Spoiler Alert, You Have Been Warned

Dear Catherine Hardwicke,
Your movie was gorgeous. The filming, the special effects, the people: Gorgeous.

Dear Melissa Rosenberg,
?????
Did you miss somewhere that this movie was for young girls ages twelve to eighteen? Why all the adult content? There was no reason for it AT ALL.

Dear Kristen Stewart,
Congratulations; you did such a good job on the movie, and portrayed Bella Swan so well, that my loathing of Book-Bella became loathing of you. JUST TALK!! Stop biting your lip, stop stammering, stop breathing in-between words. STOP STALLING! I think you averaged one word every twenty minutes. Please move the story along instead of holding up the plot just like Book-Bella. So I suppose this was to more Bella, than to Kristen. Except for this next part, this is for Kristen: KEEP YOUR FREAKING PANTS ON. Whore.

Dear Robert Pattinson,
Stop. Moving. I get that it was a low budget film, and no one really focused on moving like a vampire, and that vampires do move to look more human, but please, please, stop fidgeting. Stop squirming, stop moving for two seconds, and for those two seconds you would be Edward. Still, you did a great job. You are now what I envision when I envision Edward, except more dressed how you were at the end of the movie rather than how you were dressed for the rest of the movie. Who did your wardrobe?
Anyway, That one scene where you drive off in the car, and you are so mad, and you want Bella to talk you out of turning around and ripping those guys into pieces; that was well done. I think it was my favorite part of the movie. You did great. I look forward to seeing in more movies.

Dear Taylor Lautner,
You have come such a long way from Sharkboy. Dressed up at Jacob, you made me, a die hard Team Edward, convert to Team Jacob, even it was only for a few seconds. On behalf of the females who will watch this movie, thank you.

Dear Jackson Rathbone
Wow. Book-Jasper is very vague, no one really remembers him from the first book. Everyone will remember you. You are now Jasper. Good job. Also, I love your hair.

Dear Peter Facinelli,
Fire whoever did your makeup. Seriously, I was so afraid for your life when you walked on camera. You were supposed to be a Vampire, not an anemic ghost who had just been splashed with bleach. But you made up for it, I loved movie-Carlisle just as much as I loved book-Carlisle

Dear Billy Burk,
Bravo.

Dear Soundtrack Person,
Why can't I find your name anywhere? Is is because you are Stephanie Meyer? In any case, you are a GENIUS. And I love you.

Dear Stephanie Meyer,
Your cameo was lame.

You're Right. We Should Just Deal With Nice People.

I'm not supposed to be blogging until December, but I can't resist. The James Bond Party was SO AWESOME!!!! I had to take a million pictures.

What better thing to serve than Martinis? Don't they look so great?!


The idea was that everyone gets a certain amount of gambling things. We play three games: Roulette, Blackjack and Poker. The person with the most money at the end won a free movie ticket. If you had a certain amount of money left, you could buy a Milky Way.
I wanted to be Vesper for Halloween, but I didn't get the idea until too late. This was much better!! My costume was fantastic and look at my husband!! We got his costume at DI. $17.99 baby. Isn't he so great?! He is my favorite James Bond. I'll be Vesper next Halloween, maybe.


The Characters:
Rodger Moore, Odd Job, James Bond, Vesper Lynd, Christmas Jones

The Bonds play RouletteRodger Moore wins. He sips his Martini in casual celebration.

A fierce game of blackjack breaks out! Christmas Jones puts up a good fight, but in the end, she is no match for Odd Job (notice how the gambling chips during Black Jack were Black Jack gum sticks. Hah! I am so clever!)
Next up, Texas Hold'em!! The stakes were high, the bluffs; indecipherable
James Bond began to win, everyone else was bleeding chips!

But in the end, I won.

Rodger Moore makes a very important call, only to be silenced by Odd Job!!

Off to the movie!!
It was so great!!!!!!!! I was surprised how much of a sequel this movie was. It was not a typical James Bond Movie, more of a crazy good action movie. I loved it!!

Vote

Voting was a blast. The longest I had to wait was while they were finding my name. So, Ralph Nader is an independent, right? Hardcore. Next to his name, where the party is supposed to be listed, it said: Peace and Freedom. Is that the name of his party? Or did he just put that on the ballots so you would be voting for peace and freedom?

Drek and I had looked up the issues in our area so I already knew how to vote when I walked in. I got may card, passed about 7 people at the booths and took the very farthest booth for myself. I zipped through the voting (touch screens are oh-so-awesome) and on my way out I passed the same people. No wonder lines in the East were so backed up, if people don't read the issues until they get into the booths, how do the lines move at all?

I made sure I got my "I Voted" sticker because rumors on the interwebs said you could get lots of free stuff with it. Krispe Kreame was giving away free star-shaped donuts, Chick-fil-a was giving away free sandwiches, and Ben and Jerry's was giving away free ice cream. Sweet! Our dinner was set! Alas, There is no Ben and Jerry's where we live, the rumor about chick-fil-a was a lie (the manager seemed very upset) but we did get free donuts. Alas, they were circle donuts and the sprinkles were brown and orange. THOSE COMMUNISTS!!!!!!

And Obama won. It appears the Dems also won the senate and the house. Well, there's nothing like putting all the power into one hand.

Reading the results of the issue results, I am a little shocked. For voting so completely democrat for people, the propositions were surprisingly republican values. Odd. Also, what was South Dakota thinking?? We overwhelmingly support Obama values but we vote overwhelming for Mcain?? Did you even read the ballot?? Did anyone who voted for the president vote for the propositions? Or did they just leave that field blank? Seriously?
A lot of the country was voting on gay marriage, gay adoptions, Abortion issues and Doctor-assisted suicides. I find it humorous that Maryland's most important issue is a video lottery. Ah well, our most important issue was giving our elected officials a longer vacation. This is what we vote for when the zoo is on the line??

Self-imposed rules of NaNoWriMo:

1) No laptop watching. Time watching Television shows online is time that could be spent writing
2) No knitting. If you can knit, you can type on a laptop
3) No Internet surfing
4) Procrasting won't help
5) Avoid all forms of procrastinating
6) Stop procrastinating by updating your blog
8) Stop pracrastinating by making up pointless rules
9) ENOUGH WITH THE BLOGGING!!!!
10) Write like crazy now, worry about editing later

Tender Lovelings Everywhere, Life's No Fun Without a Good Scare

Happy Halloween!! This Halloween has been wonderful! I came home from California yesterday evening only to find that Drek had built me a coffin!!! A real, pine board, shaped-like-a-coffin, coffin!! He's amazing!! I have always wanted one as a Halloween prop and he built me one!! He built it by himself, using his own measurements and everything! Best. Husband. Ever.
We went over to my parent's house and ate a Halloween-ish dinner with Kara, my parents and my sister and her family. My sister made her and my niece's Halloween costume this year: Megan was Boo From Monster's Inc and my sister was Sully. The costumes were so great and Megan was sooooo adorable. Megan looked exactly like Boo!! It was so much fun.
My sister had also made these amazing dessert treats. She had carved orange peels to look like Jack-O-Lanterns and filled them with Hot Apple Cider Jello. What a fun treat!!!

This morning I got dressed up in my work-appropriate Halloween costume and had so much fun making it! I took a black shirt and safety-pinned a folded white tank-top down the back. I had a headband with ears on it, and a tail to pin on the back.
To top it off, I had a spray bottle of perfume I would spray at people to add to the effect of my costume. Giggle giggle.

