Double Feature

I saw two dollar movies today. Can life get any better? Round one: Surf's up with Amy, Emily, and their kids. It was adorable. Lots of adult humor. Too cute. Round two: Evan Almighty with D-fresh. Again, very funny, and with a good message.

We put an offer down on a house yesterday, in the middle of a storm. The power was out at the realtor's office, so we did it by candlelight. How romantic. We'll hopefully hear something from the sellers tomorrow morning. Yikes!

I didn't work a single day this week. Lame-o. I did watch a lot of OC though, which isn't terrible, either. Tomorrow Kaylynn and her boyfriend Brook are coming to Chicago for a wedding so I'm meeting them down there and hanging out for a bit. Should be lots of fun---I'm super excited!

FM102.1, the alternative rock radio station here, is having a contest where you can go see....well now I can't remember who, but the concert is in Salt Lake City. And if you qualify to enter the trip, you get a Book of Mormon side prize to help prepare you "converse with the locals." I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I guess for the most part it's not a bad thing if the Books of Mormon are getting out to random people, right? Maybe they'll read it!

2 days till Vegas!! Lined up so far: La Reve on Monday and Love on Thursday. Excellent food and fun mingled in between. Yay!

Happy Birthday!

To my mamma! She's the big....well, I won't say. She might kill me. Although I don't think she looks her age. She looks younger. Let's hope that runs in the family.

My poor mom, she was in the ER Friday night after a Japanese Kamikaze Beetle flew into and burrowed in her ear. Um....gross?? It apparently bit her and then wouldn't come out. Sick. The eventually got it out and gave her antibiotics. She's feeling much better now, thankfully!

See mom, it wasn't me this time bugging you--it was a real bug!!

Happy birhtday!!! Love you!

Inappropriateness

Well, I continue to blog on The Dinosaur. But, I'm treating it well, and likewise it is treating me well. So far. However, thanks to Antony, who always knows the best deals on the internets regarding all things geeky, I bought a brand spanking new laptop on dell.com this morning. I had it shipped to Utah. One more thing to look forward to in the Holy Land! Oh! And a new printer/scanner/copier, which I'm way excited about. I have many pictures to scan in and share!

I didn't intend to leave so many people hanging on my fight! I shall elaborate:

The scene: Millenium Park bathrooms, downtown Chicago.

The line was long. I really had to go. In the past two hours I had guzzled 2 glasses of water at Giordano's, a Diet Coke at the Signature Room up the Hancock Building, and a Slurpee. (I had been craving a Slurpee for MONTHS. And they had all the best flavors: Pina Colada, Banana, and Cherry. Perfect!)

There is a Hispanic girl cleaning the restrooms. Wiping countertops, picking up trash, refilling TP. Minding her own business, really. Well, this crazy black lady is ALL up in her grill.

Crazy lady: Where's my radio???
Hispanic girl: Shrugs, goes about her business.
CL: Where is my radio???
HG: Again, shrugs. "I don't know."
CL: I know you have it! Give it to me.

It's clear the cleaning girl doesn't have it. She has a bucket and a trash bag.

CL: Where is my radio? I left it right here. You have it! Give it to me!
HG: Continues to ignore her.
CL: You think you'd be in this country long enough to learn English, bitch!

Now this is where I can no longer be a witness. I step in:

Me: She doesn't have your radio, leave her alone.
CL: Yes she does. She's the attendant, she has to have it.
Me: No she doesn't. And she's not an attendant. She just cleans the bathrooms.

At this point others pipe up and agree with me that she's not an attendant.

Me: If you left your radio in a public bathroom, someone stole it. It's gone.
CL: No! She has it!
Me: (About to punch this lady) She does NOT have your radio. You left it here. YOU LOST IT! It's gone!
CL: (Up in my grill) No, YOU lost it, bitch!!
Me: Whatever.

I walked out, and the crazy lady walked out soon behind me, giving me the hairy eyeball the whole time.

Dude, Chicago is a busy place, and this is a public bathroom. If you leave something in there, even remotely valuable, someone is going to take it. And the poor cleaning girl has to listen to crazy people like this all the time, I'm sure, and can't really do anything about it. Being mean to innocent people? Not on my watch!

