Song of the Day

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it,
New York, New York

These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
And make a brand new start of it
New York, New York

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town bluesAre melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New YorkIf I can make it there
I'll make it anywhereIt's up to you,
New York, New York.

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town bluesAre melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York

If I can make it thereI
'll make it anywhere
It's up to you,
New York, New York!

J-Simp

If Jessica Simpson had more photos looking like this, I wouldn't....

a) ..... think she looked like an alien

b) ..... think her mouth implodes her whole face

c) ..... mind her so much.

J-Simp. You may be dating John Mayer, and we're all well and happy for you, just keep looking like this and people won't get so sick of you.

Can't wait to see you, live in concert in New York, on the Today show Friday morning. Hope the larengitis doesn't cancel the whole thing.

Then we'd most definitely not be peeps.

Question of the Day

Does anyone know where I can find some high-stakes Bingo?

I'm sitting at my desk, counting the seconds til 5:00, and I decided that since Utah has no state lottery, the only way I'm going to strike it rich and get the heck out of Dodge (and the working world) will be in some high-stakes Bingo.

Suggestions appreciated.

Emmys 2006 - Opening Number (Part 2)

The real life Conan makes it to the stage and his very funny opening monologue... The best bit is the Music Man parody musical number at the end... oh man, I loved the Emmys.

Emmys 2006 - Opening Number (Part 1)

For those of you who love TV as much as I do.. this collection of spoofy clips of Conan trying to get to the Emmy's is pretty priceless...

Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure

I don't know if anyone else is watching the Emmy's right now, but you most certainly should be! Oh wow oh wow oh wow. Award shows are definitely one of my guilty pleasures that most people don't understand. But this is the Emmy's people! And Conan is hosting!!! It's just been this giggle fest the whole time--even when they introduced the accountants. It's about an hour and a half in (half-way) and I'm taking a quick commercial break and a few awards for Made for TV slots to update this. I'm so giddy between each commercial break! Hopefully I'll be able to find the intro video on YouTube to post tomorrow--it was a riot.

I understand this is terribly disjointed and not that exciting, but I'M EXCITED and in a hurry so I don't miss any more Conan funny...

Call Me a Liar

For the last month, my MySpace headline has read, "People who say they love running are lying." For the most part, I believe that. Well, in a moment of rash dream-fulfilling unpredictability, my 15-year-old sister Mallory and I have signed up to run a 6k on Thanksgiving Day. I haven't run a Turkey Trot since 4th grade!

The Cold Turkey 6k Run and Walk is Thursday, November 23rd at 10 am. Long story short, I've got eight weeks to whip my body into 3.74 miles worth of running shape. I know it's doable, I'm just a little intimidated. But, I've always really really wanted to run a 5k... and this will be perfect since Mal will be back in town for Thanksgiving.

The best/scariest part of the whole thing? The entire first half of the race is uphill. Like uphill uphill. But that only makes the down that much easier...

Say heLLO to guilt-free eating for the Nat and Mal this THanksgiving.

Rubix This

Wow. So... sometimes I realize I'm really not that talented.

D.DP

Diet Dr. Pepper is the new elixer of choice.



This is how many I could drink in any given day. Don't believe me? Issue a challenge. And supply the booze.

Hello Photoshop

To prepare myself for my upcoming "Fine Art Model Shoot" (long story, ask me about it... craigslist is a funny thing) I've been playing with Photoshop. Or the Microsoft 'picture fixer' that was included with my M.Office purchase. Indulge my vanity for a minute and forget it's me... it's just pretty amazing what you can do on computers!

Craigslist is the new Match.com

Craigslist has some freaking hilarious personal ads. I don't know if it's because the listings are free or what... but there is some hilarious crap on here. My favorites:


Ali, from Saudi Arabia, is studying English at the U. He enjoys pink-pank, the moon, and playing teens.

From now on, I too will refer to ping-pong as "pink-pank."




Brian, from SoCal but moving to Park City, is a previous snowboard instructor who wants to find someone as physically beautiful as emotionally beautiful. He also wants someone who is 420 friendly.

Brian should watch out for narcs patrolling craigslist.






Do you want to help this man find adventure?











Please ladies, don't stalk this man. He has nice teeth, shoes, and isn't interested in immature blondes. Also, beware because a lot of the attractive women he meets don't interest him on the inside.





