comment inspired.

Sometimes I am commenting on someone's blog, and I think, wow. I should make that a blog entry of my own. but then I don't.
This one is shorter than most of those, but it makes for a great story:

At work, everyone insists that NONE of the 5 vacuums work. At least twice I have fixed the first vacuum I choose, by emptying the bagless compartment. I'm a technical genius.

This was inspired by a friend who mentioned that her new roommates (she moved in mid semester) said the lawnmower has been broken since august, so the grass was a foot high. She magically fixed it by buying gas. She's a technical genius too. I love lazy people they make people like us look super smart.

Make-it Monday: Scrapped Keys

My Key Card for work was already lined with masking tape because they gave me a crappy old one to begin with, so I decided that, being a keycard for a scrapbook/craft magazine company, it deserved a little more flair.

Official Name

What does one do when one has power to pick name used for a very official (though not government) document?

• Do you work in your maiden name? I'd rather not
  
• Do you work in your middle name? I think I will.
  
• Do you put (after your name ", MD." and see if they catch it? I'm certainly considering it.

I've also concidered:

• NAME NAME NAME, Necromancer extrodinaire
  
• Lady NAME NAME NAME
  
• Sir NAME NAME NAME
  
• Lady NAME NAME NAME, of Utah
  
• Her Highness, NAME NAME NAME
  
• NAME NAME NAME, level 5 Druidess
  
• NAME NAME NAME, licensed port-a-potty inspector.
  

It's rather tough, really, I've got a limited time to turn this in. And, if I don't try to sneak someting quirky in there, I will wonder for the rest of my life if I would have gotten away with it.

What part of secret

involves emailing this to everyone on your list and then telling them to forward it to everyone
Well, you are now in on the "secret"(gasp!).
And you don't even care (double gasp!)
And neither do I (triple gasp!).

Make-it Monday: Shrink some Dinks

I put together the following for a work blog, but seeing as I made it, I feel it should be on my blog too.

Sometimes, I want the power to create something myself that is simple, inexpensive, customizable, and doesn’t look as cheep as it is.

One month, while photographing submissions, I noticed several gorgeous charms and determined that they were made with shrinky dink...and I thought shrinky dink was just for ugly stuff. With a little practice, I was able to make this cute charm for a lucky grandma:


One thing I love about printable shrinky dink, is that it is not hard to get exactly what you want as long as you're computer savvy enough to create, or at least scan, the design you crave.

SUPPLIES:

Printable Shrinky Dink
Computer
Design software, digital scrapbook paper, or an image and a scanner
Printer (see package directions, some printers will not work with Shrinky Dink)
Large Shape Punches (1-2 inches), or scissors and a steady hand
Standard hole punch
Oven.
Sealing spray
Keychain
Jumprings
Instructions:

1. Prepare or scan your design using the design software you are comfortable with, and print according to package directions. Using a large punch or scissors, cut out your design.
2. Using a standard hole punch, punch out a hole for stringing the charm
3. Following Package directions, heat and shrink your design.
4. You will notice that not only does your design shrink significantly (for me it was about 1/4th the size on this project), but it will also get much darker.
5. Use a protective spray to coat your finished charm. This will help waterproof it.
6. Using a jump rings, attach your charms together. For mine, I used the jump rings to create a byzantine chain, and then attached the charms to that. Directions for the byzantine chain can be found in our February 2009 issue.
7. Attach to key ring.

15 minutes of shame

What's the longest non-testimony you've heard on fast sunday?

I have a lot of testimony pet peeves, but I usually give people the benefit of the the doubt; some people were never taught that testimony meeting is for testimonies...

Today a lady crowned herself the Queen of Testimony Meeting ABUSERS— she spoke for FIFTEEN MINUTES:
about herself.
about her kids
about her grandkids.

If she was like 80, AND loosing it, I might let her get away with it, but she was no older than my own mother, and Mom, if you ever use testimony meeting as a captive audience to talk introduce yourself for 15 minutes, I just might take my pantyhose off and throw it at you.

you've been given fair warning, not to mention a lovely run on sentence.


I was getting tempted to walk out. It really felt like someone taking advantage of an opportunity to further their own agenda in a situation that would make others seem rude to interrupt, and she really wanted to publicly introduce herself.

Saturday: Thursdays appendage.

Birthday celebrations resumed early Saturday morning on the other side of the lake, where they let you shoot things, like dirt.
(Carrisa, Sophie, Uncle Mark, Craig... not posed, though they rather looked it).

Brett had been waiting to shoot the pumpkins since I brought them home and insisted we carve them. It was rather pretty out, and I said "look," and ye looked, and ye beheld Utah lake, and you saw that it was good.
Mark and a virgin tequila sunrise at sunrise.












