freaking china and the dow jones!

"Stocks plummeted Tuesday, briefly hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 550 points as Wall Street succumbed to a global market plunge sparked by growing concerns that the U.S. and Chinese economies are cooling and that equities prices have become overinflated."
(By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer)

freaking china and the dow jones! i don't know what all this mumbo-jumbo means in technical terms, but i know it means i lost a bunch of money today... after convincing myself that yesterday was as good a day as any to buy more stock. hindsight. hate it. and i know we're talking "long term investments" here and that a little loss is ok, it'll pick back up. and i don't care that i lost money really, it's that i could have MADE money by buying the stock at $5 less after waiting for it to happen for about two weeks and not seeing any drop... geez (notice the nice steady fall on this chart). anyway, had to vent for a sec. and it's fun to pretend i'm this big-time investor sometimes, even though i don't have a clue what i'm doing. :)

one word answers

feeling: relaxed (or is that just a nice word for "lazy")
thinking about: "the view"
your family history: unfinished
the last person you had "words" with: burton (probably)
want to fly away to: italy
hate the sight of: yogurt (being stirred)
the sport whose players turn you on: football (love the butts)
favorite color ink: yellow
american idol judge who irritates you most: randy (dawg!)
place you thought monsters hid when you were little: bed (under it... one word answers are lame)
favorite spice or herb: garlic
what you like for breakfast: special-k-bar (hyphens make it one word, right?)
your living room couch: plaid / borrowed / in-laws (no one said anything about multiple one word answers)
most recent purchase: "the prestige"
hours you typically sleep on weeknights: 8
something you dislike: poodles
a favorite color: olive
your snack when willpower is nonexistent: symphony (the 1 lb bar)
your bedsheets: wrinkled
the part of your face you scrunch most often: eyebrow / forehead
the last thing you thought was funny: commercial (tyson chicken commercial)
what you're going to do now: eat

now you copy and paste this and either post it on your blog or in the comments!

p.s. seriously... one word answers bore me. i can't even do it.

it's written by... umm... shakespeare?

so... speaking of eavesdropping, i neglected to discuss my little encounter at hollywood video last wednesday night. if there's one thing i love about eavesdropping, it's when i'm eavesdropping on really stupid people talking.

some of you may be doing the math in your head and realizing that i was standing in a line at hollywood video on valentine's day (by myself nonetheless), so i'll start there. burton and i decided to celebrate valentine's the friday/saturday before valentine's day. we went up to SLC for dinner, stayed at a cool hotel, didn't do the usual denny's (as we decided to opt out of the greasy overpriced menu and go for something a little lighter at einstein's... good choice). and so when valentine's day came we went for the low-key approach. we stayed home, made a good meal together, and then burton did the dishes while i ran to hollywood to get a video. oh... and he bought me beautiful flowers. they were gorgeous!! (see for yourself). so anyway, this is how i ended up alone at the video store on valentine's. now to the amazing conversation i overheard.

now, i really really really want to do justice with my explanation of these two... because the way they were dressed and everything about the couple just added to the whole scenario. he was your stereotypical "too short for his head and shoulders" kind of guy. like he would have been a fairly normal looking guy, probably even handsome, if he had just a couple more inches to go with the width of his shoulders. i know this sounds mean, but you know what i'm trying to get at, right? anyway, his hair was kind of slicked back and a little long at the back, dark brown/black hair, tanned complexion, rugged 5 o'clock shadow, large well-defined nose... and just really short (nothing against short... but i need you to picture this guy). so to add to all of this, he's wearing a white collared shirt, no tie, a red velvet blazer, i'm pretty sure he was wearing jeans, and then white patent leather shoes (kind of the miami vice meets austin powers look). it was obvious he was dressed up for valentine's... but he was way "too cool" to be kidding and getting away with it.

his date... was blonde (we'll get to this part), thin, pretty and significantly taller than him, going for the high heels with jeans look, a red/white/black polka dotted shirt (again, with the valentine's day theme)... and probably about 18.

so, we happened to be in the same area walking around the video store, so i heard bits and pieces of their conversation here and there... he was the big movie buff, constantly saying "you're kidding?! you haven't seen that... that is an amazing movie"... i'm so bugged that i can't remember the movie he said was so amazing because it was seriously so lame. anyway, they narrowed it down to a few movie choices and then decided on "romeo and juliet" (the newer leo version) and went to the line, just as i joined the line.

hollywood video seems to have the longest lines for some strange reason, so i had the pleasure of standing behind this couple for a good solid 10 minutes or so. and because i was alone, i really had no other choice but to listen to their conversation. it was clear that they were on a first date... they had the awkward laughs down pat. they couldn't stop moving... they were in a constant state of "shuffle". he was just moving around nervously and she was doing that thing girls do where they rock back on to their heels. i just kept sitting there thinking how weird it was that some day this awkward couple could be married, 'cause in most cases we all start out that way. anyway, they made small talk and laughed hysterically at each others idiotic comments, she commented on never having seen "romeo and juliet" (which i thought was strange and then remembered she was probably 7 when it was in the theatre's so i forgave her for that) and then... she got a phone call from her roommate.

it was obvious that her roommate asked what movie they had chosen, and she responded "umm... we got this movie called 'romeo and juilet'" (long pause, either processing her next comment or listening to a question from the other end of the line... either way, the next comment was priceless)... "umm ya... it's written by... umm... shakespeare" (like it ended with a question mark). i wanted to laugh... i wanted to pull the guy she was with, who was clearly already feeling awkward, and say "are you sure about this one?", but instead... i wrote it down. this is what i have become. one of those people who listens to other people's conversations in the hopes that someone really dim will say something worthy of writing a blog post about. :) and here she is.

five things about moi challenge

simply because i would rather be doing pretty much anything besides what i'm supposed to be doing right now, i will use this time to respond to kate's challenge to list 5 things that are uniquely me and that she wouldn't already know about me. and since we were friends for a total of about 7 days back in 1996 at EFY (ricks 6 baby!) this should be pretty easy for me to do. i suppose i'll put a spin on it and try to identify 5 things MOST people wouldn't already know about me, just to make it interesting.

1. i am a compulsive eavesdropper. i've discovered that a lot of people do it, but i happen to be particularly skilled at it. i can usually tell by facial expressions, tone of voice, and of course the few words that i can hear (or see) here and there while carrying on my own conversations simultaneously, what is going on with people sitting near me in a restaurant, standing behind me in line, sitting across from me while waiting for my plane to start loading passengers, talking in the next office over, sitting outside their apartment talking on their cell phone (i wish i couldn't hear this one... cause it's usually at 2 AM and single girls between the ages of 18 and 22 tend to make me want to slit my wrists). anyway, i can't seem to help it, but i am an eavesdropper.

2. i hate thawing chicken. hate it with a passion mind you. and in most cases this wouldn't be a major problem because how many people out there really LOATHE thawing chicken. but unfortunately for me, my husband hates it too. so here we sit most evenings dreading the first step in cooking pretty much most things we like to eat because neither one of us wants to get up, open the freezer, pull out the chicken and start the thawing process. and there doesn't seem to be a process that is particularly better than another. thawing in the microwave is messy and juicy and i hate the smell of raw chicken. thawing in hot water seems to be our preference, but it's messy and wet and takes awhile. thawing in a bag in the fridge is probably the least messy, but you have to be organized and know what you're planning to cook the next day, and well... i'm just not that person.

3. i don't like a bizarre number of foods and i can list pretty much all of them: black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, any kinds of beans except green beans, eggs, mayo, sour cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, sour krout, guacamole, alfredo sauce, fish including tuna, seafood period actually, chicken salad, potato salad (some of these are a given because i hate the ingredients, but i'll still list them), brussel sprouts, cabbage, tap water, most cereals that are good for you, cookie dough, lamb (sick), game of any kind... i've tried pheasant and it does not taste like chicken, cream cheese, butter on bread, ranch dressing, thousand island dressing, crappy ceasar salad dressing, pretty much any creamy dressings, any creamy sauces that would go on a burger or sandwich, cauliflower, squash, yams, pie crust, bananas, chicken pot pie, apple sauce, oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly anything, parogies, skin on chicken... i'm sure there's more, so i'll keep adding as i think of them. and actually... i like a few weird things too: hot peppers, the edges of brownies (the corner piece is the best), crispy cookies... notice this list is significantly smaller than the list of things i don't like. so my oddities tend to be more offensive than welcome. i spent most of my life being rude when eating dinner at other people's homes. i'm lame. and my parents used to tease me about being from another planet because i didn't like so many foods... until the day my mom asked me if there was one thing that they could do to make my life better what would it be, and i said "could you stop telling me i'm from another planet?" makes you want to cry just thinking about my mom's heart breaking, doesn't it?!

4. i have a knack for sneaking things. i will admit that i don't do it anymore because i'm married and too mature for sneaking (or rather, it's just embarrasing to think that i would be sneaking in my own home with just one other person in the house who would just think you were really strange for doing it). but when i was a kid... and ok... when i was in college... i had a knack for being able to sneak things and make them look exactly the way they were when i found them. i did it mostly when i was a kid though (all my old roommates are sitting back thinking "man! that's why my good cereal went so much faster than it should have!" hehe)... but back home i would sneak food all the time... cookies, candies, flintstone vitamins (they were good). i was also a little obsessed with looking for christmas presents (which i don't do anymore, i promise!). my brother and i knew all the hiding spots. we could unwrap our presents hidden in the back of the closets and make them look perfect. we found them under the head board of my parents waterbed (we'll talk about waterbeds another time... cause they were rad), behind the drawers of their waterbed, at my grandparents house... my parents had to get pretty creative, but there were only so many places to put things in our house. anyway... i am sneaky.

5. i have started about 25 books that i have never finished. this is not to say i can't finish a book, cause i have done that plenty of times. but i am really good at starting a book and never picking it back up again. or getting distracted by another book. i have even started the same book a couple of times and never finished it. and on the other end of the same weird stick, i also can't stop reading books sometimes and i will end up reading into the night to finish a book in one day.

so... my husband knows all of these, and my best friends probably know most of these... if i were to delve in to the "really obscure", it would just be embarrasing... so we'll leave it at that. and the next step in this challenge is to tag 5 other people to write their own post with 5 things about them that i don't already know. here they are:

whitney: because you need some motivation to get the ball rolling with your cute little blog.

becki: because it's been too long since you last posted something and i'm running out of things to waste my time reading online.

nephi: because who gets to read their old boyfriends blog 10 years later? it's just funny. :)

bwitty: because i think you should start a blog.

melissa: because you're cute and sweet and i bet you have some deep dark secret you're dying to unleash online. :)

happy hallmark holiday greetings

it's that time of year again when flowers miraculously triple in price and become almost impossible to find, the cards at hallmark are completely picked through, hotels are booked solid, reservations at restaurants are impossible, and men begin to frantically tear apart their homes for the gift list their wives gave them at christmas... "there's gotta be SOMETHING on that list i didn't get her!" so burton and i decided awhile ago to do away with the gifts on valentines and anniversaries. as we get older and start spending money on things like diapers and doctors appointments, perhaps we'll reconsider the rare opportunity to splurge on each other, but in the meantime... we've simplified. rather than spending money and time trying to find the perfect gift for each other (which, by the way, isn't even part of traditional valentines day observence anyway... traditionally, it was simply intended as a day to express love and affection for your significant other... we can thank Hallmark and the diamond industry for the new tradition of gift exchange), we decided to put the money towards doing something fun instead. usually a fancy dinner and a cool hotel... and the traditional breakfast at Denny's, of course. he usually still buys flowers and the typical monkeys in lingerie cards are exchanged... but other than that, it's just a fun night on the town.

happy valentine's day.

helpful hints for the men:
flowers - yes / something for the kitchen - no / card expressing your sincere love and appreciation for your wife - yes / no card - no / day at the spa - yes / tickets to the nba playoffs - no / gift card to buy new clothes - yes / new xBox - no / reservations at a nice restaurant - yes / "oh... i thought you were going to cook something special?" - no

helpful hints for the women:
flowers - no / something for the bedroom - yes / mushy card gushing with pink and purple flowers - no / a card with something funny about sex inside - yes / tickets to the opera - duh! / tickets to the nba playoffs - duh! / gift card to buy new clothes - no (unless we're talking about my husband, then "yes") / new xBox - yes (unless you want to stay happily married... then "no") / reservations at a nice restaurant - sure, why not? / "oh actually... i was planning to cook you something special" - yes (if you can cook, and it starts with an "s" and ends with a "teak")

good news from punxsutawney

after that super long post i feel like i've set this precedence for myself or something... like i have to sit down with a good hour available in order to write a new posting. so... this is to break myself of that feeling. this will be short and sweet.

punxsutawney phil says spring is right around the corner! yeehaw! (like the way cowboys say it). i hate the snow today. maybe because i washed my car and now it's covered in snow again. stupid provo. make up your freaking mind! anyway, the groundhog has spoken (or whatever he does) and spring is on its way. happy groundhog day. (aw cute, that rhymed).