Wardgiving

Our ward had a large feast for all it's members today. Compared to many of the other ward turkey things I've been to, this one was pretty decent. The turkey was moist (heh heh) and the side dishes were tasty.


Rachel was one of the planners of the event. She's on the activities committee. Here she is scooping some mashed potatoes to Mara.

This is Kim. There was a 20 minute conversation on fruits and vegetables during the evening and at one point, Kim told everyone at the table that she was a fruit. That was enjoyable.


Tyler ate just way too much.


Me and Brett. It's funny because Brett started to tell Kim that he thought he recognized her from somewhere and I wasn't believing him, but then he talked about how he worked at Utah State and knew where the bee lab was.


Chris and Chris. I brought a little thing I had worked on at work for show and tell to the table and he pointed out that something was misspelled. I said that it wasn't and that I was a good speller. Turns out that Head Over Heals is a lot different than Head Over Heels.


It was a nice night with nice people. I like my little ward family.

My Special Monkey

All you people with kids get to do this, so stop judging.

Starla is getting so much bigger. She weighs 36 pounds now which puts her in the top 96th percentile of Yellow Lab puppies (I made that up). Her head is pointy and there is still a little bit of pigment discoloration in her nose although it is starting to fill in brown.

Here are things that Starla loves to do.:
Starla loves to take naps on my bed.


Starla loves to take naps on the couch. Here she is looking in the mirror at me in my room while sitting on the living room in the couch. She used to run to the mirror and look for me when I called her, but she's grown smarter than that.


Starla loves to lick Kim's feet. When Kim wakes up in the morning, Starla loves to lick and lick and lick them.

Starla loves to go on walks.

Starla loves licking her crotch.

Starla loves to do art. Here is some of her most recent work. It's called "Why Won't You Let Me Drink Out of the Toilet?"


Most of all, if you're a guy, Starla loves to greet you at the front door with a good swift punch in the junk.

Saturday is a Special Day

This next picture has nothing to do with my Saturday events, but, just so you know, there's an In-N-Out in Draper now. Apparently the drive-thru line is 50 cars long.


Okay. Now that that's out of the way, I would like to let you know that I've had a busy Saturday. Remember when I had my show at the Masonic temple? I don't think I posted about that. I had a show at the Masonic temple. At that show, there was this nice lady who painted eggs. They are so beautiful and delicate. Well, she teaches a class on how to make Ukrainian Eggs for a nominal fee and is probably the nicest person alive on the face of the planet. I'm going to take her advanced class someday. This is Carolyn Kemp displaying one of her creations.


This is how you do it. Remember how when you were a kid and you would draw with crayons and then water color over it and the crayon color would stay the same, but the watercolor would color the paper around it? Well, it's kind of the same principle. The areas you want to stay egg colored, you wax over and then dip in a colored ink, say, yellow. Then, the areas you want to stay yellow, you wax over and then dip them in a colored ink. You continue this process until you get to your final color. Then you take your candle and burn off the wax and you have a beautiful egg!


This was my egg. I wanted to make it look all delicate like lace, but my skills with the kistka (stylus) are limited. It turned out pretty good.


Here's the one Kim made. It's lovely as well. Carolyn told us a bit of history concerning the eggs and something I would like to do that was done historically, was that the night before Easter, the women would gather together, do the sign of the cross, say something like, "Help me, God" and then create eggs all night. I want to have an event like that!


Then we went home. Jared Clark, for those of you who don't know that he lives here again, slumber partied at my house on Friday night and is now besties with Starla. When we got back, he was in the process of making his famous deviled eggs, which I devoured 6 of and wish I had some more right now. We went over to Michelle, Elin and Emily's place for Friendsgiving. Last year for Friendsgiving, I made a turkey. This year, I made gross stuffing. This year was a lot less stressful.


I got to talk to Aliah for a little bit. I need to invite Aliah over to hang out with my dog. She seems to have a similar pension for the four-legged friends.


Kim made this really good bacon and green beans dish. I even liked it and I never like green beans that much.


Hey! Guess who was there! Old roommate Nathanial. He has some sad news that he can tell you if he wants, but this sad news might make it so that he moves here, maybe! Move here! Do it! Maren agrees.


One of our lovely hostesses, Elin. It's such fun to throw a party like this, but it is also very demanding, so thank you so much Michelle, Emily and Elin (if you're even reading this).


Then, after the party, Kim and I went to Sarah's pre-ception. Sarah is getting married in like a week or less than a week and is having a private dinner party for her real reception and this was for everyone else. There was peppermint bark there.


Rachel and Lena were there in the corner as well. I have nothing to say about this other than I'm always glad to see them wherever I go.


Bob. Did you know that Bob is back in school and studying to become a geologist. I wish I hung out with Bob more. I also wish I hung out with Danielle more.


The soon to be Robinsons. Thanks for getting hitched, guys, it gives me hope.


I was so tired by the end of the day that I just fell asleep sitting up in my bed. I'm not as young as I used to be.

The Lacuna

Do you have a favorite author? One that is still writing books? And when that new book becomes available and you realize it's been sitting at the Barnes and Noble waiting for you since November 1st and for some reason that fact slipped your mind and all you can do is sit and think about it all day at work until noon rolls around and you're free to go to the bookstore and purchase it? I have a favorite author like that. Mine is Barbara Kingsolver. I want to be her best friend in real life and hang out with her and tell her I only eat foods that are in season and not at McDonald's (which would be a lie). Her newest novel, The Lacuna, just came out and I bought it and drove home with it in my lap. And now I stare at it because I am waiting until that glorious Thanksgiving weekend when I will be at my parents house and there is no such thing as the internet there and everyone goes to sleep at 7. Thank you.

