that's a Dumb and Dumber quote.  Ask me sometime about quoting that movie end to end. My brother-in-law Jared and I could do a little show for you. Mostly at weddings or holiday parties.  But I am actually foolish.  In my excitement to be an adult/wife/new-in-law, I enthusiastically volunteered to make a couple pies for the Thanksgiving Feast that will be had with Dan's family in Kanab.  From the onset this whole thing smacked of "See? I cook! I'm totally domestic and whatever? Look! I can WHISK!"  and it was about that point when Dan took the potato masher out of my hand and asked me if I'd ever done this before.  (For the record, the potato masher breaks up the butter just fine, thankyouverymuch.) I had to make the Pecan Pie twice before I trusted myself to make the real thing. The first time, I used "the easy recipe" which pretty much said -stir these 5 ingredients together and go nuts.  It was nuts alright. watery, milky chocolate bits and so...

Forgive this slightly self indulgent wife post that could probably be a page right out of seriously so blessed. I promise not to do this more than a couple times a year.  Unless I'm having an especially good wife month, and then it could be more.  Or if I'm having an especially poor wife year someday, you might luck out and just get ramblings about corn dogs and my thoughts on global warming. LUCKY YOU!!!!! My twisted wife weekend began with my first attempt at a chocolate pecan pie. It's a first attempt because I am hoping to take said pie to the Jackson Family Thanksgiving in Kanab, and I will not take a first attempt pie to such a grand occassion.  I have standards to set.  Thank heavens it was a first attempt. Despite following the recipe exactly, it was terribly eggy and watery.  The evaporated milk didn't set up, and my whisking apparently left much to be desired.  And, I couldn't taste the chocolate at all. Terrible recipe, and even worse whiskin...

It's photos and stories like this that make the art of sport great: Wong Wan-yiu of Hong Kong was competing in the last 40 laps of an epic indoor cycling finals at the Asian Games, and came down in a horrific pile up.  She was run over by other bikes, and in the end was determined to have broken a rib and dislocated her shoulder, not to mention road rash that would be enough to put me to bed for a month. And this woman gets up, gets on a replacement bike, and rides 37 more laps to win the Silver Medal.  As it appeared on CNNgo: Wong was determined to finish the race as this was her last chance to gain enough points to qualify for the London Olympics. She said to Apple Daily that "you have to be willing to sacrifice in order to achieve anything; it's all give and take." Read more: Wong Wan-yiu wins silver at Asian Games CNNGo.com to see the whole article

I'm missing Pioneer Woman on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network tonight to go to a Jazz game. Either we need to get Tivo, or we need to sell the Jazz to some wretched city without a team.  Or to Los Angeles, who apparently doesn't mind having more than one team.  Actually, if I'm going to sit and watch a basketball game, I'm glad that I get to do it in person where there are lots of distractions and people watching and unhealthy snacks at my disposal. I've had a real hankering for a churro for YEARS. It's time to give in. And it's fun to go with Husband, because he doesn't care about ANY of those things, he cares about the bizniss down on the floor between those lanky mutant giant people tossing a ball around, and I can always know when to watch the jumbo screen for the replay right after he "OHHHH!!!!!"s.  Also, I LOVE booing referees.  I don't care what the call is or what team suffered, I will always take an opportu...

I bet that you had no idea that such an event was going on at this exact moment, did you?  The 16th Asian Games (their theme is year roughly translates to "thrilling games, harmonious asia" haha) are going on right now, and they claim to be the largest sporting event in the world based on the number of athletes that are actually competing, which apparently outshines the number of athletes in the Olympics by a great sum.  Interestingly, the exact numbers are hard to get. This year the event is being held in Guangzhou, China, not too far from Hong Kong.  It's apparently the first time that China has hosted the event, because of the extreme restrictions they've had in the past about incoming persons (and horses) from a variety of countries.  As we speak, a number of very unhappy equestrians from India are sitting pleading at a border insisting that the western diseases that their horses "tested positive" for are fake results.  There is no way that these ho...

1. I don't think that I've ever had a real pining for an item like this one, which I most certainly seem incapable of getting even if I were rich.  I suppose if I were ACTUALLY rich, I could fly to London and go to a store and get these, but otherwise, I'm out of luck.  They're so sophisticated, sleek, but totally turn of the century.  I would wear these in July. That kind of love. 2. Gilberto Gil's Album, Nega .  Exiled from Brazil and living in London in the 70's, this album is known for the loneliness of it- he clearly sounds homesick, covering the rapturous "can't find my way home" and then an almost eerily obligatory cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Did he genuinely like the Beatles?  Or was he deferring to London's power when he chose it?  Either way, wish I had this album on a vinyl, could curl up in my giant red chair in the study with a warm beverage and disappear in his voice. This unusual but awesome cover als...

I can't help myself, and this one also has a delightful untold story. http://lovedottie.blogspot.com/   When I was in 4th Grade, I befriended a lovely girl. Somehow we always ended sitting next to each other at lunch (oh how I miss Hawaiian Haystack Thursdays at Canyon Crest) and I would admire her great sweaters and her glow in the dark retainer, and, well, I'm not sure what she admired about me!  But we were excellent friends. Back in the day when you could hang out with a person at school during lunch and recess, and the rare afterschool playdate, and from that consider them your BFF. We would make mockeries of the boys climbing to the top of the swing set, and do a great deal of sledding down the hill in the winter time.  Nickie and I both moved away from Canyon Crest our 5th grade year, me to sanpete and her to another state, and what ensued was the most delightful penpal friendship that you could imagine. She would send me the loveliest letters with color...

