Cindy Mindy Pindy

Crafty

2011-05-11T07:59:00.003-07:00

We've been working with all these fabric designers at work, creating specialty Slice cards for them. Each designer created about 18 images to use with the digital fabric cutter. One of my favorites, Joanna Figueroa, created the little bird image I used in the bag above. I kind of knew I needed to make it. So I created a bag and used her fabric and made this. I am well pleased.

Not Quite a Beehive

2011-04-02T18:03:00.004-07:00

Last summer, I had the pleasure of having a hornet's nest in my back porch area. We would have people come over and they would be disturbed, and rightly so, by the alien intruders. Mostly guys would want to get rid of it immediately. I kind of had a "they're not bothering me, so I'm not going to bother them" kind of attitude and left them alone.

But today, in between conference sessions, I just decided to take it down. For some reason I thought the outer shell would be stiffer, but it felt like holding a soft origami ball. I wasn't able to remove it completely intact, so I thought I'd just tear it apart.

Starla was fascinated.

She's such a pretty girl.

One of the most favorite things I discovered was that the hornet's nest was tiered. It was like finding a wedding cake of combs inside of a surprise ball of bark and spit.

They say that the most common pattern in nature is the hexagon. I can understand why and that's because God is rad.

My final favorite thing about this nest was the pattern left behind on the ceiling of the porch. Circles encasing one another, each one completely closed and separate from the other.

C'est Fini

2011-04-01T18:26:00.003-07:00

Okay, for those of you dying to know how the 6 Pack in 6 Weeks workout went for me, I'd have to say it was successful. Not necessarily because I got a 6-pack. I'm sure if I'd kept to the diet I would have gotten a 6-pack, but I ate pretty poorly. I'm still working out every morning and sometimes eating better, sometimes not. Either way, the working out helps.

Here's the before and after photo.

It's mostly that I'm toned and not as fluffy on the sides. The part on my ribcage got trimmer, too. Summer's coming up and I've got a season pass to go to Raging Waters and I am going to take advantage of it as much as I can!

Stay On Target!

2011-01-26T21:00:00.002-08:00

So, sometimes, when you spend the whole weekend eating ice cream from Leatherby's and Mexican Cokes and Spinach Artichoke Dip and a whole bag of Cadbury Easter Eggs, you wonder, "Why am I doing this?" And then I remember that I'm pms and even though I would still eat those things when I'm pms, I would still continue to trudge along and not give up. So today I drank some real Coke, but I didn't go to the frozen yogurt place. The sheen has been dulled a bit on the frozen yogurt place because on Monday I went there and Audre wanted me to take my own spoon and I told her no, that I would just use their plastic spoons and she had a tissy fit and started dropping the f-bomb at me about using my own metal spoon. So now I never want to use my own spoon ever again. Phew, how did I get onto that tangent? I am starting to cheat on the Jillian Michael's 6-Pack dvd in that I'm doing my 100 sit ups, 45 push ups, 200 crunches routine again. I don't think just her dvd is going to get me a 6-Pack in 6-Weeks. Well, maybe it would if I didn't eat so much chocolate.

Level 2 Has So Many More Clichés

2011-01-25T20:59:00.000-08:00

Started Level 2 Today

2011-01-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

I Think I Look Skinnier With Shorter Hair

2011-01-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

No Comment

2011-01-20T20:55:00.000-08:00

Salt Lake Art Center

2011-01-19T21:23:00.002-08:00

Today I did something very exciting. I went to the Salt Lake Art Center and dropped of these four pieces for them to sell in their gift shop. I kind of hate handing over art knowing that there's a possibility that I may never see it again. Particularly this first Alice piece. I love pretty much everything about it. If you live around Salt Lake and are downtown, go check them out! There will be prints there for sale as well.

Today was very hard on the getting up and exercising front. I stayed up too late the previous night and only did half of the workout. But at least I did some. This picture is the perfect example of why I have bangs.

Gail Brought in a Container of Cinnamon Bears and I Ate the Whole Thing

2011-01-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

Today, I got home and felt kind of energetic, so I got Starla and we went on a run. We did pretty good. Until the cramp in my side came about. And the horrid gas pains.

Beginning of Week Three

2011-01-17T19:53:00.002-08:00

Okay, after this weekend's food debauchery, I think I might be back to square one (thanks, Kim, for the made-from-scratch pudding - D-licious). I didn't set my alarm this morning so this is a picture of me in the evening after working out. It's much more fun to work out in the evening, but it takes up so much time. The Simpsons are more entertaining to watch while exercising than the Today show. Today, Audre and I successfully avoided the Yogi Berry store. I need to buy more gum.

Flirty Forty

2011-01-15T21:33:00.005-08:00

Um, this guy turned 40 on 1/11/11. I'm super jealous. I also can't believe that he's 40. This means that I could someday turn 40 and that time is in the near future. Weren't we all wandering around 5th North looking for a party to go to just yesterday?

Kim is going to steal this baby.

You know someone is a good friend when they fly out to see you for your 40th birthday.

Even more of a good friend when TWO people fly out to see you for your 40th birthday (just Jeff, not Carter).

Friends of Ryan, I think he works with the guy.

Me and Chris are going to be sister wives together with Paul as our man. I think I'll let her be the first wife.

Amanda Angel!

Paul looks at some things on Chris' smart phone.

The lady who put it all together. Michelle did a wonderful job of getting friends together and throwing out the general love for Ryan.

Ryan getting ready to blow out the candles.

But not without the help of Ocean!

Such a fun night. It was nice to see friends who I knew from way back when. Things feel so much more comfortable.

Here's my picture after my morning workout. Starla wanted to be in the picture too. Today she had a bath and she smells and feels so much better. After tonight's luxurious eating of a loaf of bread and gnocchi and cake and ice cream, I'm glad I don't have to take a picture tomorrow morning.

Party Bus to Ephraim!

2011-01-15T10:43:00.009-08:00

Down in Ephraim, there's a place called the Central Utah Art Center. Every month they have a gallery exhibit feature a few different artists. Last month, my friend Jared had a show there. I couldn't attend the opening night, but I did go down and see it the next day. So when Jared told me about the Party Bus down to Ephraim for Alan and Fletcher's show, I was so on board.

Jared's mustache has reached perfection.

This is probably one of my most favorite photographs of 2011. That's me and Jared on the Party Bus. The bus actually filled up, which was pretty awesome. It probably didn't have anything to do with the unlimited beer.

We left Salt Lake at around 5:30 and got to Ephraim at about 8:15. Here's Alan, one of the artists exhibiting at the show.

And Jared and Alan's girlfriend, whose name I don't know, but I think she looks kind of like my friend Cammie. Jared's hair, right now, is really enjoyable. It reminds me of all the guys I had crushes on in high school.

I think this is just a lovely picture of Greg. He looks so cuddly and warm in it.

Um, did I mention that this was also Fletcher's art show? I haven't seen Daniel since he was Fletcher. I can't even remember the last time I saw him. It might have been in Vegas at my parent's place.

Someone in this picture doesn't like to have his picture taken. I think he's very handsome though and should be in more.

Jared view the upstairs from the downstairs.

Then, a little performance art happened. Everyone milled up to the top floor to see what was going on.

Does anyone know what this 1649 might stand for?

Apparently, the performance symbolized the life and work of Gerard Winstanley, the British 17th century proto-communist who appropriated public lands and planted crops to feed the hungry during famine.

There was a lot of chanting and moving about and I had a hard time seeing it.

Kendall and I had short attention spans and resorted to touching each other during the performance. Much more fun than the chanting.

This is Jared's favorite baby.

This guy, standing to the right of the guy with the red hat, he really enjoyed the beer part of the bus and I shared some pretzels with him.

This is Roman. He's very handsome and Eastern blockish.

That one girl Jen who is involved in all sorts of non-profit funding things.

I thought this guy in the hat was cute.

This cute librarian from the Day-Riverside Library was there!

This is a picture of what was going on with the performance art that we couldn't see.

Another photo of Alan!

I think this is Alan's artwork.

Some people interacting with the art.

I think this is also Alan's art.

This is Fletcher's art.

This is me with horribly bloodshot eyes in front of some of Alan's art.

New friend Morganne getting pizza at the pizza place across the street. I got some cheese sticks. Those were some of the best cheese sticks, ever.

All in all, it was a really fun night. I need to get out more and stop being such an old fuddy-duddy.

And, in case you were dying to see the picture, here's the daily update of my 6-pack in 6-weeks workout. The yogi-berrys are killing me. I've discovered working out is so much better when you watch the workout video on your computer while watching the regular tv at the same time.

Resisted

2011-01-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

I think I resisted the Yogi Berry today.

Yogi Berry

2011-01-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

Audre and I discovered the frozen yogurt place two doors down. This is going to put a dent in things.

Frozen Poop

2011-01-11T20:04:00.001-08:00

This picture is taken right after I took Starla for a walk and also picked up her frozen poop from the backyard. It's freezing out there. I actually woke up on time this morning. Usually I wake up and then stay in bed, putting off the exercising by looking at the internet at as much stuff as I can possibly look at before I have to go downstairs. So this morning, I only allowed myself to look at the internet on my phone. It's a lot less maneuverable.

Focus, Nadia, Focus!

2011-01-10T19:50:00.005-08:00

Got this new scarf at the DI today. I have lots of scarves but I never wear them. I feel silly. I think they look pretty though. This one - it has horses.

So, this weekend was a definite blow to the diet. Not necessarily the workout, but the diet. I just ate whatever. I made myself a Blue Cheese & Steak Panini and made a whole batch of Gluten-free chocolate pecan cookies for a friend and ate a bunch of those. Pretty scandalous, I know. Today, I feel like Nadia Comaneci in the 1984 made-for-tv movie, Nadia, when she's just gone out and eaten a burger or a donut or something and Bela Karolyi can tell and he gets so mad at her. I remember, while watching that movie, thinking that the Olympics probably weren't for me if I was going to have to not eat cheeseburgers.

Starla Insists

2011-01-09T21:15:00.003-08:00

Starla was upset that no one was taking her picture.

Trophy Wifing

2011-01-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

I think exercising is easier when you can get up at your leisure and do it whenever you want. This is why I would make an excellent trophy wife. I would wake up, make my husband breakfast, go back to bed, wake up, exercise, watch the soaps, go to target, start making dinner and then do whatever the man would want. This is what I think trophy wives do. Except for they probably complain about things more.

Friday Mornings Suck

2011-01-07T21:10:00.001-08:00

I look pretty hammered in this picture.

Nothing to See Here, Move Along

2011-01-06T19:02:00.002-08:00

Nothing much happened today. I did go on a blind date. The guy turned out to be neither blind nor even a date. I think I just got up to the cash register too fast. Nice guy though.

I like in the Jillian Michaels 6-pack dvd when she tells you you're going to look RIDICULOUS.

Neverending Walk

2011-01-05T21:14:00.003-08:00

So, every morning and every evening, I take my dog, Starla, on a walk. It's only about a quarter mile and I'm sure she could go and go and go for miles, but these two little 10 minute segments of the day seem to appease her. If I don't take her on walks in the evenings, she's a very bad dog who eats more socks than usual. Structure helps her to be obedient.

Here she is on her evening walk. At the very beginning of the walk, she likes to take the leash in her mouth and walk me.

Then, about 3 houses in, she forgets all about walking me. There's this chocolate lab who comes to the gate and barks and it about gets her riled up like no other. She will run to the fence in the yard next to the chocolate lab's yard and jump up and leap around and try to get the dog to come out. Sometimes he does and he tries to jump straight up in the air.

