this one's still kicking

anal puncture

2012-01-26T14:47:00.000-08:00

Tim and I were just discussing practicing some of the techniques we've learned at birth class so far.

Tim: We could go over some of that um . . . anal puncture stuff.
me: Anal what?
Tim: ACUPRESSURE! I meant acupressure.

storytime

2012-01-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

A little while ago, we got together with our friends Kristen and Kevin and spontaneously decided to compose ten-minute stories based on a topic someone else in the group came up with. At first not everyone was enthused about the prospect, but in the end, we were all glad we did it, I think. It was fun and provided some interesting variety to our regular activities (i.e., eat food, talk, play games).

Tim spent a little longer than ten minutes on his story because it was taking him so long to regress his writing skills. But it was worth the wait. See for yourself:

Transcription:

My name is Richy I am 5. One time I road on an air plane it was neat. I looked out the window and saw cloud and the ground. A lady brought me some milk. She said I was a good boy. Her name was Pauline and she was nice. Later Pauline sat next to me on the plane. Her breath smelled funny. She said she was from Detroit and she lived with her mom like me and before that she lived with Steve with was such a sweety but is really a piece of good for nothing trash with that fluzy Candice and Pauline keept drinking something in a paper bag. Then she got up but kept falling down. Then a man named Marshall put bracelets on Pauline and sat next to her. Now Mom won't let me fly alone.

My story wasn't very funny. The topic Kevin came up with for me was "talking horse is about to be euthanized," and you know, euthanasia is a hard topic to make funny beyond saying that a talking horse is about to be euthanized. It's funny at first. We could've stopped there if we wanted the humor to live on, but instead I wrote a depressing story that made Kristen think about neglecting her innocent baby.

Transcription:

The veterinary clinic was dark and cold when Bobby, the talking horse, arrived on the morning of January 23 [oh hey, it's weird I'm blogging about this on January 23 . . . completely unplanned]. He didn't know what he was coming in for, exactly. But the ranchers who owned the field he grazed on were concerned about him and had decided to take him in to the clinic. Every time the ranchers visited the horses to stack more hay bales for them or to fill their troughs, they skirted around Bobby as if he were diseased. Bobby sometimes trotted over to engage them in conversation, but their reaction was always the same as the other horses—they'd eye him suspiciously and pretend not to understand what he was saying. Bobby was pretty sure he wasn't sick, but he was at least grateful to escape the ostracizing field. Maybe someone in the clinic would hear him out. When they arrived, though, the ranchers led Bobby inside and turned to exit almost immediately. The heavy doors clunked behind their disappearing footsteps. Bobby noticed the sterile smell and felt curious—what was going to happen to him? Metal instruments clanged in a muffled way from the next room. Bobby neighed and called "Hello?" uncertainly. Finally a vet emerged wearing a white lab coat. The vet greeted Bobby warmly and Bobby felt assured. He'd finally be heard.

the apps are in!

2012-01-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

The PhD applications are submitted! Actually, they have been for a while, but this is the first the blog's heard about it. Where we'll be come August is entirely up in the air at this point (no one has sent letters begging Tim to come to their school and offering him money to do so . . . yet), but it could be one of the 9 cities pinned in the picture above (west-east/north-south: Seattle, Washington; Eugene, Oregon; Davis, California; Berkeley, California; Santa Barbara, California; Los Angeles, California; Lubbock, Texas; Austin, Texas; Houston, Texas). And if the PhD thing doesn't work out, Plan B could place somewhere else entirely, maybe even plant us in Utah longer. The possibilities! The uncertainty!

If you could have your pick of any of these cities, where would you go to live for the next three to five and some-odd years?

weird in the day

2011-12-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

Poor Tim, like a humanoid fresh from the womb, has got his mornings, days, and nights all mixed up. This due to finals- and PhD-application-imposed sleep deprivation.

Today, after a hasty last read-through, we rushed his paper to the English Department Office with minutes to go before closing time. On the return trip, Tim noticed a young girl, age 10 maybe, walking outside. For reasons unbeknownst to anyone, he smiled and waved.

The poor girl looked as if she didn't know how to respond and gave a shy, indeterminate wave in response. You can betcha Tim sure felt like a creeper.

our new baby

2011-12-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

No, silly, this post is not to introduce you to our real baby (still gestating). This is way better.

Introducing Blender Baby:

I've been posting about blenders for a while now (like this one time approximately 2.5 years ago). If I did one of those word clouds for this blog, it might have blender and Hanson on there pretty large, which is weird. Anyway, I think this is blender number four or five in our household. But thanks to the generous birthday/Christmas/birthday again gift from parentals, we'll go several years yet without having another blender baby.

I have expressed my doubts about the superiority of these machines, but a seven-year warranty is pretty nifty. AND THEY ARE SO COOL!!! Have you seen the demonstrations at Costco and the like? I could watch for hours. Our first Vitamix blend was devoted to our classic smoothie, and it was the smoothest darn smoothie we've ever made. We've also been making hot chocolate in the machine instead of the Cocoa Latte/Cocomotion because if you leave the blender on for a while, the stuff gets hot (!!!!).

We pretty much can't get enough. Please let us know if you have suggestions for things to blend.

MMMHop

2011-12-05T12:31:00.001-08:00

This isn't the first time Hanson has made an appearance on this blog. Remember this?

Well, our favorite trio is going strong in their music-making pursuits, as previously mentioned, but THAT'S NOT ALL. They're also going to release a trademark alcohol: MMMHop. Nice play on their headlining hit, right? Not.

Pumpkin

2011-11-25T11:43:00.001-08:00

We carved pumpkins about a month too late this year. But that's okay, because they looked nice sitting out on our doorstep for their tenure. It occurred to me when they were there that it was strange to use food as porch decorations, but then I thought of those plastic grapes and whatnot people sometimes put on their tables or wherever, and I felt better.

I actually didn't carve anything even though we got two sizeable squashes. This is because I'm afraid of knives lately (pregnancy clumsiness is a verifiable phenomenon— I've cut myself a lot). But Tim's carving was a beauty.

After the gleeful and violent attack ended, we cleaned out the insides like civilized folk. I made pumpkin puree and am going to roast the seeds in a minute.

Before I do that, though, I have to think about this question: What am I going to do with all this puree? Anybody want some?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

his new look

2011-11-10T11:28:00.001-08:00

Last night we went to Whole Foods and Tim got complimented on his new shades by a male stranger. Score.

Later, another customer standing near me greeted me. When I asked "How are you?" in return, he said earnestly "I'm happy." Both of these incidental interactions might have happened because we were at Whole Foods. Just a thought.

No really, it's a boy.

2011-11-10T09:09:00.001-08:00

I hear the error rate for determining male gender in fetuses is a little lower than for determining female gender (which makes sense), so I wasn't exactly doubting, but I had another ultrasound today and got that confirmed. Just in case anyone was wondering.

