Bac-on!

Bacon! What a delightful piece of meat. Yet, it's frequently so difficult to cook well! I simply cannot abide soggy bacon. But sometimes in the quest for delightfully crispy bacon you end up with cracker like meat with no flavor. But I have made a break through. I have done an experiment and discovered the best way to cook bacon in order to achieve edibility of the whole piece (not just the actual meat part) and maximum bacon-y flavor. No one should be surprised at my findings, the name of the food itself implies the proper way for it to be prepared. It is, after all, bac-on. Bake it!

  Now, this is how the story goes. I bought some bacon a while back because it looked like it had a high meat to fat ratio and promised some good hickory flavoring or something like that. Moving forward to a few days ago I had the grand idea to make up a few slices and crumble them into some soup or a salad for dinner. So I pull out the package and open it up to begin making the bacon. I think I had planned on microwaving it, since it's quick and makes for crispy fat. But something on the package caught my eye. It read "Baking instructions". Baking bacon? The thought had never occured to me. What an idea! So I decided to try it. I lined the tray for my toaster oven with some tin foil and fit 4 pieces of bacon on it. "Bake at 350 degrees till crispy", easy enough. Then in true Turner fashion I decided to go ahead and just try them all and compare them to find the best way to make bacon.
   I placed 3 slices in paper towels for microwaving and 3 slices in a pan to fry. The package said to do 1 minute per slice in the microwave. I only did 2 minutes and they were quite crispy. I put them in for another 30 seconds just to be safe and then ate them all up, leaving only a strip of meat a couple inches long for comparison later.
  The pan frying was still warming up really, so the bacon was just sitting there, starting to cook a bit. The oven was up to temp and I could smell the bacon sizzling up nicely in there. There wasn't really much to do while i waited. After a bit the bacon in the pan started sizzling and I decided also to flip over the bacon in the oven. After a few more minutes the bacon in the pan was frying up well, but the fat was just not getting cooked. It kept curling so I'd have to flip it over and squish it down so it could cook. But the baked ones were done, so I pulled them out and enjoyed eating all but a sliver that I saved for later comparison. I then finished frying the remaining 3 pieces and consumed them in a similar manner to the other 2 batches.

The results are as follows:
The microwave piece was a bit leathery though without much taste in the meat part itself. The fat was all cooked crunchy though and so there was almost no gicky pieces I didn't want to eat. (I'm really picky about bacon fat. Gicky bacon fat is just inedible for me...) But it wasn't greasy at all, and clean up was a snap because of the paper towels it was surrounded by. Pro: crispy, non greasy, easy clean up, really fast cooking. Con: low taste, bit leathery
The baked bacon had a nice meaty texture, kinda reminiscent of thick jerky. It tasted great because it was still cooked in the drippings, unlike the microwaved slices. It also had very well done fat and I consumed all but a few small pieces of fat that were a bit too fat like for my tastes. Pro: Tastes good, easy clean up (just let the drippings cool in the tin foil then roll it up and toss it. Done! No gross looking can of nastiness) wonderful smell! Con: takes a while, bit greasy
Pan frying took the longest, or at least seemed like it. (The baking might have taken longer, but just finished first since I started it first... who knows) It created a very tasty, crunchy meat- but had the most gicky fat pieces. And I had to wash the pan when I was done. Pro: tasty! Con: most clean up, needs constant supervision, clean up, under crisped fat.


Well, guess which one was the best... oh wait, I already told you. Bake that bacon. You will not regret it! As a funny side, I actually ended up not making anything else for dinner that evening (lazy me) and so I got to tell everyone how I had 10 slices of bacon cooked 3 different ways for dinner.

 I made the rest of the package today and had the most wonderful BLT ever with it. And it was so nice. I popped it in the oven then went about my business. I checked back on it after a while and flipped the slices once, then a bit later it was all done and we consumed every speck of the bacon. Yummy!

Being all homemaker-y

I read an article the other day about the saddest and most disgusting thing I've ever read about food. There's a reality tv show (oh, the depths we have sunk too that this passes as something worth spending time on...) called "Here comes Honey Boo Boo" about a super red-neck family who's daughter Alana (aka Honey Boo Boo) is in pageants or something. I guess a while back the show featured what this family eats when they haven't gotten any road kill for a while and are out of meat. The meal it showed them cooking they call 'sketti' and it's spaghetti noodles with a concoction of half butter (probably margarine actually, even worse...) and half ketchup melted together and poured on the top. It looks like spaghetti sauce... but it makes me sick just thinking about what it would smell like, or taste like, or do to your body...

   Anyway, this article was about how a blogger saw this and decided she could make a cheaper and healthier spaghetti from store bought goods, and she did. Before reading this article I had been sitting around thinking "Gee, I've got so much time today, what am I supposed to do with it?" (I did nothing with it, btw) But then I read this and realized- I should cook! I can cook, I'm just really lazy when it comes to cooking (or most things...) and so I usually eat things like mashed potatoes, rice and veggies, burritos, frozen veggies and raviolis. Things that are quick and easy (but not THAT quick and easy, cuz then you get into the sketti and easy mac realm, and that's scary) But since I have time on days when I don't have meetings and activities to go to, I should try to make cooking something I enjoy more. This article had some nice links to blogs and such that feature recipes that are easy and quick, but not potato flakes, which is just what I'm looking for. (though I'll still eat my fake mashed potatoes...)

