a comedy errors

This week has been my very own very bad no good week. Seriously. It all started Tuesday with our computer crash. 2 days before my two take home finals were due, with half of one of them saved to the computer. While we were able to retrieve my document the computer is toast.

The second incident happened shortly after the first. Jackson bought this scarf for Christmas and gave it to me early. You can heat it up in the microwave. It has rice inside that heats up. I was wearing it and it made me start to smell like rice. Let me preface this next part with Hobbes is a very nice cat, he doesn't even ever hiss at anyone, that is only Hermione. Hobbes jumped on my lap while I was studying, something he often does. He started smelling my leg, which smelled like rice and then he tried to bite the smell. He only bit me, really hard. I now have a bruise where the bite is. I screamed, loud, started crying and Jackson ran in to see what had happened. Hobbes was terrified. Jackson grounded Hobbes.

The third incident happened this morning. I dropped Jackson off at the airport last night. I then drove straight to the library, where I stayed until 1:00. When I got home I decided to lock the door connecting to the garage since I was home alone. This morning I needed my makeup out of the car so I went down to the garage and ended up locking myself out of the house. I was only wearing my dress pants and my garment top, and it was single digits outside. I tried jimmying the lock with a screw driver and a bobby pin and briefly considered using the saw to saw off the door knob. I ended up running out the garage to a neighbor who was preparing to leave, I have never really met any of my neighbors before. I told her I locked myself out and asked if I could borrow her phone. She was very nice and handed her cell phone over. I realized that I don't have Jackson's new phone number memorized. I called my parents, it was 5:45 their time, and asked them to call Jackson and have him call a locksmith. My neighbor took pity on me and lent me her coat before she drove off. I went back to my garage and sat for a while. My friend Pam showed up about 30 minutes later. My Dad had called Jackson, who didn't answer his phone initially, and left him a message. My Dad then called 10+ locksmiths, only one would come today. Jackson called my friend Pam and then my Dad. 2 hours after locking myself out I got back in thanks to the locksmith, who just used a piece of plastic to slide between the door and its frame. My sister is now calling me garment girl.

I think I am ready for vacation.

they're still eagle

Jackson was worried his eye sight was starting to fail. Or a least that he was losing his "eagle eyes." He went to an optometrist today who assured him that he still has 20/20 vision. Although Jackson always claimed his eye sight was better than 20/20. Anyway, apparently reading so much has made a bit far sighted so the doctor prescribed him some reading glasses. Old man.

Thanksgiving

We went to Washington DC for Thanksgiving. Both my sisters are currently living there.

One of the highlights of the weekend was our very fancy tea party. What tea party is complete without a round of London Bridge is Falling Down?

Our makeshift tea set. Eliza has a smashing British accent. I wore my pearls to fancify my Utah shirt, not that it needed help.

Eliza put on all of her fanciest clothes. She wanted to be like the Queen, I may or may not have planted the idea of a Queen in her head. Camille and Chelsea were smashingly fancy, eating cucumber sandwiches with their pinkies up.

We got to spend time with Dave, Danielle and Luke. They came down to DC on Saturday and we went through some of the Smithsonian Museums with them.

We saw Julia Child's kitchen in the American History museum. It is my favorite museum.

My sisters are very competitive when it comes to height. They made several people measure them back to back to determine who is taller. Camille barely beat Chelsea, I obviously won. Chelsea contended that she has a very long torso, so she made us all sit up against the wall to see. She does indeed have a long torso, almost as long as mine.

Camille organized a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. She was very inventive in the usage of her counter space.

Needless to say, we had a great time.

25 things

25 is kind of ominous. It is the beginning of old age. I have 18 days of youth left. I googled 25 things to do before you turn 25 and this is one of the lists I found. Apparently being boring is a pre-requisite for turning 25.

1. Hang curtains in your bedroom.-check

2. Become friends with someone you meet in unusual circumstances.

3. Make your own Halloween costume.-check

4. Go to a concert/movie/restaurant alone.-check

5. Open a Roth-IRA account.-I may have one of these through

6. Own stock in a company you believe in.-I think I owned stock when I was like 12, do I still own that Dad? I think the company may have bottomed out. I believe in Coca-Cola, maybe I should buy stock in that.

7. Read The Iliad.- I may have read parts of this but it will not be read by the time I turn 25, I can promise you that.

8. Start a blog.-check

9. Join a professional organization.-no thanks.

10. Go on a spur-of-the-moment, weekend trip to a foreign city.- Does Canada count?

11. Attend a poetry reading.- I would if I thought it was even remotely possible to get Jackson to agree to this, just so I could watch him squirm.

12. Go to a music festival.- I have kind of done this. Not really.

13. Learn to dance.- This is just not going to happen, anyone who has seen me try and keep a beat knows why.

14. Take a road trip with friends.- you know I don't think I have ever done this. I am even more boring than this list!

15. Get paid to do something you like.- see me laughing right now.

16. Do some sort of adventure/adrenaline activity.- I generally equate adrenaline with death defying stunts, so no thanks. As for adventure... I will have to think harder on this one.

