Makes Me Tear Up

So this made Time magazine's top 10 list of viral videos for 2008 and apparently it was all over the morning talk shows. But I'd never seen it until Erik shared it with me. I think it's sweet.

I guess I need to go look at the rest of the list to see what else I missed out on during the last year.

Cousins

Max? Why don't you like getting your picture taken with your cousins?

April 2008

November 2008

July 2008
See? It's not so bad.

May I Recommend

I love the show 30 Rock and I love Sesame Street. This just brings the two together.

Watch 30 Rock if you don't already. It's one of the best shows out there. And Sesame Street is always good. There's a very interesting documentary out there about expanding the show worldwide. It's called The World According to Sesame Street. You can get it from Netflix. But that's a whole different May I Recommend.

We Voted!!

So Max and I went and voted this morning. This is the third election where we've gone and voted together. I kind of like this tradition and would like to keep it going as long as possible. I want him to know that voting is important. Even when you live in Utah.

Sorry Grandma. Max touched the screen for this one.

08-08-08

Today is 08-08-08 and there are 88 days until the Presidential Election. Weird.

Sidenote to the elections: I'm spending way too much time listening to POTUS on XM radio. It's really interesting but I think my head may explode by November 4th.

And speaking of the elections: Are YOU registered to vote? Click here to register. My theory is you have no right to complain if you don't bother to vote.

On My Doorstep

I've thought of all sorts of inappropriate titles for this post. But they all make light of the danger that my not so far off neighbors are going through.

Needless to say there is a pretty big fire burning not that far from my house right now. A lot of terrible, terrible things would have to happen for us to be in danger, but it is still scary to watch. (Photo from ksl.com) Payson Canyon has been evacuated as well as quite a few homes in both Payson and Spring Lake.


View Larger Map
See the baseball fields in the upper left corner? Those are right across the street from my house. All the pretty green orchards to the south are gone now I would imagine. (I can confirm in the daylight tomorrow.) All the houses around those orchards have been evacuated along with those on the east side of Main St in south Payson/Spring Lake. Like I said earlier, it's not that far from my house, and while we're really not in any danger it's still scary.

Erik & I took turns going out to watch since the boy was in bed, but then I went across the street and watched the fire with my parents and Gabe. It is eerily beautiful, but so scary at the same time. The winds were really blowing while we were out and the flare ups that were happening were amazing to see.

I hope the people and homes are okay. Those in the canyon are in my ward boundries. I hope everything gets under control soon. Thanks to the folks out battling the fire. It takes a lot of bravery to do that job.

Goodbye Grandma

Nelma Evelyn Proctor Striegel

9/15/1913 - 6/20/2008

Thank you for everything you've done over the years. I'll love and miss you always.

Comparison

March 2007

May 2008

Walking

Max has a new trick:

Another one:

May I Recommend

I owe an update for our trip to Houston but I'm knee deep in month-end at work and Battlestar Galactica at home. Frak, how I love this show! We don't have the Sci Fi network on our cable so we don't get to see the new episodes. We've only ever watched this on DVD. Right now we're 3/4 the way through season 3, prepping for the premiere of season 4 on Friday. (Thanks Mom and Dad's satellite dish and dvr!)


I don't remember a lot about the original series, but this one has been seriously updated. Guess who this is?


If you haven't seen this and you are a fan of well acted, well written TV this is for you. You can go here for recaps of every episode. (I could do a whole other entry on recommending this website. Television Without Pity. It's great!)

Texas Style!!!

I think the layout of my blog is set for now. I'm relatively happy with it and I'm too busy to spend time on it right now.

We're in Texas visiting Erik's family this week. It's been tons of fun so far with lots of Grandma and Grandpa time for Max and lots of good food, shopping and visiting for the rest of us. Hopefully I'll get some sort of update up shortly after the trip.

Back to the real world on Monday.

Icky, icky, ick.

Feedback Please!

I'm looking for some feedback on this redesign. Does it look okay? Too busy? It's still a work in progress. Things may change at the drop of a pin. Or if I'm bored at work.

Please be nice. I'm new at this and I know I don't have the best eye for form and design.

Also, any suggestions for the header? I'm not too happy with it but I don't know what else to do.

Update #1: I tripled the width of the horizontal stripes. Better Zachy? Or still distracting?

Update #2: I'm trying it without the background. I'm not sure which I like better. One was too fussy, the other might be too plain.

A Bit Messy Around Here Right Now

I'm fiddling with the look and layout of my blog right now in an attempt to prettify and customify this to my tastes. Considering I know zilch about web design this is quite the adventure. But hey, I got the three column template to work so I'm off to a good start so far.

Sorry if it hurts your eyes at times. Just focus on this:

He won't hurt your eyes. Unless he gouges one during his endless struggle to grab your glasses.

May I Recommend

I'm showing my political leanings here, but I really like this video/song/speech.

It doesn't matter who you support or if you're on the Left or the Right or if you're Liberal or Conservative. You need to get out and vote. People fought in the past so we have the right to vote today.

Exercise that Right.

Army Crawl

I was trying to get some good video of Max doing his army crawl. He just wanted the camera.

He's so darn cute.

Blerg

Quarter end.

New boss.

Tired. So tired.

May I Recommend

Eagle vs Shark is a movie that I watched last night and absolutely loved.

Erik got it from Netflix. Usually the stuff from Netflix comes and goes without me paying much, if any, attention to it. Sometimes if Erik thinks I'd be interested in something he will ask if I want to watch it. Usually I say no, but I said that I would give this one a try. I didn't know anything about it other than that Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords was in it.

It's rated R, so sorry to those of you that don't watch that type of movie. But it was far less offensive than so many of those teen movies that are rated PG-13. No nudity, very little language. Just a sweet little movie with some local connections. It was at Sundance last year and it was developed in the Sundance Lab.

There is a great soundtrack to this movie too.

Now I'm in a conundrum. I want to own this movie. But I don't want to buy it right now because of the writer's strike. What's a girl to do? Now I'm Torn just like Zach. I guess I just wait until the strike is over. In the meantime, I think we need to get it from Netflix again and not send it back. Back to the 4-at-a-time plan for us?

Copycat

I'm totally stealing this from Jamie. I never claimed to have an original idea.

My word for the new year is SHRINK. It's the first word that popped into my head when I saw Jamie's word. And not because it's the complete opposite of her's.

I need to shrink myself.

I need to shrink our debt.

I need to shrink the quantity of stuff in our house.

I need to shrink the amount of time spent doing nothing.

There will be additions to the list as I think more about my word but these are the things I immediately thought of after reading Jamie's entry.

Max can follow Jamie's plan though and GROW!