no work, all play

our weekends and other free days have been an endless stream of cleaning and weeding and unpacking and organizing and finance-reviewing lately, and there are few things i find more demoralizing than feeling like my life has been taken over by mundane, administrative tasks. so i unilaterally named last saturday no-chore saturday. and, (un)surprisingly, received no complaints.

so, instead of what has become our boring norm, saturday was all sleeping in and homemade muffins for breakfast and more sleeping and  a day trip adventure to leesburg.

ever since i moved here i've wanted to go to old lucketts store, a magical place filled to the brim with every weird and wonderful vintage and antique thing you could ever want. it was everything i had hoped for. i walked through every room and touched almost every treasure. though i think AWD is rubbing off on me because, while i normally would have walked out of there at least with a strange bust or a couple colored mason jars-- something!-- every time i picked something up i thought, where would i put this? or, it would make the house seem too cluttered. people, this is definitely a shift. i wouldn't classify myself as a minimalist, certainly, but AWD seems to have turned my previously maximalist ways into something more middle-of-the-road. (and he couldn't be happier about it.)

i didn't walk away empty-handed from the roadside farm stands, though (corn! peaches! cherries!), and we grabbed a delicious lunch in historic downtown before heading back to washington city.

and you know what? it turned out that putting off those chores didn't matter one single bit.

today was a good day.

the temperature is back to normal and there was a delightful breeze.

it was free slurpee day. and you better believe we tapped that.

it was also farmer's market day by my office. i got some mangoes and an avocado for tonight's dinner, and these peaches which i fully intend on turning into a cobbler.

i crossed every single thing off my to-do list at work. every. single. one.

i got an e-mail with adorable pictures of a sweet baby girl born on monday. we'll get to cuddle her tomorrow.

and for the third night in a row, i had nothing to do after work but spend the whole night hanging out with my husband. which, as it happens, is the thing i prefer over most others.

sometimes when things are smooth and happy and drama-free and i feel like i am winning at life, i start to worry that a) i am not trying hard enough or b) something really bad is about to happen to me. that kind of thinking can really take the joy out of joyful moments, so i am trying to avoid it.

and so, for better or worse, i'll just say this: today was a good day.

these days go by

i have a confession, my babies. i am feeling a little glum about this blog these days. is anyone out there? is anyone still reading this? does anyone care about me at all? (OK, that last one was for dramatic effect. did it work?) but, i figure some day at least my posterity will want some record of my life and there is no way they'll be able to read the terrible handwriting in my journals, so on i go.

but i hope someone is out there with me.

in case you are, here are the things that have been taking up my week.

1. eating lots of good food with lots of good friends. monday was district commons with dana and ABK (shrimp and grits, why are you so good?), tuesday was thai xing with the poynter dinner group (thai food, why are you so spicy?), wednesday was a meal delivery for clint, KA and brand new baby kate, who fell asleep on my chest and sent me straight to heaven, and tonight is tacos with cousin david on our back porch, which we can do because its been in the 70s for two weeks now. which leads me to...

2. spending lots of time outside. i have been taking a walk outside in the middle of the work day every day, and i feel really good about it. evening walks around the neighborhood have also been in heavy rotation.

3. dreaming about dessert. we are nearing the end of our month of no sugar and pretty much all we can think about is easter candy (me) and frosties from wendy's (AWD). i have a longer post about this experiment in my brain that will eventually be out on this screen, but for now i can say that i think it has been a good thing.

4. reading obsessive amounts about the aghanistan villager murders (big topic at work) and the trayvon martin murder. (so sad.) i thought this npr piece really nailed the martin case.

5. reading obsessive amounts about the tim tebow trade. i had to look up his twitter handle the other day for a work-related thing (i swear) and now i just can't stop thinking about it. even though AWD explained to me all the reasons why it makes sense for denver to want peyton manning because even though he has a bad neck and may never play again, he plays in the pocket and tebow is a scrambler and blah blah i don't care. i still feel bad for the guy. they love you when you're winning and then push you aside when an aging legend is on the market and they sad bad stuff about you even when you take sick kids on dates to nickelodeon show tapings. plus, this article makes me think his new jets teammates are going to be mean to him. and that just makes me sad.

