she's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

they're beginning to look a lot like...santa's secret service?

*note: i did not add the moustaches.

oh yeah, and he's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

*don't smoke, it's bad for you.

snow shovel revelation

last night i was shoveling the driveway (reader: "wait, you were shoveling the driveway? you're the one without a car." me: "yes, i know.") anyway, i was shoveling the driveway and a thought occurred to me. the thought was this:

maybe my pancakes aren't actually that good.

i know i have a tendency to project my opinion onto others. i know this because i once had a cruel boyfriend use this character flaw against me. i try not to be this way, but i think sometimes i can't help it- especially where my pancakes are concerned. so, if you're a person whose ever had my pancakes, and they're actually not that good- will you just tell me? and really, anything else for that matter. i'm not afraid to be wrong.

and now that you all feel awkward from that part where i revealed too much about a bad relationship, i'll leave you with this: does anyone else see an eerie resemblance between franco zeffirelli's romeo and zac effron?

this weekend looked a lot like Christmas

click here

they're beginning to look a lot like Christmas

he's beginning to look a lot like christmas

we're beginning to look a lot like christmas

off with her head

or just her hair.

gee (i hate this) matt

Answer the following question* using the data:

What was the maximum temperature in city A on Saturday, May 14?

(1) The average (arithmetic mean) of the maximum daily temperatures in City A from Sunday May 8 to Saturday, May 14 was 72 degrees, which was two degrees less than the average (arithmetic mean) of the maximum daily temperatures in City A from Monday, May 9 to Friday May 13.

(2) The maximum temperature on Saturday, May 14 was 5 degrees greater than the maximum temperature in City A on Sunday, May 8.

this is how my nights are spent. how about you?


*a prize to the first person to answer correctly!

well, it has been one helluva...

today is my birthday. my 25th birthday. i'm a quarter of a century old. 9,125 days old. 219,000 hours old. 13,140,000 minutes old. 7.9 billion seconds old (i think, but my calculator gave that wierd E in the corner, so i don't know what that means. shouldn't i know at least that by now?)

anyway, here's a look back at some of the momentous, um, moments of my 24th year...

as a 24 year old i:

• became a boston temple worker
• spent new years eve in the hospital and then at the movies
• saw holsts "the planets" performed by the b.s.o. and joshua bell
• took 5 trips to salt lake city,
• 4 trips to columbus
• waited in line to see guster
• sang a duet
• saw jewel for free at south station
• attended a live taping of "this american life" with ira glass
• sold the cheat
• became a youtube star
• went to the bahamas
• attended the marriage of my favorite peeps
• went to phoenix for my first time
• saw a fist fight at the boston pops
• quit my job
• started a new job
• dated a great guy
• went to seattle for my first time
• travelled to anchorage for the first time
• saw bears and porcupines in the wild
• stood on a glacier
• saw ben folds perform with the boston pops
• had a basement flood in my house
• saw muse by myself
• went to 3 red sox games
• saw owen plant live
• saw brian webb live
• participated in the great boston adventure, the great connecticut adventure, the great vermont adventure, and the great maine adventure
• joined a book club
• attended the the hill cummorah pageant
• went to sharon, vermont, palmyra, ny, and kirtland, ohio and all church history sites associated with each
• saw niagara falls
• watched the boston pops on the 4th of july
• went to the circus
• prepared a 72-hour kit
• shook hands with an apostle
• watched the red sox win the world series and celebrated in the streets of boston
• purchased a trip to europe
• became a celtics season ticket holder
• witnessed a family sealing
• got one new niece and one new nephew
• swam in walden
• got a speeding ticket
• threw a halloween party
• got rid of that shirt i've had since 7th grade
• read through an entire issue of the economist
• wrote a grad school essay*
• and many more...at 24...la la la la...

so it's been a pretty good year and based solely off the fact that the staff at bertucci's sang the entire happy birthday song to me (grossly off key) today, i can already tell that 25 is going to be even better!

*note: i did not watch goonies. i was sufficiently talked out of doing so by a true friend. friends don't let friends watch bad 80's movies.

and barbeque's on the roof

dear utah friends,

remember when we knew each other? that was cool. today i spent a few hours stalking you all on myspace. i'm glad to see that you're all still in each others top 8's and that not too much has changed except some of you have longer hair. i miss you guys. who's up for bacon and eggs at the corner?

love,

me

a quarter of a century

i've started to compile a list of things i want to accomplish before i'm 25. i've only got a few days left. here's what i've got so far:

1. eat 3 square home-made meals at normal times, sitting at a table- all in the same day.
2. read through an entire issue of "the economist"
3. see Goonies
4. get rid of that shirt i've had since 7th grade

i'm sure there's more i can accomplish in that in the next few days. i need your suggestions...

yankees suck

apparently today is the day to catch up on blogging. and why not, with so many good things going on in the world- especially my world- and especially last weekend. the following blogs recap the past 4 days. that's right, all this happened in 4 days! including....

