Sweetbreads

I was taken out to dinner the other night here in Montreal. Nothing on the menu looked appetizing to be honest even though it is a fine establishment. I knew that I'd have to suck it up and eat something that I didn't like. My entree came out and it was pretty bad; so when the guy next to me (who was with my party, I might add) asked me to try some of his sweetbreads, I got up the guts to eat what he put on my fork even though I wasn't quite sure what it was. Look it up if you haven't already. Please note that I'm almost positive that the kind I ate were of the American variety. I am in Canada, after all. Absolutely disgusting.

Not that I ever plan on eating them again in the future, but they weren't half bad.

SYTYCD Top 10

These are from last week, but they just showed up on Youtube. Here are some of the good ones. :)

Update on my Montreal experience is coming soon.....

Out...

I'm going to be out until next Thursday. Probably. Unless you get lucky and I blog from my hotel room in Montreal. Which, by the looks of my schedule probably won't happen, but you never know.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Maybe I am Obsessed

Last night I went down to San Jose's Music in the Park because my favorite musician was performing for FREE. Who is my favorite musician?? Come on...I've only blogged about her 4 times before.
The one and only Brandi Carlile. I went down with some friends from SF and then met up with some people from Palo Alto. She was amazing like usual. Seriously...I know that you don't believe me when I tell you that she's incredible live because I haven't seen you there at her concerts. But I promise you won't be sorry if you go. Here are some of the pictures from last night, via Flickr.


She rocks. Oh...did I mention that I'm going to see her at the Fillmore on Sept 8??

And it's not even Mothers Day!

My mother is an inspiration to me for various reasons that I could list for days. Seriously; she's so cute and fun to be with. She'd go out to lunch with me when I'd skip class in high school at our favorite Mexican restaurant, she's involved in local government in the town she lives in, and I often saw her reading her worn out scriptures while I was growing up.

One of the biggest things that I admire her for though is for her ability to never complain. Yeah, she complains about traffic and people who annoy her like everyone else; however, she never complains about things that really matter. When she was a freshman in college, she was diagnosed with Diabetes. This horrible disease obviously put a huge strain on her life. Fortunately, it didn't slow her down too much. She continued to travel and do the things she loved, although it made it hard at times.

In 1985 she had a kidney transplant with a kidney given to her by her younger sister. I have always been extremely moved whenever I think about this act of love that my aunt performed so that my mother could live. I can't imagine how hard it is to live with diabetes every day, and I've seen first hand how much work it takes to just survive. My mom had a small cooler of medicine that she toted everywhere, she took 3 shots of insulin every day as well as poking her finger to test her blood sugar, amongst other things she had to worry about. Not fun. She was in and out of the hospital with random problems for most of my life. My junior year of high school I got home from a football game to learn that she had gone through a diabetic reaction and ended up in a ditch somewhere in South Carolina. True story.

In 2003, she learned that her body was slowly rejecting the kidney that my aunt had given her 18 years earlier. She was put on the transplant list and decided this time to get a new kidney AND pancreas if possible, which meant that she'd be cured of diabetes completely if her body accepted the new pancreas. All she had to do was wait for a donor. This is obviously something that I could write a whole post about, but it was a difficult time for my whole family. Waiting for someone to die in hopes that my mother could live.

The call came in December of that year. A kidney and pancreas were available and she had to get to Salt Lake STAT. I drove her up and after a few long months of recovery, she had a functioning kidney and a pancreas that actually works!! Her quality of life has improved 100% (according to her) and this has been a HUGE blessing in all of our lives.

Why am I tell you all this, you ask? Get to the point already! I got an email this morning from a friend who is still living with diabetes. In September of this year she is riding in a race and is collecting donations to help find a cure. I can't endorse this enough. You can read her blog and learn how to donate if you click here. If you're an athlete in any way, reading about her experiences will motivate you to get off your lazy rear end in a second. Don't get me wrong. I'm not asking you to donate a kidney. I'm asking you to donate a few dollars so that together we can help find a cure for diabetes. Awesome.

