Going Dark (And all Welsh and Stuff)

Not sure how much internet access I'll have for the next two weeks.

I'm going to Wales.

It's so awesome that I'm jealous of myself.

This morning's weigh in

167

Four More Pounds until we get to Pre-Lily weight.

(One more tummy tuck until we get to Pre-Lily waist size, though. Alas.)

ARRRRRRRRRR

so many of you wrote about the whole National Talk Like a Pirate Day thing on your blogs, that I thought I'd add my growl to the punch.

China has decided that no Tibetian Monks can reincarnate without government permission

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/religionreport/stories/2007/2036975.htm

(And you thought the thought police were at BYU... :-))

Where are your wrinkles?

That's what Sam asked me when I was getting dressed this morning. He said, "I like your shirt. And I love your beautiful hair. But you need wrinkles."

I asked him, "wrinkles?"

And he said, "Yes." And then he made a motion with his hands across his face and said, "Like this. One two three four! Four wrinkles!"

I think he may have been trying to tell me to put my makeup on, but honestly, I'm not entirely sure.

Uh . . . eek?

This disconcerting picture was taken out of my front window (while I was driving) on the freeway. Kinda weirded me out.

How's THAT supposed to help me?!

I was trying to buy a jacket online. (a "professor" jacket that looks professional and stuff.)

I've lost a good deal of weight in the last year and I'm kind of between sizes right now, so I wasn't sure what size I should order. Well, there was a size chart, so I clicked on it. It gave different body measurements and what size they corresponded to. So I got out my tape measure.

According to this chart, though:

my bust is a size 4.
my hips are a size 10.
my waist is a size 16.
my inseam is not usually manufactured. (35," if you're wondering. yeah. I'm six feet tall.)

So what the &^%$ am I supposed to order?!

But the real question is...

sage?

or blue?

It's okay that it's a Lexus and all bourgeois because it's a hybrid, too!

I'm shamelessly in love with this car.

The annoying thing about having stomach flu

is that everyone asks you, "are you sure you're not pregnant?"

and when you say, "yeah, I'm sure," they just give you a funny look and say, "but are you really sure?"

and then you have to explain to them that while stomach flu feels exactly the same as pregnancy, pregnancy only causes massive amounts of vomit, not full on bowel explosions of the other kind.

and then people look at you funny because you were just talking about the subtle difference between vomit-flu and diarrhea flu?

and then you freak out inside because are you really sure that pregnancy doesn't cause diarrhea? Like, really, really sure? and you look around all frantic for someone to ask.

and then you go to the dollar store to buy a pregnancy test because you're too cheap to buy a real one. but when it's negative, you freak out again because, I mean, you only paid a dollar for it! how can you be sure it's accurate?!

that is the annoying thing about having stomach flu.

Madeleine L'Engle has died at 88

The author of my favorite book ever--The Newbury winner, A Wrinkle in Time--died yesterday. You can read about it here.



One of the things this article mentions that I've always loved about Madeleine is that in answer to the question of why we tell stories, she says that “It does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”



Here's to mattering.

Why am I so happy?

It's simple, really. As of September 2, Steve and I have been married 7 years. Yay for us!

Quote of the week

A member of my family who will go annonymous because I like her said this:

"People in Utah are just like sheep." [pause] "They do whatever they want."

It made me laugh.

Well, that's one way to spend $92

Bought some new underwear. Let the world rejoice.

Gosh, you used to suck and now it's not so bad anymore!

Just got an email from BYU saying that they couldn't help but notice that my student evaluations have been getting better and better and would I mind telling them what I've been doing to make such a marked improvement so that they can use the information to help other professors?

I don't know if I should be 1) flattered that they think I might know a thing or two about teaching. OR 2) disturbed that my ratings used to be so bad that they were all alarmed at how much I've improved.

(I'm feeling a bit of both, honestly.)

Lunar Eclipse Tonight!

If you feel like getting up at five in the morning (Utah time) you can see a lunar eclipse! I'll probably sleep through it, but if you get up and look at it, let me know how it was!

LILY!!

So, I'm sure most of you are familiar with these uber-huge, like three-stories tall play places at McDonald's. Right? Well, yesterday morning, we were eating breakfast at McDonald's. Sam was running around and playing, and Lily was climbing up and down these little stairs and hanging out in a little slide. But then I turned my back for like three seconds and Lily was gone. I was trying to find her (not really panicked yet, because I would have seen her if she'd left the play area), calling her name and such. Then this voice comes from the sky: "Hi Mama!"

I look up, totally confused. But there was Lily. She had climbed UP the slide and then made her way to the TOP of the three-story play thing. I started laughing because she OBVIOUSLY doesn't know that she's a BABY. (Remind you of anything, Mom?)

After awhile, she decided she'd had enough of her sky-perch and she walked herself over to the HUGE twisty slide and slid those three stories down to the ground. Then she jumped off the slide as if this was the sort of thing that 15-month olds do ALL the time.

?!

This is a picture of Sam and Lily (in the background) in the bird perch at the top, top, top of the play place.

Favorite Quote of the Day!

"[H]istory amply demonstrates that science progresses mainly by funerals, not by reason and logic alone."

Dean Radin, The Conscious Universe

I don't *think* it was the $2700 laptop I was holding...

Fainted at the Mac store.

Got carried away in an ambulance.

Apparently, I was dehydrated.

Oh, the drama.

Walk cut short due to...cows

I went on a walk this morning down by the river. I rounded the side of this hill thing, when suddenly staring at me was a herd of cows (somewhere between seven and ten of them). Now, this is a public walkway. There should not be cows. But nevertheless, they were there, chewing trees. (In the distance I could see a field with a broken fence; the cows would have had to jump/walk across the river to get where we were.) I told myself that it was OK because cows eat roughage, not people. But they were snorting at me and some of them started jumping around. So I thought to myself, "Do I really want to test that 'they-don't-eat-people' hypothesis?" And the answer was no. So I just turned around and started walking back. Really, really fast. Checking behind myself so often that I finally just decided to walk backwards. They stared at me. A lot. But I got away.

As I was walking back some dude in a bike sped toward the cows before I had a chance to warn him. About five minutes later (as long as it would have taken him to find them), he came racing back pedaling his bike really, really fast and looking behind himself.

It made me laugh.

Mommy is so proud

We were at Boondocks for a company party and Sam and I were in the bumper boats. They have these water gun things that you can shoot people with. Sam started totally blasting this one guy, who was sort of girl-screeching. Sam laughed and yelled out, "HAHA! I GOTCHA OLD MAN!!!!"

I was laughing too hard to scold him.

Just in case you need something to be grateful for...

Sam and Steve were sitting at the table, eating dinner. Out of the complete blue, Sam turned to Steve and said, "Oh, Daddy. I'm glad you're wearing pants!"

?!

[My theory: Sam had just had a big "accident" in his own pants, and he was suddenly thinking a lot about pants and how it was so nice to be wearing *clean* pants :-)]