Then she gets all flustered and runs around the fence to the other lab's yard and kind of halfheartedly jumps around, hackles raised. I can never tell if she's angry or happy to see this lab.

There's something so peaceful about shoes hanging on a wire.

She has some friends around the block. This one wants to rip her a new one every time he sees her. He's kind of got a complex, I think.

This is Rio and Bravo, two border collies around the corner. I think their owner is probably about my best friend on the block.

These two dogs have barked at Starla from the beginning of her existence here in Rose Park.

Every day, it's the same walk. Every day, she likes it. Today, I had to go home for a split second at lunch time. When I was driving away, she followed my car and jumped up on the gate and watched me drive down the street. It kind of broke my heart. I don't know how you working mothers/fathers can do it.

Here's the third day of no sugar/working out with Jillian Michaels. This morning was tough.

I Can See Clearly Now

2011-01-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

Today I got seven new windows put in my house. I don't know that they "needed" them that horribly bad, but with the tax rebate ending at the end of 2010 (I had already payed for them in 2010, that's why I still qualify for the rebate) I thought I might as well get it done. Here's what my house looked like before and after. You can click on the picture for a better view. It doesn't look that dramatic from the outside or anything, but it does look cleaner.

Here's a view of the inside of the living room in before/after state. The thing I like the most is that I can now see who's walking up the front porch. The thin window before was frosted glass.

This is Kim's room. Apparently there was a horrible draft in her room and hopefully that's fixed. It looks a lot newer in there.

The kitchen was really drafty too. I can already tell a big difference in just the little time the new window has been up. The table is a lot less chilly.

The worst room in the whole house was Nathaniel's. Here's one of his windows, it was basically just boarded up. The window guy said that the insulation outside the boards was filled with little mice occupancy signs.

And here was the other window. A nice opaque plexi-glass. Now he can sneak the really skinny ladies into his room at night with the sliding window.

Starla was a big fan of the window installers. One of them was really comfortable with dogs, so she acted chill. The other one was a little less comfortable so she smiled at him a lot.

And in case you're a glutton for punishment, here's my glamour shot for the day. You know how yesterday I said that the ab portion of the workout didn't work my abs very much, I was wrong. My abs are feeling it. As well as my legs. I can't bend over to pick things up very well.

The First Day

2011-01-03T17:37:00.004-08:00

The first week of doing something is always pretty easy. It's the third, sixth or tenth week where you kind of lose your resolve. So far I've spent 20 minutes a day training Starla, done my workouts, reserved a camping spot at Glacier National Park, easy! We'll see how I'm doing in a month.

This morning, I got up and did that Jillian Michaels workout for the first time. It wasn't too bad. My abs aren't exactly hurting just yet though. There wasn't as much ab stuff as I thought there was going to be. She's a weird person. I love to listen to the things she says in her video though. Here's the day one picture of me working out. It's not as glamorous or as white and fleshy as the original picture, I'm sorry.

6-weeks to 6-pack

2011-01-02T19:52:00.003-08:00

1. When we deal in generalities, we shall never succeed.
2. When we deal in specifics, we shall rarely have a failure.
3. When performance is measured, performance improves.
4. When performance is measured, AND REPORTED the rate of performance accelerates.

I've had this quote for a long time. I don't know who to account it to, there is no author on the page, but what it says makes sense. For Christmas, Kim gave me the Jillian Michael's 6-pack in 6-weeks work out dvd. I'm going to put the 4th step of the above quote to the test and give you this:

Yes, I am going to do the 6 Week 6 Pack workout with Jillian Michaels. I will work out in the mornings, Monday-Saturday and take pictures every day and post them that night. If you haven't blocked my blog because of the above picture, follow along as I give status updates. My final day of the fitness routine will be February 12th. Just in time for Valentine's day! It's everything I could ever wish for! In addition to my workout, I will be following Jorge Cruise's Belly-Fat Cure Cookbook. Basically, I will be a hot-mess until I can have a Mexican Coke again in February.

At the end, if I have some semblance of a six-pack, I don't know what my gift to myself should be. Maybe some fancy jeans? Maybe a tan? It begins tomorrow.

Viva La Resolution!

2011-01-01T08:43:00.003-08:00

My friend Kim makes resolutions every year. The amount corresponds with the age she is going to be that year. This year she will be 23 (but she's making 37 goals). I sometimes copy her in doing this. The last visible one was January of 2006. I'm gonna do it again this year. Here are my goals for my 22nd year (but I'm going to make 36).

1. Tribe of Ephraim art show.
2. Save $500 a month.
3. Spend 20 minutes with Starla training her a day.
4. Spend 10 minutes a day cleaning.
5. Limit my internet addiction to 2 hours a day (I'd like to keep it down to 1, but there are so many things I need to do work-wise with the world wide web - so many excuses!).
6. Start doing etsy again.
7. Illustrate a children's book.
8. Make a journal entry every night.
9. Visit the temple at least once a month.
10. Purge a room a month of unnecessary objects.
11. Make my time at work always valuable.
12. Look for ways to help people at work, and not hinder.
13. Maintain a daily exercise routine.
14. Start running with Starla (maybe Kim, too?).
15. Make a personal recipe book.
16. Put my blog into book format. (Is blurb.com still the go-to for this sort of thing?)
17. Play piano more.
18. Read at least a book a month.
19. Memorize a scripture a week.
20. Memorize a poem a week.
21. Pray.
22. Get my family work done.
23. Make a family history book for family members.
24. Figure out gardening a bit and make my yard more friendly.
25. Use my National Parks Pass card a lot. One trip for this year already planned - Glacier National Park. I've never been to Moab, so I should probably get that one under my hat, too. I'd also like to do Yosemite.
26. Visit the Okanagan.
27. Fall in love.
28. Maintain a regular hygiene routine for Starla.
29. Visit Kyrgyzstan.
30. Make coffin with Jake.
31. Become scroll saw expert!
32. Visit New York.
33. Make at least one interesting meal a week.
34. Become an expert meat cooker.
35. Study a political topic a month.
36. Learn German.

Ta da! That's it! Some of these are way doable, some of them a little far-fetched, but I think I will be able to do them all if I put my mind to it. Here's to a bit of heaven in 2011!

Feels Like the First Time, Feels Like the Very First Time

2010-08-16T18:28:00.002-07:00

Five years ago, for my 30th birthday, the first time I ever visited New York, Brigham took me to a place called Cafe Habana wherein I had my first taste of Elote. I remember I had a chicken quesadilla, which, to this day is the best quesadilla I've ever had in my life, and a corn on the cob. I didn't want the corn on the cob, but Brigham insisted. He said I wouldn't regret it. It was the best corn I had ever tasted in my life. Two food items that were the best I had ever tasted in my life. I've tried, half-heartedly, to recreate that corn on various occasions and have failed each time. But I got some corn from a friend the other day and decided to have another go. Behold the Elote:

And it was goooooooood. Oh my gosh, so good. I think it was the lime I was missing before, or maybe it was the chili powder, but no matter, this time transported me back to a small cafe that I knew at one time or another, one of the Olson twins had eaten there and so had I. It was really good. I wanted to kiss myself.

So, if you're tired of the same old, same old corn on the cob, give the Elote a try.

Grill corn until hot and lightly charred all over, 7 to 10 minutes, depending on the temperature of the grill. Roll the ears in melted butter, then spread evenly with mayonnaise. Sprinkle with cotija cheese and lightly coat with chili powder. Drizzle lime all over and eat.

I know, I'm supposed to be papercutting, but I've got to eat, don't I?

Showering

2010-08-12T21:06:00.004-07:00

So, one of my most favorite people and New York traveling buddy is getting married. I didn't think there would be a shower out here, because she lives in San Francisco, but that was a silly thought.

It's Rebecca! (Not Emily, she already got married). She is in town for someone else's wedding and we lucky Utahns got to spend a little quality time with her.

Now, as I'm looking at this picture, I realize that I forgot to pick up my favor bag before I left and I'm really kicking myself because that bag looks like it has some good stuff in it.

Rebecca's friend Kim hosted the shower at her place. She did such a great job! The food was good, the atmosphere was spectacular and I didn't notice any weeds in her backyard.

Me and Rebecca!

There were a lot of people there that I knew I knew from somewhere but just couldn't quite place it. Most of them were from Rebecca and Betsy's blog - like Carissa here.

Not Michelle, I know Michelle from regular life.

I think this is one of the future sister-in-laws.

This is Rebecca's friend Emily who is a professor at BYU and who also gets paid to run marathons because she's really super fast or something and people sponsor her to go all over the world and run in their marathon. I can barely run down to the basement.

There were people there from Rebecca's youth.

And Elin! Um, for those of you who don't know, I got a new camera and I kind of am in love with it so far.

This is a friend of Rebecca's whose name I can't remember but she was nice.

I think this is Rebecca's sister and her friend.

Veeda and Eva. I love to see Veeda, she is such a sweetheart. And I don't think I've ever really had a conversation with Eva in real life for more than 5 minutes, so it was nice to finally converse a little more.

We played a game where everyone wrote down a shared memory of Rebecca and Rebecca had to guess who it was. I put something about my last San Francisco trip, but now that I think of it, I think my favorite memory is of renting a rowboat in Central Park and saying "Whaaaaaaaatttttttttttt?" from that Drowsy Chaperone play we saw. "Whaaaaaaaaatttttttttttt?"

When we were in New York one of the times we were there, I met her friend Quinn. Quinn is wearing my same Freedom Frank's t-shirt! I love that shirt!

This is my gift to Rebecca. Do you like my newspaper pom poms?

This is Rebecca and her mound of presents. There were a lot of presents. I think the best one was the paper mache gazelle someone got her.

Some of the ladies at the event.

And really, what's a bridal shower without a little lingerie. She got a few lingerie presents. I think she now has a stockpile.

And pretty soon she will be Rebecca Wright and many men the world over will mourn her loss to the married world. I'm glad I get to go to the wedding!

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

2010-07-15T17:10:00.002-07:00

Enough with the tacos, already. Numerous people have been informing me that my favorite food is taco and it's just not true. My favorite food is McDonald's cheeseburger.

So, the front of my house used to look like this:

There are these scraggly shrubberies and this large bush that used to look really nice until my dad took a chainsaw to it, bless his heart. And there's also a nice green lawn. Let's move forward three months.

The large bush that my dad took a chainsaw to has been removed, dragged out be a giant chain and the Mahoney's truck. The scraggly bush has been removed, heaved out by Jake's brawny arms. He just pulled it out of the ground. Here's what it looks like now:

Notice how the grass is dead. I have a working sprinkler system and my grass is dead. I am a disappointment to middle-aged men everywhere. Where the chainsawed bush used to be is now a pretty little Magnolia and I stuck in a Juniper Pom Pom out front with hopes that it will grow taller and even more pom pommy. I am keeping the peonies, I just don't know what to do with them. Last night, Nathaniel helped me remove some sod and put a nice curvy border for the garden. Now all I have to do is give it some manure and spruce it up a bit!

In other news, check out the wacky Chinese lady strolling around on 6th North! Someone should tell her it's perfectly acceptable for crazy people to steal shopping carts to put their cans in.

Starla approves.

Taco Tuesday - El Extremo

2010-02-16T20:59:00.004-08:00

Change seems harder to accept as I grow older and when a friend moves away and has a new adventure in their life, there oft times seems to be a void that is left by that friend. Dainon is moving sometime next week for Florida and with him goes Taco Tuesday (I would try to continue the tradition, but honestly, I have no idea where he finds the places he finds). Today we went to the Latino Mall on 2740 S Redwood Rd and had our final Taco Tuesday with our friend Dainon.

