The One with the Trip to Long Beach to See Sara Jayne Swim

My cousin Sara Jayne is on the swim team for BYU and just so happened to be attending a meet in Long Beach this weekend. We couldn't pass up an opportunity to see her! Plus it's been fun to have our very first visitor stay in our guest bedroom - her husband (my cousin-in-law???) Tyler. Long time no see! So last night after I got home from work we headed out to the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. Only got lost once :)My Aunt Katy also flew in from Utah to watch SJ swim. Hi Aunt Katy!
Tyler and Aunt Katy indulging my picture taking obsession.
Chris and I were talking about these diving boards. We would jump off the normal diving boards on the sides that are cut off. We might even jump off that first level diving board. You'd have to pay us a lot to jump off that second platform. But you couldn't pay us enough to jump off that one at the top. I don't know how people do it in the first place, and then to do it in style with flips and twists?!...Crazy cool!
That's SJ in the BYU cap about to start her swim. Go Sara Jayne!
Action shot. SJ is in the middle of the picture.
After her swim (she did GREAT!) she came up to sit with us and watch.

Fun to see ya'll!

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The One with the New Moon Review

Don't worry, I won't reveal any spoilers for those who for some odd reason unbeknownst to me haven't seen the movie yet.

You know that feeling you get when you're reading the Twilight books that stays with you for several days after that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and hopeful and you never think it will go away and all you want to do is walk around like a zombie muttering, "Twilight. Twilight. Twilight."?? That's how I feel right about now. My head is in the clouds. Or maybe I feel the way I do because I only got 3.5 hours of sleep....Either way, NEW MOON WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!

I got off work at 5:30 and rushed home to eat dinner and put the animals to sleep. Then we picked up Blake and Veronica (Erica and Brian, the spouses of the aforementioned, were coming a little later) and headed to the Santa Anita AMC theater. We got there around 7:30pm for the 9pm showing of Twilight. What baffles me is that people were already lined up for their various midnight showings of New Moon. Why sit outside in the cold when you could be inside all warm and toasty watching Twilight? Plus, since we stayed in the same theater after Twilight to watch New Moon, we got the best seats in the house; everybody waiting outside had to fill in the leftover seats. Anyways, I'm just trying to say that I'm super glad we signed up for the double-feature.

Blake = our very own vampire; see the red in his eyes from drinking too much human blood? Or something... (3.5 hours of sleep people, my jokes aren't quite up to par on this fine morning...)Here's me with my fellow Twilight lovin' home girls Veronica, Jenny, and Erica. (Thanks for the shirt Marlene!)These are the husbands we had to drag tooth and nail to get to come with us. Haha. False. They actually volunteered. Guys like Twilight, too! -> not only a statement of fact, it's a Facebook group Chris has joined. What a catch :)This is the theater we shared our New Moon experience with. Excellent crowd participation. Always makes things more entertaining.
RIGHT!?!?
Intermission = potty break and audible gasps at the length of the concession lines.A few others showed up for New Moon like Brian (of Brian and Veronica), Kate and Pehrson, and Kim and Alyssa. The more the merrier!
Congrats on the new braces V! And I loved all your commentaries during the movies :)
What I especially loved about watching Twilight before New Moon is it totally put me in the "Twilight" mood. New Moon picked up right where Twilight left off. Alls I'm gonna say about the movie is, I almost converted to the dark side. Meaning, I almost converted to Team Jacob. That Taylor Lautner is a dang good actor (those pecs don't hurt to look at either :) Plus Kristen Stewart's acting was improved 100 fold. Overall, I'm in la la land and don't fancy coming back down to earth anytime soon.

I'm off to find an Eclipse countdown widget to replace the New Moon one! Can't wait 'til June 30th- only 222 days away!

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The One with the Artistic Grandpa

All my life up until a few months ago I thought my artsy fartsy skills came from the maternal side of my family. My Malm and Grandma Doris are particularly in tune with their right brain. It turns out a good portion of my creative genes stem from my paternal roots. Right before we moved my Grandpa Taylor invited me over to look through his portfolio. Talk about mad skillz! :) I don't know how people created text before computers and Adobe Illustrator...actually I do know: they created it BY HAND. My grandpa worked in advertising and created many a poster in his prime. Each and every one was meticulously hand drawn, letters and all. And scattered throughout his portfolio were pieces of fine art, like this one:Watercolor and ink. Timeless. I can't wait to frame it and hang it on my wall of fame. I'm so happy to find out this lovely secret about my Grandpa Taylor - who knew?!

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The One with Thank You MySpace...

...for live streaming the premier of New Moon that was in Hollywood last night. Hollywood. Just a couple towns over. Just the fact that I had the option of going to the New Moon premier is an overwhelming feeling. But I'm not much of a crowds person. Maybe I'll get up the guts to go to the Eclipse premier in June. It's gonna be nuts.