6. reading the hunger games. well, i bought it yesterday and plan to start it soon. because i figure i should read the book before i see the movie, which is getting too much hype not to watch. and there's nothing like dystopian young adult fiction to distract you from the real problems of the world.

7. looking at gorgeous furniture online that i will probably never be able to afford.

and that probably just about does it for me. you?

project(ed)

we've had a pretty busy week, mostly getting ready for what is going to be an even busier weekend complete with a bridal shower for miss angela, sunday dinner with new couple friends, a saturday night double date night and a monday holiday getaway.

the good news is, all this impending hosting motivated us to get some little house projects done, including getting some of our wedding pictures into frames and hanging up this poster i got AWD for christmas (designed by my ever-talented cousin, trevor).

(pardon my reflection. this was the best photo i could get of it.)

the bad news is, as we were driving home from a frantic and rain-soaked trip to crate and barrel the other night, AWD looked at me and said, "sometimes i just get tired."

as i was frosting cupcakes last night at 11, i had to agree that i might have bitten off one project too many. but, we are nearing the home stretch and i am confident it will all have been worth it.

plus, those cupcakes were delicious.

obladi, oblada.

the weekend started out splendidly.

we went to see "wicked" at the kennedy center. AWD and i were first-timers. we l-o-v-e loved it.

saturday morning i made it to the gym (this is a monumental thing) and then we did a bunch of yard work. the tree out front looks like a tree again instead of a wild bush, and the pernicious weeds along the fence line are gonzo. (for now.)

then we had lunch at tacklebox with the wheeler/hellewell clan, and it was so delicious that it didn't even matter that we had to drive to cleveland park and walk through the rain to get there. (the closer tacklebox in georgetown burned down, you see.)

but, just a few minutes after we got home, isadora, my beloved iphone, took a swim (in my toilet, if you must know) and everything sort of went downhill from there.

first, the blue crabs game was cancelled because of the rain that had been coming down all day. this was quite a blow.

so, we decided to go to the prince william county fair, instead. but by the time we got there it was dumping rain again, and the rides were starting to shut down.

the only thing left to do was hit up the new cafe rio in manassas, which isn't so bad, really, but when you were expecting fireworks at a minor league baseball game, or corn dogs and fried snickers bars, fast food mexican is sort of a let down.

things took a slight turn for the better on sunday afternoon, when i resurrected isadora long enough to download all my phone numbers and calendar items. she actually put up a good fight. she even let me talk to emdawg, as long as i kept her plugged in and on speaker phone. (isadora can be a little demanding.)

but, her last gasp came to an end. so today, with a heavy heart, i went to the at&t store and came home with flora, my new iphone four(a). she joins me thanks to my dad's very generous relinquishment of his upgrade, and so far we are getting along pretty well.

and so, as the beatles would say: life goes on.

it's friday, friday. gotta get down on friday.

does anyone else feel like the days and weeks are just zooming by? i can hardly believe it is friday. again. already. bah!

the biggest news of this blink-and-you-missed-it week is that AWD and i got our temple recommends. we can get married for real! a temple recommend is a little piece of paper you have to show to get into a mormon temple. you have some interviews and some people sign it and then you are good to go. to get married in a mormon temple, you need to get a special, one-time temple recommend. and, as of last night, AWD and i have said special, one-time temple recommends in our hot little hands.

naturally, we went to buzz for cupcakes to celebrate.

then we remembered we hadn't eaten dinner, so we had some sandwiches, too.

we've gotten a couple pieces of really great marriage advice throughout our temple recommend interview process, but i am going to save that for a separate post. so, stay tuned.