It's a . . .

2011-10-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

It seems like this might be the only time posting pictures of someone's genitalia online is acceptable (Something about it being an ultrasound picture makes it okay, right?), so I better take advantage while I have the chance! We showed this picture to Tim's mom last night after we found out and she couldn't stop making hilarious comments about Baby's "woo hoo."

Congratulations to the winners who left comments (Rach, Hilary, Marci, Heather, Rachel, Margaret, April, Holly)! I will contact you individually for mailing addresses: this prize is the real deal.

Also, a couple of other guesses deserve mention:

Jon: "You will give birth to a genderless child. Think Ken doll."
Cole : "Eunuch" (guessed via Facebook)

As Tim astutely points out, Cole is technically correct. And I might have considered Jon's guess if the sonographer had been unable to determine the sex. It gave us a good laugh, though.

Tim himself is disappointed about not winning a prize, but we're excited to meet this little guy.

P.S. In case you were wondering, normally I wouldn't have found out Baby's gender for a few more weeks, but I'm participating in this study called NuMom2B. It's fun because they do three ultrasounds as part of the study, and I don't have to pay for them. :)

Baby Rowan! and Gender Contest

2011-10-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have contributed to this blog, but upon noticing that all of Amanda's recent posts have depicted me exclusively as delirious and incoherent, I felt compelled to write something in order to demonstrate that I actually am not insane and/or creepy most of the time.

And I have great news! Amanda is pregnant! We are having a baby and are very excited, especially since chances are high that this will be the cutest baby the world has ever seen.

Amanda is now approximately 16 weeks along (and still often as nauseated as ever, poor girl) and this week she will have an ultrasound that will likely tell us whether we are having a girl or a boy. Of course, I have been saying for months now with utter confidence that we are having a girl, but Amanda places more trust in the ultrasound, a soulless machine, than in me, her faithful husband.

Ultrasound image at approximately 11 weeks

Which brings us to this blog post's titular contest (I realize that calling it a "gender contest" is not completely accurate, but using the more accurate word "sex" was perhaps way more inappropriate). We are inviting all our readers to predict whether our impending child is a boy or a girl.

But that's not all! The first ten respondents to predict correctly will win a prize! We haven't determined what that prize will be yet but rest assured that it will be something to make neighbors jealous. To submit your prediction, post a comment below!

Winners (oh, and the baby's sex) will be announced Friday. Good luck!

it's that time of year

2011-10-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

There was a coupon at Costco for this hot cocoa mix, so of course we had to get it. We take our hot cocoa seriously around here. One of the few kitchen appliances we own is a Cocoa Latte. You might say that buying a mix for hot cocoa is sort of excessive because you can easily make hot cocoa from scratch (and cocoa from scratch is a pretty good way to go), but novelty and coupon savings called.

And we're quite pleased. We purchased the 56-serving container on October 15 (four days ago!) and it's approximately halfway gone.

Pathetic? Maybe slightly.

brief exchange

2011-10-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Tim: Oh, look, hair!
Amanda: Where?
Tim: Just in the food. But that's okay. I like your hair, and I don't feel threatened by it.

weird in the night

2011-10-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my husband, the insomniac, on our wedding day (almost exactly two and half years ago, which is nice).

Oh hey, Tim, how's it going?

The past six weeks or so, Tim hasn't been sleeping too well. He's had a hard time falling asleep, and sometimes he wakes up and can't fall back asleep. These persistent symptoms of insomnia have plagued him and disrupted his normal daytime functioning, poor kid, so much so that he visited the doctor. (On a side note, I approved this utilization of healthcare services because we've purchased insurance for two years without him using it.)

The doctor gave him some advice about sleep hygiene and (now we come to the point of the post) a prescription for Ambien.

Ambien does weird things to people, apparently. The side effects may include driving, eating, talking on the phone, having sex, etc., all without remembering anything the next morning. Mostly, though, Tim has experienced motor and movement problems. Also, I think he might be having what some would call hallucinations (another known side effect).

Here are a few examples:

Thursday: Tim takes pill when we are out using an office copier. He disappears for a while without saying anything. Upon returning, he looks at me with a dazed expression and says, "I may or may not just have turned off a lot of equipment." We left right about then. I'm really sorry to all those who were confused about why their printers weren't working today as a result.

Tuesday: Lengthy and detailed description of several dreamscapes while lying awake (?) in bed. "I'm standing on a road in a mountain . . . there are rocks . . . you're standing next to me, but your hair is black . . ."

He also kept saying, "I'm dreaming right now, but I'm awake."

Monday: Philosophical ruminations on the essence of love. "Do you think our love is still the same thing even though it's changed?"

Ambien has definitely helped Tim to sleep through the night. We'll soon see if he returns back to normal after the prescription (enough to last for a week) runs out after tonight.

weird in the morning, episode 5

2011-09-11T08:18:00.001-07:00

Tim: Do you want to ride in the tire?

Amanda: Did you make a tire swing?

Tim: No, but I found a big tire and we could ride it down the hill.

weird in the morning, episode 4

2011-08-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Tim just rolled over and said to me, "Do you know that on old ships, it's the ropes that keep the mast from tipping over?"

Vinto Pizzeria

2011-08-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

Last night Tim and I tried a new restaurant in Salt Lake with his dad and step-mom called Vinto Pizzeria. Tim ordered the "Giovanni" pizza, which appears on the menu with the following ingredient list: Prosciutto di Parma, seasonal fruit, arugula, fontina, fresh herbs, shaved parmigiano-reggiano.

What does "seasonal fruit" mean? We had the same question. The pizza came with thin slices of nothing other than cantaloupe melon. It was good.

Also, we tried a variety of their gelato and sorbetto (guilt-free): green apple and dark chocolate sorbetto; strawberry, mint chocolate chip, basil, and ginger gelato.

We appreciated most of these strange flavor combinations.

the end

2011-08-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Our sugar fast is officially over as of today, but I'll be honest: we've been acting like it's been over for a while now. At least now, though, I don't have to feel as guilty about it. We're not about to go crazy on the sugar thing, but we're not going to avoid it so much. For example, I've reignited my love affair with homemade strawberry jam. Yummmmmm.

My Favorite Furniture

2011-07-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Table sold by the neighbors who lived above us. The ones that left in the night. (Place mats included!): $50

Couch owned by my grandparents who now live in a rest home and therefore don't need their furniture: $0

Smoke-filled chair and ottoman purchased at DI in Tooele, Christmas 2010 (It no longer smells smoky!): $15

These are my favorite because of how they were acquired, of course.

Lactating Alien

2011-07-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of posts ago I wrote: "I looked like a lactating alien." I would be lying if I didn't admit that I sort of thought that would merit a comment.

A post about driving, brought to you by Google Maps Street View

2011-07-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

The intersection on 200 S and State Street in downtown Salt Lake is confusing.

