You'll learn a lot about me from this post.

Ok. when I saw these the other day at rei, I was like "puh-lese....don't be ridiculous."
This, I assure you, is an odd statement coming from me, seeing as I am the one who want's a watermelon helmet.

So, you might think I would be the type of person who would think these shoes were awesome, and I would think they were awesome, except I thought that they were trying to hard to be "unique," and Rei is where you look for practical stuff, not funny stuff.

Speaking of practical stuff, I finally have one of these things, and I can't wait to use it, but I can't bring myself to go out to the parking lot and try it out when I have a perfectly good toilet in my condo, and a perfectly clean criminal record in the parking lot...so it will have to wait for a good long hike/bikeride/backpacking/camping trip.
I know you are jealous. Heck, even Freud knows you are jealous. I will admit I was disappointed to open mine and discover it was grey instead of pink. It was part of my bday gift from Brett.

BACK TO THE SHOES.
Yes, these shoes.

Okay, I lied... I was really meaning back to the "pink" shoes. The grey and yellow ones aren't as pretty.
Anyhow, I was looking for something else at REI online when i noticed that these ridiculously unpractical shoes had a 5 star average rating over 19 reviews: sixteen 5's and three 4's. Intrigued, I read the comments, and I am a believer. I WANT THESE SHOES, because (as it turns out) they are exactly practical.

The theory behind them is (in my own words) God gave us feet to use, and not shoes with 3 inches of cushioned padding that force our feet into a strait flat position. He gave us toes and foot muscles that effect our posture and the way we walk, and shoes we typically wear don't work those muscles. People love them for running, love them for sexy but they now have, love them for the free feeling, love them for the way they can feel and contour there feet around the uneven ground while giving some pad protection, etc. People rave about it fixing foot and knee issues they were having, etc. There was a consensus, however, that you will hurt for the first two weeks; your calve muscles will get an unusual workout you will have to get used to, and sometimes you need to break them in. Also, they are fine for dirt trails and grass, and concrete, and elliptical machines, but not good for sharp gravely rocks (better than bare feet, but will still hurt).


Anyhow, I'm sold.
I mean you are sold.
And now you are going to buy those shoes for me.
Your generosity is amazing and I thank you profusely.

Okay, now out of fantasy world, and back to my real life where I must walk barefoot.

Brett, apparently not realizing that I was interested in the Julia Child cook book he had gotten for his mother, said "You want the books for your birthday, right."

I, not realizing that he was NOT seriously thinking of getting them for me (just wanted an excuse to buy them) replied, in all seriousness "that would be awesome." Brett, not realizing I was serious about wanting the cookbooks, made no plan to buy them for me (aka, for himself so that he could use it...aka for me because he cooks and I eat [ok, and sometimes I cook too]).


Days later, we cleared up the misunderstanding, and so we decided to downgrade his top-secret awesome and well thought out anniversary/birthday plans for me so we could get the cookbooks too.

In the process of the Compromise,Brett decided to reveal his Top Secret Anniversary Plan (it is in all caps, because it is an official plan with an official name). I have to admit though, that I am wondering if I should skip the cook books and upgrade back up the plans.

Why? Well, first of all because it was an incredible plan that Brett came up with all on his own, and he doesn't usually take such creative innitiative, and he deserves praise and support for his idea. Secondly because it would involve doing something that I never-ever-ever thought I'd get Brett to do with me. Thirdly because it is not full scale (therefore less dangerous), has multiple "incidents," is less expensive than full scale opportunities, and would be a great way to get this "need" out of my system.

ARE YOU READY?
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Okay, TELL ME HOW JELOUS YOU ARE!!!

Brett found a place that does some training with you and takes you on 10 flights, 30-100 feet up off of a bunny hill (as opposed to launching from the tip top of the Point of the Mountain and landing in the middle of the I-15). It is 100 bucks a person, but considering that in our 4 past years the most we'd ever spent on our anniversary was for gas to Yosemite and a 3 day pass to the park, I'm not feeling too guilty about dropping 200 bucks on something I've really-really-really-really wanted to do for years and years and years (and never thought I would).

The biggest problem with this plan is, that if I develop an adrenaline addiction (which I believe I just might), I will have to come up with a good $3,000 each for Brett and I to get get Paragliding certified (yup, you need a "license") and get our own gear... so that I can do full scale flights, and launch off the top of the Point of the Mountain, and (I suppose) avoid landing in the middle of the I-15.

So the cheeper alternative is for Brett and I to go kayaking. We can get a "guided" tour down the elaborately confusing Provo River for $40 each.