17. Take a course on something you’re interested in.- done and done.

18. Regularly read a newspaper/magazine/blog.- check

19. Be recognized for something or at somewhere.- isn't it kind of strange if you have to try to be recognized for something?

20. Have business cards.-check, although I have never used them.

21. Cook dinner for a friend.- check

22. Win something. Big or small.-check

23. Start a new hobby after college.-check

24. Pick up the tab for no good reason.- I tried to do this the other day, kind of.

25. Be irresponsible. It’s allowed sometimes.- always.

I think I need to find a better list of 25 things to do before 25, this one is kind of depressing.

we still love you utes

We went to a bar in DC to watch the big game with the DC area alumni group. Although we lost we had such a good time. The whole bar sang Utah Man after our touchdown. It was awesome.



Eric Weddle after losing to BYU in 2006:

“(BYU’s John) Beck made a play,” Weddle said. “We dropped eight into coverage and Beck pumped it three or four times and found the open guy.

“Give him a lot of credit. In a way I’m kinda proud for Beck, because he finally won a game for his team. For three years there have been a lot of critics that have questioned his ability to finish games and he did it tonight.”

Max Hall after beating Utah in 2009:

"A little bit, yeah. I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything."

"So it felt really good to send those guys home," Hall continued. "They didn't deserve it. It was our turn, and our turn to win. We deserved it. We played as hard as we could tonight. And it felt really good, again, to send them home, to get them out of here, and so it is a game I will always remember. I think the whole university, their fans and their organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don't respect them, and they deserved to lose."

Keeping it classy Max.

See you next year BYU, hopefully from the other end of the score board.

rivalry week

How you know it is Rivalry Week (Rachel, you may want to stop reading here)-

1-Jackson's e-mail account starts filling up with e-mails like "I hate BYU" or "Deep thoughts by Bronco Mendenhall"
2- I start getting e-mails from Jackson of the YouTube video of the Utah cheerleader beating up the BYU fan.
3-Facebook becomes inundated with invites to groups for Utah vs. BYU the Rivalry (GO UTES) status changes like "I am teaching my unborn child to hate BYU" (by the way Matt, I don't think you will have to teach your child, I am pretty sure all your children will be born with a hatred for BYU)
4-Photos like these are everywhere I turn



5- I would make relentless fun of this next picture, but I am pretty sure that if Jackson has his way every family picture we take will be the Utah equivalent of this.

Dr. Jackson

I went to my favorite unlicensed dentist this week. It was surprisingly difficult to get an appointment with him. He was very thorough, he called me to confirm my appointment.

getting set up

reviewing the case

getting down to business.

There was considerably less bleeding this time. The dentist has improved!

go red wings!

The super cool fire station in Detroit. The city may be dead but it has some awesome buildings!

We went to the Red Wings game this weekend. It was very exciting, despite the fact that we don't know the rules very well (Jackson will disagree with this statement).

We went with Pam and Jordan.

get your own tots

Last week I was perusing various sites when I came across the recommendation for a tater tot casserole. I thought this presented the perfect party opportunity. Tater tot casserole, dress up like Napoleon Dynamite, and Friday the 13th. A perfect combination. Added to that every one's husbands were out of town so Jackson got to hang out with four girls all night!

Jackson has the innate skill of taking the absolute worst pictures of me.

I put the bump it to shame. Carrie as Kip and Kara as the side pony tail girl who sells boondaggle (I think. Regardless, her leggings were sweet)

We felt that under the circumstances it was only appropriate to pull out, Who Wants To Be A Celestial Heir?

post it

The sheer amount of post it notes I use at work has become an office joke. I currently have 11 post it pads on my desk, that I can find. When Art Fry, the creator of the post it, came to campus last week my coworker made sure to get his autograph for me, on a post it.

My eleven post it pads with the masters signature.

Where the post it proudly hangs.

I was kind of bored.

This is Art Fry. Did you know he got the idea of the post it because he wanted something to tab his church choir music with?

halloween-the real thing

Our, still, un-carved pumpkins next to our neighbors much more festive pumpkins. I blame the highlighters. We spent our time with them rather than doing fun things. You may ask yourself why I took a picture of my highlighter next to Jacksons, and with good reason. His is huge, and taking a picture of it proved to be a satisfactory method of procrastination. Now the real question is, what on earth do we do with two huge un-carved pumpkins?

We did have our annual chili party this year, after which we made everyone watch the Utah game, even the BYU fans.

Where's Waldo and Prince William and Kate Middleton with their dragon.

H1N1 and the classic Halloween witch, scarecrow and pumpkin.

I was a tomato this year and Jackson wanted to be a Utah fan but was firmly told that as he is a Utah fan every day he had to put a little more effort into his costume. He was Kyle Whittingham. We had to give his goatee some help by way of eyeliner.

Here is a better picture of my mercury thermometer for the work.

I made graveyard brownies for the spooky dessert competition. I didn't win but I did get 2nd place and $15 at Target. I made Jackson take me to Target for Friday date night to make sure the money didn't burn a hole in my pocket.