Chris let me have a taste of his melon drink (don't go there) and it was the best melon drink I have ever tasted. I'm not a big melon fan either.

I got two asada tacos and one pollo taco and it was very tasty. I was also bad and had a Mexican Coke. I'm not supposed to be drinking real Mexican Coke but we're having the Biggest Loser competition at work and I gained a pound so I tried to drown my sorrows in some caffeine.

Tracy got this fancy egg thing that I have no idea what it is. Different story - you know how you meet people a bazillion times and they look at you and are like, "Hey, you look familiar, have I met you before?" and you're like, "YES, Paul, I have met you a bazillion times!" and you think they're a douche for never remembering you? I am that douche to Tracy. I've met her a few times and have been like, "Hi, what's your name?" I didn't do that tonight. I remembered her! I blame it on getting older.

Lena! Lena and Jeff shared 8 tacos together. There were a lot of tacos.

Jeff doesn't look confused in this photo like he has been looking in many recent photos.

Kim puts the lime in the coconut!

Chris said that Dainon always likes to get a picture of him stuffing his face.

What delightful looking young folk!

The guest of honor. Dainon is moving away to take over another MLM company somewhere in Florida. I hope to get to visit him sometime in the winter!

Fabiola! I haven't seen Fabs in forever. Turns out she moved to Lehi. That's so far away.

This is what Dainon got. I don't know what it's called but it's in a bowl shaped like a piggy and it is pretty amazing looking.

So long old friend, we'll actually probably talk more now that you're moving away. Have fun in Florida!

How Many of the 100 World's Wonders Have You Seen?

2010-01-28T21:41:00.003-08:00

Ryan from Ryan Byrd's Ramblings posted this and I thought I'd copy him. Only I'm going to highlight the ones I've been to instead of the ones he's been to.

Pyramids of Egypt, Chichen Itza, Pompeii, Mont St Michel, Great Wall of China, Petra, Kashmir Valley, Topkapi Palace, Taj Mahal, Nile River Cruise, Prague Old Town, Carnival in Rio, Serengeti Migration, Easter Island, Golden Temple, Stonehenge, Galapagos Islands, Cappadocia, Amalfi Drive, Angel Falls, Grand Canyon, Colosseum of Rome, Meenakshi, Yellowstone NP, Machu Picchu, Fjords of Norway, Chartres Cathedral, Santorini, Antarctica Cruise, St Peter’s Basilica, Mezquita Cordoba, Matterhorn, Iguazu Falls, Egyptian Museum, Damascus Old City, New York Skyline, Bali, Borobudur, Dubrovnik, Marrakesh, Amazon Rain Forest, Valley of the Kings, Uffizi Gallery, Eiffel Tower, Ngorongoro Crater, Hong Kong, Rio Panoramic View, Ladakh, Great Barrier Reef, Sistine Chapel, Golden Pavilion, Niagara Falls, Angkor Wat, Burj Khalifa, Delphi, British Museum, Victoria Falls, Alhambra, St. Basils Cathedral, Burj al Arab, Forbidden City, Louvre Museum, Abu Simbel, Yangtze Riv. Cruise, Bagan, Canals of Venice, St Mark’s Basilica, Yosemite NP, Karnak, Versailles, Florence Cityscape, Ayers Rock, Teotihuacan, Carlsbad Caverns, Kremlin, Hermitage Museum, Banaue Rice Terr., Mecca, Varanasi/Ganges, Chambord Chateau, Bora Bora, Kathmandu Valley, Li River Cruise, Lijiang/Shangri La, Acropolis, Metropolitan Mus, Shwedagon Stupa, Neuschwanstein, Potala Palace, Mt Everest, Sahara Desert, Banff NP, Jerusalem Old City, Temple Em. Buddha, Leaning Tower Pisa, San Francisco, TerraCotta Warriors, Hagia Sofia, Baalbek, Portofino

Where have you been?

Also, Ryan and friends won best video at the latest LDS Film Festival. See his zombie movie:

2010-01-28T08:23:00.002-08:00

I posted this on my papercutting blog, but I think it's kind of regular blog worthy too! About a year ago, Rebecca from the publishing group, Red Lips For Courage, approached me to be in a book about how to paper cut. I readily agreed and now here it is! I'm so proud!

Here it is, "Paper Cuts: 35 Inventive Projects"

It's a compilation of 35 different papercut projects, 8 of which are mine! I'm super excited to see it. This is one of the projects I submitted. I gave it to the publisher for photographing and need to make another one because it's sure cute.

Freedom

2010-01-27T12:25:00.002-08:00

So I made some burgers last night (they were the Ina Garten ones you suggested, Megan) and I think they turned out delicious. Jake was suspicious of the pat of butter I put in them and not pleased that they were slightly small. He just needs to deal with it. Afterwards, he helped me put up some shelves over my desk. I have wanted shelves in a workroom for so long. I would see these shelves on craft blogs and be so jealous. I remembered that Kim had taken down two boards from the shelf area downstairs and used those. It just made an amazing difference. Now I don't have anything on my desk and can use the whole thing for cutting out paper without having things clutter it up. It's so nice.

I've also been saving up tin cans for the last little while and covering them with papers we designed at work. Because I have a bazillion tin cans, I can have a bazillion compartments! More room to get more stuff!

Burger Expert

2010-01-25T16:51:00.003-08:00

I have this new house, you know, and in general, I have no idea how to fix anything. The whole anchor thing to help secure nails mystifies me. So a lot of times my friend Jake helps me out. He requires food and gets all pissy when it doesn't have meat in it. I have no idea how to cook meat. I can follow a recipe, but I can't just do things because I know how to do them. I am also not too impressed with the burger joints here in Salt Lake. I really miss Red Mill. So I got this book at the library:

I have no idea who Bobby Flay is, but it was available at the library and it has some tasty sounding burgers in it. I will give it a try.

Does anyone have any burger making secrets?

Winter Wonderland

2010-01-16T19:54:00.005-08:00

Okay, first thing's first...Starla likes grapefruit.

Now, on to other things. Today I went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum to prepare for my upcoming art show there. Dana and I spent the whole day preparing the gallery.

When it was lunch time, we decided to try out the Bruges Waffle's & Frites place that I had heard about. Dana got one of the waffles and shared it with me and let me tell you, if I could bury my face in one of those waffles every Saturday for the rest of my life, I would be so happy. We each got a medium fry and their medium fry is NOT like McDonald's medium fry. We should have shared.

Then it was back to work! This is Dana. She is the one who is responsible for this whole event. I was having my show at the Masonic Temple and she came up to me and asked me if I would be willing to do one at the children's museum. I thought she would maybe call me a few months later, but no, she called right away and now here we are. One of the walls was a 90s yellow color and here she is painting it blue.

Kim! Kim came by after her date (I'm not going to tell you about it) and we put her to work. Here she is denuding the branches. We're going to spray paint these white and hang them from the rafters.

Here's a long view of the gallery. I'm kinda nervous about the whole thing.

Here's one set of windows. It's hard to see what it looks like because of the sparkly lights on the trees in the background.

This one is easier to see. This is the doorway to get into the place. The trees look better from the outside in the daytime and better from the inside during the nighttime.

The window beside the elevator. It was the last one and I had lost all my desire to paint another tree and then I got a second wind and got 'er done.

The window with the squirrel.

The first window on the left. There were 6 of these size windows and one door.

A good day's work. I hope that everyone can come to this show. It's going to be super fun. It opens to the public at Gallery Stroll on the 19th of February. There will be a kid's room where they can cut out their very own scherenschnitte. It should be very kid friendly. More information to come!

Physically Phit

2010-01-13T21:06:00.004-08:00

We're doing a weight loss challenge at work. There are 14 people competing in it - two teams, the Gold and the Silver team. I'm on the Silver team. After a week of not eating any candy bars or drinking any soda and starving myself the day before weigh in, I lost 2.5 pounds. Sometimes I poop that big, so that's not so miraculous. Our team, the Silver team, won the competition for that week. We get to give the Gold team a task of humiliation to do. This will go on for 11 more weeks. Ugh. Can I resist the cheeseburgers and the Mexican Coke and the pizza and the candy for 11 more weeks? YES!!!

Does anyone have a good task we could have the Gold team do?

Here's a recipe given to me by a member of the Silver team that I tried last night and it's pretty good:

Taco Soup from Ashley
Calories: 100 (2WWpts.)
Serving size: 1 cup
Ingredients:

1 lb. Lean Ground beef or Ground turkey

1 yellow onion

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch mix (small pkg)

1 pkg Taco Seasoning (I used spicy taco seasoning)

1 can Pinto Beans (Low sodium if available)(drained)

1 can White Kidney Beans (drained)

1 can of Corn ( Low sodium if available)(drained)

2 cans Stewed Tomatoes-Mexican flavor (I used stewed, but I wonder if they're too big and if you could just use diced)

Directions:
In a large saucepan, brown meat. When meat is almost done, add desired amount of chopped onion.

Once meat is fully cooked, and the onion has started to soften, add half of the taco seasoning package and stir. This will give the meat a chance to directly absorb some of the taco seasoning.

Then, add all remaining ingredients and a couple cups of water. (I use one of the empty cans to measure the water, one can seems to be enough, but if you want a runnier soup you can add more water.)

Talent

2009-12-18T22:39:00.002-08:00

If you live in Provo and you want to see some great high school acting, but mostly you want to see Carl in a play, I'd suggest going to the Provo Theatre (the one on 100 East and 100 North) at 1 or 7 tomorrow (the 19th) and seeing it. Mostly I'd suggest going at 1 because you should be coming to my housewarming tomorrow after 7:30. Really, go see it. It's like watching Carl be funny for an hour and a half.

Babe in Arms

2009-11-24T22:10:00.003-08:00

I have problems, sometimes, when I go to bridal or baby showers. I wish that they were mine. If there were one person on the earth who I would never begrudge anything it would be Liz. Liz is just a beautiful, wonderful person who deserves to have many great things happen to her. One of those great things came to her in the form of a small male person a few months ago.

We celebrated the birth of T in Zendina's welcoming home. Kim was right when she said the wall colors were pleasing to the camera.

Kim, you have a good, round-shaped head. I've never noticed this before.

We sat and talked and told stories. There was some talk of swaddling the baby and sleeping through the night and how second children are always the exact opposite of first children.

Liz opened a few presents. Kim and I both went to Target separately and both got her matching hedgehog ensembles. Random.

Rebecca was there. I hadn't seen her in forever. Turns out she lives in Provo now. Hurray!

There were children playing dress-up all over the place.

Liz and another little present.

Maya playing dress-up.

Ardell is in town for a little bit. It's good to see her.

This is what I would look like if I were a mother.

He is so beautiful.

It's so good to see Liz and to see her as a mom now. She hasn't changed much from when she wasn't a mom, she's gotten better though, if that is possible. I hope you guys get to move to Salt Lake!

Wardgiving

2009-11-23T20:20:00.002-08:00

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

2009-11-22T18:59:00.002-08:00

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

2009-11-21T22:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-19T21:16:00.003-08:00

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

2009-11-18T23:06:00.003-08:00

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

2009-11-17T22:51:00.005-08:00

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!

2009-11-02T05:51:00.001-08:00

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!

Trodding the Places Where Prophets Lie

2009-10-12T21:34:00.004-07:00

I wonder what John Taylor would have thought if he knew that someday in the future, a group of 30-45 year olds would consider it a good time to wander around searching for his grave?

