Barrage

The show last night was GREAT! It was really fun to watch the members of Barrage play. I have no idea how they dance and play their violins at the same time, but it's pretty amazing to watch. My favorite songs were Samuel's Vision, Calypso Jam, Mountain Spring, Front Porch Jam, Karen's Air, and Tico Tico. All of the music was great, but these were my favorites.

I used to play the flute in junior high school. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't play the flute and dance at the same time. Then again, I have never claimed to have extraordinary coordination. Nor have I ever claimed to be any kind of dancer. So that counts me right out of the running for becoming a member of Barrage anytime in the future. Two of the people who were performing last night had seen Barrage in concert years before and thought that they'd like to do that. So they did! Of course, it helped that both of them had been playing the violin since infancy. What makes a 3- or 5- year-old want to play the violin? One of life's mysteries...

I would highly recommend the show to anyone who has a chance to go. Mom and Dad, they are coming to St. Peters in a few months. Check out their show schedule at http://www.barrage.org/.

The Demise of the TV Season

I know, I know, this is unprecedented. Well, nearly unprecedented. I think I may have posted twice in one day before... but I don't remember for sure.
In any case, I found out some very disturbing news about two of my favorite shows today -- 24 and Heroes. Season 7 of 24 will not be aired until 2009! What a travesty! And the word is (though unconfirmed) that Heroes will go directly into production for Season 3, leaving Season 2 with a measly 11 episodes. Come on!
Here's the downlow on the 24 situation:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080215/ap_en_tv/tv24_delay;_ylt=Avk.UV9qcd9TSUO61IQdaAdpMhkF
All I could get from Heroes was chatter on the NBC site. There are some very devoted fans out there, that's all I can say. The IMers on the Heroes page were chatting about how Peter absorbs different abilities and debating as to whether he should have absorbed all of Sylar's abilities or not... or just the TK or whatever. That's a little too much time spent on that subject. I need to invoke Rule #4 on them: "The people on TV are not real people, so don't talk about them like they are."
So, really, it's not the demise of the whole TV season. It's just that I won't be able to watch new episodes of my two favorite shows for a long, long time. Sigh.
I guess there's still Jazz games to watch and enjoy. It was great to watch them beat Baron Davis and the Warriors last night. When Korver is shooting well, it's fun to watch him make those threes. Maybe they'll make it to the playoffs again this year... it's going to be about the only thing on TV anyway, so they'd better!

The Weekend Update

My brother-in-law Dave and my brother Michael have responded to my tag and I want them to know I appreciate it! It's fun to read about you guys. That's why everyone should do it!
Incidentally, Michael, I think that kid who was your comp was Elder Wiberg or Wybrow, not sure which. And he was from Hyrum. I remember driving up from Provo with you and Janet for his homecoming. It was my first ever visit to Cache Valley. Who knew I'd end up living here?
I guess I'll throw in a little update on our Presidents' Day weekend: On Friday night, Zak and I went to see the movie Jumper with Barb, Larry, Taylor, and Burke. It was okay. I won't spoil the movie for anyone who wants to see it by pointing out its inadequacies both in storyline and in acting talent. What I will say is that if you want to see a great movie with Hayden Christensen in it, watch Shattered Glass.
Saturday was a lazy day of laundry and a little bit of shopping. We ended the day by watching Mrs. Winterbourne, a movie with Shirley MacLaine, Brendan Fraser, and Ricki Lake (of all people). It is also rather light on the storyline and acting talent, but kind of fun to watch. Then, since my ironing was still not done after the first movie (though in my defense, I was eating dinner through the first part of the movie, and then it took nearly the rest of the movie for me to motivate myself to actually do the ironing), we put in That Thing You Do, which never fails to please. I really like that movie. Great job, Tom Hanks! Plus, I think that Steve Zahn is hilarious.
Sunday was church, of course, and then dinner in Millville. We also played a little joke on Rhett and Candyce that ended up backfiring on us a little. For Zak's birthday on the 7th, his mom, Rhett, Candyce, and Burke came to our apartment and filled it with balloons. Some had helium, some didn't. The end result was a room full of balloons that Zak wouldn't let me pop. He wanted to do something fun with them. This was a bit of a trial to me, as you who know me well will know that having balloons sitting around my front room (preventing me from vacuuming) for 10 days upsets my sense of order. In any case, Zak decided that the perfect use for the balloons was to take them to Burke's apartment and to Rhett and Candyce's apartment. We ended up tying some of the helium-filled balloons to Burke's door since we had no way to get in his apartment. We were a little luckier at Rhett and Candyce's and were able to get in their apartment. We filled their shower with the remaining balloons. Now, we thought this was pretty good (well, Zak did -- I was just the accomplice who would've been fine without the whole adventure). We then went home, took a nap, and later went to Millville for dinner. Rhett and Candyce came for dinner, too, and we all ate. Zak decided he wanted to go for a walk after dinner. As we walked outside and went past our car, we realized that it was full of balloons. Zak never locks our car when in Millville, although I think he should start. It's still a reflex for me to lock the car. They got us back good! Then we popped the rest of the balloons after we gave a few to Beck, Kaiya, and Crede.
Monday we did a little more shopping, of the grocery and household variety this time, and then I cleaned house (now that the balloons were gone!!) in the afternoon while Zak went to work with his dad for a few hours. It was great to sleep in on Saturday and Monday and has made it a little bit hard to get up the last couple of mornings. I'm taking full advantage of sleeping in while I can, though. So that was our weekend.
Tonight Zak and I are going to see Barrage, and I'm excited! It should be a fun show.

