Apples and Oranges... or fruit salad?

So picture two different scenarios: (I couldn't decide whether to post this or not)

One – you have the chance to get all the education you want, freely, build your career until you are where you want to be, have the satisfaction of accomplishment and competence in a job you love, be financially free – enough to have a nice home and spend years traveling and seeing different parts of the world you always wanted to see, live wherever you want, do whatever you want, anytime.

Two – you are in your 60’s and are having a giant family dinner; kids, kids’ spouses, grandkids, good food, maybe a little football, being happily surrounded by lots of family.

Is it possible for a girl to have both of these things?

Biological clocks run out. Yearning for certain things runs out. But maybe sometimes it doesn’t. At some point I’m going to have to decide where to go next… and Oh is it HARD! I don’t want to end up having regret for something I did or didn’t do.

(I know this would be an easy thing for some. Maybe I’ll be eating my words in a few years, one never knows. Also I know the future isn’t solely at my discretion, either… there is another half to this marriage). :)

An accountant's worst nightmare

Last night I finally fell asleep around 1:00 a.m., only to have restless and fitful dreams about taxes and spreadsheets that wouldn't balance. Aaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

In the words of Johnny Chaston, "Well, here comes my death."

Well, here's a change to the schedule for next semester. Added one class. So as of January, it will go something like this:

Monday......... work 8-5...class 7:00-8:15
Tuesday.........work 8-5...class 5:30-6:45, then 7:00-8:15
Wednesday....work 8-5...class 7:00-8:15
Thursday.......work 8-5...class 5:30-6:45, then 7:00-8:15
Friday............work 8-5...class 5:30-8:00
Saturday...........................class 10:45-1:15

15 credits. Words that come to mind.... CRAY-ZEE, and STOO-PID, and oh yeah, I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF.

After realizing that graduate school requirements are one more class that I didn't have in the schedule yet. And now that I've accustomed myself to thinking I'll be done in August, there's just no way I can spread that out over one more semester. Well, here's to kissing movie-night goodbye, but hoping it will be worth it in the end, eh?

Sickeningly cute, we are

They sat in silence after a somewhat serious conversation; a somber mood filled the air. The plate of frosted cupcakes leftover from the ward halloween party lay between them. Geoff picked a candy corn off a cupcake and ate it. He was about to eat another one when Cali asked if she could have the third (and last) one.

"Oh, you like candy corn?" he asked incredulously. "I'm sorry, you can have this one too," and tried to hand her the last piece of honey-flavored goodness.

"No, you eat it," Cali replied, and shoved it into his mouth, leaving a little frosting on his cheek. Then she traced her finger through the remaining frosting on that cupcake and smeared it on his face.

"Oh, you're gonna get it," he said, while grabbing another cupcake and shoving it right back at her. Seeing the smeared cake all over her nose, he immediately felt bad and stuck his own face out for requital. Cali picked up the final, bright-orange colored cupcake and smashed it into Geoff's face so hard he would never forget. Then she shrunk back in horror as Geoff advanced upon her with a wicked grin and layed a big, messy, wet-cakey smooch on her already-covered mouth.

Laughing hard, they looked around at the cupcake smashed all over the floor and decided they should probably clean up.

And they lived happily ever after. The end.

Oops

I thought we had a ward chili-cookoff tonight. I told Geoff we did. So, he found a recipe, went to buy the chili ingredients, got up at 6:00 a.m. this morning to get the crock pot started, and spent all day tending it.

Come to find out, the cookoff is tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm good. I felt pretty rotten about it. He is just so nice about it though. He is the best.

Tonight is pizza and movie night. Ahhhhhh.

"Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot."

I had the best day today. I just feel so blessed in my employment. Who knew there were such wonderful opportunities in little old Lindon Utah?

I'm going to be learning some new stuff tomorrow and I'm so excited! It is really something to be able to feel excited about being a part of the company you work for. Since being with them it's opened my eyes to some new paradigms and possibilities, and I actually feel like my life is moving in a direction. If it is always like this then you're going to have a pretty hard time ever pulling me out of the workforce. It truly is my cheese, or one of the many cheeses of which I currently partake. (I just re-read Who Moved My Cheese).

