Someday

My family went to the Festival of the Trees and there were some amazing quilts there! And it made me want to be all crafty and artsy and make a quilt like them. But that probably won't happen any time soon.

Maybe I could do one in the 2 months of break before I go to Brazil. But...I don't know if that's enough time.

Someday though.

My MJ Post - Don't we all have one?

I can't believe it's December! November sure flew by.

AND I can't believe it's December and there's no snow!

If it's gonna be freezing outside (hello, 15 degrees!) then can't we have just a little snow? Please. I'm sure I'll regret these words in a few weeks when it is snowing and wet and cold. But then we can ski, right?

So, I meant to post this a while ago. But here it is now.


I saw the Michael Jackson movie, This Is It, and absolutely LOVED it! Definitely worth the $10 buck admission price. But we got in for $5! Thanks to the manager lady who let us switch movies without paying the extra price! (There's a $10 flat cost for This Is It, no matinee discount.)

I can't believe how talented that guy was! And at 50, he was still amazing. I wish I could move like that. Maybe in the next life. :)

Pass the butter!

Thanksgiving was a hoot this year. We celebrated at my grandma's house, all 65 of us. So fun, loud, chaotic, etc.

The turkey (dark, of course), cranberries, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, yams, and rolls were excellent, as always. Except for the pie. I'm not a huge fan of pie.

But my favorite was the butter.

This year it doubled as a decoration and spread:


But now, the question is:

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH 10 TURKEY-SHAPED BUTTERS AFTER THANKSGIVING?!

Uh...wait until next year?

Shape them into Santas for Christmas?

Make a massive butter-snowman with all of them?

Oh, this could get fun.

Discovery!

I found this great new app-thing called Dropbox.

It's pretty much like having a jump-drive, without actually having a jump-drive! Make sense?

So, you can install dropbox on your computers (like home and laptop, or even your phone) and then it will automatically sync anything you save in that folder. Then you can access it at any computer or anywhere with internet!

Sweet.

Now sorry that I'm kind of advertising for something. And I hate that. But I also think it's a cool idea. And that overrides the I-hate-promoting-other-stuff feeling. I just wish I had come up with the idea. So simple. So brilliant.

My rant against Microsoft

Don't we all have one of these? Well here's mine:

WHY did Microsoft have to change all their format extensions? Instead of doc, ppt, and xls, Microsoft changed them to docx, pptx, xlsx, etc for their 2007 version. Now, if I download something in those new formats, my "old" 2003 version can't open them!

Can't you see it?! This is all a money-making ploy by Microsoft to force everyone to buy their new version. Then, in 2010, they'll come up with some other format (like idoc and ippt, since ianything is the new irage) that we'll all have to switch over again! So Microsoft proves once more that it controls the world. And I say:


Fortunately, there are sites that will convert formats for free. Like my new pal Zamzar. It'll email you a link to download the new converted file. Brilliant. Thank you for providing some control over these ridiculous formats.

How happy is your state?

I read about a study that ranked the happiness level of each state.

Guess who came in as #1.....

That's right,

U T A H !

No surprises there, of course. :)

And close behind was...

#2 - Hawaii

#3 - Wyoming

#4 - Colorado

#5 - Minnesota

Way to represent, Western States!

The study interviewed 350,000 people about their well-being in six areas: overall evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviors (e.g., exercising) and job satisfaction.

See how other states ranked or read more here.

Bring on the Ball

I've really never been much of a basketball fan. I usually like football more. But for some reason, I'm really excited about this season! Even more excited than I have been about football. Here's why.

There are fewer players in basketball, so it's easy to memorize the whole team and keep of track of who likes to do what. Plus, they don't have to wear any masks or padding, so it's easy to see who is who without memorizing all of their numbers. And, the game is so much faster--fewer breaks and stops and pauses that seem to drag on and on. Not much of that in bb.

And with that, go cougs!

.

BYUism - 2

#2 If you want to stand out or (dare we say it) be "rebellious" at BYU, then grow a mustache.

BYUisms

A new series dedicated to listing common expectations and regular occurrences at the Y.

#1 - If you are a male, business major at BYU, you better get a faux hawk!

Stay tuned for more!

Ode to the Swimming Days

My little squashmore brother Garrett recently joined the Orem High School swim team, and all his talk of meets and races and practices has brought me back to the good-old-days of swimming.

Yes, the good-old-days of swimming--the days of waking up in the morning at 5:00 am to go to practice, and then going to practice again after school ; the days of constantly smelling like chlorine and never being able to get rid of it; the days of talking in the sauna after practice for hours and hours and hours. Wonderful. I loved it.

For my swimmer friends:

Meets. Relays. San Diego. 400 relay song. Goggles. In-and-outs. Sauna. The Rec Center. Flip turns. Pulling lane lines. Cheers. Caps. Attitude...kick butt! Tapering. Kickboards. Favio. Traveling. 200 medley relay. Staying in hotels. DQs. Utah County Invite. Winning. Losing. Streamlines. Warm ups. OTAC. Banquets. Cap thief. Awards. Region. The Christmas set. The hot tub. Counting for the 500. Valentines Day practice. Sweats. Paddles. Pull. Team "Moms". Strip 1000. 200 free relay. Not shaving. The clock. Kick. State. Shaving. Cedar City/St. George. 400 free relay. Mesh bag. Attempting to do sychronized swimming. Layering swim suits. Drills. Sprints. Team parties. Towels. Flip flops. Dives. Park City. Blocks. Starts. Blue and Gold. Sandy. Todd. Battle for the paddle. Dan.

Friends!

Swimmers! What are some of your memories?

While it's Halloween . . . Look who's in the death business now

The other day, I was doing some casual online shopping and found that you can now order caskets and urns through Walmart!

Yes, it is true. I even looked on their website to make sure. The lowest price for a casket was $895! Not bad, Walmart. In fact, I'd probably end up buying one there. Why pay the big bucks for something that's never going to be seen again?

My favorites from the selection:

The "Lady de Guadalupe" Steel Casket, $895.00

The "Supreme Distinction" Steel Casket, $1199.00

The "Wings of Freedom" Adult Urn, $174.05


And for your pet's needs:

The "Standing Tall Cat Calico" Brass Urn, $114.00
*For cats up to 40 lbs*

Unfortunately, these items cannot be returned...

Order yours online now! Click here.

Big News is Here!

Big news that requires a separate blog...

See here.

"He's got the swine"

I got this funny email from my Aunt Joyce today:


Swine flu paranoia is getting out of hand....

HA!

Side Note: TWO days till the big news!

Clutch

I've really been wanting a little clutch bag lately.

It'd be so nice! Because, most of the time when I'm running an errand or going out for the night I just need my wallet, phone, and keys. Maybe some chapstick. And I don't need a big purse to carry all those around. So a clutch is perfect!

Side Note: The big news (see the end of this post) is coming this week!

Addiction

I think I have a serious problem: I'm addicted to sweets! Usually of the chocolate variety, but if those aren't around, usually anything will do.

This became very apparent when my family left for UEA last week and left me with NOTHING sweet to eat! I almost died. In fact, my family's lucky that I'm still alive and well.

Next time, you might not be so lucky. Better stock up on some of these.

Or, if Oreos aren't available, I can always live of some Dove Darks!

I blame my dad for this addiction.

Crunch Time!

I love Fall.

Why?

Because I can crunch all the leaves on the ground!

Seriously, I am weird about this.

I'll will go slightly out of my way so I can step on some crunchy leaf in front of me. For some reason, it is really satisfying. Try it. I bet you like it too. And then you'll be on the lookout for extra crunchy leaves.

This movie is finally coming out today! And it got a great review. I want to see it. Anybody else want to see it too?

Also, I just tried Pandora for the first time today. Yeah, I'm probably way behind everyone. But it's pretty cool so far. For those of you who don't know, it's a free radio that guesses what kind of songs you'll like based on your feedback. It's a great idea, actually.

And, last but not least, I should have some exciting news coming soon (12-19 days) . . . So stay tuned!

Purely For Assignment

I am on a bit of a rush right now, so this blog post probably won't be very interesting. In fact, you can just stop reading now. But guaranteed you'll read more. Did you read this sentence?

Well, I'm going to write some of my life aspirations. That's a pretty good blog post, I guess. More like a journal entry.

1. Do an Ironman

2. Do a marathon (I guess this should go before #1)

3. Get a master's degree (MBA?)

4. Get married

5. Have a baby

And now some hobbies/talents/stuff I'd love to be good at or better at:

1. Tennis

2. Taking photos

3. Photoshop

4. Cutting hair

5. Excel

6. Cooking

7. Racquetball

8. HTML

9. Computers

10. Sewing

That's all. And this sentence is purely to take up space and to make my 150 word quota for my assignment. (See here.)

Sorry it's so boring folks!

Winnings and Wannabes

I won a scarf in a blog giveaway!

Giveaways are the greatest. Usually all you do is comment on the blog and you have the chance to win something sweet.

My prize comes from this awesome gal's blog---who's also my aunt : )

I'm always blown away by her creative projects and amazing photos. She contributes to this sweet blog Hip Handmaids. They sponsor and advertise handmade giveaways. What a clever way to bring common blogs together.

I'm totally inspired and I wish I had time to exercise my creative juices . . . or discover them, as the case may be. I should start with something simple. But what?

* * * * * * * * * *

And in totally unrelated news . . .

At a football game, I sat behind this 40-something lady with the craziest outfit:

Her SHOES matched her SHIRT!

What is she, some kind of Punk Wannabe?

Who knows.

This was at a BYU game, so why is she even wearing yellow? We played Colorado State and their colors are green and yellow, so MAYBE she was a stray Colorado fan. But the rest of her family were clearly BYU fans. So strange.

Care for a Coke?

Warning: Don't read if you love Coke; this might really turn you off.

In my Business Law class (remember this book?) we have been studying product liability. Yeah, pretty boring, UNTIL my teacher pulls out a news article from 25 years ago about a girl who became violently ill after drinking a Coke at a party. Her friend digs around to see what was up and comes upon a gross discovery . . .

There was dead BAT in the can!

And even grosser: my teacher still had the can!

They had preserved it for 25 years. Sick. The girl drank half the can. Double Sick.

Here's a closer picture:

DISGUSTING!

Extra Points: Now, the craziest part about this whole thing was that my mom saw the exact same bottle in the exact same class when she was in college! In fact, her teacher is my teacher's dad. How weird is that?


So, uh, Pepsi anyone?

Of Sports & Centipedes

I've squished THREE of these bugs in the last week!

Eww! They are disgusting! And super fast too, which is even more gross.

These things have infested our basement and especially love my room and bathroom. I think they've reproduced recently because two of them were kinda small. Once, I found one of these in my bed! That was SO sick. I had to wash my sheets immediately. Yucky!

In other news...

I still need ideas on what store to pick for my free $50 gift card! (See previous post.)

And BYU's first home game of the season is this week!

If you didn't know, they're playing Florida State.

Florida has a psycho tradition of cutting out some of the turf of every road-game upset and planting it in their "Sod Cemetary." Weird. See the story from the Daily Herald here.

Don't let it happen Cougs!

(Want to see the full football schedule, click here.)

Workin

It's high time I write something about where I work. SOOooo, here goes.

I work at Magleby's Grill and Oyster Bar and have been for about 3 and 1/2 years in various responsibilities:

• Pantry (salad and dessert slave)
• Hostess (greeting and seating slave)
• Busser (clearing and setting slave)
• Server (still a slave, just paid more)

Ok ok, it's really NOT that bad. I actually really like my job--it's flexible, easy to get work off, and the pay is not bad compared to other college jobs.

The COOLEST part about my job is that I was recently named Employee of the Month! Sweet huh? Now Magleby's lets me pick my schedule for a month which is SO NICE!

But, even better, I get a 50$ gift card to whatever store I want! Double sweet, huh?

The big question is which store??! I'm thinking some clothing place . . . . Help me decide!

Paralysis

As this is the first post that Mr. Shayne Clarke (a.k.a. Name Nazi) will read, I want to make it really "cool." Why? Well to make a good first impression, be socially acceptable, fit in, conform to the norm, blah blah blah...

[To those not so clued in, Mr. Shayne Clarke is the instructor for my Business Communication class. Part of our grade is to blog once a week for the semester.]

**********

I heard an interesting thing the other day--that I'm not quite my normal self in this blog. I'm a little bit different.

This brought up some interesting thoughts: Am I suppressing my true inner self? Do I have some hidden alter-ego that can only be released through blogging? Do I suffer from split-personality disorder? Should I destroy one personality?

Yes, all very interesting thoughts...

But I actually think this is true. [Now an in-depth look into my personality...] I am much more reserved in real life. When I'm around people I don't know, I am careful, cautious. And since I am virtually the only one who reads this, I feel no need to hold back.

Which is why this new assignment could have a major effect on my blog writing--mainly because there's a new audience. Before, my audience was essentially myself, a few family members, and occasional friends. Now my audience expands to include my teacher and peers. So my natural reaction is to tone things down.

This is restricting. I am very self-conscious of what everyone will think of this blog. However, my goal will be to not let this affect my writing. I am simply going to NOT CARE. So if I offend, I'm not really sorry. If you think I sound weird, that's fine. I'm not caring.

**********

Now for a funny picture that really has nothing to do with the above topic:

Oh the Treasures...

On Sunday I did some shoe "shopping" at a very unique store ... Grammie's House.

Here's how it went:

1. My sister Kendy saw a bunch of shoes on a random shelf in Grandma's basement.

2. She told me some of them where kinda cool and I should go down and look.

3. So I did, tried a few on, and then made my selection.

Look at these beauties:

I hope these aren't some family heirloom that shouldn't be played with. But, if they are, then why aren't they in some nice little box labeled "Family Heirlooms" down there?

[Side Note: I saw at least 5 "Family Heirloom" boxes. I also saw a "Winter Clothes" box and a "Things for Gifts" box and a "Clothes to Give Away" box.]

My grandma is an exquisite Collector of items that may (or may not) hold significance.

And I love her very much.

Hope you don't mind Grammie! I think these shoes are kickin! Now... what to wear them with? Any thoughts?

L.A.W.

Take a look at this bad boy:

What you're currently viewing is the text for my, you guessed it, Business Law class this coming Fall semester. (Wow BYU, don't get too creative) That's Acc 241, for anyone who cares. And I guess technically it's called Business Law in the Environment. But seriously, "in the Environment" as opposed to "out of the Environment" or "not in the Environment"...? Unnecessary.

Professor Ryan Wood has been so welcoming:

Enjoy your lives now...my class is torture.

Uh...Thanks?

At three inches thick, this classic textbook smashes the record for "Caitlin's Biggest Textbook Yet." But don't worry, we're only using 24 of the 51 chapters. Thanks again, Pro. Wood.

And Mom actually said this was her favorite class. I already told her she's crazy.

You Can Do This Too!

I folded a fitted sheet today! And not just crumpled it in some sort of square-ish mess, I actually folded it nicely. Are you proud? I have always wanted to know how to do this, correctly.

So I looked it up! And here's what I found on YouTube:

And then I tried it and it worked! It even looks nicer than my folded regular sheet. Amazing! Watch it and learn. Then you too can have amazing folding skills.

I Wanna Be a Trekkie

Maybe that's not something I should publicly admit. But it's the truth. Call me a nerd, I can handle it.

I saw the new Star Trek movie the other day and LOVED it! Not terribly confusing, but enough that I want to see it again to understand it. I didn't know a thing about Star Trek before seeing it, and I still wasn't confused. I think they did a great job.

Now I'm not quite obsessed, but we'll say intensely interested. I'm convinced I should be Vulcan, because I thrive off of logic. But the eyebrows? Maybe not.

So if you are a Trekkie, or want to be, you'll like these links:

All about the new movie: pictures, plot, summary, actors, trailers here.

Or the direct YouTube trailer found on this site.

Click here for Wikipedia's main article on Star Trek.

And finally, find the Official Star Trek site here.

"Live long and prosper."