this and that

It's still raining! It was coming down pretty hard when I left this morning. Thank you, rain gods!

My husband is leaving me tomorrow to spend a few days in Utah with his kiddos. This will be our first time apart since before we were married. :-( I'm really grateful that he gets to spend time with the kids though, especially since they don't have school Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday is Halloween. They will have a lot of fun. I just wish I got to go too! I can't believe it's already been two months since we were with them.




The only thing I'm looking forward to about Jared being gone is watching the entire last season of Friends on DVD. Thank you Netflix! And maybe the last season of Sex and the City too if I'm feeling kinda scandalous. ;-)






Also, Ohio State football is #1!!! Yay! Saturday night they are playing Penn State and ABC is showing the game. Woohoo!!! I've only been able to watch one other game, so I'm excited. Go Bucks!

And lastly, I can't resist these types of quizzes. This one is fun. Take it and come back and tell me what your accent is. Below you will see mine. For the record, I was born in Utah, moved to Ohio at age 4, moved to Utah at 18 for college, and am now in North Carolina. So I guess all that gives me this....

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Western. Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it.

And if you're not from the West, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Pittsburgher - the quiz can't tell the difference;
(b) Someone from Canada (probably southern Ontario) who doesn't have a Canadian accent;
(c) Someone from northern New England who doesn't have a New England accent; or
(d) Someone from Texas or the Heartland who was born after 1980.
You are definitely not from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit, the Deep South, etc.</font>

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Different

the photo that never was

All last week, four times a day, I drove by this tree and thought, "I need to stop and take a picture of it. The leaves are gorgeous and it is definitely the most beautiful tree around." But I kept forgetting my camera. Until it was almost too late. Because as you can see in the photos, a LOT of the leaves have fallen off. So now only half the tree has the beautiful leaves. But I finally did stop and take some photos, even if they aren't what I was imagining last week. Such is life. There is possibly some metaphor in there somewhere, but I think I'll just leave it at that.

rain!

Oh blessed day, it's raining! It's raining so hard that I can hear it pounding the roof in my office. And when I went to peek outside, it was so dark you'd think it was evening. And there's thunder! Blessed thunder! Please keep raining. We need you!

ps... Congratulations to me! This is my 100th post!

guilty pleasures

We all have them. Here are a few of mine.

*People--Even though I'm disgusted by our culture's obsession with celebrity, I still love checking out the latest celeb photos and "news" at People. Is J.Lo pregnant? Will Britney clean up her act? Where will Brangelina be spotted next? Why must I know these things?!!! I don't really care and yet I still waste time finding out. Why?!!!


*Go Fug Yourself-- So this goes along with the last one. But these girls are so funny, clever, and vicious in their critiques of celebrity fashion, they are addicting!


*Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice (aka Addison's Anatomy)--These shows have clever writing, great casts, witty dialogue, and sometimes realistic situations. But at the end of the day they are still soap operas. And I love them!

*America's Next Top Model--My husband questioned his love for me the other day when I spent an hour and half catching up on this season's ANTM online. He did not realize that I have watched this show from the very first cycle, and even though I don't subject him to it, I still get a kick out of it, despite Tyra's antics. I have to say though, that this cycle's girls are all crazy dramatic. I just want to see the shoots and photos and skip the crazy drama.

What are your guilty pleasures?

fig, anyone?

Until recently, I had never eaten a fig. Unless by fig, you mean the mushy stuff inside of a fig newton. But I'm talking about real figs. The fruit. Fresh.

My husband, however, has always enjoyed dried figs and was delighted the first time he discovered them fresh. He was excited that Whole Foods Market has them right now. And it turns out they are quite tasty. And also really pretty inside. The best way we can come up with describing them is a sweet cucumber with a hint of green pepper. They are a mild but sweet fruit.

But as I just found out thanks to the wonder that is Wikipedia, figs are not actually a fruit at all. They are the flower of the fig tree. Weird, but cool.

Aren't they pretty? I like them so much I had to add another picture.

drought rain

Bad news: North Carolina and the South are in a major drought right now. You can read a NY Times article about it here.

Good news: It's been raining off and on for the past couple days.

Bad news: It hasn't been raining hard or steady enough to fill up those nearly empty reservoirs yet.

Good news: But at least it's raining.

Bad news: This morning as I left our apartment complex for work, one of the grounds crew guys was watering the foliage! While it was raining! During a severe drought!