I wasn't planning on watching the New Moon premier on my computer last night. I had a lot of other things I needed to be doing. But when I was reading my blogs while eating dinner I came across a post on "Bella and Edward" that said "If the MySpace feed doesn't work, you can try UStream." One click and I could be watching the premier from the comfort of my own home? Too tempting. Click. I was there. And so were 102, 688 people. (Later on there were over 240,000...crazy Twihards!)
I watched the stars arrive. I giggled inwardly and laughed out loud. If I had been there physically rather than cyberally, I would have been screaming like this at the arrival of R. Patz too:

His interview was short and sweet.

I think people should have been making a bigger deal of the presence of Stephenie Meyer. Afterall, if it weren't for this very woman, none of this would have happened. Thank you Stephenie. I love Twilight.Kristen Stewart's interview wasn't nearly as awkward and uncomfortable as I thought it would be. Props to her.

Taylor Lautner played it cool. Oooh my computer screen is NASTY! Good thing tomorrow is cleaning day!

T minus two days and two and a half hours until I see Twilight then New Moon! I'm a happy camper.

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The One with the Holiday Open House and the Grand Opening of Patina

A few fine folk around here have teamed up and are hosting a handmade holiday open house this Saturday. Here are the details (click on it to make it bigger):
I'll be selling some calendars, handmade books, cards, maybe some fabric flowers, and who knows what else. Whatever I can whip up in the next week will be at my booth. Other ladies will be selling prints, quilts, jewelry, fabric dolls, purses, baked goods, etc. There will be Christmas music and decor galore, door prizes, drinks and treats. Hope to see you there!

Speaking of handmade things, if you live in Utah (or you feel like road tripping!), my dear friend Nichole is having the grand opening of her new uber cute shop: Patina. It's this Wednesday the 18th and the address is 200 South Main St. Pleasant Grove, UT. Free cupcakes and a little handmade gift for our first 25 customers that day! Patina is a handmade market set up like a retail store where local artists/crafters can sell there creations. They rotate ten artists each week to keep people interested in coming to check the place out. Starting in January they will being having at least one class every week; from knitting and quilting to painting and bookbinding. Good luck Nichole! Wish with all my heart I could be there!!!!!!!

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The One with A Day in the Not-So-Typical (But Hopefully Soon-To-Be-Typical) Life of a Puppy Named Joey

We have high expectations of our little Joey. We want him to like wind, rain, snow, water, the beach, the mountains, the desert, maybe even tornadoes. We want him to like taking baths, getting groomed, and getting his toenails clipped. We don't want him to bite or bark. We want to be able to take him everywhere leash-less. Basically, we want a perfect dog...Too much to ask? Probably. But we've found a reputable trainer who says he can make our wildest dreams come true.

And so we take our journey to 8 o'clock am on Saturday November 14th, 2009. Plan of attack: wash and dry the dog. I saw him get his very first bath two weeks ago and he didn't do too bad. He shook like a leaf in a hurricane while getting dowsed, and he howled like the wind when the blow drier was on his face, but other than that he wasn't too bad so we were expecting similar results today. Not so. As soon as we put Joey in the sink he started freaking out. I'm surprised our neighbors didn't call the cops on us. But if there's one thing we've learned it's to press on. We gave Joey a bath whether he liked it or not.
Then we dried him with a fancy shmancy blow drier (and I don't mean this towel). That was an experience...
Fast forward to 10am - we left the shady woods of South Pasadena for the ocean views of Redondo Beach to meet with our dog trainer.
Joey was an angel and sat on my lap during the one hour ride.
We were at the trainer's house (well, in his backyard) for two hours. We are super impressed and have seen positive results already. We've learned tips and tricks and what to do and what not to do. Joey got the bejeezes scared out of him by the trainer's male dog. Joey was getting a little too friendly (ie: trying to get milk from him...haha) and the dog snapped at Joey and Joey screamed like a little girl for 30 seconds straight. I thought he had been hurt but he was just scared to high heaven. Let's just say Joey minded his manners around that other dog the rest of the time.

