Two weeks ago I bought the first book in the Twilight series at Costco that I had heard a little bit about on the news or something. All I really knew about the series was that it was written by a BYU grad, it was a vampire story, and the vampires had morals. Being the vampire lover that I am, I had to give it a read. I started the first book, Twilight, after church two Sundays ago and was so taken by the story that I had it finished by Tuesday morning (all 500 pages). And since the book had the first chapter of the second book in it as a teaser, I was desperate to get the second book. I held off on buying the second book, New Moon, until that Thursday (and went ahead and bought the third book while I was at it) and had it completed by Friday night (another 550 pages or so) and immediately started in on the third book, Eclipse. I was finished with the third book (about 650 pages) the following Sunday after I had started the first book.
Yep, I read all three books in almost exactly one week. I had a hard time keeping myself away from them. I didn't completely shun my duties. I still took care of my kids and cooked (although house cleaning did suffer), but I longed for the times I could read- like naptime and when Nate got home from work and once the kids were in bed. I stayed up late reading almost every night. I dreamt about Twilight. I was obsessed. And now I have to wait a whole year for the next book! In that way I am glad that I did not stumble across the series when only the first book was out. The torture of waiting would have just been horrible at times.
So if you like vampire stories I suggest you give this one a try.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
POTGSL & TLAPD
On International Talk Like A Pirate Day I went to see a screening of Pirates of the Great Salt Lake. The screenplay was actually written by two guys who grew up in the same ward as I did and I had been waiting awhile for a chance to see the movie. They encouraged people to dress up like a pirate for the occasion and I was happy to oblige. But since I didn't really think about dressing up until the day of the screening, I had to scrounge around my house for my costume. I think I did a really good job. Here I am:
I was disappointed to arrive and find that so few other people decided to also dress up. They movie was very enjoyable and I hope they get a distribution deal soon.
I was disappointed to arrive and find that so few other people decided to also dress up. They movie was very enjoyable and I hope they get a distribution deal soon.
SPAMALOT!!
Spamalot came to Salt Lake City and Nate was very excited to see it. Although we knew exactly when it was, we waited for whatever reason and didn't get our tickets until about 2 weeks before the show. Our seats were the absolute last seats available in our sections. Seriously- last row of the balcony, last two seats on the far right. Visability was mostly a problem for me due to tall guys sitting in the couple rows in front of me, but our neighbor realized that since we were the back row we could get away with sitting on our seats folding up and that was much better. I really enjoyed the show and was reminded once again why I love theatre so much, whereas Nate ended up absolutely hating it. Here's what he has to say about the experience: "At first it was mildly uninteresting and then it degenerated into completely intolerable." He really thought that a Monty Python musical would be different, but it was not the case. They just made fun of the typical musical by singing about typical musicals in the same style. So much for my hopes that he would change his mind about musicals and take me to see more. I guess I'll just have to find someone else to go with me next year when Wicked comes to Salt Lake. We are going to Cedar City for our anniversary to see The Tempest and The Mousetrap, so hopefully he'll enjoy those and take me to see more plays (of the non-musical variety).
The Summer Party
The company Nate works for decided to do things a little different for the Summer Party this year from years past. In the past the Summer Party consisted of spending the day in Park City doing whatever you wanted and getting $50 for it and then meeting up at The Grubb Steak for dinner (paid for by the company). They decided too many people weren't really spending the day in Park City and were just taking advantage of the day "off" so this year the party was much more structured and everyone had to show their face at various points throughout the day, which made it known to the partners who was actually participating. If you didn't spend the day in Park City doing the specified activities, the employee was required to actually go to the office and work like it was just another normal work day, or take vacation.
The Summer Party was planned so that all the activities would take place during the normal work hours (8am-5pm). To start the day everyone was to meet at the condominium (co-owned by one of the partners) at 8am. Once there, we had a choice of walking, running, or biking a mapped out course that would take approximately 45 minutes to complete. After completing your chosen course a light breakfast would be served at the condo. At 10:30am there were two more options to choose from for the next activity: Golfing or Park City Mountain Resort. If you chose golfing then you had to be experienced to play 18 holes, otherwise you would participate in a group gold lesson. The Park City Mountain Resort group would receive an unlimited all-day pass to ride the rides and enjoy the other activities that the Resort offered. At 3:30pm everyone was to meet back at the condo for a partially catered dinner.