i also accomplished one other critical wedding task this week, namely finding a cupcake vendor for our salt lake reception. that was the last big piece that i needed to fall into place and now that it has, i am feeling pretty good.

looks like we are having a wedding!

wedding planning has been pretty fun lately, actually, and i have found some things i really really love that i want to share/brag about, but i am going to save those for a separate post. so stay tuned.

and that's probably enough dwelling on the past, right? let's look ahead to the future!

we are going to see "wicked" tonight! i've never seen it, and neither has AWD, and we are really excited. hurrah!

we are also going to see everyone's favorite minor league baseball team, the maryland blue crabs, play tomorrow night. these annual blue crabs outings are basically one of my favorite things ever.

and, because i have been bit by the nesting bug, and bad, i am going to do some work in the yard saturday morning. i was walking around the neighborhood earlier this week, thinking how homey and cute all the houses looked, and decided that i wanted my house to look like that, too. so, i am going to start by pruning back two seriously overgrown trees and go from there.

there are also a few wedding projects on the horizon but, you guessed it! i am saving those for a separate post. so, stay tuned.

happy weekend, my babies.

wednesday. whirlwind.

when i got to work today i had an e-mail in my inbox from EH.

subject line: in a hurry this morning?

attachment:



sigh.

i really need to manage my morning schedule better.

crooked teeth

i went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago for the first time in six years.

and yes, i know that is 12 times longer than i should have waited.

judge away.

i mean, i could make up a bunch of excuses like that i was poor and i didn't have dental insurance and then i didn't know how to use my dental insurance and then i was too scared to go because i was pretty sure it was going to be big, bad news.

but i won't.

instead i'll tell you that, for six years of no professional dental intervention, it went pretty well.

hurrah!

i had a cracked filling that needed to be fixed (didn't even know i had that filling, so oops there i guess.) and then i went back today for a second filling. they also filed down my first filling because my jaw was closing all wonky and crooked and giving me headaches.

my face only stayed numb for about five hours each time. it's cool.

the most important news is, major dental catastrophe averted.

i celebrated by eating jelly beans.

and scheduling a cleaning for october.

how can i miss you if you won't go away?

i know, i know. it's been too long and all my excuses are worn out and tired, so let's just move on to the main event, shall we? here is what has been going down around here.

after months of jimmer-mania (i'm totally on board now that i have figured out he is a basketball player, not a football player), i watched my first BYU game of the season a couple of weeks ago, wherein the cougars were crushed by florida. so, i have to say, not sure what the whole jimmer worship thing is really all about. seems to me he sort of dropped the ball (pun intended). but, then again, i went to get my hair cut in the middle of the game, so i guess you could argue i don't know-slash-care much about these things.

and, speaking of my hair, it is a totally cute, new cut and not a single person i work with noticed. sad trombone.

AWD and i decided to have a saturday adventure the weekend before last. first we had brunch with dana and jess and chris at pint meridian in columbia heights. it had been a while since i'd gone to columbia heights, and i had forgotten that i actually kind of like it up there. the weather was warm and there were lots of people out walking and riding bikes and doing stuff. the city is really starting to come alive in the spring. i dig it.

after brunch we went to the hirschorn. i was thinking how much i was enjoying the blinky palermo retrospective when AWD said, "i guess there is some art i just don't understand." but then we decided you don't necessarily have to understand art to enjoy it. and then all was right with the world again.

after the hirschorn we went to the national gallery, along with half the population of the national capital region. that place was crowded. the sculptures were our favorite.

we also hit up the outdoor sculpture garden and got our first peak at the cherry blossoms. i love cherry blossoms. the end.

after the national gallery, we headed over to crumbs to get a cupcake, which we ate in the sunny delight of the courtyard at the portrait gallery. count 'em up kids, that's three museums in one day. and that is how you have a saturday adventure.

though it ended sort of anti-climactically, with AWD mowing my lawn and doing my taxes.