The trainer wants Joey exposed to EVERYTHING. Bikes, trikes, automobiles, wheels, skateboards, people old and young, people with disabilities and people with too much energy, animals of all kinds (we're well on our way in our own apartment in this department), and terrains of all types. We're so excited, this is exactly what we want too. So we decided to go to the beach. Our mission was two-fold: expose the dog to the elements and let Chris see the ocean for the very first time since we moved here in August. What a deprived husband I have :)
Dogs aren't allowed on the beach (sad!) so we just walked him up and down the boardwalk or whatever the path is called.
Shhhhh.....
We couldn't walk more than five feet at a time without getting stopped by hoards of people. Typical conversation went as follows:
"Oooooooh my gosh! He's sooooo cute! How old is he?"
"Nine weeks."
"How big does he get"
"About three times as big."
"What kind of dog is he?"
"Shiba inu."
"A what?"
"Shiba Inu"
"A what??"
"SHIBA INU."
"Oh. OK. Oooooh he's sooooo cute!"
Moving on to the next bunch of gawkers.
It was a long day for Joey, what with the bath, getting yelled at and demonstrated on, then the bombardment of people at the beach. But he had a good time.
He slept on my lap all the way home then he slept for the rest of the day.
Presh-a-presh.

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The One with Everywhere I Go, Movies Are Being Made

I have yet to see someone famous since living here (UPDATED: FALSE! I remembered that I saw Aaron Ruell aka Kip from Napoleon Dynamite one of the first Sundays here...), but I think my chances of such an occurrence happening are increasing because everywhere I go in South Pasadena movies are being filmed. I don't know what movies, I don't know how important or insignificant the movie will be, and I don't know who they're starring, I'm too chicken to pull over and ask.

I'd say the reasons for filming here so frequently are pretty clear: "South Pasadena is known for its tree-lined streets, historic California Craftsman-style homes, unique small businesses, and its outstanding public schools. This small town atmosphere makes South Pasadena one of California's most desirable locations. South Pasadena prides itself on its small town character. Less than three and one-half square miles in area, South Pasadena lies between the far larger City of Pasadena, of which it was once part, and the metropolis of Los Angeles. Small, proud and independent, the City of South Pasadena has battled for a hundred years to preserve its status as a distinct—and distinctive—community."

Movies that have been filmed here include Father of the Bride (recognize the house? It's only 2 miles away from our place!),Freaky Friday, The Terminator, Gone with the Wind, Halloween, American Pie, Legally Blonde, 13 Going on 30, Back to the Future, Bruce Almighty, and License to Wed. Notable television series that have been filmed here include Family, Boston Public, Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, Cold Case, and Bones.

As for my movie sitings, I was on my way to Target this morning and saw some action.
I took Chris to the bus stop a different way than usual this afternoon and ran into more movie trucks. And then on the way home from dropping Chris off at the bus stop, I saw even more movie trucks and action. Three movie set sitings in one day! Crossing my fingers I run into someone famous soon.

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The One with the Reality TV Dilemmas

There are six shows I watch religiously.

Biggest Loser
America's Next Top Model
Supernatural
Project Runway
The Office
LOST (can January come any faster??)

If for some reason I can't watch any episode live, there's this wonderful thing called the World Wide Web that allows me to watch what I've missed anytime I want. Who needs TiVo? :) Half of the shows I watch are reality shows. What can I say, they're addicting.

Supernatural is going great so far. It give me my "X-Files" style fix. The Office is funny as usual.And I'm still sitting and waiting patiently (or not so patiently) until January for LOST to start.
Meanwhile, it's the reality tv shows I'm having dilemmas with. On the Biggest Loser, I have NO IDEA who I want to win! I really like the "pink ladies" Amanda,and Rebecca.I really like Abby but she sacrificed herself so Amanda could stay. Abby's story is so inspirational. She had a five-year-old red haired cute daughter, an amazing husband, and a two week old baby boy. They were all killed in a car crash when some guy going 100mph crashed into them. Sooooo sad. But Abby said she accomplished what she came for - she learned to open her heart and love again. I hope she wins the stay-at-home biggest loser prize.

Project Runway - I am torn between who I want to win! I dig all the final contestants. Irina's stuff is super radical - but she's so mean that something she said ended up in Entertainment Weekly's "Sound Bites". The contestants call her Meana Irina. Besides her attitude, her stuff rocks.Carol Hannah is so cute and I would wear everything she makes.
Althea also makes totally wearable stuff. I love it all.
I'm torn. I'm absolutely torn. I'll be happy with whoever wins.

Meanwhile, for the first time in America's Next Top Model history (and it's been on for like seven YEARS), I am rooting for BOTH finalists. This is Cycle 13 and the theme is Petite Models - they're all under 5'7". I really like Nicole. She's 18 and from Louisville, Colorado. She's awkward, socially inept, and totally gorgeous.
I really like Laura. She's 19 from Stanford, Kentucky and she's got the accent and personality of a Southern Girl to boot.I've digged them both from the beginning and I'm so happy they're the two finalists! I feel like so many times in ANTM my faves have been kicked off early or they lost the final battle. Honestly and truly, I will be 100% happy with whoever wins. It's a good feeling, one I've never felt before with this silly yet addicting show. Entire seasons air every Saturday on Oxygen from 8am to 8pm. I love having it on in the background while I'm cleaning/working.

I watch too much TV.

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