    Now this is not going to become a food blog, but I did want to show off some of what this new resolution has produced: Behold carrot/cucumber/cream cheese sushi and "Squaketti" (the recipe the blogger made that was cheaper/healthier than sketti)


























Et voila. I think I'm going to like this cooking thing.
And as a bonus, here's a cake I made for my roommate a few weeks back. I feel so culinary-y.

It's the Bat sign... in case you were wondering... I'm not much of an artist, so just take what you get.

And I crocheted a hot pad/wash cloth something Sunday, but I left it at school. I'll talk about that later... so stay tuned!

Pumpkins!

I have really out done myself this year with the pumpkins.

Carving pumpkins is really my favorite part of Halloween. I just have come to love it for some reason. I have enjoyed the last few years making my own pumpkin patterns (at least somewhat) and this year I got all sides of the creative spectrum. One Kyle and I made completely free hand, one I took an idea from a picture online, and one I printed out and carved fancy pants style (I added the shadow to it though...) I love them all. Let's go through one by one shall we...

I call it: Crazy face with a "BOO" shadow. Creative name, I know. If you get your computer screen at just the right angle you might be able to actually see the "BOO" on the wall.
So, my friend Kyle needed a date for a double date with his friend, and knowing that I'm a fan of pumpkin carving he asked me to join them. We had a pretty big pumpkin, with really thick walls, so we went easy and big cuts. We drew this all on our own. We wow-ed the socks off of the other couple with the shadow. We even put 3 candles in it so the shadow showed up on the wall 3 times at different angles... "Science!"

This is

 "Totem Pole Tiki Face"

He was carved based off a couple different designs I saw online. 

My friend Abby got this awesome idea last Halloween to create a pumpkin totem pole that would have a nozzle in the mouth of the top pumpkin that would spit flames. The closest we could come this year was creating a totem pole by stacking 4 pumpkins up a fence post, then balancing the 5th one on top, putting a can with kerosene soaked wick in it, and lighting it on fire. We put a little ethenol on the top to try to make the flames blue, but it didn't really work. But it looked amazing anyway! I don't have a picture of the whole totem pole, but the carvings were (from bottom to top) a moon sliver, an eagle silhouette (think Native American), a jack-o-lantern face, and a haunted house. We realized later how cool it would've been to put the flame several pumpkins down and light them all up with the fire, but I kinda liked the foot tall flames out the top.

And the 3rd and final entry I call: Avengers: Unite!

If you can't tell what it is, it's Captain America in the shillouette of the Hulk with the Avengers' A on the wall. It was pretty darn neat. The problem was the pattern for the Captain/Hulk carving was definitely meant for a larger pumpkin, so some of the details got lost... along with part of the Hulk's fingers and the Captain's head. But don't worry, we found them and I reattached them with toothpicks. And you might notice the picks in the back holding the A pieces in place. The other thing that caused trouble is that this pumpkin was very very thick. I spent a long time thinning it out and still was carving through too much. So when I would try to carve away extra stuff to get a clear picture it would tear some of the more delicate features. Like the Captain's head... But it all came back together and looked fabulous on our front porch. 

It was a pretty fun Halloween season. We didn't do much tonight. Half the evening was spent with people just watching me carve my pumpkin, but that's ok. As a bonus I'll show you a couple shots of my costume. "I'm a Hufflepuff!"

I saw a bird once!

My name is sewn into all of my clothes!

I'm a Hufflepuff!

If you have no idea what is going on, I suggest you watch this. Even if you do, I still suggest watching this:

So many reasons to love...

the Farmer's Market! Bet you didn't think that's how that title was going to end.. ha.

We have a terrific farmer's market here in Logan. It's not huge, but I love it. It's been in Merlin Olsen Park for the past few years and is moving to Willow Park next year. (I hope I'm around to enjoy it at the new location. It's so much more convenient!) But they have the farmers and the artists and the craft-ers, and the food, and the park, and live entertainment, and it's just great. If you've never been to a farmer's market: REPENT! (a Greek word meaning to have a change of mind or heart...) You'll love it too. They have great produce during harvest season. I love going each week with a handful of cash and seeing what I can get for it. I usually have less than $10 but come home with bunches of fruits and veggies.

A couple weeks ago I found these delightful treats:

Yes, my friends those are purple green beans and purple potatoes! Yay! Unfortunately the purple cooks out of the beans, and the potatoes turn more of a blue/grey color (the insides are purple and white which combines to make bluish gray...) But they were sure yummy!

Then yesterday when I went I got 5 yummy small white peaches for a buck that we used for crepe filling last night. Also, when I went yesterday they didn't have an actual band playing, like usual, they just had a sort of open mic thing going on. I think my 'favorite' act while I was there was a little 9 year old pop star who sang Don't Rain on My Parade twice. Yep, twice. In a row. The first time the track had the singer on it as well and she did fine for a youngin. The second time there was so singer on the track... Maybe it's bad that I was laughing at a 9 year old, but it was really funny. Not so much that she was bad, but it was funny that she was still posing and holding her mic up like she's on American Idol. All in all, it really added to the fair atmosphere and I had more fun wandering around the stalls looking at everything.

Most of all I think I just like the feeling of the farmer's market. Whether I get a good deal or not, it's a lot nicer just buying what you need/want from the people who grew it or made it. It's so much fun shopping in open air markets and seeing people you know in the park. I think we should have more farmer's market style things. It just makes Saturday even better.

1:30 church...

Today my ward switches to 1:30 meetings. We had 9 am meetings this last year, and I was looking forward to 9:30 or 1:00 church but alas, did not happen. This makes 3 times in the last 4 years that I've had 1:30 church- I'm not really happy about it. But that's life- and it does provide me with an opportunity that has probably gone unappreciated until now: free time. Time in the morning that's free of other obligations, of a desire to be entertained, of social gatherings, among other things. I suppose I mostly just slept and ate and did nothing with this time the last few times I had afternoon church, but I think I might like it a bit better this time around.

For example. I got online today and read some blog entries of various friends. I'm always impressed with people who update regularly. I (as you can tell) do not maintain any sort of regularity in my online communications. In fact when I thought "Hmm, I have tons of time. Maybe I should write a blog entry; it's been a while." the site confirmed that I hadn't posted anything since the end of April. Woops. It's not that nothing has happened this summer. And it's not that I haven't had time to put out some e-mails or blog posts. It seems though whenever I have down time lately I just am not interested in writing a blog or anything productive. But today I discovered that I have tons of time and lots of good thing I can do with it (such as blog, or read my grandpas' biographies, or read the church lessons, or finish that cross stitch I started forever ago... ) and I don't feel like there's other things I want to be doing instead.

So, since I have the time, I think I'll run though a brief update of some interesting things since April...

• I finished substitute teaching. At least for a while. It was really easy, and pretty good pay and a great schedule. I'm glad to be done with it.
• I got a student teaching position at the Logan High School Seminary. I've spent the bulk of my time this summer preparing for this. It's been lots of reading and I'm starting to go crazy trying to spend 4-5 hours a day in an office studying. I didn't even study that long each day during school... It's quite a new experience for my brain, and some days it doesn't handle it so well. But, I start teaching this week! I'm freaking out a bit. It'll be nice to be teaching instead of just studying though. Hmm, I need to make a plan for my first day...
• I went to the grand canyon over my birthday with Halley and friends. It was fun. The north rim is a very different place than the south. Much more green. I think I'll post more about this one later.
• I went backpacking to White Pine with Tia, Halley, Chelsea, and Abby. (Tia: my roommate, others: friends in my ward) It was my first time to White Pine, and I was not disappointed. It was beautiful! It was a pretty easy hike too, so bring your kids and we'll go hiking.
• We went on a 'hike' the other day to Old Ephriam's grave. He was a giant (9' 11") bear that was trapped and killed up Logan Canyon. His skull is at the Smithsonian. I say 'hike' cuz we actually drove up to the memorial marker, then hiked up a riverbed for a bit. So it was really more of a drive than a hike, but it was fun!
• We dressed up like cowboys and played BANG! (a cowboy card game) We even made chili and home made rootbeer last time. It was great.
• Played with family and friends a lot.
• Went wake boarding and didn't feel like I got run over by a truck after. I'm getting kinda decent at it. Wake boarding and snow boarding are about the same deal for me, I do it about once a year at ward activities.
• Watched Tia make pickles from start to finish while I wrote this blog and did other things. 

So,  that's about it. It's been a good summer. Not quite what I was expecting, but that's ok. Now onto the next adventure: Seminary teaching and 1:30 church.

Roommate hijinks

    Once upon a time I came home to find two large decorative snowmen in our dining room. They stand on their own, they're stuffed. One is about 3.5 feet tall, the other is about 2.5 feet tall. They came from Michelle's mother's house to decorate ours for the Christmas season. They found a home filling in one corner of our living room and lived there happily for several weeks. However eventually it came time to reorganize the living room due to changes in furniture and there was nowhere for them to stay in the living room. As we were reorganizing and cleaning I asked Michelle "What should I do with the snowmen?" She didn't reply, and I had a thought so I said as I walked out of the room "I know, I'll put them in the craft room" To which Michelle hastily replied "No, don't put them in there." When I inquired why not she looked at me a bit bemused and it turns out that she had heard "I'll put them in your bathroom" Which explains the response.
   I decided it would be really funny to sneak it into her bathroom and surprise her with it. So one day while she was at work I put the small snowman in her tub, where you couldn't see it unless you were on the toilet or turning on the shower (I made sure you'd see/feel it before you turned on the shower)

Turns out this precaution was a good thing, since that's how Michelle found him, when she went to take a shower and she touched him as she reached in to turn the knob. She was surprised. Success!
   Thus the snowman hide and seek game was born. It turned into quite the thing for a while. Over the next few weeks he got to see lots of new places:

My bed.

I came home from church to find him that way.