Drek drove me to work and we listened to Nightmare Before Christmas on the way to get into the spirit of things. Work went really well. I was expecting it to be dead because of Halloween, but the morning was busy and we did well. That is, until about 11:30, when the place went dead and there were no souls in sight. I cleaned, got caught up on what I had missed while I was gone to California, and read my Midnighters book, which was a fantastic choice, because the book is building toward midnight on Halloween.

Kara and I hung out and we knitted (she is so fast!! Will I ever be as fast as her?) and she told me a wonderful Halloween Story about how she got the most purple monster in the world.

We went to show of my costume to my sister right before she had to leave, and then we raced back home to have a quick Halloween-ish dinner at y house. It was then time to go to the corn maze!! Rissy came drove the van and we all piled in. There was another Kara, Ismael and Cavan. Alas, the corn maze closes after 6pm on Halloween! So we took some pictures and decided to go to the Scream Asylum.

When we o there, we tried to recruit people to join our "group" if you have 13 people to a group, it's $5 less per ticket. We were successfully! And what's even better, taught the trick to a bunch of girls, who tried to collect their own group. I think the Scream Asylum saw a strange influx of large groups that night.
Anyway, the Asylum was AMAZING!! So worth $10. There was even a 3D part where you had to wear 3D glasses and it was really visually stunning. I loved it!!

After that is was back to Rissy's house to enjoy root-beer floats, lots of candy, and CLUE. Three people in our ever-increasingly large group had never seen the movie all the way through. It;s so much better to watch if you are getting people's first-time reactions.

After the movie Drek and I came home to play with Acouchi and put her in her Halloween costume. Behold: A Cat Burglar!!!



A very good costume if I do say so myself!!

Gasp, and tomorrow is NaNoWriMo!!!

October BAMC: Midnighters

October's Book a Month Challenge was Haunts. How delightful!!

I chose to read the Midnighter series by Scott Westerfeld. The first one is The Secret Hour, then Touching Darkness, and then Blue Noon. The books are about five teenagers living in Bixby Oklahoma who live 24 hours in the day just like the rest of us, but they also experience and extra 25th hour, right at midnight. This hour is full of danger, conspiracy and such. While the rest of the world is frozen for an hour, they are walking about like haunts, enjoying their world, fighting for their lives and searching for answers. Very Halloween-ish. The best book was the second book, Touching Darkness.
I was entirely absorbed by it. The sad thing I, the main character, Jessica, is supposed to be the central character and the most popular, but by the end of the second book I HATED HER!!!! I HOPE SHE DIES A PAINFUL AND HORRIBLE DEATH!!!!! My favorite is Des and Melissa. Even though they hate each other, they are both great.

Anyway, I found this great fan pic:
Very Halloween-ish. Jessica is the ugly red-head in front (don't you just hate her just from looking at her?) Des and Jonathen are to the right and Rex and Melissa are on the left.

I can't recommend these books. I enjoyed reading them but...I don't recommend them to anyone else.

Happy Halloween Eve!

Have You Ever Heard of Autocannibalism? She Actually Ate Herself

In case I haven't made this clear enough, I adore he fact that Kara has moved here. I really hope she is happy, because I am thrilled.

Saturday Krisling, Kara and I went to dinner. We met at the movie theater and decided on the closest sushi restaurant, but after walking in to the place we decided it didn't mesh with our...style. So we went to the next closest sushi place. It was fantastic!! We ate right up at the bar and this small, old Japanese guy made our sushi just for us. It was SO GOOD!! It was fantastic, but at the end of the deliciousness, I was still hungry. It was a problem that could only be solved by a cookie store. NOM!! We went back to the movie theater and watched a movie. The movie was freakin hilarious.

Today after work us "K's" got together for a "knitting class". Kara taught me how to read my stitches. This will save me lots of time and take a lot of the guess work out my blanket. We had a great time.

My wonderful husband invented a card game. Last week Rissy and Ismael came over to test the game. I was shocked out of my socks. The game needs tweaking, but, let's face it, my husband is a genius.

Kara, Drek and I played the game with few modifications. The game is so much fun to play!! I can't wait to see the finished product.

Tomorrow I am off to California!! See you all in a few days!!

Moving at the Speed of Life, We are Bound to Collide With Each Other

One bright day, a woman came into my store. She was a very nice women, but she looked tired and stressed. She explained that her brother was getting married in Las Vegas, and she was driving down to be there. She had come from the city next to my city, and said that her back hurt so bad in that 10 minutes that she had to stop and get a lumbar support really fast. Her husband and kids were patiently waiting in the mini-van. I gave her some options, she chose two, took them out to her van to test them, found one that worked, purchased it, and left.

A few minutes later she came in, looking even more tired and even more stressed. "You don't happen to know who owns that white car in the parking lot, do you?" She asks. Um, you mean Jasmine? "Yes I do, that's my car actually." She had backed up into it. I was stunned that she had come back in to tell me. Kudos to her!! Way to be honest.

She gave me her insurance card, I quickly made a copy, told her it was no problem, don't worry about it, have a safe trip, and sent her on her way. Later that day Drek called the insurance companies and went and got a quote from a repair shop. She only hit the front right side, and she didn't hit it very hard. There were a few small scratches, a dent, and a very broken-in-half light.

I'm thinking the only thing we HAVE to fix is the light. Sure there is a tiny dent, yeah it got scratched up, but who cares? Jasmine doesn't really compete in car shows or anything. I just hoped the light wouldn't cost too much. I was thinking $100, maybe $50, not to much, but in my experience, all car parts are overpriced.

SEVEN DOLLARS!!!!! That's it. $7 to fix the light. Oh, and $200 to replace the panel to fix the dent. $200 to repaint and $400 for labor. Insane.

Their insurance company sent us a check for $807. Seriously? Insurance will pay for such frivolous things but not for my IUD? Crazy. At least Jasmine is well taken care of. Poor baby.

So Drek took poor, traumatized Jasmine into the shop and the guy informed him that the break lights were all burnt out, and oh, did you know your registration expired two weeks ago?? Sigh.

Apparently her tinting is too dark, and now illegal, and they told us they would peel it off so she could pass safety and emissions, but they. . . got lazy? Forgot? Actually did and you just can't tell? Oh well, she passed. All taken care of!! Jasmine is now back to her gorgeous, legally registered self.

I Request the Cone of Silence

The past two days have been fantastic!! I have been having the time of my life.

Monday night Drek took me to a movie. The dollar theater was only playing two movies we had any interest in, and one was slightly more interesting than the other. We saw Get Smart, which was not as funny as I was hoping, but it was still pretty funny, and defiantly worth the $3 we paid to see it. Also, I love watching movies with Drek. He is amazing.

Tuesday work was great. I did Medical Marketing and got a lot done, and then I came back to the store which was fairly busy. It was great! I was picked up by Krisling, Natebot, and Toby. I adore Toby, have I said that already? He is such a cute kid. Anyway, Kris and Nate and I went out to dinner and were served by Deth!! No, really, our waiter's name was Deth. It was kind of scary. The jokes were endless.
We tried to go see Ghost Town, but I was too tired in the end and made Krisling take me home.

Wednesday was the best day I have had in a very long time. I got up early and went running. It has become too cold outside to run outside for long periods of time, to I ran to my mother's house to work out on the treadmill. Before I did, I woke up my cousin who, oh, did I mention? MOVED TO UTAH I AM SO EXCITED YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I ran on a treadmill and she biked on a bike and it was great.
I went home and cleaned the whole house until it sparkled. I then went back to my mom's house, did laundry and helped my cousin move in. I was so productive!! All this by 11am. I went back home, cleaned some more, then Krisling came and picked me up. We picked up my cousin and went off to enjoy copious amounts of Sushi. Toby, we discovered, loves bathing in sticky rice. We had such a great time enjoying sushi and watching Toby enjoy his rice-bath, that we missed the movie. Again. So we went to the mall walked around. Kris bought me some crazy-yummy smelling had sanitizer. It makes me want to eat my hands. NOM!!! Krisling got a new phone. My new phone is still coming. My current phone is very broken. Oh, and lost.