The good part of that is that:
1. We could definitely afford the cookbooks
2. We could afford to rent the stuff to go again in the summer, on our own.
3. If we get addicted, it is much much cheeper to buy our own gear eventually, and we don't need to be certified.

As for the downside to the kayaking plan, well...


THIS IS BRETT'S IDEA OF A KAYAKING TRIP:



and
THIS IS MY IDEA OF A KAYAKING TRIP




So, you see, while both Brett and I think kayaking would be fun, his idea of fun involves avoiding touching perfectly good swimming water, while mine involves a helmet and some potential broken bones.

So, unless we wish to take trips separately, investing a grand into kayaking supplies for both of us would be potentially stupid. Though, I think I might go for it if we invest in this set-up below.

helmet hair

These helmets are awesome. Which one would you get?

I am leaning towards the watermellon, because it looks awesome with my bike, but I also Like the striped one to the left of it, and the 4leaf clover one (top, second from left) too. The again, the Union jack is pretty fun, and the lime one all the way on the right in the second row. Okay, I like most of them.

Sprout, Baby, Sprout (and thoughts on companion planting)

I almost put photos of every single veggie sprouting, but let's be honest. The only person who might read this and actually be interested is at my house while her mom is in town... so she sees them anyway.

I'm interested in the so-called "controversial" theory of companion planting. Companion Planting is the idea that some plants thrive in the presence of certain other plants, but do poorly in the presence of others. I don't know why it is "controversial," it seams like a pretty easy thing to document. Either it works or it doesn't.

So, depending on the validity of companion planting, I either WASTED or INVESTED an hour and a half last night Sketching up a few Garden Maps. . I'm thinking the idea sounds good. Certain plants make nitrogen as a byproduct that they release from their roots, while other plants need extra nitrogen... some plants have a strong sent and mask the smell of another plant that a certain bug is looking for... and some plants are bad to be too near other plants.
So, here is my map. I managed to put many good things next to eachother, and keep bad companions at least a few feet away. (too lazy to scan it, sorry for the bad photo)

I don't think my plot is long enough... I wonder if they have an extra for my squash, pumpkin, and watermelon....


And now for an update you don't care about (yet, I must give it). Of the many things I've planted, only a few are yet to sprout, and it is only day 6!



Parsly 0/18
Oregano 25/18+ (I averaged planting 3 seeds per "cube" but because some of the plants have really super small seeds, I was not as careful, so I don't know exactly how many I planted)
chives 7/18
carrots 18/18+
Beets 7/18+
Radish 17/18
cilantro 3/18
Purple Basil 16/18
Basil 18/18
lettuce 37/?
Spinach 9/24
Swiss chard 22/24
Sugar snap peas 16/24?
cucumbers 5/18
Squash 1/8
Pumpkin 2/8
Watermelon 0/8
Cayeene 0/12
leek 1/12
Sweetie Tomato 7/12
Purple Cheroke 9/12


For the most part, pretty good germanation for 6 days out, it's a shame I'll have to thin all those sprouts down. What a waste.

"OHHHHHHH, sweet Child of miiiiiiiiine."

We had some things to return to Sur Le Table, so Brett and I decided that while his mom was visiting (she came on wednesday) he should take her there and let her pick out something. He showed her some of the things we were thinking of, but he kept catching her eyeballing (or perhaps petting... I wasn't there) this book:

His mom cooks a lot, and liked watching "Julie and Julia," but I would never dare picking out a cookbook for her, because I never know what she is eating. Always organic, often Vegan, sometimes macrobiotic, etc....

But she has been eating little bits of dairy lately AND she has been eating meat. I swear, she's been eating it almost every day since she's been here, and not just fish.

So Brett got her Julia Child's cookbook for mother's day. I have been wondering if Julia Child is overrated... you never know.

They've made a few things from it, for example hollandaise sauce. Can't say I loved it, but I'm not big on fish. Still, the texture was perfect, and from what I can tell, her recipes are easy to read, and very thorough. She explains things like what will happen if you overbeat it, under cook it, over cook it... when it won't work with pasteurized eggs, etc. So truly, it is a book you can actually learn a little from. Plus, she gives more than one recipe for certain things, and gives examples of dishes that sauces would be good on.

Last night, Carrisa, and I made lady fingers and Buttercream (aka "Butter," as it turns out that that is probably 70% of the ingredients) The
finger's aren't the prettiest (they cracked), but they were definitely good. the buttercream puts canned frosting to shame.

Destination utah

I've decided I need to appreciate utah more. I mean, I used to run into people who came from another country and were here rock climbing.

And yes, I've hiked to the fence in rock canyon, I've rock climbed and night rappelled in rock canyon, and one year I went to Moab 3 times in an 8 month period (and rappelled from the gemini land bridge while anchored to an suv parked on top of it), but there is so much more out here I haven't even bothered to look at.... not to mention, it has been years since I've done anything more than hike that easy part of rock canyon.

