bank account, a hair salon, a library card, and an institute class.

There are still a few things to work out around the house like moving my old desk up from the basement, finding a new home for Skoob's pac-n-play (because letting an 18 month old into your room is never a good idea), and acquiring an army's worth of hangers.

And of course the ongoing quest to find the perfect pillow.

Plenty to keep me busy until school starts, right?

Of course, I still have 4 seasons of Friends and 7 seasons of SG-1 to revisit so..yeah.

Lies. All lies.

2011-02-08T23:59:00.003-07:00

Fortune cookie say: “Your winsome smile will be your sure protection”.

Lies.

I need protection from my winsome smile.

It's like flies to honey.

The weirdos can't resist.

Wake up people! It's crap!

2011-01-24T14:20:00.004-07:00

I've been saying this for years and I'll keep on sayin' it.

The BMI scale is crap!

And I'm not alone in thinking (okay, knowing) this.

Lindsay Kite of beauty-redefined.org wrote a piece that starts with pretty much that exact phrase.

" After lots of hours writing a paper on perceptions of women’s health, I started looking into the Body Mass Index (BMI) and how it came to be the standard scale for judging a healthy weight. What I learned made me really mad. Like really mad. Lexie even received this all-caps late-night text about my discoveries: “THE BMI IS TOTAL CRAP!!!!!!” Maybe you’ll be tempted to send a similar text after you read this! Here’s a recap of what I found:"

To read the rest of her amazing article:

http://beauty-redefined.org/2011/01/21/the-lies-we-buy-defining-health-at-womens-expense/

I'd like to go on record as seconding, thirding, and even fourthing this article.

According the the BMI scale my "healthy" weight is 155 and by healthy I mean 25.

The doctor's verdict? At 155 I would be skin and bones and very unhealthy.

My actual "healthy" weight is closer to 180. At this weight, the BMI table has me walking a fine line between overweight and obese.

So read the article. Feel better about yourself. And most definitely ignore the google ads following the article. Super ironic.

P.O.

New Music Monday

2011-01-10T10:00:00.003-07:00

It's a sweet song and lawdy where has Garrett Hedlund been hiding that voice?!?!

New Music Monday

2011-01-03T10:00:00.002-07:00

Emmy Rossum...who knew.

She reminds me of Imogen Heap...if Imogen Heap did a live concert for PBS in the early 2000's.

Music takes the sting out of Mondays

2010-12-27T10:00:00.001-07:00

This keeps popping up on my Pandora "Johnny and June" station.

Love it.

I don't remember how I found this band but I listened to their album on repeat for hours last night.

Mumford and Sons

March 26th: Mustaching the town

2010-12-23T10:01:00.001-07:00

(Still playing catchup from last March...)

Make up your own holiday day

Take a flying leap of a guess as to which holiday I decided to create.

That's right...

It's Tom Selleck Day!

How does one celebrate Tom Selleck day?

Not by watching his horrible horrible westerns.

Not by watching his make out with Monica on Friends.

But by mustaching the world.

Mustaaaache sneak attack!
Edward had to get in on the action
Attention whore.

Watching someone sleep is creepy enough but when you add the stache....

No one is a true pirate without a stache.
This was taken in Hot Topic, btw.

Two feet into Forever 21, I knew it was in desperate need of testosterone.
The kind that only a stache can bring.

He actually feminizes the stache. Sad.
No one is exempt from the mustache law, fetuses (feti?) included.

Dear Santa,

2010-12-22T23:18:00.001-07:00

Don't forget....

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62388591/the-nostalgist-mustache-on-a-stick?ref=tre-4d12779d544e8eef9da963d2-16

Fall-idays 2010

2010-12-22T20:00:00.001-07:00

Halloween

Beks and I decided on our costumes separately but both ended up being ethnic stereotypes.

Can you guess what we were?

Unfortunately, I misplaced my selleck-stache-on-a-stick at the Ward Costumed Roller Skating Party. Now I just have to hope that Santa brings me one. Ahem.

Turkey Fest 2010

I went home for Thanksgiving for the first time in 5 years and it was marvey.
Especially since these two were heavily featured:

It was 10 days of sleep and babies and satellite TV and food I (mostly) didn't have to cook.

Basically...HEAVEN.

Things I Learned During: Turkey Fest 2010 Version

Fact #1
Skoob is a super stud.
He expertly rocks the belly shirt.

And bedhead

He is also a grandpa's boy.
Seriously.
Gpa is even better than Mommy sometimes.

Fact #2

Sometimes life pokes you in the eye...and then gives you the flu.
(Skoob being both the eye poker and the alleged flu giver)

Here they are playing nicely and NOT poking each other in the eyes.

The flu hit Fabs, Noodle, and I on day 8 of vacation and was still working it's way through Familia JiMercy 2 weeks later.

Fact #3
It also took the kitties a couple of weeks to recover from the holiday.
The day I left they were hiding under the twin beds in the pink room and very unwilling to come out and say goodbye.

I wonder why??

Fact #4
We have some budding musical geniuses.

They LOVE the piano.
Mostly because it makes noise but also because they're genius.

Fact #5
Sometimes doing the hard stuff pays off.

On a hunt for a non-Nestle-tainted pumpkin pie Mom and I found a Trader Joes.

The Yogurt Stars didn't last long but I'm still working on my Pumpkin Butter.

Mmmmmmm....

Fact #6

Which is more like a theory and is basically blasphemy but I have to say it.

There might be such thing as too much stove top stuffing.
***Results may be inconclusive due to the pre-flu symptoms

Fact #7:

I have the stinking cutest family ever.

I'm not allowed to post the full family picture as it should be going out with the Christmas letter but here's what I have.

It doesn't hurt that the dimpled to non dimpled ratio is increasing.

And since today is the first official day of winter:

The End.

Bucket List

2010-12-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm crafting a bucket list.

It's short but, then again, I have plenty of time to add to it.

It's nothing really new...you've heard it all before.

Ahem...

Things I had better experience before I kick the bucket:

Howie Day as a headliner

***

Cuba

In particular, Valley De Vinales in the early AM with a light fog rolling in.

I said a light fog.

***

Pregnancy and birth

***

Spanish fluency of my very own.

Maybe that should come before Cuba.

***

The Northern Lights

***

To be continued....

Our true identity

2010-12-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Honest Opinions

2010-12-18T22:12:00.003-07:00

Is it just me or is the cheese factor on this video upwards of 10 million?

Some people were incredibly touched by it but I find the combination of the music (which alone I would have loved) and the facebook concept ridiculous.

Honest opinions though.

What do you think?

3:05

2010-12-16T22:24:00.004-07:00

For 3 minutes and 5 seconds I forgot feel sad that I haven't felt the sun in weeks.

For 3 minutes and 5 seconds I forgot to worry about the consequences of big decisions.

For 3 minutes and 5 seconds I was involved in this:

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

And if you're interested...

The Making Of:

Thought of You - Behind the Scenes Preview - ROUGH CUT from Cambell Christensen on Vimeo.

Much love to Taza for the share.

Awkward Moments

2010-12-15T23:44:00.007-07:00

Usually I am an All Star (that's right...capitol A) at avoiding awkward/potentially embarrassing moments.

Today, my "A" Game was nowhere to be seen.

Not only were my already low riding tights rolling down my legs as I exited the train platform this evening but I also completely spaced locking the stall door at work today.

And did I mention that static factor of the aforementioned tights and the knee length of my skirt?

And the fact that modesty in a knee length skirt is nearly impossible when you combine static and babies?

Most. Excellent.

Speaking of awkward things that have nothing to do with me so you'll completely forget about MY day.

Beks picked this movie up from the Box O' Red.

It started off questionable, moved on to downright-cringe-worthy, but then ended well.

And by well, I mean that as far as cheaply made, cheesy, Christian, turning-their-life-around movies go, I really really liked it.

Of course, it didn't hurt that the lead was "pinch his cheeks adorable" once he stopped being all rude and 17.

I accidentaled into this:

2010-12-14T16:33:00.004-07:00

I was trying for the side topsy tail I had on Sunday but it looked a little scraggly so I tucked the ends in and VOILA! a new 'do.

Yeah...we'll see if I can ever replicate it.

Ha!

Ahahahahaahah!

2010-12-01T01:31:00.002-07:00

I saw last week this in a paper back home.

It's even better in color.

And then there's this:

and if you have NO IDEA what I'm talking about just google "Don't Touch My Junk".

Zero

2010-11-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Lift off. Kapowey.

One

2010-11-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

1 day

24 hours

1440 minutes

86,400 seconds.

1 fra-jeaking day.

Nuff said.

Two

2010-11-17T10:50:00.004-07:00

2 days

48 hours

2880 minutes

172,800 seconds

Also the number of chubby little faces I plan on smothering with kisses.

That's not including the skinny-freckled-red-headed face I also plan to smother.

An FYI

2010-11-16T17:45:00.002-07:00

Take a moment to read through her experience.

http://www.ourlittlechatterboxes.com/2010/11/tsa-sexual-assault.html

I don't entirely agree with her reaction (TSA to cover counseling???) but the TSA agent was out of line and obviously very poorly trained.

I, most likely, will never be subjected to a full body search so what are my reasons for spending WAY to much time reading up on this?

TSA has very poorly publicized this change in policy

and

It's better to know that it's a possibility than to be surprised later.

I also encourage you all to read through both TSA and the ACLU's statements on both safety and privacy in relation to the full body scanning machines (also called a "backscatter").

Here's an example of what the machine will show when the privacy filters are in effect.

I believe these images were taken with two different types of machines. Not sure which one is regulation.

Here's hoping SL is still using their old school metal detectors.

And if not, at least I'll only be one of many in a never ending line of naked bodies.

Three

2010-11-16T10:00:00.002-07:00

Three days

72 hours

4320 minutes

259,200 seconds

And I thought a three hour layover was bad...on the way back it's 4 1/2.

Forget the books, I'm bringing my computer now too.

Although, apparently, Mission Fabbey flew all the way home from Europe with only her scriptures and my parents for entertainment.

The morale of the story is: It could ALWAYS be worse.

What were they thinking: DROID

2010-11-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

How is that not creepy? Seriously! IRobot? Terminator? Eagle Eye? Anyone?

Four

2010-11-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Four days

96 hours

5,760 minutes

345,600 seconds

Four is also the numbers of hours it takes to fly from SLC to Indy.

Unless you have a 3 hour layover in Denver.

I might actually finish my book before I even arrive.

Good thing I'm bringing more than one.

Don't be a nerd-hater.

Pet Peeve: The Handshake

2010-11-14T18:27:00.003-07:00

Nothing is a bigger turnoff for me than a man with a limp noodle handshake.

It isn't attractive in women either.

**For more lame handshakes visit "The Oatmeal".**

Five

2010-11-14T09:41:00.003-07:00

5 days

120 hours

7200 minutes

432,000 seconds

5 is also the number of fingers I used to type this post since the other 5 are full of baby.

(that sounds weird)

Annnnnd the number of fingers baby is currently chewing on.

Yum yum.

Six

2010-11-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

6 days

144 hours
8640 minutes
518,400 seconds

It's also "airplane trips are an excellent excuse to buy a new purse" day.

It makes the strategic carry-on planning so much more enjoyable.

Okay, that's a lie. It's enjoyable even without the purse.

What were they thinking: Fresh Step

2010-11-12T13:14:00.005-07:00

Since when is it a good thing for your cat to NOT to be able to find their litterbox?

Are you a Trejo-mie?

2010-11-12T10:00:00.001-07:00

Check out Mr. Arturo Trejo on The Youtube.

You won't be sorry.

Well...you might be. But that will pass.

M&D's Europe Report : Day 10

2010-11-12T08:46:00.003-07:00

Hey there;

Word from Paris;

It is cold and rainy again but amazingly from about 7PM to 10PM the wind seems to die down and it gets warmer.

Mom and I set off for the mission home at about 8AM taking the Metro to Charles Degaule and then the RER to the town with the mission home. Nice town. Much quieter than Paris but with some larger homes all with fences and buzzers at the sidewalk( or the dirth pathway). At about 9:02 we walked into the mission home and there she was. President Staley and and Elder that served with Abbey said many wonderful things about her example, her work, constancy and impact on many people. We, her parents were deeply touched by their words. Abbey's friend, Sister Curan(with the dreds) was waiting for her mother so we stayed until the Mission President hinted we needed to be on our way. Walking from the mission home to the station, mother started the debrief. President Staley lent me a 5 euro umbrella which promptly turned inside out in the rain. We visite to Paris thorugh the switch then to the hotel. Mom and I changed and we were on our way to adventure. We got the book mom had been thinking about, "why 11 millon frenchmen cannot be wrong" or some such thing picked up some cookies and walked to the Opera house for a tour but discovered the last english session was missed. Found another book store where I got "The best of sherlock holmes" to read on the plan and train. So we got on the train and rode to take Abbey near the Louve. We walked up the street below the Louve with all kinds of shops and a covered walkway. Covered walkways are good during wind and rain.

Leaned into the wind to enter the courtyard inside the louve then sent Abbey and Kristen with the Museam passes to see the louve.

They picked a few things to see, mona lisa, Napoleons rooms and various things that were featured in the museam. I on the other hand found my way to Marais by way of Bastille to the Jewish quarter. On which there are a few narrow streets with lots of shops and much activity. Lots of walking and enjoying seeing the ethnic food(too bad I wasn't hungry) and people. At one point walking through Place des Vosges, heard a woman(old and wobbly voice) singing with her opera boom box playing. At another point in the trip, there was a 10 piece string ensemble playing in the subway corridor. Stopped for a minute to hear. We have also seen and heard probably 4 accordian players in the last day or 2.

Abbey and mom returned to the hotel 5 minutes after I did we talked for a while and then at 8PM went to dinner at Polidore or something like that it was like french country cooking. More sauces and gravys. Now here finanally something other than bread and sweets that we liked. All 3 dishes were very good. What did you eat abbey? Grouse or something? So we returned after another long day with lots of walking and for the museam girls, lots of standing and looking.

So mom what happened when you saw the nude men statues? I offered the guide to cover Abbey's eyes she said.

So there you have it. Mom and Abbey are sleeping in 505 and I am batching it in 504.

Love and hugs, Tomorrow we are going to Lille.(Proof that we did pick up Abbey is attached)

Dad

M&D's Europe Report : Day 9

2010-11-12T08:30:00.001-07:00

Familie;

Yesterday we were at Notre Dame Cathedral and did a tour using a guide book. We learned that Saint Dennis after being beheaded washed his head off in the fountain and walked South eventually ending up at Sacre Cour where the white basicilla was created.

On the relief on the front of the church are many statues of saints which during one revolution, the common people took off all their heads thinking they were statues of Kings. A carving of the judgement shows Satan and Christ weighting souls for judgement. Satan has his hand on the scale weighting it in his favor(funny).

I learned also yesterday that the Louve is closed on Tuesday, that our phones are very costly, that there is still water and fish under the Opera house here that inspired Phantom of the Opera, and that the Lafayette Department store is very big in deed. Largest in France I am told.

Mom and I went to a place called Rue Cler and a street called by that name. Full of markets, cafe's, bakeries, fruit markets and Parisians and other strolling and buying. It was a delightful place.

After freshing up, while mom was still napping I went to take pictures of the Eiffel tower. I can get to a good view on our roundabout. Arriving at the square that gave that vantage I was aware of many black men selling lighted Eiffel towers to tourists. I got some pictures and video of the tower including a neat reflection in the rainwater and the video of the tower twinkling, which it does 5 mintues every hour in the evening. Pretty magical.

Mom and I went on a nightime tour of the lights of Paris with a guide that speaks Spanish, French and English. It was quite interesting to listen to the english then spanish and visa versa. Paris is beautiful in the night, it is also much easier to get around then. Our guide prefers the nighttime in paris for that reason. Paris is known as the city of light, and you can see why. They must spend millions on power for lights every year. We went to the Cathedral at night. Drove by roman ruins, the concorde plaza, the big and little palaces, the Louve, the NotreDame cathedral and tool many places to mention. It was pretty wonderful.

When we finished that tour we took a boat ride on the Seine River, which was rainy but also fun and beautiful. There are statues on bridges that you cannot see except at the water level. That was about 1 hour so we returned to the hotel after 11 PM and slowly settled down from our day. We saw the Eiffel tower from the water which was pretty grand. It was said that a famous person in Paris Said, he would eat lunch at the tower every day so he didn't have to look at it. To some it was pretty ugly but it is now their landmark.

Oh, so under the Louve is a mall of stores and while there and finding that the Louve was closed I discovered that the only WC's were housed in the store. You pay 1 Euro and get a clean and perfumed bathroom. Oh Paris. TMI I Know.

There is so much to see and do in Paris. But some things we have seen many times as we take the Metro places. Mom did a part of a walk yesterday before I called to find her. I was able to jump on the Metro and meet her in about 10 mintues or so.

At night you can more easily see how paris and french culture is all about symmetry and order. Some of the main monuments like the Arc De Triomphe is connected to the Louve with a similar smaller Arch. The street CHamps Elysees, pretty much aligns the 2.

There are similar balanced long views in paris between buildings and monuments

Today I got out the Louve and saw some wonders. I was using the guide by rick steves that had an MP3 of a tour for a couple of hours. I was amazed that during the dark ages, art died and when it started to return at the end of the medevil era, it was worse that the art of the Romans or Greeks. At that the renissiance began in Italy in painting. The italians also use symetry and balance in their paintings from that ERA. Statues, paintings ooo la la. Mona lisa, Rafel, Michael Angelo, Early Greek etc. It was a wonderful eye opening tour. Our guide Tuesday said that if you spend 1 minute with each article being exhibited you would be there for 2 years. So a condensed 2- 3 hour tour was just fine. But magnificent.

I found mom back at the hotel, she was most of the way down the Champs and returned to the hotel so we could take the train to Versailles. We say the Chateau of Louis XIV to XVI and Marie Antionette was a gilded opulent excess. Every room gilded and fully of wall coverings with paintings everywhere and the ceiling as well. Amazing but way over the top. Napoleon was going to renovate the place but stopped as it was too expensive for his empire.