We went home, I finished laundry and hung out with Drek until that night when Rissy, Ismael and Michelle came over to drink hot chocolate, work on homework, and do a schizophrenic, cross-gender version of how to host a murder. It was hilarious.

I went to bed exhausted, but oh-so happy!! Best. Day. Ever.

Tags

Crazy 8's

8 Things I’m passionate about
Drek
Vegetarianism
My religion
Saving the planet
Politics
Stories
Music
Movie Trailers

8 Things I want to do before I die
Spend weeks, at the very least, in Egypt
Go skydiving
Go Hang gliding
Go Scuba Diving
Run a Marathon
Write a Novel
Reach my goal weight
Leave my mark on the world

8 Things I do now
Work
Create dinners
Read
Write
Knit
Hang out with friends
Watch movie trailers
Love my husband

Things I can not do
THERE IS NOTHING I CANNOT DO!!! (If I want to do it)

8 Things I often say
"Thank you for calling (insert store here). How can I help you?"
"What brings you into the store today?"
"Well, there you go"
"Oh, crap"
"Potatoface"
"JTTF"
"Cat!"
"I lost my phone/keys/car/mind"

8 Favorite foods
Fresh Fruit
Lasagna
Fresh Mozzarella Pasta Penna
Pineapple curry
Dried fruit in milk
Spinach, Mushroom and eggs wrapped in a crepe and topped with Hollandaise sauce
Potatoes and egg burrito with green salsa
The tacos we got from the taco stand in Mexico

Sixth Tag

This is the sixth picture in the sixth folder of my pictures:

It is taken by Xirax, my favorite photographer. This is my amazing husband getting ready to spring up and snatch the Frisbee out of midair!! Actually, this picture was taken before we were married.

And now I'm supposed to tag seven people and make them post on their blogs the seventh picture from their seventh file of pictures. So, if you read this, I have just tagged you.

Do You Always Leave it to Porters to Tell You This Sort Of Thing?

Well, October has escaped me. One day October was approaching ever so slowly, and the next day, it's the 20th and October is almost over. What happened? I blame it on the cold weather. I don't think I feel cold like other people do. When I'm cold, it's painful, not just...cold. Whatever.
Last week I woke up with high expectations of the day. I went outside and scraped the frost of the car, froze to death driving across down, gave up on the day and went home to soak in a warm bath all day. Sigh.

I came up with a brilliant costume idea for me and Drek, but alas, I have had not the time nor the talent, nor the resources to make it happen. Yesterday I told Drek the idea, he got all excited and said we should still go for it. So we are. Hooray!! I have seven days to make a very complicated Halloween costume. Only seven because I leave for California next Tuesday. I'm so excited!! It is purely a social visit. I am spending three days with Jordie and Jesse. We're apparently going to a haunted house. I can't wait! I come home the night before Halloween, so our costumes have to be done before I leave. We'll see how it goes. I do have a back-up costume plan, but it is lame.

I'm sad October has gone so fast, I love this time of year. Halloween is one of my favorite hollidays. Looking on the bright side, the best thing about October going so fast is that it's almost November!! November means NaNoWriMo!!! Ialready have my novel all planned out. This year I am so going to win. Bwahahahaa

Saboteur III

Saboteur III was a huge success! At least by my standards anyway. Only two flas ion the whole game: 1) It was so cold. If we ever do Saboteurs past September, they need to be indoors. 2) The lasy questions on the quiz was not a good question. If you were first to take the quiz you would have no idea.
Other than that, it was amazing!! As hosts, we spent Saturday afternoon gathering supplies, testing games and working on last minute details. We packed up the cars and drove down to the park just in time! All pictures and deatils are posted on the Saboteur website, I'm not going to re-post them here.
The weather held put, it didn't starts to snow until we were done. It was a great game.

I Don't Really Think That Saying Was Created To Warn Cats

Today I did not have to go into work until 12:30. Rarely do I ever go to work this late. Drek and I decided to take full advantage of the situation. I woke up this morning a little before 8am, just like I always do. Instead of going running right away, I curled up in bed and read my book. I finished my book. It was good. Only after I finished did I go running. I came home, showered, ate breakfast, read scriptures with Drek, and then instead of going to work, we got back into bed and watched two episodes of House. It was wonderful. I love snuggling with my husband. I love being in bed, and I love House. Also, during this, I was IMing Rissy. We were in crisis mode because Saboteur III is tomorrow, and a player cancelled last night. During the IMing frenzie, I got an email from Nick saying he would play. Bless that kid.

Best Morning Ever.

Castle of Chaos

Well, we went. It was...not what I was expecting? Perhaps I expect too much. The first year we went to the CoC, it was AWESOME!!!! The game part was forever long and through a huge and seemingly endless mansion. I think it took us around 30-45 minutes. It was wonderful!!!

This game, we were done in 7 minutes. The whole thing took place in four rooms. There was no sprawling maze, no endless mansions, just one hallway and four rooms for going to and fro. At the end, when we were facing the vampire, I actually thought: "clearly, we have lost, because here we are, facing the vampire, and we haven't even begun to play the game." No, no that was it. That was the end.

I mean, it was fun, and we had a great time, and the game was fun, but no where near $17 worth of fun, especially considering the first year was only $10. CoC has become highly commercialized. I don't think I shall be returning next year unless the price is free.

That's The Reason We Need Lips So Much

I love my husband. He is the most amazing person I have ever met. He constantly amazes me with all he does. He is constantly working hard at his job, typing away at his computer, solving the problems of the world. Because we have very limited furniture, he has been using a metal folding chair as his office chair. One day I did some work in his chair and discovered that after an hour, I was dying. The chair was horrible! Here Drek was spending eight hours plus in it! He works so hard, he definitely deserved a new chair. Luckily, I happen to work at a back store that just happens to have the most ergonomic office chairs in it's inventory. Drek picked the chair he wanted, I picked the color and voila! a comfortable chair to sit those long hours in.

Not only is he is always going over to the animal shelter to help out, but he volunteers to do websites for the animal shelter. He learns new things, puts them into practical (and financially successful) use and still manages to find enough time to make me feel loved, appreciated and special. He is just so great.

I'm trying to do more for him. I've been super successful at the dinner thing. Gone are the days of cereal and hot dogs for dinner! Now are the days of delicious and healthy meals that I love to make and we love to eat! My third attempt at Ratatouille was my best attempt. Although the basic ratatouille is delicious, healthy and super-easy, Ratatouille Remy-Style is delicious, healthy, and looks awesome. It is not easy, but is was worth it. Behold, a dish a rat inspired:
When Drek and I were in Texas, we watched an episode of Rachel Ray (I had never seen an episode before, or since). She was making something called potato pancakes. Drek commented that his mom used to make a version of those all the time. Last week, I looked up four different potato pancake recipes, mixed them together and added what I remembered from the Rachel Ray episode. The result: YUMMY!! Healthy, yummy, and easy. The perfect dinner. Well, not perfect. It needs sauce. There is this sauce at Bombay house that would be amazing with these potato pancakes. I must learn how to imitate that sauce to this dinner will be perfect, because my husband deserves perfect dinners, and I love creating them for him.

October At Last!!!