A New Look

I decided it was time I gave my blog a makeover. It has been the same blah blah thing since I started it a few years ago. I have added the blogs of family and friends that I visit regularly, as well as a couple of lists of books and movies I want to see. Plus, two of my favorite websites -- NPR.org and Fantastic Fiction. I know, I am a nerd. I'm okay with that.
If any of you are avid readers like me, please compare and see if we are interested in any of the same books. I love being able to talk about a book I've read with someone who has also read and enjoyed the same book. Zak doesn't really get in to the same type of books as me.
To the Knutti little girls (you know who you are): there is going to be another Tamora Pierce book called Bloodhound which is in the same vein of storyline as Terrier. I was excited when I found out! The Lioness Series from my young adulthood are still some of my favorite books. Why do I not own them yet? I'll have to remedy that situation. I have also really liked the Twilight trilogy by Stephenie Meyer and am looking forward to the 4th book in the series which is due out in October. Those books I did buy because it was going to take way too long to place a hold at the library and wait for the books to come in. I could go on and on...
Zak got a phone call early this morning letting him know that PHS is having a snow day today, so he didn't have to go teach. Hooray! Instead, he went to work with his dad. Way to be responsible, Z. I wish that I got snow days at my job, but it's probably good that I don't. I'm sure that if I did, I would stay in bed and read all day, which is highly unproductive, while also being highly enjoyable.
I am also at work today, and I have been eating far too much candy. It's Valentine's Day. That's my excuse for my rate of candy consumption today. I hope you all have a happy valentine's day!

p.s. I am eating an apple now, and I had some carrot sticks at lunch. Does that negate any of the candy consumption? Please say yes.

I've Been Tagged

My sister-in-law Candyce tagged me, so here’re my answers to the tag. And by the way, thank you for tagging me, Candyce! It gave me the motivation I needed to post since I haven’t done so for a while.

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning:
1. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
2. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago:
I was 19 years old. I was a freshman in college at BYU – go Cougars! Winter Semester ‘98 was my only semester of boyfriends while I was in college. I dated four different guys that semester (but not simultaneously—I’m not that kind of girl!). I know one of them was named Jeff, but I don’t remember the other guys’ names. Sorry, but it has been ten years.
[Just a side note: After that spring and summer, I had a looong drought in my dating life until 2003 when I started dating again and finally met my wonderful husband!]

Five things to do on my list today:
1. Get a letter put in the mail.
2. Check my budget for the month.
3. Figure out something for Valentine’s Day.
4. Get a ton of Zak’s and my work clothes ironed (my least favorite household chore—but at least I can watch a movie or something while doing it. You can’t say that about a lot of household chores!).
5. Look up some new authors and books to see if the Logan Library already has them—we browsed through a bookstore last night (which Zak now regrets—sorry, babe) and I found some books that looked really good!

Snacks I enjoy:
Lately all my snacks consist of yogurt, granola bars, and fruit—apples, oranges, bananas, peaches. But if I had a choice of any snack without regards to how healthy or unhealthy it is, I would choose ice cream. Or a shake. Which is ice cream, so I guess that’s what it all comes back to. Oreos with a glass of milk are a pretty good snack, too.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I would build a house in the country where it’s quiet, where nothing leaks, there are no mice, and the walls are not plaster covered with wallpaper covered with paint. There would be a dishwasher in a huge kitchen and hundreds of closets. Also, my bedroom would be enormous with its own attached master bath with a jetted tub.
Then I would pay off all my family’s mortgages, buy a new car despite the fact that it depreciates the minute you drive it off the lot, and I would buy a killin’ motorcycle for Zak.
I wouldn’t have to work anymore! Instead, I would take classes and learn to be a great cook.
Most of all, Zak would be able to follow his dream of having his own company, doing whatever he wants to do when he wants to do it, and not according to someone else’s schedule, and we would never have to be concerned about money again.

Three of my bad habits:
Trying to do too much (dishes, vacuuming, straightening the house) in the morning hours before work and ending up being late to work because of it.
Putting off doing the ironing until the stack is so huge that neither Zak nor I have clean, ironed clothes to wear to work and it takes me two hours to get through all of it.
Zak would say the last bad habit is a toss-up between my reading too much and my being too compulsive about cleaning the house. I don’t really think these are bad things, though.

Places I have visited:
1. Mexico
2. California
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Maryland
5. Washington

Jobs I have had:
1. cashier at Jack-in-the-Box
2. transcriber in Special Collections at the BYU Library
3. I worked at a meat packing plant and a cheese factory for one day each in Cache Valley
4. head judge at Creative Communications
5. loan officer at USUCCU

Five things People Don't Know About Me:
1. I really hate budgeting, but I am good with money.
2. I love just about all kinds of music, and I know lots of artist and song names. I would be great at Name That Tune, I just know it.
3. I can consistently beat Zak at all the Wii Sports except for tennis, much to his dismay.
4. I love watching basketball – especially the Utah Jazz!
5. I really don’t like traveling. I'm always excited before the trip, and glad I went after, but lately, I always get sick (see Vegas trip, St. Louis trip, Yellowstone trip, our recent cruise—although that “sick” was for a very different reason than the other trips). I would rather be at home with a good book, or just hanging out with my husband.

I tagged the Knutti Family Blog (which is lots more than five people, but I’m betting I won’t get much of a response from my siblings), Katie, JoLee, and Elizabeth.