Shakespeare + important evidence of game loss

David and I went to the Utah Shakespeare Festival last weekend. Unfortunately I was sick. But we still had a good time! We saw three plays and got to sleep in a king sized bed, which is so so nice. It is the first trip we've gone on in over two years if you exclude visiting family. And it is probably the last trip for a while because of the alien invader. Here are some pics of us around the festival statues/benches:

This is what happens when you put the camera on a table and try to do a timed shot.

In case you are wondering, David is pondering Yorick's skull. 

I forget the inspiration for this shot. But this is the "Women of Shakespeare" bench and they are all very scary women. And I think I'm supposed to be dead.

David rents his shirt like King Lear. Yeah. (or is it rends?)

And remember how Utah won the BYU/Utah football game? Well, David and his brother Jonny always do a tie exchange depending on the game result. With this year being a loss for BYU, David was lucky enough to get to wear the Utah tie bestowed upon him by the noble Jonny. David wore it to work (at BYU) on a day he teaches two classes! I was hoping he'd get a few dirty looks, but he says not. Psha. But clearly he is VERY excited to be wearing the tie:)

Long Lost Cup

Nearly three years ago, tragedy struck in my kitchen. My long adored mug broke.

It was special. I got it at Los Alamos Laboratory.

Occasionally I would search for it online. One time I saw it on ebay. I cursed myself later for not buying it.

And then I FOUND it again! And bought it immediately. Some things are just TOO important to pass up. Now me and my cup are together again. This week has been like a family reunion--uniting me, Nigel Clarence, and my favorite cup. Together at last.

You may recall this old post about another favorite cup. I would like to inform you it is now my second favorite cup, and this toxic waste mug has now been given back its former position as #1 favorite cup.

Nigel Clarence comes home

I went to the Provo DMV last monday to register my car. But it was like no DMV I have ever been to (which are all in CA). There was no line. There was not even time to sit before my number was called. I was in and out in 10 minutes. And the best part is I got to use my old plates!

I like to name my car. Whenever possible, I try to use the letters from the license plate to make the name.

The first car I drove was called Gina (GNA). The next was Lamar (LMR). After that I borrowed my dad's car  for a while, and called it Sir Gallahad (which came from the model of the car, Gallant, and not the license plate. This is because of the unfortunate circumstance of all arches license plates beginning with the letters z, y, x, or w. Very few names start with those letters!).

And then I bought Nigel Clarence, as in NGC. He was my very own. And I took him to California where he had to be reregistered with new plates, alas. But, I brought my old plates to the DMV with me hoping they would let me use them and they DID! I never thought going to the DMV would make my so happy.

Nigel Clarence has even had 15 minutes of fame. When Google first instituted the streetview option, they got Nigel Clarence in the picture of the house I lived in at the time (in 2006). Woot.

So this post is totally lame and nerdy, but I am excited to have Nigel Clarence be official again. Yaaaaaaay.

the curse of the ex-boyfriend

Once upon a time I was 19 years old. It was at that age that I began to date whom I now refer to as "my semi-pittance of a boyfriend."

This boyfriend, who was never actually acknowledged as such (except in retrospect, hence the title "semi-pittance"), was in MENSA. You know, "the high IQ society." Well. Among other things, this boyfriend was always talking about it. MENSA this, MENSA that. Uh huh. He said he wanted to bring me to their activities. (Let me bring you to my spaceship...)  One of these activities was a regular dinner at The Belgian Waffle (a restaurant in Salt Lake City area). I was semi-interested because it was waffles, and I am somewhat obsessed. But we never went.

So anyway, we dated 3 months and then I was dumped. To be precise, I was dumped onto the sidewalk east of the Merrill Engineering Building on University of Utah campus. Just so you can get a picture of it in your head. I was sad at the time (in my stupidity), but it really was not meant to be. The sole reason he asked me out in the first place was because I knew why the sky was blue (and told him so) and crushed his error-ridden theory relating to the excess of Nitrogen in the atmosphere.  One time we were driving somewhere and he started talking about how he couldn't believe there were people in the world who did not know what "hiatus" meant. I immediately replied that I had forgotten its meaning. (Apparently though since I had only temporarily forgotten its meaning, I was forgiven this grave offense.)

After I was dumped (picture the sidewalk), I had this perverse inclination to take the MENSA test. According to the semi-pittance of a boyfriend, I was definitely fit for their elite status. (But I don't think MENSA is very elite, and is more along the lines of total crap by the way). So I registered to take the exam. I took it. There were 30 people in the room with me in the Salt Lake City Public Library. I found out later that 25 out of the 30 passed. And I was one of them. Lucky me. I guess I passed your stupid test, Mr Hiatus. Passing that test made me feel good though. Not only was I "smart" enough to get in to the supposedly super exclusive MENSA society, but doing it as a sort of revenge against a somewhat snooty ex-boyfriend was a nice touch. (I know this does not seem like revenge. But to someone who was just dumped, it was like a "so there, Mr. Hiatus. I made it into your lame club but couldn't care less.") But really, 25/30 got in? That seems like a lot, even taking into account the type of people who register for a test like that (that is, people who think they're the bomb). One of the questions on the test was for me to identify a spark plug. How is that relevant? I guessed on a ton of the questions. (I had no idea what a spark plug was. I asked someone afterward and realized I'd guessed wrong). (As a side note, the boy sitting next to me at the test wrote down part of my name (after looking at my paper on the sly) and got my information off of the university directory. Word to the wise: a MENSA test is not the best place to meet people. But that is another story.) And MENSA is definitely not as exclusive as they like people to think. I think they advertise that people with the top 2% IQ scores in society get in. Whatever.

