No Bueno

The other night, Julie and I were craving some good Mexican food. My all time favorite Mexican place is of course, the Baja Cantina, but sometimes, that drive to Park City isn't possible. Plus you have to wait for at least an hour while all of the GNO's are seated. So we were racking our brains trying to figure out where to go while Julie was in town, when Julie remembered that some of our friends really liked El Chihuahua. Plus, as a bonus, it's located right by Nielsen's, so we figured if it wasn't good, we could salvage our night with a delicious, creamy treat.


We head over there, and the parking lot is packed. We had to park in a secret back lot, so we were thinking we had found a hidden gem, and were getting excited to have found a local secret. Once inside, there were all kinds of regulars who knew the owners, which again, was pointing to a muy good meal.


And then things went south. Our server meandered over and we asked what was good as we had never been there. She then asked if we wanted to hear the specials, which of course we did. She asked, "Drink specials, or food specials?" To which both of us replied that we would like the food specials. Bless our servers' heart, she then proceeds to tell us all of the drink specials, which there were a lot of, and which all contained Everclear. So after her 3 minute spiel, we of course felt obligated to order large drinks.


We also got some food. It soon became clear why she had spent so much time telling us about the drinks, as they were an ice cold delight, but the food was just meh. And also, after seeing that we would not be drinking anything with Everclear in it, she did not return again. So after all of our initial excitement, we ended up at Nielsen's salvaging our night with a delicious, creamy treat. Does anyone out there have a rock solid, fantastic Mexican place that will make me stand up and say, "Ole?"

Amen, Sister!

I couldn't have said it better than this . . .

On Your Right is the Old Road...

"If I had to I could clean out my desk in five minutes... and nobody would ever know I'd ever been here. And I'd forget too."--Ryan Howard

Well, I am nothing if not a copy cat, so you are about to be treated to a tour of my cube as well. And mine is actually a cube. Unlike my lovely sisters, I do not have a sweet office that I call a cube to make the commoners feel better. I am in the middle of the room, surrounded by other cubes. Thus, my pictures were very difficult to take, especially with a pesky overhead camera. But please enjoy:

Meet my arch nemesis' (what's the plural of nemesis? Nemesi?) My phone and my tape recorder. These babies are in use from the minute I sit down to the minute I leave. I know these are really high tech, so if you have questions about what all of the buttons do, please ask!

These are literally all of my office supplies. I am very proud of my new stapler however. Much like Milton, I had to work very hard to get it, and it will be coming with me when I leave.

This is the wall where I put all of my important papers. I've worked here almost 6 months, and have deemed two papers "wall worthy."

Finally, this is my view when I turn around. What is that you ask? That would be my boss' office! Who needs firewalls when your boss is close enough to see every keystroke you make? Boy, I'm spent. If only I knew of some magical place that kept a secret drawer-full of drinks...

Touring Julie's Home Away from Home

I loved the tour of Kristen's cubicle and thought I would do the same. Come with me on a little tour of my home away from home. . . .

Here is the lovely view from my office . . . I am way in the back and can keep an eye on the door as people come and go. My least favorite part are these sweet mirrors and fake flowers that have been on the walls for years. I have added no decorations of my own. My very first office when I worked downtown years ago was decked out with personal pictures, decorations, a candy dish for people to stop by. That was years ago and I've become a little more jaded in the workplace, so now, I'm of the mindset that if I need to leave, all of my belongings will fit nicely in a box and I'm out! So, the mirrors and flowers will probably be there for a little longer.

That is another view of my office in the back, right by the Kid's Room so my days are filled with a variety of emotions, doors opening and closing (very loudly) and Disney videos galore in our attempt to keep the kids entertained.
My favorite part of the showroom is a part that buyers don't ever get to see . . . our fully stocked fridge! Now, I don't know if this lovely little pull-out tray was designed for an array of sodas, but that's what we use it for and it's my favorite feature. Just about anything you could want/need to get through the day.
And when I'm not in the back in my office near the kiddies. . . . I am up front in the action. You can tell it's my area with the tons of papers spread out and the ever present Coke. If I would have taken a picture of the garbage can, you would have seen several empty cans.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour . . .

Wish You Were Here...

Happy Birthday, Mom! We miss you!

Tour of My Cube

Oh, hello! It's "Work Kristen." Welcome to my cubicle - the place where I spend 9 hours of my life every day. Let me show you the highlights:




Here we have my "display area" - pictures of me on my study abroad, an oar (don't ask), and a thick layer of dust! Fake flowers courtesy of Julie.


I got these cute little turtles in Hawaii. Their little heads waggle. Earlier today, long before I thought of doing this post, I actually took the time to arrange them so they were kissing. Then I spent time wondering which one was the boy and which was the girl (the red one is the boy, because he is bigger).

This is the drawer I shove everything in at the end of the day. You'll notice both sides are filled to the brim.


And, finally...my view. Yep, I look at a wall all day long. Try not to be jealous of the stark white walls and sterile gray cube. I have to rely on my personality to be the most colorful thing in my cube - ha, ha.

What would a tour of YOUR cube/office include?

RIP Trusty Alarm Clock

This my friends is my alarm clock that I have had since I was 8. Please notice the fine imitation wood grain, non-digital AM/FM radio, and one function--the alarm. It's a tad old fashioned, but it has been a champ in waking me up over the years, and I love it!

I am a very good sleeper, and as a result, am very hard to wake up in the morning. This little beauty has the loudest, most obnoxious alarm that you have ever heard, which is exactly what I need to pull me out of bed. Last week, I was in the process of setting my alarm by pushing the fancy hour button on top of the clock, and sure enough, it popped right off. I tried so hard to revive it by performing alarm clock CPR (pushing the other buttons really hard), but it was a lost cause, and my alarm clock is now just a clock with a ghetto radio. So sad.

I then had to get a replacement alarm clock, and there were so many bells and whistles to choose from--it was overwhelming! I felt like an elderly person trying to navigate the electronics department, and it was very sad. I finally selected a fancy new model, and I can only hope that this new clock will last until I'm at least 50. If I can figure out the instruction manual.

Two Thoughts

1. I heard a DJ on the radio today announce "a classic from Toad the Wet Sprocket." Really? A classic? Maybe I'm showing my age, but I don't think something from the 90s qualifies as "classic" yet - much less from Toad the Wet Sprocket!
2. I am wearing shorts today. SHORTS! LOVE it.

Crazy.

Crazy Good!

I Heart American Idol!

St. Paddy's Day

St. Patrick's Day fell on a night for Young Women's. So we celebrated with cookies and crafts. My new favorite cookie place (thanks, Melinda) has the most amazing sugar cookies with this killer cream cheese frosting. It was all the green we needed. Then we fulfilled an Integrity project by making little plaques with the theme for the youth this year that the girls can hang in their rooms. Making the plaques wasn't half as fun as the masterpiece they continued on the tablecloth . . . which was luckily paper and lined with plastic. We love these cute girls!

I Think I Might Be Magic...

Don't tell anyone, but I really think I might be magic. Like most magicians, I have started with a small trick, but things can only get bigger from here. Pretty soon, I would think I'll be able to make the Statue of Liberty disappear, or walk through the wall of China like David Copperfield.

It turns out that I can call any number from my work phone without dialing the area code! Are you impressed yet? Since I work in Utah County, I always forget that I have to dial 801 or 435 before calling Salt Lake or the beautiful country that is Ogden. Yet my calls always go through without an area code. I didn't think too much of my talent until we added a new area code, and all the scary news anchors warned that our calls wouldn't go through without adding the area code first. Sure enough, I forgot to start doing that, and all of my calls are still going through! So not only am I incredibly efficient by eliminating 3 keystrokes on every call I make, but I've now learned that one of my talents is being magical. Now if only I could make myself disappear from work...

There Should Be Support Groups for This

I've already discussed my fascination with emptying the dryer lint in another posting, and just last week I posted about the little thrill I get when I open a ripe AvOcado. That got me thinking (mostly because it's my turn to write and I've got nothin') - what other things do I get an odd little thrill out of? Some thoughts are below. SENSITIVITY WARNING: Some people (Melinda) might be a little grossed out by this entry, and I apologize in advance.

Popping a big zit. I used to think this was gross, and I hated it when Mom would try and pop my zits. But now I do it too!

Cleaning my keyboard with that little air-blasty thing. I love getting in there with the little blaster and getting as much gunk outta there as possible.

Opening a new can of tennis balls. I love the pop and the whoosh as the air comes out, and the new tennis ball smell assaults you. That means spring is here!

When I get a sunburn and my skin peels off in a big piece. When I get a sunburn I obsessively peel it off.  It's the same reason I can't paint my nails, because I'll just pick the polish right off.  But if the skin's going to come off anyway, don't you love it when you get a big chunk of skin instead of just fragments??

Lists of all kinds. I love lists that rank stuff, I love making lists, and I love checking things off lists.

Am I all alone here??

More Clothing Rants

I had dinner tonight with my cute Dad. He had been working in the yard and cleaning the house. Always before we go out to dinner or anywhere for the night, he always changes his clothes - usually just his shirt - to make sure that he looks extra nice. He always wore a uniform to work and then came home and changed as he downshifted to be at home. I do the same thing as I come home from work.

I grew up going to bridal showers hosted by Grandma Ruth where we always wore dresses for the occasion (note that we absolutely hated this). We dressed up for the family Christmas party, weddings, etc. Whether we liked it or not, we learned to dress for the occasion. Times are definitely more casual now, which is good and bad. We don't wear dresses to showers or most parties anymore, but we do try to wear something a little different than our comfy clothes that are for home.

I was out yesterday to a store and saw a plethora of sweats and pajama pants which mystifies me. Hanging out in these clothes makes me feel like a "shlumpa-dumpa" (word courtesy of Oprah) where I just don't feel that great about myself. I'm stumped by sweats . . . with the elastic waist, loosey-goosey construction (a technical term) where things are not held in very tight (you know what I mean here) and the sweet elastic at the ankles. Let's just say it doesn't highlight our bodies in the best way. The other thing I don't get is sweats with writing right on the butt. Who wants to draw everyone's eye right to that part of your body? And, pajama pants out of the house?!? I don't ever need to be in that big of a hurry to go anywhere that I can't change out of the clothes that I slept in. Heck, Michael Jackson couldn't even bothered to change on his way to court!

And, weddings . . . a special occasion to celebrate. I realize that we often go to a lot of them, but I will never think that jeans are acceptable. One of my favorite stories was the wife of our former Stake President, who later became a General Authority. He was not great about telling his wife when they had a wedding to go to - and they often had them spur-of-the-moment. Many times she was already in her pajamas - in for the night. So, rather than change, she put on knee-high boots with a long trench coat cinched over all and they were off with no one being the wiser. I love that!

Something else I don't get . . . carpenter pants! I work with a guy who takes pride in the fact that he still wears the pants he did in high school and that includes his sweet carpenter pants. What do you need all of those pockets for? And have you ever needed to put a hammer in the special hammer-cozy on the side? Do these guys not realize that we girls love nothing better than a great-fitting pair of jeans on them . . . and the carpenter style just isn't where it's at! Who is with me? And if you see me out in a big trench coat and some boots . . . it's our little secret.

U-Food; U-Bet!

Last week, Kristen and I tried out the new U-Food Grill in Draper. I'm one of those people that has really good intentions of eating healthy, but let's be honest, I'm not that type of girl. I'm practically made of sugar!

So imagine my delight when we tried this little gem. I mean, who doesn't want to feel great and eat smart? I love me a nice turkey burger, but they are usually really dry. So I could not have been more pleased when my burger was, dare I say, succulent! That's right, I said it! And I could eat their healthy version of fries all the live long day. Doesn't Kristen look excited about this too?

I clearly take health really seriously, so I have made a resolution to go there once a week. If any of you fine peeps find yourself in the Draper area, I will be more than happy to go with you! Unless I don't know you, then probably not so much.

I've Had Enough!

Dear Old Man Winter,

My newly dirty car and I would like an apology for what you did to us yesterday. You just had to throw a little tantrum and spew all of the dirty snow that you could on us. I also didn't appreciate the gale-force winds that were chucked at me on the Point of the Mountain either! It is March 10th! Now go to your room and think about what you did!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

This weather is crazy!!! Last night we came home through a crazy snow storm that iced the roads so we had a fun commute this morning. Not to mention the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees. By this afternoon, the blue sky was coming through and this was the view I took about 5 minutes ago. Snow-capped mountains, the lake completely melted with crystal blue water . . . and it's still light out to boot! I will take this kind of weather all day long.

Also...

Amazon has U2's new CD to download for $3.99.  Like the elusive pumpkin-flavored custard at Nielsen's, I'm guessing this one won't last long...

Is Larry Mullen Jr. the only man who can pull off a flat top? Discuss.

U-G-L-Y, You Ain't Got No Alibi

Newsy bit: I purchased a condo this weekend! While I'm not looking forward to the mortgage payment, I AM excited to create my own space and decorate!! As I've been looking around at different furniture stores, I've come to the following conclusion: Utah, we've got a lot of ugly furniture. I went to three furniture stores one night last week, and barely found anything I would even consider! I actually saw this couch:

And the recliners! Oh, the recliners. They're just all lined up waiting for you as you walk in. This is an actual purple recliner from a store I went to:

The only reason for all this mass ugliness was that people must buy this stuff! Who are these people?? I know no one reading this blog would be guilty of such a crime of bad taste.  May we all stand up for more attractive furniture. It just starts with one to say NO to bad design!

Kids Today...

This post will officially make me sound like an old lady complaining about kids today and their crazy technology, but I'm doing it anyway! In general, I am a fan of the Facebook. Since we Bird girls all "like to know stuff," it's really the perfect way to keep up on who's dating who(m), what trips people are taking, and who has added a new friend in the last couple of hours. What a great invention!

However, I have to say that it has now taken the passive aggressive form of communicating to a new level. In my ward, the clerk is a fan of letting people know about ward council through a Facebook event. The problem is that of the 15 people who are supposed to show up, he would only invite 5 or so people to attend via Facebook, and that was the only form of communication about this meeting. So last Sunday, I had heard a rumor that we were having ward council, but had no invitation through the special Facebook group. So I head over to the church for our 10:00 meeting, and only Kristen and one other person were there. I ask what's going on, and being the kind soul that she is, she immediately tells me to be nice, because she knew I would be mad. It turns out that the meeting had been cancelled, and the clerk had sent out a message via Facebook at around 1:00am the previous night letting the 5 people invited to the meeting know that it had been cancelled. I was livid! I mean, is it now too difficult to even send a text letting me know that I don't need to get showered and gussied up 3 hours before church? Believe you me, he got a stern Facebook punch in the arm from me!

I was further convinced that Facebook is just way too easy to get out of doing things you don't want to when my home teacher sent me a message on Facebook on the last day of the month. It said that he hadn't had time to come visit, but here was a lovely message for me to enjoy. Now I'm not the world's best visiting teacher, but I am at least woman enough to admit when I don't do it, instead of sending a lame message and counting it! I'll be setting up a Facebook event for everyone who agrees with me, so please watch for that coming soon!

Talents for the Talentless

There are many things that I cannot do - dance, swim, play any sort of instrument, sing, spell "Occasionally" correctly on the first try, etc. It was always a "joy" to try to come up with something for the talent shows we seemed to have every year in Young Women's. But through the years, I've been able to realize that I am good at a few things:

I'm prettymuch an awesome sleeper. Rarely do I have a night where I can't fall asleep almost as soon as I hit the pillow. And once I'm out, I'm out! I am also excellent at falling asleep in seated positions, such as on buses, planes, college classes, and Sunday School. But It does make it awkward when I start head-bobbing or when I wake up to find my head on a stranger's shoulder.

I can pick a perfectly ripe avacado with 98% accuracy. Okay, I just made that statistic up, but I love me some avacados, and I've bought enough of 'em to know by feel whether they're ripe now, will be ripe in a day or two, or are yucky and brown inside. I hold my breath and get a little thrill every time I open one up, and find that, yes, I picked right again!

I can tune a large amount of stuff out. Julie and Melinda mock me mercilessly when I have no idea what they've been talking about right there in front of me. What can I say? If I'm reading or watching TV, talk to/about me at your own risk! I'll be happy to get back with you at the next commercial break/chapter end.

With the exception of "occasionally," I - along with the other Bird sisters - can spell. Every so often there's a word that throws me, but spelling and grammar have always been - dare I say it? Easy. I cringe every time I see "Your" or "their" used incorrectly.

I can roll down a hill, then run back up it with very little swerving. This probably means I'd be a good drunk.

What are your lesser-known talents? Don't hide them under a bushel, people - let them out!

Draper Temple

On Tuesday, it was our ward's turn to take our youth to the Draper Temple Open House. The Church definitely knows how to do things well. You meet at one of four local churches that have been given a specific color and that also have a corresponding colored bus that will take you up to the temple. We were protected from the cold and wind by enclosed pathways that led us right into the temple. The floors were protected with plastic mats everywhere so we didn't have to wear booties (the Parade of Homes should take a lesson). The temple is absolutely beautiful. I loved the hardwood throughout on the doors and the colors of the furnishings which included sage greens and muted blues among the earth tones.

Our young women had been looking forward to seeing the Bride's Room, which is one of my favorite rooms too. Years ago as a child, our family went to the Jordan River Temple Open House, where I vividly remember going through that Bride's Room and seeing the elaborate dressing area with pretty crystal knobs. That visit made me want to definitely set a goal to be back in that room and to be sealed in the temple. That has yet to happen, but early last year, over 20 years later, I found myself back in that room with Kristen as she was preparing to go through that same temple. This particular day, the temple wasn't busy with weddings, so the girls receiving their endowments got to get ready in the Bride's Room. So now I've achieved part of that goal I set as a little girl.

I also loved the Baptismal Font surrounded by a glass-walled viewing area and the Celestial Room with the largest chandelier that just sparkled with all of the crystals.

We ended the tour back through another set of canopies in a Stake Center that shares the temple parking lot. There the Church has displays set up, missionaries available for questions and cookies! All the cookies and water that you want. One of our girls was proud to say she had 7 cookies. It may have had something to do with the cute boy who was serving the cookies. Then back on our color-coded bus to the church where our cars were parked. It's a well-oiled machine.

It was quite something to see and the view is unparalleled. If you haven't made it yet, you should definitely go.

I've become very practical. How great are these labels that I can print on label paper, cut and have ready to organize my freezer or fridge. Love this! I already have the template downloaded and saved (along with a few others I couldn't resist).

I'm Leaning!

When it comes to having my picture taken, I am a leaner. Does it stem from a fear that I'm not going to be in the picture? I don't know. But take this example from a picture taken at work on Monday. I'm dead center in the middle of the picture - what do I think I'm doing??


And it's not just a recent thing. Here's a picture from 2004 when I was in London. Instead of sitting normally like everyone else, I have to throw my entire body into the picture and lean awkwardly on the girl next to me. I'm sorry, Noelle Tanner Bastian. I know now that I was too close.