Fun in the Sun

With only the state of Nevada between us, it’s hard to believe that the weather in California can be so completely different from the weather in Utah. In California you can actually wear short sleeves to the park in December without getting frostbite.

Happy Winter

It is officially winter this week, which means that in 3 months it will officially be Spring 2007, which means that Utah is SO close to getting its very own Ikea.

I’m so excited, I can hardly stand it.

I Heart the Red Box

Here's why:

1. If your DVD is scratched and you can’t make it through the whole movie, just call and they’ll give you a refund.



2. If you unknowingly approach the Red Box before the last patron finished his/her session and the Red Box asks you to swipe your credit card, so you do, and then The Pink Panther pops out without giving you a choice, you can get a refund and watch The Pink Panther (or however much of it you can stand before turning off the TV) for free.



3. If you go to return your movie but the Red Box spits it back out, you don’t have to hurry and drive around looking for another Red Box before 7:00. They’ll give you a refund for the extra day and then you can just try again the next day.

Nasty Ingredients = Yummy Food

Yesterday I made a recipe called Cabbage Crunch Salad. It was made of shredded cabbage, green onions, toasted sesame seeds, crumpled up ramen noodles, and toasted almonds. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, and yuck. Even though not a single one of those ingredients sounds yummy, the salad was so good!

It’s kind of like a tuna sandwich—who’s the jokester that thought it would be good to mix tuna, mayonnaise, and pickles? Talk about three nasty ingredients. But put them together and suddenly they’re yummy. How does that work?

Slumber Party

Last night felt exactly like living at home again. My sister slept over because we stayed up too late watching Pirates of the Caribbean, Part No Ending. One time I turned the air duster spray upside down and shot it at her leg and she started screaming like a little baby, “OUCH! That really hurt! And you’re ruining the ozone layer! Spiz’s kids aren’t going to have a place to live because you’re ruining the ozone layer!”

It was so rewarding…just like old times.

Slightly Delayed

Liam’s girlfriend, Maggie, taught him to sign a bunch of words. Now he can say “eat,” “more,” “milk,” “water,” “ball,” “dog,” “car,” “please,” etc. He can say whatever he wants as long as someone is looking at him. Even though he’s basically a baby genius as far as his ASL skills go, his English skills are technically delayed because the only word that he actually speaks is “hot.”

He says “hot” (only he pronounces it more like “hotsssss”) when he hears the microwave beep, when he goes near a fireplace, and when I blow on his food. It’s clear that he knows the literal meaning of the word “hot.”

Today I found out that he also knows another meaning of the word “hot.” I got him up from his nap and walked over to the mirror in the hallway to show him how sweet he looked with his drowsy eyes and his freshly matted-down hair. He took one look at himself in the mirror and exclaimed, “HOTSSSS.”

Baby Wonderful

Most 15-month-old boys play with cars and balls. Liam plays with Mr. Wonderful. Forget the toys that honk and sing; he likes toys that say, “Why don’t you just relax and let me make dinner tonight?”


And when he can’t find Mr. Wonderful, Liam walks around doing the sign for baby, like he’s saying, “Help me find my baby—you know, the one who tells me I look beautiful in the morning.”

World's Best Boss

Ben’s boss, Craig, is pretty much the greatest man alive, and I’m not just saying that because he’s been known to read this website.

Ben’s company Christmas party was last weekend, and this is how it all went down: all 30 employees and their spouses checked into our fancy hotel rooms and then met up for a delicious fish and filet mignon dinner at 7:00. After dinner and a fun game of Play-do sculptionary, Craig announced that in the morning we would be meeting in the lobby at 7:30 and having breakfast at Costco.

“Costco?” you might ask. “What’s so great about Costco breakfast? And duh, they don’t even open until 9:30.”

He then went on to explain that each employee would receive $250 for each year of service (with a cap at $1,500—it’s a young company) and that we would be given 20 minutes to spend it at Costco. The three people to come closest to their dollar amount without going over would receive a $1/hr raise, a $ .50/hr raise, and a $ .25/hr raise, respectively. Anyone who went over their dollar amount would have a number taken out of a hat and would have to return the item corresponding to that number on his or her receipt. No calculators were allowed.

After 20 minutes of running around Costco by ourselves and millions of pages of hotel paper filled with old-school math problems like this:


And more importantly, like this:

We went home with an Xbox 360, a game for the Xbox, a color laser printer, new sheets, some sour candy, and a $1/hr raise for being within $ .08 of our goal.