June

Since I missed posting for most of June, here's what we've been up to:

A week and a half in St. George visiting family and friends, playing games, and chillaxin. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable time - a great way to celebrate my birthday!

A few days near Park City with my fam. Boating! Swimming and hot tubbing! Playing Phase 10 with Aunts and Uncles until you feel like you're going to die! It was great to see my extended family that we don't get to see very often.

A LOT of work (without many blogworthy pizzalog moments).

Cleaning house and trying not to be too lazy during the day.

Trying without success to come up with meals that are more healthy than pizza that aren't complicated or time consuming to make.

Going to the gym as often as we are in town.

311 concert!! Sadly, the camera broke that same trip so we can't take pictures anymore.


Coming up in July:

A trip to Portland to do the things we couldn't do this winter (everything) when it snowed there.

Another family vacation down south with lots of outdoor activities!

More hanging out during the day, lazily doing research, then working at night.

It Would Be So Much Easier IF...

• I got paid for the research I am working on
• I was good at writing scientific papers
• I constantly thought scientifically about most things
• Results on the computer were always scientific results
• Journal articles were fun to read
• People in the close circles of my life understood statistics enough that I could share with them what I'm doing in my research and classes

These things would make my life much easier. But when all is said and done, would they make my life (and research) more fulfilling?

Pizzalog #5

Every summer, USU holds a football camp for high school boys. If you've ever known a high school football player, you'll know that they can eat. Football camp was this week. And it was crazy. Imagine 5 high school football teams. All hungry. Last night I would take 5 orders at a time up to campus to the boys. One of the guys was really happy to have his pizza. He told me that I had a four star rating in his book, and he gave me a four dollar tip. My response: "Oh, I'm not five stars?"

I Did It

I finally got myself a gym membership. This gym has a personal trainer that holds classes once every hour, helping you to create a workout that is right for you. This includes how much weight you should use on each of the machines, and how long/hard your cardio workout should be. I started creating my workout today, and will finish it tomorrow. My goal is to become more fit. Hopefully that includes getting rid of my lovehandles, but if they don't go away then I'll be okay. To quote the scriptures, I want to "walk and not be weary and run and not faint." This is a call to anyone who would like to join me in this effort. I'll try to document my progress here.. Maybe.. If it's not too embarrassing.

Pizzalog #4

Getting in and out of my car for work a bajillion times a day provides a little wear and tear on my car. Sometimes the big bags of pizza will hit my air vents and break the lever that lets you close the vent (this only happened once, and it's on the passenger side which isn't as bad since I'm usually the only one in the car, and hence nobody is usually in the passenger seat). Other small (aka cheap plastic pieces) frequently break off and end up on the floor. Don't ask me how many pieces of my car I've thrown away because I don't know where they came from or how to put them back. Eventually you realize how important each little piece of your car is. For example, all the little plastic parts on a seatbelt that don't really make your seatbelt more safe, but they make the seatbelt look a little better. They also make the seatbelt less harmful and annoying to you. I burned my arm on the metal part of the seatbelt when I got into my car today. Later on, the same part of the seatbelt got stuck between the cushion of my seat and the metal on which my seat sits (the metal that lets me adjust forward and backward). And because all of the nice little plastic parts were gone and the seatbelt was stuck in the seat, I got a bruise on my leg. As I was getting into the car with a big bag of pizzas, I fell a little and crashed down hard on the stuck seatbelt. My life is so hard.

:)

Pizzalog #3

If you haven't already, you should read #1 and #2.

Now for #3. One dark night, I was delivering pizza to some family housing near campus. At my school, campus sidewalks are wide so that authorized vehicles can get to where they need to go. This family housing place had the same wide sidewalks, but also had automated gates to prevent unauthorized people from driving on them. It was a dark and busy night, so I hurried to the apartment and gave them their pizza. Did I mention it was dark? My lights were on, facing the direction of the apartment. Because it was so busy, I decided to run back to my car (toward the bright lights on a very dark night). Needless to say, I couldn't see very well. I was running pretty fast. Remember those automated gates I mentioned? Imagine getting clotheslined (sp?) by one of those. Yeah. Welcome to my world of awesome.

Picture This

A new Walmart is being built near my home. When I drove past it last night, this is what I saw:


And the dang thing isn't even open yet!!

Summer Fun

The husband finally convinced me to put down my book and go outside for some fun. We decided to round up some friends and go play frisbee golf on campus.
Here's a sweet action shot of the husband:

One of the friends (and me in the background, but don't look):

The husband trying to explain to the guys the next "hole". They look a little confused.

Another one of the friends (who ends each throw in a girly ballet pose. This picture shows him entering this pose.):

These last few pictures are for our niece. In order to travel around the world, she created a flat twin (a notebook with her picture on it). This gets mailed around to people she knows in different places. We received her flat twin and decided to take her frisbee golfing with us. These are a few pictures with Flat Emma.

What a joy to have a relaxing and fun summer afternoon.

