Leap Year

So it is a leap year and today is leap day and I have been thinking all day that I should be blogging about it since, you know, I won't be able to do that again for another four years. Problem was, though, that I didn't really have anything to say. I mean I don't really have any strong feeling toward or against the day and don't really do anything to observe it as a special day. But after continuing to mull over the need to blog about it today, I decided to look up some facts about leap year and post them here--and actually the facts are kind of interesting.

Why there are Leap Days? Leap days, technically known as intercalary days, are calendar corrections. Despite what you have been taught, there are not 365 days in a year. There are precisely 365.2425 days, which means we gain a day every four years. An exception: Century years cannot be leap years unless they are evenly divisible by 400.

Inventor of Leap Day: In 45 B.C., Emperor Julius Caesar added a Leap Day occurring every four years to the calendar he created. Until then, calendars were a mess.

Guinness World Record leapers:

Norway's Henriksen family has the most siblings born on Leap Day — Heidi (1960), Olav (1964) and Lief-Martin (1968).

Most generations of one family born on Leap Day — Peter Anthony Keogh was born in 1940 in Ireland. Son Peter Eric Keogh was born in 1964. Grandchild Bethany Wealth came along on Leap Day 1996.

BBC News points out that those of you who receive an annual salary are working an extra day without extra pay. (Where's the fairness in that?)

The city of St. Petersburg, Fla. was incorporated on Feb. 29, 1892.

One Orlando man is celebrating leap year in a unique way. Brian Feldman will be leaping from the top of a 12-foot-high ladder at Orlando City Hall - 366 times. (HUH??? WHY???)

Did you know there was a Feb 30? But only one in the 1700s in Sweden. So what about all those poor babies born on that day? Go here to read more details about this.

So there it is, my post on leap year.

The Other White Meat

Last night I made the most amazing pork chops and they were so easy. The were so good, in fact, that I've decided to share the recipe with you here:

Marinated Baked Pork Chops

Ingredients
2 T. soy sauce
4 T. vegetable oil
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 t. lemon juice
4 T. brown sugar
4 T. ketchup
4-6 pork chops

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a small bowl, thoroughly blend soy sauce, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, and ketchup.
3. Marinate pork chops in half of the sauce.
4. Place pork chops in a medium baking dish and coat again with sauce.
5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake pork chops 15 minutes in the preheated oven.
6.Turn and coat again with sauce. Continue baking for 15 minutes (uncovered).
7. Pour remaining sauce over pork chops and then broil for 3 minutes.

If I were a better person I would have pictures to go with it, but I'm not a better person. I think this is going to be new staple in my reserve of recipes and I can't wait to try the sauce with chicken. What are some of your staples?

Bag Tagged

I've been tagged by Cranat (actually was tagged quite a bit ago but it has taken me awhile to take pictures of my purse and then a bit longer to upload the pictures).

So here is what you do....

1. Take a picture of your bag.

2. Show a picture of ALL the contents in your bag. NO CLEANING OUT FIRST!!!!

3. "Bag Tag" five people.

This is a great tag because I have actually been thinking of doing a blog on my purse (well one of my purses--I kind of have a thing for purses. I'm not too obsessive (don't have the money to be) but I definitely have more than I need/use. Anyway, here is one of my latest. It is called a Miche bag and here is how it works: The outside of the bag is a removable shell attached with strong magnets to the purse itself. Here is my favorite shell on my purse:

When you get tire of the shell you have (or need to change it to coordinate with your outfit) you simply pull the shell off.

And replace it with your new shell. Voila, new purse without having to take the contents out of one purse and put them into another. I love it.

And almost best of all, the shells that you are not using store flat so they don't take up a lot of room.