Today Geoff wrote Alison a letter and sent her a package from us. That was so sweet of him. I'm glad that he supports my family. I hope Al is doing alright! We got an email a couple of days ago.

I guess that's all for tonight. The Office starts in ten minutes!!

Well at least I can alter the space-time continuum

In the last couple of days I've come to a realization about myself: When confronted with an important and suspenseful situation, my imagination runs completely out of control, and as the time passes I begin to expect the worst and get myself all worked up, then I imagine how it could be even worse than that, then I start to make mental plans around what's going to happen if this or what's going to happen if that. Then it turns out I was just thinkng too hard about it.


I should probably cut that out.

Well either way, I've been spurred to condense my class schedule a little bit - I've got eight classes left, and I was going to take three, then three, then two. But I've just decided to do four and four, and I'll be done by my next birthday! I can't believe we're almost at our second-to-last semester!!

Anyway, these are cute comics, if you haven't seen them before. I thought they were funny because we've actually had fights about these things. :) (I hope they're not too small to read)

Snooooooze I'm tired

Reasons why my house is haunted

Okay, that should probably be: "Reasons why my house is (probably) haunted." Of course we don't know for sure, and we're not willing to do what it takes to really find out. (We'd rather not face the truth.)

I've blogged about this before, but that was just one of a few experiences.

About a year ago, I was cleaning up all the crap that had fallen between the dresser and the wall, and Geoff was in the next room on the computer. I was sitting there on the floor, when I heard, "Hey." I looked up and said, "what?" and there was no one there. I called, "Geoff? Did you just say something to me?" No, he called back. He was still in the other room. The "Hey" I heard was clear as day, brief, a man's voice, and was right next to me. I had thought Geoff had poked his head in the doorway or something, but nope.

Now, if you know me, you know I could sleep through a natural disaster if it was happening in my own backyard. I don't ever wake up in the morning by myself, I have to be woken up. Especially if I've stayed up as late as I did two nights ago. Well, it was about seven a.m. this last Saturday morning, and I heard Geoff saying something to me, in a loud whisper. I don't remember if it was my name that was said, or just some attention-getter to wake me up, but I woke up. I looked over at Geoff, who was fast asleep, and asked him if he just tried to wake me up. Well, that woke him up and then he was up for the rest of the morning, but he said he didn't say anything to me.

Then, just this morning as I was in the bathroom doing my hair, out of the corner of my eye I saw something dark dart from the back room, past the bathroom doorway, towards the front room. It was low to the ground, so I thought it was Wally. But it kind of didn't seem like Wally, so I walked into the front room calling for him. I felt a little creeped out, and I wasn't able to find him out there, so I went back past the bathroom to the back room and there was Wally, asleep underneath the computer desk. Soooo it couldn't have been Wally that I saw, and Geoff was gone.

?These could all just be myself playing tricks on myself, but are they?

Then there's the way Wally sometimes just stares down the hallway and arches his back like he's freaked out. (Wally is our cat, in case you wondered).

Anyway, our condos are only about 7 years old, so I can't imagine there's much history here. We've talked about doing EVP's like TAPS, then we decide we'd rather not, just in case we did catch something.

Crazy. I know I sound crazy.

Heretic's Fork? I'd rather not!

I've been asked to do "Sharing Time" for the primary tomorrow. (A 20 minute teaching-session for the kids ages 3-12). As much as I love the kids, I have to be honest - this is totally and completely out of my comfort zone. So much that I sometimes wonder why I couldn't just be struck by lightening instead.

The other 3 girls in our presidency have to do it way more often than I do though, so I shouldn't complain. I hope it goes okay.