So that was almost 9 years ago. My membership lapsed many many years ago and I still get their emails and mail. Please renew your membership. We are desperate for your money. And in retrospect, I realize this is the curse of the ex-boyfriend. I will be forever plagued by MENSA begging me for money.  Thanks a lot. I think I'll change my name and move. (Except I already did that.)

(My apologies to anyone reading this who thinks MENSA is amazing and takes offense. I hope you at least got to eat some waffles.)

Weird Al in concert + my husband the dairy farmer

A few months back David mentioned to me that Weird Al Yankovic would be performing at the Utah State Fair in September. And we were totally going to be living in Utah at that time! So naturally he bought tickets. The concert was on September 12. 

We drove up to Salt Lake City a couple hours early to see some stuff before the concert began. Naturally David was most excited about the livestock. He did grow up on a dairy farm after all and tells stories about birthing calves and crazy cows with attitude. There were two large barns holding cows (one for dairy and one for beef breeds). DH knows his cows. He was saying stuff like, "that Guernsey is really beautiful," or "that looks just like such-and-such cow we had growing up." There is a large cow pasture on 280 that we would pass on the way to Redwood City in California that had black cows with huge white stripes (like an oreo). Naturally DH had to find out what they were called. They are called Belted Galloways, and he would always look wistful when we'd pass. I saw on a friends blog this week her report of going to a state fair in Washington. She has a picture of a little girl hugging her 4-H cow. It made me think of DH hanging out with the calves as a child. Plus it is just sweet. 

So we had dinner and got in line to get into the concert. Never had DH been surrounded with so many die hard Weird Al fans (like himself). You might recall how DH likes to celebrate Weird Al's birthday with a "special" hot dog. Yeah. While we were in line he commented several times that he felt like he had found is true people. And he really had. These people are one of a kind. 

So we watched the concert. It was so great! Weird Al really puts on a show. He is so energetic--jumping around the stage, changing outfits for almost every song, dancing and generally acting weird. I had a really good time and I'm not even close to obsessed, though I do like some of his music. One of my favorite parts was when Weird Al sang "White and Nerdy." If you watch the music video on youtube then you can witness younger Donny Osmond dancing in the background of a several shots (I think as an example of someone White and Nerdy). (And if you want to see the first take of Donny Osmond dancing NON-STOP through the entire song, watch this. It is so hilarious.) At the concert there was a huge screen hanging at the back of the stage. Weird Al must have gotten Donny Osmond to do some more dancing many years later, because on screen there was an aged Donny doing more dance moves. It was really entertaining. Another great part of the song was that Weird Al came out riding a Segway and drove it all around the stage for the first part of the song. Those things are heavy and expensive! But definitely a great prop.

David bought a poster and t-shirt at the concert. This is him in his new shirt. The shirt advertises the 2011 Weird Al tour. I think going to this concert totally made his year. And it was baby's first concert too. It was a memorable night!

Divided House

Last Saturday was the Utah-BYU football game. I am a Utah fan and David is a BYU fan. Naturally it was important for me to wear my red Utah shirt and David to wear his blue BYU shirt. We had a bunch of errands to do that day, and we got some hilarious comments from random people in the town. I've never been in "enemy" territory like I am now, and I really enjoyed dressing up in my Uteness.

Here we are in our abode:

And here we are at the game. Look at all that blue behind us! I was one of a handful of Ute fans scattered throughout the faculty section at the stadium. People were nice to me anyway since I wasn't particularly irritating and I looked pretty harmless with my big belly and all. It was fun getting attention.

 David thought this was important to get a picture of. It's the biggest flag ever!

I had two favorite parts of the day. The first was when we were at Walmart and we passed an older couple in the aisle. The husband looked at us and said, "the red one is the smart one!" We laughed and then watched his wife swat his arm and tell him he was in big trouble. Ha! It was like a vision of the future, me and DH 40 years from now.

The second favorite part was near the end of the game. A lot of people had left early (due to BYU's lame performance) and we spotted a couple with a baby a few rows down. The wife was in blue and the husband in red. David and I had been discussing how we should dress up our baby at future Utah/BYU games. I thought a purple shirt would suffice (you know..red + blue = purple) but david liked the idea of a half red half blue onesie (but which is unlikely to be sold anywhere). But this couple we saw, they had their baby dressed up in a red and blue stripped onesie! We thought it was genius.

the end. (+ go Utes!)

belated birthday pics

I wanted to write a follow up post about my birthday this year (original is here). First of all, I mistakenly thought that 28 had no mathematical beauty, but it is actually a perfect number. DH and J the magnificent enlightened me:)

This year I went to my friend Libby's house and shared my birthday with her now 1-year-old daughter, who was born on my 27th birthday! Libby made a tiny cake for her and a big cake for the rest of us to share. Here are some pictures (and her own blog post from that night):

This is me. Just in case you were confused. Libby gave me a present:)

The end.