Montreal

So the reason that I'm kinda freaking out about not speaking French so well is because I'm going to Montreal this weekend. I realize that a lot of people there speak English, but the only part of the trip that I'm worried about is the part where I have to tell a cab driver to take me to my hotel. I have all sorts of scenarios worked out in my head, so I'll probably be completely prepared by the time it happens. The rest of the time should be a piece of cake. Its just that whenever I've traveled abroad and had to get around by speaking a foreign language, I've never been alone. "Parlez-vous anglais?" anyone? anyone?

So...has anyone out there ever been to Montreal? Anything that is a MUST see while I'm there? Let me know...
This isn't the first time that I'll have been in Quebec, but the last time I was there, the circumstances were pretty different. I am hoping to relive some memories though by eating some of this:

My Smart Mother

This is a picture of the car that my mom drives in Utah. My mom isn't big into 4-wheeling, so no, this picture wasn't taken on some expedition that she recently went on.
However, this is the car my mom has been driving all over Mallorca...I just got this picture a few minutes ago from my dad. Just a little different, eh?

$10 Table

Isn't it cute?

Help?

I just realized that I might run into a small problem this coming Saturday, because...well,.....


photo via Flickr.

Weekend....

I really love weekends when I feel that I've been productive AND had as much fun as possible. Check, check. This weekend was JUST that. And I loved it.

Friday, I karaoked at The Mint. Although the KJ threw away the request that Donna and I put in, we got to rock out to some Pat Benatar with Julie & Jeanine. Good thing I'm a pro at Karaokeing to that song. Easy peasy.

Saturday morning, Roommate and I went to a bunch of Garage Sales all over town. We found a lot of junk, which I guess was expected. But then we found a gem. A table for only $10. At this same garage sale the lady was selling all of her grandmother's silver...cutlery and tea set. If the initial "H" wasn't engraved in all of the cutlery I would have been ALL over that. Her grandmother was rolling over in her grave I'm sure knowing that she was selling all of her prized silver. I'll post a picture of our cute table soon.
After hitting up about ten garage sales, we got breakfast, went to the bank, went shopping at Nordstroms downtown where I bought not only 1 dress to wear to one of my many upcoming weddings, but 2!! That made me VERY happy. I wore one of them to church yesterday and I got nothing but compliments. Yay for that. After our shopping trip, we went to an art supply store, then to a ribbon store. THEN to Trader Joe's and then to Safeway. Finally, we made it home by about 4pm where we napped, tried unsuccessfully to watch a movie, yelled at the neighbors to turn down their music, and then Rebecca decided to paint me. I'd post a picture of her painting, but I look extremely worried...which is due to some other things going on in my life. All in all, it was a super succesful day.

On Sunday, church/meetings were good, I had some good chats with friends after church, then we came home, made dinner and partied it up with friends until about 11pm. Dinner consisted of my famous manicotti, delicious salad prepared by Roommate, and some AWESOME dessert that would make any boy want to marry you made by Deb. In fact, it was so good that Roommate and I basically devoured it after everyone left. Shhh...don't tell. We also played a rousing game of group charades. That game sure is a hit every time. The best guess was when Josh guessed that I was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Awesome.

Happy Monday.

yea, those are orchids...for me....

I just got a call from the front desk saying that I got flowers. Ummm...Ok!

Have a good weekend everyone. It looks like I will!

4.2

Did you hear about the earthquake that woke me up last night? I was pretty sure that Roommate would come running into my room since it was her first earthquake since moving here in January. Luckily she felt it but was so out of it that she just fell back asleep. In even better news, my shelf didn't fall.
Kinda scary like usual, but I'm glad it wasn't too bad.

For No Near Mortal Can Resist...