Tim and I were driving there a couple of weeks ago. Imagine that we are that grey SUV in this Google Maps Street View photo; that's where we were. (P.S. Remember how we saw that sweet Street View car? New-found appreciation.) See how there's a divided lane there next to the SUV?

That divided lane merges with 200 South pretty close to the intersection with State Street. When it does, there is a "No Right Turn" sign.

But then you get to the intersection and see this sign. And you don't realize that you have two lanes now to the right of you, because they're separated by a divider.

So you turn right onto State Street.

And then you get a ticket.

(As you are being pulled over, you see someone else pulled over in the exact same spot, presumably for the same offense. When you drive around the block, you see at least three other people getting pulled over, too. Quota to fill, anyone?)

Just shy of two weeks later, you get online to pay the ticket (YOU MUST PAY OR APPEAR WITHIN 14 CALENDAR DAYS, the ticket says). The system says your citation number cannot be found. So you try looking it up by your license plate number. Nothing.

Then you call the phone number listed on the ticket and get connected to an automated "interactive voice response system" and struggle to talk to a computer. Your citation number still can't be found. They disconnect you. You call another number and talk to a real person who directs you to different department, where you talk to a different real person, who says the ticket number is not in the system.

"You just have to keep calling," she says. "Try again on Friday."

"But that's after 14 calendar days," you say.

"If there is a delinquent fine, tell them you talked to me," she adds.

Salt Lake City Justice Court, you suck.

Real Soccer Game

2011-07-10T09:42:00.001-07:00

We had great fun at the Real game last night.

Here's crappy cell phone picture evidence:

They played FC Dallas and won 2-0. There were some pretty exciting plays. Soccer is an exciting sport to watch, even for me.

july forf

2011-07-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not too big on patriotic displays or pyrotechnic ones (fireworks? boring) usually, but we still had a good Independence Day. And certainly we both appreciated the day off work.

We hiked Adams Canyon, which I'm sure I've done many, many times before, but didn't remember being so long and rocky toward the end. But to the end we went! We had our picture taken at the top by some friendly fellow hikers.

We are wearing matchy cut-off shorts, isn't that cute?

I had this red bandanna thing that I got wet and put around my neck for cooling purposes. The darn thing totally dripped and stained my shirt awkwardly. As a result, I looked like a lactating alien. But that didn't stop us from going straight from there to a barbecue attended by a bunch of people we didn't know. (We did know a few important folks, though, and they are nice folks.)

At the barbecue, I ate nearly three chocolate chip cookies. Month 2 of the sugar fast is apparently going real swimmingly, just like Month 1. This is the first time I've indulged like that though. GIVE ME A BREAK.

Shasta (not soda)

2011-07-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

So about two weeks ago, Tim and I went to Sacramento so he could mountaineer on Shasta with his dear friend Darren (DFD).

Here is a video of Tim glissading down the mountain:

I like the end and Tim's sideways visage of unadulterated thrill:

While he was ascending Shasta (which is actually not too near Sacramento), I hung out with this cute little girl:

Usually babies are scary but Lilli just might be the most chilled out baby I have ever met. She was never really fussy, didn't cry, stayed up late, slept in, etc. And it was crazy. But the kind of crazy I can get behind.

Also, Tim acquired raccoon eyes!

All in all, it was a short but pleasant visit.

wednesday night dance party

2011-06-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

This video is 25 percent its original size. 25 percent might still be too much.

I tried the Bernie, which my friend Rachel mentioned on her blog today. It was awkward. Also, I'm awkward. (Why is my mouth open like the whole time? No one knows.)

Tim has the smooth moves.

time-lapse climbing

2011-06-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

The pictures from this are old (winter 2008) but I just made the video with the help of Picasa. It's mildly interesting. Enjoy!

no-sugar day 13

2011-06-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

One unanticipated restriction of the no-sugar diet is that we can't really go out to eat, which is probably a good thing. But we haven't been as strict as we maybe should be, and last week we bought some food from a restaurant that almost definitely uses refined sugar. No question about it. Most restaurants probably do (refined sugar, meet sauce), and unless you have access to ingredient lists, which aren't usually made available in restaurants (why not, anyway?), then you can feign ignorance.

It was kind of desperate, as most of our eating out situations seem. (And desperate times-->desperate measures, right?) Rarely do we PLAN to go out. But sometimes we neglect to plan anything else and as a result of dire starvation and time constraints, or sometimes peer pressure, we break down in the face of, in this case, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue.

I guess in the vein of full disclosure I should also confess that we ate at Cafe Rio on Saturday due to the spontaneous invitation of a friend who we were transporting from the airport. It would've been rude to say no.

In some ways we've been willfully ignorant. I can safely say that we haven't purchased any groceries that include refined sugar, but we may have freely sampled sugary items when they've been presented to us (other people offering us bits of food, samples at Costco, BYU chocolate milk at the end of a Welfare Square tour . . . actually, that last one didn't involve ignorance in the least, but it was drunk by Tim anyway). We've also used some existing items that don't comply with regulation here and there.

So basically things are going . . . well.

sugar fast

2011-06-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Today is day one of our 60-day sugar challenge: avoid refined and added sugars entirely (with a few predefined exceptions).

Though the health benefits of naturally occurring sugars vs. commercially processed sugars are somewhat debatable, avoiding them as much as possible is going to reduce our sugar intake overall drastically, which seems like a good thing. And while sugar itself isn't all bad, it is responsible for lots of empty and unnecessary calories. We did inventory of our current holdings and were a little shocked at how many items that we didn't expect to contained added sugars. (Canned beans?) Also, sugar is often concentrated alongside fatty-fatty foods. (That's double fatty foods, if you didn't know, and I just now made it up.)

In our marriage, I've learned that Tim has little restraint when it comes to sweets. I'm just chuckling to myself as I recall how quickly he recently ate almost an entire carton of ice cream single-handedly. (That sentence seems overly burdened by adverbs.) So when it comes to these little "diets" (remember when we went vegan in March?), Tim is glad to have a reason to just say no.

Anyway, here's to a summer of not eating ice cream (normally a daily occurrence in summertime for me)! I'm kind of excited. And Meredith is benevolently joining us again. She went vegan with us in March as well, which probably wasn't her favorite thing ever. But she's trying to get on the healthier eating habits train, so she's being a sport.

If you're interested in our delineation between acceptable and unacceptable sugars, please see below.

not okay sugars

white sugar

brown sugar

(high fructose) corn syrup

(commercially refined) sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, lactose, galactose, cane syrup, corn syrup, corn sugar, invert sugar, dextrose

okay sugars

maple syrup

honey

brown rice syrup

barley malt syrup

fruit juice (no added sugar)

molasses

cane juice/sucanat

agave nectar

MMMBop

2011-04-29T12:04:00.001-07:00

Moments ago, I searched for "MMMBop" on Google and watched the music video. I have some distinct memories of watching this music video on VH1, probably, when I was about 10 or 11. The cave bit was the thing I remember most from the video.