Two words. Fantastic kisser.

Killer Look

Can we PUH-LEEZE get this creep-o photo off every website, channel, magazine cover, and newspaper?

But really, could this killer BE any creepier looking?

Holy Hipbones

Two celebrity-related posts in a row? Oh boy. What is this blog coming to?

Don't worry, I threw up a little in my mouth too. How can she even deny having an eating disorder?

Nicole tells US Magazine, “I am not anorexic."

WTF? She's a poster-child for malnourished kids in Africa. Does anyone think this is attractive?

The funny part is the guy jogging behind her--he's probably considered a thin/lean/rangy type. But behind old Bag-o-Bones, he looks positively meaty!

Get lost LiLo

I'm not embarrassed to admit that one of my guiltiest pleasures is reading about pop culture. I surf all kinds of blogs and sites regarding celebrities, tv, movies, and music. I don't think it's arrogant to say that I know pretty much everything going on in this vertical. Lame? Yes. Entertaining? Most definitely.

I definitely get sick of stories that repeat over and over and never change. So, I have little patience for stories about how dumb Paris is or how creepy Tom Cruise acts. Pam Anderson, J. Simp, and Eva don't interest me. (For the record, I love reading about Jessica Alba, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan, and Ben/Jen, etc... happy family, do-gooder types.)

So my big question of the day is this--is anyone else sick of Lindsey Lohan? I've never been a big fan of her work--the only movies I actually enjoyed were the Parent Trap (when she was 11), and Mean Girls. All my voyeuristic reading and photo viewing show her as a party-girl with hardly any redeeming qualities. Check out this pic of her and her mom hanging out, drinking Jack Daniels on an un-sheeted mattress. Hello trash. The blog I get most of my smutty gossip pictures from is PopSugar... check out the comings and goings of the wreck known as LiLo. And this is just eleven days worth of posts!

Argh, I'm ready for Miss Lohan to take a leap. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Camp-a-thon

I am very, very, very excited to sleep in my bed tonight. An actual padded, above the rocky-ground sleeping apparatus to lay my tired body. Why am I so excited to sleep in a bed? Because I went camping this weekend. Not so terrible if it's just one night on the moisture-deprived ground laden with immovable rocks and other obstacles, but because it was two nights. More on that to come.

We made plans to canoe to our campsite Friday night after work. Plans were made and all the food and sleeping gear was bagged--because I knew my canoe would be the one to tip and I'd end up sleeping in a cold, soggy sleeping bag. We drove to our site and discovered the water was too low to canoe so we ended up just camping in an open field. The weather was pretty chilly, but everyone was in good spirits and we had some very lovely vegetarian tinfoil dinners. We climbed into our sleeping bags about 10:30 but ended up chit-chatting with each other until about 1.

Costco sells amazing sleeping bags. Amazing. Though we were sleeping on the rocky ground, once I fell asleep I slept through the night until the sun came up. I was super warm (almost too much so) all night and had to peel off layers as soon as I woke up because I thought I was going to die.

We cleaned up camp and took off for the lake. Here are some of the sweet pics of us canoeing.

Krista and Garrett are the first to hit the water:

Canoe Buddies and team allies:

Parked and waiting for Krista to take the plunge:

Cody with and without water:

Now I don't know where my previously conceived notions of canoeing came from, but I was under the assumption that canoeing was pretty easy. Holy freaker, that's some hard work! We were out on the water nearly four hours and canoed back and forth and around. I was pretty worthless by the time we had to haul the canoes back up the bank and to the trailer.

Here's a video of us girls manning the canoes while the boys jumped off the cliff. (WARNING: this video isn't very exciting, but I only know how to post one YouTube video at a time.)

We finished up, went home, and I managed to take a quick shower. Somehow I allowed myself to be guilt-tripped into another night of camping with a group of friends I don't spend any time with. Here's the one photo I took:

Needless to say, I'm glad to be home with a real bed, different clothes, and a real toilet. For being a non-camper, I did good.

And the pull of bed is too strong right now, so this is it. Back to work tomorrow without any "real" weekend rest...

Luxembourg and Lava Lamps

Last night, Heather and I participated in a head-to-head Trivial Pursuit Lightening Round match against these three new boys we've kind of been hanging out with. The round began and they correctly answered the first five questions on their card. High stakes! They fumbled on the last wild card question, so it was our turn.