Kassie's Closet

It took her a few weeks to find him. I think it was only when she was packing stuff up to move (she was getting married soon) that he turned up...

under our kitchen sink!

He barely fit. It was quite surprising every time you needed to do the dishes and went to get the soap.

Michelle's car

Placed there after she went to bed one evening because I know where he spare keys are

Behind Diana's door

 Like a creeper!

In Diana's closet

She took too long to move him, so I moved him for her...

Michelle's bed

 We completely covered him with the pillows, but that doesn't work for a picture. She was quite surprised by this one.

In mine and Diana's bathtub

 This time with his friend who got evicted from the craft room.

And now they're happily residing in the doorway of the storage room, waiting to startle whoever needs something from in there... which is pretty much only ever me. Which is funny because I'm the one that put them there = )

Mmmm, Pi...

  We had a rocking Pi day, my friends Troy and Willie and I. We made pie till 1:15 in the morning! Then enjoyed it at 1:30. Because of a series of mishaps I don't know all of we didn't start really making the pies till almost 10 pm on 3/14. The boys had bought stuff to make a pumpkin, peach, and a from scratch apple pie. They also bought a frozen chocolate pie. Mmmm. The pie type choices were actually all my favorite pies. Troy had asked for ideas of the kinds of pie we should make and that's what I had text back, "I like apple, pumpkin and peach the most. Any of those would be good." So they went for all 3.
  Troy started making crusts while Willie and I sliced apples and made the best caramel sauce ever to go in the apple pie. We put the apples in the crust, put the lattice of crust on top, the poured the caramel over the top so it coated the lattice and seeped into the apples. Yummy.
  The peach pie was just a canned filling from the store. It proudly declared that one can would make one 9 inch pie. Well, we poured it in the crust and thought, "that's the least filling I've ever seen in a pie." It really looked like it should've said 2 cans makes 1 nine inch pie. And as it happened, for some unknown reason- even to them- the boys had bought a can of apple pie filling while at the store- even though we were making our apple pie from scratch. So we decided that half of a peach pie was better than a skimpily filled peach pie and we shoved all the peaches on to one half of the crust and dumped the apples into the other half. Scrumptious!
  The pumpkin pie was pretty standard. No funny story here. Pumpkin pie... Delectable!
When we went to put the top on the pea-pple pie Troy was sad that he hadn't been able to finish his cookie cutter in the shape of pi. He had busted out his HP and made a very precise template for this cookie cutter he was going to make out of a big can he'd cut the top and bottom off of. He had to make sure that the perimeter of the pi shape was the same as the circumference of his can. It was actually pretty impressive stuff. Anyway, he didn't finish it, so instead of using a cool cookie cutter we cut the template out and used a knife to cut out the pi shape from the top of the pea-pple pie and then placed the cut out on the pumpkin pie when it was sufficiently baked. It looked pretty cool.
  The baking was quite exciting. The pea-apple baked at 350 for an hour, the pumpkin and homemade apple baked for 15 min at 350 then longer at 400, 50-60 min and 30-40 min respectively. But we only had one oven, and it was already past 11. So we figured it all out. We baked the pea-pple pie for 45 minutes. We then added the other two pies for 15 more minutes. Then we removed the apple pie and cranked up the temp to bake the other 2 for the proper amount of time. It mostly worked. The problem came in when we added the other 2 pies. They got a little toasty on the top. For some reason we had tin-foiled the crust of the pea-pple, but not the other two. We ended up taking out the apple early to stop the scorching, we figured we could handle slightly crunchy apples. The pumpkin just had to suffer and stay in the whole time. Fortunately it had very little crust exposed to be scorched.
  As the pies baked we passed the time playing uno and mexican train dominoes. At shortly after 1 we pulled the last of the pies out of the oven, enjoyed our frozen chocolate pie (Delish!) and some peach pie, our friend Sarah joined us after she had gotten off work at 1, and we played more dominoes. At 1:30 we decided the apple pie would be sufficiently cool to eat, so we ate it. As we cut slices the caramel would hit the bottom of the pie pan and sizzle. We were all very impressed at the heat retention of the glass pie pan, until we realized the reason was because the burner it was sitting on was still on from when we made the caramel. Well, looks like cooking at late hours does have it's hazards. Fortunately we did not burn down the house or injure anyone. But we did make good pie, and enjoyed it at 1:30 am.

If you look closely at the pea-pple you can see the different fillings. = ) Hooray for nerds cooking!

NY baby!

Last time on my blog I took you through the riveting trip to DC and the events that transpired there. Buckle up, we're on our way to NY!

 I got to the bus station plenty early and got the best seat in the bus- front seat on the top deck. Extra legroom and a clear view the whole ride? Yes please! The white-ish blob you see between "North" and "New York" is a rock chip in the windshield. How in the world did a they get a rock chip in the middle of the second level windshield? That's one high flyin rock!

This is a sample of the view you get of Manhatten as you drive up the New Jersey coast. This is a shot of midtown from the bus. Note the Empire State Building on the right side. I have a puzzle hanging in my room with a night view of this view, only much better since the shot on my puzzle wasn't taken by a point-click camera from a moving bus.