We strolled a narrow street south of the Cathedral to night. Again another example of a fun market and Cafe area. Narrow streets are rare in Paris, they were all blased wide enuf for miliary cannon and too wide for a revolution street blockade. But a few fun streets survived.

We then walked up the hill to a Crepe place and had dinner and dessert of crapes.

Tomorrow is the Abbey D day. We are excited.

Love and hugs.

Dad

Seven

2010-11-12T00:17:00.000-07:00

1 week

7 days

168 hours

10080 minutes

etc.....

Also the number of drafts I've made of my packing list.

What an awkward coincidence.

Don't judge.

It's how I get my kicks.

The countdown is over!!

2010-11-11T00:10:00.004-07:00

As I write this, M&D are collecting Mission Fabbey.

Hooray for major time differences.

They were up at the crack of dawn to publicly transport themselves to Lille by 8am and I haven't even gone to bed yet.

After a few more days in France and Belgium they're all headed home and then, it's party time.

The next countdown begins on Friday.

Hi. My name is Emmers....

2010-11-10T23:57:00.003-07:00

...and I'm a bossy know-it-all.

but I'm working on it.

Actually, I'm not. Unless "attempting to ration" it counts.

Just thought I'd get that out of the way.

M&D's Europe Report: Day 8

2010-11-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

Children'

Oh burst my bubble. The romance of Paris(the aura) is considerably cooled when there are high winds and lots of rain.

Finally a real breakfast. Eggs, yogurt, bread, cereal...... Mmmmmm. Stoked up we went out into the weather and toured the subway to make sure we could find our way around. Since we had just eaten breakfast, we didn't stop for lunch at the destination but sucessfully navigated a couple transfers. After a sucessful return and a stop at a restaurant on the trocederro($$) we found our warmth again, put on the long underwear and headed down to meet our afternoon tour. OUr guide was driving, in the crazy Paris traffic, honking to keep traffic moving and speaking in english and german(germans in the van). I am suprised he was able to do that. We saw all the high points of Paris. Stopping at the Basillica(I thought Basilisk) at the high point in Paris. What is a Basillica you ask? It is bigger than a chapel and a church(church is bigger than a chapel) but smaller than a cathedral. The rain was horizonal and the wind bitter. I walked around anyway. Inside there were many persons who were lighting candles to the many saints in small "chapels" on the perimeter of the building. Some were praying on alters at those places as well. Hmm. I was hoping that the chapel for Christ would have the most candles but it didn't seem that way.

So after a couple of very rainy shots we piled into the van very wet and headed down the hill. The guide was well versed in history and told of when each very large building was built, most things are tied to the revolution or to Napoleon. At one point the cardinal over Paris had his own Palace. We saw the opera, military training and buildings, many museams of art, the new bridge which was actually the oldest bridge and a bridge which is very decorated and the Notre Dame Cathedral, which we will probably return to tomorrow.

During the drive, the guide pointed out vehicles parked nose to tail. Only inches between them. Apparently when parking the parking brake is left off which allows other cars to nudge you out of the way a little bit to squeeze into the space. HOws that? It is normal in paris to push other cars to make room for yours.

Cold and wet we returned home, wondering what our visit to Paris was going to be like. We warmed, dried and napped and then went out for dinner. We noted that the wind and rain had stopped, the weather seemed warmer tonight and we were glad for that improvement.

Mom found a place to the south a couple stops for dinner so we went there and found it closed(right across from Unesco) so we wandered back up to another round about and ate dinner there. I had a sea perch and mom had ravioli(no tomato sauce) then Creme buele and a rich chocolate pastry with wonderful icecream and a liquid custard. That was the icing on the dinner.

The restaurant didn't start to load up until after 9PM. So apparently the French are late bloomers in the evening. It is typical for these places to stay open to midnight. So they are open for lunch from 12 to 2PM then reopen for evening at what 6PM or so.

We have picked places with English on the menu outside and have had waiters who were able to explain things in english. Even then it is hard to tell what you are going to get.

What is this I asked? A thin slice of beef not cooked. What is this beef with cheese and bread mixed in warmed on both sides(looks like a raw burger but without the blood). So I had to ask, what do you recommend that is cooked? That is how I got the sea perch(It was cooked).

The language hasn't been as bad as we expected. There are germans speaking german, chineese speaking well, chinese and so forth but not nearly the diversity as London. Freedom of the UK must draw more nations to that doorway. Mom read an article that said as much in yesterdays paper. Mom noted that the people here are less dressed up than in London. Yes that is true. And probably wearing more clothing here than in London as well. She also noted that there are more middle aged people walking around paris than in London.

Another story;

We were in the rain this AM and slogging through puddles at the Arc De Triophe thinking we were going to walk back to the hotel. About 5 minutes into it. A man stopped beside us. And I noticed that all of a sudden he stooped down and when he stood he was holding a big ring which he showed to your mom, who correctly answered the unasked question with NO. Typical scam, "I found this ring, would you like to buy it for a real cheep price" Only he never said anything just showed her the ring. Apparenlty she was really convincing(you know the face that means business) . We kept walking and finally I said, really now we are getting soaked can we do plan B. There was a Metro a 1/2 block back that we took to our neighborhood.

Oh by the way we are in the 16th district which includes the highest per square meter rent or prices in paris. Just so you know.

So we are navigating, eating, site seeing and eating more.

Mom said this is the first real vacation longer than 1 week that we have taken. Hmm, unless you count being unemployed(if that counts)

We seem to have found a good way to address new places and still live to tell about it. IN fact we gave some directions to a treo that sounded lke they were from Russia. Seems like they were way off the path. Thats' cause they don't have your mom giving directions.

I love your momma, she is a great navigator and usually can figure out a good place to eat(as long as she doesn't trust the GPS(a joke from previous vacations)

We love you and hope you are doing well.

Love

Dad & Mom

M&D's Europe Report: Day 7

2010-11-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

The word from Paris;

Hello from our small room in Paris. We made it here. Glad signs are also in english and people are helpful(well most) Here is how the day went.

We arose, ate breakfast, dressed and walked a block to the Tube exiting at South Kensington.

we were unclear what direction to go from that point to go the church at the Hyde Park Ward at 9:00 AM.

Kristen thought it was West, I thought it was in the direction of the Museams. After walking north and finding a bus driver he sent us West. 15 minutes later we turned back toward the east and just past where we asked for directions from the bus driver we saw a single gold spire between building. Goodness did you see that? So problem at this point? It was almost 9:30 and there was a lot of fence between us and what we believed was the church. We found a path, arrived and found a verrrry multicultural ward. Japan, England, Phillipeans, Zimbabwe, Utah and so forth. If we attended that church it would take a while to understand the "english 2nd language" and also the english. It was sooo hard to understand what people were saying as they struggled to bear testimony, but!, they did testify and I was amazed to hear the testimonies from many lands about a prophet(a white american one) and the book of Mormon. How utterly amazing and wonderful, this must be God's church for all these different races and peoples to have found and grabbed hold.

So we sat for 40 minutes at the back and then with a couple hello's we were on the street toward the hotel.

We found, to our dismay that there was a route North from the Tube station underground that came up right across from the Church. Live and learn. And oh how we have learned. We think we would really have fun now in London with all we know and are ready to branch out. (Next time perhaps)

Our cab, which the concierge called the night before, arrived at 12:15, I settled up with the hotel & paid for Kristen's 2 candy bars and a bag of chips from the room "bar" mostly with change we had collected over the week. This was 3AM stuff in the we can't sleep part of the night. Nice to be free of pence and 2 pence and 5 pence and 10 pence .... and so on. Oh by the way, this was very much a B&B rather than a Hotel, there was no deadbolt on the door but there was a safe in every room. We would turn in our key when we left, which was the best thing to do because, it weighed 2 pounds. It had a brass counter weight attached to it kind of in the shape of a round door knob with a flat piece of brass attached. The key was a skeleton key, kind of old fashioned throughout.

Our cab driver was a Kurd from Kurdistan. Didn't sound like a very good place to live. All their neighbors Turkey, Iran pick on them. I recall that. Other than that, the drive was quiet and we arrived at the station, bought lunch and checked in 40 minutes ahead of the departure. We sat and ate our lunch while people streamed into the station.

The boarding process is masses of people going up a flat escalator trying to keep the luggage from rolling backwards. The luggage is self service. We stowed our bags at the end of the train then sat in our luxury seats. No seat belts and our tray tables could stay out the entire time and we could get up whenever we wanted(different than air travel). The tunnel was dark and long but I was reading the London Sunday paper so I didn't miss much. We must have been going way in excess of 120 MPH since we were passing cars like they were standing still when in the countryside along the roadway. Along the way we saw some rolling green hills in France but also some factories and other buildings.

We were in 1st class so we got a second lunch(unexpected). The custard was good. And near the end we both dropped off an took a nap.

