JUNO Trailer

I can't wait to see this movie. I think it looks HILARIOUS. It comes out this week. Aaron's in finals so I might get to watch it alone but that's ok because time with Michael Cera is a lot like time with Aaron.

Running In A Winter Wonderland

This is me when I came back from my run last night. That's because it is COLD outside. I hate breathing the cold air so I tie a bandana around my mouth and nose. Then I put my hat on to keep my head warm. So I'm nice and toasty and as a bonus I have this great bank robber look going on. I get a lot of strange looks but that's ok.

Creating A Monster

Lately I've been feeling frustrated about how boring my life is. I wake up, go to work, come home, work out, eat dinner, clean up a little, do something (this is the part I really can't figure out) then go to bed and it starts all over again.

The strangest part is I feel like I have tons of really cool projects I want to work on but NEVER get around to. I have half finished paintings everywhere. I really want the painting to be my priority but I don't know what to cut out. Eating, working out, sleeping?

Last night, by accident I tried not sleeping. I got home, cleaned up, made dinner and promptly fell asleep on the couch after eight. I woke wide awake around midnight and spent the next couple hours doing whatever I wanted. I drew a little, painted a little, listened to about two hundred pages of a really great book (The Free Life) and felt like I got to enjoy some real "creative" time. I almost felt like I was back at college. It was wonderful, really wonderful...until the alarm went off at 6:30AM and I had to get ready for work.

Pick Your Candidate

We all know elections are coming up. While many of you may not believe this, I really try hard to be open minded to every candidate (democrat and republican) and give my support to the person whose policy I most agree with. That's why I absolutely LOVE these Candidate quizzes. You can take the Washington Post's here.

You read a question and select the response that you most agree with. At the end of the quiz you find out who you support. It's a great way to go through and examine your own feelings on the issues and recognize candidates that you may have overlooked or dismissed too early. Sometimes it can be a bit of a wake up. I have to admit I cringed a little every time I realized I agreed with Giuliani. But don't worry, that only happened once or twice out of the twenty five questions.

Let It Snow!

It's snowing in Charlottesville right now. They say it might get up to 3 inches. I wish it had started earlier because then I could be safe and snug at home. (My work has a rather lenient snow policy.) Sadly the snow waited to start at 10 so now I'm stuck at work dreading the drive home. I do NOT know how to drive in the snow. The only time I lived where it snowed I was either too young to drive (Maryland) or didn't own a car (Utah).
Still, I like the snow. It feels magical. When it starts to snow I get this irrational hope that I've been transported to the land of Narnia, and I'll be able to spend my afternoon talking to beavers and drinking tea with a faun. That's probably because the BBC Narnia movies were the most snow I got to see growing up in SC.

Lefse

Katy created this blog with the thought that I would be a frequent contributor. For better or worse, this has pretty much been her endeavor (probably better if you come here often--I think she writes a great blog). Still, Katy tries to get me to contribute. Today, at her request, I acquiesced.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is the day after Thanksgiving. Many people arise early and use that day to do their patriotic duty to keep the American economy, or at least American credit card companies, afloat. Traditionally my family would go over to my Grandparent's house. My grandmother would make a turkey while we played football in the backyard and we would have Thanksgiving dinner all over again--with one wonderful addition--LEFSE!

For the uninitiated, Lefse (lef-suh) is of Norwegian origin. It's kind of a potato tortilla. The vikings use to eat something like it on long sea voyages. Norwegians today often roll up fish paste or lutefisk in it. Generations ago, my Norwegian ancestors Americanized it. We put Thanksgiving leftovers in it--turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, maybe even some gravy, mayonnaise if you're into that. It's sort of like a Thanksgiving burrito and it is delicious. Last night, our friends the Scotts invited us over to a Turkey dinner. Katy prevailed upon me to make Lefse. It went over pretty well. I at least am always happy to eat one of my favorite holiday foods.

I actually haven't used this recipe but it looks good. Usually what I do is mash potatoes with some butter and milk, then I add enough flour to be able to roll out the dough--usually takes quite a bit. After that you basically roll it out thin and cook it over med-hi in a frying pan. You don't really need any oil because to roll it out you use tons of flour. That seems to work just fine but you might want to try this recipe out.

4 cups riced potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Teenage Wasteland

So Aaron and I drove and hour to stake conference this weekend and ended up arriving a little late. This left us sitting in the overflow. Since our stake conference is held in a high school auditorium we got to hang out in the school cafeteria along with a few shrieking toddlers, their parents AND a pack of unsupervised adolescents.

Watching people about ten years younger than me tends to be exceedingly painful AND incredibly entertaining. There was a pair of young lovebirds, they both looked a very young sixteen. The guy had oversized glasses and acne and the girl was in the throes of growing pains. They had their folding chairs pressed much closer than a Book of Mormon's width apart. They spent the WHOLE conference holding hands and blissfully staring straight into each other's eyes. Nothing could break their adoring trance, not screaming babies, not the intermediate hymn, not the disapproving glances from all around them. They were SOLID. They looked like they were having so much fun Aaron and I decided to try it out to see how long we could rapturously stare into one another's eyes. I think we got about twenty seconds. We just aren't what we used to be.

The experience left me thinking about the many things I left behind in my adolescence. A beloved green army jacket, a generous helping of angst, a couple lousy boyfriends, a string of TERRIBLE school portraits, about two feet of hair, and a lot of humiliation. I guess growing up is a good thing.