THE RED SOX WINNING THE WORLD SERIES!

ohmygosh you have no idea how exciting it is to live in the city of the champions (unless you do live here, or lived here in 2004, or lived in some other city wherein dwell the world series champions of yesteryear, or if you've ever lived somewhere where anyone has won any championship, then you might have some idea of how exciting it is, unless maybe you don't care about sports or winning or maybe you don't care about anything. but i digress.) today the city of boston held a parade in honor of the Sox return to beantown and nat and i used our lunch hour to contribute our beings and our shouts of jubilation to the masses.

here we are just happy to be out of work for a bit. who loves our twinner hats? early b-day present from nat!

we really wanted to jump on this guys back so we could get better pics, but in the end decided he probably wouldn't appreciate that.
this is our small section of the 3 mile parade route, which gives you an idea of how many people were there. honestly, the streets were filled. half of boston must have been out on boylston!


nat's mesmerized by the stars among us. jacoby ellsbury? breath nat, breath.

at the parade i was put in charge of video while nat took care of the pics. video didn't work out so well, mostly because i couldn't stop jumping up and down and screaming for the players. oops. see here for shots of the players themselves.

and for that matter, since nat and i spent the whole weekend together, you can find corresponding updates to my updates on her blog here.

how did this happen?

i dislike cats. how i ended up becoming one last night is beyond me- just proves i'll do about anything for this holiday.

kylee's lookin hot as a flapper.
thank you to these wonderful ladies above (and the rest of their roomies) for the fantastic halloween bash last night! who knew monday night could be so fun?

and thanks, nat, for the fantastic make-up skills! meow!

sick.

leaf peeping is not dirty, unless you want it to be

no really, that's what they call it when you look at leaves. um...anyway. new england is the place to be in the fall. if you don't believe me, see for yourself:

thanks to krista and jenny for visiting nat and forcing us out into nature!

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

no, not christmas. halloween! best holiday of the year! i can't begin to express my delight in the season, the parties, the costumes, the...blah blah blah, no one cares about this. give us pictures! ok! here we go:

behold, the 2nd annual park ave creepy night

the humble hosts! skullvia pierced: witch of the south (with critter), deathica haurror: witch of the west, chreepy vamparry: witch of the east, ghoulie howlet: witch of the north

ipod commercial- genius.

me and indiana jones and...um...female character from raiders of the lost ark.

two rockers: steve perry and slash

mitt romney campaigners. they're too busy to look up for a picture.

boo! wait, didn't we all wear this costume in...3rd grade?

me and amy winehouse- look her up. this was my favorite costume, and not just cause i like the person wearing it. the fake tat's are hot, no?
luke skywalker and steve perry

popeye and olive oil
ellsbury's bride- go sox! woot!
lindsay lohan, nicole richie, paris hilton and britney spears
this was one of my favorite group costumes of the night!

we were jam packed for most of the night! crowd 1
crowd 2
crowd 3

there were so many good costumes this year. can't wait for next!

i felt the pain of public transportation...and sheer stupidity

yesterday. was not my day.

after arriving home from the cape at 11:00 pm on tuesday night, i was a bit dazed wednesday morning. i left for work a bit late, waited at the bus stop outside my house for at least 10 minutes, then proceeded from the bus to the inbound train at alewife. the ride proceeded for another 25 minutes or so, when at the park street stop it hit me: i'd forgotten my computer.

off the train, cross the platform, the doors to the outbound train shut in my face and it pulls out of sight. i wait for 12 minutes for the next, which i hurry onto and arrive in 25 minutes back at alewife just in time to see my bus pulling away. i wait for another 30 minutes for the next bus, arrive home, get the computer and turn back around for my second commute of the day.

i get to work two hours past start time and realize, i've left my phone at home.

the end.