He would probably be happy that I brought Starla. I'm sure he loved puppies.

At each grave there was a bucket of candy and a spiritual thought. Dave shared it at the grave site of Heber J. Grant.

Thanh (I think that's how you spell her name). She was so nice and I'm glad I got to talk with her a little more.

Brandon really liked Starla and wouldn't go in any other group besides the one that she was in.

Me and Starla and David Oman.

Me and Starla and Joseph F. Smith.

I had a good time walking around the Salt Lake Cemetery. I'm surprised I haven't naturally gravitated towards there before. I would like to go back again sometime soon. I didn't get to look at all the graves for as long as I would have liked.

Lone Ranger & Tonto

2009-10-07T15:17:00.003-07:00

Will someone buy me this, please?

I was thinking of giving Starla hair extensions like they did to this horse. What do you guys think?

Terrorism

2009-10-04T18:21:00.003-07:00

There is so much terrorism in my life right now. If terrorists were to just come into our country and pee and poop everywhere and walk in it and track it around our houses, this country would be crushed.

On Friday, on the way to work, I saw a van with the following statement on the back, "Snow White and Superman had foster parents." That's all it said. I enjoyed looking at it because I really like Snow White and then I thought, "You know, I don't know that either one of those situations were foster parent situations. Snow White's situation is kind of questionable - a teenage woman living with seven old men and I think Superman was technically adopted. What do you guys think? Are there any super heroes that could be considered foster children?

Starla Carla

2009-09-27T21:31:00.003-07:00

So on Friday night I finally got my puppy. Jake and I drove down to Eagle Mountain to pick her up. She was so fidgety on the ride back up and then fell asleep in my arms. Kind of a really nice feeling. I dropped Jake off and drove back to my place. The first night I kept her in my room with me and she whined and pooped and peed all night. Poor thing didn't know where she was. I got up with her at 5am and we took a walk and then hung out. Saturday was probably one of the longest days in existence.

It was basically just a day to hang out with the puppy. I discovered she likes to play catch and with a little training, I hope she'll be super good at it. I took her to the park where she was mauled by small children. She loves to eat Kim's feet.

By the time evening rolled around, I was so exhausted. Danna and her daughter came over and I think I was having a conversation with Danna and fell asleep right in the middle of it. Starla takes lots of naps during the day and I need to help her not fall asleep so much in the evening so that she can sleep at night.

Last night she slept in her room and whined pretty much the whole night. Right now she's in her room and I haven't heard too much from her. I think she will do better tonight, I hope.

Tara said I would fall completely in love the second day I had her and I think she's right. I think it took until the evening though because there was a lot of pooping and peeing going on.

A Whole Lotta Bull

2009-09-23T21:27:00.002-07:00

I think one of the greatest feelings is that of going into the DI and finding a couch that fits your house perfectly.

Especially if that couch has a bull stitched into the vinyl.

I had to fight off two grown men for this couch. Tara helped me get it home in the pouring rain and we flooded the garage and ruined half of Kim's stuff. Jake helped me get it into the basement and we had to disassemble half of it to get it there and now it is never coming out. But at least it folds into a bed!

It has these great tags still attached to it.

I like the squiggly lines on this one.

Jake really liked this tag. I think it might have something to do with football.

This is my favorite tag right here. I like that it's Frontier Fashioned Furniture. I'm pretty sure the pioneers would never have lugged something this unruly across the plains. But I'm sure they would appreciate it.

MOA '09

2009-09-21T07:49:00.007-07:00

Usually when I go to a place with the initials MOA I like for those initials to stand for Museum of Art. This time they stood for Mall of America. Our little team of workers took the 5:50am flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota on Thursday and got in around 10ish. We had lunch and then Jodi, Rich and Jeannie stayed at the hotel and me and Christina toured the city of Minneapolis for a bit.

The first place we went to was the Foshay Tower. It was completed in 1929 and was the tallest building in Minneapolis until 1972. It was recently converted into a W hotel.

We got to go up to the observation deck. This is Christina. She's a trouper. She's from Alaska.

Say what you will about Futura. Maybe you used it way too much when you first started designing, maybe it hurts your eyes to look at it anymore, but it sure looks good hanging out on an art deco building. It's so pretty when done right.

I hope that someday, someone will love me enough to deface a building with our names.

I kinda liked the tall building directly behind me too.

Christina pointed out this invite to the W's new Speakeasy. I love that the message is hidden and you can't read it without a mirror. So clever.

One of the walls next to a parking lot had these giant musical notes on them. Great for a photo shoot.

Then we made our way over to the Mississippi. Fortunately we killed two birds with one stone by seeing the Stone Arch Bridge while we were there as well.

They do a good job of merging the old with the new in their architecture.

Christina at a park that shows remains of old mill materials.

When we were walking away, we noticed this broken thong on the ground. How did it get there? We hoped it wasn't evidence. Creepy!

Me and the Mississippi. Did anyone ever really enjoy showing off that they could spell Mississippi when they were a kid or was it just me?

At a bend in the river a lot of muck was accumulating. It actually looked really pretty to me, even though the stuff inside of it was really gross.

Christina looking at stuff.

Oh hey, I'm just strolling on a bridge over the Mississippi.

Fortunately Christina was interested in seeing the Sculpture garden too so we eventually made our way there and wandered around the grounds. It's a really pretty place to visit.

Here are selections from Jenny Holzer's "The Living Series." Some of the statements on the benches were really depressing, some were quirky, all were thoughtful.

Here are a couple of my favorite ones:

This next one - so true.

The next one is by Mark di Suvero. I love that you could interact with the sculpture. So many times they are so picky about this whole "not touching" business.

I caught a rainbow!

Oh yeah, the reason why we were here in the first place. The Mall of America. We were here representing Scrapfest '09. There are different booths and each one has a make and take and for $15 people can walk around and do as many of them as they want. It's like the lollapalooza of scrapbooking. By the end of the day I'm so frustrated and don't have much patience anymore and don't want to help anyone and just want to sit and stare and then I look at each woman and think of my mom and how she would love this event and how she would want to be treated by the people at each booth. Sometimes I think I didn't do a very good job. I tried to make everyone's visit fun as much as I could.

Rich was there on Friday and Saturday. Friday was a big shocker for him. At the end of the day he kind of just had this zombie look in his eye and went back to the hotel and just crashed. Poor guy. The next day he did a whole lot better. There was a lot of giggling and cackling over on his side of the booth and I even heard some ladies ask where he was on Sunday.

The last time I was here for this event, I noticed that there was a sign for a National Wildlife Refuge and I wanted to go to there. I didn't have enough courage to take the car and drive around. This time I did. I invited everyone to come along with me, but at 8am, I was the sole participant in my adventure.

It was really peaceful and the weather was so lovely. I started off not knowing what to expect but when I saw my first black squirrel, I was sold. There was tons of wildlife everywhere. Especially birds.

The trails were relatively human free. I worried a bit if it was safe but it seemed pretty okay. There were mostly people there walking their dogs.

I even saw a muskrat! I've never seen a muskrat. They were so cute.

This bridge reminded me of the arboretum in Seattle.

One thing that was weird to me was all the gnats. I didn't really run into clouds of them, but when I looked down at my body, there were tons of them just hanging on to me. I must have smelled like gnats perfume.

This is an old railway bridge that was turned into a foot bridge that is now too dangerous and is no longer in use. It's a shame because it's really cool.

Me. I look a little swollen and makeup less. It was interesting the difference of the feeling of wandering around outside in the wilderness at the beginning of the day and then wandering around in a mall at the end. The feeling is just so plastic at the mall and people, even though they are everywhere, don't make eye contact with you, don't say hi. I'm glad I got to go experience the refuge and feel bad that I haven't been to ours yet.

All in all the weekend wasn't too bad. It was hard work. I'd do it again. I would also make sure to come back to this refuge. It's literally across the street from the mall behind some buildings. The mall is the yin to the refuge's yang. I'm glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed.

Glee

2009-09-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

I love the TV.

2 Things

2009-09-08T16:24:00.003-07:00

These are two things I saw online today that I really enjoyed.

Charo

And Brasilia

If I could get my hands on some of this style of furniture, I would be so pleased.

The Brown Spots Are From The Bitches (This Means Female Dogs, Not People)

2009-09-07T21:26:00.003-07:00

This morning I got up bright and early and set myself to working on my lawn. I went out on a date with a guy who probably didn't know we were on a date or how excited I was to go on that date on Friday and when he saw my house he mentioned that I needed to control my weeds. This statement from him also goes along with my theory that guys like to tell you what to do, all the time, without any prompting. So naturally all I can think of all weekend is how I need to weed my yard. Weed it. Pull out the dandelions before they spread to the neighbors yards and cause more disgrace on the neighborhood. I had goals to do this on Saturday night, but I bought a cruiser from Target and just didn't have any more energy. Then I was going to do it Sunday morning, but rearranging my room became more fun. Finally, Monday morning rolled around and I had nothing on my schedule but extracting weeds. I got a good night sleep because I shut my window and I couldn't hear that a-hole dog yapping next door. Seriously, 5am - yap, yap, yap. I want to strangle it. Closed windows work wonders. I put on a tank top and short shorts because yard work means sun tanning and got out my weed extractor and went at it. There were so many dandelions. It was like a bad dream where you keep running to get somewhere and the end result keeps getting further and further away.

At about 10am, my neighbor, Frank, who is probably 90 years old, came out and gave me some encouragement. Then he raked up my weeds that I had pulled and put them in a trash bag and shuffled back to his house and threw them in his yard waste. I like Frank. He says things like, "How come a workin' girl like you don't have a boyfriend," and "Where were you when I was younger?" At about 11am, Frank came back out and said something like, "The law of averages says: Pepsi, Rootbeer or Milk." I really had no clue what that meant but figured it meant something like, "Would you like one of these options to drink?" I shouted out, "Pepsi!" He shuffled back to the house and came out with a Pepsi. He reminded me that it was close to 12 and that I should get out of the sun and have a hot dog sandwich. I said I would and he went back into the house.

Then Jake came over. First thing he says when he sees me is, "Is that some kind of weed puller?" I said that it was. He asked if it worked and I showed him and of course it didn't work for that particular weed. He told me that it was embarrassing. Leave it to Jake to make you feel good about three hours of weeding the yard. I was spraying the spots that I pulled with this weed killer and he asked me if I was using G34 or something like that. I said, "What's that?" and he said, "gluinaouien uiowejr" which means some kind of weed killer that they use in Nebraska. He looked at my container and confirmed that it was the right kind. I breathed in deeply. Then I asked him if he would mow the yard. He said that in order for him to mow the yard I would have to buy the hamburger buns and provide cheese for his bbq that he was having in my backyard later that day. I said yes. Then I went to make myself lunch. He walked into the kitchen and said, "If you make me lunch I will mow the yard." So I figured out a way to split my lunch. A pattern was developing.

Then we went on some errands. We went to this manly parts store and stood around for a little while. I got myself a coke and, of course, if I got Jake a coke he would mow the yard. Then we went to Lowe's and then we went to Smith's. After wandering around and purchasing the bread and some other things, we went back to the house. Then he told me that he didn't feel like mowing the lawn and that he wanted to take a nap. I told him that was fine. Just fine. He didn't have to mow the lawn. Then he said he's take a nap and when he woke up that he would think about mowing the lawn. I said he could think about it all he wanted but that it would already be done. This meant angry. Mostly I think he likes to say things to see how twisted I can get.

