Napa trip

So I am finally getting around to reporting on a trip DH and I went on last February. To Napa. The land of wine and grapes.

We had some friends who invited us and another couple to help them use up some "points" that were expiring on a hotel package. Napa is about an hour and a half from Palo Alto. We had three rooms, one of which had a full kitchen. We stayed there Sunday and Monday nights, ate lovely food, even visited a winery!

Napa Valley is all about wine tasting and tours. We didn't want to pay to go on a tour when we were mostly paying for the wine tasting at the end that we wouldn't be tasting! We ended up visiting a winery and doing a short self tour. The shape of Napa Valley reminded me a lot of Cache Valley in Utah (minus wine and vineyards!). There is literally one vineyard after another. There are SO SO many.

Here are some pics while at the vineyard:

I'm inside a wine barrel!

Me, Christine, and Silas

1120 gallon barrel!

3 years of love and soap

Happy 3rd Anniversary to me! The soap saga continues. For earlier episodes, read here and here.

Our soap has survived 3 years in the Hansen bathroom. We use it many times a day. It is amazing supersoap. (I think it is because it is a low lather soap that it has lasted so long...that and it was huge to begin with).

Poor little soap. You have broken into tiny pieces. But you still live. For now. We thank you, soap. You have been good to us. 

David the Graduate + no more secret

Yesterday was David's graduation from Stanford. He looked super awesome in his special outfit.

You might think there is a degree certificate inside of that thing he is holding. But, no. Instead he has a certificate that says, Congratulations, You're Almost Done! (David won't actually defend his dissertation until early August.)

My parents and David's mother came to the ceremony. It was great! The commencement speaker put in all sorts of economics jokes which I even thought were funny. I guess I've been living with an economist for three years now:)

Another perk was that they gave us food. As a response, David said, "Economists know that hungry people don't donate as much money." Right. Economists are smart.

You can watch a recording of his "hooding" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_bJa3Wr13I

As for the SECRET, it is no longer a secret. Because we are telling it. Hence, no more secret. I am having a baby and it is due December 20th. We alternate between calling it the "poor little christmas baby" and "Emperor Palpatine." :-)

Talking Picture

David and I bought our first video camera. We did a test recording to make sure it would record correctly at David's graduation ceremony.

Here is the test run. David totally pulled this out of his hat, with about a 2 second warning. If you've never seen Singing in the Rain, watch this first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8GwkniGrU

(It you can't see the video, watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEAevcIwao )

Goodbye.

MLIS graduation / Impending Provo existence

My graduation.

It happened.

On May 21st.

I totally forgot about it.

But that hardly matters though, since I wasn't planning to go anyway.

But YAY I'm done.

Now I am the master. (hehe...) Again. Master, to the power of two!

Now I'm a little bit bored...

What should I do now?

Options:

1) I could always take advantage of the full tuition waver I qualify for now that I'm a spouse of future BYU faculty. I never did get to take concrete and steel design. (And now you all know of my impending Provo existence. My future self will be living there. Starting end of August. With my current husband. I will have more to say on this. Later.)

2) Or maybe I'll get a real job?

a) as a librarian?

b) or civil engineer?

3) Or a fake job perhaps?

4) Finally join an orchestra?

5) Finally resume piano lessons?

6) Become an amoeba?

I'm thinking options 3-5 sound the best. Option 1 strikes terror into my very soul. I am a Ute, after all. However, I may succumb. Eventually.

my love life and the importance of Sarah Olson's car

Sarah Olson. She so rocks. Knowing her changed my life. (As I think she has for many others.) This may sound dramatic. But really, it was her absence that caused one of the more beautiful events of my life to occur.

If I didn't know Sarah Olson, I never would have sublet her apartment and lived at Melville House for several months while she went to Ghana.

Sarah Olson had a car. An old BMW I think. It lived on Melville Avenue. We would move it every now and then so it wouldn't get towed. Then my car broke down. And I took the liberty of borrowing her car.

I was dating this boy, see. DH was his name. He didn't have a car. And so it went that I always drove because I had the car. It sort of irritated me. Yeah. So when my car broke down and we borrowed Sarah's (she wasn't using it!), I took advantage and forced DH to drive.

We went to a Good Friday concert put on by the Valparaiso Singers. I wore green. He held my hand. Then he drove to his apartment. This is where Sarah's car became the factor that altered the events of that night.

If my car hadn't broken down, I would have driven us to the concert. Then I would have dropped him off. I don't think I would have walked him to his door. It was cold. I was in short sleeves and a skirt. I was also sort of afraid he would kiss me. I was going to escape back home and remain unkissed. (Yes, I was a wimp. I was also 23 and never kissed before.) I would have stayed in the drivers seat, given him an awkward hug over the gear shift, and then he would have got out of the car. And I would have driven away.

But my car did break down. And we borrowed Sarah's car. I made him drive. Hence, when we went to his apartment to drop him off, I was still in the passenger seat. I had to get out and walk to the other side of the car to get into the drivers seat in order to drive myself home. And well, what happened when our paths crossed outside the car was totally because of Sarah Olson and her car.

Thanks for "letting" me borrow your car Sarah. It was a memorable experience.

at long last

Finally, after being a mormon for 27 years (or should I subtract 8?), the missionaries knocked on my door.

Unfortunately they didn't want us since we're 1) not single and 2) already members. (I should mention that they are missionaries that work in the singles' ward boundaries.)

Alas. Next time we should play dumb. Too late now. Our one and only chance might have passed us by.