Tim walked over and the following conversation ensued:

Tim: I wonder what these kids are doing now.

me: I think they're still making music.

Tim: As Hanson?

[pause]

Tim: That's good they're still making music. They didn't let puberty dog 'em!

Now he is reading the article on Wikipedia about them.

Then:

Now:

anniversary no. 2

2011-04-23T21:06:00.001-07:00

Has it really been two years already? Weird.

We went to J Dawgs in Provo. I introduced Tim to J Dawgs almost three years ago. We went during a lunch break at work. That first time, Tim asked me if he should get the special sauce, and I was like "Get whatever you want," so he didn't get the special sauce and didn't understand the hype surrounding J Dawgs. I'm not sure why I didn't say something like "Well, it wouldn't really be J Dawgs if you didn't get the special sauce." He's since discovered what makes a J Dawg. Duh. Now every time we go to Provo (not often) he wants one.

We were also going to visit some of our other haunts in the Provo area (e.g., that one place in Provo Canyon where he wooed me by singing with his guitar and I "jumped" on him), but the weather was bad. So we went to Costco and ate samples instead.

Happy anniversary, us. It was a good day!

film

2011-04-12T13:17:00.001-07:00

Tim is in a film class this semester in which he is required to watch the likes of the following:

Birth of a Nation

Modern Times

Vertigo

The Searchers

Imitation of Life

Night of the Living Dead

Blade Runner

Precious

Avatar

I watched Blade Runner with him last weekend and I

just

did

not

get

it.

In fact, this feeling of confusion and general distaste has been my response to most of the movies that I watched with Tim for this class. I pretty much hate them all. Too bad.

But we did watch another movie (Sweet Land) last weekend that I really liked. Thank you, Netflix.

frightening

2011-04-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Tim was up in the middle of the night last night as he sometimes is because he can't sleep. This is what he was working on, apparently.

I keep seeing this out of the corner of my eye and thinking someone is there. Freaky. Now that I've documented it sufficiently, it's going down.

mustachioed

2011-03-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Frankenstein chair

2011-03-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Remember this? I just realized that I never blogged about Frankenstein (as we lovingly call it) after surgery. I spent hours stitching the beast. It probably wouldn't have taken so long, except that I'm a terrible seamstress. But this thing is as good as new to us, now. Take a look!

beware!

2011-03-17T17:24:00.001-07:00

I guess the "beware the ides of March" means we cheated and had some non-vegan food on or around this time . . .

beware the ides of march

2011-03-15T07:48:00.001-07:00

We're vegan for the month of March. And we're halfway through!

ruined again

2011-01-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

Poor Tim. Sometimes when I try to feed him, it just doesn't work out.

The good news, though, is that in our new apartment, the smoke detectors seem to have a very high tolerance level. So when smoke was billowing from the oven, no alarms were triggered.

bang it

2011-01-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

Today I was chatting with a coworker who is coordinating a project I'm working on. She was chatting with me to set up a due date for one of my edits. The following messages were exchanged after she asked me when I could complete my edit:

me: ummm, probably monday/tuesday sometime?

coworker: Okay :) Lets due [sic] Tuesday COB.

me: ok

me: bang it!!!!!!!!

coworker: bang it?

Errrr . . .

Tim is a champ at accidentally transmitting seemingly inappropriate messages to unsuspecting coworkers. In his defense, he thought his message was going to a friend we both know; he didn't mean anything crass by typing it. And he's kind of embarrassed it went to someone else. But the jury is still out on the meaning of "bang it": benign or raunchy? You decide.

Operation Ring Retrieval

2011-01-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

Though he would probably say otherwise, Tim is addicted to playing with his wedding ring.

Behold:

Though I've told him to stop, there must be something irresistible about shiny spinning objects. I guess it is pretty cool and all.

One day while agonizing over finals, Tim could be found productively spinning his ring on the counter in the kitchen.

He looks so happy to be playing with his ring rather than working on yet another 15-page paper (see figure).

Suddenly, disaster strikes when Tim loses control of his ring and it catapults onto the floor from counter 1. After searching on the floor near counter 2 where Tim suspects it landed, he cannot find it. It has disappeared into oblivion! (A lesser person might be tempted to say something like "I told you so" here, but I'm too saintly and wholesome for that.)

"Son of a . . . !!!"

As you can see from the picture, Tim is not enjoying himself as much anymore. His ring is lost (and apparently his arms, face, and hair are too (Actually, that was an artist error. I created the second image before the first and decided to add more detail, but was too lazy to go back and replicate the details in the second image.)).

"Wife is going to kill me!" Tim thinks to himself as he explores the area thoroughly. He realizes there is something strange about the format of the kitchen here:

As you can see from the excellently rendered graphic description, there is space between the baseboard and the bottom of the kitchen cabinets. Tim's attempts to put his hand through the space are unsuccessful. He's lucky if he can squeeze his fingers in there past his knuckles. Apparently the ring is irrecoverable.

But Tim will not give up so easily (partially because I won't let him). Operation Ring Retrieval begins. The mission is to recover the ring without noticeable damage to the apartment so as to retain our deposit.

Upon further inspection, Tim discovers that the baseboards are covered by a facade that can be easily removed. There is no choice, of course, but to saw through the baseboard to access the space under the cabinets, get the ring, then replace the facade.

Let the sawing commence.

Notice the gap between the top of the wood and the bottom of the cabinets. It's not just that Tim has fat fingers; obviously it's a small spot. Visibility of all areas under the cabinets was severely limited. The ring remained aloof.

We questioned the wisdom of further damage-inducing ring retrieval attempts. After all, the ring is less valuable than the apartment deposit. Would Operation Ring Retrieval compromise it?

Good thing Meredith came back to town.

Operation Ring Retrieval was given new life when Meredith returned from her Christmas vacation, bringing along her super-human problem-solving capabilities and her new iPhone. She put the iPhone through the hole and recorded video, moving the camera around to reveal the hidden depths that had been invisible to our un-iPhone-aided eyes.

Look! There's the ring!

After cutting a new hole, Tim reached his skinny little hand through it and . . . well, see for yourself:

Operation Ring Retrieval: success! And best of all, after we put the facades back in place, you can't tell we did anything. Here's hoping the landlord never finds out (or finds this blog . . . good thing I'm publicizing this tale on the world-wide-internets, eh?)!

we got locked out recently

2010-12-08T14:31:00.000-08:00

I got your back, Tim.

Kneaders fail

2010-11-27T21:30:00.001-08:00

This morning we went to Kneaders. I was really, really interested in getting their all-you-can-eat chunky cinnamon french toast.

And despite our goal this month to not eat out on our own dime, I was feeling extravagant on this holiday weekend. What is Thanksgiving if not indulging in gluttonous impulses? Proof of this holiday's meaning to me: All I have been doing lately (besides preparing a Thanksgiving meal Wed/Thurs) is eating, sleeping, and thinking about food.