Then he mowed the lawn. It looked really nice. He mowed it at an angle and it looked so much easier when he pushed the lawn mower with one hand than when I push it and I can't even turn the corner. Of course all the weed spray I put on the lawn wasn't going to work because "gluinaouien uiowejr" doesn't work on stressed weeds and that it wouldn't get the roots that I had just cut in half. So whatever. It looks pretty and there are no more dandelions or May Flowers as Frank likes to call them. He even edged everything. A mowed yard makes everything look so clean. Now I just need to figure out this whole xeriscaping thing.

New Beginnings

2009-09-01T21:22:00.002-07:00

So I drove down to Eagle Mountain today to take a gander at a litter of these:

On September 26th, I'll be the proud owner of a Yellow Lab. I was going to name her Magnolia and call her Maggy, but with the little star mark on her nose, I might have to call her something like Star or Starla or Starling. I can't even stand it, I'm so excited.

In other news, I should have posted this earlier, but I totally made bread this weekend. It actually turned out edible. I'm going to try making it again and again!

Hamburgler!

2009-08-24T16:08:00.001-07:00

Today is Audre's 30th birthday! I made a hamburger cake for her. She gets a lot of grief for being a vegetarian. Happy birthday Audre!

One Year's Seedin' - Seven Year's Weedin'

2009-08-23T21:11:00.004-07:00

When people come over, mostly guys, they like to give me opinions on what I should do with my house. These opinions are not restricted to the house but also to the garden. Mostly when they see my rose bushes, they say things like, "Oh, you've got to fix those," or "You can cut those creepers all the way down to the base." I welcome these opinions because I mostly have no idea what to do. One thing they don't tell me is the obvious. My roses are being choked by weeds. So today, instead of working on the inside of the house, I spent a little time outside. I forgot to get a before and after photo, but I only got half of it done. Here's the left side - the part that got weeded.

And here's the right side - the part that has yet to be weeded. I'm a little nervous to weed over there because there's a wasp nest hanging out in the branches and I thought it was dead the other day and they slightly swarmed me while I was pruning them. This whole weeding thing is pretty cathartic. There aren't too many things you can do all day long that include destroying something.

This weekend, I also used my oven to bake some things for the first time. See how it has such a pleasant glow. Have I mentioned that I really like my oven before?

I made Chicken Cordon Bleu. I had never made this meal before and it was surprisingly easy. Actually, that's a lie. I have made this meal before when I was 19 and for some reason the chicken didn't cook the whole way through. I think I've been scarred since then and have never wanted to bake chicken again. Tonight I killed a demon.

Okay, I know I've talked about my oven before, but I didn't really give visuals. Here's what it looks like when the range is closed.

Here's what it looks like when it's opened! Ta da! I don't know if I'll ever get tired of that.

And also, because I don't have enough things to do, I decided to clean my lanterns and put up my sparkly lights. Those flood lights were just too glaring.

In case you were wondering, this is what the ceiling in my room looks like.

Ou est Louie?

2009-08-23T10:09:00.002-07:00

This week, one of my co-workers, Audre, went out of town for a family emergency. She asked me if I would take care of her precious dog, Louie. We had to take care of a few holes in the backyard fence so that he wouldn't get out. Audre dropped him off on Wednesday evening and all night he spent looking at the door waiting to see if she would come back for him. The next day, Thursday, we went on a walk in the morning and he had a little poop. I was worried that he wouldn't because, like me, Audre said he gets poop anxiety when he's in unknown situations. He stayed inside the whole day and when I got home from work, he was about to explode. So we went on another walk. He loves walks. The next day I took the window off the back gate so that he could go in and out of the house freely. I taught him how to go through the bars using various treats. Then I went off to work. Gail let us off a little early on Friday and when I got home, Louie wasn't waiting for me at the door. "Oh, good," I thought, "he must be outside and figured out how to use the door." But no. He wasn't outside. Then I started to get that hollow feeling. The one you get when you know you're in the worst trouble you've ever been in, ever. He wasn't in the basement, he wasn't hiding in my room, he wasn't under the porch swing. He was NOWHERE. I wandered up and down the streets, saying "Louie! Louie! Louie!" over and over again. Nothing. I walked down to 6th north to see if his crumpled little half Chihuahua half Jack Russell Terrier body was lying there anywhere. Thankfully, no, it wasn't. I wandered around Riverside park to see if he was there. I asked the ice cream truck lady if she had seen a little dog running around. She said no. I was also surprised the the ice cream truck person was a lady. I asked my neighbor, Shawna, if she had seen him and she gave me the number of Animal Control. The animal control people didn't seem to care about my plight at all. I then decided to get in my car and slowly drive around, looking for him. I thought, maybe, just maybe, he figured out how to get to his home. Audre's house is only 3 blocks away. So I drove there and there he was, just lounging in his yard, not a care in the world. I have never been so happy to see something, anything, in my entire life. I knew that if he were dead I would have had to quit my job, or at least work from home. I couldn't go in there and look at Audre, day after day, knowing that I had let her dog get smooshed or mangled by a pit bull while under my care. There are so many pit bulls that live around here. It's like the pit bull mecca. The rest of the week was uneventful. Louie and I went for walks, we hung out in the house, we watched "I Love You, Man" together. He was a really sweet little guy. I would watch him again but make sure that even little teeny tiny mice couldn't get out of the yard first. Audre and Brent came and got him today and now the house is all sad and quiet. Au revoir, Louie!

Chesterfield

2009-08-17T16:19:00.004-07:00

So this weekend I went up to Lava Hot Springs. I didn't stay at my parent's house like I normally would. This weekend, I camped. My ward had a campout up there and we had a dinner and dance on Friday and stayed at the Portneuf campground that night.

The next day it was a lot colder than was expected and no one wanted to go tubing, so we went to the old ghost town of Chesterfield. This is what Chesterfield looks like:

They have these old people there that drive you around to different houses and tell you about who lived there. You get to go in them. They tried to recreate them to look like they might have originally looked. Here's Danielle and Donna in front of one of the cabins.

There were so many things I wanted to steal.

They had actual outhouses that you can use. This one even was a double seater.

I kind of liked these, they were space age.

Then one of the old guys who gives the tour showed us this 1932 McCormick Daisy Reaper. It's actually still in working condition. He made it do a few turns. You could tell he was totally stoked about this part of the tour.

Atmosphere.

One of the barns had a plaque that showed all the different brands of the pioneers of the area. I kind of fell in love with the name Ransom.

Oh my gosh! A Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum! YES! One of my most favorite things!

What DUP museum would be complete without a little hair wreath?

Okay. How do I get my hands on one of these? I want some vintage church art.

They had a vintage pump organ that you could play. Me and Keva played a few songs.

And a handcart! So many things there that make me excited.

Of course, I didn't take any photos of the dance or the dinner or when Keva split her lip on a frisbee or of when we played games or of when we went to the hot springs or of the creepy stalker dream I had of a nice guy I just met. It was a good time though. It was nice to actually be able to name some people at church the next day too.

We're Petrified

2009-08-06T08:13:00.002-07:00

Last night I weighed my options. Stay home and prime my walls or go shopping and go see my friend Aaron play at Kilby Court. I weighed and weighed and weighed and now I have a few new outfits and got to actually be social. Some of you have known me since the days of Nectar and you know that I love to have crushes on boys in bands. With this band, it's hard to decide who to have a crush on, they're all so handsome.

Aaron's sister, Tressa was there and so was Natali. Tressa is probably the nicest person ever. She remembered me and came over and said hi (Natali, you're alright too).

Urban Outfitters and Old Navy are having good sales right now - just so you know.

Musical Butler

2009-08-04T11:31:00.002-07:00

There are a few reasons why I decided to go with the house that I went with. The cool stove, the amount of house for the dollar price, the hardwood floors. But what really tipped the scale was this doorbell. The Musical Butler! It has 24 different rings! WHAT? 24? Yes. 24.

And because you can't even stand it, I'm going to list them out:

A. Greensleeves
B. Oh When The Saints
C. Dixieland
D. Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree (for when the boys come home)
E. The Entertainer
F. ?
G. Take Me Out To The Ball Game
H. Jewish Song (I don't know what it's really called but I can hum it for you)
I. Roll Out the Barrel
J. ?
K. Happy Birthday
L. White Christmas
M. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
N. Jingle Bells
O. Joy To The World
P. Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Q. Silent Night
R. America the Beautiful
S. Star Spangled Banner
T. Easter Parade
U. ?
V. Yankee Doodle
W. ?
X. Auld Lang Syne

If any of you can figure out the names of F, H, J, U or W, I would be so appreciative.

Come over, ring my bell!

Curiousity

2009-08-03T12:01:00.002-07:00

Remember how a long time ago, my parents got me one of those Topsy Turvy Tomato plant things? I know you have been thinking about the fruits of my labors and I am going to show you. These are my tomatoes! I got three big ones and a bunch of small tiny ones. I had more small tiny ones in this bowl but I ate them all with my morning bagel.

This one has a dingle-dangle. It's cute. I don't know if I'll be doing the Topsy Turvy plant again, not that many tomatoes. I think a lot of that had to do with it getting busted by the wind on my balcony. I think next year I'll do square foot.

Also, I know you're wondering about the status of the arch. Pins and needles. I have this friend of Whitney's helping me do the drywall. His name is Bob. He's fascinating. He helped to make this.

Paint the Barn

2009-07-28T22:58:00.003-07:00

Things look so much better with a coat of paint.

Also, who knew I'd be so good at playing with caulk?

Today I got a PIE from my neighbor Shawna. An APRICOT PIE!

I got this today at Target:

Stanley

2009-07-27T22:03:00.003-07:00

So I went to the DI today and got this little find. It's a mid-century modern dresser and it was the reason I went to the thrift store today. Christopher was nice enough to help me get it to my home.

Here's another little gem. Kim has been waiting to give this to me for a while. It's going to look awesome in my kitchen.

Especially when you know that I have a Fridgidaire Flair. Kind of like this one that Sam has from Bewitched.

Cougar!

2009-07-27T06:30:00.002-07:00

I got this email on Linkup from this guy who is 21 (read from the bottom up):

You're way too young. Thanks for the email though!
In Reply To Message Sent: 7/27/2009 1:55:56 AM EST
i really hope it dont matter but just let me know i guess
In Reply To Message Sent: 7/27/2009 1:50:54 AM EST
Thanks. That's nice. Did you happen to notice that I'm 34 years old?
In Reply To Message Sent: 7/27/2009 1:45:27 AM EST
ok i have to start by saying you are gorgeous and i would love to get the chance to know you:

Was I wrong? Maybe this was my chance?!?!

Spirit of the Pioneers

2009-07-25T20:45:00.002-07:00

For this Pioneer Day weekend, I was lucky enough to have some friends spend their quality weekend time helping to fix up my house. I am sooooo very grateful for them. Kim came down on Friday afternoon and spent the majority of the day sanding the wall in the living room. She did a super good job, too. You pretty much couldn't feel anymore raised glue areas on the walls.

I sanded and primed my bedroom walls. For some reason, and I always do this when I paint, I neglected to wear safety goggles or something to cover my hair. I'm going to look delightful for quite some time after this.

Kim and I finished up our rooms and we were about to go watch fireworks with Danielle's party when I found out how easy it was to tear up the carpet in the basement. So we pretty much spent the rest of the night down in the basement tearing up yucky old carpet. The padding was a little damp, too, so that was gross.

I know I wrote this in my last post, but guess who's in an article on the Deseret News? I thought it was only going to be online, but it was actually in the paper on Saturday. So I bought two copies. One for me and one for my parents.