Now for the contents of my bag:

I didn't realize how dark my pictures were so let me tell you what is in my bag: 1 pen; 1 mirror compact depicting a Jack Vettriano work (one of my favorite artists) that I bought in Paris; keys; my black wallet that I love because it is so slim (it is under my keys); chapstick and lipstick; a package of Popsicle sticks (I am a nursery teacher); my peacock coin purse (which I also love); my Body Shop cranberry body butter; My iPod; breath mints; Poetry 180 (a good purse read because I can pull it out and read a few poems whenever I have a bit of extra time); a running notes list covering topics of an address, movies filmed in Boston (preparing for the Boston trip), and this week's dinner menu; and my last receipt from Iceberg--a wonderful hamburger shop that serves great burgers, great shakes (that are huge), and the best fries ever!--not really part of my diet is it.

Celebration Time

I hope you have that song in your head--the one that goes "Celebration Time, Come On!" cause we have some celebrating to do. The Utah Shakespearean Festival has recently announced that Brian Vaughn will be returning to the festival this year to play the lead in Cyrano de Bergerac and Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Now some of you may be looking at this photo of Brian and thinking that he's not bad looking but he's not all that. Well my friends you are wrong and I challenge you to attend one of his performances and not come away thinking "he's great" followed by a sigh. But the celebration need not end here because there is more. The festival has also announced that David Ivers will be returning to the festival to direct Brian in Cyrano de Bergerac. Could it get any better? Well yes I suppose also putting David on stage for at least one production in addition to his directing duties would be better; and Michael Sharon returning and the festival somehow landing Rupert Penry-Jones as well would be better. But I am happy and content and getting ready to buy my tickets.

Boston Vacation

As you may have noticed I have recently placed a countdown widget on my blog counting down the (many) days to the big Boston vacation that my family (the parents, all the sisters, all the brothers-in-law, and all the nieces) is taking in June. You might think that this is a bit premature and you would probably be right, but I don't really care--I am far too excited to hold back any longer. In 102 days my family will be vacationing on a Beach outside of Plymouth, Mass with frequent trips into Boston and its surrounding areas!

Part of my excitement comes from the fact that I am actually the major planner of this trip--well the major planner of the details of what we will be doing while we are in Boston. I love planning trips. I think in another life I would make a great tour organizer/guide. As such I have quite literally been seriously planning this trip since December. I have lists (with pictures) of attractions in the Boston area, their hours, prices, and directions on how to get there. I have lists compiled and cross-referenced on what each of us wants to see and do while in Boston. I have subway and rail schedules and prices ready to go. I have have an itinerary for the entire week all scheduled out. I am even compiling a list of everyone's favorite Dunkin' Donuts (if you know my family you will know that this is very important). Now even though you might be thinking I am a bit over-planned, I would argue no. Having a good plan based on good information will simply allow us to accomplish everything that we want to in the amount of time that we have and will also allow us to make good decisions when something else comes up that we weren't thinking of doing. Basically what I am trying to say is that I am not a Nazi travel planner. Our first family meeting concerning the vacation is coming up in March and I literally can't wait.

In addition to planning out our vacation I have been spending some time lately thinking about what I will wear and take to Boston and over the weekend made my first purchase. Here it is the bag that I will be toting all over Boston and the Cape for a week:

Isn't it great? It is the perfect size to hold my camera, a bottle of water, a snack, an umbrella, and my wallet without making me feel like I'm carrying the whole world with me. I am also planning out the outfit I will wear on the airplane to Boston. This is actually very important as I am flying first class (used my frequent flyer miles) and I don't want to be called out as a fraud. I also don't want be called out as someone trying too hard. So what do you think of this outfit put together here by EmilyStyle (a favorite distraction of mine)?
Sans the luggage because I don't have that kind of money and sans the scarf as it will be June.

Game On Continued

So one week has passed since my Sister threw down the challenge of losing 3 pound by the time she comes to visit on March 12th. Since then Cranat has also joined the movements. So ladies it is time to report. For myself, I have lost 1 1/2 pounds over the last week. Having a challenge and being required to report has really worked well for me and helped me to stay on track with good portions, more fruits and vegetables (except for yesterday), and gym attendance so thank you ladies. How is it going for you?

