Festive Foods and Bread Blunders

Happy Christmas. It's snowy today in the city of Salt Lake and it's bringing out the festive in me. Coincidentally it's also bringing out the photography in me. Something about how all holidays must be documented for the world, I think... Anyway, this past Sunday I decided the holiday/festive/awesome thing to do would be to invite the family over for Sunday Dinner at my house. (also, it's a good opportunity to show off the CUTENESS of our adorable Christmas House.)




This is our adorable mantle. Please note my Christmas Frogs. Christmas Frogs are my favorite. I don't know what about frogs = Christmas to me... but they do.






This is our Christmas house. Cute, Cute and CUTE. (there are no other options, so you must accept "Cute" to be your answer.)

SO for dinner I made Lasagna. It didn't turn out horribly. Alright, it was a little bit slanty because I didn't make sure to keep the whole thing level. But I think for a first-try it was all the way up to AWESOME. (I took no pictures of it... tragically). However, what I did take pictures of was my horrible bread-making fiasco. What is it about bread that self-destructs around me? In good news, this was the first yeast that has actually risen... so I was so excited about the bread turning out. It rose, I cut it into halves, molded it like french bread, cut slits in the top and put an egg-wash ontop so it would come out looking like THIS:



Yummy, right? Yeah, instead my bread looked like THIS:






See? Self-destructed bread. LAME. Luckily, it tasted pretty okay. Once again, I'm going to have to give it a second (or twelfth in the case of bread) go-round before I pass-judgement.

In other food news, why is it that ONE bite of this cheeseball at my office makes my breath bad enough to knock someone over? I know how to make cheeseballs. I know what is inside them... But what inside this cheeseball is THIS toxic? I mean, it was tasty... but ONE bite was enough to make me not talk to anyone for the rest of the work day.

And finally, on this post of food and festivities... this cookie looks pretty wholesome, right? I mean, you would agree with me that this looks healthy enough to be breakfast... right?

Type B Personality

You've heard the phrase "type A personality." Well what is a type B personality? Clearly not as well-known or as notable as type A.

I'm prone to think that everyone has a little type-A personality in them - lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. As opposed to people who have a LOT of type-A personality in them - right up front for all the world to see. Even the most laid-back and generally chill people that I know have at least one thing, one issue, one area where things must go their way. For some people it's the arrangement of movies, for others it's a clean bathroom. For some it's waxing your floors every day, or dusting before vacuuming (even if you just wanted to vacuum). Maybe it's making sure that you chew every-other bite with the other half of your mouth, and making sure each half of your mouth gets equal bites. (and these are all true)

My type-A personality area (I know, "There's only one?" Shut up.) is canceling plans. If we make plans to do something exciting and I'm looking forward to it... and then it doesn't happen, I don't know how to handle myself. And by "I'm looking forward to it" I mean "I look forward to things and get excited about them in advance far too easily (What? There is a possibility of something shiny in three weeks? I'm excited!)." What is it, logically that I can't get. Often times there's a super good reason to cancel plans... and logically I get that. But still... STILL, I freak out. (note: this is also why I dislike so many holidays... because you get excited and they let you down. And that's why I choose to like the lesser-known holidays like "talk like a pirate day.")

Anywho, I'd like to take this forum to publicly apologise for people who I may have irrationally freaked out at over the years for just this type-A reason. Because, let's all be honest... everyone goes a little crazy sometimes, and I'm trying hard to not abuse the privilege.

What do you freak out about for no good reason? Where is your Type-A personality?

D is for DECENT and T is for TAGGED! (DT is for my dad)

OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH! So I was doing my random e-stalking of friends blogs, when I started reading a blog by my very own first-openly-gay-friend (formerly known as "the crazy Catholic") Bryan. And he was doing a lame survey because some "tagged" him to do it. And by the end of this survey I thought "gosh, that's an awesome survey, I want to do it. I wonder if Bryan will mock me if I fill it out without him tagging me." And then it didn't even matter because he totally tagged me. AWESOME! Please watch for the survey at the end. HA HA HA! (said triumphantly) Also, i will not mock you if I didn't tag you to do it, but you can't hold-back your answers from entering the Blogosphere.

And now: the blog.

Yesterday I saw my due-at-work time today and thought to myself "I really don't want to be AT work at 6. But I will if I have to. Maybe, just to be sure, I'll call the client and make sure they'll ACTUALLY be there at 6 so I don't waste precious morning time." So I did, and they were, so here I was at 6 o'clock in the AM. And my client didn't show-up until SEVEN TWENTY. Do you know what I could have done in that hour an twenty minutes? Well, slept for one. Done and entire workout and showered for two. Made breakfast, cleaned my room, started my laundry, cleaned the bathroom and moved furniture around to make room for our pending Christmas Tree for THREE. The list goes on. But the point is: it's about decency people.


My friend Niall doesn't like the Christmas holidays because people go around being nice to each other. And this is bad because it's clearly fake or else you'd be nice to each other all the time. I think he's got a point. No, I don't hate Christmas now... but I think it is the decent thing to do to be nice to people not at Christmas, to do a good thing when nobody is watching and to return the extra dollar if the clearly counting-inept person at Wendy's gives it to you.

My new rule of thumb is to take everyone as I see them, and treat them as I'd like to be treated. Luckily for everyone, I have very high standards. now please note: this isn't always how I act... I swear under my breath at stupid people, I think that housekeeping is there to clean my mess up and I go around slow drivers, even if I have to cut them off because my exit is coming up. This is all NOT how I'd like to be treated... but the IDEAL would be to treat people like they all matter. I mean... I want people to think I matter... Don't you?

And now: awesome survey I was tagged to do!

Seven things I can do:
1. Run a 5K
2. Sing songs I learned in pre-school
3. The "Oops I Did It Again" dance (compliments of Bryan)
4. Make syrup
5. Pretend to be knowledgeable about almost anything
6. Get ready for the day in 5 minutes
7. use correct editing marks

Seven things I can't do:
1. Spell
2. roll my R-s
3. Snap with my right hand (me too Bry!)
4. cartwheels
5. eat beets
6. use fake flowers in a centerpiece
7. math in my head

Seven Things that attracted me to NOT my boyfriend because he wants his life to be private, but instead HUGH JACKMAN (my #1 for MANY years running)

1. His smile
2. He's almost too tall. Almost.
3. Two words: LONG JACKETS
4. His faithfulness
5. He always knows what will make me smile
6. His hot accent
7. His attention to detail

Things I say often:
1. "I know, right?"
2. "Awesome"
3. "I'm waiting to hear back from them"
4. "______ plus _______ equals _________" (i.e. "That sandwich plus Sarah equals LOVE")
5. "Seriously."
6. "I love us"
7. "Lemma go"

7 people I admire:
1. James Kelley
2. My mom
3. Elisha
4. Audrey Hepburn
5. Chris
6. Jackie Onasis Kennedy
7. Alexie Baugh

7 favorite foods:
1. Risotto Cakes from Citrus Grill
2. Carne Asada
3. Lasagna
4. Mac & Cheese and Chicken Nuggets
5. Orange Rolls
6. Eel sauce on my sushi
7. Oh's cereal

Four People I tag:
1. Kim Hansen
2. Elisha Jorgensen
3. Freddy Lee
4. Lindsay Adams

HOLY FRICK! There was not one spelling mistake when I spellchecked my blog!!! HOORAY FOR ME!