Another incident in the same area: There are big water fountains in Millenium Park where kids can play and get wet and all that jazz. Well, we're sitting and watching the fountains (there are fiber optic faces on them that change) and we notice a boy, about 5 or 6, wearing nothing but a neon yellow t-shirt. No pants, no underwear, no shoes or socks. Just a t-shirt. 5 or 6 years old. You could see his weiner dangling about as he ran in and out of the water. This is NOT appropriate, I don't care what the situation. Even if the kid crapped his underwear, dump it out, rinse it out, put them back on. I don't even want to think about how many sickos were out there watching him and getting their jollies. Sick. I REALLY wanted to go say something to the mom, but Derrick wouldn't let me. Would it have been inappropriate for me to say something? This is a VERY public place. Man, it gets me worked up just thinking about it!!! What would you have done?

New songs I love: Paralyze by Finger 11. And the new one by Linkin Park, Bleed it Out.

Ok, back to being unemployed! Finished season 2 of the OC today! 2 more to go!

400th Post!

400!?! And such lame topics to blog about. So sad. This will actually be quick post--our laptop officially died, and I blog this on the dinosaur of a computer we keep for emergencies like this. So it's off tonite to get a new one.

It rained all weekend, which was no fun for our visitors from Phoenix, Derrick's brother David and his wife Tiffany. We went to Chicago Friday, which was actually perfect weather, and then back in Milwaukee all it did was rain. Saturday we went to the Brewer's game, and Kohl's had a big tailgate party with yummy food, and we got to go on the field which was way sweet. Pictures to come.

We leave for Vegas on Saturday until Labor Day, which means we need to make a decision this week about buying a house. We found the one we want, and now we're just in the process of seeing if we can make it happen. We'll see....

I got into a fight with a lady in a bathroom in Chicago. I won.

I ate more cheese this weekend than I have in my entire life. Needless to say, I feel rather constipated.

Not working today, so I guess I should do something productive....

Hopefully the next post is on a new computer!

Playing catch up

Okay...Friday. Regional dance in Sheboygan. Generally uneventful. Girl to guy ratio about 3:1, which made our girls very bitter, as you can see:


The DJ, a chubby dude sitting at a table with his iBook, plays "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne, probably 4 or 5 songs into the dance. Please tell me if you think these lyrics are appropriate for the cultural hall inside a CHURCH BUILDING:

Don't pretend, I think you know I'm damn precious,
And hell yeah, I'm a mother f------ princess

And no, it was NOT edited. Unbelievable. Immediately after, a group of kids went up and had them change it. Kudos to them, I say.

Now....the FAIR!!! It was awesome, as usual. Let our journey begin...

We started the day off with flavored milk. Root beer, strawberry, cherry vanilla, and chocolate. Root beer, hands down, is my favorite. It tastes like the end of a root beer float, when the ice cream has melted and mixed with the root beer. Delicious.

Then it's off to the animal barns. The fair's not the fair without an emo bunny.



Speaking of bunnies, maybe it's just me, but this seems to be a little bit of a cruel classification system.



We checked out the pigs, and I pretended to be one for a few minutes. Not that it took a lot of pretending. Just wait till the food part comes up.




In case you haven't noticed, I love to take pictures with mascots, or people in costumes. I have a whole collection. We scored Saturday with not only an Oreo, but Spam as well. Bonus.





Probably the best part of the fair is the FOOD. Of course, I had to get a cream puff. How could I not?



We played a little bingo (no wins this year) and started to get hungry for some real food. So we chowed down on some roasted corn, which is the best corn ever. It probably has something to do with the big vat of butter they dip it in before they hand it over.



Next up, turkey leg. Nothing says "fair" like eating food caveman style.



And last, but certainly not least, new at the fair this year were deep fried s'mores. Someone in carnie-land must be hearing my prayers.



Seems like I have a lot of pictures of me eating like this....It fell off the stick a little bit, but it was warm and gooey and all in all, not bad, although the $4 price tag is a little steep. But hey, it's the fair. And did I mention that on our way into the fair, a group of blue hairs gave us 2 extra tickets they had? Sure they were senior tickets, but the girls working the gate sure didn't care. Score! Free entrance tickets meant more money for fooooood.