Oscar Results

Well my scheme for randomly guessing Oscar picks shockingly did not work. I finished with 11 out of 24 correct. The Oscar party went a little bit better. Some year I think I will make it a black-tie affair and have black-tie dinner and snack options. This was not the year to do that though so I stuck with the all-American movie junk food. We started off with Nachos for dinner (we threw on some tomatoes and onions to trick ourselves into thinking we were eating healthy) and then moved on to peanut butter cups, kisses, and candy-coated chocolate eggs, popcorn, and Pringles. And just in case that wasn't enough we had Ghirardelli brownies (warm out of the oven) topped with ice cream. For my part, I think I demonstrated incredible restraint and had 1 candy-coated chocolate egg, 5 mini peanut butter cups, 1 Pringle chip, and 1 brownie with 2 small scoops of ice cream--and I held my restraint despite the fact that all these foods were hanging around me all night (4 hours!).

So anyway back to the Oscars. I thought there were several really lovely dresses worn by the ladies but I don't feel like I can pick a favorite quite yet as I didn't watch very much of the red carpet. There were several really nice acceptance speeches--and by nice I mean short. And it finished 15 minutes early!!! On the downside, I really didn't enjoy it since I had seen only a few of the movies and really couldn't get excited over any of the wins. I remember a day (back when I was young) when I had actually seen several of the movies nominated and could hope for certain outcomes. Lately it seems that Hollywood it intent on celebrating the sick and twisted and overly violent themes in movies that I just don't want to allow into my life as entertainment. Aren't we sick enough as a society without celebrating the recreation of it on the big screen? And that is not to say that certain "sick" themes shouldn't be explored such as the holocaust and the like, but to explore those themes in a respectful and insightful way is a far cry from what is being produced and shoveled out on us today. Sorry I am now climbing off my soap box. But before I get off it entirely let me present you with my winners from movies that I actually saw this year.

Best Supporting Actress: Amanda Bynes (Hairspray) (a little bit by default since I couldn't think of anyone else, but she was lovely in the role.)

Best Supporting Actor: Albert Finney (Amazing Grace)

Best Actress: Hillary Swank (Freedom Writers)

Best Actor: Ioan Gruffudd (Amazing Grace)

Best Movie: Freedom Writers

Best Song: Baby Don't You Cry (The Pie Song) by Quincy Coleman & Andrew Hollander (Waitress)

So technically I think some (maybe all) of these would not have qualified for this year's Oscars because of release dates, but I saw them this year in the theaters so as far as I am concerned they are this year's winners. Who are yours?

My New Favorite Pastime

Possibly also to be known as my new favorite waste of time: Visiting the Weather Channel's website to check out my 10 day forecast in hopes of seeing a forecast of 50 degrees. We are getting close. It's suppose to be 49 degrees on March 1st!

My Oscar Picks

Okay, so here are my Oscar picks. Of course my picks need to be taken with a grain of salt since I haven't actually seen any of these movies (except for Enchanted--I really do want to see Juno but I don't get out to the movies very often). So in actuality many of my votes are being chosen because of past work that individuals have done. Fore example, I really like Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans so I am picking him to win Best Actor. Or other random guesses such as giving Best animated short film to "Madame Tutli-Putli" because MBC refers to her nieces as Madame. Not very scientific, but its the way I'm gonna work it this year.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There"

Performance by an actor in a supporting role: Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men"

Performance by an actor in a leading role: Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"

Performance by an actress in a leading role: Julie Christie in "Away from Her"

Achievement in art direction: "Atonement" Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

Achievement in cinematography: "No Country for Old Men": Roger Deakins

Achievement in costume design: "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street": Colleen Atwood

Achievement in directing: "No Country for Old Men" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Best documentary feature: "No End in Sight" A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

Best documentary short subject: "Sari's Mother" (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production: James Longley

Achievement in film editing: "No Country for Old Men": Roderick Jaynes

Best animated feature film of the year: "Ratatouille": Brad Bird

Best foreign language film of the year: The Counterfeiters" Austria

Achievement in makeup: "La Vie en Rose" Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score): "Atonement" (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song): "Falling Slowly" from "Once," Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova ( But I really want "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted," Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz to win)

Best animated short film: "Madame Tutli-Putli" (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