i spent last week at a summit at the national conference center in leesburg, va, which is sort of a cross between a dormitory complex and a prison. it was my first big solo communications project since moving to my new contract last fall, and i think i nailed it. special guests included sean astin, also known as samwise gamgee, and holly petraeus, also known as the wife of the man who runs the military. i am sort of hoping he runs for president so i can cross another first lady photo op off my list.

this weekend we braved cold, windy weather and confused wandering tourists to see the cherry blossoms for real. it is more pleasant to stroll among the blossoms in warm weather, but i still love cherry blossoms (the end) and they were really gorgeous this year, despite the bluster.

saturday and sunday were general conference (church on TV!) which also meant eating non-stop. my biggest culinary success was baked red velvet donuts. don't be jealous.

the final piece of important news is that the squirrel city removal has (finally) begun. they have taken out two enormous nests so far, and there is one more to go. the bad news is the squirrels chewed a hole through our roof. the bad news is, there were no babies in the nest. so, i am counting that it as a win for us.

and now you are up to date!

whew.

i feel better. do you?

this was my weekend. not much happened.

there was a long list of things i briefly considered doing this weekend. but then i decided that it had been a while since i spent quality time with both my bed and my netflix account, so i caught up with them instead.

and it was heavenly.

i can very safely say that my mattress is probably the best money i have ever spent in my life.

as for movies, i watched "this is it," the michael jackson documentary, which really made me wish he hadn't died before we got to see the final show. and i watched "big night," a total gem of an old(ish) movie with stanley tucci and tony shaloub as italian immigrant brothers with hilarious accents and english-as-a-second-language mix-ups.

and then (you didn't think i was done, did you?), AWD and i finally finished "munich" (my second time, his first, still depressing either way) and then lifted our down-trodden spirits with a repeat viewing of "stardust," which was so much funnier and so much better than i remembered.

i did get it together for long enough to make it to the grocery store on saturday morning, which meant that we had a delicious sunday pot roast and mashed potatoes for dinner.

and then, don't worry, i got back to doing nothing.

dear monday, i would expect nothing less

because i am working between two offices these days, which means carrying my laptop and a bunch of papers home every night, i finally invested in a fancy laptop backpack so i could just carry everything in one place, instead of hauling a purse, a flimsy computer bag and an armful of documents around wherever i went.

as it turns out, this is a brilliant system until the weekend comes and i take my wallet out of my work backpack and put it in whatever purse i am carrying around for saturday and sunday and then forget to put it back into my backpack on monday morning.

crisis averted, though, because i convinced paul to buy me lunch.

but, actually, it was just crisis postponed until the end of the day when i was skipping off to the parking garage and it suddenly hit me that i can't get my car out of the garage without a credit card to pay the parking fee. and my credit card is in my wallet. which is in the purse i took to church on sunday. which is at my house.

luckily i had my metro card with me today so i just took the metro home and then AWD drove me back to the office later tonight to rescue my car. it was the only car in the whole, giant parking garage. it looked so lonely.

and that, my babies, is pretty much a monday.

ross is wearing leather pants! does nobody else see that ross is wearing leather pants?

it was a pretty slow monday until i 1. remembered that i had gummi bears in my bag and 2. saw a woman wearing a leather suit. that would be a suit made out of leather. a leather blazer and leather pants. a leather suit. just rocking it like it's normal to show up at the office like that. in a leather suit.

and then monday didn't seem so boring after all.

three strikes, that's a turkey

last night EH and i went to the grocery to get everything we need for thanksgiving dinner. this was a lot of things, but we pretty much found them all, so you just rest your pretty little heads about that.

when we went to check out, we decided to just sort of divide the goods up so what she payed and what i payed were roughly even. and get this. we got it within $2.

two dollars!