Yes, this is exactly what it looks like; a group of inmates doing a choreographed dance to Thriller. I mean...I thought my Meez could dance, but I got nothin' compared to these fools.

So You Think You Can Dance

Some favorites from this week:






Lacey & Kameron were super slutty last night, so if you want to see that, you can look it up yourself. :)

A lil' sum'in'

I have friends who live in DC. I also have friends who have lived in DC. A common thread of noted differences that they've mentioned between NorCal (or maybe the West in general) and the DC area is the lack of political talk. Granted...most of the DC crowd works on Capitol Hill, which would obviously result in a much higher awareness of the political world.

I decided a few days ago that I was going to start caring about politics. My friend and cousin Tracy emailed this article to me a few weeks ago and ever since I read it, I've been all riled up to be involved and try to make a difference.

I don't really care whether or not you agree with me, but I decided to check out Mitt Romney's campaign website. I signed up to be a local volunteer. I tried to check out the most recent news on anything that had to do with him. I fully admit that I don't completely understand everything that goes on in politics, but I am trying.

I went on to cnn.com today. And thats when I decided that I really don't care. I'll vote, but thats about all I can do these days. Anyone out there want to try and motivate me to care again?

Everywhere

Found this test today. I scored a 33. Booya! Beat that!

Have you been everywhere? Well...at least "everywhere" according to Johnny Cash.

Simpsonize Me

Have you guys tried this yet??

You upload a picture of yourself and it makes a Simpsons character out of you.

As You Wish

According to BWE, its been 20 years since the Princess Bride made its debut in theaters around the country. According to me, that sounds about right. BWE posted before/after pictures of the cast of characters from the movie. Hilarious. Check it out. Wesley, what has time done to you??

Playlist

Wedding countdown is on. Only three more weeks until I'm in Nauvoo!
As I've mentioned before, Melissa asked me to be the DJ/Emcee at her wedding. I have yet to figure out what I'm actually going to say as the Emcee, but I think the most of the DJ work is over for now. The really hard thing about music at a wedding reception is that has to appeal to a large crowd. All ages will be there, so it should all be family friendly and as much as I might like dancing to Sexyback, Grandma might not have the same appreciation for it. The bride definitely wants everyone there to have a good time and heck...I want to have a good time, too!

For those interested, here is the playlist that I've come up with (with the help of the bride, the groom, and my home teacher)

During Dinner:
all the way - frank sinatra
night and day - the temptations
too marvelous for words - frank sinatra
dream a little dream of me - k.d. lang/tony bennett
a kiss to build a dream on - k.d. lang/tony bennett
what a wonderful world - k.d. lang/tony bennett
i'm confessin' (that i love you) - k.d. lang/tony bennett
la vie en rose - k.d . lang/tony bennett
exactly like you - tony bennett
chicago - tony bennett
i've grown accustomed to her face -tony bennett
the good life - tony bennett
i left my heart in san francisco - tony bennett
a sunday kind of love - etta james
trust in me - etta james
dream a little dream of me - louis armstrong and ella fitzgerald
i'm in heaven - louis armstrong and ella fitzgerald
somewhere over the rainbow - ella fitzgerald
under a blanket of blue - louis armstrong
the very thought of you - frank sinatra
come rain or come shain - frank sinatra
like someone in love - frank sinatra
you'll never find another love - michael buble
that's all - michael buble
L-O-V-E - nat king cole