ALSO, in honor of my love for the bday boy, I made him homemade croissants. In case you are wondering, they take 12 hours, and involve setting your alarm to wake you every 1.5-2 hrs so that you can do 5 minutes of work on them. That's love considering I am not a croissant fan. I liked mine though.

Those of us not on a restrictive diet (and a few cheaters) had them with (not homemade) chicken salad for dinner along with some lovely lamb meatballs and rice spaghetti that Carrisa and Sophie made.

For desert I made some chocolate mousse (with a titch of rum...shhhhh). I tried moulding them in chocolate moulds, but haven't mastered the removal process yet. my decision to sprinkle them with cocoa powder was equally questionable.

Then Brett put on a movie for everyone to watch while he worked on the puzzle I got him for his bday.




When everyone left, Nanial stopped by on his way home, and played a board game with us. I love board games, but I was super tiered again.

30 on a thursday: An airborne story

Brett turned 30 on Thursday. Like most people, he wasn't particularly thrilled about it. Like most of Brett's wives (100% of them, in fact), I didn't care, because as much as he hates attention on his birthday, he needed it.
The day started with meeting Brett for lunch at Tucanos, and ended with me in a deep sleep at 8:30 pm.

Here Is brett being transported to his b-day surprise. He refused to sit blindfolded in the passanger seat, so this was the compromise. all truth-no lies, you can see it in his eyes, beneath the hanken-chief'ed disguise. I made brett get out of the car with his eyes closed, but he was smiling because (even though it is silent there a good 95% of the time) Something was making a noise the moment I got out of the car, and Brett recognized the sound (and hopped it was for him)So, two years ago, Bret used his Birthday/Christmas money to buy an airplane simulator for his mac. He goes through phases where he pretends to fly the plane of his choice to and from the airports of his choice in varying weather conditions. I'll give you a hint: for Brett's birthday he did not get another simulator. Neither did he get a real airplane. (forgive me the crazy yellow, I thought it was fun, though I will regret my "artsyness" later) (and yes, if you put it in quotations, it becomes a word).




And that is the story of how a little boy who wanted to be a pilot grew up and married an awesome wife who, even though he was naughty and scared her with tales of going to join the Air Force, got him the best birthday gift in the world wherein he got to fly a real and not pretend airplane.

If any all y'all know similar men, I highly recomend taking them to the UVU flight school. The intro flight is only 50 bucks (that's how they hooked the instructor that took brett up) and you will make a little boy's dreams come true.

Now, because Brett claimed he was going to do homework, I went with my brother for a bike ride @ Monk's Hollow. It should have been a good trail for me, but I kept staring into space and zoning out... likely due to the gluttonous lunch @ Tucanos. What you eat hours and hours before can affect you, right?

Here are some pretty pics of the trail on one of the less steep parts.


I appreciate it when my brother takes me out and shows me new-to-me trails, even though he is super tough and I am in a slow and pudgy phase that renders the bike ride uselessly boring to him.

I got back from my bike ride to discover that Brett did zero homework, because he was too twitterpated from his awesome birthday flight. He played his flight simulator and organized the garage (aka threw everything on the ground) instead. When I got home he wanted to watch a movie. I never get him to watch movies with me, but I was tired, so I slept on the couch while he watched it. I almost never sleep through movies. I can count the number of times I have been able to sleep through a movie on my left hand and my left hand only has 4 fingers.

Hallowindow

I didn't spend much time getting a great pic of my window, but at least I got one before Sophie cleaned it for me. Imagine this, but easier to see.

return of the ties

The point I wanted to make with my previous tie picture is that Brett had maybe 3 ties when we got married. We didn't have much money, so he got maybe 1 a year after that. Then earlier this year, I went through a tie buying phase (gone are the days of the lip gloss fetishes). If you think this is a lot, you should see how many I returned.


Back when we went to lake arrowhead, I went crazy with the shirts. I rarely find shirts in brett's arm/neck size, and they had a bunch at an outlet for $15, which isn't bad, considering the hours and hours and hours I've spent looking for his size. I've found dress shirts cheeper, but not worth the time to find ape arm shirts. .

So now he can go a whole year of sundays and only wear each tie twice. Hardly necessarily, but maybe one day he'll have a tie job. I've committed to not buy anymore ties and shirts now.

I don't remember which orange shirt he wore for halloween, but he was pretty dapper.

Oops

So Shade clothing has a warehouse just off my exit, (so close) and was having a two dollar going out of business sale. Thus, Yesterday I bought 19 pieces of clothing and swimwear for 40 bucks.

Today it is down to a dollar.... I am debating wether to drop by on my way out. I think they are mostly out of my size by now, but come on, clothing for a buck is pretty darn awesome.