Kim stayed the night and we slept in the basement on some mats on the floor. It was gross and I didn't breathe properly the whole night because I was nervous that everything was toxic. Plus I talked in my sleep about Milwaukee and killing to Kim.

The next morning, while Kim was on her 10 mile run, I sat in the backyard and watched the water drip off of my room from the swamp cooler. I called my dad and told him the dilemma. He told me how to fix it. I was kind of petrified with fear to go on the roof, but then I psyched myself out telling myself that if my dad could do it, I could do it. So I did. And I fixed it!

Then we went to the dump. Another amazing milestone I did today was back up a truck with a trailer in tow. Kim and I emptied the whole trailer and truck bed into this giant pit. I think we were both pretty proud of ourselves for unloading that whole thing.

Here is Kim showing that she is weary.

Here am I. I am also the poster child for why you shouldn't slump and why I shouldn't wear baseball hats.

When we got back, John and Whitney were over and John gave us a quick lesson on skim coating and we skim coated the basement. I am forever going to be indebted to Whitney and Kim (and also Jake). If Whitney hadn't come over and saved the day, I'd still be sitting in my house, staring at the walls thinking, "Whatever am I going to do?"

It pretty much took us all day, but the room went from this:

To this. The darker areas are places that haven't dried yet, it will look better tomorrow.

While we were skimming the walls, my neighbor behind my house came over and gave me a whole cooler of sodas. My neighborhood is really friendly. Pretty much so far the nicest neighborhood I've ever moved into. I've already received a plate of cookies and the Bishop and Relief Society President have already come by and introduced themselves. I'm excited to officially move in.

Famous!

2009-07-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

Look who's featured in an online Deseret News article!

What Thing I Had Never Before Supposed

2009-07-22T05:50:00.003-07:00

So the other day I went to Home Depot and stood in the hardware section and stared at the sanders for a little while. All of a sudden, I saw this Milwaukee Orbital Sander and thought, "Now there's a pretty fine looking sander." Leave it to me to buy a tool because I think it's designed nice. The expert guy who worked in that section told me the next sander he bought was going to be one of these, so I thought that was an a pretty good reference.

I emailed my friend Steve who is the expert on pretty much finding anything that is top of the line. He told me that this was indeed a fine tool and then introduced me to other tools that you don't find at Home Depot. You know how people who have Macs are kind of snobby about their computers? Well, apparently there are tools for people who have Macs too! Steve told me about Festool and Hilti. Hilti has won awards in Europe. I guess it's kind of the Leica of tools. Festool is commonly known as the tool for Mac lovers. Who knew?

Progress

2009-07-20T21:47:00.002-07:00

So I'm sure you were all wondering how the new doorway in the living room is going. It's coming along. Jake's going to help make it an arch! It will be pretty!

This morning I woke up at 4am with a looping reel going through my head. I couldn't get back to sleep because all I kept seeing was the shop vac sucking up debris. Over and over again. It wouldn't go away.

Envelopment

2009-07-18T20:13:00.002-07:00

The house doesn't belong to me, I belong to the house. Pretty much everyday since Wednesday, I've been there in the evenings just doing stuff. Or at least watching Jake do stuff. We got all the wood paneling taken out on Friday and all the popcorn ceilings scraped. So last night we were sitting there staring at stuff and I said that it would sure open up the room if that wall were gone. Jake got all glittery eyed and asked if I really wanted to do that and I said yes.

And so it goes. The whole wall isn't going to be gone, just the portion of it that opens up into the hallway. I hope it turns out good!

Today was my first experience with going to the dump. The dump kind of feels almost like going to a foreign land with lots of trash and lots of men. Kind of like going to Albania.

This halted progress. This is the only time Jake has ever asked me to take a picture of him ever.

White on Rice

2009-07-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

Hey! This looks good AND it looks like it was filmed here in Salt Lake:

Still Trying to be Intelligent

2009-07-12T16:23:00.002-07:00

So this week's poem I tried to memorize while swimming was Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. I'm still a little shaky on the first two lines of the last part, for some reason my mind wasn't working properly.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for both the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
I saved the first for another day
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And I, I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

I think that's how it goes. Once again, the grammar - so wrong. I think this week I'll try memorizing some scriptures or something.

In Escrow

2009-07-12T07:19:00.002-07:00

One of my old friends asked me if I was all moved in or just in escrow. I had to look up what in escrow meant before confirming that yes, I'm in escrow. I officially get the keys either on Monday or Tuesday, depending on if everything goes smoothly. I'm hoping that it does so that I can start getting mail in this mailbox:

It's pretty awesome. It needs a little cleaning, but I feel that it will welcome mail quite pleasantly.

Closing

2009-07-09T20:38:00.003-07:00

Tomorrow I close on my house. Really, it's kind of weird. This will probably turn into a before/after kind of blog. I'm sorry. Constantly, I've been thinking about things to do to the house. Not too many things are concrete in my mind since I haven't been able to sit and stare at everything and visualize a plan. But that doesn't stop me from looking at all the design blogs.

Here's a place that Brigham referred to me this morning. My house has nothing but wood paneling. Wood paneling, wood paneling, wood paneling. Some of it I'm planning on tearing down, some of it I just might paint so that the room looks all cute like this:

I saw this the other day and thought, this is genius. Genius. I want it so bad with a heart so true. Maybe in my storage room? Then, if times get tough and I have absolutely no money whatsoever, I can tear up the floor! No prostitution for me!

And oh, my heart went pitter patter when I saw this on Design Sponge today. I've got a room in the basement that I'm thinkin' I might tear the carpet out, paint the cement a royal blue and put some friggin' stars all over the place, kind of like this pattern that I made for the background of Andi's ball page.

Wish me luck!

In other news: I kind of teared up when both Philip and Kaitlyn got booted off SYTYCD. Sorry if I just spoiled that for you. Sure, he was a one-trick pony, but he had so much heart. And she seemed just like the nicest thing ever. I agree with the decisions, but ugh, it makes me sad.

In other news: it is officially flip flop weather.

In other news: I'm getting a haircut on Tuesday. I'm thinking Farrah Fawcett.

In other news: Joe got me a ticket to go see Harry Potter with him, midnight on Tuesday.

My Larry the Cable Guy Pilgrimage

2009-07-08T17:49:00.015-07:00

When I go to foreign lands, I try my best to go where the natives live. When Kim and I went to Bali, some of my most favorite parts of the trip were when our river rafting tourguide, Koma, took us to his village. I was invited to visit a land foreign to me within my own country and to stay with some honest to goodness farmers over the 4th of July and I gladly accepted that offer.

Jake came and picked me up at the Lincoln airport and we headed into town to get some lunch. We stopped at Brewsky's and ate some burgers and then wandered around the Haymarket area for a bit. I didn't get to stay in Lincoln too long, but it has that warehouse turned business center kind of feel to it.

We wandered around the University of Nebraska campus a bit more and I tried on a corn hat. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had bought that hat. You would all be so jealous.

The campus has a few renowned sculptor's pieces all around it. This one, by Richard Serra, was one of my favorites.

Then we wandered around a little bit more and took a tour of the capitol building. It is a really pretty building in kind of an art deco style. Jake liked that it wasn't a cookie cutter representation of the United States Capitol.

Inside and around the building there are a lot of works of art celebrating the history of the state. This one was my favorite. It's by Jeanne Reynal and it depicts the Blizzard of 1888. Apparently all good Nebraskan children know this tale because Jake seemed a little mystified that I hadn't heard of it. Apparently one balmy January day, everyone went to school with flipflops on and by mid afternoon, the temperature had dropped to -60 something degrees and a huge blizzard hit. One school teacher tied a rope around her waist and lead the children at the schoolhouse to her home to escape the storm. This picture doesn't do the mural justice. It's filled with flecks of gold mosaics and is really pretty.

We went up to the 14th floor and got a good view of the landscape.

It turned 5 and they closed the building.

Did you know that Lincoln is named after Abraham Lincoln? Things like this just make sense.

As we walked back towards town, we were met with this frieze of a typical American family with really tight clothes on. The baby is really freaky.

For some reason I really liked this Fire Marshall's building.

And this Fire Marshal sign.

Jake got himself a new t-shirt. It's a nice color on him.

I got myself a new t-shirt as well. They had all these nice tasteful ones, but this one was on sale!

On the University of Nebraska campus, I found that some of my people had some smarts.

Then we headed on over to the stadium. Jake had gotten tickets for the Larry the Cable Guy show and it was in Memorial Stadium. Apparently, and I don't doubt this because it was written on every entryway to the building, it's the home of the greatest fans in college football. "Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory." is engraved into the building and was written by former UNL professor of philosophy Hartley Burr Alexander.

Look at all the fans in the stadium waiting to see Larry the Cable Guy. (I just checked his website and it's actually really nicely designed and well thought out).

We were sitting there waiting and people watching for a while. The guy behind us in white was just there all by himself and he just had a great old time. I like that he's looking at the camera too.

There were two comedians before Larry came out. When it was his turn, they made it look like he was parachuting from a helicopter into the stadium. The parachutist had a bit of a rough landing and started spiraling and falling way too fast and instead of landing in the designated landing spot, he landed on his rear end in the bleachers and kind of curled himself over the railing. Everyone kind of breathlessly stared at him while he lay there. Fortunately he got up and walked to the stage, but later, when Larry was doing his routine, they brought out a stretcher and carried him off. Exciting!

Here was the show! It was pretty funny. Lots of fart jokes, lots of fat women jokes and lots of there's no such thing as global warming jokes. An all around good time.

The next day we were in Elk Creek and I got a tour of the surrounding farm area. I learned about things like why female Cedar trees are bad, what Jake means when he talks about tractors and calls them an M or an H, that Hazelnuts are liars and that the sky is pretty amazing over there.

Everywhere you go, it seems like little bird houses have been put up.

This is one of the views.

And this is another one. It was really pretty and I got surprisingly good weather.

I can't remember, but I think this is an H. It says a letter on the side, that's how you can tell. Jake can tell what kind of tractor it is by the sound it's making.

Here's an old rundown building on their land. It's got a lot of character.

There were flowers growing everywhere. This one is more of a noxious weed, but it's still pretty.

Holy cow, I'm good.

This is the road you take to get back to the farm. I guess that there's a dirt road every mile connecting the land together.

On Sunday we went to Jake's Lutheran church. It's been a while since I've gone to a service that was anything other than LDS. It was pretty interesting. More standing involved and only an hour!

Then we went into town for something, I can't remember what. Here's a building, it's kind of old, the rest aren't this old and rundown. Wikipedia says that Elk Creek has a population of 112 people.

Then we went down to Pawnee where Larry the Cable Guy is from. Apparently the name Larry the Cable Guy is trademarked and they can't use it on anything without paying fees, so they've named one of the streets after his birth name.

He's even part of the Shilling Bridge Winery.

Jake had some lime beer that he really liked. We ate some Havarti and Jalapeno Salami and bread while sitting on the back porch. It was pretty tasty.

Then we crossed over the Missouri river into Missouri. Jake had talked about leaving me there on the side of the road so I was a bit nervous about the drive. He's so pleasant.

Before going over, we took a look at this old steamboat. The tour was $3 each and the old guy giving the tour wasn't about to budge when we told him we only had $3 between the two of us.

We drove up though Missouri and a little corner of Iowa to get back to Nebraska City. While there, we stopped at the Lewis and Clark museum and looked at a replica of a Keel boat that was there.

Jake inspected a sign about Lewis and Clark's trusty dog, Seaman. Huh, huh, huh, huh.

Jake in a canoe with dirty water in the bottom.

Me trying hard not to smile for a photo.

