Entertainment and for Posterity

You need humor to get you through blizzards in the end of March. Stupid Snow. No one likes you.
These made me die laughing:


And This

Also, I thought I should mention this since Krisface just ended her blog.
The problem with keeping you journal as a blog, is that in the event of a cataclysmic disaster, in which the Internet dies, you just lost the record of your life. However, turning your blog into a printable journal takes HOURS!! My brilliant husband has come up with the answer to this. He wrote a website where you simply enter your Blog address, and it will instantly change it into a printable version, comments and all. He is so crazy smart.
http://stormhorse.com/blogger.php

Light's Out

Hey, guys; Don't forget!!

EARTH HOUR

8pm tonight

March BAMC: Good Omens

The Mach BAMC was "Craft", because March is craft month, or something.
I read the above book, because of Craftiness.
It was a very good book. It was well written, hilarious, and had a very pro-environment message. My favorite characters were WAR and FAMINE. I liked WAR because I want to be just like her (ironic for a pacifist, no?) and I loved FAMINE because he was so freakin’ funny. There were many times I had to put the book down because I was laughing so hard.
Anyway, the book is about the end of the world, or how the world is supposed to end. An Angel and a Demon, who are friends, do not want the world to end, and use their craftiness to prevent the apocalypse. There is a witch, a decent of Angus Nutter, who tries to teach her craft of witch-ness, to Newt, who is a witch-hunter, and learned his craft from the man running the Witchfinder's army, for both the Angel and the Demon. There is also about Adam, an 11 year old boy, who is also the antichrist, but doesn't want the world to end either. He is very crafty too.
Anyway, I highly recommend the book, and for being a Neil Gaimen book it is astonishingly clean, although there are a few bad words, both British and American.

Encounter With an Evil Monster Of Biting Fierceness

Drek is canyoneering this weekend. This gives me a fantastic opportunity to make up the two days I took of from work because I was dying and then recovering from dying.

This weekend is also the Home Expo, where dozens of business set up dozens of displays under one roof, and thousands of people come to get all home related shopping done in one place. Of course, our store has a display. It was here I encountered the monster.
I was at this display, manning our booth this morning. My manager had to go move the truck, so I was there by myself. Someone came up and asked to try out our Inversion Table. This particular Inversion Table, is a monster. It has razor sharp fangs and a jaw like a steel trap. I have included a picture so everyone knows what an Inversion Table looks like.

I adjusted the Inversion Table to the girl's height. The monster did not like being adjusted, so it bit me. It snapped its steel trap jaw full of razor sharp fangs on my finger. I did not react right away, because I was with people. Two minutes later, when they left, I looked at my finger and realized the monster was also poisonous, and my finger was swelling up with it's lethal injection. I was also bleeding all over the place. Five minutes later my manager came back and I ran to the bathroom, blood running down my arm. My finger still had some sort of swollen lump on it. I am told this is called a blood blister. Whatever it is, it is disgusting. Disgusting.

Luckily, Drek came and saved me, gave me Advil, hugs, and a bandaid, and then ran off to his own adventure, sending me back to work. I did some more expo-ing, then came back to the store. Normally, I would be home now, but I am staying late to make up hours. And because I am avoiding going home to an empty house.

As a side note, when I came back to the store, from the expo, I noticed that the paper listing the advanced sales trasining courses was out. The one in August, in Dallas TX was circed, with my name written next to it. SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! My boss isn't here for me to talk to, but I am pretty sure this means that he wants me to go!! Which means a side trip to Arkansas in is the works!!!

Nothing Says "Easter" Like a Clean Car

My car is spectacularly clean. It even has a peach air freshener. This makes be so happy.

Easter was great! well, kind of. I got very sick and spent all of Friday dying. The good part of that was Ben’s package from Amazon arrived on that day. Inside was the DVD “The Great Race” and a game called “Lost Cities” which we played while we were sick. It’s a great two player game and has kept us both entertained.

Saturday I was much better, and suspected it was nothing more than food poisoning, but I was still banned from my family's Easter dinner just to be safe. Instead, Drek and I went shopping for Easter basket stuffs. We had great success. Later, we went up to his families house to decorate Easter eggs and watch “The Great Race”. While we were decorating the eggs, his dad read quotes from the First Presidency about Easter topics.
Some of our eggs turned out really well.

