Off to CO I go

As of 9:20 AM tomorrow, I will be on my way to CO. A little over an hour later (I'm glad it's a short flight), I will be seeing this fine sight (though in the daytime) - Denver International Airport. Really, it's a cool airport.

Woo hoo! I'm so excited! Just as long as I can survive the flight ;)

Curled up with a Blanket

....Is what I wish I was doing right now. Seriously, the weather is SO awesome right now. Really low clouds, cool, a little rain. I think Seattle and I could definitely get along.

But instead, I am sitting here at work, longingly looking out the window. Wishing I was at home all curled up with a blanket and a good book or a game or something. Oh well.

You know, I really wish my body would just decide to either succomb to some sort of cold, or get rid of it. This in between fuzzy-headedness crap sucks.

This Binary Universe

This is one of the cd's I got the other day, and I am really enjoying it. It's quite different from his other work. This one is definitely ambient in sound - very little vocals. One of the coolest things about it is it comes with a DVD that has a visualization of each of the songs, and is in 5.1 surround sound. I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but so far it REALLY cool. They definitely aren't your "mainstream" music videos - they are very artistic. Each one is synchronized to the song seamlessly - it's almost like you are "watching" the music. I think it's really cool, but I am also pretty nerdy (:

The gaming extravaganza at Hannah and Linc's on Saturday was a whole lot of fun. It was nice to be able to hang out and relax at their house for a while (: Thanks for letting me come "crash" for so long!

Mark came home last night, hooray! He definitely seems wiped out from his busy week. I'm really glad things went well for him. (: But it is so good to have him home. Now we are together for a week, until I take off for Colorado myself next Tuesday. It will be a great trip - I am so excited to see my family, and my friend Kathy from Germany. She came to live with us as an exchange student my freshman year of high school, and is now over there for a month doing an internship at a local hospital. She's basically like a long-distance sister. I'll be there just as she wraps up work, so we will have plenty of time to just hang out! (:

For some reason, I have developed this irrational fear of flying. I've flown several times, and though I always get a bit nervous, I'm feeling really nervous for my flight to CO next week. The flight is like, an hour long, maybe an hour and a half. Not long at all. It's really quite pathetic.

Now Playing: Hidden Houses - Dave Gahan

Friends, Food, and Fun stuff

Last night was my Book Club birthday dinner, and what a treat it was! We went to California Pizza Kitchen, which is always guaranteed to be delicious. It was so much fun to have a "bonus round" of Book Club friends. They all chipped in for a gift card to Borders for my birthday, which is VERY appreciated!

Has anyone else been LOVING the weather these past couple of days? Finally I feel like Fall is here. Fall is my favorite season. I love the crispness of Fall.

This morning I went with my sister as she ran a few errands, and went to lunch with her family at Bajio's. Again - so full of delicious. Though I am so bummed with this whole spinach E. Coli ordeal, because that means Spinach Enchilada Wednesdays are going to be a bust for a while. They are so good.

Early this afternoon, I ended up going by myself to check out Borders, since I had gifted money to spend there (: Places like Borders and B&N are so dangerous for me. Too much stuff I want. I ended up spending a good chunk of my money, and bought Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I have been wanting to buy that movie forever, it's about freaking time), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon (I will borrow our next Book Club book from my sister, so I thought I would get this one in good advance), and two cds: "This Binary Universe" by BT, and "The Garden" by Zero 7. I am definitely excited about my new goods. Thanks girls (:

All By Myseeeeeeeelf

Mark left yesterday for his trade show in Denver. Which leaves me Mark-less until Sunday evening. It's always tough when Mark is away for extended periods of time. It hasn't happened very often since we have been married, so it feels pretty lonely without him. It's funny, when we were dating, Mark and I were lucky to see each other once a month for most of the year, while I was here in school. Now he's gone for a few days, and it's killer.

Luckily, I am definitely keeping busy this week. As a matter of fact, I don't think I will have much "down time" by myself at all, which is good for the most part (though sometimes it is nice to just have some time home alone for a few hours). Yesterday, I got Zupa's for dinner (yum!), then headed up to BYU to work on a research paper due for submittal today. See, even though I have already gradumicated, I've been continuing work on a project I started the first of the year, and felt it would be valuable to stick with even after I was finished with school. It's great research experience, I hopefully get to present at some conferences, and have authorship on a couple of papers. .....I think I have blogged about this before, but there's a recap anyways.