This was one of the most exciting parts about the trip. We went to the Arbor Day Farm and Lodge. The Arbor Day Farm is a little place you can go and have a nature walk and there's all these plaques identifying trees and animals. This was one of the art pieces they have on the nature walk.

Me and some trees. You know Nebraska is where Arbor Day was started, right?

You can also go into a few greenhouses and in one of those you can pick up your own free tree.

This is the Arbor Lodge. It was home to the founder of Arbor Day, J. Sterling Morton. It started out as a 4 bedroom cabin and grew to it's present size over time.

There are tons of gorgeous, enormous trees at the park and of course, squirrels. Any place that has giant red squirrels is okay by me.

After that we decided to catch a movie at the theater there and saw Public Enemies. It was alright. A little too much hand-held camera for my taste, but very interesting. I don't think I had ever heard of John Dillinger before and I really love Depression era gangsters. I guess I don't love them that much, eh?

The next day, Jake's brother came over and brought along his new black lab puppy, Trip.

Trip was easily entertained by playing with his squeaky toy.

I sat in a swing for a bit and watched Trip.

This was the last day that Jake had to work on tractors and he got to work on a few of them. Here he is memorizing a tractor fix-it book.

Here he is driving the wheat thing out so that it could be cleaned. We never really got around to that.

Corn

Wildflower

Sign with an old windmill in the background.

Here's me in the tractor. I wasn't much help. Jake tried to fix the brakes and I had to sit up in the chair and pump them a lot. That was my job. Then I got to drive it for two seconds and almost knocked Jake out of the tractor. Good times.

This is a view of the Jake's farm from the shed. It's such a pretty area.

This is what I pretty much did the rest of the day. I was no help with tractors and welding so I read my new murder-mystery novel, The Likeness. I'd give it a B+. I liked her first novel, In The Woods, better.

That was it, my trip to Nebraska. People always kind of grimace a little when you talk about Nebraska, but I thought it was just fine. The trees were lovely, the people wave.

Art Show Opening

2009-07-07T21:27:00.002-07:00

I posted this on my papercutting blog, but feel like it works on here just as well!

What I DO have are pictures from the art show opening at the Terra Nova Gallery last Friday. Featuring Randel McGee, Ada Gardner and Rick James Marzullo. You're very excited, I know. Here's me with one of my coworkers, Hillary and her sister, Ashley. Kudos to Hillary for coming all the way down!

Jamie, who has a friend who likes my stuff but she didn't come along with her!

These are my old landlords who became friends from my college days, Mike and Jenni. I would someday like to be as cool as they are.

My mom and my dad are to my right, to my left is my dental hygienist and her husband. Random, right? Especially when you learn that they heard about the show because they were up here flying hot air balloons and Kim's parents told them about it.

Erin! One of my most favorite companions from my mission. She can sing like an angel.

Kim, who was such a wonderful help the whole show, and Stephen.

Marie, Lena, me and Rachel. I really like these ladies. I'm so glad I've gotten to know them a little better over the past little while.

Kim's parents, Ron and Carol!

Randel and his wife, Marsha! Randel is the reason I was in the show in the first place. He's a talented papercutter AND a talented puppeteer.

Kellie and Brigham! I was so excited to see them again and they even bought the roaring 20s piece. It was one of the ones that I got some of the most comments about the whole evening.

Ryan was someone I met that night but have known for a little while. I'm so glad he showed up!

El Stevo! Steve and Krista showed up too. The time is farspent in between viewings of these two.

Christian and Kirsten! It was so good to see them as well. Christian has a new movie coming out pretty soon.

Whitney with Mary poking her head in between us.

Michelle! Michelle bought this piece for her collection. I think she has the largest collection of Cindy Ferguson papercuts of anyone I know besides maybe my mom.

Erin. I can't even say how happy I was that she was there at the show.

This is David Hawkinson, the owner of the gallery where we had our show. He is such a nice guy and I was so glad to be able to work with him.

All in all, the show was a great success and I hope that if you haven't seen it, you can go down to the Terra Nova Gallery and take a gander (41 W 300 N, Provo). Thanks all!

Gifts in the Mail!

2009-07-02T18:30:00.001-07:00

The other day I got a present in the mail from my old boss, Dave. I
know I've mentioned before that I love to get stuff in the mail,
especially unexpected stuff like smoked salmon. This was totally
unexpected and so nice. Squirrels! I love squirrels!

More Tacos!

2009-07-01T19:48:00.003-07:00

Rob and Stephanie were in town for a whirlwind visit from Seattle and on their way back home, me and Christopher were lucky enough to get to have lunch with them. When I was saying the local food choices, Rob perked up at the words "Taco Wagon" and didn't seem to have too much emotion about anything else, so we decided to go to Taco El Morro and partook of some of their delicious food. Afterwards we went to Paces where they serve shakes and astrobars. Tasty.

Today I had a real breakthrough in the hair department. Yesterday I asked one of my co-workers, Jodie, how she makes her ponytail buns so messy. I try and try and I can't get them to look all messy. She kind of looked at me like I was a little wacky and said she didn't quite know. When she walked away, Tara turned around and said, "I'll show you, want me to show you?" and she did! So I tried it today and I did it! The unfortunate thing about taking a picture of the back of your head is that you notice that you have a friggin' bald spot. What on earth is that? It's just where it parts. It's just where it parts.

The other thing that is marvelous in my life is this mirror I got at the DI the other day. It was one of those finds where you are looking and you're having a pretty good day at the thrift store and have a few good things when all of a sudden, you see the most awesome thing and you put down all your good things and you carry the awesome thing around with you everywhere you go and when you buy it, you keep looking at it over and over again.

Memorable Week

2009-06-28T20:29:00.002-07:00

So this last week all I did was get ready for my art show that I'm doing with three other papercutting artists on Friday. A sample of what my week was like: Exercise, go to work, come home, cut, sleep, repeat. The one thing I did start doing this week was to try memorizing stuff while I went swimming. I am going to write them out and if you want, you can check if I memorized them correctly.

The New Colossus - Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land.
Here at our sea-swept, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch,
Whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand glows world wide welcome,
Her mild eyes command the air bridge harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, Ancient Lands, your storied pomp," cries she with silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven - W. B. Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
enrought with golden and silver light
the blue and the dim and the dark cloths
of night and light and the half light,
I would spread these cloths under your feet,
But I, being poor, have only my dreams.
I spread my dreams under your feet.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

That's them! I'm sure I got the grammar wrong. Does anyone have any other suggestions on favorite poems or important historical writings that I should memorize while I'm trying to swim?

Civic Duty

2009-06-18T20:50:00.002-07:00

I got to eat lunch with one of my old friends from college, Kellie. She's in town for a bit. Her and her husband just moved to Houston a little while ago. I was pleased when she mentioned that her favorite place to eat was Chuy's. I've only been able to eat there once and it was really tasty and I would like to eat there again someday. It was good to hear about her new adventures and to share some of mine. One thing that I'm noticing is that in getting this new house, I'm having one more thing to talk about with my married friends. I get tired of talking about what boy I'm not successful with and this just opens up whole fields of conversation about kitchens and bathrooms and tile and carpet. It's all very exciting.

You remember how earlier today I posted something about questions that I frequently ponder? Well I decided to have some more to ponder on the way home. I was supposed to meet Marie and Rachel down at the Utah Fair Park to go to a North Temple Community Planning meeting. Since I had ridden my bike to work and needed to get off at a different Salt Lake stop, I decided to ride home instead of figuring out what stop I would need to take on the bus. It took me longer than I planned to, going home is definitely much more difficult than going to. Eventually I got there and there were lots of civic minded people wanting to share their feelings about the area and I got to put in my two cents, for what it was worth. Plus there was free pizza!

Ponderings

2009-06-18T08:22:00.003-07:00

In case you were wondering, I'm still riding my bike to work. Today was a particularly beautiful day and it was the first day that I really enjoyed the whole ride. It's 14.5 miles to get to work and during that time, there are moments when I ponder a variety of things.

Some of those things I think up myself and some of those things are shared with me by other means:

Counting Chickens

2009-06-15T20:56:00.003-07:00

So I don't exactly know 100% that I'll get the house until the keys are in my hot little hands, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming. I'm looking for a door, one of those retro ones with the doorknob dead in the center and a starburst emanating from it. If you know of how to purchase said door, please let me know. In my search to find this door, I stumbled upon this website: Retro Renovation. It's got all sorts of tips on how to renovate your mid-century home. Checkerboard kitchen floors have always made me giddy.

Addendum: Crestview Doors

P.S. I just did 30 ones of those squats where you sit at the edge of your chair and scoot your bum off the chair and lower yourself down to the floor and then back up. They are supposed to get rid of Relief Society arm. I can feel the hurt already.

Rose Parks in My Neighborhood

2009-06-10T22:31:00.002-07:00

The offer got accepted! Hopefully everything else works out okay. I'm knocking on wood right now to not jinx myself. Now all that is left is to figure out what kind of dog to get and if I should put in a doggy door.

Crap Balls!

2009-06-07T18:24:00.002-07:00

This weekend I went up to Lava Hot Springs with Jake to watch Jake stare at his motorcycle. But before we took off, I had to go somewhere. A few weeks ago, I got a baby shower invitation from the sister of one of my friends from the dorms. Christina is pregnant and due in about 3 weeks! I couldn't miss that and I'm glad I didn't. Julie was there and some of Christina's sisters and it was so good to see Christina again even if apparently I hadn't seen her in at least 8 months. She lives in Rose Park and I would like to be her neighbor.

Then it was off to Lava Hot Springs. My mom has a bunch of hummingbird feeders all over the place and there was really never a moment when a hummingbird wasn't present. I'm going to tell you right now, that the rest of this post will only be pictures of animals. I was really pleased with how good the photos my little camera got of these birds through the kitchen window. This hummingbird is apparently called the Calliope. It's distinguishable by it's ragged beard.

Look at that. I even got the wings.

Jake and I went and saw Land of the Lost. Apparently while we were gone, the house was bombarded by hummingbirds. About 30 were feeding. Oh well. I enjoyed Land of the Lost though. I am pretty much a die-hard fan of Will Ferrell and wish he was my friend.

There is something else going on at the Ferguson home. Horses. Some people in the ward need a place to keep their 7 horses and a mule over the summer and we've got the land and the grass. I think the one on the right is named Keith.

This is my dad. He knows all the horses names. He's a bit of a horse whisperer. He's standing here with his peach tree he got for free from the nursery. Apparently this tree was dead, but dad was excited because it has little shoots growing out of it. Apparently he is a peach tree whisperer too.

Here's the last thing I'm gonna say: this horse had super long bottom lashes. Probably about 3 inches long.

Wino Forever

2009-06-02T20:14:00.003-07:00

I want this magazine. Someone's blog that I look at talked about it. I keep going to the grocery store to get it and have only seen that stupid Megan Fox on the cover of the June Elle. I went back and looked more closely and discovered that there was a £ symbol so it must be foreign which means I have to go to someplace higher than a grocery store. For some reason this cover made me want to be Winona Ryder again.

Last Weekend of May 09

2009-05-31T18:44:00.002-07:00

Kim and I missed going to the temple last month. It was our goal to go to a session a month this whole year. Or at least I think it was our goal. It might have just turned into that. If anyone wants to join us, we encourage that behavior. This month the temple of choice was the Logan temple. Marie came along with me from Salt Lake. Emily joined us from Logan.

It is such a pretty temple with pretty grounds. I wish the inside were more true to the original interior design and not more true to the 70s redo. It was still pretty great. The celestial room has a really pretty eggshell blue dome with gold detailing. It kind of looks like my bathroom a little bit.