Here is just one example of the shrew business dealings of carnies. Why buy 2 pairs of sunglasses at $10 each, when you can buy THREE at $10 each. It was pretty hard to pass a deal like that up, let me tell you.



We left the fair full and happy. It was a perfect morning. After a shower we headed down to the temple, which proved to be an amazing time as well. We were well taught by the temple president, and it was really cool to see people from our ward and stake throughout the session.

Amazingly enough, we were hungry again, jus in time for dinner at Wildfire. Every bite was delicious. I never get as excited to eat a steak as I do there.

On the drive home we saw fireworks from Six Flags. Right over the freeway. Perfect ending to a perfect day!

Speechless

I have lots to blog about....the dance, the fair, dinner. But right now I'm focused on cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. But I had to post this--a friend request I got on MySpace today. Honestly, I don't even know what to say about it.Click me to see.

Faust, Fruit, Fair, Food, FRIDAY!

I was suuuuper sad to hear about President Faust's death. He was my favorite GA. I always loved his talks. Not that everyone else's weren't great too, but you know how it is with favorites. I feel bad bagging on apostles, but if you want my opinion on President Monson, I'll tell you. I just have issues with his delivery, not content. Nothing serious. Nothing lightning-bolt worthy or anything. I hope.

We are chaperoning a regional dance in Sheboygan tonite. That's like an hour away. Yikes. When I volunteered to chaperone, I had no idea it was in Sheboygan. Oh well. Let the blessings rain down upon me!

Last night we looked at more places with our realtor, then pseudo-celebrated our anniversary at a strip mall Mexican joint. Hey, nothing too extravagant for the 4 year anniversary! Traditionally, the 4th anniversary gift is fruit/flowers. Well, I guess beans, beans, ARE the magical fruit, right? Who says we don't follow tradition?

Actually, tomorrow is the day we are officially celebrating. We are starting off our day with the State Fair. Bright and early when it opens, 8 am. The best time to go, in my opinion. Nice and cool, no crowds yet, flavored milk for breakfast. After the fair, (and a shower), we're headed to the temple for our Stake Temple Day. Then, to top it all off, it's dinner at Wildfire. Best. Steaks. Ever. If you are ever in the vicinity of one, I strongly recommend you go. Get a crust on your steak, blue cheese is delish, and you won't be sorry. Oh, and don't forget the sweet potato. YUM!!!!!

Great day, don't you think??

Happy Friday!

4?!?

Yes, folks, today the Mister and I have been married four whole years. Pretty speedy four years, if you ask me. I sent Derrick flowers at work, which I'm sure he didn't think was very cool as a dude, but I figured he'd have to bring them home, and then essentially I'd have flowers, too. Win-win, right? I tried to pick "manly" flowers, which is near impossible. The best I could do was red, orange, and yellow gerbera daisies, which looked like fire together, and fire's pretty manly right? Although I'm pretty sure any essence of dude was negated by the white vase with red hearts all over it. Ha. I'll take a pic when he brings em home.

I still remember almost everything about our wedding day. I mostly remember how awesome it was that all of our friends and family flew in from around the country to be with us that day. It was sweet. The weather was beautiful. I got to eat. I was treated like a princess. I want to get married again, just for those reasons.

Derrick and I make a pretty good team, I think. We agree on almost everything (except he hates pickles, and I love them...minor discrepancy). We hardly ever fight, and if we do, it's usually because of me. And he's quick to forgive. Bonus for me, who likes to give the silent treatment. I'm getting better at that, though. Although I'm willing to bet he welcomes those periods of silence.



Unrelated to our wedding, I feel I should mention Barry Bonds and his new record. I did see it live. I was amazed at the crowd scrambling for the ball. It was hilaroius. I guess I just wanted to say I saw it, for future historical reference. To prove I'm cool. Like that needs proving.

Mash up

Random post ahead, like mash up music. Like Girl Talk, who I learned about through my SIL, Kaylynn. (Who is also my go-to for new music--lucky left coast girl!) Great workout music, bytheway. Gets you moving!