Bring It, Joe

My friend Joe told me at the beginning of the year that he was going to become a master bread maker by the end of the year. I think he set goals to become an expert at French, Sourdough, Chocolate Pumpkin and something else. I asked him how he was doing at his goal and he said he had achieved mastery in all but the Sourdough. First of all, I was put off that I had yet to eat any of this bread he says he's a master at making. Secondly, the two times I've ever made bread it's turned out pretty good. So I thought maybe I'd try my hand at the baking art. Today I picked up this book from the library:


I'm right there, Joe, nipping at your heels.

Do any of you have a favorite bread that you make?

Joseph Eats Padek In His New House

Suzanne sent me a nice email the other day reminding me that I had a blog and that I should use it. I think the problem lately is that I don't like my camera. It's a good camera, I just got dust in the lense and now it only takes blurry photos half the time and I just don't see the point. I think I'm just going to say "poop" and buy myself a new camera again. Brigham's posts with all his fancy pictures using his Leica make me kind of jealous.

A few weeks ago, I went with work on a trend trip. Some of you may wonder, "What is this, "Trend Trip" you speak of, Cindy?" Well, it's basically going somewhere that is trendy and finding out what's hip. The difficult thing for me is trying to convince everyone I work with that what I think is trendy is what is right. They never listen to me!!!

Anyway, we went to Portland and Seattle. If you live there and I didn't visit you, it's probably because I was shopping and eating all the time.

Oregon was lovely. We had a nice day and a rainy day in each city we went to.


We ate at this Mediterranean place where they give you this giant mound of bread that will basically kill any desire to eat your entré. Especially when all you can do is dip it in Tzatziki sauce and shove it in your mouth over and over again.


We got there on a Friday night and me and Tara and Nori went to the Doug Fir and saw Blitzen Trapper play. We were all so tired from having to wake up at 4am that none of us wanted to go. Good thing we were staying at the Jupiter which is connected to the Doug Fir and all we had to do was walk downstairs to get there. It was such a good show, even with the drunken girl falling all over us.


Sometimes, when trend shopping, there are things that catch your eye that don't have to do with scrapbooking that you have to buy because they speak to you. They speak to your very soul. I got this headband. I love it. I gave it to my mom to try to recreate a bazillion of them. I miss it so much.


I kind of coerced my coworkers to stay at the Jupiter. I mostly wanted to be like Dave.


Our last day in Portland, we went to the market. There was this guy there that sculpted your face out of clay. Of course I wanted him to sculpt me and for a few extra dollars, he sculpted me as a garden gnome holding a squirrel! How lucky can I be? Do you think it looks even remotely like me? No? Whatever, I don't care.


We got to Seattle and ate at the 5 Spot for dinner. It was tasty. The menu was from Missouri. For some reason, when I think Missouri, I don't think fancy cuisine. Nori only got ice cream. She didn't want a meal because she had thrown up 6 times on the drive up from Portland. Poor thing. I still feel that this is the most exciting story that I can tell at this point in time.

On Monday, I was in charge of where we went trend shopping and I failed. We went to Capitol Hill where I was sure that something would be and there was nothing. Then we went downtown and there was kind of something, but not really too much. I think we just gave up after that. The next day we had a really successful day in Ballard, so I feel like that kind of redeems my tour guide capabilities.

The best part about Monday, though, was that I went to FHE at the Hall's house and got to hang out with the Hall's and Meredith and Joseph. The lesson was on the new family search program online which, for some reason we don't get out here but they get it up in Seattle. Then, after that, I got to go down to see Joseph's new house!

YES!!! I am the first to show Joseph's new house!

Here's his gated entryway. You can tell that he likes it because it looks like of Asian. He is just beaming in this picture.


This is what Joseph looks like after coming home from a long day of work. It was kind of night time, so it's hard to tell what his house really looks like.


Living room. Joseph's friend Katie was staying at his place for a little while. I like these fancy red walls.


The kitchen where Joseph eats Padek and cooks with it too. One of my biggest sadnesses about not living in Seattle anymore is that I don't get to eat any of Joseph's food. I loved that minty meat stuff he made.


Where all the action is.


Fancy library room where award winning documentaries will be made.


Some sort of backroom that will maybe someday be made into a greenhouse.


This is where Joseph puts the doo doo.


His tree that kind of sold him on the house.


This is what the back of the house looks like. He wants to get rid of the Wisteria. I say no. I think he should listen to me.


All in all it was a good trip. It was nice to get out of Salt Lake for a little bit. My parents watched my dog when I was gone and now when they call all they ask about is Starla. My dad asked about house his little girl was doing and I thought he meant me, but no, he meant the dog. She's napping here beside me right now and I'm going to have to kick her out real soon. She's so cute though.

Teaching!

I keep forgetting to talk about this, but I'm very excited to teach a class on Friday! I'm going to be one of the teachers at The ART Weekend. If you live in the Salt Lake area (or even if you don't) come and join us for a weekend of the arts. This little scene from the Frog Prince is what I will be teaching people how to make (quite timely if I do say so myself):


My class is on Friday from 4:00-5:50. I think one class costs about $45 and the more classes you take, the greater the discount. The class is located at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel on 122 W South Temple. Hope to see you there!