On Sunday I hid Drek's Easter basket and he hid mine. He found his in a few minutes, I had to search for hours. We went to church (Of course our ward had nothing to do with Easter topics) and then we went back up to Drek's parent's house for Easter Dinner. Before dinner we had a small Easter Egg hunt in the front room.


Everyone had to find a plastic egg. Inside each egg was a scripture about the Atonement and Resurrection. After dinner we watched "the Lamb of God" and talked.

I did nothing to celebrate Liberation Day, and nothing to celebrate the first day of spring.

Yesterday, however, Drek and I went to the temple to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of him proposing. That was nice.

My Very Own LOL Catz!

moar funny pictures

rate it here

So. Very. Sick.

Krisface, how dare you get me sick. You think we're still roommates or something?

Actually, I do not have strep throat. I am exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Drek is sick too, this led us to believe it is food poisoning, but it might be the flu. It could also be the bird flu. There is just no telling.
Being married and being sick is SO much better than being single and sick, but I still hate being sick. Drek has been wonderful though, he is very good at taking care of sick-me.
I left work today because I was throwing up. The good part of this is that Drek and I have spent all day together, which is why being married and sick is so great.

My Mommy also came to my rescue, bringing be juice, pills, watermelon, and everything else I might need, including the dissolve-in-your-mouth alka seltzer. This was amazing because they do not make them anymore, probably because the orange flavored ones were so delicious people ate them like candy. My mommy has squirrelled some away. and brought them over just for me.

I TOLD YOU He Was Gay!!

And I knew it in this episode:



"Trust me Kate, you ain't my type"??? What straight guy doesn't want Kate??

Baby Shower of Doom

I am most upset about not throwing a baby shower for Krisface, or even Kirsa. Not some girl who I do not know and I do not care to know.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

March 2008 is stuffed full of holidays. Almost to the point of me asploding. Almost.

Saturday was the celebration of St. Patrick's day. After the rest of the world celebrated it due to the holy days, but before the actual 17. It evens out. The party was a huge success. My mom did the most amazing job of decorating and everyone brought yummy and festive food. 17 people showed up, an amazing turnout considering only 18 were invited. We played a short round of killer bunnies, which morphed into pirates dice, then turned into two separate games of pirates dice once all the guests showed up. We then ate yummy food and played a huge game of werewolf using the IRA as werewolves, the Irish as villagers, and we even added a role of the leprechaun. That was followed by a game of Elixir. I'm hoping Xirax will post some of the photos he took.

Today I ate my traditional Irish breakfast: Lucky charms. Tonight I will try and make Champ for dinner.

Wednesday is the birthday of one of the married friends. We are taking her out to breakfast at IHOP. i am looking forward to this.

Also Wednesday, I am going over to my sister's house to make Easter cookies. I'm not sure how Drek and I will celebrate Easter, we will have to see. The fact that Easter falls on the 23rd of March (Liberation Day) complicates things. Perhaps now that I am married Liberation Day should be a thing of the past?

The 20th is the first day of spring. If the weather is nice I am thinking a picnic would be nice.


The 26th is Drek's mother's birthday. I have no ideas for this. It also happens to be the 1 year anniversary of when Drek proposed. Perhaps a hike up to the spot where he proposed? Maybe even a campfire with marshmallows. hmmm...

And, of course, the I am throwing a baby shower on the 29th. This has been a long and complicated ordeal. I will explain the ordeal later.

Happy St. Patrick's day!!

My Hands are Delicious!!

On Pi Day Drek and invited over his cousins for pie after work. His cousin introduced us to the "pi song" which is quite interesting. The pies were pecan and cherry from Village Inn. I think next year I will make fresh fruit pie cups instead of having huge pies that aren’t very tasty. Eating pie just because it is Pi day is fine, but turning Pi day into an opportunity to make delicious pie cups is even better.