Once I got into Manhattan I had a little over an hour before my next bus left. I got off the bus and realized that, while they do have a grid system, and I did have the address, it's a lot harder to figure out where you're going when you can't tell what direction is which. No mountains. No open space to look for the sun. Just tall buildings. Fortunately there was a Starbucks across the street so I enjoyed some apple cider while I google mapped my destination. How did people travel before google maps?
I still had some time after I figured out how to get to my bus so I took the metro up for a look at Times Square

Pretty much I got off the subway, took a picture, walked a block, got back on the subway, and went to my bus. But it was fun. I was by a bunch of theaters and saw the big adds for shows like The Lion King, and Wicked! I wish I had the time and resources to go watch them!

The bus ride up to Albany was pretty unexciting. I got the front seat again and slept/ read/ watched movies the whole way up. I got picked up by Sandi and family then went home and hung out for the night.

Peter, Saturne, and Zippi having fun posing for pictures.
Well, at least I know the kids were having fun...

Each day in Albany we'd go out in the mornings and do fun stuff, then we'd have to come home so Sandi could get the kids off the school bus and then we'd hang out at home. I got to meet a bunch of Sandi's friends and played with Peter, Miri, Zippi, and Alex a lot... at least when they weren't watching/playing legos. They looooove the ninja legos. It's always nice to get to kick back and relax a bit when on vacation. It's easy to get carried away with doing fun stuff.

Wednesday, after the 3 oldest kids went to school and Rob went to work, Sandi, Alex, and I went to see some stuff in town. We went to the New York State Museum. It's a pretty cool museum. It has a wigwam, some stuff from Sesame Street, a subway car, and a carousel. Guess which were Alex's favorites? The subway car and carousel, of course! Mostly the carousel. He tried to drag us through the museum really fast so we could go ride it.

Hanging out with the coyotes!

Ridin' the carousel!

After we finished we went out to Denny's for lunch and then got home in time for the kids coming home from school.

Thursday Sandi dropped me off in town on her way to institute. I took the bus out to the campus of the State University of New York in Albany. I took a campus tour and talked to one of the professors on campus. It's a pretty nice campus. They connected all the buildings (except the dorms) to each other by way of underground hallways, kinda UVU style but cooler. It was a nice visit, but I won't be going to school there any time soon. I had fun riding the busses too. It turned out that the bus I'd planned on taking back into town had a 2 hour break right when I wanted to go back, so I eventually found out which other bus would take me back to town and hopped on the next bus with that number... but I forgot to check if it was going into town or out of town...oops. I got a nice ride out to the mall though. I thought about browsing around the mall for a bit, but I was ready to get back home. It was getting close to dinner time! So I just got off the bus (end of the line, everyone off.) and then caught the next one a few minutes later. I think of all the bus systems and subways I've taken NY wins at most confusing. Both the subway in Manhattan and the buses in Albany were great, once you found out which one to get on... I forgot, I had some time before my tour at SUNY-Albany so I borrowed Sandi's ipod and did part of the walking tour of downtown Albany. It was really fun. As with most old towns, there were some really really neat buildings.  All with fun stories.

Friday we went to the NY State Capitol and took a tour. It's definitely one of a kind. They said it cost $25 million to build, which would be over a $1 billion in our day. It had 5 different architects and was never fully finished. Many of the carvings and such remain half done. It's a really interesting tour, but long. Alex had a rough time towards the end, but Sandi and I had fun.

A shot from the west side of the building. No dome on this capitol!

A very dark shot of some of the intricate carvings on the "Million Dollar Staircase".
Note Longfellow's face on the right and the smaller ones above and left.
The smaller ones were mostly faces of family and friends of the artisans.

Before, and after, our tour we went ice skating in Empire Plaza. Alex didn't quite get the hang of it, but he gave it a valiant effort. We ended up pushing him around on some buckets that he was supposed to be using to learn how to skate. Maybe next year he'll figure it out.

The fun ended a little unceremoniously when his buckets caught an edge and he went flying. Don't worry, he didn't get hurt. Just cold hands. So we packed it up, went home and watched the video of it a whole bunch of times = )

Then it was Saturday morning. I packed up, went out to the bus and got settled in. Sandi and kids were waiting to wave goodbye as we drove off, but we didn't drive off... for a long time. The battery had died and they had to call a service guy to come jump it. Sandi and kids took off, then came back an hour or so later and brought me lunch. While we were all enjoying our chicken McNuggets in the car the repair dude finally came and jumped the bus. Finally we were off. I even got the trip for free since so many people complained about the delay. The company just gave everyone a refund. Nice.

Once in NY I didn't have as much time as I had planned so I condensed my plans. I hopped on the subway and hopped off across the street from the temple. I've never seen such a wonderful sight coming out of a subway as that temple. It was actually a really nice part of town. I wish I'd had more time. I only did some sealings instead of an endowment session so I would have time for other stuff, but it was still nice. The temple part of the building is actually really small. It's only half of the building you see from the outside. The other half has family history and meeting rooms. There was a YSA regional conference going on in the other half that day. If I hadn't other plans I could've joined them.

