New Blog

I must admit that I have neglected this blog as of late. I really must find a way to make my life more exciting so I have something worthwhile to post every now and again. As it is, my life is rather dull. I go to work 8:30-5:15 Monday through Friday; David goes to school Monday through Friday, goes to work before I get home, and comes home to do homework just when I'm about ready to go to bed. He's obviously frenetically busy, and I must admit that I am jealous in a way. I've been the one who's had a million things to do and only time to do ten for the past I don't know how many years, and now that I'm done with school and just working, I don't know what to do with myself. I'm antsy. And my job is not the most thrilling in the world - it's really difficult to drag myself out of bed every morning knowing that I'll just go sit in an ancient swivel chair for eight hours waiting for other people to post the pictures and details of their far-more-exciting lives. I need a hobby, but hobbies cost money, and I don't have any of that.

Actually, I lied. I do have several hobbies that don't cost money: doing dishes, vacuuming, cleaning my house, watching anything on the Food Network or TLC, and fashion. I've discovered that researching the latest fashion trends, finding cheaper alternatives, and blogging about the whole experience keeps me from actually spending money on fashion. So yes, this is a shameless promotion of my new blog, Workhorse. It's not quite up and running yet, but when it is, plan on more shameless promotion! I have several fashion blogs that I already follow quite religiously, but realized that the same phrase kept popping into my head as I read: "That's adorable, but I can't wear that to work." So, for all you ladies out there who work in a professional, office environment, this blog is for you! Look for it starting next Monday!

Moving Up

Check out the new header to our blog! I am a photoshop wizard. And irrationally proud of myself. :)

Life, etc.

I promise that I will write about David and my Halloween party soon! Consider this an interim post. I just thought all you avid followers out there (one of you being David) were wondering how our lives were going. Even if you didn't, you're going to find out anyway. :)

October flew by. And now it's November. I have been trying to prevent David (rather unsuccessfully) from listening to/singing Christmas music for the past month. The snow came early, and he was already singing "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." Except when he'd sing it, he would only get as far as "It's beginning to look a lot like..." before glancing at me, receiving a scathing glare, and finishing rather timidly with "...autumn." Before you label me a scrooge, allow me to present my defense. I am thoroughly opposed to what I refer to as "steamroller-ing" holidays. You know what I mean - Halloween isn't even over before the Christmas decorations are up, Christmas has barely passed before the Valentine's decorations are up, etc. There's a reason there's usually only one holiday per month: they're supposed to last the whole month. I would argue that Thanksgiving is the most underappreciated and unrecognized holiday of them all. It's also the only holiday that the world hasn't been able to commercialize; it is difficult to turn gratitude for blessings into something monetarily profitable. Hah, take that, consumerism!

In my husband's defense, however, there aren't any Thanksgiving songs except "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians," and that gets old fast. When I would protest to David singing Christmas songs in October, he would say, "But you're supposed to have Christmas spirit in your heart all year long!" and I would respond, "Yeah, but not in your vocal chords!" Now that it's November, however, I've told him that I'm still opposed to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but if singing it actually does help him be more charitable, compassionate, and kind, he's welcome to sing all he wants. :)

In other completely unrelated news, I read an article that said that during economic recessions when budgets are being cut, cops give out more tickets to make up the difference. I can personally testify to the veracity of this analysis. I got a speeding ticket about two weeks ago, and went down to the courthouse to contest it today; no dice - five miles over the speed limit, $90. I suppose I'll just call Wells Fargo and tell them that I can't pay the student loan this month because the state of Utah is in a budget crunch and is extorting money out of their taxpayers. I'm sure they'll understand.

Insidious Corruption

I can't decide what I love most about this cartoon. Perhaps it's that "Family Circus" is finally funny. Or it could be the Che Guevara shirt. Or the sickle and hammer. Or the combat boots. Or Jeffy's Fidel Castro visage. It's all awesome.

P.S. Taylor, this is for you!

Oink

I regret to inform you that David has contracted the dreaded swine flu. He came home from work on Saturday night coughing a little bit, but I figured that he was just tired and that it would be gone by the next morning after a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, it was much worse on Sunday and he had a fever of 100 degrees. By Sunday night, his fever was 103, at which point we went to the doctor (some of us more willing than others). The InstaCare doctor told us that it was indeed the dreaded swine flu, but that since David wasn't at risk for any related complications, there essentially wasn't anything the doctor could do for him. So we went home and pumped David full of Nyquil and hoped for the best.

And now it's Thursday, and I think David's been slowly but steadily improving. It's hard to tell with him, because he doesn't like to complain and therefore doesn't give me any clues as to how he's really feeling. The doctor told us that he has to be fever-free for 24 hours before he can go back to work and school, and seeing as how there's only two days left in this week, I think he should just continue to recuperate over the weekend instead of trying to push himself too hard too fast. Miraculously, I haven't gotten sick at all during this whole course of events. My mother-in-law gave us a $50 Dan's grocery store gift card, which was extremely fortuitous as it has financed all of David's illness-related medications: cough drops, Nyquil, orange juice, chicken noodle soup, saltine crackers, etc.

We anticipate that he'll make a full recovery soon; we're eating lots of pork in the spirit of vengeance. :)

Baby Shower

This past Saturday, I threw a baby shower for my former BYU roommate, Kimberly Bennett. She's having a boy, and is actually due this Saturday! She's only about 5'2", and looked absolutely adorable with her beach ball belly!

She invited about twenty people, and seven showed up besides her and me. It was nice and informal, though. I had planned a few games to play, but sensed that everyone just wanted to sit around, eat food, and talk, so we ended up playing only one game. That was fine with me; I'm not a huge fan of showers that are dominated by pointless games anyway. The one game we did play was pretty funny, though. I bought six jars of baby food, and had sets of two jars be similar colors (peas and beans, etc.). I removed the labels (and saved them so I would know what the flavors were), and had everyone try to guess what the baby food was. I was going to make people eat it to try to guess, but I don't have any use for six opened jars of baby food, and I wanted to give it to Kim.

For food, I made couscous salad with toasted almonds, craisins, and apples, and toasted poundcake with citrus cream. The latter dish was a great hit; I think everyone ate at least two pieces each. I don't blame them - the pound cake was good, but the citrus cream was A-MAZING! I've been baking all sorts of random things since Saturday just so I can put the citrus cream on them!

Kim got all sorts of adorable outfits for her little boy. The shower was not Halloween-themed, but several of them resembled costumes. She got an aviator-style outfit, a sheriff outfit, a snuggly little brown bear outfit, and (my personal favorite), a onesy covered in dinosaur print, complete with a dinosaur bib and socks resembling dinosaur feet.

After everyone else had left, Kim and Carson, another former roommate, and I just sat around and got to talk, which was nice. Carson recently got married at the end of July, I just graduated from BYU, and Kim's having a baby, so we had a lot to talk about and catch up on. All in all, I think the shower was a success, and I can't wait to see pictures of the new little Bennett!

Bunny Update

I thought I would let you know that, since writing about our new rabbit, David and I have changed her name to Nolan; she's a boy now. We tried calling her Elsa for a few days, but the name just didn't stick, and David kept referring to the rabbit as a "he" despite it's female name. So, the bunny's name is now Nolan. It fits much better. Hopefully it actually is a boy (we can't tell) and we haven't completely screwed up this rabbit's gender identity.