So we drove out to Fort Union, ordered two of all-you-can-eat french toast, got some water, and sat down to wait. Approximately ten minutes later, Tim stood to see what had become of our order. We had also heard a Kneaders employee saying they were out of chunky cinnamon bread. Whaaaa? That is what MAKES the french toast what it is. Travesty.

When I joined Tim at the register, he passed along the news: they had lost our order and they were in fact out of the chunky cinnamon bread. We got our money back and left.

Then we drove out to the Kneaders in West Jordan. But then we thought about how we didn't even get a free cookie from that last disaster, and we thought about our goal to not eat out, and we saw the parking lot and how crazy-crowded it was there, and we didn't go inside.

Our goal to not eat out is inadvertently kept. Maybe next month we can avoid purchasing premade foodstuffs (this is our working definition of eating out) due to our immense self-control rather than Fate thwarting us.

I do have to say that we've made a lot of improvement in this area. Tim and I got in the habit of "eating out" a lot when we were dating and engaged. It remains a weakness, though we've severely toned it down. It's a good thing, too, because we're pretty poor.

pasta pasta

2010-11-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

So I have been on a pasta-making kick recently for reasons unknown.

Last week I made gnocchi:

Last night I made . . . ravioli? Tortellini? Some formless sort of stuffed pasta. That's better.

The dough was so easy to make, and when I was rolling it out, I said to Tim, "I should make all of our pasta myself!" But by the end of it all I no longer wanted to make all our pasta myself. It's laborious.

Formless, see?

I made a filling with ground chicken, spinach, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese, which sounds better than it actually was, but the best part was when I put two chicken breasts in the food processor to grind them up. I should have cut them into smaller pieces probably before I put them in the food processor, because when I turned it on, the lid came unscrewed due to the crazy balance in the bowl. The chicken shot up and out of the bowl and slammed into the wall, knocking out a tealight candle on its way.

I really want to see this moment recorded, but unfortunately this part was not caught on camera.

Still fun though.

had an itch

2010-09-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

I hope by this point that Tim doesn't feel embarrassed for doing this, because I think it is HILARIOUS and just had to share.

Yesterday Tim was reading and had an itch on his arm. He scratched his arm with his pen but did not realize the pen was not clicked off (an honest mistake—those little clicky pens can be deceiving). The picture depicts the result. (Poor Tim, he looks so ashamed!) The best part was when he called me to come into the room and he confessed all. (I wish you could have been there.)

After laughing hysterically, I pulled out my camera to document it. Suspecting I would put it on my blog, he protested, saying it was embarrassing because he was actually conscious for "this one," as opposed to the other funny, random, and amazing stuff, which happens when he's only semi-conscious (and which you don't know the half of, unfortunately). On that note, can I just say that I love early mornings with Tim? I'm usually somewhat grumpy and he is the most hilarious human alive.

I love him because he let me post this.

We're moved in!

2010-09-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

We had to get a dresser, which we ordered online, so it took a while for us to get actually moved in, but I think we're finally there!

(Living room)

(Kitchen)

(Bedroom)

(Tim hard at work, as always)

Winnebago, Schminnebago

2010-09-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

I have decided that instead of this, THIS would be so much better. Like IKEA meets Winnebago. Or something.

Hair Cut #2

2010-09-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

For everyone who remembers this fiasco, Amanda cut my hair this past weekend and it looks really good! She has come so far!

I'll see about getting some picture to post.

some before and after

2010-08-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

So these are some pictures of our new apartment. They are really terrible pictures, but I will make do. I forgot to get pictures after we painted before we started moving stuff, so that explains the bulk of the issues. I am not the best photographer, either, especially when it comes to interiors. Also, I used Photobucket for the first time to upload these and they cropped weird, so if you want to see the whole picture, click on it. (Anyone know how to fix that?)

We painted in the bedroom and in the living room over the wood paneling. We are probably going to do the bathroom at some point, too, just not sure when. It was my first time painting and it's pretty fun, I guess. Takes longer than you think. The colors did not turn out how we thought they would. But we think it looks decent and will work. Plus we are just renting. :)

Bedroom (old)

bedroom old

bedroom old

bedroom new

kitchen old

kitchen new

living room old

living room new

living room new

living room new

bathroom old and unchanged

hallway old and pretty much unchanged

2010-07-26T12:40:00.001-07:00

I just started composing a post to share Tim's graduation announcement and the fun I had making it, but then realized I had already posted about that. Oops.

Gradjeeating

2010-07-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

I made this graduation announcement for Tim. It was fun. Tim bought me InDesign for my birthday last year, and I'm sad to say that I haven't really used it a whole lot. But I'm using it now for this!

We're making the most of his graduation, what with this announcement (fancy). And he's going to be walking, obviously. I didn't do those things when I finished school over a year ago . . . weird. My graduation wasn't a marked event: I just received my diploma in the mail one day, and when I did, it was surreal because there was absolutely no pomp and circumstance. Maybe it's nice to walk so you actually feel like you have graduated. I kept fearing that I hadn't until I got my diploma, which took its time coming, and even when it came, the resolution was anticlimactic.

This won't be the actual picture. We'll have to take a good one soon so we can send these out to a few folks!

weird in the morning, episode 3

2010-07-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

You'll of course remember this and this. Well, this morning was one of those mornings.

Tim: I had a dream about how horses were brought to the Americas.

Amanda mulling about, getting ready, while Tim lies in bed. Tim raises his hands in the air to signify a touchdown (?).

Tim: Goaaaal!

Amanda looks questioningly at Tim.

Tim: That is what the refs do.

This time he does a few different motions.

Tim: In baseball, they do this. You're ooouuuut!

P.S. Tim wanted me to tell you that he's not crazy, he's just tired when he wakes up.

rad baby skull!

2010-06-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

So I did a baby shower for my dear friend Andrea recently. I was pretty nervous about it, but it turned out well, or at least Andrea thought so. She got some good presents for the youngster, so I guess that's all that matters.

We did onesie decorating (not an original idea, lest ye think I'm creative), and in an attempt to work out some of the logistics involved, I bought an old sheet from DI and cut it up so Tim and I could practice on it.

This is what resulted:

All of my fears about what could go wrong at the actual shower were of course quenched by the sheer genius of this creative work. I don't know if you remember this, but it's obvious that Tim is the one who wears the artistic "pants" in this relationship.

He was just sad that he couldn't actually decorate a onesie for the baby. I don't know if Andrea is too sad about that, though . . .

P.S. Yes, it is tacked onto the wall in our apartment. Pictures do not deceive.

recycling

2010-06-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

Exhibit A: Recycling.

(As mentioned here, I have boxes full of all kinds of stuff, but mostly everything from all of my classes throughout my entire secondary schooling, it seems. And so I have been going through it, and with Tim's help, sorting it into appropriate piles for recycling.)