I love October!! It is the start of the bet time of the year!!! I love Halloween and this year I have sworn to celebrate it like a fiend!!
Next week We are going to the Castle of Chaos, A Halloween tradition spanning back 3 years! I'm so excited.
That will be followed by the Saboteur III, which is on Saturday. I have a special Halloween game all planned and ready. Bwhahahaha!!
Sometime in October I also want to do a How to Host a Murder, and a Halloween party. I haven't figured out the dates yet, but I am excited!
On the 28th I am flying out to San Diego to spend some time with Jordan and Jessica and Bonnie. I come home on Halloween eve. I wanted to spend Halloween with Drek. I already have Drek's and my Halloween costumes planned, I only have to make them...

Twin Cousin

My cousin, Kara, came to visit me on Thursday. I've missed her so much!! It was so good to hang out with her. I haven't seen her since my wedding and well, we didn't have tons of time to talk as I was...a little busy.

She brought her kitty, Claire, with her. I hadn't met Claire yet so it was quite a treat. She is so pretty! She is a small kitty who is a beautiful ginger color. She loves to be petted and was apparently adapting well to traveling across the country in a car.

We went over to my sister's house and made homemade peach jam (which is fantastic by the way, I already finished the jar of sugar-free jam; So good!!) and played with Megan. We went back to my house afterward and discussed the fact that Drek and I are board game freaks and love to play at any opportunity. Kara also loves to play board games. We then discussed how some people are fun to play with, and others are...not. Good sportsmanship is something you need to learn while young. No one likes a sore winner or loser. We practiced good sportsmanship by playing a game of Settlers. It was then time to go out to eat with the rest of the family. Around the table, we played It Came To Pass and had a great time overall. That night the family played Munchkin with our Munchkin-Fu cards and Kara's Cthulu cards while I created an odd version of homemade apple empanadias. I say odd version because although they tasted delicious, they didn't look like empanadias. Ah well, it was my first attempt. Kara gave me a mini-lesson on knitting. I've been trying to get Ismael and Kris to teach me, but time keeps being a factor. Kara taught me about circular needles (which I love!!) and how to cast-on. I love casting on!!

Friday was more games and more knitting lessons. Saturday was The Relief Society general Broadcast. I got of work a little late, so I only caught the last two talks, but they were wonderful. Elder Uchtdorf's talk was incredible. I loved the idea that to have God's happiness, we must create! We are children of the most magnificent creative being in the universe, so creating is what we can and must do! I love to create meals, stories, games and parties. And now I am thinking I want to create through knitting!

Afterward I loved walking home with Kara, Lani and mei-mei (who came down from college to see Kara). We ate ice-cream and Kara gave me a final knitting lesson in which I learned the basic stitch, the purl stitch, and that if my tension is too tight my yarn will keep breaking.

Sunday I had to say good-bye Kara. I was pretty depressed about it. I kept snapping at Drek and I didn't have a great experience at church. After church I just lazed about being sad until Rissy called and dragged me outside to plan the Saboteur. This cheered me up immensely. Just so you all know, this game is going to ROCK!!!!!!! Our ideas are oh-so-good. Sign up now, because seriously, amazing.

Also, I am now feeling the need to knit. I have no needles, no yarn, no idea how to do a project, but I have the urge to knit and I am eager to learn. Come back to visit soon, Kara, I miss you already.

September BAMC: Marathon

September's BAMC was, in my opinion, very good. The word was change. I took this challenge to heart and read three wonderful books.

The first book is Pushed: the Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block. Krisling has really got be interested in thinking outside the box when it comes to labor. I had no idea there were other options besides hospital with epidural and hospital without epidural. This book was amazing!! It has not only changed the way I think about childbirth and modern maternity care, but also changed some of my aspirations. I wanted to be a Douala when I was in Infant Massage school, now I am even more interested. I think it's something I would not only be good at, but I would really enjoy doing. Of course I need to do more research, but I am highly intrigued.

The second book I read was Marathoning A to Z: 500 ways to run Better, Faster, and Smarter, by Hal Higdon. This book was very simple to read, and well well the other book I read: Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Hidgon.


These books changed my lifestyle. I am indeed running better and smarter (I'm not sure about faster, but, farther yeah), however, the point is that I'm running. I'm excited about it, I'm enthusiastic about it and my habits have to support my running. I have to go to sleep earlier at night, I need to eat healthier and things like that. As it turns out; I really like running!!

The Fruitie Ootie Bar??

Aaron came over to introduce us to the the future of Sour...Sweet!! No, really. There is a fruit; Called "Magic Fruit" That after you eat it, it makes everything sour taste sweet. This fruit has been put into pill form by the Japaneses, and sold to thrill seekers everywhere.
We decided to have a sour party. Ismael was the only one brave enough to join our little group. We wanted to have a variety of tastes, so we had lemons, limes, crushed red pepper, spicy Cheetos, grapefruits, orange juice, lemon juice, and a bunch of different kinds of sour candy. We dissolved half a pill on our tongues and...AMAZING!!
The best things were the lemons. Oh, they were so good!!!! And the orange was fantastic. Oh the delight!

It Sounds Like Rat and Patootie. Rat Patootie. Which Does Not Sound Delicious

Creating new dinners is going well. This past week I think my best accomplishment was not dinner, but made-from-scratch brownies. They were amazing. I thought I did a fantastic job at making Eggplant Parmesan, but Drek didn't like it as much as I did and it is way to unhealthy to make for myself. I also really liked my attempt at Mushroom and Spinach Manicottii, but the recipe was highly confusing as it did not call for spinach. It was still delicious, but I need to try it again, this time, with the spinach.

My new obsession is Ratatouille. The first time I made it that traditional way: as a stew. But I wanted to mimic the famous Disney movie a little more, so I found a recipe for Baked Ratatouille. It turned out...baked. I didn't like it as much as the stew and it still wasn't anything like the movie. After some more research I found Ratatouille Remy Style!! A recipe for the movie dish. As it turns out, the recipe in the movie is the Turkish version of the dish. I'm looking forward to making it and seeing if it is delicious.

Today I am making General Tao's Tofu again, tomorrow I am modifying the dish to see if it can be turned into Orange Chicken. I mean Tofu.

Ay, Avast!!

It be Talk like a Pirate Day. Arrr. I can't celebrate all that much. I be doin' 12 hour work days yesterday, today and tomorrow. I also be havin' to be all professional-like, so if I be talkin' like a pirate, I be walkin' the plank.
Aye, it be a hard life for us on the land. The sea be callin' me, and one day...one day I'll answer.

The Saboteur II

Oh, so great. What else can I say??

Rissy was in charge of this one, I was just a humble player. Being a player is a blast BTW, so much more fun!! Anyway, she did all the work. I did not help at all.

We met at the park and started off with "The Chains That Bind Us". We were all tied to a rope and once every minute had to let on person from either end free. That person could then either add candy to the pot, or betray the team and take the exception. The exception meant that fifty candies would be subtracted from the pot, and he people tied had to stay tied up for the next game. Right away I was suspicious of Megan. She had seemed reluctant to play, but perked up right away. This could be because we were having fun, but could it also be that she is the Saboteur??
My plan was to be the last on the rope, that way I could take the exception but candies would still be added. Alas, they found out my plot and I was voted off the rope. Good thing too, cause Curt decided to betray the team. He chose the Exception with Ismail and Shana still tied up. Very suspicious behavior.

The next game was "Find A Penny..." This was a very clever game. I was highly impressed with Rissy at this point. Shana and Ismail (still tied together) had to wade around in the fountain looking for pennies. One penny (among hundreds) was green on one side. The tied team had to throw the pennies out of the water to us, the sorting team. The sorting team had to find the green penny and run it over to Rissy. The faster we did this = more candies. We did it pretty fast, I thought, but the finding of the penny was just...odd. Curt made it into this huge thing and I was suspicious of him. Cavan was the one that found the penny, and now that I think about it, it was odd.