I can't remember exactly what our questions were (being the geek that I am, I actually looked for the card to post the questions but couldn't find it), but here are the correct answers we gave in consecutive order. (Feel free to play Jeopardy! style and make up the questions.)

1. Luxembourg
2. "Midnight Train to Georgia"
3. Benjamin Franklin
4. Lava Lamp
5.
6. Samurai Jack

Needless to say, we ended up losing, but still had a pretty impressive display of trivial knowledge. Personally, I was excited to play--all my roommates pretty much hate TP, so I haven't played even once this year. Bringing out the game was like finding an old friend... and a very welcome friend.

According to an article I just found on Slate, Trivial Pursuit is on the decline. I'm not shocked. Nevertheless, this quote puts it all into perspective:

"To win at Trivial Pursuit is to achieve something greater than mastering a board game. It is to achieve mastery of one's subculture: to have successfully determined which bits of information to retain and which to discard."

Slow Work Week

This week has been incredibly slow at work. I "worked" until 2 on Tuesday, then took off to Lagoon for our work off-site gathering, worked a half-day yesterday due to some nasty stomach action, and surfed some websites this afternoon (in between going through the necessary motions). Now, tomorrow is Friday and we're going canoeing/camping overnight! One more day of work in an already shortened week can't be that terrible... here's to it!

LB3

Tonight, while waiting for commentary on tonight's So You Think You Can Dance win, I read the Laguna Beach Season III commentary. Low and behold, it must have just posted... so I had to be the first person to comment. Just think. Out of all the people in the country who are avid Laguna fans, and/or are those who read commentaries on shows they don't even watch (like me), this is a big deal. Not everyone can be the first. In fact, very few people can be the first.

One thing on my life list to check off.

Check out my so eloquent comment here. (It will be the very last comment (as it was the first and everything later shoves it down).).

Sleepy Wednesday

Averting/Creating Danger 101

So Krista and I just got home from seeing "The Da Vinci Code" at the dollar movie. Contrary to popular opinion, Krissy and I actually enjoyed it. Would we see it again? Probably not, but it was fun sitting in the dark, trying to remember what we read three summers ago. I kept mixing up Angels and Demons and TDVC, but what're you gonna do. Props to Paul Bettany who was truly creepy.

On a side note: Props to Krista and I for saving a $1.50 by buying a third ticket and throwing it in the garbage. That's right. On Monday nights movies are $.50 if you have three people in your party; $1.50 if less than three. A Family Night type deal. So we pretended to have three people, paid $1.50 in tickets and then threw a ticket away.

Anyway, back to the real story. Kris and I found a pure giggle worthy moment when halfway through the movie (Professor) Robert (Langdon) and Sophie are trying to escape from the bank manager who has helped them escape into the woods and then tries to pilfer the password protector for himself. Langdon creates a diversion and knocks the said hijacking bank manager to the ground and he and Sophie race to get into the armored truck and speed away. As the truck drives into the distance, the hijacking bank manager fires many a round toward the tail lights of his very own said bank truck. A few bullets hit, but no damage is done, the truck drives away.

This is the conversation that occurred during this critical scene in the movie:

After the bank manager is knocked to the ground and the heroes are running toward the truck:

Nat: Duh. Escaping Your Assailants 101. Always grab the injured person's weapon.

When the bank manager is using his own gun (erroneously left behind) to shoot at the truck:

Kris: Duh. Trying to Stop Retreating Vehicles 101. Shoot out the tires.

There's no surprise that I enjoy seeing movies, watching TV, people observing, telling stories, or talking in general with Krissy.

Season II

Holla House Season II is off to a great start. Last night we went up to some friends' cabin (short for a three-story fully decked "log-cabin" better decorated and stocked than most people's homes) to hang out for the night. We played pool, Tetris, on the swingset, in the hot tub, on the basketball court, and chit-chatted til 4AM. Heather and I slept on a queen-sized bunk bed and had a good time dropping our phones off the top and listening to them crash to the bottom. Long live the beef steak nuggets and crate of Cookie Crisp.

Nat, Krista, Heather, Heidi, Nici

Guiltiest Pleasure Ever

Guess who just bought the soundtrack...?