We arrived at the Gare du Norde train station, the eurostar connection for Paris and joined the masses of people moving toward the exit. Ok so who do I deliver my practiced phrase to? Ooay ewn stah-see-ohn duh taxi? Where is the taxi station. We found a sign that said taxi but it was for reservations, which we didn't have. We wandered out and didn't see what we were looking for(wandering not knowing). Walked inside and found a reservations desk. "I don't have a reservation where do I go". Poly vu Francais, No. Various english french exchanges. "Ooay ewn stah-see-ohn duh taxi?" He pointed to the West. We wandered some more looking at each booth in turn. Finally saw a Taxi sign wandered outside and saw a que of people and taxis being matched up. Our driver spoke just enuf english I showed him the address of the hotel. I need more information. We showed him our reservation. That seemed to help.(we needed to tell him the arrondisement number which was 16, as paris is divided into districts) The driving in Paris is crazy, I'm suprised there aren't more accidents. There seeem to be few rules at a round about here. The taxi driver also said that. The driving is crazy here. After driving through Paris(in silence) totally unaware of where we were or where we were going(the map was in the trunk) we saw the opera, the eifell tower and some other landmarks all lit up on a cold rainy night. We arrived, said thank you, paid the driver and then went into the hotel where the desk person spoke english and we breathed a sigh of relief. So here we are, looking at maps and descriptions to try and get our bearings. The room is smaller that in London but I think it also was less dinero. But this should be fine for what we need. Mom said, I should have started 30 days ago working on some French phrases. Indeed. But then, how to the chineese get around?

Our tour called and asked to start in the PM rather than AM tomorrow, the driver is sick the lady said. That would be OK with us 8:30 AM has been a little early for us. We have been living our lives in a time zone in the middle between London and NYC. It's been fun to come home at 10PM after a late dinner, walk and Tube ride.

Now you have had a time zone change and we are 6 hours different I believe

I have attached a picture of your parents in London from Yesterday.

We haven't forgotten about you and still are praying for you(and the cats).

Love and hugs.

Dad

M&D's Europe Report: Day 6

2010-11-06T21:02:00.001-06:00

Well Kids, there are really 2 stories to our Saturday. Mom went on a 7 mile walk through London and I saw a couple sites and did a lot of traveling the tube.

My story. After a late breakfast, which by the way is served to our room, truly continental. Juice and toast or a cressant. That's it. I went to pick up my laundry. It was a brisk sunny morning. But there were a lot of people out and about. Made me want to wander over where some of them were and see what all the bustling was about. The laundry was a non event. But I did discover that some of the 5 story flats( like a townhouse) have an alley behind them called MEWS. Back in the day that is where the hourses were kept. Now there are short 2 story houses maybe converted stables in the area where the stables used to be.

After a couple days of Tube travel it became pretty easy to figure out how to get around so I returned to the Westminster Abbey area and took in the Churchill Museam and the Museam that was created from the area where CHurchill ran the war in the 1940s. After listening to several snippets from his speaches I was sure that here was a man that was raised up for the time. He said "we are all worms but I am a glow worm" and after hearing him speak I would say his use of language and inflection was powerful. Also watched the movie about his funeral. His funeral ceremony was in St Pauls(where your mom and I were a couple days ago). Neat to recognize the place The sentiment of the people was touching, he lived to age 90. He was a tireless worker who would put in 18 hours a day 7 days a week during the war and really wore himself out..

I ate lunch in the exhibit area. An underground cafe. The food was actually pretty tasty. Just seemed odd to be eathing under ground. Their breads here seem to be superior to the bread in the US> When I emerged from the underground, I got a message from your mom who was walking her 7 mile across London tour. She was actually in the area. After a brief phone conversation we met in the middle of Westminster bridge and took pictures of ourself with big ben as a backdrop. It was great to meet there and share a few plesant moments.

She continued on to the end of her tour.

I however, got on the tube and after a transfer ended up at the British Museam. Kind of museam about times and peoples. It is organized by time periods in the development of civilizations. I saw Mesopotemia, Assyria, Egypt, Rome and several others. I was there 1.5 hours and could have, if my feet could have taken the standing, done 4. It seems that the best way to do a museam is to get a guided tour tape to help understand the significants. It takes longer but oh it is sooo much more interesting. I was wondering how IRAN, Egypt and other countries feel about the stuff that is in this museam?

I saw the Rosetta stone. It had 3 languages on it including greek that allowed for interpretation of achient languages for the first time.

At one point I happened upon a tour through long rooms of Assyrian stone carvings, their form of "moving pictures" They carved sequential battle scenes and the guide was explaining it and throwing in hurmor along the way. That is the way to see the ancient world. Through the eyes of someone who knows and loves it.

So mom and I met up again a the hotel, and after a little planning we set off for dinner at Giraffes a chain in the UK. Kind of a 70's ish motiff. The food was OK. Compared to last night it was way lower on my rating scale.

So another 16,000 steps on my pedometer after another long day in London. It's been fun and we would, now that we know our way around, love to come back. There is so much to see do and explore that it would take weeks to do. The tube goes to so many towns with some many intersting names.

We get to go to church in the hyde park ward tomorrow. Pretty historical place so it will be interesting to see what an english testimony meeting feels like. Jolly Good.. But then we will board the train for Paris and see what the city of lights is all about.

We have enjoyed england and the mix of peoples and seeing people all dressed up and going places. The masses of humanity are amazing.

Love and hugs.

Dad

M&D's Europe Report: Day 5

2010-11-05T23:52:00.000-06:00

Dear Kids,

First thing I have to say is: Heated towel bars. Neener, neener.

Next is my fashion report. it's all leggings or skinny jeans tucked into boots this year. Sometimes the leggings are stocking-thin and sometimes whatever shirt or tunic they wear with the leggings barely, um, covers the subject.

London feels far more international than New York. But why shouldn't it, when the newspaper advertises weekend vacations in Sweden and when a bus billboard shouts that Tunisia is "just 2 1/2 hours away!" In the first couple hours we were here, our pick-up driver was from Portugal, the girl that opened the hotel door (actually more like a B&B; this whole area is townhouses converted to little "hotels") was from Spain and the girl that ushered us to our room was from Germany. On the street we hear endless accents and languages, not a great deal of English. Although, the English we do hear is delightfully crisp, like listening to Bronwen Wiilliams all week long. Love it! I've seen lots of Muslims in the last couple days as we wandered away from the tourist sights. This included completely veiled women. Oh, and did Dad tell you about the hookah bars we passed on our way home from dinner last night?

And did he tell you about the young beggar we passed on the street on the first day? He looked more like a starving artist type. When we walked by without tossing him any money, he began to sing, "Americans, go home!"

Today we tried the Tube for the first time. Dad had had enough of buses, which don't go very fast in this very congested city. So we just zipped down to the Tower of London on the underground today and looked around at all the metal knight get-up and the crown jewels (they are stored, very securely, in the tower) and even a few instruments of torture. The gift shops sold the usual key rings and shot glasses but, this being the Tower of London, they also offered a game called "Steal the Crown Jewels" and a little cardboard executioner's bench kit that the kiddies can assemble.

All these tourist sites have little cafes, and we're usually grateful for them because, by the time we've gotten out of the hotel and traveled downtown, and figured just where the heck you get into this tower, we are famished. The cafe today was a bright and clean space dropped into a red brick building that reminded me very much of old Philadelphia. And everyone around us spoke different languages. I wish they'd wear tags so I'd know what I'm hearing.

Actually, if the tourist attraction gets boring, you can always watch the actual tourists. For instance, at the changing of the guard, you wait a long time for the cavalry units and the marching bands to show up. Then they go in the gates where the actual guys in the black fuzzy helmets are. You can barely see the top of the black fuzz for all the eighteen layers of people that throng the gates. So why wouldn't I entertain myself watching the (probably) Swedish family swirling around me. And my stars, what beautiful people I'm looking at! High cheekbones and creamy skin rules! Between the Indians and Arabs and Italians and Scandanavians and Orientals, we watch a lot of Euro-cool. The waiters and waitress in every restaurant have a non-English accent; the ticket sellers at the tourist attractions have non-English accents. "It's like every young person with a dream wants to come to London," Dad said tonight.

Anyway, after the tower, we took a boat cruise on the Thames. It was a gray rainy day. (We'd feel cheated if we did London and didn't get a chance to use our umbrellas!) so Dad's pictures of London bridge will be full of dull colors.

By the time we returned to the pier, it was dark so we came home and put on heavier coats, then went out for dinner. We walked on Oxford St. near our hotel, a big shopping area. We walked a mile and saw at least three H&Ms. Lots of huge department stores. I lost count after the fourth one. LIghts in the shape of Christmas presents hung over the street.

We had a certain restaurant in mind, but it eluded us--street signs are tricky here. Until you find out where they hide the street signs here, you should probably leave a trail of stones behind you so you can find your way back to the hotel. But we found our place. Dad and I shared a small pizza and a chicken sandwich on ciabatta, plus a dessert like chocolate pudding cake. We also watched a family of about twenty Italians clinking their wine glasses together and digging in to a three-course meal.

I wouldn't want to miss the Westminster Abbeys and the Tower and all the rest, but I really love it when we start to navigate our own way around, planning excursions by foot or bus or tube, wandering off the beaten path, even if we do run into hookah smokers who scowl at us like they know we don't come from 'round here.