However, I had made other plans. Remeber Fabian? From the bus down to DC? Well he gave me his card so I text him and we met up and he was my tour guide around NY. Plus with 2 bags, wandering around NY it was good to have someone else with me. We went down to Times Square again and he pointed out all the cool things to see. Did you know that they leave the new year crystal ball up all year long? They drop it, leave it all year, then replace it to be dropped for the next year.

Fabien and me on the Times Square Stairs. See, he's nice. Not a creeper.

That picture actually turned out perfectly. The screen behind me that's all lighted out was actually really skanky adds. Perfect! Only the good stuff in my picture!
From Times Square it was just a hop-skip-and a bit of a walk to Rockefeller Plaza. We watched people ice skate and saw the sign for the Radio City Music Hall. He knew a lot of interesting facts about the architecture and history of midtown. He was a great tour guide. We went up to the top of the Rockefeller building. The view was wonderful! It's a big rip off to pay $25 to take a really fast cool elevator up a really high building to see a really cool view, but it was worth it at least once. Plus Fabien found a coupon online and paid for my ticket anyway... so it was totally worth it = ) (Mom, no heart attack please. I was safe. I promise) So if you go to NY and are going to pay a lot to see the view, go to the "Top of the Rock" since you get to see this:

The Empire State Building

Which you don't get to see from The Empire State Building...
After that it was time for me to go, so we hopped on the subway to the Jamaica Station to catch the train to JFK... Wait, there are 2 Jamaica Stations? Wait, the one with the airplane next to it on the subway map isn't the one I wanted to go to? Oh, you take a bus from that one to the airport... and it only comes every half an hour... Taxi! Fabien got me settled in a taxi and I took off for the airport and made it with time to spare. The plane even left on time, and we got into SLC early! Good thing Michelle was already in SLC with a friend so she could come get me 45 minutes before she had planned.

It was such a fun trip. Thanks for reading my really long posts. I think I might have outdone Sandi for "longest posts ever" with this one. Thanks again to Christine and Sandi for all they did for me. It was great! Hopefully it won't be 5 years before the next time!

More Details From My Trip: pt. 1

I figure pictures are the best way to tell the story, so be prepared for a loooong post with lots of them. Enjoy~

Washington DC!

So, I took a red eye flight out of SLC to JFK. When I printed out my ticket it only printed out the black, and not the blue, text so when I got to the SLC airport I just looked for a letter/number combo and reasoned that that must be my gate number. I didn't notice another letter/number combo on the ticket... I got right through security and had time to mosey over to gate and there was only one dude there. I admit it did take me a few minutes to realize I was in the wrong spot, and I hadn't realized

 Notice the complete emptiness..

how close to departure I was, so I was sitting there bemused at the lack of people when I realize it was only 5 minutes until my plane was supposed to leave and there was nobody around. I realize my error and after consulting a nearby airport worker established that I was in the entirely wrong wing of the airport and I sprinted (as best one can with a big duffel bag) across the airport. Thankfully at the time the plane was supposed to be leaving it was still boarding the last 50 people, so I just hopped in line and pretended like nothing had happened.

  Once on the plane I was really dumb and plugged in my headphones to the personal entertainment system they have on planes now which resulted in me watching movies and soccer all the way to JFK and not sleeping, at all. Not a big deal, right, I've got a 4 hour bus ride too... ha. Anyway, with the plane leaving late it also arrived late and I had to rush to get to my bus. I met a nice family from Utah who I navigated the complexities of the transit system with until we got to the subway. I saw a sign to Penn Station so I told them bye and hopped on the train. Fortunately for me I made a mistake and took a train instead of the subway. This is good for one reason- I made it to my bus on time. If I had taken the subway it probably would have taken 20 minutes more to get to Penn, which I didn't have. So I meant to take the subway, but God was watching out for me. I got to Penn Station and had no idea where to go. They're seriously lacking in signage in New York it seems. A really nice guy saw me looking at a map and helped me figure out how to to get to the right exit and pointed me in the right direction to where I needed to go. Again I walked as fast as I could with a duffel bag, down the longest block I've ever seen in my life, and got there just a few minutes before departure. The guy in the seat next to me was name Fabien. He's a German working for Bloomberg's in NY and was headed to a birthday party. We had a good time and talked almost the whole way to DC. He thought it was really funny that I was taking the bus everywhere, and only for a week! So again I didn't sleep when I had anticipated. By the time I got to DC at noon I had slept a grand total of an hour since 6:30 am the day before. And I hadn't eaten more than potato chips and juice (Jet Blue serves potato chips made from blue potatoes! Radtacular to the max!) since dinner Friday either. I got food before the auto show, but not sleep. This created for a more happy, but not all together aware Aunt Fuzz, and by the end it was hard to stand up after sitting down in a car. But the auto show was the bomb! It was so much fun, and so many cool cars. A few examples:

 This car was painted super cool all the way around. Amazing artwork.

The coolest car in the expo. Just look at those doors! And it had screens built into the headrests of the front seats for the people in back. They were so seamlessly integrated into the seat Christine and Marriner didn't even notice them. They had some really cool music they'd turn on when they'd open the doors, and it attracted a big crowd. Good publicity work. And just look how cool the kiddos look. They were just doing that all on their own. No prompting involved in this wonderful shot.

 When we got back from the expo it took me a whoppin 2 minutes to fall asleep on the couch. Lillian was really funny. She decided I needed a blanket, so she found one and tucked me in while I was on the couch. Then when we were playing downstairs she informed me that my place was in the basket couch and she again tucked me in and we "took naps". Sunday was really nice for catching up on my sleep after church too. Christine and I watched a movie in Tagalog and relaxed. When we went to Teeny's for dinner Chris and Marriner let me drive their car. It was great. Driving in DC wasn't too bad either. I think it helped that I had navigators. I don't think it would've been as nice if I was on my own.
  Monday, while Lige was at school and Marriner at work, we decided to go see a few cool things I hadn't seen before downtown. We started with the Fredrick Douglas house then drove downtown to the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial and then walked around the tidal basin to the Jefferson memorial. Lillian and Ellis did a really great job of walking all over the place. They were sure tired by the end! Pictures-

In front of the Fredrick Douglas house. He had good style.

The bushes were blooming! It's only the beginning of Feb! But they were quite lovely.

It was so nice that we took a minute to sit on the edge of the river and finish our lunch. Of course we removed our shoes so they wouldn't accidentally fall in the river.

They love walking on the little ledges all around the many flowerbeds at the MLK Jr. Memorial. Also you get a nice view of the controversial quote from this side. I imagine it'll be really lovely in the spring.

A very cool branch on the walk around the tidal basin. Ellis was so scared of falling off, she didn't want me to let go, but then she put on this big cheesy smile so I snapped a picture really quick, before she lost her ability to put on a smile for the camera. Turns out she was more stable up there than she thought and she was actually smiling cuz she was having a good time up there. Guess I could've taken another pic that was a little more in focus...

Lige seemed to think that "duck & cover" was a good pose
for this picture. He originally wanted to be on the ground,
earthquake drill style, but we told him that was a bad idea
for pictures. I still ended up having to hoist him into the
picture cuz he kept covering his head and ducking...

 After that we had to hustle back to pick up Lige from school, then we drove of to Gravely point. It's a park right next to the runway of Regan Airport. The planes fly right over your head every couple of minutes. Today they were coming in for landing over our heads. We played a little soccer-ish game. Apparently it was me and Lill vs. Lige and Ellis. The winner of the game is in dispute though, Lige didn't count a lot of things as goals... We had a good time though.
After a yummy dinner we had FHE. I had demonstrated my lovely piano playing Sunday and it was requested that I demonstrate again as the talent portion of FHE. I was pleased to play the only song I know, Follow the Prophet. We had a lovely lesson by Ellis and played the Scripture Mastery Game, where I learned that I don't know my references as well as I thought.
  Alas, the time was spent and early Tuesday morning I was taken back to Union Station and proceeded to wait in line for quite a while to board my bus to NYC. The chilly garage waiting paid off and I got a really good seat- front row of the top deck. Extra leg room and nothing but window in front of me = )
Ah, DC is such a good time. I enjoyed it so much. I wish I'd taken 2 weeks off so I could've spent more time there. Thanks to the Merrills for their hospitality! And to Lige, Ellis, and Lillian all I have to say is "You guys are SILLY!" and I love yer guts!

Stay tuned for part 2, "Albany"...

In case you forgot...

On a piece of spam mail we got at our house the other day...

Whew, good thing I looked at this random piece of junk. Well, off to change my shoes!

The Trip

Whew, traveling is so crazy! It feels like it will never get to be time for the trip, then it comes and goes in a flash. A week never went so fast! In brief, I had a really good time. I spent much time with Christine and Sandi and their families. I got to see some cool stuff in NYC, DC, and Albany. And I rode a lot of busses and spent a lot of time sitting. Whew, stake conference was rough today after so much sitting yesterday! Here's a rough outline of what I did:

Saturday Feb. 4- Arrived in NYC and took the train to the bus station and took the bus to DC. Christine and family picked me up and we went to the Auto Show and saw some very cool cars. Then we went home and I passed out on the couch.

Sunday- Went to church and then to dinner at Marriner's sister's house. Christine and I also enjoyed watching church movies in Tagalog. We also ate rainbow sherbet.

Monday- Chris, Ellis, Lillian and I went to the MLK Jr and Jefferson memorials. Then picked up Lige from school and went to Gravely point and play soccer under the landing airplanes. Then for FHE I played "Follow the Prophet" on the piano for the talent. I then watched several episodes of Jeeves and Wooster before bed.

Tuesday- Got up, caught the bus to NYC. Took the subway to Time Square, took a couple pictures and took the subway back to Penn Station. Caught the bus to Albany. Got picked up by Sandi and family and enjoyed a nice evening at home, being barked at by their dog = )

Wednesday- Sandi, Alex and I went to the state museum where Alex was anxious to see the train car and ride the carousel. (which we did, eventually. Did you know that Cougars, elk, and wolverines all used to live in NY?) We enjoyed a lovely Denny's lunch and then played with the rest of the fam once they got home.

Thursday- I went into town by myself while Sandi did institute and a baby shower. I did a few stops on the walking tour of Albany then caught the bus to State University of NY in Albany. I went on a campus tour and talked to a professor. Looks like I'd need some other classes before applying for grad school in any science field. I should've taken physics instead of biology... That evening I went to the YSA institute class. After the class some of us went out and got pizza and talked for a while. I then got a ride home from one of the other YSA girls during which we got lost and drove around a lot. I then watched Thor. (Interesting movie.)

Friday- Sandi, Alex and I went on a tour of the NY state capitol ($25 mill. when it was built! Over $1 bill. dollars if it was built today! Wow.) We also went ice skating, where Alex didn't exactly get the hang of it and we ended up just pushing him around the ice the whole time. After the other kids got home we went and played in the park and had a yummy pizza dinner. Then a friend of Sandi's who served in Quezon City came over and we three chatted for a while.

Saturday- Got on the bus. Bus didn't start. Waited for an hour. Sandi brought me lunch. Bus started. Got to NYC an hour and a half after we were supposed to. Did sealings in the Manhattan temple. Saw Time Square, Rockafeller square and went to the top of 30 Rock. Went to the wrong subway stop. Took a taxi to JFK. Came home.

Whew. That's about as brief as I can make it. I'll write some more about details of some interesting things I did, but I'll save that for another post. I'll put up some pictures too.
I can't believe it's all over! I went so quickly. I'm just so glad I got to see my sisters and their families again! It was just a bonus getting to see the other stuff. Next time- Philly and Boston! 

Oh, hello...

"What? She didn't give up on bloggin yet? Strange... I was certain she had."
That's what'd be going through my mind if it was a friend posting a blog after so long not doing so. I'll actually be quite impressed if anyone reads this, if no one one but me will know (both about the post and that no one else read it) so no skin off my nose. If you are not me, and are reading this- I'm sorry this is my post. I'm certain it's going to be scattered, mostly topic-less and, most likely, a big waste of time. But- aren't most things we do?

Today I spent the greater part of my day at school (substitute teaching) reading a book since there was a student teacher. As I was reading I considered this list-

Things I would like to buy if I wasn't such a penny pincher:

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Great book. (I'll come back to this I think.)
• Both of Adele's CDs. Simply wonderful music!

So, this obviously isn't a comprehensive list. Though I suppose anything else I would buy would go under the title "Things I would buy if either didn't mind going into debt, was fabulously wealthy, or didn't mind being dirt poor" I think that one mostly includes sporting equipment and a jet plane. So, while I have to make due with borrowing books and listening to Adele's powerful tunes on youtube, I really can't regret the penny-pinching ways I have. I mostly credit my parent's incredible ability to be completely solvent on only a Utah teacher's salary. Examples of parents make such a big difference in the ability of people to be reasonable (in money matters and so many other things)

Um, not sure where to go after that...so- Thanks Mom and Dad. You're great!

So, the book referenced above. It sounds like a crazy name for a book, and it is, but it's a delightful book. It's written as a collection of letters, which is why I picked it because it's easy to leave off or pick up if I get interrupted by whatever. I think my favorite part about the book, aside from it's incredibly loveable characters (they're so endearing and there's no narration or real descriptions of anyone in the whole book, aside from them introducing themselves to new correspondents) is the incredible insight it gives to life during WWII. The events of the book take place directly after WWII, but much of the book is people describing events during the war. I just can't imagine the oppression that people lived through. I can't imagine how people could do that to other people. Each time I read the book I wonder anew at the trials people endure. It makes me so very grateful that, though we have known wars during out time, they have not been on our own soil or affected our lives in the way WWI and WWII did, especially those in Europe or Asia.
A while back I meant to write a post after a special Relief Society fireside my stake had. An incredible lady from Indonesia came and spoke to us. She was part Indonesian and part Dutch (Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch). When the Japanese invaded their island during WWII her family was first put under house arrest, then separated and sent to concentration camps. I had no idea that they had them in the Pacific, just like in Europe. This fine lady told her story from beginning to end without any hatred in her voice. Only love for those who helped her. Her mother was astounding. Their family was Christian and her mom never failed to live up to the teachings of the Bible and always taught others to do so. She described a time when her Mom stood up to the Japanese, was punished by spending a week in a pit with no food or water, and was preserved my a miraculous series of rain storms through the week. She never heard her mom complain. It was amazing to listen to all these stories and compare them to my incredibly easy life. Her family never turned against God, even with all their trials. To think some people turn away from God because of so much less. If people who endured concentration camp can believe in God and testify of the power of Christ, who am I not to believe them?

Anyway, I'll stop with the WWII thoughts, but I will recommend the aforementioned book. Ashley (sister) read it first for her book club, (which seems to be the source of most of my reading material lately as well) and I fell in love with it. I must admit, part of me really wants a Dawsey Adams kinda guy. Like I said, terrific characters. It also makes me want to write letters and read every book I can get my hands on. Maybe I need to find someone with no phone I can write letters too. (If they had a phone I know the letter writing wouldn't last long.)

This post is already to long and disorderly to read. I'll end. Have a lovely day.