A. Start studying ferociously for the GRE, take it in December, reconnect to long lost professors and employers to get letters of recommendation, and apply for a graduate program at the University of Utah for next fall, hoping to pursue a master's degree in Environmental Humanities with a focus on the the culture of the dying Equine Industry. B. Do that same thing, but apply somewhere random and delectible for a newlywed excursion into the great Wild America. C. Pursue every spare waking hour for the next year of my life to getting enough volunteer hours to get my introductory certification for Equine Hippotherapy, with the ambition of one day being certified as a master Hippotherapist and starting my own therapeutic riding farm wherever I damn well please. D. Take a whole lot of continuing education, online, and night courses to get up to speed on web design, social networking, photography and writing with the ambition of one day having an o holy top notch horse blog that wi...

One Day Like This by Elbow was the anthem of my President's Day trip to Williamsburg, Virginia in the winter of 2009.  I am a sucker for violins, gruff vocals, and symphonic finales, so this song could have been written for me and me alone.  Other people like it too, I hear. Williamsburg at Sunset: Jamestown Island: first permanent American settlement by Europeans Confederate Cemetery outside Virginia Beach 

I am thrilled to finally be putting into action a blog segment that I have been working on in my head for a couple of months now. I hope that you find it as enjoyable as it seems in my brain. And frankly, with Husband starting his ridiculous marathon of Christmas music, I feel like I owe it to our audience to counteract his demented holiday torture with some wicked good sounds. So I bring you: In the days leading up to a trip, whether it’s a month long trek to eastern Europe or a weekend jaunt to Kanab, I always calculate my 16 gb of ipod space, and either peruse all my acquired music for something I haven’t given a full listen, or I search itunes for new music. Sometimes it’s an album I’m after, sometimes a single song. But that song will get a lot of playtime and become iconic to a place and time, and that way whenever I hear it, I can instantly close my eyes and be back in that place again. To those of you who like to travel or adventure, I highly recommend the pleasure of t...

From this angle you can't see the 10 story 1970's cement monstrosity to the south.  Of course you also can't see my mod white leather chairs in the backseat of my car that I got from the University's surplus and salvage center for $10.  So we'll call it a wash.

It’s snowing outside my office right now, as you can see from the picture I took from the Vice President’s office. It’s somehow fitting that a new season be ushered in this day, and the autumnal events be considered a collective past from which to progress. I don’t consider myself a typical sports fan, but in the grand scheme of the idea, I love “sport.” I LOVE the Olympics, I love international events that bring us all together and test our wills and our dreams and our physical ability to push. One of my dearest friends ran the New York Marathon this weekend, and that is one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever had to miss. Good on her. My other die hard sports did not fare so well in the grand statistical sense. My Utes of course came up short on their legacy to have another undefeated season and didn’t just lose but were mercilessly trampled by TCU. I could tell in the first 5 minutes that we were going to be outplayed, and of course it wasn’t even a clos...

Some Horse Updates for you from Around the Globe: 1. My Horse Job: I had a wonderful fall season working with Gwen, the mare that I was hired to pitch in on. We did a little riding, a ton of groundwork, and had to go back to basics working with hooves when she tried to kick her owner during a hoof trim. She almost nailed me pretty good last week too, but with some work and some nontraditional approaches, her feet are looking better and I think she’s had some much needed attitude adjustment. She’s got the winter off now, so except for a ground lesson here or there, and a foot trim or two, I’m all done with her until spring. Such a fun adventure! 2. New Horse Gig: I volunteered at Camp K’s Equestrian Center on Monday night, and was really impressed with the operation they have there. For the lay horsefellow, Camp K is one of many growing institutions across the globe employing horses as a means of rehabilitation and advancement for children with both mental and physical disabiliti...

I know you don't like animals, but since these ones weigh more than you do, and could do to your head what they do to these pumpkins, I think they've earned a moment of your time.  And yes, this is my retort to your sissy man guns.

To my Grandchildren, Your great great grandmother Sylvia worked for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry Truman during and after World War II in the department of Commerce in Washington DC.  She was there when President Roosevelt died.  She was there when Truman made one of the hardest decisions any one man ever made on behalf of human kind, and implemented nuclear warfare.  I am both sad and grateful that her Washington DC experience was not mine. Your grandmother Lorraine worked for President Bush and Speaker Pelosi, and most important, the late great Tom Lantos, Democratic House Majority Leader of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Holocaust Survivor, Animal Rights and Human Rights Advocate.  I was working every day with all my heart until the day he died, halfway through my tenure, of cancer.  I was present when every great American and World Leader and human rights advocate came and honored him in the Capitol Building, ...

As any Dan and Lorraine Wedding Attendee would know (yes, that's a proper noun.  Other collective people worthy of being proper nouns: the 2008 Inaugural Purple Tunnel of Doom Ticket Holders , 1968 Race Riots Survivor, and People Who Have Seen Lorraine's Thriller Move) a vast collection of antique books was one of the things we used to decorate our pioneer wedding.  While these books might have seemed like an expense, or possibly a violation of library borrowing terms, they were actually acquired at the University of Utah Marriot Library Book Sale. Over the course of two-1 hour lunch breaks, I managed to acquire 11 bags of antique hardover books for just over $16, and several black and blue bruises on my arms for being too proud to make more than 2 trips, and refusing to accept help. I still consider that a steal. The question is, with this year's sale going on (November 1-5 9am-5pm at the Library) how wrong would it be to do that again WITHOUT the ex...

I feel silly being this excited about it, but I am positively stoked that our photographer Morgan Trinker submitted her photography of our wedding to a national blog, and we were featured!  It's a wedding blog all about the music that people chose for their wedding, and that was one of the most important and most fun elements of planning for Dan and I (even if he DID make me include "careless whisper" by wham! in the reception playlist!) So without further ado: Hi-Fi Weddings: Dan and Lorraine ummm, and yes, we're as confused as you are about what a "dou-ship" is.