Exhibit B: Tim.

Notice that Tim is wearing a shirt and tie. Today is the Sabbath, so we're "resting," which means that we don't carry all of that recycling the long distance down to the car. We come up with some genius method that involves less work to accomplish our goal.

So we're really righteous, basically. Either that or we're lazy? Or bored?

Exhibit C: Rope.

Exhibit C: Pulley mechanism.

Exhibit D: Rope is hooked onto carabiner, which is attached to bag, which contains recyclable materials.

Tim lowers it over the railing.

Exhibit E: For the cardboard recyclables, a new system is devised. Through the handles on the box, Tim threads webbing tied together with a really beautiful water knot, which is hooked to the carabiner, which is hooked to the rope, which is . . . you get the idea.

Exhibit F: The pulley method is modified.

Notice that the rope has been removed. This improvisation dramatically improves the speed of the process.

Exhibit G: Box passing second floor.

Exhibit H (not pictured): Recycling is loaded in backseat of vehicle and disposed of in a proper manner.

In the summertime . . .

2010-06-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

. . . we like to climb.

(If you zoom in on the photo, Tim has a really funny expression on his face. Ha!)

(I have the most terrible form. And it's not flattering.)

a picture story

2010-06-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

One fine Saturday morning, Amanda and Tim opened the door to their apartment to enjoy the fresh summer air.

All was fine and well: The birds were singing happily; the kitchen window near the door was closed; the pictures on the sill remained in their usual place.

Then a gigantic bee came into the apartment! No one knew what to do. Tim and Amanda stood by and watched the bee menacingly buzz around the closed window, no doubt made exceedingly angry and bloodthirsty by this turn of events. After a moment of hysterics that lasted perhaps longer than necessary, Tim finally grabbed the broom.

After a grueling battle, the bee was overcome.

Destruction was wrought.

Though Tim received no physical wounds, the broom was mutilated. Reeling from the trauma, Tim bemoaned, "Amanda, I'm shaking!"

In order to calm her agitated husband, Amanda retrieved the vacuum to dispose of the bee's corpse. Then, she took the vacuum repository to the dumpster to remove all reminders of the incident.

As she was emptying the repository, the filter fell out onto the dumpster floor. "Oh no! It must be retrieved!" she cried.

Then, Amanda encountered a problem. Try as she might, she could not get out of the dumpster! The walls were too high!

As Amanda was chillaxing in the dumpster, Tim searched out items with which to rescue her. "I know," he thought. "I'll get one of the end tables from our living room and some rope. Brilliant!" At first, Amanda didn't know how this would work. But she cooperated nonetheless. What else could she do?

Tim handed the table over the edge of the dumpster, Amanda set it down and hooked the rope around its legs. Then she stood on the table to climb out!

"Oh happy day! I am saved!"

Then Amanda and Tim rescued the end table from the clutches of the dumpster/dungeon with the rope. Success!

Yeah, this was completely embarrassing. And to make it worse, our neighbors (whom we've never spoken to) were watching pretty much the whole time. We still haven't spoken to them.

The end.

winnebago dreams

2010-05-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about buying a Winnebago and living in an RV park, or wherever really. We'd be wired for all of our needs. As for Netflix (Tim and I acquired Netflix recently, and it's a tremendously exciting development), we'd have a post office box nearby.

Sounds like a good option! What a great place to raise a family, don't you think? It's gotta beat renting. How sweet would this be?

anniversary no. 1

2010-04-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

So we went to the same place we went on April 23, 2009, which was that day we got married last year: Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City.

I think the addition of the hot tub this year was worth it. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of that part. We didn't remember about taking pictures until we were on our way out--that explains why the pictures look like this:

What do we do when we go to a 5-star hotel? What any lower middle class person would do, of course! We take what we pay for (which actually isn't that much, comparatively, because of their Spring Renewal Package promotion--dinner included). So we are now the proud owners of the following complimentary items:

Box of tissues
Potpourri*
Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap
Exfoliating scrubber
Nail files
Individual packets of q-tips and cotton balls
Dish soap**
Sponge
Hot chocolate
Coffee***
Pen
Stationary
Postcards

*My favorite. Who does that, honestly?
** I wasn't going to grab this, but then we used some of it, so I figured it was better in our bag than in the garbage.
***We don't even drink coffee. I brought it with me to work today in the hopes that someone who does drink coffee appreciates it.

We talked about taking the TV (we don't have one), but I guess we thought that would be a little too conspicuous.

To show our appreciation to the nice people at Stein Lodge, we made it easy for their housekeeping folk by doing some work for them. We bundled our garbage and dirty linens, washed our dirty dishes, and we even left our leftovers from dinner in the little fridge (that one was an accident, actually).

So, happy anniversary to us. Also, I wish to publish abroad the fact that Tim is planning on the U for grad school. Yippeee!

movin' on out

2010-04-19T06:59:00.001-07:00

So Tim and I are moving to a new apartment for the spring and summer. We move sometime next week. It's a large apartment complex normally just rented out to single students, but during the summer, they open it to families/couples, also, for cheaper than you might find elsewhere. Depending. We feel this is a good choice for the following reasons (as well as the aforementioned low, low price): Tim's excited for (1) the second bedroom that he have for an office/music studio . . . I'm excited to have (2) air conditioning and (3) a kitchen that doesn't have carpet. It's only about a block and a half from where we live now, so we don't expect the move to be very difficult (also good). In any case, we've been packing up stuff in boxes and are currently in a halfway state.

But first we had to find boxes, so we've been dumpster-diving (this activity may have questionable legality, perhaps) for those at various retailers in the Provo/Orem locale. On Saturday, after a glorious trip to Costco during which we tested all the office chairs they had, and during which Tim mournfully sighed that he would like an office chair (knowing the implausibility of the purchase) since he only really has a stool now, we were perusing the dumpster behind Office Depot and found this beaut:

And guess what? I found it for $249.99 here! Hot dog, what a find. (Happy Anniversary to you, Tim. This may or may not be my gift of love.) Ok, so maybe it's not worth that much anymore, but it's good as new to us. Almost. As you can see, someone had the good sense to slash it and desecrate it with permanent marker first. (Who does that, anyway?) And, as you can see, we thought duct tape might be just the thing. But we reconsidered, and now I've taken to stitching the gashes with ole-fashioned needle and thread. After hours of stitching, Frankenstein is almost complete (yeah, I'm no pro, but whatev). I also used a Magic Eraser to remove most of the permanent marker, although it didn't come off completely. They are truly magical: when I wrote in permanent marker on my fridge freshman year at Heritage Halls, they worked perfectly.

The end of the very long post.

ouchie

2010-03-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Glasses for Tim's failing eyes: $167.50
Car insurance (for a year): $538.10
2 new tires for Jetta: $163.19
Deposit for apartment contract + application fee: $535 (Because we are moving, so if you know anyone who wants our apartment, let us know.)