[photo by leslie]

pushing daisies

I like TV. It's true. But I do try to limit the amount of shows I get addicted to. This fall we have a few we must watch. Mondays: Heroes. Thursdays: Smallville (Jared) and Grey's Anatomy. But now Wednesdays have 2 shows I don't like to miss: Private Practice (aka Addison's Anatomy) and a new show called Pushing Daisies.

I am telling you all right now that you should watch Pushing Daisies! It is so fun and so delightfully quirky. Plus I have a crush not only on the adorable Ned, the pie maker, played by Lee Pace. But also on his equally adorable childhood sweetheart Chuck, played by Anna Friel.

The basic premise of the show is that Ned has the power to bring things back from the dead by touching them. But there's a catch... If he ever touches them again they die again. And if he brings someone back for more than a minute, then someone else dies. Ned has teamed up with a private detective and together they collect reward money for unsolved murders. Ned wakes the dead person up and asks who kills them, then touches them again to go back to being dead. Get it?

Well things get tricky when Ned finds out his latest case to solve is the murder of his childhood sweatheart, Charlotte (Chuck). He ends up not touching her again and so she's now no longer dead, but they also can never touch again. And she can't be recognized by anyone because she's supposed to be dead. Of course, sparks fly, but it's the perfect answer to keeping the tension alive because they can never really get together or she'd die.

I really want this show to stick around so you should all watch it. And if you are like us and can't always be home at 8 pm on Wednesday night. You can watch it online! Just go here. All the characters are so fun and one of the best characters on the show you never actually see--the narrator! He's great and gives the funniest insights into what people are thinking.

Watch it tonight! Or later online.

pillow talk

Warning: F-word (fart) appears below

Yesterday, 10:25 p.m., Jared and Katrina cuddling in bed.

J: What do I smell like?
K: Like boy.
J: What?
K: You smell like boy.
J: What does "boy" smell like?
K: Like you. You just smell like you.
J: But not stinky, right? Aren't you glad I'm not stinky?
K: Yes. You are remarkably unstinky for a boy. In fact... you hardly ever even have stinky farts.
J: I was just thinking that. It hasn't always been this way. In the MTC, everyone has stinky farts. It's something in the food. It can be quite embarrassing. You know, everyone is lined up taking pictures in front of the map and then... not good.
K: Yeah that's definitely not good. It must be something about how we eat cause I don't really have stinky farts either. I don't even remember the last time I had a stinky fart.
J: Me neither.
K: It's good not to be stinky.

so you think you can dance

This weekend Jared and I saw the So You Think You Can Dance tour. It was amazing! If you've never watched the show, you should next year when they do it again. It's one of the best things on television. The dancing this year was phenomenal. Truly inspiring dancers and choreography. It was such a treat to be able to see them live. One thing that was cool is that the dancers themselves did all the introductions before dances. It was fun to see them get to show off their personalities.

The only thing I can complain about is that Lacey (she was in the top 4) was not able to dance due to a knee injury. They had Shauna fill in for her, and although she's a great dancer too, she doesn't have the spark that Lacey does. Of course our favorite is Danny and he did not disappoint. He is probably the best male dancer I have ever seen. So graceful and powerful and beautiful! I can't describe in words how amazing he is. It must be experienced.

Unfortunately you aren't supposed to take pictures, so all I have to show you are a couple we took before the show. One of us (rather awkward because there was little room to stand between the rows of seats and we wanted the sign in the background) and one (rather blurry) one of the stage. We had good seats. It was a very fun show.

autumn dance

photo from photo.net

I think fall has finally arrived to North Carolina. We had a teaser a few weeks back, but summer temps soon returned. And then, yesterday I could smell it. And the air felt a bit crisp all day. And the breeze was lovingly chill. And then today.... oh today it is cool enough that I had to go back inside and grab a jacket. I love fall! Unfortunately, the leaves are still mostly green and don't really look like that picture up there, and from what I've heard may not be all the pretty this year. You see, NC is experiencing a major drought. It makes my heart hurt because I have really been hoping for a real Eastern style Autumn. I'll keep hoping until all those leaves are gone.

In other news, we got a new computer yesterday and it is pretty. I'll have to take a picture to show you all. Jared has been having so much fun setting everything up.

Lastly, we have an exciting weekend ahead of us for we are going to this:

Oh yeah, we bought tickets online during the season finale and are SO SO SO excited to see Danny, Sabra, Lacey, Neil, and everyone dance LIVE! I'm sure it's going to be amazing. I'll report back with details on Monday.

Happy weekend everyone!