(i want my two dollars!)

if that is not a thanksgiving miracle, then i guess i don't believe in thanksgiving miracles at all.

add to that the fact that i saved $16 (sixteen dollars!) using my "very important customer" card, which represents more than half of my savings using said card for this whole year (the WHOLE year), and i think we can all agree that it was a highly productive trip to the grocery.

then today i went to the library and checked out every "friends" DVD they had so we can watch all the thanksgiving episodes. it is going to be epic. and hilarious. but don't be jeal. i bet your thanksgiving is going to be awesome, too.

working for the weekend

my weekend started at approximately 12:01 on thursday night/friday morning, as i nestled into my movie theater seat for the midnight screening of harry potter. thanks to a very strict nap and caffeine dosage schedule, AWD and i stayed awake the whole time. i consider this a major accomplishment.

friday was empanadas and cupcakes for dinner with a side of surprise visitors (my favorite!) and saturday was a whirlwind of brunch for kellee's birthday, a capitol tour with uncle bob, dinner and a movie. sunday was an even bigger whirlwind of 16 favorite cousins in town.

i sort of feel like i need a nap.

i would tell you the heart-stopping details of how uncle bob almost didn't make it to the capitol tour (my heart, at least, felt like it might stop), but i think he might be a little embarassed about that, so instead i will tell you the origin of the phrase "red tape." as in bureacratic red tape. or cutting through the red tape. which is probably a more interesting story anyway.

in the basement of the capitol there is a room called the folding room. this is the room where, in the olden days, legislation that was about to be introduced on the floor was printed, folded according to some apparently highly complicated procedure, and then wrapped in a piece of... wait for it... red tape. the carefully printed, folded and taped legislation would be taken by the legislator to the floor, where he (or she) would cut the red tape to open it up and read it. legislation that was never introduced never made it through the red tape.

neato, right?

and now, seriously. i think i am going to take a nap.

p.s. i'm back

to quote my dear old dad, the blog is a little "stale." so, let's freshen things up, shall we?

first i guess i should mention that halloween happened. as a well-documented halloween hater, it should come as no surprise that i did not dress up or attend any halloween-related parties. i did put some spiders on my front door, eat my mom's homemade halloween sugar cookies and hand out candy to adorable children who came knocking on my door. after ensuring that none of them had a peanut allergy, naturally.



lest you think that i didn't have any fun on halloween weekend, let me put your minds to rest and tell you that i did attend a little rally here in d.c., hosted by one jon stewart and one stephen colbert. though honestly it could have been hosted by the muppets for all i could see and hear. it was basically a perfect day to be outside, though, so any excuse to take advantage of it was a good one. plus i got to see lots of funny signs (my favorite: is this the line for justin bieber tickets?) and hang out with these kids, who came down from new york to see the show.

speaking of new york, remember how EH and i went there over columbus day weekend? that was a good time. really, i think my trips to new york are only getting better and better and this was definitely one of the best. we saw a taping of "wait, wait, don't tell me!" at carnegie hall, had the most delicious late night waffles from the waffle truck in the west village, ate delicious brunch, walked across the brooklyn bridge, hit up the brooklyn flea market, ate delicious pie and exotic fresh and hand-made popsicles, watched some "felicity" (so apropos) and ate cupcakes, went to the top of rockefeller center (it's called top of the rock. so catchy!) and spent the morning in the cooper hewitt design museum. plus, dinner with my favorite woolleys, a stroll on the upper east side with the always hilarious ryan ham(ilton) and a chance meeting with my girl miaken, who happened to be in town as well.





































whew. we really crammed in a lot. it was fun for me to relive that. how about you?



back on the homefront, it is pretty much business as usual. the usual being home improvement projects and pumpkin waffles and spricket assassination. i also finally started using the holga. i am not sure if i loaded the film properly, so it may or may not be taking actual pictures every time i click the button, but the mystery is part of the fun, right? i'll let you know how it goes.

and i think that's it from me. unless there's something you'd like to talk about?

