A new addition

On its way . . .

The things you can find online . . .

Your Inner Pop Princess Is Shakira

"Baby I would climb the Andes solely To count the freckles on your body Never could imagine there were only Too many ways to love somebody" You're more a poet than a pop star.

Who's Your Inner Pop Princess?

A survey, if you will

Alright, what I want to know is that do any of you know what/where "Hague" is and why is it important? Remember this is without the help of Google, Wikipedia, or any other means of information gathering. No need to post what it actually is, we can all use Google, more of a yes/no and where you picked up such knowledge. I am curious out of the sample size of the population a.k.a. the handful of people that read my blog who knows this stuff. Because I sure didn't and was quickly reprimanded for not knowing such basic information. I am so ignorant, apparently.

When you don't bring your "A" game . . .

So I have been learning a lot about kitchens, food, recipes, and how they all go together this past week. I tried out three new recipes which is a pretty big deal, because I've never been very experimental with my food. Last Friday I hit an all time low when I was accused of not bringing my "A" game or even my "B" game to the kitchen. While I don't think that the meal was a complete failure I know that It wasn't my shining moment. My better half wanted to make sure that that fateful date would be preserved so he managed to sneak in two pictures. The first is the "finished product" and trust me, there was no picture, but I am pretty sure that this isn't what it is supposed to look like. The second picture is the draw under the oven. If any of y'all are familiar with these drawers they never stay on their runners and always slides all over the place. At this point I had given up on fixing it and left it as it seemingly wanted to be. But do not fear, all is not lost. I brought my "A" game today with my own recipe, and it was much appreciated.

I am so proud of my friends!

No, but seriously. All of this time away form them, and I mean all of them, has helped me to appreciate them even more. I've been working on catching up and it is just so much fun. So many of my friends are doing such fun and exciting things right now I just get so excited that I want to run around the room and jump up and down!

Recently I have been struggling to find excitement in my life, but thankfully I can live vicariously through my gal pals! So, if you would allow, I am going to brag for a little bit and most likely a few more posts.

Matt & Jamie are doing so many exciting things: new school, house, baby and puppy. And knowing Jamie she's looking great doing it all. For more bragging see previous post.

Next up on the brag-list is Lacey. She is living in Switzerland doing an internship for the UN. How cool is that? I am sure she scored such a sweet gig because she's a genius and got an A in this super hard Math-Economics class that everyone else I know who took it failed. So she picked up some French this summer and has packed her bags. After her first official two weeks on the job she is kicking butt and taking names. Oh yeah, this is what gets to follow her name on the signature of all of her emails: ITC partnering with UNCTAD/WTO
DTSS/EMDS. Yeah, she's that cool. To prove it here is a picture of her overlooking Bratislava and the Danube



So who is next on the list? This is a tough one, but I'll give a shout out to Emily!! (I simply can not type her name without at least two exclamation points afterwards.) Not only has she been excellent and keeping in touch with me (not so easy to do), but she is also in her first year of law school in an excellent program, enjoying being newly married, and has an awesome social calender for someone so new to the area. I hope she doesn't mind me bragging on her, but tough! Not only is she a super dedicated law student, but she also makes sure dinner is ready every night. Leaps and bounds past me, and I don't even work/have a job!! Here is her with her hubby Jason looking gorgeous on their favorite day of the year. ;)



Trust me, I am not done with this list yet. And the order of the names in no way represent the associated amount of pride or love I have in them a.k.a. I love them all!!

Ten Ways to Improve the Value of Your Home

For all of you who like to stay in on Saturday nights, I have a great suggestion. Tomorrow (Sep. 15th), TLC is airing a show called Ten Ways to Improve the Value of Your Home. It is scheduled for 8pm Eastern. I am really excited about this show because one of my favorite couples (they met through me!) is going to be on it. Jamie & Matt (that's them in the picture) lived in DC for a year while Matt worked doing big-time medical research and Jamie worked on this house. They have recently moved to Salt Lake where Matt attends the University of Utah for med school. Jamie have a great fashion and design sense (her wedding was incredibly sophisticated!); I am anxious to see how she has incorporated it into the house. This summer they had their first child, Ben, and he is a s cute as a button! Don't forget their new puppy, Mabel. I am so proud of my good friends Jamie & Matt!!

The blog hiatus

As I am sure none of you have noticed (well except for Plip, I can always depend on her) I haven't blogged in ages, with the exception of the previous post and one other very special post. Explanation: I have been living a nomadic, internet (and computer) -starved existence. Thankfully that time has come to an end, but based on a request here is a brief history of what I have been doing for the past six weeks sans pictures. I'll explain later.

July 30th: Left Provo for a Little America Hotel Cheyenne, Wyoming
July 31st: Ramada Omaha, Nebraska
August 1st: Days Inn Dayton, Ohio
August 2nd: Super 8 Carlisle, PA
August 3rd-5th: Ramada Silver Spring, Maryland a.k.a. DC
August 6th: Non-chain hotel in Oyster Bay on Long Island
August 7th: Ramada JFK Intl Airport
August 8th: Delta flight across Atlantic
August 9th-14th: Val & Natasha's in Moscow (Bless them, that's 5 nights in a row!!)
August 15th: Red Arrow Train to St. Petersburg (admittedly, a very cool experience)
August 16th: Taoist Retreat St. Petersburg
August 19th-21st: Back at Val & Natasha's in Moscow
August 22nd: Super 8 in Carlisle, PA (not the same as on Aug 2nd)
August 23rd-27th: Super 8 in Etters, PA (this was with the seriously crazy house keeping couple)
Aug 28th+: Our new home!!! Apt 109
Sep 4th: Finally get internet!! (When hubby doesn't need it for school or to check his fantasy football. Lucky me!)

Oh yes, two more lovely items of note. First, we have absolutely no pictures because of a certain memory card that "somehow" didn't make its way back into the camera and is now chilling in Moscow until the in-laws get back from vaca and can mail it to us. Then you will have some visual stimulation. The second is that I managed the whole trip out of one suitcase. What a feat! I am proud.

So we are back and hoping to get back into the swing of regular blogging, and ideally to become employed. Soon. Like yesterday soon. I have a family to support here people! ;)

Crossing the line: where is the line?

As many of your are aware, there is an episode of The Office where they discuss "crossing the line" and "where is the line?" Okay, the truth is it isn't that big of a portion of the episode, and while the setting for this "line" is the workplace, I am curious about where the "line" is in blogger-space.

Periodically, I will have an idea for a blog but then refrain from typing/posting it, because I'm not sure who will be reading the blog. And personally, if I am going to burn a bridge, I'd rather be aware of it than have it come back to me later. For example: I keep the blog pretty clean and up-beat, but did mention a stinky work environment only to have a co-worker Google (Should that be capitalized when used as a verb and not a direct reference to a corporation? Who knows.) our company name and have mt blog come up. Interesting. That definitely made me think twice about blogging on work-related issues. And of course there have been other more serious subjects I had considered posting but refrained.

This has recently come to my attention from something that I read on a friend's blog that kind of bugs me, but I hesitate to put my irritation online (in anymore detail) because one, I am pretty much overreacting, and two, what if she read it? That would be not so nice. Anyway-

So I ask you all, where is the line? Considering privacy, family issues, work, church, friends . . . where do you say this is really funny and informative and when do you say this is crossing the line? I beg of you, ayudame (that's the command form of help me in Spanish).