Best live action short film: "At Night" A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production: Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth

Achievement in sound editing: "Transformers": Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Achievement in sound mixing: "Transformers": Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects: "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End": John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier

Adapted screenplay: "No Country for Old Men," Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Original screenplay: "Juno," Written by Diablo Cody

Best motion picture of the year: "No Country for Old Men" A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers

Midwinter Storytelling

I had the most happy opportunity of attending one part of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival's Midwinter event last night. Telling first (apart from the 14 year old warm-up act) was David Novak. I can't say that I am won over as a fan, but I can see how others (especially children) really love him. His story about how cats evolved from snakes did ring true to me and makes complete sense--I always knew there was a good reason I don't like cats: they are snakes (tails always moving like a snake, like to stretch out in the sun, hiss when angry, etc.)--sorry to other cat lovers; and just so we are clear I don't hate cats and don't advocate stringing them up or drowning them in the nearest river, but could you please keep them off my lap when I come around? Next up, and my number one reason for going (this and maybe the fact that I get in free on account of my mother being on the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival's committee) was Donald Davis.

Isn't he the cutest? I love Donald Davis. He is probably one of the best professional storytellers to ever grace a stage. Add to his greatness as a teller a true humility and an honest interest in people and really you have a complete package and some very good reasons to follow him around like a love-sick puppy. (I especially appreciate his humility in light of some other tellers who believe they are God and expect to be treated as such complete with the bowing and walking 5 steps behind them--sadly so many of these tellers are actually very good so rather than sticking it to them for their disgusting behavior I end up buying their cds and then standing in line for an autograph--I'm weak that way) Anyway, Donald was as wonderful as ever telling hilarious and touching stories about his youth (last night it was Aunt Mary's night (I think it was Mary)) and now I have some new inspiration for the kind of aunt that I want to be.

For those of you sad and sorry people who have not yet been introduced to the fantastic world of storytelling let me just tell you that it doesn't involve people sitting around reading aloud from books. It is, though, made up of a very talented community of individuals who tell stories to children and adults of all ages. Donald is a great way to introduce yourself to storytelling so check him out in your local library (my favorite cd is the Grand Canyon one). A couple of other recommendations that I would have for you are Bill Harley (great for kids), Bil Lepp (yes I spelled his first name correctly--a great tall-tale teller), and Carmen Deedy.

Also if you are coming to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in August you get to see Bill Harley and Carmen Deedy live and in person! There are 8 others coming, but I am going to be following Bill and Carmen around.

Cute Niece

I just wanted to draw your attention to my cute niece Ellie and her American Sign Language and French skills. See her here.* My favorite is the sign for ice cream. Share is pretty good as well, especially when she is asking someone to share their candy with her.

*Just as a note I would like to say that all of my nieces are cute and they all have excellent American Sign Language skills and I would be happy to bring attention to them should their moms decide to do a video posting. I am an equal loving opportunity Aunt.

I Need a Donut

Not that kind of a donut, though. Last night I was super good and went to the gym. Typically going the gym means attending a spinning class. Sadly, I have not typically going to the gym lately so after 50 minutes of sitting on a bike my rear end is soooooo sore and I need a donut (to sit on). Getting back to the spinning class was great, though--well great except for the fact of getting my butt kicked and waking up this morning with a sore butt. Also, I found walking to work this morning (just trying to do my part to save the world) was a bit difficult as my legs absolutely did not want to do their part. But apart from those things, I've missed spinning. I've especially missed that feeling of power and I can do anything that I get after finishing a great workout. Sadly, I can't go again tonight as I am going to see Donald Davis tell some stories at the Thanksgiving Point Bart (yeah!!!), but I think my butt will thank me in the morning. So if you're going as well (to the Barn that is--and you really should because Donald Davis is so incredible), look for the girl having a difficult time sitting and that will be me. Until then, I need to find myself one of these:

Game On

I was talking to my sister, who lives in Oregon, on Sunday when she challenged both of us to lose 3 pounds by March 12th when she and her family will be visiting us for a few days. So it is now game on and I am in full diet (and maybe exercise mode). This is a great time for her to be making this challenge because, honestly, I need a bit of help in the get off my rear end. Plus having a few mini-goals to help me accomplish my resolution of losing 10 pounds can only be good and helpful. And best of all, I have someone else relying on me (of sorts) to hold up my end of the bargain--a bit a peer pressure if you will. So yesterday started off with a couple of pancakes (I love pancakes; I could live off of pancakes) so not the best of starts (they were a bit larger than they needed to be) but then I got right back on track and had fruit and vegetables and others foods within proper portion control. How long will this last? Well, I've made it through breakfast on Tuesday and have high hopes for the rest of the day!

Too Cool! and a Few Musings

Yesterday actually turned out not to be too bad despite the cruel, cruel weather. Work went along pretty much as normal, except the 30-40 minute power outage that somehow also affected our email server thereby prohibiting us from logging into email (once it was fixed the IT guy sent out an email telling us that it was fixed and we could now log on ???). Once home from work, I made some Valentine's cookies and my two nieces Grace and Ellie had a lot of fun decorating a few. (I think the Hales and the Fosters will both be posting about this today so I'll not put up any pictures) They were both quite good at it (considering they are both under 2). Ellie took the job quite seriously with a full furrowed brow of concentration going on. Grace smiled and laughed a bit more (especially once she discovered that eating the frosting instead of putting it on the cookie was the smarter, happier thing to do).

After eating a few too many cookies I made a nice pasta dinner and settled in to waste a bit of time watching tv. I watched Monarchy with David Starkey which is all about the British crown. Last night's episode was about the issue of heir after William and Ann. I don't know why but I totally eat up these shows about the British crown--not today's so much but the history of it all. Their solution to the problem of who would succeed to the crown once Ann died was really interesting. Rather than put a Catholic on the throne, they invited some guy who was 51st in the line of succession to come on over from Germany. I just can't imagine being so desperate to have a leader of a certain religion on the throne they would go outside their own country looking for a leader (oh wait, isn't that what conservative southerners did when they refused to vote for Romney because of his religion? Everyone on talk radio/tv seems nearly resigned to Obama sweeping the country because their isn't a conservative for Republicans to vote for. So by default Republicans have handed over "their" country to someone not of their own party all in the name of religion.) I'll have to catch the next episode of Monarchy to see how that went for the UK. (shhhhh, don't tell anyone but I'm personally quite hopeful that Obama will win) Anyway, after the show I tore myself away from the tv and did what I had intended on doing for the entire evening: I went to bed with a box of chocolates and read a lovely book. It was so nice that I think I will do that again tonight.

And now for a bit of fun. I wish I could have been there to see this in person.

So very cool!

Winter Blues

I'm too disgusted/disappointed with our weather today to do a proper post so instead you get one of my favorite YouTube videos. This one always gives me a good laugh--well first I stare in disbelief and then I laugh.

And Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. I hope there is lots of chocolate in your day.

I'm Done With Winter

So do you remember my really fun new winter boots? And how I was complaining that I hadn't had the chance to use them? I have had my chance and I am now ready to put them away! We have now accumulated about 2 feet of snow and I am ready for spring. It's not a great shot, but here is Ellie demonstrating the depth of the snow (it is coming up to her shoulders, but the angle makes it a bit difficult to tell).

To make matters worse, we have been enjoying perfectly lovely weather with temps rising up into the high 30s and even the low 40s and now we are being told to expect to be plunged right back into the hard, bitter truth that it is still winter and that means it will still snow.

Please also note how my sidewalk/driveway is so perfectly shoveled! Thanks dad. And here is some proof that I have indeed had the chance to wear my boots:

I have to wear them because, unlike us, not everyone is good enough to shovel their sidewalks. Also you may not be able to tell but those are brown corduroys shoved into my black and white boots topped of with a light-blue coat. If I had allowed more of myself in the shot you would also have seen me in a bright green scarf and navy blue knit gloves baring the Yankee logo. Now this is the time that I should be regarded with disdain by fashion teachers everywhere!

