proof

for those of you who already know that i am blond in every sense of the word (i have never colored my hair) you don't need to read this entry. for those of you who would like to get a good laugh by reading some proof, read on.
so about a month ago i had a run in with the curb and a lamp post with no other vehicle than our new car. it really only scratched the paint, no real body damage. i just got around to going to a body shop for an estimate, and then called the insurance for their estimate. they sent eddie to look at our car and compare estimates. we agreed eddie would drive to our house and then he would follow me to the ups plant, where the car was currently parked. here's the chronological order of events:
1. eddie pulls up in our driveway and calls me to let me know he is here.
2. i run out of the house, grabbing the cell, the copy of martin's body shop estimate, and my wallet.
3. i go and shake eddie's hand, hand him the copy (patting myself on the back because i am so responsible), and say, "all right, follow me..."
4. i then realize i don't have my keys. in either hand or any pockets.
5. i look at eddie in desperation.
6. i think vickie (our landlord, we rent a section of their house) will have a key i can use to get back inside.
7. there's a note on vickie's garage door to "conway"--"i'm gone, but the garage door is open, get to work!"
8. i think, "maybe the garage door is open to michal, too, not just conway..." alas, it is locked. i can't go inside and try to find the key myself.
9. maybe cindy is home (more renters in another section of the house), i run down and knock on their door. she is home (!), and i beg her to take me on a fieldtrip so eddie can see david's car, parked at the ups plant. she agrees with a smile and we pack up baby alex.
10. eddie follows us to ups, does a photo shoot, prints up his estimate, and cuts us a check.
11. we drive home and vickie is now home.
12. i knock on vickie's door and she immediately knows why i am there (this isn't the first time i've locked myself out). she hands me a few keys to try (they aren't labeled and we can never remember which one is for our apartment because they all look alike).
13. simultaneously: vickie's phone rings and she answers it; i remember i didn't lock their side of the laundry room, i think i can cut through to our apartment quicker through there. i mouth to her what i'm going to do and she nods in understanding. explanation: we rent an upstairs portion of the house (see apt #3); our side of the house connects to their side of the house through the walkway laundry room. there are 4 slide locks, two on each door, one on the laundry room side, and one on the house side.
14. i run upstairs and, to my relief, their side of the laundry room opens.
15. i step into the laundry room and close the door behind me. i didn't bother to turn the light on because i figured in two steps i'll be home anyway.
16. i take two steps to our laundry room door. the handle turns and i push. the door does not open. i may not have locked their sliding lock, but our sliding lock was locked on our house side.
17. i went back to their door to just go back down through vickie's house. while their sliding lock was unlocked, their handle was locked.
18. i was stuck in a 5'x7' area in the dark.
19. first item of business: find the light switch.

no music, just lyrics

david and i rented music & lyrics the other night...we weren't very impressed. it was very flat. we thought the best part was the spoof 80s music video in the beginning. from there it went downhill--the story never really picked up, and never made you really care about the characters enough to understand their idiosyncrasies, or how and why there was a "love" story in the end.
anyway, i thought it'd be fun to post some of my own lyrics. once upon a time i was artistic and poetic, and a friend from high school asked me to write some lyrics for his band. i dutifully handed them off to him. last i heard, he was studying guitar at university of the arts in pa, and was trying out as a guitarist in jewel's band. so if these lyrics ever get somewhere else, remember where you heard them first! imagine this being sung by one of those indie rock voices--

"she's once more"

she's waitin for you to come round once again
walkin through the triangle with the trapeze man
crossin the tightrope wearin the wind in her seaweed tresses
swingin low and followin that chariot
to carry her home
and catch her sins
as she lies beneath the fallen elephant slums

standin on the edge again
no more lies in no more cans
wearin the ring and fakin the smile
and she's once more
once more

and will you trace your nude harmony once more
play me in your littered chords once more
with or without
deliberate intentions
bearded or blushed inspections
braided or removed impressions once more
ruby red and white stops signs
in the kaleidescope of circus colors no more
in this white suburbia
and she's once more

standin on the edge again
no more lies in no more cans
wearin the ring and fakin the smile
and she's once more
yeah, and she's once more

csi: georgia

i love csi las vegas. i love the terminology, the cases, the characters. most of all i love that evidence speaks for itself, and leaves trails and facts you can't dispute. looks like union city, georgia has their own hard working csi crew! good thing we have crime labs watching out for all those cops, trying to prevent heart disease and hypertension due to sodium overdose.

mount timpanogos conquered

david and a friend, dustin, hiked mt. timp saturday morning. it was a huge production even getting to this point. david first started talking about going alone, which i utterly refused. then i made him over pack--a first-aid kit, enough food to last them 3+ meals, water to make them look like camels, extra socks, etc. they left at 330am, thinking it'd take them 11-12 hours to do the whole hike, and they'd be back in the afternoon to still have some of the day left. i was excited to have a productive day at home doing saturday chores and some reading for school. i received a photo message on my phone at 7am, a picture from somewhere along timp, i thought. i texted david, "are you at the top?" he wrote back "3.5hrs". i thought that meant they still had 3.5 hrs left to go until getting to the top...then about 10am david called and said, "we're on our way home." "you mean you're walking down now?" "no, i mean we're in the car, we'll be home in 20 minutes." what?! i haven't even showered yet! when david told me 3.5hrs, that's how long it took them to get to the top, and then they raced down to the bottom. turns out dustin is a better hiking buddy for david than i am--they made it up to the top of timp and back down in 6 1/2 hours. that's quite a pace, if you ask me. they'd have had to roll me down the mountain had i gone with them...some things sure are better left to the conquering boys.

vacation of the year

we took a week off mid-august for our vacation this year, and as soon as we got back life kicked right back into gear...so i am just now posting photos from our great adventure. my mom came out and we hit the road from the petrified lava fields in idaho to yellowstone park and then the grand teton valley. we drove all the scenic routes, stayed in all the places with the most scenic views, and took all the most scenic hikes. i had a hard time keeping up with mom, she and her little walking stick were bookin' it while little ol' me was lagging behind every corner. and i was also the only one who ever seemed to be hungry! every time i turned around i was ready for a meal--all that calorie-expending hiking really took it out of me. i'm such a whimp...
we loved driving through that country--the air is so crisp and clean. we did run in to fires in yellowstone, the east gates were closed, and the air was really hazy and smoky. we stayed outside the north entrance to yellowstone (in cook city), and when we woke up one morning there was ash on our cars, as though a fire had been burning right there. the wind had actually carried it all that way. anyway, the outdoors quality was really different from utah--the air cleaner and clearer, no valley smog or inversion. when we did finally make it back into utah david and i gave each other a look that said, "what are we doing here? why aren't we living in montana yet?!" another interesting note--the worse drivers i have ever met are utah drivers. i feel safer on the beltway in dc. we had great driving time and road/traffic conditions the entire trip, until we crossed the idaho/utah border. as soon as we did the air was heavy and thick and hot again, and within minutes we passed two really bad crash scenes with paramedics.





we even got to see montana mom and dad, christian and robin, daniel and met his wife amanda, and ryan, rachel, and bethany! it was great to have spent time with family and friends--we really wish we could have spent more time with everyone. vacations are always a good time to remind us what really matters and how to live life! thanks for all the great views, shopping sprees, and cowboy hats!!