Oh, and Dad needed to catch up on some laundry. We asked at the hotel desk, "Any laundries around here?" They of course offered their own laundry service, which charges 3 pounds per piece of underwear. We really had more of a laundromat idea in mind, but that kind of thing just doesn't exist around here in this elegant corner of London where people pay 3.5 million pounds for their apartments, where Princess Di lived only a couple miles away. So Dad delivered his garments to the kind of people that wash and fold them for him. I just don't want to know what they think of this strange underwear. I suppose mine would look even stranger, but I am rich in garments, so I'm not facing this particular dilemma.

Well, that's the latest on our adventures.

Oh, wait. Must tell you that every time I look out our hotel window, facing the back ends of these buildings, the song "Chim-Chimeney, Chim-Chimeny, Chim-chim-cheroo" runs through my head. Neighborhoods not far from this one, where the houses look very similar to our hotel, are where the Mary Poppins story was set.

Miss you all. Hug the cats for me. Jim, I'm glad things are looking up for you. Emma, your hints about certain chocolate treats are duly noted. Natalie, I'm happy Jenny is working out well for you. And Abbey--see you real, real soon!

Love, Mom

M&D's Europe Report : Day 3

2010-11-03T15:20:00.003-06:00

Days 1 and 2 were devoted to travel and recuperation.

Day 3: London
Straight from the horse's mouth (with spell check by EM)

Today was another big walking day for us. We did a tour bus thing in the AM which took us past Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar square, stopped at Buckingham palace for the changing of the guard and stopped at the stables of the royal guard for pictures with the guard and so forth. The royal guard(plural) wear a gold helmet with what appears to be a horsehair plume on top and some other fancy armor . Mom took my picture next to the guard and we both have a shot with the guard and horse in front to the guard barracks. The changing of the guard has been recorded in video for posterity. A band marches in, with a guard detachment another band marches in with a guard detachment and then a horse guard rides in. There is a lot of shouting and pomp as the guards are replaced in front of the Palace, there is a concert by the band and then.......... we had to leave. The most interesting part was a woman with a red scarf and gloves trying to walk across the access are when the on detachment of the change was approaching. The policeman on a horse intercepted her and blocked her way. She argued in vain it would appear and had to walk back. We ended up at Covent garden which at one time was convent land that was taken over by the king when England broke from Rome and was developed by some favorite of the then king. By the way the royal flag was a full staff so we know the queen was in. All the blinds were drawn which was interesting. Talk about ornate, there are 4 huge gates in front of the palace and they appeared to have parts of the gate and seal covered with gold.

That is where we ate lunch in a bread and soup place a set of shops there. While a string quartet played music and then a soprano sang. Apparently this goes on quite a bit in the open air. We then saw as person swallow a sword. And oh by the way he and his street partner were only wearning union jack underwear. You can ask your mother about that as well.

We were told last night, and saw it in the paper this AM that the underground transit workers were on strike for 24 hours. So, we did another day of 6.5 miles of walking. Part of that was because the busses were also packed and the roads were jammed with extra traffic from all the extra traffic due to cancelled trains.

The sidewalks were packed with people most of the day most of the places we were. I am expecting less traffic tomorrow when the subways are running.

We went to the Art Museum at Trafalgar square for about 1.5 hours. Interesting to see all those paintings. Some of them are way colorful. The period I was looking at was full of lots of scenes of the life of Christ. And other things that I won't talk about. But you can ask your mother about.
Following our art experience we talked and thought art would be better with a guide(after we were done)

We started hiking to the office where we got our London pass(key to local costly attractions) Then walked to a couple squares, Berkeley Square and so forth. Lot's of mansion apartments as they are called like a townhouse I suppose, multiple floors for well over 1M Pounds if you wanted to buy one.

My greatest surprise is the beautiful ornate architecture with all building being mostly 8 stores or so tall. Also it is sometimes hard to tell in many instances what is a residence and what is a business. Not like Indy or Chicago where business districts and dwelling places are in most cases so well separated. They are all mixed together here.

Did I mention the beautiful architecture?

So no high rises in central London that I saw either.

Piccadilly square is supposed to to be London's answer to Times square in NYC, however the animated electronic billboards are only on one building. There also look like there are about 6 "broadway" type theaters. Mom commented that the people are dressed better in London than in the USA. I would have to agree with that. Everything would be a bit more formal here including how people dress generally.

I have taken lots of pictures of things that I won't remember or never did just to capture the scene and the architecture.

By the way, we both crashed about 7:30 or 8:00 last night and were out for 8 -11 hours. Exhausted.

Well another day tomorrow, starting with the hop on hop off bus which will take us to most of the sites in the east end, south side and a couple more on the West end. So much to do so little time.

We hope to be able to use our metro card tomorrow and start to get our money's worth and see at least some of the Metro/Tube stations.

Love and Hugs

Dad and Mom.

The downside of being sick.

2010-10-31T01:50:00.004-06:00

Yes there is a downside. You know...other than being sick.

A) It's Halloween weekend and the much anticipated haunted house visit was cancelled because I'm pretty sure that screaming would actually kill me at this point.

B)Today was the most perfect fall day on record ever.

Of course, I can't know this for certain because I never even saw the outside world but what if it was?!?

C) Lazing about sleeping and watching movies all day sounds like heaven, right?

My lower back would beg to differ.

It can only take so much of the half-sitting position.

D) The realization that my kickin' immune system is beginning to fail me.

As in, I've been "camp out on the lovesac all weekend" sick three times this year but can definitely count on one hand every super sick episode prior to 2010.

You immune system ages too....who knew.

The upside?

A) It was a Harry Potter-Christian Slater-James Bond-Djimon Honsou-Penelope-weirdo IFC movie-with a little bit of Access Hollywood thrown in-tastic weekend.

B) It could have been worse. I could have been part of the unlucky crew working this weekend as EPIC finally goes live. Fin-a-fricken-ly.

I'll try to remember that when dragging my sorry self out of bed Monday morning.

C) Aaaaand, remember the giant evil satelite dish in "Golden Eye"? Exactly 5 minutes after finishing the movie, I opened a recent issue of BYU Magazine to see the exact same dish (located in Puerto Rico) featured.

Now that was truly creepy.

Happy Halloween.

The 1987 Crystal Light National Aerobic Championship, team competition T...

2010-10-29T10:27:00.001-06:00

I'll let the team speak for themselves.

So long!

2010-10-28T10:33:00.002-06:00

Watch Walter Mathau's face.

And if you had no idea what was happening because you've never seen the movie, too bad.

Rent it. Watch it. Join the kooool kids.

Apparently, I'm awesome....

2010-10-27T15:32:00.007-06:00

...at archery.

Let me 'splain. No...there is too much. Let me sum up.

Each round you start out with 3 arrows. When shooting the first arrow, you aim for the center. Once you see where it landed you adjust your aim spot accordingly and then continue to adjust until you're hitting the center.

example: If I was aiming at the center and my arrow landed in the upper right hand corner, for my next shot I would want to aim down from and left of the center.

Everyone starts out on the white line. Once you're able to stay within the rings (anywhere within the rings) for 9 consecutive shots, you move back to the black line. After you're able to hit any spot within the black rings (including blue,red and yellow) 9 consecutive times you move back to the blue line. And so on and so forth.

Guess who is the first (and only) one in her class to make it to the blue line?

That's right. Me.
I look dangerous, right?

Rawr.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz....

2010-10-24T22:13:00.007-06:00

Since I no longer run my fan all night (since it's frickacold), I've been having a harder time falling asleep without the background noise.

My solution has been to play an old musicals on my computer while I fall asleep.

However, occasionally the computer never makes it back to the desk and I wake up at 3am to find both myself and my laptop still curled up in the fetal position.

Not a favorite sleeping position for either of us.

And, whether through hypnosis or osmosis or whatever, I've had Funny Girl on the brain almost continuously during the waking hours.

Not always a good thing.

Aside from having to fight the urge to burst into song, there's also the problem of having this ditty running through your head in the temple.

Aside from that it's not the best way to get your 8 hours and I vaguely recall a GA who talked about the difference he noticed in his life after developing a habit of falling asleep to the radio.

(Brownie points if you can find that talk)

So...a new resolution is in order.

I'm going to leave Fanny, Dolly, Magnolia, and their amours in the DVD case and find a better way to fall asleep.

Like buying a white noise machine. Or deep breathing.

Of course, I could always resort to the audio track of General Conference.

Too Much of a Good Thing.

2010-10-17T20:47:00.005-06:00

By now you're all well aware of my love for both mustaches (circa Selleck) and Richard Dean Anderson.

Now....what if you combined the two?

Beautiful, right?

In theory.

Too much of a good thing.

And what, pray tell, is this??

That's right. A musical TV series version of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers".

It's okay. I still love you RDA.

My Pledge for the Week Without Violence

2010-10-17T20:23:00.003-06:00

If you're one of my fbook friends you've already been invited to participate with me but just in case.....

October 18th-23rd the YWCA of Salt Lake is sponsoring an event called the

"Week Without Violence"

For more information on events happening throughout the week, see here:

http://www.ywca.org/site/pp.asp?c=glLUJgP9H&b=98180

How you participate is up to you but I'd like to share my pledge here:

For the week of October 18th-23rd, I will eliminate violence from my life.

I will not commit any acts of physical violence.

I will not speak violent words or use a violent tone of voice.

I will not watch or listen to violence in the media. (Sorry, Bri. This means no Bones)

And last but not least, I will not think violent thoughts.

Or at least I'll try really really really hard to control them.

This is my pledge.

What's yours?

Friday Afternoon Pick Me Up

2010-10-01T12:53:00.006-06:00

Because, at 2:00 on a Friday afternoon it seems like the week will never end.

Yesterday was Trejo Tursday!!

And because my birthday was chock full of mustaches and RDA...

div
Today feels like blue.

Mormon Messages

2010-09-20T00:50:00.000-06:00

I love this video.

Everything about it.

Miscellany by definition

2010-09-12T23:06:00.007-06:00

Every fall I freak out thinking I've lost my long-comfy-pj pants and it isn't until I stumble onto them a few days later that I remember I went through the exact same thing last year.

-------

Malt-O-Meal "Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys" is hands down THE best cereal on the planet.

Unless you're a diabetic. Then it's death in a bulk bag.

-------

Mom said I should hid this and consider it a secret guilty pleasure.

However, I have very few chances for rebellion these days so....

I love to hand wash dishes.

It's like meditation, without all the falling asleep.

-------

In the time between hitting snooze and the alarm clock going off again this morning I had a dream that I was playing with Skooby.

When I woke up I wanted to cry.

-------

I'm a year and a half too late but still think it's something I can get behind:

Spread the Word to End the Word

-------

While I am no longer ignoring the QLC (or Quarter Life Crisis), terms are tenuous.

-------

I need to find (aka pay off) a witness to Mom's December 2009 statement of her conditions for reading Twilight.

Just when I try to collect, she claims age related dementia.

-------

I've been practicing my bubble invading tactics for Mission Fabbey's return.

No urine test required.

-------

I still wish I was a hipster.

http://taza-and-husband.blogspot.com/

-------

The BBC's 2009 greatly embellished version of "Emma" is far too long.

Just get to the "My Mr. Knightley!" part already!

It's an interesting treatment though so, if you're curious, follow the chain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIDDka3X-LI&feature=related

-------

If I had to grate something for an eternity I would choose squash over cheese any day.

If the guy next to me was assigned to bake squash bread for the rest of eternity we'd be set.

-------

I will never stop kicking myself for forgetting my camera.

I can't even explain it....they just make me feel.

And no, not like a natural woman.

Luckily I have the reunion DVD and if you want to share in the love, follow the chain.

The. End.

Darcy who?

2010-09-11T23:48:00.003-06:00

20 pages away from finishing my very first Jane Austen novel and I've reached a conclusion;

I would take Captain Wentworth over Mr. Darcy any day.

It doesn't hurt that after watching the BBC version of "Persuasion" countless times I had this face stuck in my head as I read:

It also solidified "Persuasion" as my #1 Austen story.

Next up is "Sense and Sensibility" which is also a favorite but the #1 spot is quite secure.

"I have no idea of being so easily persuaded. When I have made up my mind, I have made it."

Why I like being a girl: Reason #178

2010-09-07T12:30:00.002-06:00

As a 20-something boy, it is huge social faux pas to use the words "mommy" and "daddy".

In fact, excessive use of these words almost guarantees that you'll still be living with mommy and daddy when you're a 40-something boy.

Does this rule apply to the 20-something girl?
Not so much.

I use it freely.
For example:

My mommy is hi-larious. Especially when she references anything Twilight.

Bye Bye Nesquik

Updates

2010-08-23T20:28:00.010-06:00

Nowadays it gets dark before 9pm.

It's chilly in the morning on my way to work.

Tonight, with my windows open, it smells like fall.

So much for an Indian summer.

Since the hot weather is being a wuss and high tailing it out of here I thought I'd give ya'll a little update on this summer's Eventful Events and a peek into the coming months.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In May, M & M got married and I almost stole her new stepchildren.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Larizzle came to visit. We ate much fro-yo and she was reunited with the lovesac, burrito style.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I fell in love with pit bull terrier.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In June, Barb got married so we experienced Western Nevada and all it has to offer.

Like newlyweds:

and this guy:

and Tahoe:

and hypothermia:

and Trader Joe's....x2:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In July, Bek bought a house so we moved...again.

Faced with two flights of windy stairs in each place I called on "Starving Student Movers" to do the heavy lifting.

WORTH IT!

I still ended up sitting in "Hires Big H" at the end of the day in a zombie like trance but it could have been much much worse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of big purchases....I bought my very first pepper spray.

Unfortunately, I jumped at the word "pink" and didn't think it through all the way.

Would you carry this in plain view on your key chain?

PS. The tape on the end is because the lock doesn't seem very effective and I'd like to delay the day that I spray myself in the face for as long as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In less phallic news, I finally (as in 3 days ago) found a white shirt that isn't see through.

(See above)

http://www.downeastbasics.com/timetoshinetop.aspx

It makes me feel fancy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In August, Bek had her annual cabin partay where I once again rocked at flashlight tag.

Well...I rocked as a findee...not so much as a finder.

I also went fishing for the first time.

Schmoopy schmoopy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beks and I went to Lava Hot Springs with our new ward.

We camped, swam, river tubed, bbq'd, played kickball...everything except actually visit the hot springs.

Ah well.

And the only picture I took all weekend was when we were stuck in traffic on the way home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My blunt bangs grew out and are now the side bang.

However, I only bust these out when I'm feeling super fancy cause they give me a neck cramp.

PS- How awesome is my hot-salmon shirt?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So what do I see in the future?

In September, bigish birthday plans on the way.

25 would be depressing if not celebrated in style.

It may or may not involve some sort of road trip, possibly camping, and most definitely the spending on money.

As you can see, it's a very detailed plan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More running.

The treadmill at the clubhouse has a fan built in.

It's marvelous.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In November I am headed home!

Unfortunately, my boys have gotten older since I last saw them and are doing all sorts of stuff now like crawling and almost walking and generally running amok.

This means I have alot of catching up to do AND they'll be a little harder to catch.

However, my legs are longer and I am a PRO at "Catch and Smother".

Absolute pro.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the long term....

remember that quarter life crisis?

Well, we're not currently on speaking terms so in the meantime there's only one thing about the future that I know for sure.

I will NEVER EVER give in to electronic books.

The End.

and Amen.

Warning: May produce tears.

2010-08-20T18:23:00.000-06:00

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Alone-dom.

2010-08-15T12:09:00.004-06:00

I love both the rhythm, the animation, and the message.

Once upon a time...

2010-08-03T11:54:00.002-06:00

...I was perusing the HIPAA website, looking for a particular form and found this gem instead.

I still haven't found the form but that's not important.

Date: July 19, 2010
To: The U of U Campus Community
From: University Information Technology and the Information Security Office
Subject: Hitman Threat Emails

We have received reports recently of what are called "hitman threat emails" showing up in some University of Utah email accounts. This is a pretty common scam that has been around since at least 2006. If you receive an email like this, please disregard and do not respond to the sender.
If you have sent personal or financial information to the scammers or if an email contains enough personal information that you believe it to be a legitimate threat, contact your local police to file a report and submit a complaint to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Example of a hitman threat email

DEAR VICTIM
I am Mr Ali Mohammad the only man seer from UAE TO KILL YOU, I am a murderer. i have been paid to kill you and by one of your friend and the date has come . my colleagues has been in your state right now keeping eye's on everysteps you make but on my searching about your contact email information i find out that you are a wealthy person ,But since my data shows that you are innocent and I could make more profit out a double deal. then I called my client back and ask for your e-mail address. And as I write to you, now, my men are monitoring you and your every step.
Do get back to me as soon as possible if you have anything to say
about this ,so that i will give YOU all their informations.
I can only give you this email bcos, it is not to expose ok. reply to
this email below only- (alimohammad@xxxxx.cn <mailto:alimohammad@xxxxx.cn> )
WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELL ANYONE BECAUSE I WILL KNOW. REMEMBER, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL WANT YOU DEAD! I WILL EXTEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY, INCASE I NOTICE SOMETHING FUNNY.
DO NOT COME OUT ONCE IT IS 7:30PM UNTIL I MAKE OUT TIME TO SEE YOU AND GIVE YOU THE TAPE OF MY DISCUSSION WITH THE PERSON WHO WANT YOU DEAD AFTER YOU HAVE COMPLIED WITH MY DEMANDS, THEN YOU CAN USE IT TO TAKE ANY LEGAL ACTION.
YOU BETTER BE MORE CAREFUL!!!
THANKS
Ali Mohammad (the seer, killer, saver and damager).

To quote the "Ji" in "JiMercy": " I don't know what is more scary, his threats or his atrocious English?!"

Lots of "haha" and a little bit "boo hoo"

2010-07-29T13:20:00.003-06:00

CNN wouldn't let me re-share this video so click on the title below to go to the website:

Military Impersonators Scam Women

I hesitated to say this on facebook but I feel worse for Browning's parents than I do for the lady who was scammed. I understand loneliness...I do...but that should never negate common sense.
Oy.

And here's the haha...actually it's more like "What the fudge??" but "haha" sounds better.

Garfield...minus Garfield

2010-07-26T22:56:00.001-06:00

Until the fluffy orange cat is gone you don't really realize how sad Jon Arbuckle is.

For example

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/day/2010/07/02/

Thanks to my coworker for this find.

Educating Emmers

2010-07-26T02:51:00.002-06:00

I am Auntie Em once again.

Pheebs gave birth to a gorgeous little girl on Friday morning and, aside from the pushing and 2 previous days of laboring at home, I was there for the whole thing.

Occasionally I wondered if I was intruding. Like when Ell's dad left to "give them some space" and Pheebs' mom went to hang out/sleep in the waiting room, I wondered "Should I be giving them space too?" Then I reminded myself that A)I am a bestie not a father-in-law B)I received prior permission to be there for EVERYTHING but the birth and C)What am I crazy? Why on earth would I leave?!?!

Still, I did my best to stay out of the way and let Ell and Pheebs' mom be the helpers while I was more of an observer. I felt even more justified in staying when at 2:30am she wanted to talk and everyone else was asleep. I happily obliged and it's a memory I won't be letting go of anytime soon.

Around 3:30am I dozed off in a rocking chair in the corner, regaining consciousness when she was ready to start pushing. We vacated the room giving Pheebs and Ell their alone time and after breakfast, another nap, and more waiting we got word that little Reebs had entered the world.

While I'm disappointed that another chance to finally observe a live birth passed me by I understand why Pheebs wanted it that way and was happy to oblige.

Now, it's not like I left the experience without learning anything. There were still 17 hours of watching the monitors and the patient, quizzing the med student and various docs, and even getting to observe the epidural.

But that was only the beginning of what I call :

"The Real Education"

My official stance is "Women should be aware of all their options, the risks and benefits of those options, and then be able to choose for themselves what is best for them and their baby without facing ridicule from any side."

Okay, so, that was the official stance but I'll admit that before this weekend I still had some remaining bias.

The most vocal women in the birth blogging community are those who are either tremendously proud of their natural births (as they should be) or those who had a horrendous hospital experience and use it as a cautionary tale for anyone willing to listen.

My conclusion: women who have a normal, happy, hospital, medication assisted birth need to be more vocal.

Watching Pheebs make her own decisions about the steps she wanted to take and when, was a real eye opener. Yes, those decisions included an epidural, pitocin, and forceps but I could also see how exhausted she was and how those decisions brought both relief and progression in labor.

I don't think she would have done it any other way.

What I realized is that it's not the hospital or the doctor or the drugs that make the experience good or bad, it's the patient. The common theme in every post about a horrendous experience is a lack of education. The patient didn't know to ask questions, didn't understand the real risks, didn't listen to themselves when they felt uncomfortable with their nurse or OB, and most of all didn't know that they were allowed to say no.

This might seem like common sense but for me it was amazing how everything finally clicked.

As a result, I'm envisioning future posts about birth plans and how this weekend helped me to resolve a tiny piece of my current quarter life crisis but those are definitely for another time.

Like not 2am on a Sunday night.

A birth story

2010-07-21T23:56:00.001-06:00

A perfect example of everything that is wrong with the current system and how it DOESN'T have to determine your experience for you.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Emmers and "Emo"

2010-07-21T17:00:00.000-06:00

Emo takes on many different forms.

There's the pop culture stereotype:

Expressing their tortured adolescent souls through cosmetics, whiny music, and tight pants.

Hiding their angst behind swoopy bangs.

Yes yes I know, Emo Kids are people too.

Some struggling with very real problems but for the most part they're just very very young.

Some of them never grow up.

Which brings me to the definition of Emo most used by Emmers:

Overly emotional and determined to let everyone know about it.

These are the Clark Kent's of Emo-town.

On the surface they blend into society but released into the world of technology, **BAM** the disguise comes off and Super Emo descends on cyberspace with "complicated" relationships and facebook stati lamenting how unloved they are by their friends, the opposite sex, and the world in general.

Life. Is. Hard.

In person, they're the friends who turn every conversation into an extension of those stati.

It's like an addiction.

**Correction**

It is an addiction.

This is where I come in.

I was the Emo Kid between skinny jean eras.

I wasn't quite as vocal about it, mostly because facebook was still in utero at the time, but I still fit the profile and I was definitely addicted.

As a recovering addict attempting to curb the adolescent penchant for being overly emotional I overcompensated by developing a habit of needing to justify even the smallest emotions.

This was meant to reassure both myself and whomever I chose to share with that what I was feeling was valid.

This protected me from feeling like I was being judged as silly, immature, and needy.

Justification is harder to do in print.

To both express the emotion and justify it in the same piece and have it all NOT sound retarded is very difficult.

It's just easier not to bother.

To what do I credit the melting of my blogger heart? Among many things:

1) Stalking other blogs.

NieNie's honesty.

Brunette Bombshell's wordsmithery.

I have no desire to write emotive poetry but the general idea is that if they can do it....

2) Music.

This song literally changed my life.

Yeah yeah it's a catchy tune and she has a beautiful voice but if you listen to something enough times on repeat the lyrics start to sink in.

"It's okay to say you've got a weak spot. You don't always have to be on top"

"You're vulnerable, you're vulnerable. You are not a robot."

"Don't be so pathetic, just open up and sing!"

Even now I feel dumb admitting just how much those lyrics touched me but I guess that's the point of this post, right?

I feel emotions.

I like to write.

What shouldn't I be allowed to write about what I feel?

I am not a robot.

Luckily, in recent years, I've developed both the skills to put into words what I'm thinking as well as the vocabulary that requires.

Just ask me if any of my adolescent journals were saved from the landfill.

Not a chance.

This doesn't mean I'll be succumbing to the temptation to emote in my facebook stati.

There's an appropriate time and a place and what better place than a website all about me?

This way it isn't forced on my unsuspecting "sort of" friends via news feed.

For my readers it's a choice. A choice to participate in my life.

Thank you for making the choice.

Glee fans?

2010-07-20T00:27:00.003-06:00

This has been stuck on repeat all day...even when the IPOD's off. I can't get it out of my head.

Sigh...

Despite his awkward shoulder twitch dance move I would so marry NPH.

If he were LDS...and not gay.....

Tahoooooooeeeee!

2010-07-19T23:55:00.005-06:00

Babs and Core got married last month in Reno so Andi, Bek, Megs, and I roadtripped it down south for some sun, fun, and good ol' wedded bliss

The reno temple was an almost exact replica of the Louisville temple so as long as we were inside I could almost pretend I was back home.

At least until I went outside....Kentucky, this is not.

Still beautiful though.

Meg and the bridesmaids.

Between the sealing and the reception we did a little sightseeing and

quite a bit of Trader-Joe-ing.

And on your left, it's the slightly disappointing tourist trap of a candy store:

The main appeal of the candy store was the giant old time miner type guy out front.

He's even taller than Andi!

Apparently this is the only photo I took at the reception:

Saturday we spent the morning at Lake Tahoe which was frigid but gorgeous!

Seriously, I went in further than anyone else and even that far was crazy painful!

Sand Harbor Beach.

There was another stop at Trader Joe's on the way back into Reno before we headed home.

Couldn't resist.

Wonderful weekend!

I want....

2010-06-21T23:25:00.005-06:00

Source

In one room of my future home, one very very lucky wall will be covered floor to ceiling with pictures.

Mismatched frames and all.

And in this edition of "Things I didn't know I wanted but now own"...

My little refill trip to Walgreens unfortunately took me by Now & Again, a consignment store in Salt Lake.

Bek thought it looked Central American buuuut the stamp on the bottom betrays the handiwork of the Japanese.

My first thought was "new temple bag" but then I fell in love with the fabric have been wracking my brain for alternative uses....

Only 5 months...

2010-06-07T01:19:00.005-06:00

until I can kiss all over these gorgeous faces.

That's right Mission Fabbey,

10 whole days of me refusing to vacate your missionary bubble.

Mwah haha.

Because I Can:

2010-06-06T21:00:00.001-06:00

Because I went and did:

and because I just can't help myself:

Pardon me while I dream for a moment.....

2010-06-03T10:00:00.001-06:00

When it comes to weddings I'm not a dreamy person.

I don't collect inspirational pictures from wedding magazines.

I haven't contemplated the perfect poses and locations for engagement pictures.

I don't have a "secret" binder overflowing with dress and cakes ideas.

At my age however, with single friends dropping like flies, it would be irresponsible NOT use my very fine observational skills to develop some basic opinions.

For example...

I prefer a smokin' chocolate cocktail dress over a wedding dress (although my resolve in this area has been temporarily weakened by a "Say Yes to the Dress" marathon, crinoline and taffeta high).

I prefer a very casual "meet the man" party in my parents' house and (hopefully de-geese-poop-ified) backyard over anything resembling a reception.

I'm even a little iffy on the traditional engagement pictures.

But there is one detail in all the wedding bells and whistles that I won't be compromising on.

Before I tell you though, you have to promise not to go "there".

And you know where "there" is people!

The one frill of the entire wedding process that I get all excited and dreamy about is....

The Honeymoon.

I distinctly recall telling you not to go there!

What I dream about is an Alaskan honeymoon.

Where this is always right outside your window:

And the night sky is crystal clear and full of these:

and if we time it right (and we will) I will finally fulfill my dream of seeing this in person:

And why would he agree to such expensive and time consuming trip?

If I get all melty and gooshy feeling just thinking about seeing all of this imagine how I'll feel actually being there.

And that could bode well for him.

Very very well.

Sorry Mom...I went there.

25 minutes

2010-05-29T16:12:00.005-06:00

In the 25 minutes it takes for Garnier hair dye to set I could...

Organize my shoes

or change my sheets

or turn old jeans into cutoffs

or scrub the stovetop....

oooooor I could watch Scrubs.

23 minutes baby.

That even leaves a little time for dawdling.

I love...

2010-05-28T17:00:00.000-06:00

1)The lyrics

I am not a robot.

2) Her voice

Like crystal.

3) Star-like twinkles

I'll tell you about that one sometime....

19...19...1955.

2010-05-25T20:00:00.007-06:00

The year the world was introduced to McDonalds, Rosa Parks, the atomic clock, rioting in the name of Elvis Presley and this guy who humored me greatly by wearing his birthday badge.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Honesty

2010-05-24T19:24:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, I had a bosom friend.

Any Anne of Green Gables fans out there?

"A bosom friend- an intimate friend, you know- a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul"

Well, once upon a time I had a bosom friend.

For 3 years we were two peas in a very dreamy adolescent pod.

Then I moved.

After keeping in touch for a year or two college happened, followed by marriage and then, as is usually the case, babies happened.

All of this happened for her.

I felt like I was being left in the dust.

Not the dust of envy and resentment but more like the layer that currently resides on my piano.

Dust from neglect.

5 years later I began the process of dusting myself off.

Of learning to accept, forgive, and move on.

During those 5 years my family has almost filled the void.

My relationships with them became more loving and fulfilling than I could ever have imagined at 14.

However, they are thousands of miles away and with family...it's different.

Bosom friends, conscious or not, are a choice. A choice neither I nor my subconscious has made since.

If you put any stock in psychology you might think it's because I've built walls as an act of self preservation.

It makes sense.

Why would I have any desire to repeat the feelings of hurt and rejection that resulted as that relationship slowly deteriorated?

Or maybe it's a consequence of age.

Maybe, as you grow older, you collect many different types of friends who, combined, fulfill your needs.

Maybe all consuming friendships aren't a part of adult life.

So...what brought this about?

I've been debating the pros and cons of continuing my blog.

What is it's purpose?

I don't write poetry or post recipes or book reviews.

I'm not extraordinarily artsy with my photos or layout.

I don't have kids or a home life to brag about.

So why, despite all of this, does this little piece of internet mean so much to me?

The conclusion?

It's my bosom friend.

A friend with no bed time, sick days, family commitments, or crazy mood swings.

A therapeutic friend.

The kind that lets you talk and talk and talk no matter what time of night and only interrupts when the internet is being wonky.

One I have been hesitant to confide in until now because in public I prefer to be superficial and funny.

Superficiality prevents "emo".

I hate "emo".

(A story for another time I suppose)

But the moral of this story is this:

In this blog I have a bosom friend.

By the same logic, anyone reading the blog falls into the same category.

Bosom friends.

It's high time I started treating you like it.

Loving:

Pink's Glitter in the Air

How do you know I'm done for the day?

2010-05-13T01:54:00.007-06:00

I go from this:

To this:

Saxy.

Stalk this:

Cardigan Empire

Why I Love My Blackberry: Reason #178

2010-05-01T00:45:00.004-06:00

The (as yet) unlimited number of characters allowed in a single memo.

Whether I'm in bed with a Mach 1 brain to empty or struck by inspiration whilst out on the town, within a few seconds my super speedy fingers have recorded it and it's safe forever.

No longer at risk of being altered or forgotten.

Or misplaced as is the sad fate of almost all post-it reminders.

Safe for another time when I'm not watching the clock tick away my missed sleep or busy getting my flirt on.

That is, safe until it finds it's way into the wash.

**Shudder**

(Not an actual event but rather a very real source of paranoia as I currently have no way of backing up my Berry)

I have a crush....

2010-04-23T13:18:00.003-06:00

A Ludacrush to be precise.

I just close my eyes and listen.

For those unschooled in pop culture, Ludacris is the rapping one.
Yay-er.

PS...this song is also on my new playlist.

67 Days!!

2010-04-23T13:16:00.000-06:00

Finally! A preview worthy of a countdown.

Oh. Baby.

Go ahead...call me an old lady.

2010-04-12T20:13:00.004-06:00

I'm officially addicted to books on tape.

I've found lately that my music just isn't cutting it for some of the more mundane tasks at work.

Seriously, without some sort of mental stimulation during the hours and hours I spend processing interpretation claims I cry. Like a baby.

One day, I remembered I had Matilda on my MP3 player so I gave it a try.

The hours just flew by! It was amazing! Even today, operating on two hours of sleep (I got a little lost in Green Gables), the day just flew by listening to Nicholas Sparks' "The Choice".

I almost feel like I'm cheating the system but I'm actually working faster and more efficiently. Plus, it's either or they pay out on my crazytown workman's comp claims.

Thank you Dr. Demento.

The problem I'm finding is that even a regular length novel like those by Sparks is only 8-9 hours long and of course work is only 8-9 hours long.

Hmmmmm.......

At this rate I'll make it through library's entire selection in a little over a year.

They're also unintentionally entertaining. The voice actor for "The Choice" does an amazing job on the sexy southern man voice but his female voice is a little weird. It's perfectly fine until the female character is showing any sort of emotion then it gets all high pitched and falsetto...just plan weird.

Worth it for his man voice though. Siiiiiigh.

I can feel it in my bones...

2010-04-11T12:00:00.001-06:00

and in my feet.

Summer's coming soon!

Here's hoping my calluses return even sooner.

The Post Hibernation Playlist

2010-04-10T19:41:00.005-06:00

Burning off 5 months of hibernation requires good music.

Finding music with the perfect beat that I won't get sick of is hard but finding enough to populate a decent playlist is even harder.

Basically...anything that makes me want to dance in my seat gets my vote although I've found that sometimes it leads to dancing on the treadmill which can be hazardous.

I'm willing to share on two conditions:

1. Remember that it's the song, NOT the weirdo fan-made video that I love

2. If you're going to knock the cheese factor, stop right here or I will shun you. Shuuuuunnnnnn.N.

The list:

Anything Paramore.

A little Kanye?

Forget the child porn career. I never hear this song without feeling like an Olympian.

It comes in mighty handy while running.

That's just the start folks. Send your suggestions my way.

I'll give anything a try once.

And who says nothing good happens after midnight??

2010-04-10T00:44:00.007-06:00

After months and months of anticipation (mostly on the part of Beks), Fourth Kind finally came in the mail yesterday and tonight we sat down to watch it.

I found the whole concept ridiculous and fake but later we had an interesting "bed to bed" discussion about the possibilities.

Me: Okay, so Heavenly Father created other planets and it's possible that some of those planets could be advanced enough for interplanetary travel but why would they come to Earth and violently abduct people? Oooo! Maybe they're a super wicked planet.

Beks: Or maybe they're angry at us for killing Christ.

Me: So they're like crusaders? Interplanetary Crusaders for Christ!! I like it.

Sweet find.

2010-04-09T13:22:00.004-06:00

After a little side trip into Sur La Table I ended up with this in napkin form:

Which I later combined with these for a wedding present:

I also found these these:Not sure what for/when I'll use them but I'm sure it will be for something very very grown up.
Of course, I was mustaching things when I found them so you really never know.

An end to celebration.

2010-04-08T17:00:00.001-06:00

March.

The End.

Huuuuge sigh of relief.

I'm a little burnt out on celebration blogging so despite the huge backlog of March-paaartay-related pics and stories I'll be taking a small break.

In the meantime I'll still be posting but just nothing in that genre.

It's that time again!

2010-04-03T17:00:00.001-06:00

Even from thousands of miles away I could feel the energy coming from Salt Lake during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Per usual, as when all good things end, I was feeling let down and disappointed and desperate to recapture the feeling. The feeling of togetherness and belonging that comes from everyone in the world watching and cheering for the same thing.
To have it happen in Salt Lake, the "motherland", I wanted to be there SO BADLY!

Little did I know that four short years later I would be living in Salt Lake myself and while the Olympics probably won't be back here anything soon, twice a year I get a taste of that feeling.

General Conference.

I love love love Temple Square during conference.

Thousands of people from all over the world streaming in and out of the conference center. Thousands of people that I have something in common with. The opportunities for befriending someone, even momentarily, are exponential. You can turn to anyone at anytime and have something to discuss, comment on, or joke about. Even ladies night with its discounts, prizes, and special guests is still about the people for me.

The people and the feeling.
It's always about recapturing the feeling.

Sergio!

2010-04-01T14:01:00.003-06:00

I think someone in the office is playing saxophone music.
Every once in a while I hear a note or two and this comes to mind.