Pizzalog #2

If you haven't already, you should read Pizzalog #1 which describes a little about why I am doing this. And now with #2:

I was delivering pizza one night, and I was taking an order to a small house in a small town just outside of Logan. As I was walking up to the door, a small child came over to me, dressed in a long sleeve orange shirt, overalls and flip flops. The child had long-ish blonde hair and a cute face. Pushing a stroller, the child came over and showed me the doll in the stroller. I knocked on the door and the child's mother came to the door. "Your little girl is so cute!" I said after receiving payment for the food. The mother responded, "He's a boy."

Let's be honest. Do you let your only child, a boy, push around a doll and a stroller?

Pizzalog #1

As most of you know, I deliver pizza to pay the bills. Like many jobs that have person-to-person interaction, sometimes weird things happen. I'm sure that many of my friends get sick of my stories because they all start like this: "One day, when I was delivering pizza...". I recently realized that you, my blogging friends, rarely get to hear these stories. I have many in my archived memories (which I often have a hard time retrieving, ask the husband) so over the rest of my time working pizza I will try to remember all of my wonderful stories and share them with you. We'll start with the most recent.


Last night, I was delivering pizza. Our store closes at 1 on Friday nights, and around midnight we got a call for an order close by. It's a good neighborhood, and it was my order to deliver. Hoping for a good tip, I packed up the pizzas, breadsticks and the Diet Coke and headed out the door. I got to the house within 20 minutes from the time they called (this is normal for us). Picking up the credit card slip for them to sign, a pen, and all their food I headed to the door. I knocked. Waited. Knocked again a little louder. Waited. (After working pizza for 2 years, it's easy to tell if anyone is coming or if anyone is there. Sometimes people order pizza then run to the gas station to get a soda or whatever. Or they order while on their way home and we beat them.) At this house, the main light was on and I knew someone had to be home or they would be back soon. I rang the doorbell. Waited. Knocked again, long and hard. No response. The next step in this case is to call the number that they called from. I did this 3 times with no answer. I called the store at which I work to ask the manager whether to bring the pizzas back or what to do. He said to try knocking again. Leaving the food in the car and taking only the credit card I went to the door again. This time as I neared the door I noticed that their blinds were up a little bit so I peeked in. I was suprised when I saw a woman asleep on the couch. Knowing she was there I knocked and knocked and rang the doorbell. Peeking in, I found she was still asleep. Laughing, I called the manager again to ask what to do. He told me to step inside and try to wake her with my voice. "Okay," I said, "I'll call you back." I opened the door and said, "Ma'am?" No response. Not even a twitch of the hand. "Ma'am, your pizza is here," I said a little louder. She snored a little louder. Standing there in shock I decided to touch her hand, thinking that would surely wake her up. It didn't. I squeezed. I patted. I practically yelled trying to wake her up. Nothing. By this time I'm thinking this is the funniest thing that has ever happened to me.
I called the manager again, who in turn called the store owner. Since she had paid with a credit card the debate was whether to leave the pizza inside the door or bring it back to the store. While I was waiting I decided to get a head start back to the store. But they told me to leave it there so I turned around and went back. Peeking inside, I saw she was still asleep so I knocked. Peeked again and saw her hand twitch. This was the first movement I'd seen of her the whole time (including when I touched her). I knocked again hard and continuously for about 10 seconds. Peeked in yet again and she had moved off the couch! A few seconds later she came to the door, completely out of it. I hand her the credit card slip and ask her to sign it and she sets it on the couch and takes the pen and food to the kitchen. She came back about 20 seconds later with a piece of pizza in her hand. "Do you know where the thing to sign is?" I respond, "I think you dropped it on the couch." She goes back in the kitchen. Thinking she doesn't have a clue what I said I stepped in and grabbed the slip. "It's right here, ma'am." Handing it to her, I pointed out the spot to sign and the spot to write the total. When I got it back, she had slashed out the tip line, written 4.00 on the total line, wrote the total (the wrong total, adding the tip completely wrong) on the signature line, and signing where the delivery persons id is supposed to go.

Amazing.

Still Alive

It has been a while (yet again) since I last posted. This time, my excuse is that I just haven't felt like writing. I still don't really feel like writing, but you guys deserve an update.

School is out for the summer, and neither of us are taking summer classes. I'm excited for that, sort of. This entire past week I have done hardly anything. If I'm going to survive this summer I definitely need to get my butt in gear and start some projects or something. Like my research for grad school. The problem with that one is that I've done the fun part. Now I need to do the boring things like search the web to find data and read journal articles. I dread the latter. They make me fall asleep. So, to keep from going completely insane because of my research, Mark and I decided to do a few touchups in our house. It's fine the way it is, but good is good and great is better. So, we bought a new light fixture for our pool table room. Already that room is really coming together. We have a few more ideas, but we have yet to decide on much else. Anyone like to paint? We can probably use the help sometime.

Our other plans for the summer are a lot of weddings, a few vacations, and working pizza the rest of the time. We sound busy, but we're not. Trust me, I would know. Anyway, I'm curious about how many people actually read my blog. Usually there's not much to comment on, so I understand why you don't leave comments. Today I'll ask a few questions that you can answer in the comments section. Sound good? I thought so.

1. Do you like to paint? (And would you want to help us sometime this summer?)
2. What is your favorite meal? (And can I have the recipe?)
3. What is your favorite vacation spot?