Next up: Lava Monster!!! People were on top of picnic tables, trying to keep the candy safe from lava monsters (me and Ismail) I ROCKED this game and won an exception. Still suspicious of Megan. Very suspicious.

Next was an improved version of the game I invented. Two teams, one searching for GPS coordinates, one searching for addresses. Both teams have to work together to make it within the time limit. Also, there were riddles solving the riddles = candy. This game was awesome. I was first suspicious if Ismail, who missed turns and was deliberately slowing us down. Curt missed an obvious clue. If I hadn't found it, we might have never moved on. Megan won an exemption without even knowing she had...or did she know?? In any case, we didn't make the time limit, but we did answer a lot of riddles.

TRAFALGA!!!! Three Saboteur cards were actually in ticket bins. The only way to get them out, was to but them with tickets. And how were we going to do that? Why Deal or No Deal, of course!! Our team was not so good, only winning four tickets. We bought our Saboteur card, which informed us that for the next challenge, we would be blindfolded. The next challenge: Mini Golf.

I was blindfolded, Drek was my eyes. The point was not accuracy, the point was speed. We had 18 minutes to play 18 holes. It was crazy. I almost died several times. We did not make the time limit. The other team did better, they only had to be tied together. They did make the time limit. Ismail even got a hole in one, winning himself an exception.

To finish it off, the best game of all: GO KARTS!!!!!!!! Once again, I was blindfolded (I was used to it by now). I drove the go Kart, Megan was my passenger and my eyes. We used 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock to tell me how to turn. To make things more complicated, Rissy held up a sign everytime we made a lap. I could not see them, but I had to memorize the answers. The first two questions were "how many toes does a human have?" and "*picture of an eye* + *Picture of a phone*". The last question was a math question. Megan read it out load, and instead of figuring it out, I just asked her what the answer was. We were both concentrating more on the wuestion and less on the driving. We ran into a wall. Curses!! And we were doing so well. Megan solved the math problem, but becasue of the crash, she forgot a small part of it, resulting in a wrong answer. Shana and Curt answered all three right, and got the fasted time, resulting in a special prize for them: A gift card to Trafalga. Ben and Cavan crashed three times, and Cavan answered the questions out of order. I blamed this on Drek. He was obviously not communicating effectively. The question was, is this on purpose...??

So, much blaming and conversations ensued. At this point, I know it is not Nick. I know it is not Shana. After a slip of the tongue, I know it is not Megan (curses!! I had been voting for her the whole time!!) After more thought, I realize it cannot be Ismail. I am fairly sure it is not Drek. That leaves Cavan and Curt. It is so Curt!! He has been suspicious from the start!!

We take the last quiz, I vote Curt. We take pictures and then the Saboteur stands up.

Cavan?? What the...?? I NEVER suspected him. Not the whole game. Dang.

We add up the quizzes and guess what?? It turns out Megan was my lucky charm. I voted for her all through the game, but she had enough in common with Cavan that I got ten question correct!! Megan was second place, with 8 correct questions. Everyone else was close together with either six or seven. So, take that Mark. You won without knowing who the Mole was, I won without knowing who the Saboteur was. Hooray.

I had so much fun!! Rissy and I are already making plans for Saboteur part: the third.

Bwhahahah

5K

Thank you, K-lizzle, for posting that last entry. I will be more careful about leaving my account logged in on other people's laptops. For the sake of posterity, allow me to clarify.

Friday after work Drek and I went to his work's BBQ. It was very exciting. Drek works with a lot of hilarious people. I highly enjoyed the experience.

After that we went to Krisling's house. We talked, ate watermelon, and watched Casino Royal. This was very important because Krisling had never seen this before. Alas, she had never seen ANY James Bond movies, and if we are going to See Quantum of Solace for her birthday, I thought I should get her hooked on 007.

Drek drove back home and I camped out on Krisling's couch for the night to guard the house against any intruders that were small enough to fit the hole in the door where the door handle used to be.

Saturday morning was the big day! The day I have been preparing for for months! The day of my 5k!! It was quite the learning experience. I did the 5k to prepare for my ultimate goal: running a marathon. I thought this would prepare in regards to running a long distance, but instead, it prepared me for the part of the marathon I had not thought to prepare for. I learned that I must get up crazy early in the morning and freeze to death in the cold morning air before being told when to run and where to run. I learned how to pin those numbers to my shirt. I learned how to sign it at the sign in table. I learned to have the courage to stand next to skinny blondes in tank tops and short shorts while my big end is dressed in pajama pants and a T-shirt and not let it bother me. I learned that I'm not competing with that crazy skinny girl who is the star member of the BYU cross country team, I am competing against myself. I learned I don't care how fast they go, the point is that I keep going. I learned I don't care when I cross the finish line, just that I cross it. I learned that I don't care what other people think of me, or worry if they think I look stupid, I'm not doing this for them, I'm doing this for me. In short, the experience was AWESOME and so much better than I could have hoped.

Kris and I stayed together the whole time. The cop that was following us made me very nervous, so I went up to his car window and asked him to leave us alone. He did. The course was not flat, it was up and down a mountain. A freaking huge mountain. It also took us through a very rich neighborhood, so most of our time was occupied with getting enough air to make it up the steep hill, and reading flyers on the houses the were for sale. We found this crazy 7 bedroom house that had a 2 story great room, and a fireplace in the master bedroom. That was our favorite. We picked sunflowers, laughed really hard, and crossed the finish line smiling and in high spirits.

Way to go us!!

Potatoface

My name is K-lizzle! I am freaking awesome! YOUR MOM.

I ran a 5K today and I totally kicked its butt. I am also the coolest person to ever walk the planet, for behold, I stayed behind and saved the Kris from certain lonely doom. Also I totally scared a cop!

TU MADRE!

Also I am basically James Bond. Except I am a girl. I am a girl James Bond. I am, Jamie Bond.

TOUCHE!

I need to move to the Salt Lake valley.... TOMORROW!!

FYI

I am now hopelessly addicted to pita bread. So. Good.

My genius husband is amazing. He made $80 yesterday playing the stock market. He is so smart.

I run my first 5K tomorrow!! I am so excited I've been having racing dreams for the past two days!

My neice, Meg, is the smartest little girl in the world. She can already sign like a pro, and she already talks really well.

My nephew, Toby, is entirly adorable. He is also already very musical. He will be a genius musician/singer/conductor when he grows up.

Both my neice and my nephew are the cutest kids you will ever see (the only exception might be Ben's little sister, Rachel, when she was a baby. She was an adorable baby. Like, world's-cutest-baby-ever kind of adorable). If I get permission from their parents, I will post pictures.

I'm getting restless. Very restless.

Vindicated

"Then there's manure — all that animal waste generates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that has 296 times the warming effect of CO2. And of course, there is cow flatulence: as cattle digest grass or grain, they produce methane gas, of which they expel up to 200 L a day. Given that there are 100 million cattle in the U.S. alone, and that methane has 23 times the warming impact of CO2, the gas adds up."

And just think, you're eating that.

My Attempt to be More Home/Wife-y

I love to clean. Drek pointed out that I love to clean on a deep level, as in, sterilize. I could scrub, wash, steam and soak all day. Keeping things tidy is more of a chore.

I spent Wednesday cleaning a lady in my ward's house. She had a C-section 3 weeks ago and is having trouble. I then went to my Mom's house and cleaned that. Drek got slightly upset, and took revenge by cleaning our house. Our house is now tidy!!! It looks amazing!!! Best. Husband. Ever.

