Fosbury Flop

It's great when you can use some of the important skills you learned in elementary school P.E. classes. This weekend we just got a new mattress and they come a lot taller these days. We are about a foot higher than we were before. I feel like I'm almost high enough to be on a bunk bed. (we're a little over 3 feet off the ground - but it still feels TALL) So my two best options for betting into bed are either: the small table/now stool at the end of our bed, or the Fosbury Flop works great too.

Winter & Rings

You know how your fingers are slightly thinner in the winter than in the summer. It seems that this winter I have been especially cold because my wedding ring can slide off my finger with ease these days. I've been gradually more and more nervous about it, because it's obviously something I would be really upset about losing. The solution: floss. I tied floss around my ring and then tied the floss snuggly around my finger. I've been wearing it like that for more than a day and it works great. I doubt anyone has even noticed the floss, and now I don't have to worry about losing it.

How to Eat Red Robin

Last night for dinner Brandon and I went to dinner at Red Robin, because we love it. The best part is their fries. Yum. Endless steak fries with delicious fry sauce. They also have really really good strawberry lemonade. However, we have discovered the secret to successfully eating at Red Robin is to get either lemonade or burger, but not both. The fries are a give in- you have to eat the fries. And maybe most people don't have the same problem we do, but the lemonade is so good you just keep drinking however many they bring you and combine that with fries and a burger, even if I bring half my meal home I will still be sick I'm so full. So last night we had water with our burgers and fries. Maybe next time I'll get the lemonade and fries. That's a good dinner, right?

Baby Shower

I went to a really nice baby shower for my friend Melinda this morning. It was fun to visit with friends and see lots of cute baby stuff. I felt really bad though because we were laughing at the pink princess blanket that someone gave her. Almost everything else there was blue, because, well, she's having a boy. We tried to be polite and reserved in our little chatting corner, but I really hope whoever gave her that didn't hear us. I'm such a jerk.

Lecture

Last night I went to a lecture by Sir J. Fraser Stoddart called "Mingling Art & Science". I just read about it on BYU's calender and thought it sounded interesting. Since I don't have classes to go to, it's nice to still learn things sometimes. Since art is my career and science is so fascinating I thought this would be great. And I'll say it was interesting, I didn't get bored at all, but I didn't realize this was being presented by a chemist and everything I know about chemistry I learned 12 years ago.
The professor talked about Borromeans interlocking circles and Solomon's rings. It was interesting art history, but then when he explained how he created these artistic symbols using molecules and things on a microscopic level through bonding - I was lost. And I didn't really get the point of it either. At the end when there was questions I wanted to ask why this was an important accomplishment he had worked on for so many years, but since I know nothing about chemistry I figured it was a dumb question. Later he mentioned how some critiques don't see the point to his work since it doesn't have any useful application and that's why he recently switched universities. I was glad I wasn't the only one who wondered about that.

Unlock

I love that the car we bought last summer has a remote to unlock it, it's so convenient. I subconsciously must think it unlocks everything though because I always push it when I am headed to our other car and sometimes even to unlock our apartment. That would be so great if it worked. But it doesn't.

Butter

We regularly keep 3 kinds of butter in our fridge. The sticks for easy measuring when cooking, the spray for convenient buttering of toast, muffins, etc. and then the tub stuff because ... ? ... sometimes we run out of one of the other two. I love the butter spray because you can put as little or as much on as you want. Maybe I'm just not that great at working a butter knife but sometimes to get butter spread on the whole piece of toast, it sometimes seems to be more than the ideal amount. So that's my recommendation for today. Butter spray. yeah, it might cost a little more, but if you eat less butter it will help your heart. One draw back I do have to mention is when you spray your toast, be prepared that it will be spraying whatever is behind it as well- depending on how good your aim is.

the weekend stamp

On Friday we went to see a friend's band play, it was fun, great band. And the hand stamp they gave us was almost bigger than my hand. I remember being single and more frequently doing things on the weekend that required a hand stamp. Although they were ugly and probably contribute to the ink poisoning I'm already going to get, but it also made me feel like I had a productive weekend. I went out and did something fun, that's why I had a big faded blot on my hand.

Coveted Talent

Do you know what talent I've always wanted to have? I wish I could go running really fast down some grass and then just do a series of hand springs and end with a couple of flips. It just looks like so much fun. And it seems like a good way to release some energy when you're really excited about something.

Leftovers

Brandon and I decided to celebrate that I finished my book and go out to dinner and then see a movie. It was on Halloween so we missed all 10 of the trick or treaters that would have come by our house. We have a huge bag of candy sitting in a bowl, so to anyone who has kids that want a second run around with their Halloween costumes, feel free to come by our place.

Alleluia!

October is over. I illustrated a book in a month. It was insane. But it was worth it. If you are curious what it takes to complete a full color children's book in one month here are some things that make it possible:
don't bother cleaning for the month- consider the clutter a developing art project, eat at Zupas as many times a week as possible, only expect to see all of your friends an accumulative time of twice, you'll have time to go to the gym exactly zero times or less, frozen pizzas and Little Ceasars will save you time from making dinner, other frozen meals work as well, don't bother showering or changing your clothes, it's not like you see anyone (okay, I didn't really do that, but you could), watch at least 3 seasons of a TV show while you work, whether it's interesting or not, listen to at least 4 audio books, let your spouse buy you flowers and awesome slippers for working so hard, and even though it seems like the month will last forever... it will eventually come to an end. Alleluia!