Almost 2 years ago, I wanted to do a bunch of stuff up here before Brett and I moved to California... a farewell to Utah trip... but we were to busy

So now, as I've been bicycling a little, I've come to realize that I feel much more happy and "whole" when I do stuff outdoors, so I googled to see if there were any local hikes... I mean, it is 10 minutes to the mountain, so there probably is, right?

As I expected, I found Battle creek falls, almost a strait line from my house. So, in the past few weeks, Brett and I had gone maybe 5 times late in the evening, we hiked the 15 minutes to the waterfall, then came back in the dark.



Well, yesterday I decided to go BEYOND the waterfall to the mysterious land where no one seams to want to keep hiking. I hiked a total of 2 hours before I decided to come back, making it 3 full hours of hiking.

Reason's why it is a shame no one hikes beyond that first waterfall:
1. it is only 1 minute to the next waterfall
2. there are another 3 or so waterfalls in the next 15 or so minutes
3. Those evil slate chips you had to walk on to get to the first waterfall... they get less and less frequent until they disappear
4. No one else is there, so it is pretty dang peaceful
5. Your calves stop hurting because they realize you aren't listening to the pain.
6. If you have a Polo, you can let him off the leash (because no one said you couldn't) and he absolutely loves running ahead of you and then waiting for you to catch up.
7. you get to hike across a couple shallow streams, and you feel like an adventurer with out getting wet.
8. you spot a family of dear running away, and an owl.
9. you reach some happy meadows just grass, but I think flowers come in a month or so)
10. if you look carefully, you can find a place were an underground stream opens up at the base of the hill and becomes a normal stream.
11. in some of the meadows, your path is narrow and the path is eroded so that the dirt with the grass on it is a foot higher than your feet, so you are like walking in a groove.
12. There is a pretty good chance you won't run in to anyone and that you'll have it all to your self. ( I ran into one couple [halfway up my journey] who were resting before turning around... that is it. no one else at all)

Apparently, it makes an 8.5 mile loop, but I don't know how far I got. I turned around an hour after I ran out of water (better bring the water filter next time). Plus, I started my hike at 5:20, so I wanted to get back before dark ( I brought my head lamp, but some horses ruined part of the trail so that you can fall down the hill if you aren't looking and your one foot slips)

I realized
1. My dirt trail running shoes are fine for up hill, but (like half dome) my toes hurt going down hill (especially since I have an urge to skip or trot down hill)
2. I have to admit that brett is right, and that I need to get hiking shoes with ankle support (especially since I have an urge to skip or trot down hill, and there are little rocks here and there for me to roll my ankles on).
3. Polo makes the perfect companion. I was alone enough to be free (though I wished Brett could have seen how much prettier the hike is than the parts he has seen), but I had good company in man's best friend.
4. I need to bring more food. I get hungry after hiking an hour or 2, but once I get home, I don't feel like eating
5. It makes me feel alive (with out having to join a fight club!) and I wish I could explore a new trail every single day.
6. TV is a little less exciting than I thought it was. You don't release any endorphines from watching TV.

video

so, now I have that ipod video, and rarely anything to share with it... I mean, I did film the area by our condo where I let Polo off leash, but..... do you really care, no, you don't.

So Saturday ( a week ago), while I was babysitting B's cousin's baby, I filmed him feeding himself with my super duper late baby shower gift to him. It is a pain to clean (can you throw it in the washing machine?) but the 5 minutes of cleaning it was worth the 30 minutes of freedom I got while he fed himself.... I got so much cleaning done while he ate is 1 banana and 1 pear.

So instead of a video of a dog you don't care about, Here is a video of a baby most of you don't know.

I sure hope I like raddish

I planted my seeds late on tues night. Here are the Radish today (they were pretty tall yesterday too)

So far, things are sprouting much faster than the seed packets claimed they would.

Day "2"-

1 snap pea

1 cayenne

14 raddish

Day "3"-Saturday

1 snap pea

1 cayenne

17 Radish

1 cucumber

1 spinach

18 lettuce

1 almost (the stem is looping out, but no leaves yet) beet

3 almost basils

I didn't have this much luck last time, that is for sure. All the sprouted ones except for the snap pea and the lettuce are heirloom seeds, so I wonder if that has something to do with it.

room Tour: Room 7-8-Guest Bath and Living/dining/Kitchen

So you know how I went to california for a few days earlier this month? Okay, so I didn't post a lot about it, but it happened.

Well I came back, and Brett and his sister had painted the bathroom. Then, I bought some pictures for the bathroom. They are still on the floor.