the world spins madly on

we had a lovely weekend in pennsylvania. the sun was shining and the sky was blue and the weather was warm and i was so busy enjoying my bike ride and eating homemade ice cream on a mennonite farm and being fascinated by the amish version of a hay baler that i did not take a single photograph. kellee did though, so here is a little proof.

we also took in the millersville parade, which seems to celebrate nothing in particular. but any parade with adorable kids wearing sequins and giant cows plus a hobo band and some roller derby girls is a winner in my book.

and we ate dinner saturday night at a chocolate cafe. if you are wondering whether chocolate-balsamic vinaigrette is delicious, the answer is yes. if you are wondering whether EH and i have a new cooking rule-- if it doesn't have chocolate in it, we won't eat it-- the answer is also yes.

after such a grand weekend away, this week has unfolded mostly uneventfully. i didn't have to work on monday (the church is true!) so i did 900 loads of laundry, ran some errands (how come you can never leave target having spent less than $60?), got my nails done and went to a movie by myself in the middle of the day. if i am ever so blessed as to be a lady of (even part-time) leisure, i will spend every afternoon at the movies, i think. i saw "the town." it was not as good as i wanted it to be.

oh, and i baked an apple pie for family night. it was delicious.

also for family night, we took a tour of the houses in our neighborhood decked out for halloween, but i feel as though that deserves a post of its own, so that is all i will say on the subject for now.

yesterday i helped ABK arrange his new apartment. did you know ABK moved to d.c.? downside: no more brooklyn brunches. upside: we could have brunch together every day if we wanted to! i have known ABK for seven years and this is the first time we have lived in the same city. i think it is 100 percent good news.

and today i learned how to hem a pair of pants and fix a leaky faucet. plus i caught up on some "30 rock." so i would say things are going pretty well around here.

how are you?

stealthy, like a fish

as i mentioned earlier this week, i have a new computer. a brand-new macbook pro, to be exact. and why not be exact about these things? she is slim and sleek and shiny and sharp and i am fairly confident she has the moves and attitude of a ninja. so i named her stealthy stella.

also, she sings when you turn her on.

unfortunately, ninjas are masters at secrets, and i haven't been able to get stella to give up the goods on how to download photos from my camera so my scintillating recaps of the weekend jaunt to philadelphia by way of gettysburg will have to wait.

in the meantime, perhaps you might enjoy this scintillating article about a weekend vacation at a nudist camp? (not my vacation, of course.) or maybe you'd enjoy this SNL sketch with christopher walken? it's one of my favorites.

very good, then.

i'll pay you a dollar to come up with a name for this post

turns out i didn't need to worry about summer coming to a crashing halt with the first day of september because it is still a million degrees outside. so that's pretty awesome. (not awesome.) i think i am best suited to living in a place where there is only fall and spring weather. if you know of such a place, please enlighten me.

the evenings are getting pretty nice and cool, though, so last night andrew (codename: AWD) and i waited until the sun went down and then rode our bikes to del ray for some frozen custard at the dairy godmother. riding my bike to del ray is my new favorite thing to do. and frozen custard from the dairy godmother is my new favorite thing to eat. del ray is also a surprisingly happening place on a thursday night. you should ride your bike over and check it out.

in work-related news, i am on a new project these days and have been working a few days a week out of a different office. the only downside of this arrangement is that there is no desk for me there, so i am sharing a cubicle with my co-worker, paul. literally, we sit in the same cubicle. it's sort of like a clown car. no one can get in and out without the other person also getting in and out, and when one of us swivels our chair, the other person's chair gets swiveled, too. it is sort of amazing. the upside of this arrangement is that paul e-mails me links to thinks like ninjabread men cookie cutters. i feel like i need these and, why yes, my birthday is coming up.