That night was girl’s night out. Married friends are always fun to hang out with because most of the problems you're going through are so similar, and you can't really talk to someone who isn't married yet, or is already onto the next phase of life. The other great reason married girls night out is so great is because at the end, I realize how lucky I am with my marriage, and my perfect husband. It makes me step back and appreciate how good he is to me.
There were four of us. We met at a yummy restaurant and had dinner. Afterward we went to the mall. We picked out prom dresses for each other and then tried them on because it seemed like something you do on a girl’s night out. Margaret needed a new outfit for a huge interview so we went around finding her a nice top and shoes that went with her skirt. I think we did a great job. I guess we'll find out on Friday.
Our wanderings took us into Victoria's Secret (of course). Megan grabbed my hand and sprayed something called "whipped body moisturizer" on it. It acted just like whipped cream, but was green, because it was "Appletini". I rubbed it over my hands to make them smell good and she did the same to her hands. A few minutes later she gasped and yelled out "lick your hands!!" as it turns out, this stuff is delicious. VERY delicious. We went back to investigate and were relieved to find out that is is, indeed, edible. Yummy.
Also yummy was later that night when Megan and I went shopping for ingredients to make caramel popcorn, which turned out amazing. I will have to make it another time.

On the Subject of Food

It seems that lately a lot of my energy has gone into food, rather than getting my energy from food.

Sunday morning I made chocolate mousse for my visiting teachee. It turned out amazing. I didn't have fresh raspberries to top it with, so I used maraschino cherries instead. The presentation itself was delicious.
My visiting teacher loved the mousse, and in return gave me something called "friendship bread". Apparently, some bread (like sourdough and the aforementioned friendship) need something called a "starter" to make. "Starter" apparently, means fermented. Who knew? Anyway, this liquid mix is inside a plastic bag. I have to mush it everyday for ten days, then add a bunch of stuff, cook it, and I guess it will be delicious. It will also make 4 other bags of this "starter" mess that I am supposed to pass on. The sheet of instructions that came with the bag had been copied about 50 times. It had been spilled on, torn and such in-between these copies. It was a mess. So I took it to work and typed up a fresh copy. While I was doing this, a customer around my age came in. She has been in before, and I have gotten to know her quite well. She noticed what I was working on, and commented "instead of using vanilla pudding, use chocolate, and also add shredded zucchini." Apparently this friendship bread really gets around.

Tuesday night Drek wanted crepes for dinner. Crepes meaning fresh made crepes filled with pie fruit filling and cool whip. He also suggested that instead of using cool whip, I use the yummy crème cheese stuffing his sister uses in crepes. He called her, got the recipe, we went to the store to get the ingredients, and I made him his yummy dinner. I was not content with such a dinner. I had already made the crepes, so why not go one step further? I sautéed the mushrooms, steamed the spinach cooked the eggs and expertly made hollandaise sauce. Voila!! 30 minutes later I had one of my favorite foods in the whole world: a spinach and mushroom stuffed crepe. Oh, I am telling you, it was amazing. AMAZING!!

Saturday is the Irish party, and I am making Irish scones and Potato Farls. I have never made either of these before, but from looking at the recipe I gather it will be much easier than hollandaise sauce or chocolate mousse. I am not anticipating problems. While looking through the World Wide Web for delicious Irish recipes, I also came across something called Champ, which I think I will make for dinner on the 17th. Yum.

The next dessert for my Visiting teacher is No Bake Lime Mousse Torte. It is the same dessert my sister made for her birthday. If I can make it half as well, it will be heaven for all taste buds.

Considering I didn't cook anything until 4 years ago, and I am teaching myself how to cook, I think I am doing well.

Fish funeral

Our front door is missing. Missing; As in: gone; Taken off the hinges. Drek informs me that he thinks the landlord took it to clean it. It might be returned before the weekend.

Saturday at work, we had a fish emergency. Our store has an enormous 125 gallon salt water tank. The boss has owned it for 26 years. He collects fish and anemones, and has the biggest Elegance in Utah. An anemone had died during the night, poisoning the tank. When we opened the store in the morning two fish were already dead, and the two blue tangs (aka Dorie fish) were on the bottom of the tank, lying on their sides, gasping ads hard as they could. The purple tank had white spots on it, and the fox face fish had turned brown. We frantically call the boss and the fish guy that cleans the tank. Finally, they both came over and began emergency procedures. I'm not really sure what they did, but there was a lot of running in and out of the store. They decided to put in a device that will prevent such things in the future, and began sawing the cabinet with an electric saw. This was very noisy, and some of the customers were very confused. In the end, there were eight casualties. Included in this was my favorite yellow tang, and co-workers favorite fish, a Mandarin Gobi. Also, one of the Dorie fish didn't make it. :(

Rest in peace, yellow tang. You are the only fish I have seen swim backwards. Your antics will be missed.