My Weekend Outing

After a little cojoling, I convinced one of my sisters and my mom to a few outings this past Saturday. We started out at the Oh Sweet Sadie art and gift show, which I enjoyed. My sister and Mom felt it was a bit pricey compared to other craft shows offered around Utah Valley, but I appreciated the ammount of things that I wanted to buy--I usually go to these craft shows and find that they are catering toward people interested in home decorating and kids. I don't have a great interest in these two categories and so I was really pleased to find a good selection of products not geared toward home and kids--like notepads like this pad that I bought:


I love notepads; shoes (for adults of course); and head bands (again for adults). Everyone bought something so I think we were all happy enough.

Then we headed over to Steve and Barry's which I have talked about before. Well, the sale that they were having an entire month ago is still going on. Sadly, this means that the entire store is still really picked over. They also haven't changed the selection of clothes yet--I was hoping for some spring/summer selections. I did buy a great pair of teal ballet-flat shoes that I love, but otherwise I was very disappointed (So, Cranat, it is really good we decided not to go up--I'm thinking maybe in about a month).

By this point we all needed a bit of nourishment so we headed over to So Cupcake, a new cupcake shop that just opened in Salt Lake. I really like cupcakes and was really looking forward to trying this new place out. Sadly, I was a bit dissapointed. The shop was cute with its pink trimmings and I absolutely love the cupcake sketches that are hanging on the walls (check out their very cute website linked above--the sketches on the site are the same ones hanging on the walls of the shop), but I felt they missed out on truly making the cute point by putting down ugly linolium on the floors and doing nothing at all to the ceilings which was sad since they have really cute chandeliers drawing your attention up--I would have done some hardwood floors and some metal tiles on the ceiling (which, I know, is more expensive so maybe these are on their to-do list)



The cupcakes themselves were pretty looking and of a good size (I hate going somewhere for cupcakes and getting this tiny, little thing) but a little unimaginative in their names. The red velvet cupcake was called the red velvet cupcake--although on their website they have at least given a nod to trying to be creative we'll have to see if eventually these titles make it into the shop itself. I went with the cinnamon sugar cupcake which I felt was rather dry. My sister had the chocolate cupcake and also felt hers was dry. My mother had the red velvet cupcake and thought it was nice and moist. I did really like the frosting, though, so all was not disappointing. Unfortunately, I think the general verdict is that I will probably not be going back. Perhaps I need to perfect my own cupcake-making skills so that I don't continually have to be disappointed by others. Do any of you have any good cupcake recipies? I am looking for a recipe that is moist, but slightly dense.

So maybe the outings themselves weren't great, but I did have a lot of fun hanging out with my mom and my sister (and baby Grace) so as far as I am concerned a good time was had by all!

Blog Searches

Ack! Someone just found my blogsite by doing a google search of "lds skinny dippers." I came up, of course, because of my admission to being a closet skinner dipper back when I got tagged. But really, who does a search for lds skinny dippers?

Resolutions: February Report

So it is February already and I haven't yet reported to you on how I am doing on my resolutions. In part, I haven't reported because I wanted to give myself a couple of extra days (or a week) to try to make myself feel and look better. So here it is, my report:

Will not be lazy--I haven't been too bad with this. When I'm not sick (which hasn't been too often) I get up out of bed at a good time. Unfortunately, I still watch too much tv--will work on that for next month.

Will stay in control of mail in-box--is completely empty right now at this exact moment!

Will not get annoyed with family--urrmmm will work on this for next month

Will not get upset over men--actually this is a bit of a cheat for me because I am so past getting upset over men. Getting upset over people who belittle me for being single or try to console me for being single all while in or not-so-inadvertently insulting me (I actually had one woman approach me after I was called to be a nursery teacher and tell me that she new I was going to get that calling because that is where they send all the women who can't get married--I know!!! I was good and just smiled all the while thinking that my situation could be worse than just being single: I could be married to her husband. (And while we are on the subject--kind of --of nursery, parents do not bring your sleeping children to us and expect us to take them off your hands; also parents please refrain from leaving your child in a dark nursery room with no adult supervision you can wait an extra minute for one of us to get there; and please pick up your children within say 5 minutes of church getting out cause coming 15 minutes after it is out is really not gonna work for us) So really I should probably change this one to not getting upset over married people who think I am less of a person because I am still single, but I think I need a freebie so I am keeping "Will not get upset over men"

Will be positive about everyone--obviously (see above) I still need to work on this one.

