I'm going crazy!

I hate my neighbor. I have hated him since he moved in a year ago and broke a mirror in front of my door and never cleaned up the glass. Joe is loud, inconsiderate, smokes, has huge loud parties and is a big loser. As if those things aren't bad enough, he also pees off the roof with his friends when they're drunk.

This is my house. It really isn't crooked, it's just a bad picture.


It's an old polygamous house from 1889 and it has 11 apartments in it and an old lady ghost. I moved in 2 years ago and I love it. I live on the second floor in the back and it's a nice quiet to place to live. Until Joe moved in, that is. Now all I hear are his drunk friends bounding up and down the stairs at all hours of the night and his techno music bass pounding overhead. Perhaps it's karma for all the loud parties I've been a part of, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to kill him.

I am seriously thinking about moving out soon. Very soon.

My new favorite recipe

So I'm trying to be better about cooking at home...trying to save some money AND calories. And thanks to my good friend Debbie I have discovered a new way to make chicken.


I made it on Wednesday and it was really easy to make, quite tasty and only 5 WW points per serving. If you like things a bit spicier I would suggest adding some chili paste to the coating mixture. I made it with chicken tenders, but I think it would be good with shrimp too.

A Taste of Thai has TONS of recipes online. Check it out and let me know if you find anything good!

Break In!

I forgot to mention that Allen's house got broken into on Friday afternoon!


A bunch of electronic stuff was stolen: TV, computers, cameras, iPods. The best part of this crappy situation is that CSI came to investigate!


Fingerprints were taken, insurance claims were filed...but no word on the robbers yet. I'll keep you updated!

Weekend Update

Well I'm a little behind on my update. Mostly because I didn't have a very exciting weekend and I didn't take any pictures. Friday night I went to the Blaze game with Lesley, Maberly, Bill, Monty and Pouya.


The Blaze is Utah's arena football team and it was...interesting. The crowd was weird and I felt like I was in a parallel universe or something. I actually like football, but I just couldn't get into the game. We ended up leaving midway through the 4th quarter and they lost anyway. The most exciting thing that happened all night was they guy next to Lesley kept pulling out his binoculars to watch the Blaze Dancers. Perv.

I had to work at the Salt Lake Marathon on Saturday morning at 6 am. Many of you know I am NOT a morning person so this was hard for me. Especially since I only got about an hour of sleep because my stupid neighbors decided to have a party at 2 am. Not cool. Luckily there's a Starbucks at the Gateway. The marathon was actually pretty fun and it was a nice day, except for the wind. Also a seagull pooped on my face. That was pretty gross, but at least it didn't hit my mouth. Saturday night I went to a party at Allen's, but I was home and in bed by midnight.

Sunday was actually quite eventful. I went to brunch with Les and Sonny and then we went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall.


SO good! Of course it was funny and had some uncomfortable full frontal scenes, but it also had heart. I just love Jason Segal and have since I first watched him in Freaks and Geeks. Go see it!

Heather, Terry and Chaya were in town because Chaya got her braces on yesterday! So we had a nice dinner and chatted the rest of Sunday away. Not too much else to report.

Allen and I did start Weight Watchers last night. There were some weird, weird people there but I think it will be a good thing. I just need something to get me more organized, focused and motivated. Hopefully it will pay off!

What is wrong with the world?

Every morning when I get to work I have a ritual. I sign onto my computer, check my voicemail, check my work e-mail, check my gmail and then I read CNN. I was making my way through the top 10 most popular articles and I see this quote, "I just couldn't cross my arms and turn away."

Turns out this woman, who lives in El Paso, has been going across the border to Mexico for the past 12 years to feed starving school children. More recently she has started to bring clothes, furniture and toys in addition to food. I thought to myself, wow, this woman is a great example of how one person really can change the world and make it a better place.

So I continue on with my reading and I see an article about an orphan who lives in a garbage dump in Thailand.

He scavenges for food in the dump and gathers bottles to recycle for money. These kinds of stories make me so sad. And this little boy's story is not unique...I saw kids like this when I was Thailand and India. Kids who are starving, being taken advantage of, working in sweat shops, not allowed to go to school. It's so disheartening and I wish I could help somehow.

The last article I read was the most disturbing and not because it was full of suffering or people just trying to survive. No, it was about parents who spend $10,000 on a freaking birthday party.

How many starving people can we feed with $10,000 in Mexico or Thailand or even Utah?? What kind of values are these people teaching their children? It just makes me want to cry.

Pet Peeves of the Day

#1
People who use commas (with unnecessary spaces) instead of periods when using ellipsis.

Example: Why do I use commas instead of periods, , ,I don't know!


#2
Educated people who cannot pronounce words correctly. These are "words" I have heard the past few days. I am not making this up.

Examples:

"I'm going to read him the riot rack!" Ok, if by riot rack you mean riot act.

"I hear they're shooting woofs in Wyoming." It's WOLF/WOLVES people!

Supposibly is NEVER a word and neither is irregardless, so please don't use both of them in the same GD sentence!

"It's of the upmost importance that we get these letters out today." Seriously?? I think it's of the utmost importance that you learn to speak correctly!

Winter can kiss my ass

I am SO tired of this stupid Utah "Spring" weather. Monday it was 82 degrees. Today and Tuesday it f-ing snows. Not amused. Here's a picture from my office window. You can't really tell it's snowing, even though it is. But it just looks nasty out right? Of course this was the day I chose to wear a dress and no coat because it was 60 degrees in the morning when I left. Perfect.