Last night I saw No Reservations with some friends. IT looked decent from the previews, and ended up being your typical romantic pseudo-comedy, with a beginning, predictable conflict, and even more predictable resolution and ending. Why is it in movies whenever there's a pillow fight, feathers are always somehow magically removed from the pillow and floating in the air. This has never ever happened in my life, and I have been in my share of pillow fights, as gay as that sounds. I like Abigail Bresling, though, so it made it ok. I still need to see Little Miss Sunshine...It was fun hanging out last night, and I realized, after hearing about how other husbands are lazy bums, Derrick actually helps out a lot! I can't really complain! (He'll be thrilled to read this, I'm sure...)

I was a victim of racial profiling today. I was at K-Mart (I know....it was the closest thing at the time, and I needed colored pencils) and on your way out you have to show this security guard your receipt. Now, this K-Mart is in an okay neighborhood, but frequented by a shadier population, so this security guard is probably warranted. Well, she was checking receipts of the people in front of me, and I walk out, and she looks at me and says, "Have a nice day." Doesn't ask for my receipt. If I saw that situation from the outside, I'd probably be a little peeved. But I go about my pseudo-white way.

I've come to the obvious realization that I need to study my scriptures more, and better. I'm starting a new study method tonite, which I'm super excited about. I got this book a year or so ago and just haven't gotten around to doing it yet.



It's supposed to help you really think about what each verse means, and then provides a way for you to easily go back and know, in general, what is going on simply by knowing what each color means. (The reason for my trip to K-Mart this afternoon!) I'm really hoping that I can get a lot more out of the scriptures this way. We'll see how it goes!

Well, I guess this wasn't all too random. No more random that usual. Off to bed! I'm a workin' girl again!

Happy Birthday....

To my pops! I won't reveal how old he is, because I'm a lady, but I will take guesses! :)



This is a pretty accurate picture of my dad. He's a big cheeseball. He always had a joke ready for you, even if you don't see it coming. I don't think there's anything my dad can't fix or make, and if he can't, he'll find out how and do it anyway. He's getting wicked good at woodworking, and is cranking out some pretty sweet pens these days. He'll give you the shirt off his back if you needed it, along with a pair of pants (that inevitably won't match the shirt) if you needed those, too. My dad is the one who always said to us while we were growing up, "We live in this great big beautiful country, and I want you kids to see it!" I hated it then, but I love it now. I have seen much of America, and I'm glad I have. I love it. Is is a beautiful country. He's also always told me, "Don't sweat the small stuff" (before it was a best selling book), and I've always tried to take that advice. So far, it's worked. He's an all-around good guy, and I sure am glad he's my dad! Love you Dad!

By the way, Dad's birthday means it's my half birthday. So, where are the presents, people?

We survived!

We went, we camped, we conquered! We were the first ones to the campsite we picked our site and set up camp. It went smoothly, with no arguments. So far, so good. Check out our little set up:



Pretty sweet tent, huh? Notice the hand sanitizer on the table. I know, I know.

We proceeded to cook our tinfoil dinners on our little gas grill, which turned out better than we were expecting. So far, so good.

People started showing up and setting up their tents and eating dinner. I wasted no time in busting out the s'mores and doughboys. Really, the only reason to go camping at all, in my opinion. I brought along leftover sparklers from the 4th so we had some fun with those. It started getting dark and slowly the families that just came for the s'mores and friendly banter started to pack up and leave. Just four families stayed the night. Our air mattress took up almost the entire inside of our tent, but it was sure worth it! While we did wake up with our butts almost touching the ground, it was still better than sleeping on dirt! We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, which was pretty tasty, thanks to the Chaplins camp stove. Our grill just wasn't cutting it.

Our super awesome campfire:


Miriam roasting a mallow:


Overall, I'm very proud of myself. I didn't scream over a bug (unlike some people....cough, Linda), even when the bugs in the "bathroom" attacked me and my bum. I slept pretty well. The weather was great. Bottom line: It was fun. I'd do it again. WHAT??? Did I just say that??? Get the straightjacket, I must be going crazy.

We left the campground early and headed home b/c we were meeting with a realtor to see some houses. Mostly depressing, but we did find one with some potential. I'll tell you what, looking for homes is sooooo tedious. I thought we could do it without a realtor, but after looking online for a solid week, I'm sick of it, and tomorrow I'm finding a realtor to do our dirty work for us. Any suggestions?