Will develop inner poise--I don't know how to define inner poise, but I don't think I have it yet.

Will lose 10 pounds--I lost 3 pounds and then gained 2.

Will purge flat of extraneous matter--urrmmm will work on this for next month

Will give away horrible clothes--This is the one I needed a couple of extra days to work on. I've given them all away. I even gave away my "I haven't done laundry for awhile and I'm desperate" clothes!

Will improve career and find new job--Am taking 2 college courses to help me with some hands-on training.

Will read books and listen to classical music--I read books, but I think I've only listened to classical music once this year--maybe I need a classical music mix.

Will go to the gym--urrmmm will work on this for next month

Will make music mood mixes--Yeah!!! I've done this one.

Will read Book of Mormon--Working on it

Will read Joseph Smith lessons--urrmmm will work on this for next month, but I am only 3 chapters behind so it is not hopeless

Will read from Preach My Gospel-- urrmmm will work on this for next month

Will write in journal--I'm working on it

Will do Family History work--Have been twice to the center to work on it!

I could do better, but I'm not failing miserably so I'm pretty pleased.

Oh I WISH I Could Knit!

Ok, so I knit a little bit. I can knit a scarf if it only has knit and purl stitches with no increase or decrease tricks and absolutely no funny little cables. It is my wish-hope-dream to some day be able to tackle the cable and actually move beyond scarfs, but alas I don't actually put in the time to make that wish come true (I should have made that a resolution). For those of you who do knit (read here: Cranat make your sister look at these pics, create a pattern, knit these up, and share with us) or for those of us that can appreciatively look at great talent and design with great longing, I present for you some really great knits:

I love both of these, but I harbor a great hope of someday being able to actually make the sweater. For those of you who don't harbor such dillusions check them out at the Oeuf website.

Note: These are not a personal find of mine. I am stealing them from Design Mom. If you haven't visted her blog, repent now!

Wasting Time--Updated

OK I'm now working on take six of this post. First I posted the pic below, but then I took it off because I though it was one of Sussy's originals and that would be a copyright violation. So I posted a link to her page and then noticed that the link I posted was wrong (it actually sent you off to look at a little baby that is cute but not actually laugh-out-loud worthy). But then I realized that the pic is actually a catalogue picture so I figured that I can actually use it and I put it back up. Whew. So again here it is (again x 6):

I'm wasting a bit of time today by perusing the links on some of my favorite blogs. This is a favorite pastime of mine since it is like meeting wonderful, clever new friends, but I can do it in my pajamas or with a huge zit on my nose and I don't have to feel self conscience. Also, I don't have to worry about being clever or funny or interesting just they do. Anyway, I came across this fabulous little gem (A Little Sussy) with some really great photos. In particular, I love this one photo. It made me laugh out loud and garner stranger looks from others in the room with me right now.

Sussy wrote "i laughed so hard imagining him walking down the street with the coil up to his ear and the phone in his pocket." I too would love to see that. If perhaps you find that you need one of these they are available here.

Ellie and Grace

This is the story of two of my adorable nieces: Ellie and Grace.

They are best friends and love to get together whenever they can.

When they do get together, they love to watch tv and have a snack together.

They love to hide in the pantry together.

They love to look out the door for Bompa and Grammy together.

They love to play the piano together.

They love to play ring around the rosies together.

And they love to just sit and chat.

But sometimes even best friends say something stupid, or silly, or just plain annoying.

But that's okay, because these two will always love each other.