in three-day-weekend-related news, i think it is shaping up to be a pretty good one. i have to stick around to teach relief society on sunday, but tomorrow the downtown kids and i are heading to the maryland state fair (because if there is one thing i can't get enough of it's fairs) and then becky the wise and i are going to drive to philadelphia for the day on monday, fingers crossed. i have been wanting to do that pretty much ever since i moved here, so i am pretty stoked that it looks like it will finally work out. if you have anything favorite things to do in philly, let me know. at this point my plan is to watch "national treasure" the night before and then do my best to recreate that itinerary. which i think is totally realistic.

i'll let you know how it goes. happy weekend, all!

guess who finally has internet at home?

the answer is: me!

and it was not without some effort, i will have you know. my original request for broadband service from verizon was denied for reasons that still remain unclear to everyone, including the very lovely woman at the central office who finally offered me fios service for (almost) the same price as broadband and, with my indignant consumer fire burning out, i agreed.

fios, in case you don't know, requires the stringing of wires and the drilling of holes in walls for the placement of battery back-up packs, all of which, when combined with massive street repaving, will make you feel like your house might just give up and cave in. the installation of fios is also an incredibly long process, during which you can quite easily bake a cake, whip up some buttercream frosting, frost the cake and make a batch of homemade strawberry ice cream.

all worth it, though, because now i can sit with delilah in my living room and watch "30 rock" on netflix streaming, and i can also tell you about the most amazing book i just finished called "the genius factory" by david plotz, which recounts the history of the nobel prize sperm bank. if you are worried about the genetic degradation of the human race, then you have a lot in common with the nobel prize sperm bank founder, who figured the best way to save humanity from itself was to only allow smart and wonderful people to reproduce. things didn't go exactly according to his plan, but things did yield a truly fascinating book, which i highly recommend to every single person reading this post right now.

and, while i was in the sperm donation zone (figuratively, of course), i decided that we should go see "the kids are all right," which was pretty good but not as good as i wanted it to be. mark ruffalo was just as rugged and charming as i wanted him to be though, so win there.

in other news, i am counting down the days until my week-long beach vacation starts on saturday. i have a wide-brimmed hat and a darling new bathing suit and plenty of books and also plenty of exhaustion to take care of, so i think it should be a successful outing.

but, fear not my little band. armed with my new fios, i'll try to keep you entertained until then.

turning point

turns out if you are still working crazy hours even though things were supposed to have calmed down and/or you have been too lazy to get it together and sign up for wireless internet service at home (and/or the nearby neighbor's wireless internet that you have been somewhat successfully poaching suddenly and completely disappears, speaking of which, what the heck?) you just don't blog as much as you used to.

but, that seems like the story of my life these days and turns out you are probably used to it by now, so let's just move on. deal?

turns out you can grill just about anything and this includes pizza. yes, pizza. turns out you just throw the dough on the grill and the magic happens. complete with cheese and artichoke hearts. also turns out that if you invite dana over to help you eat grilled pizza, she'll bring mangoes on sticky rice. turns out those are delicious.

turns out i am glad doobie suggested we go see "inception" last night even though i had read some lukewarm reviews, because turns out it blew my mind. dreams in dreams in never-ending dreams? wowsa. turns out leonardo dicaprio is sort of past his prime, imho. but jospeh gordon levitt? wowsa.

turns out i really can get myself on a schedule whereby i arrive at work on time every morning. and turns out this schedule also allows time for making my bed and reading my scriptures and eating breakfast. every morning! turns out i am amazed.

turns out i really love having a little home to come, well, home to. especially when i am tired from working 1 gazillion hours in one week, or when people make me mad, or when people make me sad, or when i see funny little old men sneakily pruning other people's trees and then running away and i can't wait to tell someone about it. turns out emily h. will laugh at my stories and also let me read things out loud to her. which, turns out, is pretty great.

turns out i left waaaaay more kitchen stuff at my parents' house than i thought i did, but also turns out that my mom is pretty great and she mailed it to me. so, turns out, we will soon have a fondue pot at our house. grill everything and then dip it in chocolate? turns out i think that is a pretty good idea.

turns out i had more to say than i thought i did.