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.

They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Sweet Factory

Remember when Joni Mitchell said, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”?

I used to work with some of my best friends at Mrs. Field’s in the mall, and Mrs. Field’s happened to be right next to the Sweet Factory. Every few weeks on my way to work I would stop by and get some of my favorite kind of candy—sour strawberry belts.

Then I moved to Utah and immediately went into withdrawal. For the last 4 ½ years I’ve been trying to figure out how Ben and I could start a Sweet Factory franchise. Whenever I read about a new mall or shopping center being built, I get a craving for that sour strawberry flavor and I beg Ben to help me find some investors. Today I found out that there’s an easier, cheaper way to get my hands on those yummy belts.

Check it out—they sell them online!

I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving

Every year we go with Ben’s family to Snowbird for Thanksgiving. This year I got overly excited about Liam playing in the snow for the first time, so I bought him the whole get-up: bib overalls with a matching coat, snow boots, gloves, and a hat. I had all kinds of cute pictures in my head of Liam playing in the snow.

Surprise—there’s no snow at Snowbird yet this year. All of my dreams of snowy photos were shattered because guess what stayed in the suitcase all week?

Controversial Radio Show

Salt Lake’s biggest controversy right now is a radio station called FM 100. They play Christmas music from Labor Day to the end of the year. Christmas enthusiasts love it, non-enthusiasts don’t, and non-enthusiasts who work with enthusiasts who stream it online during work really hate it.

I haven’t had an opinion about the Christmas music marathon because it hasn’t affected me until now. A few weeks ago I found out that FM 100 plays Church music on Sundays. A girl’s got to have something to listen to before The Bluegrass Express starts, so I made the controversial station into one of my presets. On Monday my car stereo was still set to 100.3, so Oh Holy Night was playing when I got in. Normally I would probably change the station, but I decided to give it a chance. Now it’s two days later and my car stereo hasn’t changed. Don’t tell Ben (he’s in the category of non-enthusiasts who work with enthusiasts who stream FM 100 online during work), but I’m totally becoming a fan of Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

In Case You Were Wondering Whether Decorating Stores Were as Cool as Sporting Goods Stores

Yesterday Liam threw up in the middle of Tai Pan. Other than the newborn spit-up thing, it was his first time and I was totally unprepared for the whole experience.

As I stood there staring at him, wondering what I should do next and whether it would require getting my new vest dirty, no less than 400 women came out of nowhere with wads of paper towels, mini packages of Kleenex, and wet wipes, saying, “We’ve all been there” and “Poor little guy” and “What a sweetheart.”

Say what you want about stereotyping, but I just don’t think I would have gotten that kind of help at Cabela’s.

Young Love

Last weekend Liam’s girlfriend Maggie came to visit. Maggie wears the pants in their relationship, and Liam likes it that way.

I kept overhearing Maggie say stuff like, “Hand over the truck and no one gets hurt.”

At first Liam tried reasoning with her, but Maggie made it very clear that she wasn't in the mood for his games.

And then inevitably, every 10 minutes or so, she karate chopped him in the neck or head butted him in the stomach, repeatedly finding some way to wrestle him to the ground.

Liam spent a good part of the weekend wearing a very scared look on his face, and even now if I come near him too quickly his mouth opens wide and his eyes start to close like he’s going to his happy place.

It’s very sweet to see how much he misses his girlfriend already.