nerds are not just candy

so i sit here at my desk wolfing down my soup/sandwich combo while frantically trying to complete today's assignment: master a new computer program by 4 pm and teach it to the rest of us. stress. i text nat with a question about smart quotes, and this time it's no joke. she responds, it works, i celebrate. in the corner of my screen a box pops up indicating there is a new email in my outlook. it's today's issue of my daily 'chief marketer' publication and is titled "a beautiful day in the virtual neighborhood". i view the articles and find that today's issue isn't nearly as interesting as yesterdays "what's awol from web 2.0" issue, and even less exciting than the webinar invite i received on demystifying online customer behavior. i'm disappointed. but then another email appears; it's my daily dilbert, and it's a good one.

and that's when it hits me...i'm a huge nerd.

o to the hio

i've been holding off on a trip update because mary really has the gems of our weekend in ohio on her laptop, waiting to be pieced together into some kind of wonderful blog. (yes mary, this is my foot on your back.)

suffice it to say that we had a great time. somehow it just felt right to be spending columbus day in columbus. we embarked on the usually 12 hour (775 mile) journey on friday night around 7 pm and arrived at my parents doorstep at 9 am on saturday morning. in my opinion we made pretty good time considering we sat for a few hours on the mass pike in stop and go traffic, took a pizza break, stopped every 200 miles for more caffeine, and slept an hour and a half in a parking lot in buffalo. still, we arrived with plenty of time to stretch our legs and prepare to sit a few more hours (well, let's be honest i laid on my bed) and be nourished by the good word. speaking of, wasn't conference awesome?

the weekend continued in the same manner. we left the house only once to go to dsw, and that was subsequently the only time i changed out of my pajamas and into real clothes. it nearly did me in. otherwise, my time was spent sleeping in, lounging on the couches and floor (they have carpet...mmmmm....carpet), watching movies, and partaking of the wonderment that is my mothers cooking. my parents were a delight, grandma was her usual fun 92 year old self, and geoff wasn't around to bother me (jk weff, i loves ya).

on the drive home we stopped in kirtland for a quick tour of some church history sites. this was shortly after we made a completely necessary stop at the local hardees for some hamburgers and fries. what was it, like 10:30 am? but come on, it's hardees! how many times i played in the ball pit of our local hardees as a child i can't count. there was no ball pit, and no fried zucchini, but we did experience the best fast food service this side of the mississippi, not to mention a good look at some sweet mullets. ohio is weird. anyway, and yeah, kirtland was cool too. the best part, which i almost forgot and am sure mary won't mention, was the challenge i gave her to tell me a story about making a peanut butter sandwich. this story, however, had to last for 40 miles. she did it people. let it be known that just when you think things can't get any less interesting, they can. well done, mar.

back on the road after kirtland, we still had about 11 and a half hours to go. deep breath, deep drink from my coke and 90 east for another 600 miles. done up right, mar. done up right.

i've still got 90 East on my mind.

moon child

one of the great mysteries of life- solved.

here

thanks, jake

dreamer

crazy.

last night i had an extremely vivid dream about something so sad i feel like repeating it would be taboo. in my dream i was sobbing uncontrollably. i woke up this morning with wet eyes and a soaked pillow.

does that ever happen to anyone else?

a random dump with hidden gems

i am a horrible life historian. these are the only two pictures i took from my weekend spent at camp joseph. it's a good thing that other people often blog my life for me.

on another note, i've been freaking my co-workers out all morning talking about my 72 hour kit. a few of them had never even heard of one before so they are taking the fact that our church leaders have asked us to have one by october 28th as a bad sign. i don't argue with them. one guy has promised me that he'll join the mormon church if anything happens on october 29th in anywhere in the world that would necessitate a 72 hour kit. i don't think he knows what he's promising...

i've been studying for the gmat lately and have been acing the practice tests so far, i'm hoping to stay consistent for the real deal. congrats to seth who just took the lsat on saturday! hooray for wannabe students!

last night i had my 4th ever voice lesson with mary. she's amazing and fun and i think i'd be more frustrated if we didn't spend half the lesson laughing. last night christy said, "hey, i could hear you doing a seal impression upstairs." (referring to the animal, not the singer) um, not encouraging. however, i think some things are starting to click in my brain, which is encouraging. anyway, if my singing profession fails i could always just become a marine biologist, right? thanks christy.

did i mention i'm going to ohio this weekend?

oh, and did i mention i'm going to salt lake in 3 weeks?

ok, lastly, welcome october! you are the best month by far because you house the best holiday of the year. and no, i'm not talking about columbus day.

are you calling 1989?

a piggyback.

i saw this in the boston common. be ye warned, i have no discretion when it comes to taking pictures of anyone i want. (more to come on my incredibly creepy stealth picture taking of children on the t today.)

but talk about flashback friday: people using payphones.

H.A.G...W!

the loves of my life