Office Party

I had a work party yesterday at Dave & Busters--think nickelcade on steroids. The event had food everywhere and nearly unlimited games in the arcade. Our favorite games were shooting hoops, horse races, and nascar. The crowd was too thick to get a really good game of skeeball (my fav!) in. Next time...

The best moment of the day was when Steve signed up to play an electronic jumproping game. He swiped his card and jumproped for probably 3-4 minutes straight, drawing attention from many passersby. Some people even stopped to watch his athlectronic feat of glory. I hated to break it to him, but I'm pretty sure his game had ended after the first jump and he had merely been jumping...for joy?

Resistance

So the air system on the interior of my car stopped working. This is bad news for a Houstonian. Google told me what the problem was--the resistor--so I ordered the part and attempted the deceptively simple job. I took out the glove box and started dismantling the passenger side of the car. The picture below is only the beginning. 1.5 hours, 2 buckets of sweat, and infinite grumbling later...the thing was fixed. Naturally, it couldn't be a simple job since I had to fiddle with the actual blower after I made my initial repair. I looked pretty ragged in the end, but my greatest achievement was 0...broken nails! ha ha!

Tourists at Home

If you've ever lived in Houston for any period of time, you may have heard of "the Heights"--a neighborhood off downtown. In my mind it's akin to "the Avenues" of SLC: artsy, historically charming, and somewhat pricey. At the first of each month the Heights offers a free bus tour of the district. Steve and I spent our break in between the Saturday General Conference sessions taking the tour.

p.s. Have I ever mentioned my husband is smokin' hot?

The bus was full of talkative tourist women for most of the ride, but after they got off it was silent. I was expecting more of a Disney-style tour, including a tour guide complete with mini microphone to describe the scenery...but no. sniff. It's like my mom always says, "You get what you pay for!"

Galveston Getaway

Steve planned a road trip for us this weekend with a surprise destination of...Galveston Island! To start things off Steve had made made us reservations at Gaido's (guy-doze), a city seafood favorite. Here's Steve drinking a fishy bottle of olive oil and cutting up:

After dinner we strolled along the beach to walk off our massive dinner before finding the beautiful historic hotel Steve booked for us in the middle of town.

Today we strolled around the city, watched the ships in the bay, went to a film (with a crazy soundtrack) covering the historic hurricane of 1900, checked out the shops, and visited the beach. We were both surprised to see how much the city is still in recovery mode after Hurricane Ike a year ago. As you can see, the Ike water line was pretty high, which explains why none of the parking meters work anymore. Too bad.

We had such a fun time on our weekend adventure, thanks to my thoughtful husband!

Good Example

I thought I'd be the first to sign my nephew's cast--with chalk--before he got it off. Notice the pink "K". The little guy caught on to this fun activity and spent the next several minutes thoroughly decorating his arm in a rainbow of colors.

How to Dress a Baby

As is tradition, whenever a baby nephew is blessed in our family my sister and I dress the child in his white suit. We're really experienced now that we've got two nephews. I'm still working on my technique, but here's what I've got so far.

First, find a willing subject, preferably one that can neither speak nor has mobility:

Next, use lots of laughter, and use phrases like "pull harder", "I'm going to rip his arm off" and "how do you do this?!"

Fortunately little Eric didn't cry during our prolonged antics, though he pulled some pretty funny faces of discomfort. What a cute baby!

p.s. My talented seamstress mom made his whole outfit. The little dress shirt was my favorite--so cute. His mom made him the mini tie.

Tips on Crochet

I recently just took a crochet refresher course from my mom. My sister enrolled in the class as well, and here are the tips we gained from our session:

a. use some concentration, especially if wearing long sparkly fingernails
b. it's normal to get mad
c. anger usually fosters mistakes
d. try not to fall asleep
e. once you get the hang of it, it's fun!
f. pay attention to the teacher
g. laugh when your mom does a wild demo of your technique
h-k. act completely normal if anyone is capturing it on film
l. keep your mouth open long enough near a crochet hook and you get free dental work

Go Cougars

Steve and I attended the BYU vs. Colorado game a couple weekends ago with his brother and wife. It was my 4th--yes, 4th ever--BYU football game. I'm a huge fan of BYU (love it), but not so much a fan of football. It seems simple: dudes piling on top of each other for four hours, yet I get lost quite easily. The amount of focusing it takes for me to even locate the ball on the field is way more work than 'recreation' should require. This is why I watch approximately 1 game per year. This year's game was exciting since I got to be there in person! and in great company.

Proof

This is for all the people (like the former Ms. Larsen) who thought I was exaggerating about my recent falling out with baking. I made these. Notice they're so thin you can see through them. They were a big hit, as you can see by the excitement written on this consumer's face.