Bathroom Before:


Bathroom colors Now:


They ALSO painted the Trim in the hallway for me. If I posted a pic, you would probably think it looks exactly the same as the last time I put up a pic (without the blue tape), but trust me, the new white looks better.

Then, shortly after, I woke up to find B painting the living room. Eventually I helped.
I'll try to post some better pics in the future with a better lighting set up that allows my camera to get farther away from the flash on the co unter...(the lights are in the closet where B's Mom is sleeping....


Living Before:
(we've since cleaned the carpet, and the paitned walls looks better with the carpet than the white walls did.).

Living After:
( New couch, New ottoman, new drapes.... not shown, also new entertainment center and new TV.

Kitchen Before:


Kitchen After:

Brett really wanted the wainscoting to be all one color, but now that it is done, he is not so sure... so eventually we might paint this with some sort of 2 color scheme.



So, we're almost done! just a door, a few ceilings, and some touch ups! Since Dec, we've used b's income to buy our first table, first TV, first ottoman, first couch, first entertainment center, first Wall Art, first Drapes, first curtain rods, first decorative chair... After 5 years (almost) of marriage, we finally have furniture, and painting as opposed to being stuck with white walls.... it really feels like home.

the secret box, and other gift-able stories.

1. my mother in law arrived in town today. Everyone say "hello Lisa."

I often threaten Brett that I am going to make him take care of all the gift giving for his side. I tend to spend hours trying to find something online that I think would be "loved." by the person I give it to,So I'm trying to stick with my threat for mother's day...

I have found somethings and run them by brett, but I must resist... he can pick something out... he will pick something out... right? He has a tendency to buy gifts the night before, and this bugs me. I like to have it done and out of the way months in advance.

2. In fact, I have a SECRET box in which I keep gifts I have bought in advance. some are for particular people, others are misc. gifts I found for a great price that I think multiple people would like.

3. DEAR MOM (my mom) , Your mother's day gift will be late ( I have nothing in my secret box for you, sadly). I finally thought of something you said you wanted (besides a bigger, better, and more expensive harp) and it requires both shipping, and assembling. Please forgive my lateness. For your viewing pleasure, here is an example of something I didn't buy you.
$(That is right, I didn't buy you a 23,000 electric harp).

4. Tomorrow is: my sister-in-law's birthday, my grandma's birthday, my ex-boyfriend's birthday.
I got Tiffany something from Sephora that I have no idea if she'll like. I suck bad at getting her gifts, so I finally gave up.

For my grandma's b-day, I was going to make her the photo ornaments that I intended to make her for christmas. I've been retouching all the age damage, and It looks like it won't be ready for her bday either. Bad Charlotte. Maybe next Christmas.

Ward (community) garden

I Get my garden plot tomorrow! They've plowed it and roped it off into sections, but I don't know which one is mine.

According to Brett, they will tell us at our "extra relief society meeting tomorrow... which brings me to two tangents.

a. Why do they tell the priesthood more about the R.S. activities than they tell us (this is not the first time).
b. "Extra relief society meeting?" Really, was "Home-making," or "Enrichment" really that bad of a name?

So, yesterday, I started all these seeds ( I went a little crazy at the nursery, it's true... but i didn't buy strawberries or purple potatos or mint... so I totally exercised restraint )


So, I set up a workbench in the office, where there is some decent sunlight, and put all my starter's in there, and labeled them using plastic knives (because you always use the spoons and forks, but you always end up with way to many plastic knives.)

Some of these apparently don't transplant well, sot them in my mini greenhouses might be a waste.. good thing I've got a ton of seeds.

Most of the packets have a bazillion seeds in them, but the pumpkin only had 6 (which they recommend you plant all at once and then thin..booooo).


My seed list:

HERBS:
Rosemary
Chives
Cilantro
Dark Purple Opal Basil
Genovese Basil
Oregano
Sage
Parsley

LEAFY VEGETABLES:
Swiss Chard
spinach
lettuce


"ROOT" VEGGIES
radish ( I don't think I've ever cooked radish, so hopefully I make some good soups with these
leek
carrot
beet

BUSH-VINE-THINGIES (mostly for brett)
Sugar Snap Peas
Sweetie Tomatos (yuck)
Purple Cherokee Tomatoes (yuck)
Cayenne peppers. (huzzah!)

SQUASH/MELLONS
Amish Pie Pumpkins
White scallop Squash
Pickling cucumber
Georgia Rattlesnake Watermelon

BONUS They gave me some free flowers when I bought my seeds.


WISH ME LUCK, and lots of produce... I've been getting into soup making lately, that would help me eat all the veggies I never eat.

Things that take a lot of time