So for years and years I've gotten the email saying the lady stole the cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus and now she is passing it onto us, blah blah blah. I always deleted it. Don't ask me why. But Linda made them and I ate one and I fell in love. So I made them tonite. They are quite delish, I won't lie. I must warn you though, it makes a truckload. Like, 10 dozen or so. No joke. I would suggest halving the recipe (which is very simple), or freezing the extra dough balls and saving them for later, when you really could go for a freshly baked cookie but are just not in the mood to make them, or a mess.

Neiman-Marcus Cookies

2 cups butter (that's 4 sticks)
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp soda
5 cups blended oatmeal (in the food processor)
1 8 oz Hershey bar blended (again, in the food processor)
24 oz milk chocolate chips (2 bags)
3 cups nuts (optional)

Blend butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix in flour, salt, baking poweder, soda, and oatmeal. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, bake at 375 for 10 minutes.





The dough *barely* fit in my KitchenAid bowl. It took a little coaxing. Whenever I see "soda" written in a recipe I remember the first time I saw it and wondered just what kind they wanted. Coke? Sprite? Dr. Pepper??

We went to the Brewers/Phillies game last night. It. was. awesome. The Brewers came from behind and won in the 8th inning, with some incredible plays in the 9th, most notably the catch from Corey Hart. It was awesome. I love baseball more and more. Seriously, where is that straighjacket? It was even more fun b/c we tailgated before the game with our friends Ryan and Ashley. And even though it was raining the whole time, it was still fun. Nothing beats a good weenah before a baseball game. Toss in a s'more, some doughboys, and a cold Sprecher and you're set. Life is good.

Happy Birthday!

To Tom Brady, my favoritest football player! Is there a better looking NFL player out there? I dare you to try and find one. We all know his face is gorgeous, so I thought I'd post a pic from behind. :)



Enjoy!

Off to the campsite!

A Pampered Camper

This may come as a shock to you, but we are going camping tomorrow. Like, sleeping in a tent camping. It's been years and years since I've been camping. Let's just say if I had my choice of weekend getaways, I would hands down choose a hotel in the city and a show over putting up a tent, cooking my own food over a smokey fire, and just general dirtiness and bugginess. But this past month for some reason, I've had a sudden desire to go camping. Weird. I vocalized this anomaly to Derrick, who was just as surprised as I was to hear it. Luckily for me, Linda is a big time camper, planned a big campout and invited us! The only problem? No tent. No sleeping bags. Nada. Actually, we do have 2 camping stoves we got as wedding gifts. Random. Well, we snagged some sleeping bags from Derrick's house in LA, and my dad scored us a tent, so at least we're minimally equipped. We set up the tent on Saturday as a trial run, and all went well. It's an old tent, but I think it's pretty sweet. Green canvas-y. Think M*A*S*H. Ha. I picked up some other random campy things today and I think we're ready to go. I'm pumped to make s'mores and doughboys. Speaking of doughboys, Jason, do you dip them in butter before or after you cook them? Then cinnamon sugar?? Mmmmmmm....can't wait! I'm pretty lucky: for some reason mosquitos don't bite me. Pretty sweet set up. Derrick, on the other hand? Mosquito All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. Chuck-a-Rama, baby. I must be too bitter for their taste. I'll take it!

I keep forgetting to write about The Simpsons Movie! We saw it Monday night, and it was hilarious. I was really nervous that I wouldn't get a lot of the jokes since I'm not a regular Simpsons watcher, but that wasn't the case. I mean, maybe I missed a lot of things that I don't know about. Still, really funny. Check it out.

Oprah is on in the background about autism. They're going on about vaccinations and how it causes it. Puh-lease! Nobody knows! Anyone ever heard of genetics?

I'm going to a home buying seminar tonite. Should be interesting. If anyone knows a good realtor around here, let me know!

The Wisconsin State Fair starts today!! I wait for it all year! Cream puffs, cheese curds, carnies, farm animals, flavored milk, racing pigs. So great. We're going next Saturday. Hooray!!!

Enough randomness.

Happy Me

Me: Eating Key Lime Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, courtesy of the Johnson's--Happy Anniversary to them, by the way!

You: Probably not eating cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.

One point Karen.