So I get up to BYU at 7, expecting to be done by 9...and didn't leave until 12. There was much work that still needed to be done. Thankfully, I think we made a lot of progress, and aside from a bit of revision as I have a chance this morning, it is done. It has to be, because it has to be submitted no later than 3 PM.

It's pretty exciting to be involved in research like this for me. I hope our paper gets accepted, but if it doesn't, we'll just have to work all the harder on the second half of the project for submission in December to the American Psychological Association.

Ok, you guys are all probably bored to tears. I was proud of myself that even after getting to bed after 1AM, I still dragged myself to the gym with Jessie this morning. It definitely wasn't my hardest workout, but the effort was there nonetheless.

Now Playing: Until the End of the World - U2

Mark's job and my birthday

Mark recently moved into the Training Dept. at Vantage Controls, and he has really enjoyed it so far. It has definitely been a good move for him, and for us. He got a significant raise, and has the opportunity to travel some. He will be gone this week to a big trade show in CO, and will fly to Hawaii next month to do some training. I must admit, I am jealous ;) But I am also really grateful. We've already noticed a difference, and have been blessed so much recently, especially financially. When I think back to when we moved out here after getting married, and his job with Dish Network fell through, it was so scary. We didn't know what kind of job he would be able to get. But he was hired by Vantage, and it has been infinitely better for him and us than Dish Network would have been.

This last Saturday was my birthday. It was such a nice, relaxing day. Weekend birthdays are always a special treat. Mark and I slept in that morning, then went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. It was delicious, but our waiter was a total dud. Afterwards, we went and walked around the mall for a bit. Mark needed some new pants for the trade show, and also wanted to buy me some Bath and Body works stuff for my birthday. I also bought myself a new game for the Game Cube - Paper Mario (:. On our way out, Mark bought me a Coldstone cake - yummy! Cookies and cream ice cream with devil's food cake. It was an awesome cake, seriously. We then headed home, and just relaxed for a while. It was super nice. I talked to my family, and had several renditions of Happy Birthday sung to me over the phone. At 4, we left and headed up to Salt Lake for dinner at the Melting Pot. I hadn't been there in years, and remembered how much I LOVED it. And oh my - was it AMAZING. Definitely a special occasion kind of place, but wow, was it awesome. I'm glad Mark enjoyed it, as he had never been. We just took our time with dinner, and it was so nice. After dinner, we went home, and took the cake over to Jessie and Timm's to share and watched Best In Show. It was so much fun, and I love mockumentaries.

On Sunday, we went to Regional Conference at 9 AM. It was a great conference, and nice to get out of church at the time we are usually starting! My sister Liz and her kids came over that afternoon to help polish off some more cake. Timm had invited us to dinner that morning at church, so we went over at around 4:30 and had an awesome dinner (great cooking, Timm), and played Apples to Apples with Jessie, Timm, and Charlotte.

It was such a great weekend. So simple, but I just really enjoyed it. I'm not looking forward to Mark being gone all week, but I am excited for him to go to this trade show.

Overall, things have been going well. Jessie and I are sticking to our morning gym routine, and working out hard. I still can't quite shake my whole funk. I am way too "comparative" by nature, and I just need to take things one step at a time. The gym is definitely a good step. Now I just need to ease into a few other things, and not put too much pressure on myself to be "perfect."

Now Playing: "Groove Is On" - Groove Armada

Lame Blogger

It has come to my attention both on LJ and my Blogger account, that I am indeed, a lame blogger. And though I don't feel a pressing need to update you all on the mundane, every day details of my life, I do want to be more consistent about updating in general. Not only is it a good habit for me to get into, but with as much as I enjoy reading all of my friend's blogs, I have to think, maybe *someone* out there actually enjoys reading mine. When it is actually updated. So here is a new beginning.

I'm not promising everday. Maybe not even once a week - though I do hope to do at least that. But, at least to do better. I've just been on the computer MUCH less than I used to, which is honestly a good thing. But I figure, a few minutes here and there to chronicle what's happening can't be a bad thing.

Man, I really need to re-commit to piano practicing too. I definitely have a lot to work on.

I think I will try cross-posting my entries to both LJ and Blogger - so my friends from each have easy access. I just hope I can stick to it. (: