A Lovely Summer Break....

...is now coming to a close. 

I can't say I'm terribly upset. I like autumn and school.  

In fact, my summer was only one month and two weeks this years because I took summer courses (and learned all about YAL and Conrad and Casey Anthony...random, right?). But, I do realize that I didn't do a whole lot of blogging this season. And the few blogs I added were sparse and poorly assembled. Can you blame me? Summer was calling my name with it's enticing weather and an endless list of "to do"'s (including ANOTHER move...Blake and I now call ourselves transient bums).

So allow me to catch you up...

1. Book list. I read like...50 some odd titles this summer amounting to 25,000ish pages and sixteen books a month. Even for me, that's a lot! I updated my "Words" tab, so if you're looking for a good read, check it out.


2. The Move. Oh my. Third floor. My poor family was dying after going up and down hundreds of times. How do we have so much stuff!?! Not only that, we moved a week before finals! I can't say we're done moving (the extra bedroom is stuffed with crud, and we haven't done much decorating) but we do have everything we need. Maybe we should just trash the rest...


3. Seven. Or rather, Seven the Destroyer. 
Did you know we have another dog? Oh my, we're going to be we are dog people and all my life I swore I'd never buy a small dog....BUT, I will say, I love Seven. He idolizes me, follows me around, cuddles up to me...it's hard to be too mad at something that is so loving...then again, when he ripped up Blake's car seat, I found some wrath for him. 


Anyway, he's a purebred Mini Schnauzer, brought here from a puppy mill in Texas. I'd recommend adoption to anyone who's considering getting a dog. We love both of our pups.




You may be asking yourself why we named him Seven....if you know anything about Seinfeld, you'll know. :)






4. CPK California Club. It's my favorite summer-time pizza recipe. You should give it a try, mix up the ingredients to fit you.

Use your favorite pizza dough recipe (or buy some). Top it with lots of Mozzarella, crumbled bacon, and chicken (I use rotisserie chicken, and freeze whatever's left over for another meal). 


Notice there is no sauce in this recipe. Blake was freaked out by this fact (so was my dad, LOL), BUT once they tried the completed version, they were converted!


Bake it off until the dough's cooked through and the cheese is nice and brown and bubbly.


Shred some lettuce and dress is with either ranch or caesar. Dice some tomatoes and avocado, and VOALA! 


CPK California Club Pizza. 


Bon Appetite



5. New job.


Blake has once again found a new job. We both think this one will be a better environment for him. I hope we're right!


6. The painting of the nasty apartment cabinets...this is the current project I'm working on. I didn't expect it to take this long (the wood is super absorbent, and needs four or five coats of paint to get the coverage I want, UGH) But it will look amazing once it's done, especially with the new flooring.


7. We decided to post the Audi on KSL. It was just too expensive to fix, and we needed something more spacious. I don't know if I was sad or shocked when it sold in a mere three hours!


I now have a 2007 Nissan Altima, and I love it. It drives even smoother than the Audi, and has a V6 engine.


That is all.

My brand-new photo editing tool!: iSplash...

Can't wait until I have more time to mess around with this tool. Basically, you choose which colors show in the picture. Gotta love Bri's bright orange jacket!

Yellowstone!

A Defense of the Undefendable

It's becoming clear to me that people are really curious to know what one might do with a degree in literature/English/anything artistic. I have to believe it's merely curiosity, otherwise I'd have to believe that people are rude and ignornant.

Just the other day I met some random person, who asked me about my major. When I told him, his response was, "Oh, so you're just an Enlgish major."

Just an English major?!?!?!?!  Just! You gotta be freaking kidding me!

Even though I'm "just" an English major, I'd like to point out the following things.

I can...

Blow your mind with complex philosophical paradigms, including those of Marx, Lacan, Foucault, and Beauvoir.

Read and comprehend a piece of literature while applying a variety of theoretical constructs, including, but not limited to: Old Criticism, New Criticism, Reader-Response, Feminism, Queer Theory, Psychoanalysis, New Historicism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Cultural Materialism.

Define the following words: Episteme, ontological status, aporia, diachrony, synchrony, logocentrism, transcendental signified.

Understand the world, and the people in it, better because I dedicate myself to studying them through literature.

Write in my sleep.

Add and subtract without calculators (shocker!)

Suceed in a society that favors first level thinkers and men.

Understand that literature is not only a reflection of our society, but a powerful force that molds our minds, behavoirs and history.

Do whatever I want. I choose to major in English. I could have very easily taken a different road. In fact, in another life, I very nearly became a science major.

