doug

well hello again,
I'm thinking about doug...the douglas fir christmas tree from last year who has probably rotted away by now. poor guy. he was really great. Not sure if we'll end up with another doug or if we'll be doing a frasier fir fred.....not even sure if smith's will have one of them.
anyway, here's the point. the only tree toppers i can find are too glittery or too ugly and cheap looking. and i even work at one of the greatest home decor shops ever. no help. i have a pretty good idea of what to do..but still, it'd be nice to find a tree topper to last throughout the Brown Family Christmas Tree's. Perhaps I need to call Penny Mcallister and have her design one specially for me. She's my favorite designer. Big problem though, she has actually passed away so I cannot contact her. but mayber her collections that i've already started collecting will fill my mind with an inspirational idea.
perhaps i have too much time on my hands.

good evening

HOT DIGGITY DOGS

imagine you are on the boat in the chocolate tunnel in the newest willy wonka movie...which, by the way, is exactly accurate with the book. anyway, instead of being on a spiraling chocolate river, you are spiraling deeper into the valleys of my brain. here you will find out the experience i had today at the grocery store while standing in front of the hot dogs as though i were choosing a diamond out of a million beautiful diamonds (which aren't as pretty as the one i have in real life)...thanks josh. ANYWAY, i was making pigs in a blanket for my girls night party that was themed as "bring your favorite birthday dish" and mine growing up was... you guessed it!...pigs in a blanket. my eyeballs saw the ballpark franks first...they must pay the most to have their dogs right in the first place people look. Then i saw the nathans hot dogs that looked good but they were skinny. then i saw oscar meyer "original wieners". hmm. no good. and by the way there is not to be any innuendo intended in this post...it just occurred to me that maybe boys...or girls...may think it's funny because i'm referencing weenies.

So, then i saw a fat free option. first of all, WHO EATS A FAT FREE HOT DOG. second of all, how can it be a hot dog and be fat free together? third of all, might as well eat a grape if you're going to choose the fat free style. same goes with the 98% at free version. those just have a 1/4 inch section that is fatty and the rest is not. apparently. then there were the turkey, chicken, and pork ones. NO. then i saw the ones free of nitrates and nitrites. NOW this one caught my attention. but it HAS to be stored at 40 degrees or less at ALL TIMES as they are not preserved. I instantly pictured all of us barfing up our food because we had eaten hot dogs that were on a 90 degree truck in transportation and therefore were bad due to the violation of the no-preservatives protection rule. So, of course that was a bad option too. how can i trust that those dogs were always at the right temp. you can't trust people these days...especially if you don't know who carried those from ball park frankfurters to the grocery shelf. THEN (and yes i've been standing here wondering if other people wonder why i'm standing in front of the hot dogs for so long), then i had to choose from oscar myer or ballpark. i went with the ALL BEEF BALLPARK...it was the one i remember most from commercials so they must be good right? and they were not too shabby. and THAT my friends, is the proper way to buy your hot diggity dogs.

feels good to have something legit to right about again.

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a utah man am I

recent conversation has led to the glories of the Salt Lake Valley....primarily the East Bench.
Riding my bike from home up Millcreek Canyon is awesome
Horse back riding whenever we want is lovely too
Work 5 minutes away is easy
Skiing 6+ resorts just a short distance away has turned me into a wanna-be ski bum
having trails to hike, run, bike, and explore fills the weekends with wonder
and on and on and on and on and on....

Essentially, I have come to realize that the east bench of SLC is a perfect place for me. I love that it is perfectly complimentary to our lifestyle and it never gets boring. Because soon, we will get to play in snow! I have become rather satisfied with this gorgeous place and will continue to enjoy it for a long time...I think.
Lucky are we to be able to take advantage of the great outdoors!!

Go EXPLORE

spooktastic

So, Halloween is coming...kind of.
And I am really happy with it because I have some cute things to put in our apartment that sort of make it cheery and festive. Also, Josh has been catching GINORMOUS spiders and keeping them in a jar where they attack and kill each other. It was pretty awesome...not! It was sitting on our floor for two weeks. I promise our place is clean, we just like to save the spiders we find right? Well, unfortunately for those killer crawlers, they were put to rest in the garbage can...still in the jar so as not to let them escape and come back to what they think is their home (which is really our home).
So, in their remembrance, I am looking forward to a ghoulish Halloween. What does ghoulish mean? It sounds like a festive word. What I am really excited for is a new live Christmas tree that I can love, water, name, and take care of through the upcoming lovely seasons. What a joyous time of year we have to look forward to.

Soon we will be photographing all the fall colors. Well, Josh will be photographing and I will be cheering.

Okay,
Boo!

words per minute

Well well well,
it probably makes your day better to know that I type 94% faster than the average person. Thanks to an online typing test (that i heard about from Real Simple magazine) I tested with a speed of 86 words per minute....
and apparently I save 5 hours a week if I type for 10 hours a week.
Unfortunately, I do not spend my free time typing. However before I made my way to afternoon kindergaten, I would sit on the blue screen of my dad's computer and practice my typing. Not sure I could spell at the time so I'm pretty sure I typed 120 words per minute.
Perhaps I should become a prfessional typest or something. Would anyone hire me to type their thoughts? NO
So, for now, I'll work on perfecting my score and this blog took me approx. one minute to write because there are 86 words.


nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice

batteries not included

fixing your car is like buying a super awesome toy, like tickle me elmo, and it comes without batteries. and when you buy the batteries, you have to buy several packages to get one of each kind. but once you open them, you have to have a backup pair because turning it on sucks out the life of the first set instantly. so, when you put in the second pair, you have to buy a guarantee to make sure they don't break. then you have to go back and get a different tickle me elmo to replace the first one that already died.

that's what it felt like fixing my car over the past 2 weeks. it's only 2 years old...and i take care of my things. lame lame lame

also,
i had a marvelous moment with josh as we were taking a stroll through tanner park (dog park)...i learned to whistle. i never have really tried and suddenly, i made a whistle noise (for 1815th of a second) and we looked at each other alarmed, gave a hive five, and kept walking. seeing new borns doesn't make me want babies, but seeing a puppy makes me want a dog. ...and a house to have a backyard to put the dog in...and money to pay for the food for the dog...and a babysitter for the dog for when we leave town.
so, i guess we'll stay here for now.