Dirk Pitt Continued

I can't do it. I thought continuing (against my better judgment) to read Shock Wave despite the book's laughable book flap would be entertaining and create some great blog fodder. And even though I tend to push through horrible books just to say I have finished it, I can't continue any longer. I did make it through 2 shipwrecks that brought the survivors to the brink of starvation forcing them to eat things that they normally would never even consider (including human flesh). I made it through the unaccountable and drawn out guilt of the heroine for the deaths of 3 people--even though she wasn't even present at the time of death or had any idea what it was that killed them. I even made it through the saving of one of these parties from a 20 foot shark by an 80 foot squid. But I can go no further. It was the arrival of Dirk Pitt and his thick curly black hair and muscular body "that a girl could learn to rely on" in the middle of a blizzard on a deserted island that finally did me in. I don't know why that should have done me in--really the shark/squid scenario should have done it--but the whole thing just became so ridiculous that I no longer care. Now, how do I go about returning the book to the library without drawing the attention of librarian who recommended it to me? And if she should see me, what do I saw to her? "Thank you for the recommendation. I can see why many people enjoy reading these books;" "I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get into it;" or "I had to stop reading it when I felt my brain turning to mush."

I am now once again without a book to read. Any suggestions?

Sexiest Brits Results

It's Super Tuesday and I (along with many of you) will be heading out in the frigid weather to cast my vote as part of this whole thing that we still like to call democracy. In the spirit of voting, I am reminded of that recent atrocity wherein the Brits were trying to convince us that Britney Spears was last years most attractive woman. As you may recall Hello! magazine was conducting a poll to determine the most attractive man, woman, and most elegant woman. Well, the results are in. And since we are not likely to know our own political voting results for several hours, here are Hello!'s results just to tide you over:

Most Attractive Female:

Britney Spears

Most Attractive Man:

Sean Bean

Most Elegant Woman:

Madonna

So I guess there was a bit of a shake up in the final days with others agreeing with me that David Tennant was just not the most attractive man (although I quite like him as Dr. Who and he is nice looking in that British sort of way). I still wouldn't have picked Sean Bean, but I can get on board a little bit with him. I am still completely off board, though, when it comes to Britney and a bit iffy when it comes to Madonna. But I suppose I can support the British right to find what they will attractive as long as they don't tread on my right to define their list as crazy--I suppose technically the title to my post is incorrect since (fake British accents aside) neither Britney or Madonna are British.

Man-Candy Monday: Eddie Cahill

It has been far too long since I posted something that was truly worthy of being called Man-Candy. Therefore, for your viewing pleasure, I would like to properly introduce Mr. Eddie Cahill (aka Don Flack of CSI:NY). For those of you who have been with me for awhile, you will undoubtedly recognize Mr. Cahill as one of my 5 possible guilt-free hook ups. I also couldn't resist posting this particular YouTube video as it uses the same song as the favorite Regency Men video. Enjoy.

Did you notice how many different hairstyles the man has gone through? A little bit feminine if you ask me--at least men aren't running in asking for the Eddie haircut though. Also, if you didn't make it past the first couple of minutes that's ok cause I haven't either--it just gets a bit boring--especially since one of the things I like so much about Eddie is his great New York accent and the funny lines his writers give him. Ah well, I hope you enjoyed it just a bit. (At some point I really need to do a blog about my penchant for using "--." I'm sure it is horrible for those of you with a sensibility toward proper grammar and I do apologize.

p.s. Janel I tag you--just to help you get going.

Dumb Laws

I was recently told about this website and got enough of a laugh out of it that I thought I would pass it along. One of my favorites is that it is considered an offense to hunt whales in Utah. (It actually does make a little bit of sense to me that it is only illegal to hunt whales and not to kill whales because while it may not actually be possible for me to kill a whale in Utah it would be possible for me to form a hunting party and go out a-hunting and obviously that would be bad--or at least the state believes that would be bad) Another good one: It is a felony to persistently tread on the cracks between paving stones on the sidewalk of a state highway. And in Salt Lake County no one may walk down the street carrying a paper bag containing a violin. Furthermore, in the same county auctions may not be advertised by hiring trombone players to play on the street. It is my hope that by letting you know about these laws you will not unwittingly bring the long arm of the law down on you. What are your state's dumb laws?