When we first received the flyer detailing this year's Summer Party, we were a little disappointed. We were looking forward to a day at the outlets and I especially was looking forward to the creme brulee at the restaurant that we had gone to in the past, but after this year's new-fangled Summer Party was over, we were happy for the change. Here's how the party went:
We left our house for Park City around 6:30am so that we would arrive at the condo on time. Traffic was great and it was looking like we would actually arrive on the early side, until...Whoa! There was an accident on the 80 that entirely shut down our side of the freeway. Shortly after we got to the stopped traffic, an ambulance, firetruck, and several police cars drove by us down the shoulder. We were parked for about 15 minutes while enough of the accident was cleared so that traffic could merge into the left lane to get around the accident. A second accident happened right in front of us which made it a little more difficult for the emergency vehicles to get around to the main accident which involved 2 trucks. It took us about another 10 minutes once traffic started inching forward to see what happened. The Semi-truck was completely smashed-up in the front and even the windshield was cracked- he rear-ended a dump truck. Not something you see everyday.
We got to the condo about 25 minutes late, although due to the accident, we were actually among the first to arrive. We ended up being pretty close to the accident so it didn't take us the hour it took some people to get past the crash. We started in quickly on the walk and considered taking a shortcut to finish up on time but Nate was afraid that one of the Partner's wives would be sitting at the last turn just to make sure people were doing the whole course (he really wouldn't put it past his boss to do something like that). Of course, we found out no one was watching us as we came around the last bend and walked the final stretch back to the condo. When we got back, the condo was packed full of the employees and their guests. And all the food was gone. Yep, all the people that were stuck in the accident longer than us decided to skip the walk (run, bike) and just dive into breakfast. Luckily, someone took pity on the dozen or so people that actually participated in the first activity and ran to the store to get some more juice and some donuts.
The next activity that we chose was going to Park City Mountain Resort. I had never been there before and Nate had only been there once about 15 or so years ago. I had looked at their website the night before but wasn't sure how fun the rides would be. Especially the slides- Nate had told me horror stories of people going to fast and going up over the edge and gashing their arms or legs open. So I go on the Alpine Slide just a bit on the nervous side not sure if it's something that I'm going to get hurt on since I do tend to be on the accident-prone side. But it turned out fine and I was actually disappointed in myself for being too conservative with my speed. Yeah, umm, horror stories. No, just one story really. Nate's story of his experience when he was going to fast and cut open his arm and now has a scar. I'm not even sure how he managed to even do that. Here are some pictures of the Alpine Slide (click on them to see a larger image):
We ended up going on the slides 2 more times- racing each other down (technically against the rules, but...). Nate beat me due to a technicality the first time- I had to stop because the person in front of me was going way slow, although I would have clearly won if it wasn't for that. I had no problem beating him the second time.
We really enjoyed the Alpine Coaster. We didn't expect it to be that exciting when we first saw it, but once on, we realized it was a much better ride than it appeared at first sight. We went on the coaster 3 times, one of which we rode together and went really fast. Here are some pics:
Another favorite ride was the ZipRider. I hadn't been on a zipline in at least 15 years, but it was every bit as fun as I remembered and more because it was a much longer zipline. Here are some pictures from the top and of people going over us on our way up the coaster:
The other things we enjoyed were the trampoline (only I did that one) and the rock climbing wall. Nate got all the way to the top on the 2 highest skill levels and I made it about three-quarters of the way up on one of the lowest skill levels. If I hadn't done the trampoline first (which really wears out the arms) and hadn't taken a wrong step to get me kind-of stuck, I probably would have made it all the way up, but my fingers just weren't having it and gave it. Here's some more pics:
After our time at Park City Mountain Resort, we headed back to the condo for dinner. There we enjoyed some good food and non-work related conversation (and some work related conversation that lead to a guy quitting the following week). All in all it was a fun day and we hope the Summer party is done the same way next year.
The Summer Party was planned so that all the activities would take place during the normal work hours (8am-5pm). To start the day everyone was to meet at the condominium (co-owned by one of the partners) at 8am. Once there, we had a choice of walking, running, or biking a mapped out course that would take approximately 45 minutes to complete. After completing your chosen course a light breakfast would be served at the condo. At 10:30am there were two more options to choose from for the next activity: Golfing or Park City Mountain Resort. If you chose golfing then you had to be experienced to play 18 holes, otherwise you would participate in a group gold lesson. The Park City Mountain Resort group would receive an unlimited all-day pass to ride the rides and enjoy the other activities that the Resort offered. At 3:30pm everyone was to meet back at the condo for a partially catered dinner.
