A Merry Little Christmas

Jake and I left for Utah on December 17, thereby avoiding the last day of high school madness before Christmas break. Upon coming back today, there was only one referral (but the other teacher said the sub was super lax and had trouble with a lot of the classes). After a terrifying cab ride--we nearly died several times--a long flight, and a long drive from Vegas in the wee hours of the morning, it was an especial joy to wake up after 9 am in my parents' basement and realize I wasn't in 3rd period, which was, incidentally, the period during which the student was written up.

We had a blast spending time with family and a few friends during the ensuing two weeks. We met Celeste's new squeeze, played some intense games of Settlers, Puerto Rico, and Blokus 3D, attempted to learn Pinochle (Jake did far better than I), participated in the annual Miller Mary & Joseph dinner, elegantly portrayed a donkey and an angel in the Miller nativity pageant (coming soon to YouTube), watched the Angela Lansbury version of Sweeney Todd (Jake will never let a straight razor anywhere near him now), ate great food, played with the nieces and nephews, saw Invictus and Sherlock Holmes, received far too many wonderful gifts, and generally enjoyed our time in Utah.

My brother is now engaged to the fabulous Aly. Jake and I met her last year and instantly loved her. When they broke up for two days in August, the entire family was in mourning. Luckily, they realized how miserable they were without each other and made it stick. The wedding date is still TBD, but I'm planning on being back in Utah for a few days in March. My mom, my aunt, Aly, and I went bridesmaid dress shopping the week after Christmas. I am happy to report that Aly has great taste in clothing. I am in love with my dress! Aly is an awesome addition to our family.

We received some wonderful gifts including, a rug for our living room, jeans for Jake, music, movies, gift cards, chocolate, books, a double boiler, a mortar & pestle, a vegetable steamer, sweaters, and even a toothbrush each. We have such wonderful families! We were spoiled rotten.

We arrived back in Chicago on New Year's Day. My favorite part of the flight was when we had to circle for a bit and ended up flying right over the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. I guess we can opt out of that particular bit of tourist fun now. The bus was on time so we didn't have to stand out in the cold too long, our car was where we left it, our home was warm and safe, and I had put clean sheets on the bed before we left. As much as I love and miss my family, there was something comforting knowing we had come back to our own strange little home.

Saturday night we watched "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt," which was apparently a remake. This new version with Michael Douglas received a whopping 4% on Rotten Tomatoes. There was a reason we hadn't heard of this movie before. Ugh.

We both went back to school this morning. Jake has all new classes and worked his schedule so that two of his classes are over in five weeks instead of ten, giving him more time for job hunting and interviewing later in the quarter. As for me, today has not been as bad as I anticipated (knock on wood). 3rd period was far more quiet than I have EVER seen them. I don't know what happened to them, and I don't want to know; I'll just count it as a huge blessing and be very grateful. Now if only my remaining three classes can be that awesome...

Bean Dip Weekend

Jake and I had a few friends over Friday night to watch Hot Rod. A number of them hadn't seen it yet, and we felt morally obligated to share the joy. We invited everyone to bring a little something to eat. I bought chips (from Aldi) and salsa and had some queso con salsa left over. The first couple arrived with chips (from Aldi) and multi-layered bean dip. No sweat, we thought. We'll just hide our chips and break them out if we run out. The next couple came in with chips (from Aldi) and more bean dip. We laughed and thought Ha, what are the odds? Very good, apparently, because the last couple walked in the door with chips (from Aldi) and...wait for it...bean dip.

Seriously though, what are the odds that in any group of Mormons, NO ONE brings a dessert?

If English were a foreign language

I'm not sure why, but I found this video so interesting. It's called What English Sounds Like to a Foreigner (via MR and Barker). If you'd ever wondered about that (I know I have), hit play.

Call Me a Nerd

But... econtalk with Megan McArdle this week was really good. :) It's on personal debt (and the end bit on national debt). If your ears have nothing to do for an hour, and you are interested in the topic, it's worth a listen. Ms. Mcardle's blog is quite enlightening, and who wouldn't want to take a listen to the "world's tallest female economist?"

Soccer Partner

I just saw this on Meagan's blog and had to post it. So cute.

Sporting event? Us?

Yep. We totally went to a Chicago Blackhawks game last night. Jake's friend Carson had two extra tickets to a suite occupied by his future in-laws. Got that? Anyway, we ate really great food, met some pretty cool people, and watched a very intense overtime. Here are the highlights, courtesy of ESPN and YouTube. I realized I have never been to a professional sporting event until now. I was the girl who spent her time at plays and dance concerts, I guess. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and even found a GREAT parking spot when we got home at 11 pm. Thanks Heidi's family for the great evening!

Little Manhattan

Ashley and I watched another movie.... It was pretty good. If you're wondering what movie you should watch, and have no better choices, why not pick the one about the 10 year old that falls in love with the girl in his karate class? Painful at times, but it's still pretty funny. Here were the two best lines:

"I'm not sure how I got the courage. Maybe it was the buzz from the Shirley Temple."

and

"Let's drown our sorrows in pig shoulders and nitrates."

Defining rock bottom

Now that finals are wrapping up, I've started reading a lot more books and watching Redbox movies.

I watched a movie last night called The Echelon Conspiracy. Rottentomates gives it a zero. That's right. A zero. (These are the moments we throw a cheer up for $1 Redbox.) It successfully rips off so many movies, sometimes at the same time. Cross-breed The Terminator, Eagle Eye, and WarGames, take out the budget and a lot of the acting, add a sprinkle of Gigli, and hit frappé.

Was it absolutely terrible? No. Doogal and Catch and Release hold that special place in my heart. Echelon just struggled with "the redeeming factor." Was there anything redeeming... good cinematography...?

Monday, Monday

So good to me? Clearly whoever wrote this song wasn't a glorified babysitter for teenagers during the first real snowfall of the school year. This day cannot be over soon enough.

Sharing what I found when bored...

The site was all right, but I thought this was the funniest.