1 Month

I have exactly one month to lose 21 pounds. For the past few weeks I have been dieting and exercising, and I haven't lost anything. This is very frustrating. I'm thinking more drastic measures may be needed.

Come One, Come All

There will be a Happy St. Patrick’s Day party on the 15th of March. I will be making an Irish dinner. Everyone is invited; just bring something yummy that relates to St. Patrick’s day (green cupcakes, shamrock cookies, root beer).

The smoke smell is gone from our house. I think the key was the ceiling, after I mopped it with vinegar and baking soda the smell slowly faded. Thank goodness.

The sun has decided to come out again. Despite the sunshine yesterday, it was very cold. Today it is a little warmer.

On Tuesday Drek took me to see I am Legend. I highly enjoyed it, but I think there was more to it. It never explained how that Zombie guy was so smart...smart enough to set a trap? It is intriguing enough to read the book. Does surviving as the last man on earth count as a craft? Then I could use it toward BAMC. Drek and I are going to the Library tomorrow, I will see if they have it. Thus far, I am not impressed with the Library's new HOLD system. I have had three different books on hold for six weeks. I was supposed to be next in line on all three of them. Something has gone wrong.

On the subject of visiting teaching . . . One girl I visit teach realizes she needs to be visit taught and is very good about it. The other girl needs to be bribed. I started this last month, by bribing her with desserts, which she loves. Last month the dessert she requested for this month was chocolate mousse. I have never made this before, so I attempted to practice with the recipe last night. Half-way through, I realized instead of buying heavy whipping cream, I got half and half. It turned out tasty, but more chocolate milk than chocolate mousse. Oh well, I will try again on Saturday. I have to have it right by Sunday.

Catch-Up

Saturday after work my Manager and her friend took me shopping. We went all over the mall and bought jewelry, a pair of wonderful pants that are so amazing they make my butt look small, a skirt and a dress. When I wore these to work, everyone commented. Ah, so this is why people spend a fortune on clothes: the attention.
After the mall closed we went to PF Changs for dinner (on the Boss's dime of course). Crab Wantons with Plum sauce are amazing!! The vegetarian entrees there are still not worth it, the Great Wall of Chocolate is still the most amazing dessert at a restaurant.
We finished eating and talking around midnight, I got home around 12:30. Right before I walked in the door I realized Drek had called me 4 times. Uh-oh. I was in trouble. When I got home he said he even called my manager to see if I was alright, she didn't answer her phone either. He thought we were dead.
Work has been going great. March is going to be the best month ever. I'm expecting a raise, we're already way ahead in sales, and I've earned $300 in spiffs in three working days. Wahoo!
Today I got to go shopping with my sister. We went cloths shopping for my niece, (her daughter) who is almost a year old. Clothes shopping for a baby girl is so much more fun than clothes shopping for a baby boy. The Easter dress my sister bought her is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Also, http://bamchallenge.wordpress.com/
I am very excited for this. I'll keep you posted.

I'm Nordstrom Barbie

My boss keeps telling me that I need to look professional at work. When I ask for more details, he simply answers "the Nordstrom look". I have no idea what this is, and he will not offer any more information, so for the last 6 months I have tried a few different looks to get his approval. These have all failed. Finally, my wonderful manager talked him into getting uniforms for everyone. The uniform consists of three or four really cute shirts that we are supposed to wear. She also convinced him to give her money to take me shopping to give me the "Nordstrom look". Last night, after work, we headed to the mall. She got me shoes, socks, a pair of pants, jewelery, headbands, and even got me free samples of this new makeup that is supposed to be really good for your skin. I had a blast, and she loved dressing me up like barbie. The best part was, we were spending the store's money, not ours. Shopping is always so much better that way. She wants to get me more pants, so we will be off shopping again tonight. I'm so excited!

This morning Drek and I and a friend from Quark went out and played Frisbee golf at a Rotary park. The weather was wonderful. It was fun to throw a Frisbee around again. We're hoping the weather stays nice so we can organize an ultimate Frisbee game soon.

The smoke smell is still not gone. I am running out of options.