MacAttack

Inspired by the Olympics, Steve and I deiced to pass the Cookie Night torch last Sunday to Robin and Dan. Hosting Cookie Night has been a lot of fun and I really want to thank everyone who trekked up the three flights of stairs every week to come. We hope to see all of you at Dan and Robin’s house! There are a few reasons why we are going to switch venues. First, with church, eating with Steve’s family at 2:00, dinner with my family at 6, and then rushing home to clean up and make cookies was getting a bit much. Also, with school starting again we both wake up early- that is ok with me, but Steve is not a morning person… We are still be going to Cookie Night because we still love all of you and want to hang out Sunday nights. Thanks to Bethia and Jeremy for starting this tradition, thanks to Dean and Meg for doing it for so long, and to Dan and Robin for taking over. Also thanks to Robin, Mindy, and Moe for bringing treats so often. Here are some highlights from cookie night at our place:

Shanna, Aimee, Laura, me, Megan, Gregg, Tyler and Lacey.

Even better than the cookies is always the music.

I don’t like to pick favorites, but Ellie is by far the cutest cookie night guest ever!

Nerds! Cookie night is not complete without talking about computers.

Dan and Steve doing some male bonding over technology.

Thank you all again. You bring the spice into our lives.

A few weeks ago went to the bachelorette party for one of my best friends T Foxley, and I had no idea what to get her. I don’t ever know what to for these kinds of things- I don’t dare guess at a size for lingerie, I don’t want to get some of the silly novelty thing for shock value that will never get used, and I don’t want to buy anything too crazy. I wanted to think of something practical but fitting for a bacheloreete party. I came up with the idea buying a colander, ladle, pasta sauce, Parmesan cheese, and to spice it up some anatomically correct pasta. Practical and clever.

The idea was the easy part- getting it was hard since I live in Utah county. There are only 2 stores to possibly find this special pasta and I was relieved when the first place I called had some. When I go to the store I asked for the pasta and I was told by the manager that they are no longer allowed to sell it- they have pulled it off the shelf and it is sitting in the back room. Apparently the county came in and demanded that they stop selling anything with reference to the male body. Oh the joys of living in a neoconservative city! It was the centerpiece of my whole gift- without it I would be back to a boring and totally practical gift! Not acceptable. The ironic part is that the store is still allowed to sell bongs and things with marijuana pictures on it… ummm, last time I checked pot is still illegal and sex is not. I was frustrated and the manger had pity on me and finally said, “you know what, it is my last day- I’ll sell you some.” I win, I win! Thanks to the unnamed manager of the unnamed store for being a great American by breaking the law selling pasta to me!

To celebrate 08/08/08 we had an 8 themed breakfast at work– my boss’s idea and Sonya and I took it to the next level. It also was our good bye party for Carol who will be leave to go work at the U of U (traitor!). Here are the highlights of our party!

Notice all the round fruit that make 8’s when they are put together. I even stuck sliced bananas and grapes together with tooth picks to make an 8.

My boss Ed making 8 pancakes.

Sonya and her fancy pancake. Gotta love it!

No party is complete without donuts- which conveniently form and 8 when you have 2 of them together.

The Deaf Services staff of ASD- Carol, Sonya, me, and Laurie

One of the strangest, yet fun family traditions that my mom started 7 or 8 years ago is on the 4th of July to hand out root-beer floats to random strangers. My mom lives a few blocks from Sugar House park and when the fireworks are over we give root-beer floats to people walking back to their cars. It is so funny to see the looks on people’s faces when we offer them a free root-beer float– I imagine I would be a little suspicious myself. The reactions we get range from a confused “no, thank you…,” to “Wow, this is awesome, you made my day!” We also have people telling us that they look forward to root-beer floats every year and each year they hope we will still be there. It is totally random, but always a blast.

My Mom, my Aunt, my hot Husband, my Niece, and my Eleanor.