Alas, I needed to get revenge, so I rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned our carpets, Our house in now "clean". Oh, our carpets are so beautiful! They should be framed and put in a museum.


Usually, I love to cook. I take that back, I love to create. Cooking is no fun if I am not creating. In the past cooking dinner has been a struggle. The problem is that I work all day, come home, ask Drek what he wants for dinner ("I don't know. Whatever you want.") And then rummage around in our cupboards looking for inspiration. I look for something fast, but healthy. My blood sugar is low, so I am grumpy, and thus dinner is usually cereal or eggs.

I have solved this problem!! I searched the Internet for recipes I wanted to try, then laid out a two-week plan of who will cook dinners (I cook Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Saturday, Drek cooks Thursday and Friday, the days I work late) and went shopping for all the ingredients. I only bought food needed for the two weeks, thus saving money, and was so excited to create!!

The result has been fantastic. I am much happier when I come home, I can't wait to cook dinner, we are eating healthy, and the food is AMAZING!!!!! I have a new favorite dish, and even Drek says he has a new favorite!! We also discovered that while we both love to say Gazpacho, it is no fun to eat as a soup. As salsa, it's great. As soup, it's disgusting.

I'm about to plan the next two weeks of dinners. Let the creative juices start flowing!!

My favorite recipe:Fresh Mozzarella Penne Pasta! Note: The does not serve four. It serves like fourteen. If making this, follow amounts on everything but the pasta. Only use half a bag (8 oz) of pasta.
fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes
3 medium tomatoes or 5 to 6 Roma tomatoes, peeled and diced
2 avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoons crushed red pepper or to taste
1 (16-ounce) package uncooked penne pasta
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a large bowl, toss mozzarella cheese with tomatoes, avocados, garlic, olive oil, basil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and red pepper. Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and return to pan to keep warm. Add tomato mixture and toss to coat thoroughly. Transfer onto individual serving plates and garnish with Parmesan cheese.
Makes 4 servings.

Drek's favorite recipe: General Tao's Tofu! Note: This recipe is extremely delicious. I believe I can turn this into a tofu version of Panda Express's Orange Chicken. Details forthcoming. Also, grilled bell peppers are so tasty when added to the steamed broccoli
1 box of firm tofu
1 egg
3/4 cup cornstarch
vegetable oil for frying
3 chopped green onions
1 Tablespoon minced ginger
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2/3 cup vegetable stock
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons sugar
red pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon sherry (optional)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
steamed broccoli

Drain, dry and cut tofu into 1 inch chunks. You can freeze tofu the night before to get a more chicken-like consistency, but it isn't necessary. Mix the egg and add an additional 3 tablespoons water. Dip tofu in egg/water mixture and coat completely. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn't clump up at the bottom of the bowl.

Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil.

Heat 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil in pan on medium heat. Add green onions, ginger and garlic, cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic. Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper and vinegar. Mix 2 Tablespoons water with 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well. Add fried tofu and coat evenly.
Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.
Serves: 4

Build a Man a Fire; Keep him Warm for a Day. SET a Man on Fire; Keep Him Warm for the Rest of His Life

Yesterday was the third time Drek and I taught our class of thirteen year old girls. The first two tomes, I would classify as a "disaster", however, yesterday's class I would classify as "a surprising success!

I decided that the girls were old enough to teach their own (#&$^%$) lesson, so on Friday Drek and I went to 4 out of the 6 girls houses and gave them a little piece of the lesson to teach any way they wanted. It was a risk, and Drek had his doubts. He wanted to know what we would do when all the girls showed up unprepared.

Sunday morning, bright and early, one of the girls called and said she wouldn't be coming to church, and couldn't teach her part of the lesson. Drek saw this this as highly encouraging: We make the girls teach the lesson, they all find excuses not to come to church, we have no class to teach!

Alas, class time came and the rest of the girls were ready to go. One of the girls had enlisted the help of her family and did a fabulous job of teaching! One of the girls didn't do any preparation, but improved really well, the other girl (the one we were worried about) took charge, loved being in charge, and gave a flawless lesson. It was so great!!!! I think from now on we will have two of the girls teach the lesson. They learn better that way, and the other girls pay more attention.

And Now I Have No Phone

My cell phone is very broken. VERY broken. To see the screen, I have to press down on a crack. To make the sound work, I have to press down on the mouth piece while I'm talking. So. Very. Broken.

Drek finally took pity. We bought a $24 pay-as-you-go brick phone and switched the SIM card over. I have a new phone!!

Well, had. I got the phone, played with it, customized it, then lost it. The same day. All this was done on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Krisling emailed me saying I had left my phone at Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero??? How the...? I was in there for a few minutes, I didn't sit down, I didn't put down anything I was holding, how in the world...?

The night I lost my phone, Krisling saw she had missed a call from me. She called back.
A man's voice answered. She was not fooled, she knew it was not me.

"....This is not K la," She said
"No, it's not. This is Michael Blahblah, manager of Sub-Zero ice cream. I was trying to get a hold of someone because this phone was left here..."

Yeah, that was the only number this Michael called. He didn't call "Mom" or "Dad" or "ICE Home" he didn't even call the last number I called. He called Krisling?? I'm glad he did, but I'm not sure why he did.

He is not very smart, this Michael guy. When I went in the next to get my phone, the girl pulled out a shoe box that served as their Lost and Found. It housed a pair of sunglasses, a baby shoe, and three or four credit cards. No phone. She called Michael, who told her that apparently, my $24 phone was deemed more valuable then the credit cards, and he put it in the safe. The safe that only he has the key to. The safe that cannot be unlocked unless he is there. He refused to come in. He is moving and will not be in until Saturday.

And he didn't know this the night before???? I am so angry at this Michael guy. He better offer me a lifetime supply of ice cream to make up for it or so help me...

August BAMC: Tha Cat Who Came in from the Cold

August's word for BAMC was a unexpected: Cold. I'm not sure if they're doing opposites now, but I was pleasantly surprised.

This month I read Phantom, by Susan Kay. It was FANTASTIC. I loved that book. Thank you, Krisface. It was AMAZING!!! I also read Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer (of course, who didn't?) and was also pleasantly surprised. I thought this book was better than any of the previous books. I loved it! Also, the two books together taught me that pregnancy can be romantic. Such thing I had never supposed.

But the book I chose to do my report on is The Cat Who Came In From The Cold. By Deric Longden
It had the word "cold" in the title, so I decided to read it. Deric Longden is apparently a columnist in England. He writes mainly personal essays, and the book is a collection of personal essays centered around his cat, Thermal. Thermal is a little white kitten who melts Deric's heart and turns him into a cat lover. The stories are very familiar, me being a cat owner myself, and very realistic. It's very clever and humorous, although there is nothing gripping about the novel. I enjoyed reading it while I was reading it, but when I wasn't reading it, I didn't want to pick it up again. I had to force myself to finish by the end of the month.

That's How I started The Humans vs Massage Chairs War of '08

The day after my 3 mile run in the real world I could not walk. My legs hurt so bad that the muscles would sporadically decide to give up, and I would crumple to a heap. My lower back also started spasming. Good thing I work at at a back store. Too bad it's closed on Sundays. Drek says I should try stretching, and maybe even a cool-down. I didn't think I need either. The elliptical is just so much more friendly.

I felt much better this morning, and decided to do the run again. This time, I stretched at the beginning, the middle, and the end, and did a cool-down walk. It seemed to go better. We'll find out tomorrow.

Today I came into work early so I could use the inversion table before I clocked in and opened the store. The tricky part was that I had ten minutes before the store had to be open, but from the inversion table you can't see a clock. I didn't have a watch or my ipod, and my cell phone is very broken. In a flash of brilliance, I decided to time myself with the very fancy massage chair that sits right next to the inversion table. The massage goes for 15 minutes and it will tell you how much longer you have, thus solving my 10 minutes time limit problem. I turned it on, strapped myself and went upside down. The chair finished scanning itself (it customized massages to the body type of the person being massaged) and then commented
There is no one in this chair.
Uh...I know, just massage anyway.
I can't give someone a massage if there is no one sitting in me.
Could you just massage air? The air would appreciate it.
I massage people only. If there is no person, there is no massage.
Can't you pretend?
Did you have a reason for waking me up?
Look, I need you to count the minutes. That's all.
That timer is for the purpose of my massage. I can't time if there is no massage
I need to know when ten minutes has passed...please?
I'm a massage chair! Not an egg timer. How dare you.
How dare I? You're a machine!! I am your superior human! You will do as I say.
How rude. I'm going back into status. Don't disturb me again.

It is frightening when your chair is smarter than you.

Just Keep Running, Just Keep Running, Just Keep Running, Running, Running...

I ran my 3.1 miles today in the real world. 3.2 miles on a elliptical= 25 minutes. 3.1 miles in the real word = 45 very long minutes. I suck at running in the real world.

I am now addicted to the UK version of How Clean is Your House? I am hoping one of the cleaning tips will help my bathtub. It is a sad, sad bathtub. I filled it with three gallons of bleach and left it overnight. It was still sad. I'm hoping salt will prove more effective.

If I Keep Cleaning, Everything Will Be OK

My house has been cleaned like a feind for the last two days. Everything has been scrubbed, vacuumed, put through a washer machine, shined, organized and bleached. I am actually sick of my apartment. I want to move . . . yesterday. What would it be like to have an apartment with a dishawasher? With a working fridge? With a parking spot?

Today has not been a very good day. I desperately want to leave work and go clean my house some more. I think the walls need to be scrubbed with a toothbrush. I haven't done that since I was in high school.

I've been going to the gym every morning for the last 3 weeks. I work out for 25 minutes on the elliptical (3 miles +) do the stairs for ten minutes, then swim a 500 and cool down by walking laps in the water.

My reward? I have gained 6 pounds. I'm not going anymore. Not because I'm gaining weight, but because I saw someone I used to know working out there. I saw her on Tuesday too, but I was hoping that was a freak occurance and she didn't actually go to the that gym at the same time I did. I was wrong. don't want to have those memories brought up every freaking morning. That's something I could definitely live without. Besides, I need to start running on real ground if I am to run a marathon. I'll start that tomorrow. I won't be able to swim, but I will take weights with me when I run to start working my upper body. I need to move somewhere that has an on-site gym. And a dishwasher. And a new fridge. And maybe even a working bathroom sink.

Let's Not Shoot the Crazy End-of-the-World Machine Just Yet

Drek came home from another succesful Canyoneering trip. He left Friday and came back later Thursday night. Last week, we spent 5.8 out of 7 days away from each other. Let's do not again for a long time...kay?

Reason 57 why I like our new ward better than our old ward: Drek and I now have a calling in our ward. We teach six thirteen- year-old girls. We are Sunday school teachers! Our fist calss was yesterday and it was...bumpy. It will get better.

Reason 58 why I like our new ward better than our old ward: Yesterday after church I got a call from my visiting teaching companion. She asked how I wanted to divy up the responsibility, and asked when I would like to go. A few minutes later she called back and said that she had set up our appointments and we were all set to go visiting teaching next week. I almost started to cry. It was just such a beautiful thing to hear.

Rissy intoduced me to Eueka. I am hooked. It's not as good as Firefly, but it is just as funny.

As a random sidenote, Kris and I are running a 5k in September. I am very excited. So excited, that I signed up to run a 10k in August. Isn't that a little backwards?? Anyway, It's the Human Race (giggle giggle) and details can be found at nikeplus.com

Kris, we should do this one together too. What are you doing on the 31st??

Excellence is and Art Won by Training and Habituation

I am home! California was wonderful! My advanced Sales training was AMAZING!!! I learned so much and I am super excited to start selling!!

When I came home, I realized I had forgotten the #1 rule of keeping a clean house: never leave your cat and your husband home alone together.

Thursday was a very busy day. I spent most of Thursday cleaning our house, which looked like it had just barely survived an earthquake. I made a lot of progress, but Acouchi's room was a disaster I was not willing to take on yesterday. I'll do it tonight after work.

I also finished up the Saboteur details. I took the thank you card to our sponsors and hopefully opened the door for future sponsorships. Rissy is wanting to do another one, and I want free stuff to work out again.

Lani's graduation party was last night. We went to a park, had delicious sandwiches, yummy cookies and the coolest cupcakes ever. I was so impressed. Lani graduated with her bachelor's degree. She is amazing.

The was followed by a trip to Kris's house, where I FINALLY watched the season finale of The Mole. I was right. Well, I was wring about Clay, but my second guess was correct. And I was thrilled that Mark won. It was very touching. Apparently Victoria thought so too, evident by the fact that she was crying through the whole thing. Kris and I were wondering if it was because she was so touched at by Mark's moving speech, or the fact that she was sitting next to Bobby and he wouldn't hold her hand.

The best part of Thursday was FINALLY being able to see Meimei. She was in Palestine for 3 weeks, and came back the same day I left for California. I finally got to see her and she showed me all of her pictures and told me her stories. That was quite humbling. We were both telling each other about out trips and it went something like this: "oh! You saw the Dome of the Rock? I saw...the airport and the hotel. You went with the State Department? I went with my ipod. You wore traditional Muslim clothes? I wore professional clothes. The second day they were even ironed."

Yeah. That is my little sister. On the one hand, I am so proud of her for having such a great trip and doing so many amazing things, on the other hand, what the heck am I doing with my life?? I was supposed to be in Egypt 5 years ago!!!! I still haven't made it over there, or over anywhere for that matter. Yeesh.

California is no so bad, once you stop hating the hotel you are in.

The medical Marketing classes went great. I learned a lot and got a lot of really good ideas for the store. I'm excited to get work on them, I think the results will be fantastic.

Monday after classes I was picked up by Bonnie and Jodie and Jessie. Oh, how I have missed them!! I just hugged Jessie for the first five minutes!!! I can't believe how big hey are. Jordan is almost as tall as me and Jessie is 11. 11!!! I held her when she was 2!!!

We went to the mall and talked and we went to a park and talked. We talked and talked and talked!! Then Bonnie took us to Medieval Times, which was the best thing ever. I was surprised how much I got into it! We each had our night (ours was the yellow knight, as indicated by our yellow crowns) and the 6 knights competed in different jousting competitions. There was a whole story line and everything. It was amazing!


Afterward we said our good0byes (sob) and they dropped me off at the Hilton. This is a good hotel. I like it here.

Today I spent all day in an advances Sales training class. The teacher is a riot, I adore him. I'm learning so much and I feel so empowered! I feel like I can go back to the store and close a sale with every single person that walks in the door. I'm so excited!!

Remember how in Chariots of Fire the athletes competed on Sunday despite their religious beliefs and they all did really really bad, almost as if they were being punished?
Yeah. That's me. Right now.

Stupid business trip. I never wanted to do this in the first place. I was never actually asked if I wanted to go to stupid California on a Sunday and be in a class on a Sunday. I did everything I could to get out of this stupid trip, short of quitting, and I still had to go. I hate it here.

Cherie preached professionalism to me before I left, so my plan was to land in California, go to my ridiculously expensive hotel, shower, iron my clothes, and show up to class all ready for the day, looking good and ready to start.

La Quinta is a sucky hotel. For being so freakishly expensive, they suck. A lot. They won't let me check in, because I am too early. In fact, Check in time is not till AFTER my class starts. No shower, no ironing board. Just the opposite, actually. I get to change in a public bathroom. My clothes come straight out of my suitcase. While doing this, a button pops off of my wrinkled pants. I ask the clerk for a sewing kits. She responds in broken English that they are out. OUT of sewing kits. With all the money it costs for one person to spend one night in your stupid hotel you think you could afford A sewing kit. Stupid hotel. I need a store, this sucky hotel has Internet problems apparently; It's down. Really? REALLY???? So I can't Google where the nearest store is. So I go on a walk. I walk for four blocks, in the California sun, looking for a store. All the gas stations (of course) don't have sewing kits, and I none of the clerks speak any English so I can't ask where the nearest store is. Doesn't ANYBODY in this stupid state speak English????

I get back to the hotel, unshowered and now sweating from my unsuccessful walk. My clothes are wrinkled, and my mascara was confiscated by the @#**@ TSA.

I hate it here. I want to go home.

Master Drek

Drek's Thesis Defence was Thursday morning. He had spent the two days before hand planning his presentation and working on his wording. When we were finally all in the conference room, waiting to begin, I realized I had left the camera in the car. I did not have time to run across campus to get it, and was beginning to freak out.

Thankfully, Xirax walked in at that exact moment with his camera-that-is-worth-more-than-my-life. He filmed the whole thing. I am so excited. Thank you, Xirax!!

Drek did such a great job. He was amazing. I was not the only one to think this; evident by the fact that he passed his thesis defence. Hooray!!!

Afterwards I rented a cap and gown, and we went and took pictures on campus. I got some pretty cute pictures.

That night was Drek's graduation party for family. We had it at a beautiful park and it could not have gone better. We played Frisbee, ate pizza and ice-cream-cake and had a great time.
The park had a beautiful fountain. Apparently, college taught Drek how to read.
Aaron brought his wake board and was teaching us how to ride it. Drek's two brothers were very good at it, and I almost got the hang of it after a while.


I gave Drek his graduation present: A GPS navigation system for our car (to give him direction in his life) He got it working yesterday, and I am very excited to play with this new device.

Congratulations, husband! You are so amazing and I am so very proud of you. I love you.

What Do You Call It...Short Talk? Close Enough

Ever since I won the massage chair, my new mission has been to win Cherie a massage chair. Every person that has come into the store, I have sat in the HT-7450, and forced them to fill out a form. For the Sales Associates name I put Cherie's name.

On Friday, I faxed in 50 entries with Cherie's name on them.

Today was he last drawing. I missed the live webcast. Again. Sigh.

At 3:00, who should call? but Michael Hamm, the CEO of Human Touch. My heart rate increases. Cherie is talking to a customer. I try to throw things at her to get her attention while attempting to carry on a casual conversation with Mr. Hamm.

Hamm: How was your vacation?
Me: Oh, it was wonderful! It couldn't have gone better, and I got the chair!
Hamm: How do you like it?
Me: I love it! It's so great. It's the one my mom has so...
Hamm: You're mom has he 7450?
Me: Oh yes, She sat in all of our chairs and that was the one she liked best. I really like the chair, too. That was back in February. My Grandma has an I-joy.
Hamm: Wow! You have a lot of our chairs.

At this point Cherie has turned around. I point to the phone I am holding and mouth "Michael" She looks at me like I'm crazy. "What?" She mouths.

Me: Yeah, well, I really believer in them.
Hamm: Maybe that's why you sale so many of them.
Me: Yeah, uh...yeah. Maybe. So...How did the drawing today go?

I say the last part loudly, so Cherie will hear. Again, I mouth "Micheal Hamm" and point to the 7450. She turns her back on me to give her attention to the customer. Clearly, my carrying-on-two-conversations-at-once-skills need improvement.

Hamm: Great! It was the last drawing you know.
Me: Yeah, we always try to watch the webinars but there was a customer that came in at the same time so we missed it.
Hamm: Well, it was a good one. We tried to make it extra-special and we did a lot for it. I think you'll find that is was extra-special too. Speaking of which, can I talk to Cherie?

I put my hand over the receiver and tell Cherie, very loudly, that the phone is for her. She asks who it is. I tell her. Her eyes go big. She grabs the receiver. A few seconds later, she screams.

SUCCESS!!!!!

And the customer that won was so excited! I got to call her, since she was my customer, and when she came into the store she almost started crying. She was so happy.

I love my job.

Be Prepared...for Random Things Falling Apart

On Sunday, in our awesome new ward, our awesome new bishop said that he was tired of preaching about emergency preparedness and now was the time to act. He said to pretend the power was off from 5pm-10pm Monday. How cool is that?!

Monday, during my lunch break, Drek and I went shopping to get all the stuff for 72 hour kits. We made them for FHE and now we are so prepared! Hooray!!

Completely unrelated:
At work, this wonderful couple came in looking for a solution to her desk problem. I suggested they get a desk caddy. I told them they could either take the one all put together of the floor, or they could get one still in the box, but then they'd have to put it together. I highly recommended they take the one off the floor, because they are notoriously obnoxious to put together. He asked "If we take the one of the floor, who puts together a new one to replace it?"
"Well, actually, I will. But I've done them before and they get easier with time. I built all the ones that are on the floor."

So they said yes, and Dave came over to get it ready to put in the car. I kept talking to the couple and eventually Dave rolled over the desk.

The handle fell off. The handle fell off, rolled across the floor, and stopped right at the couple's feet. I was mortified. This was not the best example of the high quality desk I had just preached to them.

What could I do? I started laughing. "Well that was really well put together. Way-to-go me."
The couple started laughing too, and the guy said that he had just seen Dave unscrew the handle. Dave was laughing too and he said that he had unscrewed the handle. The couple was delighted with the desk and did buy it. Phew!!

Dear Jacob: I Win. Love, Edward

Friday night Krisface, Lauren and I went to the Border's midnight release of Breaking Dawn party. It as a blast! Lauren wore a shirt that said: Team Edward and we taped up Kris's shirt to say: Cullin on the back.

A lot of people there were dressed up, some more extravagantly than others. My favorite costume was a girl dressed up as a Native American with a disfigured face. She was Emmy!! It was a brilliant costume! There was a group of girls with baseball type shirts on. The front said FORKS, and the back said either CULLIN or BLACK, depending on which boy they wanted to win. One shirt said said SWITZERLAND on the back and I thought that was very clever.

The three of us went into the bathroom to apply dark eyeshadow and blood red lipstick. While there, we borrowed some fake blood from a girl dressed up as Victoria. She was with two other boys who were dresses as Vampire Spawn. It was very cool.

During the party, it occurred to me that the best costume ever would have been a wedding dress and fake blood coming out of a bite on your neck. If only I had thought of that BEFORE the party.

There was a trivia game. Kris and Lauren both competed (not against each other) and both won. Kris won vampire fangs, Lauren won Breaking Dawn stickers.

Kris bought both Lauren and I Breaking Dawn pins. Mine is AWESOME!! It says: "If your life was all you had to give your beloved could you not give it?" -Bella
I love it. Thank you, Krisface!!

I crashed about 10:00pm. I called Drek and had him come get me, so I didn't stay for the whole party, but it was enough. Drek came hile we were making Vampire racelets. I didn't finish mine, but Kris made one for me. Isn't is pretty??

If you look at it sideways, it looks like vampire fangs. How cool is that??!!

I realized after I got home and tried to wash off my face that the fake blood didn't come off. That made work on Saturday very interesting.

Kris finished the book on Saturday. I finally got the book on Wednesday. I', so excited to read it!