Total unexpected/abnormal expenditures this month? $1403.79

Yeah. Ouch.

But in good news, in an effort to scale back spending on groceries, we have spent only $67.22 this month! This is not a completely accurate reflection, though. I did have one Costco trip subsidized. Thank you to the parentals.

Wishbone incident

2010-03-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

After having just finished pulling all of the meat off of a rotisserie chicken (purchased from Costco--Amanda's favorite place), Amanda exclaimed, "look! A wishbone!" She held up one end of the deceased bird's furcula and urged me to take hold of the other. "Make a wish!"

For some reason, at that moment, just as the stressing bone was about to snap, the word "death" popped into my head. Yes, I had accidentally wished for death and before I could do anything about it the bone snapped.

Luckily, the wishbone broke on my end and Amanda had the bigger half. I breathed a sign of relief, realizing that her wish would come true and not mine. More than just dodging a bullet there, I think that I may have bought us some extra time.

Weird in the morning, episode 2

2010-03-02T07:01:00.000-08:00

Amanda: Tim, do you want to wake up?

Tim: No.

Amanda: Oh. (Or something equally unremarkable.)

Tim: If you'd like to submit a formal request, I will respond in three to five business days.

It is too ridiculous!

2010-02-28T10:57:00.000-08:00

Pens, pens, and more pens.

Now I just need to figure out which ones work and which don't.

Apparently not all of them were honestly obtained, strictly speaking. (I did work there, does that help?)

I also collect chapstick . . .

Hair cutting is hard!/Clipper Catastrophe!

2010-01-05T06:38:00.000-08:00

T: "Hey! You could cut my hair tonight!"

A: "Yeah! I've never cut, especially boys', hair before in my life, but that shouldn't matter, should it? How hard can it be?"

T: "Of course not! It will be so easy. You just take the clippers and start clipping and then you cut the top with sissors!"

A: (Starts cutting. When it doesn't go so well, cuts a bit more. It takes a long time. It is very messy--hair gets everywhere.)

T: (Looks in the mirror. Panic begins to set in.) This is not even. Oh my gosh! Why is it so short here and so long back here?!?! (In his panicked state, Tim runs into the bathroom and proceeds to buzz his head with a shorter clipper attachment.)

(He's mentioned this desire before, just to see "how bald I really am." Amanda has been against it. Baldness should come naturally. We all know it's inevitable, so why speed the process?)

Discovery: Tim is getting pretty bald, but at this stage, it's patchy thinning. Buzzed head maybe isn't the best hairstyle choice? Good thing hair grows.

Oh and just for comparison purposes, let's just see an old picture of Tim from who knows when . . .

P.S. This incident also involved the only time that I actually have witnessed Tim crying.

potentially not good

2009-12-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes at work I have to facilitate web conferences, which means I share my desktop as we do a group edit of some assessment or another (mostly).

Today as I was facilitating a conference involving several coworkers, a message popped up from Tim (Google Talk). He was trying to get my attention.

The message was "Let's get naked!"

Enough said.

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

My friend whose blog I like to read posted this link on her blog yesterday. The post is so fitting, because this is what Tim and I were doing the other night:

And you can bet your bottom dollar we were unashamedly listening to Sujfan Stevens's Christmas album(s) at the moment this picture was taken. (The music is marvelous, really. And as Tim would say, "refreshingly Christian." Not that commercialized stuff you get so often--which can sometimes be good, and sometimes really not that great, like Lady Gaga's little song "Christmas Tree." What the heck? Not that great--It's ironic that the post would talk about how white people like Sufjan Stevens's Christmas music, because the post also talks about how white people like to dissociate themselves from the imposing Christianity of the Christmas holiday.)

In any case, we got a Christmas tree. This is uber-exciting for the following reasons (and maybe more that I can't think of):

1. I have never once, at least in my recollection, have had a live Christmas tree. (We always had an artificial tree.) They smell nice!
2. My family hasn't had a Christmas tree up, decorated, with presents under it for quite some time. Mostly because there are no young'uns around to get really excited about it, so no one much cares. (But I'm excited about this one in my new home.)

Thus, I will post more pictures.

It is hard to get a good picture of a Christmas tree.

Silly Tim! You are not supposed to WEAR stockings!

Oh, and this one is probably my favorite because it features Mister Gnome Man, whom we have adopted (as we might a child), and whom I intend to keep for as long as possible.

weird in the morning

2009-09-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

Tim doesn't think that he is weird in the morning, but I'm building documentation to prove otherwise.

Case in point:

This morning, Tim was in bed with the pillow covering half his face. "Look, Amanda," he says, "This pillow functions as my eye patch."

Then later, still in bed, one foot was exposed while the rest of his body was covered with a blanket. He says, "Call me Peg-leg Joe!" Later, when I called him Tim, he insisted I should call him Peg-leg Joe.

On my way to work I called and left him a voice mail about something. I said, "Hi Peg-leg" as a greeting. He apparently didn't get the message until he had gained sanity, because when I saw him again, he said he listened to it and thought "What the heck?"

Yes, Tim, you wanted to be a pirate this morning. I don't know why.

getting to know all about you . . .

2009-09-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tim's sister April once said that the first year or so (or first stage) of marriage is all about getting to know each other. So far, we have found this to be true.

One morning recently, Tim had something on his face that I could've sworn wasn't there before. He also noticed it that morning. It appeared to be a blood blister sort of, without the blister part, or maybe a scab, which had appeared overnight. So I proceeded to do "surgery" on it, against Tim's will, and when it didn't go away, I thought, "I'll just have to get used to this version of Tim." This was a perplexing dilemma for me. I worried about it, as if learning how to love a person with a serious handicap.

Turns out it was a mole. And upon viewing pictures of Tim's face, it is evident that it has been there for some time. In fact, one of the earliest pictures I have of Tim (from May 24, 2008) includes this facial feature. (See above.)

Our conclusion is that we both noticed it because it was slightly enlarged due to some sort of pimple in the same location. That may sound gross, but admit it, faces are gross places. (Sort of.)

Dinner at the Temple

2009-08-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, prior to attending a temple session, Amanda and I had dinner in the cafeteria of the Provo Utah LDS temple--a new experience for the both of us. As many of our Mormon readers know, the temple is probably the pinnacle of Mormon experience, the place where it is easiest to feel spiritual enlightenment and to learn more about our existence in mortal life as well as the life before and the life after. Which made the temple cafeteria experience interesting.

While the rest of the temple may be inspired by God, to say that its cafeteria is also would be a serious trial of faith for me. The two beef enchiladas that Manda and I shared (the other choice was brautwerste, yes brautwerste not bratwurst) were mushy from grease. It was hard to tell where the tortilla ended and the beef began. The side of mixed vegetables was sorta tasteless and the Cajun red beans and rice only tasted of Cajun. Excessive Cajun.