After the session, we decided to have lunch. Kim told us about a butcher shop, Horlacher's, that also sold sandwiches. We were intrigued. It's on 50 W and 700 N if you want to try it out. The sandwiches were only 2.50 and there were footlongs. You have to ask them to make you one because they aren't really advertised in the store. Mine was pretty tasty. I don't know about everyone elses, but I could see the place becoming a problem if I were to live in Logan.

Today I went to church at the single adult ward. It was a fifth Sunday and we had combined Priesthood/Relief Society. Some guy sat next to me named Travis. I contemplated whether or not we were a perfect match based on his shoes, which were actually pretty cool. The rest of him needed an up-do, but his shoes surprised me. The lesson was given by the Bishop and he told about the ward goals. He is a new Bishop and, correct me if I'm wrong, it seems like the old goals were to get everyone married. He mentioned none of that and only talked about missionary work. One of the goals they posted was to "actively pursue doing it" which made me wish Marsha were sitting there next to me. It seems that they are combining the old with the new.

When I got home, I fixed myself a nice chicken salad and sat on my porch swing. I looked at my tomato plant and started talking to it and telling it how pretty it's blossoms were and how someday it would grow some tomatoes, when what to my wondering eyes should appear...

but a little baby tomato!!! I am so excited! I never thought that I could actually grow something that would produce something. I just hope now that I can keep it up. I looked at the plant more carefully and spied another little baby tomato poking though. I hope they last. I wonder, if I do get any that grow into nice luscious red tomatoes, how many I will get?

You Win Some, You Lose Some

2009-05-29T16:13:00.003-07:00

I've been looking for a house to buy for a little while now and (with my parent's help) put an offer on this one:

We didn't win. Apparently the bank prefers someone who wants to pay cash for the house instead of someone with big dreams for the house. Back to the drawing board!

Memorial Day Weekend Kicks

2009-05-25T21:51:00.002-07:00

Last Memorial Day Weekend, Kim and I decided to memorialize America by going to Mt. Rushmore. We tried to think of something campy, yet still important enough that tourists from Europe would want to go to it. We tried hard to think of something equally as great with our cumulative thoughts culminating in a trip to the Grand Canyon.

After driving all night and crashing briefly at a friends house in Vegas, we made our way on Saturday morning down to Laughlin and hiked a bit at Grapevine Canyon which is also called Christmas Tree Pass.

It's a short quarter mile hike to the beginning of the canyon. Kim went ahead of me a ways and found a little puddle with tons of tadpoles in it. There was so much desert life all around.

The coolest thing about the area though was all the petroglyphs on the rocks. I like how if you go to Wikipedia, it will tell you that the carvings were created between 1100 A.D. and 1900 A.D. That narrows it down. Here's the one that Kim liked the best.

There's some behind my head. There were so many petroglyphs everywhere.

There was even something that looked like a natural amphitheater. Kim did her best representation of an Indian sermon.

I love how not all flowers are made of rounded petals.

After that hike we moved onward and over. We got on historic Route 66 towards Oatman, AZ. I told Kim it was kind of a ghost town that had old west stuff and donkeys everywhere. When we got to the town, I got out to have her take a picture of me in front of the sign and what should appear out of nowhere? A donkey.

The town is named after Olive Oatman, a young woman who was kidnapped from her family by Indians and who eventually was freed, but not without some serious face tattoos.

The post office. This is rumored to be the oldest standing, still operating old West post office there is.

They killed me!

Someday I would like to have something as cool as this painted on my barn. Maybe not these same sentiments, but something to a similar effect.

I had asked a cashier in one of the stores where his favorite place to eat was and he told me the hotel. I instantly dismissed him because I think hotel food is kind of icky. We kind of stumbled into the hotel when I was looking for a t-shirt and went into the restaurant and what to my wondering eyes should appear? It was one of those money restaurants like at Fat Smitty's up on the Olympic Peninsula. At the entrance to the bar, this guy was sitting and I couldn't resist asking him if I could take a picture. I wish it had turned out right.

While we ate delicious burgers, this guy serenaded us. He was the same guy who had done an old west shoot-out reenactment at noon.

I stapled my dollar to the wall. It says Cindy Mindy Pindy and Kimhead May 2009.

There's nothing like a good hole cut out of plywood picture.

If you pay a dollar, you can buy a whole bag of carrots and feed the burros that wander through the town. How could I resist?

You're not allowed to feed the baby ones and some of them have stickers on their foreheads proclaiming that.

See what happens when you don't obey?

After our encounter with Oatman, we continued on Route 66 towards the Grand Canyon. Route 66 is kind of peaceful to drive on. No wonder Sir Paul decided to escape there last year.

We eventually made it to the Grand Canyon that evening. We couldn't find any real campsites, but we found some that were on park land without any water or toilets. They worked just fine. Kim made some Green Curry and it sure tasted good. I slept like a rock that night. Apparently Kim didn't because in addition to talking in my sleep, I'm a snorer.

We hadn't actually seen the Grand Canyon that night, just had gotten to the park area. The next morning we got up and went to the rim. It was kind of what I expected it to look like, but what I hadn't expected was how what I expected it to look like was phenomenal.

The morning air was a little chilly, but good for starting out a hike. We took the shuttle to the South Kaibab trailhead and made our way down.

It's about a mile and a half down to Cedar Ridge. While I was walking down I kept thinking about how I was going to have to walk back up it. This was no walk in the park. We made our way down and rested there for a while, talking to a ranger about the area. One of his jobs was to scrub off the graffiti.

Self portrait!

After going to Cedar Ridge, we continued onward to Skeleton Point. From here, you can see a clear view of the Colorado and a camp/work area at the bottom called Phantom Ranch. That's a good name for a ranch. Had we started off early enough, Kim would have had us hike down to the bottom. Writing this now on a Tuesday morning, my muscles and joints are glad we didn't.

While we rested and took in the view, we were joined by a little squirrel. The Grand Canyon does a good job of teaching you not to feed squirrels, what with their razor sharp teeth and all.

The hike back up was beautiful and a little warmer than the hike down. Here's Kim on the walk back up. It wasn't really scary to walk along that ridge, but you can tell that if you're not cautious, it's not that far of a leap to sudden death!

Cactus!

We finally got back to the top of the Grand Canyon. I have tons more panoramic photos, but I edited them out. Just in case you were wondering why there aren't that many photos of the Grand Canyon. This one is a view from the side of the South Kaibab trail we had just trod. See the dark mountain in the foreground? We wandered that ridge. We were lucky at the very end because just as we reached the top switchbacks, it started to storm and by the time we got to the bus, our shirts were pretty wet.

Then we went over to the Desert View looking area. Here there's a large tower built in 1933 that was basically for looking and enjoying the view and for a gift shop. It's pretty cool and it does have an amazing view, they weren't messing around.

Here's a view of Kim from inside at the top of the tower.

Here's a view of me from the bottom of the tower.

There were all these Native American representative drawings on the wall. I don't know that an official Native American drew them, but someone did do a lot of research.

Then we made our way up to Utah driving through the Navajo Nation. Along the way we looked for different camp sites but didn't find any until finally we stopped at the Paria campsite. There were only 5 spaces available and all were full, but we were lucky enough to be allowed to squat with a couple from Arizona.

This is the view from our campsite there.

The next day we drove back towards home. We passed through Zion National Park, which is so amazing and beautiful and I haven't been there in so long. We didn't stop at any of the hiking areas because it kind of needs it's own weekend. But we did stop up at Kolob Canyon and wander around there.

We took the Taylor Creek trail. It was nice and easy and flat which was exactly what I needed. There were a few old cabins along the way. This was the old Larson Cabin. It's the one I would take if I were settling there. It had a really nice view.

Plus the Larsons made effective use of their crates and turned them into shelves which is so awesome.

Kim stops to get a drink of water. Water is very important.

This is the old Fife cabin. This is the one Kim would take if she were settling here. More remote.

The trail ends at the Double Arch Alcove.

We stopped there and ate some snacks and enjoyed the atmosphere. The whole area is really quite beautiful.

Then we walked back. The views on the way back were just as astonishing as the views on the way there. Kim is bending over at the bottom getting pictures of some bugs.

It started to drizzle at the end of this hike too. We were kind of lucky with our hikes that they only ended in rain.

There were tons of wildflowers everywhere.

And sage.

All in all it was really a pleasant trip. We didn't get into any fights (not that I remember) and had fun the whole way. Plus no harm or accident came upon us, so that was good. It was a good way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend. I love this country and all of it's people, culture and scenic views.

The Wooden Waltz

2009-05-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

You know who I still have a crush on? This guy:

Legacy of Fire

2009-05-15T11:20:00.001-07:00

So for a long time now I've been talking about riding my bike home from work. Chris does it a lot in the summer, so I thought I would try my hand at it. I wanted him to come with me at least once, but he's a d-bag and doesn't want me holding him back. So I had to get over the fear of doing it by myself. It took a lot of inhaling and a lot of prayer asking to be helped through it, but I did it! I figured out which bus to take. That was the first task that was scary to me. The second task was figuring out how to get my bike on the bus in the first place. An old man in a cowboy hat wound up helping me and eventually the bus driver had to park the bus and teach me how to secure it, but I feel confident that I can do that again without mishap. Then I kept asking the bus driver if my stop was next. It doesn't matter that I drive down Main street in Centerville all the time, I still didn't know where I was. Finally I got to Centerville. The next fearful task was riding over the bridge. It was so high, so narrow! But when I did it, it was really not that bad and there was plenty of riding space on the side. So I got to work, a half hour early even.

Then the scary part at the end of the day, going home. Honestly, this was kind of less scary to me than getting on the bus. I figured I would have to ride home and I would just eventually get there even if it took me five hours. I took the Legacy Parkway Trail half the way. It was really super pretty and actually very flat, so that was nice. You can see cows and horses and pretty birds and scenic telephone poles. So much to see. Here I am riding my bike:

Then, and this was the tricky part, see the following picture? This is the part where the Legacy Trail almost ends. There's a sign that points along the continuing path telling you that the Jordan River Trail was that way. "Oh, excellent!" I thought, I'd just take the Jordan River Trail the rest of the way in.

But no. You ride a few minutes to that bridge, see it off in the distance? Then the trail just stops. Oh, it connects with the Jordan River Trail alright, but it's just dirt. If I had my trusty horse to ride, it would be no problem, but my dream of a future with horses is probably still a long time coming. So I backtracked a little and got onto Redwood Road. There's only a little bit of Redwood Road that makes you want to cry because there's no bike area, but all in all, it's not too bad. Then, getting back into the city, there's plenty of riding space. I tried to find the Jordan River Trail again, but I couldn't, so I wound up going onto North Temple. If you're driving along N. Temple, just west of 1000 W., you'll see a little bridge. This has a marker and says it's the start of Galway trail or something like that. You might get excited and try that bridge, but really, it's just a bridge, not a trail. Then, when you get to the other side of it, these wild geese are all sitting on their eggs and you have to go through some dirt through the midst of them and you know in your head that the wild geese are chasing you and trying to peck your legs off. I got through that adventure safely, took the bike path down 1000W and up 200S and eventually got back to my house at 6:30. It took me about an hour and 45 minutes. Not too shabby considering I had to backtrack a few times and the near death experience with the geese. It's Saturday when I'm writing this and I wasn't too sore the day after, my leg hurt and my hiney is still pretty tender, but for someone who's never ridden 15 miles somewhere in here life, I'd say I did pretty good.