Soul 2 Soul II

One week ago today I went to the sweetest concert in my concert-attending history. It was the Soul 2 Soul II Tour at the Delta Center -- for those of you not familiar with the country music scene (which, knowing my friends is most of you), this was the Faith Hill and Tim McGraw concert.

Faith and Tim really ARE the perfect celebrity couple. They're both fantastically attractive, and honestly seem to love each other. Actually, the two of them performing together might be the sexiest thing ever:




It was really hard to select just one video for this post (I haven't figured out how to post multiple YouTube videos yet). I had a good time surfing through potential videos and this is the one I decided upon because Faith and Tim are together. I didn't take this video, nor is it even from the Salt Lake show, but you get the point.

We sat in the upper bowl but still had a great view of the stage... the concert was well worth every penny paid. Faith and Tim both did an hour set and then six or seven songs together. They both had such high energy! I'd see them again in a heartbeat if I could...

The Look that Never Changes

The woman below took a photo of herself everyday for three years and clipped them all together. It's 1:05 of fascinating minimal transformation.

I guess this kind of sucks the fun out of a 5-year High School Reunion.

Yawning Bunnies

I unearthed an underground cultural phenomenon yesterday and it's taken me nearly 24-hours to get my head wrapped around the newest craze.

What is it?, you ask.

Yawning bunnies.

Don't believe me? For your personal viewing pleasure and enjoyment I will post some of the adorable rarities known as the yawning bunny.

Ding Dong

Growing up, Alaina and I shared a room. I can still remember our light brown bunk beds. You could trace the knots in the wood with your finger. I’m not sure if I always slept on the top bunk, but I’m sure I did for at least awhile. If my memory serves me right, we started “Ding Dong” close to twenty years ago.

Sometimes it took us awhile to fall asleep (this may have been due to the 7:30 bedtime we had. Yes. 7:30. Another blog for another day.). We must have gotten tired of asking, “Are you still awake?,” so we devised a little method of asking and telling how close to sleep you were. “Ding Dong” was born.

The person—wanting to know if the other sister were still awake—would make say “Ding dong” (just like a doorbell might sound).

The other sister—in reply—had two options. If she were still awake, and welcome to conversation, she would say, “Ding ding.” If she were close to sleep and didn’t want to be disturbed, she could say, “Dong,” in a really low voice. Conversation would cease after that.

It may seem like a really easy, simple thing that would eventually fade in time, but surprisingly, “Ding Dong” has spanned the years. Though we haven't lived together in quite some time, it isn’t alltogether uncommon for either of us to call “Ding Dong” during the night—even fifteen years later. We’re both college-educated and moving on with our lives—but Ding Dings and Dongs can still be heard every once in awhile.

Too Slow to Keep Up

Already Finished: The Man of My Dreams
By Curtis Sittenfeld
Release date: 16 May 2006
Pages: 288

"ittenfeld has a brisk narrative style and a rare ability to turn nearly alienating flaws into vulnerability." -The New Yorker

OH for Pete's Sake

I really want to write a book.

But then I remembered I have neither a topic nor the organization to create... some people have it, some people don't.

ARgh. Guess I'll go back to reading.

Nothing's Hotter than a New England Gangster

On to the next

Currently reading: Admission
By Travis Thrasher
Release date: 1 January, 2006
Pages: 304

"This is Thrasher's best novel to date, with a nifty, airtight plot; a love story; and a serious theme about how some of us reform, and some of us don't." - Booklist

This Week's Guilty Pleasure Read

Currently reading:
Beyond the Blonde
By Kathleen Flynn-Hui
Release date: 21 September, 2005
Pages: 288

"Snarky but not overly stinging, this read is as kicky and flirty as a head of highlights." - Publishers Weekly

New Best Feeling

Last night I discovered one of the newest, best feelings.

I went to the library branch near our house last night after work. As I wandered the aisles, my eyes on consta-scan, my gaze kept brushing books I've previously checked-out and read. I know and understand that I read an exorbitant amount, but I'd never had such a visual representation and validation of the books I've read.

Granted, the branch of our library isn't gynormously expansive, but it's still pretty good sized. I'm not going to lie, it was a really good feeling when I recognized why my eyes kept pausing on recognizable book jackets.

Let's mark for the record that being "into" music isn't the only hobby left on the block.