When we first received the flyer detailing this year's Summer Party, we were a little disappointed. We were looking forward to a day at the outlets and I especially was looking forward to the creme brulee at the restaurant that we had gone to in the past, but after this year's new-fangled Summer Party was over, we were happy for the change. Here's how the party went:
We left our house for Park City around 6:30am so that we would arrive at the condo on time. Traffic was great and it was looking like we would actually arrive on the early side, until...Whoa! There was an accident on the 80 that entirely shut down our side of the freeway. Shortly after we got to the stopped traffic, an ambulance, firetruck, and several police cars drove by us down the shoulder. We were parked for about 15 minutes while enough of the accident was cleared so that traffic could merge into the left lane to get around the accident. A second accident happened right in front of us which made it a little more difficult for the emergency vehicles to get around to the main accident which involved 2 trucks. It took us about another 10 minutes once traffic started inching forward to see what happened. The Semi-truck was completely smashed-up in the front and even the windshield was cracked- he rear-ended a dump truck. Not something you see everyday.
We got to the condo about 25 minutes late, although due to the accident, we were actually among the first to arrive. We ended up being pretty close to the accident so it didn't take us the hour it took some people to get past the crash. We started in quickly on the walk and considered taking a shortcut to finish up on time but Nate was afraid that one of the Partner's wives would be sitting at the last turn just to make sure people were doing the whole course (he really wouldn't put it past his boss to do something like that). Of course, we found out no one was watching us as we came around the last bend and walked the final stretch back to the condo. When we got back, the condo was packed full of the employees and their guests. And all the food was gone. Yep, all the people that were stuck in the accident longer than us decided to skip the walk (run, bike) and just dive into breakfast. Luckily, someone took pity on the dozen or so people that actually participated in the first activity and ran to the store to get some more juice and some donuts.
The next activity that we chose was going to Park City Mountain Resort. I had never been there before and Nate had only been there once about 15 or so years ago. I had looked at their website the night before but wasn't sure how fun the rides would be. Especially the slides- Nate had told me horror stories of people going to fast and going up over the edge and gashing their arms or legs open. So I go on the Alpine Slide just a bit on the nervous side not sure if it's something that I'm going to get hurt on since I do tend to be on the accident-prone side. But it turned out fine and I was actually disappointed in myself for being too conservative with my speed. Yeah, umm, horror stories. No, just one story really. Nate's story of his experience when he was going to fast and cut open his arm and now has a scar. I'm not even sure how he managed to even do that. Here are some pictures of the Alpine Slide (click on them to see a larger image):
We ended up going on the slides 2 more times- racing each other down (technically against the rules, but...). Nate beat me due to a technicality the first time- I had to stop because the person in front of me was going way slow, although I would have clearly won if it wasn't for that. I had no problem beating him the second time.
We really enjoyed the Alpine Coaster. We didn't expect it to be that exciting when we first saw it, but once on, we realized it was a much better ride than it appeared at first sight. We went on the coaster 3 times, one of which we rode together and went really fast. Here are some pics:
Another favorite ride was the ZipRider. I hadn't been on a zipline in at least 15 years, but it was every bit as fun as I remembered and more because it was a much longer zipline. Here are some pictures from the top and of people going over us on our way up the coaster:
The other things we enjoyed were the trampoline (only I did that one) and the rock climbing wall. Nate got all the way to the top on the 2 highest skill levels and I made it about three-quarters of the way up on one of the lowest skill levels. If I hadn't done the trampoline first (which really wears out the arms) and hadn't taken a wrong step to get me kind-of stuck, I probably would have made it all the way up, but my fingers just weren't having it and gave it. Here's some more pics:
After our time at Park City Mountain Resort, we headed back to the condo for dinner. There we enjoyed some good food and non-work related conversation (and some work related conversation that lead to a guy quitting the following week). All in all it was a fun day and we hope the Summer party is done the same way next year.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
It's the dreaded 3-0
I. am. 30. Yep, it's true. I never thought I would have such a hard time turning 30, but it sort-of sucks - especially since Nate was out of town for my birthday (for the second year in a row), due to work training. Luckily, I have two wonderful neighbors (Samantha and Sherrie) who took me out for dessert so I felt a little more special (and my parents also took me to IHOP for breakfast). Here's me on my birthday:
As my sister put it, I'm now 29 from now on (or for as long as I can get away with it!).
As my sister put it, I'm now 29 from now on (or for as long as I can get away with it!).
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