Geoff is out there watching a Discovery Channel show about Medival Torture mechanisms. I can't stand to watch that stuff. He is fascinated by gore... gory movies are his favorite - especially if they involve the mafia and/or zombies. I guess that is one of the "guy things" I love about him, but DON'T ask me to participate. He once convinced me to watch the movie Hostel with him, and that was the last time I ever have or ever will be convinced to watch a slasher movie. I refuse. It's so unnatural, and makes me sick. So about those Medieval torture devices... let's just say I'm so glad to not have been born in that time and place. I can't understand how people can torture each other. It boggles me. (He just came and told me how "heinious" it all is... then he realized he said "heinous" wrong so we've been laughing about that. Gee, is it late?)

But we did something tonight that we haven't done in months. We pulled out the giant air mattress and watched movies in the living room. (Non-gory movies.) I can't wait to be done with Sharing Time.

Goodbye Alison

Well, we took Al to the MTC yesterday. It was the first time I've been-there and done-that. It was quite the experience to see soooo many young people my sister's age, leaving. You realize they really do leave their entire lives behind for 18 months or two years (whichever it is), and they go willingly and happily to different parts of the world, because they want so much to share the message of the gospel with others. (I mean, she really wanted to go.) It was very humbling, and exciting! It didn't really hit me completely until we were walking out the doors of the MTC without her, then I started bawling, and was trying to choke back these big ol' sobs in my throat. (I mean, everyone there was crying, but no one else was sobbing). It is so crazy to think we have a real-live missionary in the family! I admit, it still almost feels like she's just on an extended vacation, but I'm sure it will sink in before long. I've added some pictures here to commemorate the big day.

You can tell she's excited in her expression - pre-mission glow

The whole fam

I love this expression. Can anyone else lift their lip that high?

The most awesome candid of my little brother. He's so dang cute.

The sibs. (Not the most flattering pic of me but the rest of them are so cute)


Mom & Dad

Again - I just love her expression

Now that she's gone who is going to tell me when my hair is too big?

Rollin' away

Storing luggage with all the other new missionaries'

The nametag - "Hermana Jones" (That's dad clipping it on)

All ready now!!

I know she's going to make a great little sister-missionary. It'll be such a growing experience for her too. It's hard to say good-bye (especially for my parents) but we will recieve blessings, and she will love Chile so much that she won't even want to come home at the end. :) I already wrote her a letter.

I'll get you, my pretty!

Thanks for your comments, everyone who commented. I was very interested to see what others would say concerning the issue and I appreciate your opinions. It is always good to get more than one side of it, I think. Like Johnny B said, the voters will decide.

Anyway, hows about I move on? In finance class we're beginning to talk about time-valuation of stocks and bonds. It's probably simple stuff to anyone who already knows how they work, but I'm such a beginner. (I know what they're for, and that's about it.) It seems there is always a chapter concerning stocks and bonds in my accounting classes, but no professor of mine has ever made the effort to really explain them, so I appreciate this. Now, stocks and bonds each get their very own chapter. Imagine that.

And at the end of the day when my brain finally decides it's had enough, I come home, put on my new witch-slippers that Geoff bought me and I feel like a little kid again.

So while I was in class tonight my little sis was being set apart as sister missionary! That's it, no more boys Al, it's official! :) Tomorrow we send her off to the MTC, and I got work off so I could be there.

Speaking of work, I've been able to finish the quarterly taxes in only half the time as my predecessor. BOO-ya! (Thanks to getting everything set up electronically. Technology is a wonderful thing eh!)

UPDATE: I just got feeling sad that I missed Al's setting-apart, and called home to see how things were. Alison answered the phone, and said they are currently sitting around telling "poopy pants stories." Poopy pants is a name my dad sometimes throws around, to be goofy, so I asked, "what poopy pants stories?" And she said, "stories of times we've all pooped our pants."

Oh. What lovely last memories. I love my family. :)

Prop 8

Hey, this is kind of a long one. This was written by an old acquaintance from high school, in a facebook note. (reprinted with permission) :) I have long been conflicted myself regarding the church's position on homosexuality... this reflects some things I have thought about. (BTW - this is not about the church's position on homosexuality, it's about a person's position on Proposition 8... but still somewhat related, I suppose.) Good food for thought anyway.