To dance to:
At last - etta james
broken road - selah
everything - michael buble
every i do, i do for you - bryan adams
feels like home - chantal kreviazuk
forever - ben harper
heaven - bryan adams
i'll be - edwin mccain
ice cream - sarah mclachlan
making memories of us - keith urban
one and only - teitur
our love is here to stay - lois armstrong & ella fitzgerald
save the last dance for me - michael buble
until you - dave barnes
the way you look tonight - michael buble
you are so beautiful - joe cocker
boogie shoes - kc & the sunshine band
groove me - king floyd
jessie's girl - rick springfield
these words - natasha bedingfield
the way you make me feel - michael jackson
mickey - toni basil
get down on it - kool & the gang
kiss - prince
livin' on a prayer - bon jovi
rock the casbah - the clash
what i like about you - kinks
you wear flowers - peter breinholt
i want you back - the jackson 5
ain't no mountain high enough - marvin gaye and tammi terrell
brick house - earth wind and fire
she drives me crazy - fine young cannibals
dancing queen - abba
love shack - b-52's
walking on sunshine - katrina & the waves
happy boys and girls - aqua
bust a move - young mc
na na na - james brown
all 4 love - color me badd
my girl - the temptations
this will be (an everlasting love ) - natalie cole

I'm pretty happy with the compilation actually. Please keep in mind that these songs aren't in the actual order that they will be played. I still need to figure all that out. Enjoy.

PS. Anyone out there got any good tips for being an Emcee?

Weekend Madness

It was busy to say the least. I'm in the process of rounding up some pictures since I didn't take too many myself.

Happy Monday everyone. Hope you had a good weekend.

Ya, ya, grill, ya ya YA GRILL!

Ok so a few months ago I had some gum surgery. Don't worry; that link won't go to any gross pictures of my mouth. When I had my surgery done, I quickly realized by looking around the waiting room at the Periodontist's office that I'm by far the youngest person that comes in there on a regular basis. The office manager always remembers the last conversation we had and frequently asks me about random things I've told him, like that I ran a half marathon or that I'm going to my best friend's wedding in a few weeks. Super nice people, but my periodontist always seems to think that in a month I need to come in again so that he can make sure that my gums are still healing properly. Come on people! The surgery was in February!! My gums are FINE. What's really funny though is that every time I go in for an appointment, he notices that something is wrong with my teeth or mouth, etc. A few months ago he told me that my two front teeth are uneven. Um. Ok? Thanks for the pep talk.

I was getting ready to leave the office yesterday when he told me that I'd better swing by in a month or so just to make sure that everything is still ok. Please keep in mind that this isn't my knee or my ankle; and I'm not planning on doing anything drastic like attacking my own gums with a knife anytime soon, so I'm not sure why he is always wanting me to come in, but I do think its kind of cute. I mean...he's my dad's age and I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that he has a little bit of a crush. I get a lot of grief for tending to like "older" guys, but really...my limit is 7 years older than me. I'm not so much a fan of dating someone 35 years older, ok? Before I knew it he started saying stuff about my uneven teeth again and I was back in the dentists chair with a drill in my mouth. And he just took off part of my tooth.

While you're looking at these amazing pictures of my now-even front teeth, you should also notice my RAD gums that don't look weird anymore. You'd never even know that I ever had anything done. Hooray.

Tallest Man

Ok so my coworkers and I couldn't resist today when this picture started going out through the office junk email system.

So here's our interpretation.

Happy Friday.

Oh, Don't Forget

This website is awesome. You can set up text messages so that you don't forget important dates, appointments, things to pick up on the way home, etc. Incredible idea. Go send yourself some text messages!!!

You Can't Do That on Television

I'm not sure what made me think about this show today, but I found a nice long clip on Youtube. Seriously...if this doesn't take you back to your childhood, I'm not sure what ever could. I'm having some awesome Halloween ideas right now...and it involves dishwashing gloves.

SYTYCD

Ok is it hot in here or is it just me???


Loved this one as well...

Moustache

Click here to make your own moustache. I've never seen my Dad without one, so I thought that maybe if I gave myself one that I'd look more like him. I still don't think that I look TOO much like him, but I could be wrong.

ORAOTW (Other Random Aventures Of The Week)

I always have some random pictures that never seem to make it onto the blog, so maybe I'll start these ORAOTW posts once and a while so that you can see more randomness that is my life. Last Friday it was Maggio and Bobby's birthday celebration. We went to Giorgio's in the Richmond. The pizzas were huge and delicious. Here is Mike drooling over his dinner.