Girl Power!

So last night was the finale for one of my guilty pleasures, The Biggest Loser. I'm proud to say that for the first time a woman has won!


Ali was actually voted off a few weeks ago, but was given a chance to come back because she lost the most of any other woman who had previously been voted off. She kicks ass! She lost 99 pounds on campus and then lost 13 more once she went home. I will definitely be thinking of Ali's determination when I'm struggling at the gym or when I really, really want a sip of beer.

Here's Ali before:


And after, with her mom:

Weekend Update

The weekend started with going out to dinner to celebrate Paige's birthday!



Kirsten, me, Paige


My grandma and my mom


Saturday afternoon was pretty chill. I did some boring stuff around the house, went grocery shopping. Later we went to Les and Sonny's house for ribs and a little Wii competition. Not as crazy as Good Friday, but fun nonetheless. My camera ran out of batteries, so unfortunately I don't have pictures of the Wii wackiness. I'm pretty sure I lost most of the time and my arm hurts from tennis. I'm old.

Sonny and Bill doing some manly cleaning


Bill and Brian trying out the police breathalyzer someone stole...it works!


Metra and Jim


Side note: I'm trying this new experiment. No beer until Memorial Day to see if I can lose a few. So on Saturday, I was just drinking Crystal Light with vodka. Little did I know the Crystal Light was staining my lips red. Watch how it progressively gets worse throughout the course of the night.

Of course a small dance party began on the deck


I have no idea what Julie is doing to Sonny


Les, me, Mabe 

This guy named Ayo showed up and he was inappropriate with pretty much every girl there


Mr. Bill


Sonny: he's very reflective!


Mabe, Bill, Les


Sunday was one of the most beautiful Spring days I've ever seen! What I really wanted to do was go the Bees game, but I had too much adult stuff to do. So I did a bunch of laundry and read one of my books for book club, Three Cups of Tea. Highly recommended!

I laughed, I cried and you will too

I was wandering around You Tube today and I stumbled across this group called Young@Heart. I was curious because I saw they were singing I Wanna Be Sedated but they were quite old. So I pushed play and here's what I saw:



I thought it was so funny so I looked around for some more. I found this gem, a mix of Stayin' Alive and I Will Survive.



Then I saw they also did a cover of Fix You, one of my favorite songs. Just a warning, I was bawling by the end of this song.

Happy Birthday Paige!

Today is Paige's 17th birthday! She is the baby of the family and I can't believe she is getting to be so old. Some of my favorite memories about Paige :

• One of her first words was Jessi
• Watching movies/Freaks & Geeks/Arrested Development/Intervention on Sunday nights
• Going to concerts together...I especially remember the Big Ass Show from 2003 when we missed half of the AFI set because of stupid Eve 6. Also, I thought she had been trampled in the mosh pit...turns out she was fine, but lost a shoe.
• Displace Me 2007: "No, the cows do not eat the roots of the grass!"
• Texting into the wee hours of the night
• Knowing she will never judge me

Remember when she had black hair and was obsessed with AFI?

Her favorite things to do: sleep and talk on the phone




She's kind of a messy eater...



She likes to take self-portraits





She always makes me laugh

I love you Paige!! Happy Birthday!

Weekend Update

I had a fabulous weekend! My sister Aimee, her boyfriend Jack and my nephews were in town from Dallas. I hadn't seen them since October...it's so hard to have them live so far away.  We started off with lunch at Pat's BBQ.  SO good!  Jack said it even rivaled Texas BBQ so if you enjoy lots of meat (and who doesn't??) it's highly recommended.

Braden enjoyed his rib


Aimee and Macklin


Auntie J and Braden


The rest of the day we hung out in the sunshine, dug some holes and ate graham crackers.






Spiderman made an appearance and helped plant some seeds


Later I took Aimee and Jack out to Murphy's to meet some of my friends.

Me, Aimee, Jack, Monty


Some of you may remember my old friend Ryan! He was in town from Austin for a wedding. I missed him! We're still BFF after all these years...


Aimee hadn't seen Ryan in years...this is how she shows her love


Even Scottie dropped by and graced us with his presence


Jack sandwich


Mont did a nice impression of Ryan


Here's his impression of Sonny from a few weeks ago. Monty will have to be his proxy since Sonny was lame and went home early to go to bed.


Ry tired to fix my hair...a bit too edgy for me


Mabe and Les


Monty and Allen have become really close since that one night at Sound


Friday afternoon we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Jack had never really seen big mountains and he was impressed!

Mack made a snow angel


Aimee and Jack


Me and Aimee


Friday night was the Jazz game and they kicked the Spurs' asses!


Saturday afternoon we went bowling. When Macklin says his nightly prayers he has asked God very politely to let him go bowling so we had to go!


Paige had the distinction of having the lowest score the first game and the highest score the second game


Braden tried to bowl, but the ball weighed more than he does


Later I was off to Ryan's niece's wedding. I had to go all the way to Utah County and reception was outside on the damn rooftop! But I got to dance later so I was ok with it.

Ryan and me


Ry and his sister Allison


This could be our family if we were still together like it was 1995


I dragged Ry out to the dance floor and he was not amused 


Brunch and family party on Sunday

Auntie J and Braden


Mack


Mack made some Spiderman brownies


Paige and Mack


My mom showing the boys how to bust a move


Mack self-portrait


Braden