This is funny because I have such high expectations about temple experience that are often rewarded. I just assumed that the would be true of all aspects of the temple. Of course, it is good that the temple is trying to save church tithing funds and feed hungry (perhaps desperately hungry?) temple patrons for a good price. I guess that must mean bad, unhealthy food.

is this one still kicking?

2009-08-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

The fate of this blog is hanging in the balance. Nothing has really taken shape yet. I have my own personal blog, but the married person blog is floundering. What now? Tim feels like he doesn't have ownership and therefore never thinks to post? He believes it is because his friends do not follow the blog.

And nothing comes to mind for me. It's not like there are tons of marital exploits going on or anything. BUT there is some cooking. So should I morph this thing into some sort of recipe trial and error thing?

I don't know what to do! HELP!

timanda and baby-face rowan. and a secret surprise.

2009-06-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Timanda

Baby-face Rowan (OH CUTE!)Golltim or perhaps Gollimmy-boy (Gollum/Tim/Timmy boy)

I'm so domestic.

2009-06-19T07:56:00.003-07:00

Yesterday, I
cooked
cleaned
baked bread
mended clothes

Beyond my wildest dreams, that's what this is.

new blender. again.

2009-06-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

Folks, here's the blender we got this time. We've used it once so far, and it seems promising. Although it would be nice to buy something much more expensive and much more nice, we are poor. Even though we're obsessed.

But in other news, I found an excellent muffin recipe using whole wheat flour and yogurt. It ended up being bread because we don't have a muffin pan, but I felt like it was healthy because it contained only 1/4 c. butter and 1/2 c. sugar. Also delicious. There seem to be a bunch of good recipes on this website . . . let's get started cooking with yogurt, I guess. Who knew? I wonder who gets these ideas, anyway. I'd like to know.

Blender

2009-06-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

Tim and I are obsessed with smoothies. We go to Costco and buy bags of mixed frozen fruit and then Odwalla orange juice for specifically this purpose. So amazing. And definitely lots of fruit. Pure fruit. Frozen fruit + banana+ orange juice = amazing smoothie.

But we are having problems with blenders.

First, we bought this one:

Which was good. In fact, it was great! . . . for a while. THEN I tried to blend mashed potatoes in it on Wednesday night, and it died. Completely.

So sad. I think Tim was crying in fact.

Then, the next day, our smoothie withdrawals got so terrible that we went out and bought this one with the help of a gift card (wedding present):

Unfortunately . . .

Well, let's just say we're taking it back. I even taped up the box so it looks like we NEVER used it. I can't deal with a new blender working like this?

Where can I find a decent smoothie blender?!?!?! Blenders are just notorious for not lasting very long. And I don't appreciate it. I also don't appreciate how lots of times when you get smoothies at Jamba Juice, they have little fruit chunks in them. Obviously their blenders aren't that great either. I also don't appreciate that they cost so freaking ridiculously much. AND how they add sugar. Not that either.

OUR SMOOTHIES ARE BETTER. But we need a better blender.

2009-05-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Bathroom, bedroom. Etc.

more. scroll

2009-05-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Apparently you can post four at a time? Picasa.

we are moved in our apt

2009-05-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

It is hard to take good pictures of houses and rooms. But here is what I have taken.
This is where we live!!

check

2009-04-03T13:07:00.001-07:00

We got a marriage license today!

photos

2009-03-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

I really like the work of this man.

Announcement, announcement, ann-OOUNCE-ment!

2009-03-11T09:58:00.001-07:00

We're in the process of sending out announcements currently. Hurray.

Check: Decided on a date.
Check: Found a place to live and paid deposit. (200 N 600 E. 500/month rent. Mer.)
Check: Printed announcements and pictures. (Duh.)
Check: Got a dress. It's getting altered.
Check: Bought Tim's ring.
Check: Arranged the temple.
Check: Arranged the luncheon location.
Check: Karisa took pictures. (Obviously. Thanks, Karisa.)
Check: Ordered shoes. They are in the mail.
Check: Got my ring from Tim.

Still need to do:

Get Tim a suit.
Find a place to go between April 23 and May 1 (when we can move into our apartment.)
Flowers?

Other ideas? I don't know what else needs to be done.

Let's do an art project.

2009-02-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

Although I have lived in girls' apartments for many years, none of my apartments have ever had a quote wall. I think ours may have been the only freshman girls' dorm/apt. which didn't have one of these. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't upset by it. I thought, though, that my apartment this year needed one. My roommates are always writing little tidbits on the whiteboards on our fridge. So adopting the role of apartment quote wall facilitator, I bought some butcher paper, paints, and recruited Tim as my collaborative colleague.
Here is the "artist" at work.

Truthfully, I basically did the letters at the top and he did everything else. (Facilitator.) Although I was quite excited at the outset of our artistic venture, as usual, I faced the blank canvas in a state of creative paralysis.

I can't do art.
But Tim can, so all is well! It's lucky he's marrying me, otherwise I might suffer an artistic condemnation.

By the way, if you are wondering, I don't really know about the definitions of "art" and "artist." But I can sure use those words a lot in this post.

(I feel like a mother documenting photos of her young child, the artist in embryo. I see a lot of potential here. Just like little Marla's parents in My Kid Could Paint That.)

engagements. cast your vote.

2009-01-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

which one is your favorite? leave a comment and tell.
1

Inauguration Day!

2009-01-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

Obviously, Amanda and I are pretty confident that this whole getting married thing is going to happen (and with each other) because we have jumped the gun by creating this joint married-people type blog, located at http://timandamandarowan.blogspot.com (emphasis on the Rowan part). This thing is set for April 24th, 2009 (date finalized today).

At the onset, I am a bit nervous since my previous attempts at blogging, journalling, and basic keeping-in-contact-with have proved short-lived and/or half-hearted. But, Amanda has been a successful blogger for years, with a small but firmly established readership, so there is hope for this blog (unlike timandamanda.blogspot.com and timothyandamanda.blogspot.com, both of which have only one freaking post over a year old!).

Today seems like a good day to start--to inaugurate, if you will--this blog. President-elect (now President!) Obama was sworn in to office earlier today and, though I was unable to attend thanks to a useless physical science lab, I can't help but feel the palpable excitement that hangs in the crisp January air. There is always skepticism toward politicians, especially toward those with Mr. Obama's rhetorical skill, so the amount of open celebration (partially because he is African-American--if there is any indication of how big the racism/slavery thing was (is), it is the amount of celebration for this milestone for the black community) in much of the country right now is surprising and exciting.

And I am optimistic about the days ahead. Though he and I disagree on a few issues, I felt confident casting my worthless-in-Utah-county vote for Mr. Obama. I think that a major tonal and ideological shift is what we need now here in the US. Critical challenges are ahead for Mr. Obama, and for us, and it will be interesting to see how they are dealt with. But that can wait for the moment. Today is a day for celebration! So to Mr. Obama, I offer you congratulations and my thumbs up: