Jason's brush with fame...and he didn't even know it!

Last Friday, when Jason was working at MacDocs, a customer came in who wanted a specific Apple product he had seen online. The product he was looking at was last year's model, and MacDocs only carried the new one. Jason explained that the store carried the new model, but it would be more expensive. The customer said he would need to check with his "label" and see if they would ok the price difference. After getting off the phone, this guy asked for directions to the Apple store, and Jason showed them how to get there. After he left, one of the service technicians came out from the back of the store and asked if he thought it was cool to talk to this guy. Jason was confused and asked if he should know who this guy was, and the service tech told him it was Ruben Studdard, who is in town for a production of "Ain't Misbehavin'". Jason, who has never seen an episode of American Idol (and never will), was still confused until his co-workers explained that he had won and was a recording artist. When Jason came home and told me the story, he was shocked that I knew who he was (since I am also not an American Idol fan). However, since I do live in Utah, and the happenings on American Idol are considered legitimate news in this state, I did know who he was, and thought it was cool that Jason met him. For the record (according to Jason) and just in case you wanted to know, Ruben Studdard is pretty nice and like to purchase Mac products.

Valentine's Day

So, long ago when Jason was on his mission, I worked at the Roof restuarant in downtown Salt Lake. Since the resturant overlooks Temple Square, it is a Mormon mecca for weddings, marriage proposals and romatic evenings away from your six kids under the age of 8. One fateful year, I agreed to cover a shift for a co-worker, not realizing that I would be working on Valentine's Day. I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be so bad, but over the course of the day, I was sworn at over the phone, told that a guy's wife would divorce him if I couldn't get him the resturant that night (sounds like a strong, healthly marriage), and made to cry by a guy who was upset that he and his wife couldn't get a reservation after going to the temple that night. Needless to say, this experience (for good reason, I think) makes me hate Valentine's Day, and with Jason's consent, we alway plan our festivities for a few days earlier or after.

This year, we went out on Wednesday evening. We decided to go to the Citrus Grill, which is my favorite resturant that I always forget about. Whenever we talk about places to eat at, we usually go somewhere else, and afterward I often think "why didn't we go to the Citrus Grill? I always forget about that place!" It is in the same strip mall as Cafe Rio (another common haunt for Jason and I) and is usually pretty crowded. The prices are really great (Jason's salad was only $5.50 and huge, my turkey melt with fries was $7.00) and the service is alway really good.
It was nice to have a night out, since I have been really busy at work, and Jason is even busier with work and school.

On Friday night, we had reservations to the Draper temple open house. I had never been to an open house before, and it was so well organized. It was interesting to be with such a diverse group. There were plenty of LDS members and their families, but also many others who were taking advantage of the opportunity to see our temple. I liked how everyone was treated equally, no matter how well dressed or well behaved they were. It was a good example of how members and non-members should treat one another. I was surprised how small this temple was. I have only been to a few (Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Logan and Jordan River). My favorite room was the oridence room painted with aspen trees. Standing there, it really felt like we were in the middle of the High Unitas in fall-one of my favorite places to be! After the temple tour, we went out to Cafe Rio (see, I said it was one of our favorites) and headed back home.

On Saturday (actual Valentine's Day), Jason was totally overwhelmed with school projects, so I had plenty of time to myself. I managed to organize and clean our spare bedroom (which is currently serving as Jason's workout room, and will one day house our unborn child), so we are now officially unpacked! Only took 4 months... When Jason was sick of homework, we decided to try and unclog our bathtub. What we thought would take a half hours ended up being three...the joys of homeownership. The previous owners had not taken very good care of this particular aspect of the house, and the drain was more clogged than we thought. Three hours and 60 bucks at Home Depot later, we finally managed to clear the clog by flushing it with a hose (my idea, by the way!). Very exciting, I know! After the drain debacle, I was too tired to make the special Valentine's dinner I was planning on, so we got $5 dollar pizza instead. While Jason toiled away on economics, I watched Love Actually (one of my favorite movies!), Sweet Home Alabama (one of the few chick flicks I can stomach) and an episode of the Tudors (I love Johnathan Rhys Meyers, even with the scruffy beard).

Today, my grandma will be giving her homecoming talk from the mission she served in downtown Salt Lake, which means: 1. no teaching Sunday School 2. I will get to see my nieces, nephews and cousins (they are cute, and after I hang out with them for awhile, all my thoughts of having a baby go out the window! Best birth control ever!) Tomorrow, I have the day off from work (thanks, dead Presidents!) so I will probably run the errands I have been putting off for a while.

Freak-out Friday: Flight of the Conchords

So, I haven't posted anything on this blog for more than 2 months. Maybe it is because I am lazy, maybe because I haven't had anything exciting to post about, but luckily, the best thing in the world happened this week: I have tickets to see Flight of the Conchords (New Zealand's fourth most popular folk novelty band) live in concert! For a mere $90, Jason, myself and a few select members of our entourage will be basked in the precense of Bret, Jemaine and Dave for a couple of hours. I will definately be wearing my business socks...

Christmas Quiz

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both are really expensive, so I like to use brown paper and decorate with ribbons.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial-no reason to cut down more trees in the world.

3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving, and never a day before

4. When do you take the tree down? The day after Christmas

5. Do you like eggnog? Meh...no opinion either way

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A dollhouse

7. Hardest person to buy for? I am pretty good at finding presents for people, though I have been told MANY times that I am impossible to buy for...

8. Easiest person to buy for? Jason, there are always a million things he wants.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No, though I would like one.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I don't send them now. I figure I will when I have a child, since nobody wants to look at Jason and I year after year

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Too many to count...see question 7 for the reason

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Love Actually is a good one, Elf is funny (though slightly overplayed) and of course, Die Hard (if you don't believe me, watch it!)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I am always shopping for Christmas presents. I try to buy everything by Thanksgiving, so I won't have to go near a store in December.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My grandma's sugar cookies and my mom's pumpkin pie

16. Lights on the tree? Otherwise, isn't it just a pine tree in your front room?

17. Favorite Christmas song? The Messiah by Handel

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I have never traveled at Christmas, but if I did, I would like to be in Europe

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Nope, too many real facts in my head to memorize that

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? I used to open one present on Christmas Eve, and all the rest on Christmas Day. Now, with my in-laws, we open presents at their house on Christmas Eve, and go to my parent's on Christmas Day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The damn Christmas music everywhere! If you have ever worked in retail during the holidays, you know how annoying it is to hear "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" for the eight millionth time.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like red, cream and blue

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I don't have many memorable Christmas dinners. My dad always makes us omelets for breakfast on Christmas morning.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? No snow...and an Ipod Nano

OMFG James Bond!!!!!

I can't believe it, I saw the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace! It was so amazing, I almost fainted like 35 times! James Bond was so frickin' kick-A that I almost blow my L! I was concerned that I wouldn't like the model they chose for the car, but after the door fell off in the chase scene, it was simply darling! I was a little worried that the bond girls wouldn't have shiny enough clothes, but I loved them! I was also worried that the french bad guy wouldn't be scary enough, but he was delightfully terrifying (I had to squeeze Verity's hand when he appeared on screen). I read the book and it had nothing to do with the film, but I think that if you read the book, you will love the film! Just to be kind to others enjoying the luscious film, you are only allowed one girlish scream every 15 minutes….” Hahaha! The only bad part was the awful preview for some vampire movie. Who the hell would watch that...

Cribs: Honkey Kong and Bit O' Honey Edition

This is a momentous post for two reasons:
1. You now know Jason and Verity's rap names (guess which one belongs to whom)
2. You finally get to see pictures our new house.

We have held off posting photos until 75% of our stuff was unpacked. So here it is!

The master bedroom. While we were at the apartment, we had a bedroom set, but we gave it to my brother when we moved into my mom's house. We have found one that we like at Ashley Furniture, we just have to order it and have it delivered. This is the only room we have painted so far.
The master bathroom. It is only a half bath, but in our price range, it was rare to find more than one bath, so we are very happy to have it. This was the color that was originally in the bedroom. It looks ok in a small space like this, but not in a large room.


The main bathroom. Luckily, the previous owners barely updated this room, so it looks really nice, and we don't have to fix anything right away. It is a good size, though we miss having double sinks (maybe in the future).

The spare bedroom. As you can tell, this room is currently functioning as Jason's workout/rockout room. When we eventually succumb to pressure and have kids, this is where they will sleep. Until then, it will be filled with Jason's awesomeness.
The office. The picture turned out way to dark, but you can see that this is our office.
Our living room. The place where we spend the most amount of time, especially since we have gotten cable. This room also features our touch lamp, one of the best things ever invented.
The living room, part two. Here you can see the fireplace and a better view of the windows. Our house gets a lot of light, and during the day, we hardly ever turn on the lights.
The entry/foyer. The door opens right into the kitchen, which is a bit unusual (and means that I alway need to try and keep the kitchen clean).

The kitchen. This was also updated by the previous owners. I was so happy we could fit our table here, and even though I hate the sink (never, ever buy a white sink-worst idea ever!), everything else is very nice.

The laundry/mud room. Pretty self explanatory-this is were we do laundry. Our water heater is also here, but our furnace lives in the crawl space, which sucks for Jason, since I refuse to go down there.

The garage. This was another thing we lucked out on. Most houses we looked at only had carports, so just a one car garage is really nice. Of course, we cannot actually park in it because of all the stuff in the way, but eventually it might serve its purpose. You can't see it, but Jason built a mini climbing wall by the door.



The front of the house/yard. We haven't had a chance to do much landscaping because of the weather, but we did pull out all of the ivy that was growing in front of the house, so in spring we can put in a flower bed. By the time we moved in, the grass was hopeless, but Scott has graciously offered to help revive it in the spring.
The back yard. As you can see, nothing has really been done to the back yard. Jason has lots of plans in the spring, but for now, it doesn't have much use for us. It is a good size, and we like the patio.

So there it is-our first house. WE are very grateful to have found it, and love that we can continue to live in Holladay.

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You decide

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