I love this picture of Bill & Bob. I am so fortunate to be their friend.

Last night we had a "Super" FHE luau down in San Jose. The view was incredible from the party. I tried to capture the sunset but I just missed it. At least you can get the amazing color from this photo. You could see all of San Jose from the backyard; honestly, it was the prettiest view I've seen in a long time.

Justin & Silvia are so stinking cute. I couldn't help but post this picture. She looks gorgeous in it too. ow ow!

And I just think this picture is hilarious because Clay looks like he's concentrating so hard. Who knows; maybe he is. ;)

SF Food Bank

Today I spent the morning at the San Francisco Food Bank packing 1 lb bags of pinto beans for those who are less fortunate than I am with my coworkers. Granted, I'm not even sure how to cook pinto beans, but maybe that's just my fault.My team of coworkers was determined to be the best bean-baggers that the Food Bank had ever seen. There were four tables of baggers and while the other tables bagged on average 9 boxes of beans over a four hour period, we put together 19 boxes. That's over half of the pallet in this picture. We were so proud to be the winners of our own competition-that-no-one-else-was-obviously-competing-in that we took a group photo without our hair nets so that you would recognize us.
From left to right, its Karen, me, Polina, Lisa, and Gail. Lisa told me that she was going to email my boss and tell her that I'm a fantastic bean-bagger; that I'm creative and very organized. :) ha. Thanks for the great time, ladies. I'm thinking about getting a group of my friends together to go do this on a Saturday. Seriously...who knew that bagging pinto beans could be so much fun.

Howard's End & Never Let Me GO

For some reason, I've really been into reading lately. Maybe its because of my resolution to not buy any new books until I finish the ones I have. In the past week, I've been able to cross two of the books off of my list.
I read Howard's End by E.M. Forster first. This book was written at the beginning of the 20th Century and it was definitely one of those books that even though it took me a while to get through, I wasn't completely gripped. I didn't really care what happened to all the characters; I just wanted the story to end. Don't get me wrong; it wasn't that I didn't like the story. It was very complex and interesting. I just didn't relate in any way. I guess I'm realizing more and more that my criteria for really enjoying a book is the following:
1. I must relate to it in some way.
2. I have to learn an important lesson.
3. I must laugh and/or cry.
Not all of these things must be present, but at least one of them has to be if I'm going to really enjoy a book. As far as Howard's End is concerned, it is really a commentary on hypocrisy among the bourgeoisie in British society at the time it was written. Considering that I didn't live in the UK then and I don't know a whole lot about what was going on at the time: Bo-ring. If you want to see a plot summary, click here.
I did watch the movie though with Roommate and it was beautifully made. It won some Academy Awards, so if you haven't seen it and you don't mind semi-depressing British novels, check it out. :) Based on my newly-developed rating system, I give it 1 of 4 stars. I can't give it a 0 of 3 because I didn't hate it. I just didn't like it. Only my opinion though; maybe you will.

Moving on.

The next book I read is called "Never Let Me Go" and its written by Kazuo Ishiguro who is also a British author. The story is quite different from the previous novel and while I don't want to give away too information since the real story is revealed chapter by chapter, I'll tell you that there are major science fiction undertones, but written like your average novel about normal things.
It was heartbreaking, but I didn't cry. It just made me sad. Sad in a way that I didn't expect, but I felt more void of hope for the characters than I have in any other novel that I've ever read. 3 of 4 stars. Read it. What if this is what our world came to? Terrifying.

S-A-T-U-R-DAY HIKE!