Today marks the first official day of Utah Valley University! The past two days have been a full of celebrations to ring in the new era. I came to UVSC as a freshman in 2001 and graduated with my BA degree in 2005. After graduation I got a job interpreting at UVSC, and it’s hard to believe that with school and work I have been on campus for 7 years! That is a very long time to stay in one place. I am glad I have been able to witness the changes and be part of them at this school over the last 7 years, it had provided me with opportunities that I wouldn’t have had any other place.

Today at the the official ceremony and ribbon cutting there were politicians and big wigs from all over the state as well as President Monson who dedicated the new building. I had the opportunity to interpret the event and I will never forget it.

GO UVU!

My awesome co-workers Carol, Jason, and Sonya

The new library

There are tons of new bronze statues at the new library

Sonya and I looking hot in our free UVU visors! Nerds!

Two Saturdays ago I had my first scurfing (or skurfing) experience. Scurfing was introduced to me by my good friend Sam who is pretty much an expert at it. Sam wrote a blog post about the first time he went scurfing and there is really sweet video that I highly recommend you watching.

I was really nervous considering I am not what most people would call coordinated or athletic. I thought for sure I would end up falling and breaking my arm or head. Knowing my own awkwardness I don’t even normally attempt these kind of things, but I am happy to report that I survived will only a few scratches and very sore arms from holding onto the wall for dear life for about 10 minutes until I got the courage to let go.

Here are some pics for your entertainment.

“Look, no hands!”

Sorry ladies, he’s taken.

Dean pulled off his first 180- it was sweet.

Don’t let the fact that water is lower and slower this time of year trick you into thinking it is safer, right after this picture was taken Sam wiped out real bad and messed up his shoulder. He has an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. That really put a damper on the fun.

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog post about gas prices . I shocked many of you when I said that I hope to see gas prices continue to go up. Well, as we all know they have, and as I suspected, we are seeing some positive changes despite the immediate strain it is causing all of us financially. On KSL.com there was an article that reported “Americans drove 11-billion fewer miles than they did at this time last year”–this is the biggest drop seen since 1979. Not to mention that greenhouse emissions were cut by 9-million metric tons. Awesome.

Every (nearly) Sunday night, Stephe and I have “Cookie Night” at our house.  Cookie Night has been a long standing tradition with Stephe’s friends starting over at Jeremy and Bethia’s, then rotating to other places and now we have been the honored hosts for over a year. Anyway, this last Sunday was a special Cookie Night because Sam and Dean introduced us to their couch surfer– BJ Hill.

BJ is walking across America and asking people to write in his note-book thoughts, comments, and messages to the future president of the United States.  He is a really, really nice guy and has amazing stories. He did something similar 2 years ago for the Massachusetts elections. After he was done, he presented the book to elected Governor and the book is now kept in the Massachusetts state archives.

So, last night we all got the opportunity to write in the book and be part of history. Writing in the book was very intimidating for me, and I had a really hard time thinking of something to write, and with all the commotion going on and listening to BJ talk it was really hard for me to write anything even somewhat intelligent. Even though what I wrote was really dumb and probably didn’t even make sense, I am really glad I got to be a part of something so cool.

This is BJ, check out his blog.

I have known for sometime now that Fox 13 news is the worst news channel in Utah, and seeing as how it is the ugly step-sister of the evil that is Fox news I shouldn’t have been surprised tonight when I noticed something very backwards about the news cast.

Tonight I was watching Fox 13 News and they have a segment called “World in a Minute” where some guy talks as fast as the Mirco Machine man and they speed through all the world events in 60 seconds.

“World in a Minute” is a ridiculous feature if you think about it- in an hour long news cast they set a whole 60 seconds to tackle all of the world headlines. To add insult too, the following 2+ minutes (I actually timed this) was devoted to American Idol and some charity thing they did. That’s not news! Anyone else find that unsettling?

Fox news, and Fox 13 news in Utah=InfoTainment.

If any of you in Utah county are looking for someone to cut your hair may I suggest Shalee Price- she is great. Shalee is a good friend of mine who just started assisting and cutting hair at Von Curtis. Not only did she do a good job, she is also one of the hippest, nicest people I know. If you’re interested call me and I’ll get you her number.

This picture is awkward- but I wanted to show the A-line cut Shalee did.