I Looked Out My Window And What Did I See?

DUCKS!

...and a cat.
Have I told you that I love my new house?

Brain-Stress Deadlock Disorder

I hate thinking of titles for my posts. It's probably the hardest part of keeping a blog, and today that is the thing on which I will blame my infrequent posts. That and a whole lot of homework. This semester I have been blessed with a lot of time to finish my assignments and projects (etc.), but these last couple of weeks have blown me out of the water. I thank my teachers for extended due dates and simplification of homework.

Sometimes I get so stressed out about everything I have to do that my brain goes into a deadlock. The stress makes it impossible to accomplish anything and not accomplishing anything causes stress. There are certain techniques to avoid brain-stress deadlocks (a term I came up with myself) which include (but are not limited to): not procrastinating your homework, keeping a formal calendar of all assignments and due dates, making a checklist of everything that needs to be done (in order of most important to least important) along with an estimate of how long each item will take, and keeping a clean home. I sort of failed on a couple of these techniques and ended up in a tough spot. The only way (or so it seems) out of a brain-stress deadlock is to hunker down and get something done. It is usually better to start with something easy or not very time consuming. Work your way up from there. And then write a blog about it. That's how it usually works for me.

p.s.

it's april fools day. hope you had a good one!

also, that was my friend's test... congratulations laura!

News

Best Day of My Life!

Yesterday was the best day of my life, except for the time that we removed the fireplace and went to Weinersnitchel (I wrote about that in my journal as a kid, labeling it "the best day of my life"). Anyway, I got to go see Arlo Guthrie in concert! I grew up listening to this man, and it was sooo fun to go see him live. He even came to my small town for two nights in a row. (We have an elderly population.)


Plus, there was a double bonus. One of my best friends EVER came to visit and go to the concert with me. She wasn't sure she'd like it, since Arlo's high time was in the 70's, but she ended up really enjoying herself. Now if that isn't a testament to good music, I don't know what is.

We tried to catch the band at the bus after the show, but we were one minute too slow. At least I got to sit on row 4 and watch him work his magic.

Here is a picure of Iki and Ica (that's what we used to go by - Iki is short for Nikki, Ica is short for Jessica). Thanks, Iki, for coming up! It was so good to hang out with you. Love ya!


Post-Edit:
I just want you all to know that I almost met Arlo Guthrie tonight (the night after I went to the concert). We were on our way home from somewhere and I asked Mark to humor me and take me to where the bus would be. Unfortunately, Arlo had left about 2 minutes before we got there. But I did meet his son, Abe Guthrie. I suppose that will have to suffice.

Best Invention Ever

http://www.fruper.com/

Description:
Tired of that same old monotonous water? Bored with water that doesn't look like futuristic alien mouthwash? Need to make your midnight bathroom appointments more exhilarating? Then you need to get the LED faucet light attachment from ThinkGeek. You can turn any faucet in your home into a streaming fantasia of techie-bliss in just minutes. How does it work? Just attach to the end of your faucet (universal adapters included), and when the water flows through the magic chamber, it simply turns on the LED array and illuminates the stream with soothingly powerful hues.

Blue/Red LED - Normally streams BLUE LED's until the water temperature hits 89 degrees after which the LEDs turn RED (now with a brushed chrome finish)!

Features:
* Chamber with LEDs
* Batteries pre-installed plus a set of spare batteries (uses G13-A style watch batteries)
* Instruction Sheet
* Two universal adapters included. (fits most standard faucets in USA. Not recommended for faucets outside of the USA.)
* Dimensions: 2.25" tall, 1.25" diameter.


And it's only $9.95!!!

The Cure for Spring Fever

Snow. For one week after a full week of pure spring weather. Instead of feeling happy, like you want to go outside and play, you will feel depressed and it will be much easier to stay inside and do your (insert relative job here - for me, homework).

I found the cure. See, Mom? I do know everything.

Virtual Tour

This is for you, Aunt Carrie. Thanks for commenting on my Facebook status today! :)

Here we start with the outside view. (It is a beautiful day today!)

The next couple are what you would see if you walk through the front door.

I'm working on a project over here. Please excuse the mess, and note the rock band guitars and drums. Come play!

Or if you don't like rock band, there's always these! For a complete list of what you can play when you come to our house, click here.

Ahem. Moving on to the kitchen/dining area.

/laundry room.

/computer/music room.

Back into the living room, we have stairs.

At the top of the stairs: a morin-khuur and a ukulele.

The hall at the top of the stairs leads to three rooms and has a nice corner closet.

The pool room:

The bathroom:

The bedroom:

(Complete with walk-in closet!)

There you have it. Next time, let's make it not-so-virtual, eh?

Gettin Back In

School started again today. Last week was our spring break, and I spent most of it just being lazy. Already I can feel my mind start to drift away to motorcycles and warm beaches. Rather than listen to my professors, I daydream about the day when school is finally out. I think I'm burned out for the semester. My classes used to be fun and intriguing. Now they are all a bore.

Classes? Work?

No thanks.

Guitar Hero? Board Games?

Bring it on. I wish...