Lets be honest. I've never been too much of a fan of hiking and/or the outdoors. My mom is NOT a camper. I mean...staying in a hotel here is more her style of camping, so I was never really exposed to the fun you can have in the great outdoors.
The opportunity for me to go hiking has been there in abundance lately and I've really taken advantage of it. This last weekend, I was invited to go to University Falls which is a place in the middle of nowhere. It took us about 4 hours just to drive there and then it was a few mile hike in.The weather was perfect; warm/almost hot in the sun and just enough cooler in the shade to really enjoy it. Considering the horrible weather in San Francisco that morning when I left, I was loving it. The one really nice thing about summer time in the bay area is that if you're cold in the city, all you have to do is leave.
The hike was long, but once we got there, it was worth it. The picture that I posted on Friday makes these falls look pretty small, but this picture helps you realize just how big they really are. The picture below is from the top of the falls. Like usual, the pictures just don't do it justice. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!
There were four sets of falls with slides into each pool at the bottom. The moss on the granite made it quite easy to just slide right down into the freezing water. I got a bit of swimmers ear from my first jump, but it was still great.
Here's Andrew(the organizer) and his friend Rustin going down one of the slides.
If you want more information on how to go to this great place yourself, click here. By the time we got back to the car, I was more thirsty than I think I ever have been in my whole life. Like, so thirsty I could not go on, thirsty. This is me in the car two hours and three huge glasses of water later. I didn't even have to stop on the way home, folks. I think I was about to turn into a little raisin.I got home at 9pm, took a looooonnnngggg hot shower, and fell asleep on my beloved couch at 10pm. Ah, what a day.

Weekend

Having this Wednesday off kinda made my week wacky. I'm excited for this weekend though.

Human Tetris

A good friend showed this to me the other day. Pretty funny. Enjoy.

Fun on the Fourth

Yesterday was a super relaxing 4th of July. It is my favorite holiday of the year. It's always happy, the weather is generally good and the sun is out, good food is eaten, and there are fireworks! yay for fireworks. Here I am with Tommy, Mike, and Brandon getting ready to go down to the beach to see the most amazing fireworks display of our lives.

I took this picture of Mike so that he would officially be on my blog. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you,

Mike W.

and here he is again...looking a little embarassed.

Here's a video that I took while we were down on the beach. So awesome. I want to experience fireworks like this again. This video doesn't even show how amazing the fireworks were and it was a constant show for a good 2 to 3 hours. All fireworks, all the time. Loved it.


And the most awesome Brandon E. that I know. He and Tommy were roommates at BYU, so when I found out that I would meet him at Duck Beach, I was all excited. I was even MORE excited when I found out that he was going to come hang with us on the 4th. Too bad he lives in Richmond...And even though this is the most unflattering picture you may ever see of me on my very own blog, I couldn't help but post it. Steve and I were both holding out our cameras and somehow figured out how to make them go off at the same time (you'd think that all this would really involve is pushing the button on mine, but you'd be wrong). HILARIOUS. and scary. ok seriously, go to the next picture.
I'm closing my eyes in this picture, but I don't care. I just want Roommate to know that I love her and I think she's amazing. I'm so glad that she's my roommate!!!

Me and Bruce. Heart him. :)

And here we have Angie, Kianna, and Megan. I need to spend more time with these girls. They're great.

Hope you had an amazing 4th of July!!

America the Beautiful

Have I ever mentioned on here that I cannot sing America the Beautiful without crying? Sounds horribly corny, but its true. Here are a few sneak preview pictures from yesterday. I stole these from my home teacher; I'm going on about 4 hours of sleep, so I'll put mine up tonight when I get home from work.

FutureMe

I came across this interesting website today called FutureMe where you can set up emails to be sent to you sometime in the future. I emailed myself on July 3, 2011. I'll be two months out from my 30th birthday then, so who knows where I'll be. Here's an example of one of the public letters that someone wrote to themselves.
Maybe if you're really good at forgetting people's birthdays or simple tasks, you could email yourself on a recurring basis.

Cool idea though. Go email yourself in 20 years. Hopefully you'll have the same email address, right?