Most importantly, I understand the niceties of society and know (without a doubt) that my knowledge of literature will serve me much better than who-ever-that-kid-was-that-slammed-my-major's vast knowlegde of poli-sci. (I will also take this opportunity to mention that his shirt did not match his shorts and his breath smelt of pickled eel).

And if all else fails, I can take you out back and smack you with my degree.

That is all.

Oh yeah...And for those utilitarians out there that sadly believe that income is the sole goal of education, here is a small sampling of English majors who make a whole lot more money than you and I will ever see...


■James Cameron (director, editor, producer, screenwriter of “Titanic”)

■Mario Cuomo (former governor of New York)

■Matt Damon (actor, screenwriter)

■Michael Eisner (Walt Disney CEO)

■Harrison Ford (actor)

■Jodi Foster (actress, filmmaker)

■Kathryn Fuller (World Wildlife Fund CEO)

■A. Bartlett Giamatti (President, Yale University and Commissioner of Baseball)

■Stephen King (novelist)

■Conan O’Brien (talk show host, writer)

■Joe Paterno (football coach, Penn State)

■Christopher Reeve (actor, writer, director)

■Sally Ride (astronaut)

■Susan Sarandon (actress)

■Diane Sawyer (broadcast journalist)

■Paul Simon (songwriter, singer)

■Sting (singer, songwriter, musician, actor, environmental activist)

■Steven Spielberg (filmmaker)

■Brandon Tartikoff (television executive)

■Clarence Thomas (U.S. Supreme Court Justice)

■Emma Thompson (actress, producer, screenwriter)

■Harold Varmus (Nobel laureate in medicine, Director of National Institute of Health)

■Barbara Walters (broadcast journalist)

■Pete Wilson (former governor of California)

■Reese Witherspoon (actress)

■Renee Zellweger (actress)

The Art of Doing Nothing

Since I've taken a job as receptionist I've had to master the art of doing nothing. Everyone here knows it. In fact, many have compliment my ability to stay occupied. There's such a high turnover rate for this position, I'm convinced it is because others have tried, and failed, to master this art form.

I wish to share with you my knowledge.

1-Break time into units.

I learned this trick from the Hugh Grant film "About A Boy". When you're given nine hours to do one hour of work, it is easy to be intimidated. The key to sucess is to break that time down into units. Making it through 30 minutes is much easier than making it through an enitre day.

2-Break down your work.

When I first took this position, I repeatedly made the folly of doing all my work in the first hour of work, leaving the rest of the day to do nothing. I would also quickly exhausted my "things to do while doing nothing" options. This made the last few hours of work excruciating. Now I spread out the responsibilities and activities. In the morning I open up the branch, in the late morning I check the "ready for funding" que, in the afternoon I prepare files for the courier, in the mid-afternoon I audit all the logs and drawers, etc...

3-Keep a list of things to do when you're doing nothing.

Through the weeks, I've progressively developed a list of things to fill up my "nothing" time, keeping in mind that each activity should take no longer than one or two units (other wise I wear myself out). I also like to appear busy, that way I occasionally fool even myself into believing that I'm actually doing something worthwhile. Activities include: Take a nice stroll through the branch, chat-up a member, aimlessly surf KSL.com, write in my blog, find a pirated copy of a book online and read a few chapters, write an e-mail to someone outside the credit union, etc...

By and large, I think it's safe to say I'm now a master of the art of doing nothing. Is that a marketable skill?It's hard to say.

The Dog Poop Cookie

You know the Dog Poop Cookie Metaphor? Right? The one where you decide to make Chocolate Chip cookies so you spend time and energy gathering ingredients, mixing, creaming, stiring, measuring, baking, all in an effort to make the perfect cookie.

But by some cruel twist of fate you realize a small piece of dog poop somehow made it's way into the batter. Though the cookies look the same, smell the same, and probably taste the same, it's definitely not the same. In fact, the whole batch is ruin all because of one tiny piece of dog poop.

Sometimes I feel like my life is a banner for the dog poop cookie metaphor. After dedicating time, energy, concern, and who know what else to life I still somehow manage to let slip a tiny bit of dog poop into my life-batter. And whabam, we're back at square one, starting the recipe all over again.

Even though someone might look at my life and say, Oh, that looks like a delicious cookie! I want one!

Little do you know, it's chuck full of dog poop!

Then again, there's plenty about my life that is delicious. I just can't help but wonder when I'll stop allowing that little piece of dog poop access to my cookies.

To Bri...

...who knows that saying nothing is sometimes the best thing to say.