Hello Everybody,

Some of you may have heard that the LDS (i.e. Mormon) church has come out in support of California Proposition 8 (wiki Prop 8 if you’re not familiar with it) and has encouraged its members to support this issue. Since most people who know me also know that I am LDS, I thought it would be appropriate for me to write a little something with regard to my personal stance on Prop 8.

I’ll be honest that this is an issue about which I have felt very conflicted. On the one hand, I firmly believe in respect and love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation. I also do not believe in forcing my religious beliefs onto others, but rather to allow people to make their own lifestyle decisions. I hope that my past actions have been consistent with these two beliefs. On the other hand, I do support traditional notions of the family as the foundation for our society and I support the freedom of a religion to say what actions it thinks are morally wrong and to act accordingly. With these and other considerations in mind, I have thought deeply about this issue over the past few weeks and have decided to come out in support of Proposition 8.

One of the primary reasons that I support Prop 8 is because of the possible (and maybe unintentional) encroachment upon religious liberties that the legalization of same-sex marriages could induce. While the immediate negative consequences to religious freedom from legalizing same-sex marriage are probably negligible, the long term effects might be more damaging. Since legalized same-sex marriages in certain areas in of the US haven’t been around for that long, I don’t know that we have enough data to say one way or the other. (I should note here that some supporters of Prop 8 have tried to cite what few examples there are, but for the most part these examples are misused or are not directly relevant). My personal belief is that I think that the legalization of same-sex marriage sets precedent which could result in an eventual reduction of religious freedoms. For example, I think it is entirely possible that a religious institution could eventually suffer legal consequences if it refuses to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. Also, I can see religious adoption agencies suffering legal consequences if they refuse, on religious grounds, to allow same-sex couples to adopt children through their agency. I also think that religious freedom of speech—the freedom to condemn certain sexual lifestyle choices as morally wrong, for instance—might ultimately come under attack. Obviously, Prop 8 does not directly deal with these issues, but depending on whether it passes or fails, I think that precedent is set one way or the other.

I also support Prop 8 because of my concept of marriage. In my definition, I believe marriage is an institution primarily directed toward producing and raising children and as such is the foundation of any society. Marriage is only secondarily, I believe, an official recognition of a long-term loving relationship. While same-sex relationships may obviously qualify as a marriage in the secondary category, the primary purpose for marriage, according to my view, is not directly achieved within a same-sex relationship. This is not to say that I believe that heterosexual couples are by definition good parents, nor that same-sex couples are necessarily bad, but I think there is an inherent difference between the two types of relationships and that the law should reflect that.

I do wish that some sort of social status could be conferred upon same-sex couples to recognize a long-term commitment to each other. Most recently the law has tried to do this through “civil unions” and while same-sex civil unions supposedly enjoy the same legal privileges in California as do heterosexual marriages, it seems pretty obvious to me that same-sex couples do not get the same social status that a marriage affords. However, I don’t think that same-sex couples should receive this social status at the expense of redefining the concept of marriage, which is more child-centered than adult-centered in my view. I also believe that the possible eventual reduction of religious liberties from legalizing same-sex marriage outweighs the immediate societal benefits of recognizing a loving same-sex relationship through a redefinition of marriage. I wish there were a way to please both crowds, but because of the entangled definitions of civil and religious marriages within our society, I’m not sure there is.

At this point I would like to make a brief, personal observation about other supporters of Prop 8 that I know. Supporters of Prop 8 are typically characterized as blindly discriminatory, rather ignorant, and blatantly homophobic. In some cases this is unfortunately true and supporters of Prop 8 that match those characteristics are often very outspoken, leading to the inference that most people who support measures like Prop 8 all fit that description. However, my personal experience with Prop 8 supporters has been much different. By and large I find that most of them are good and decent people, to my estimation. They are thinking, intelligent individuals who are very respectful of the lifestyle choices of others. Most of them have gay friends, associates, and co-workers, and they are very concerned about offending their friends over this issue. However, they also have strong reasons why they support Prop 8 and they stand up for what they believe in, although often in a quiet fashion so as to avoid the label of bigot. Admittedly I don’t know everyone and I obviously can’t generalize from my personal experience to the entire population, but I guess I just wanted say that people shouldn’t assume that because someone supports a measure like Prop 8, it immediately means that they are bigoted, unthinking, or homophobic.

I also feel I should note that not all Mormons (including people I know) agree with the LDS church with regard to their support of Prop 8, and many have made their views public. These Mormons also are good people and have made many reasonable arguments within an LDS doctrinal sphere on why they do not support Prop 8. While I respect their opinion, my beliefs are obviously different.

In closing, I realize that the position I have taken is rather unpopular and probably isn’t shared by most of the people that I consider to be my friends. With that in mind, I would ask that you please respect me and my opinions, even if you don’t agree with them, as I have hopefully respected you and yours in the past.

Sincerely, Bob Rawle

"Your pandora's box was me"

So normally on weekends I have Friday night, Sat, Sun, and Mon to do homework. This weekend I got it all done on Sat so I could hang out with fam today (last fam dinner before al leaves). And I took Wednesday off so I can go to breakfast with them and take Al to the MTC, so I'm working Monday so I don't fall behind on the quarterly stuff. I'm mostly ahead of schedule though, but oh well.

This is kind of embarrassing to admit - I wish I was the girl Ricky Martin sings about in Saint Tropez. A mysterious exotic beauty out on the Riviera under the moonlight, a handsome stranger drawn to me with electric attraction... sigh. The lovemaking would be hot, no? Just one of those dumb harmelss fantasies I guess. I love the song. And I'd really love to travel. See a riviera.

I tried to get on a music hosting website so that I can add it to my project playlist thing, but nothing I've tried works.

Which ones have you read?

Well I'm about twice what the average is, but still not that great. Almost all of those were books read in high-school age or earlier. (Except for Harry Potter, since that one's not old enough). And you know? I really have no intention of reading any more of those... at least not until I get really bored and have time to sit and read a bunch of books. Real books, that is, not textbooks. (And I'm pretty sure Jane Austin would bore me to tears. But I did love the six-part series of Pride and Prejudice movies, the old one. As if that means anything).

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed."

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

love/hate

Tonight I drove home from school, frustrated and disappointed about a bad test score (different test). I started up this little pity party, about how I'm always too tired to do homework and how I'm so sick of being sick of it, and for a short while I hated everyone who's mummy and daddy pay for their education so they don't have to work while going to school. hate hate! (Then when we talk about saving for our children's education we're like, "hell no, they can put themselves through school!) Then when I got home, saw that geoff had cleaned the front room and folded all the laundry that was sitting on the hallway floor, and made dinner (Taco soup, a recent fav), I felt better. It doesn't take away the crappy test score but it is so nice to have someone who supports this crappy schedule. :) I am grateful for all he does. Good night.

You walk on by clueless and so high

I LOVE this new Sarah song... U Want Me 2...

I LOVE SARAH MCLACHLAN!!

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New dying wish: See Sarah in concert.

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So the doctor told Geoff to start being more healthy and stuff, so I'm trying not to be such a negative influence on him anymore. (Serious, pizza and milkshakes are always my idea). So, in honor of our new effort to be healthier, I made healthy no-bake cookies, and substituted the sugar, no wait I mean the butter, no wait I mean the peanutbutter, for food-storage peanut butter and used food-storage milk. Voila! Healthy! (I would never use that awful powdered milk for anything but baking).

<

No really, I have no desire for hubby to die when he's 45, so I actually do support him being healthier. I just have to have my sugar too, that's all.

<

In our finance class, the bad news is we both scored 55% on our last test. The good news is we were above average for the class. Then he grades on the curve, so we both got a B. Sad huh? I mean what's the point of teaching a class that way?

<

Numbers at work today... it's not as dreaded as it used to be. I really enjoy my coworkers too, they pretty much rock. All of them.

<

Off to the grindstone now (hmwk). Bye.

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(So yeah, I can't get the hard returns to hold, I mean I can't create paragraphs on this post unless I put something there to hold their place, and I don't know why. It's very frustrating.)

Old house

The house I grew up in, in Pleasant Grove (before Spanish Fork) is up for sale. I really really really want to buy it. Unfortunately, now is not the right time for us unless we could sell our condo or something (but I wouldn't count on it happening quickly). It makes me wish even more that we were done with school and could do something like that already. But anyway, it got me thinking back to the memories of growing up in that house. Those were the happiest times. I asked if mom would bring some home videos from that time period up this afternoon as she passed by. I watched one from Halloween '95 - it was pretty cute. My siblings were the cutest, and dad got dressed up all goofy and mom recorded him getting laughs (or funny looks) from the kids that came to the door.

Time for homework schmomework. Bleh.

LDS General Conference

I have sooo looked forward to General Conference weekend this year. I had a huge test this weekend and was going to take it today, but Geoff suggested that I just go and get it over with last night, so I could relax today. (I'm glad he did because all the nasty feelings from the asinine, three-hour test would have ruined the whole day today). Anyway, Geoff is in the kitchen making pancakes now, and it will start in five minutes. I just love staying home in my jammies and listening to their talks, it is no nice to just relax and be spiritually fed.

UPDATE: Well, the first session was great. I slept through the second session. :( I felt really bad when I woke up. I guess I can youtube it or read the Ensign. Well there's still tomorrow!

I can't keep myself and still keep you too

I followed politics for a whole hour and a half tonight while watching the VP'tial debate. BOO-YA oh shiz shake it, ma move it like a gypsy stop, woa, back it up and let me see your hips SWING!!

While watching them beef themselves up, referring to what they've accomplished in the past and saying what amazing things they were going to do in the future and how well they were qualified, I thought, that's one heck of a job interview. (Only there's a lot more "who said what" in this one). I thought Palin showed quite a bit of feistiness and Biden showed quite a bit of old-codger-ness. However, he is definately the more experienced one, been there done that. Her experience was apparently very limited as she kept going back to the energy thing again and again, but that doesn't mean she couldn't do a good job at new things, doggonit. Anyway, this is way too much politics for my blog, so moving on.

I wonder if the owners of my co. use regression analysis to identify potential cost drivers. Or if cost-functions or contribution margin or six-sigma mean anything to their decision-making process.

I'm loving these two songs right now: Love Lockdown (Kanye West) and Swing (Savage)... the clean version of course. What is so catchy about hip hop/rap that I love so much lately. Tis perhaps the Joe-six-pack in me?

Our showerhead is broken. I had to pump the little thing like ten times before anything came out of it today. Also our water pressure has dropped significantly in the bathroom. I wonder what kind of problems the HOA will be paying for. Though I know of people in our ward who've had to call their lawyers before HOA would do anything about their plumbing problems.

My cat is cute. He hates to be picked up, except I've discovered that if I cradle him like a baby and he can keep my face at arms' length, he lets me hold him. Really, he pushes my face away from his with his paws. He must be a white personality.

Currently, Geoff is singing "staying alive" in the shower in full-throttle falsetto. He he he.

And blah some more

Last night Alison came over and hung out for a few hours. We talked about clothes, and boys, and work and yadda yadda, she went through my clothes and we watched an episode of "a haunting" and ate popcorn. I'm so going to MISS her when she's gone! But it is going to be good for her, and for you know, the people she brings to God or whatever, so I should just not be selfish, right? Right. (Just kidding of course I'm happy for her)

At work we have just started the busy season (quarterlies). I LOVE being busy at work. If I could have it my way it would be like that all the time; I really feel productive.

Tonight after class Geoff met me at the library and a girl from our finance class came and we did a study group. It was a pretty productive study group. This class really SUCKS BIG TIME but I learned a lot tonight. Hopefully enough to pass the test which is this weekend.

As we walked across campus back to our cars, I thought about how, 20 years from now, even 10 years, we're going to look back at the time we were both students together, no kids, little apartment, and miss it. But of course there will be new memories too. Anyway, I really want to get some sleep tonight.