New Friends

One of my new favorite things is wearing my ipod around. I think I've had more conversations with people by wearing my ipod than by not.

Isn't that ironic?

I put it on to tune out people and instead I end up chatting with them. Usually, they say something like, "Kids today can't go anywhere with out one of those things," [ oh, and that's another thing that happens. If you wear an ipod and look even sort of youngish, then you become a kid by virtue of having the ipod on your person]. And then, I'll joke with the person, or say my dad really likes his, or something like that and suddenly, we're into a full blown conversation.

So, thank you ipod, for making me more social.
--Lu

Why I think gormet food and commentary about it is ridiculous

From the NYtimes:
"It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even...Eating with your hands, it's pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it." [can you guess what they're talking about? Of
course you can. It's hamburgers.]

From that same article:
"With smoked bacon, lettuce, dill pickles, mustard, mayonnaise and fries, the burger at Le Dali costs 35 euros, about $56." [of course the bun is made by an exceptional chef, and the meat part too. But ARE YOU JOKING?]

I stopped reading the article at that point. I liked the one from last week about chocolate chip cookies much better. If you didn't catch it I'll tell you the key point: let the dough sit in your fridge for 24-36 hours before baking it. That won't cost you $56 dollars, and you'll probably enjoy it more. --Lu

[The above quotes were taken from: "In Paris, Burgers Turn Chic." If you go now, it's in the top 10 most emailed.]

All that talk about AZ being a Dry Heat...it's a lie!

After church yesterday The Rock and I made homemade oreos. All because the cream cheese's expiration date was getting close. To use up ALL of the cream cheese (The Rock's goal) we had to tripple the batch. By the time we got around to making the icing (the only thing that calls for
cream cheese) the cream cheese was sort of melty (it is HOT in our apartment, thank you Humidity for rendering our swamp cooler USELESS) so The Rock had to add WAY more powdered sugar than the recipe calls for.

So then the frosting was a weird consistency that only is firm when it is cold. Practically speaking that means: the cookies only stay stuck together, with a nice icing filling, when they are in the fridge. Oy. And I've only glued one batch of cookies together into oreos. After that I shoved the icing into the fridge and called it a night. --Lu

Jet Skis

Last Family Home Evening activity with the Fiance's family was to make sure the new jet-skis were properly working. Oh darn. I got to ride behind The Fiance down almost the whole length of Utah Lake. It was great. He goes really fast since he's done it a lot---and then there was me (insert appropriate Moo cartoon) with my turn to learn how to drive: gooOOOooo, stop. GOOOOOooo, stop. goOOOOOOooooo.,stop. Jet ski and Fiance because Moo drives slow: WHUMPH! WHUMPH! WHUMPH! It's best fast since it's not so bumpy. Fiance is patient. :)
Afterwards, you would also have been entertained by me running through clouds, and I mean CLOUDS, of mosquitos. It was all I could do, when I realized what they were, to not dance in one spot and yell with my arms flailing---like the Bryan Regan skit about the little bee, or the invisible spider web, or Sarah when she claimed she couldn't eat the shredded lettuce on her tacos because it would make her run out in the street and yell "TAXI!" --Moo

Bus Ride

I ride the bus. (you can already see where this is going). It's frustrating, and annoying and slow (sometimes). But, during those awful moments, every so often something clicks for me. And then it all becomes extremely funny. Just such a moment happened today. The bus was late picking me up. When we got to the transit center, the driver waited for a while until all the people had boarded and then got off the bus to buy a coke. Even though we were late. But, that's chill. By the time she got back though, there was a person in a motorized wheel chair waiting to board the bus. So that took a while. As she was hooking the wheel chair into place, she couldn't find a place to put the second strap, so she said, "Do you have your brake on?" (she had to repeat that a few times until the person comprehended the question) Wheel Chair Person finally said, "Yeah. I have my brake on."
"Well," she said, "I hope that will hold you." (ack! That is Unsafe!) (don't worry, nothing tragic happens to him). By this time there was a pack of people waiting to get on the bus. After the eternity it took for them to load, there was another wheel chair person waiting to get on. The wheel chair person's name is Reuben, I know because his very loud sister was yelling at him to come and get on the bus. My hopes for making it to work on time were shattered, but before I could sink into despair, enter: Singer.
Singer gets on the bus, with a medium length pole under his arm. He keeps turning around in the isle way, the pole clearing a path each time he moves. Finally Reuben says, "Give me that before you poke someone's eye out." Singer looks happy and hands the pole over.
"Hee," he says. Then, in a loud, almost monotone voice he sings, "Reuben, Reuben, Reuben, my brother. I love him! Reuben, Reuben, Reuben my bro-u-u-ther." Moments later, with renewed zeal, "Reuben, Reuben, Reuben, him look so good, him look so goo-o-o-d." The whole time, Reuben is beaming and looking around. Sister, who had gotten on first and is in the back of the bus, yells out to Singer, Hey where are we going!" Reuben says, "Ask the driver where this place is." Singer tries to do it, but the driver tells him to stand behind the white safety line. Singer loudly chants with a sorrowful look, "Yeah because last time I fell over. I fell over. Fe-e-ll O-vvvv-er."
A guy standing by Singer says to Reuben, "That's where you want to go. In that building, so take this next stop." From the back of the bus, Sister, whose seat buddies are telling the same thing, hollers, "This is where we want! What we just passed. Hey, pull the cord!" (directed to Reuben and Singer)" Singer looks at her with an exaggerated seriousness, his face puckered, his finger to his lips and says, "Shhh."
By that time, we had reached my stop, and as I was hustling off the bus, I could hear their shenanigans continuing. The thought of those three kept me smiling all the way to my office. --Lu