Smorgasbord (Now isn't that a fun word!)

So, it has been forever since I've posted and I've had posts I wanted to post, but I never got around to posting them, so welcome to Marcie's Smorgasbord today! :) I think I'll work from oldest to newest information...

Daughtry Concert

This was the second year that Elizabeth and I saw Daughtry. We both love him and his music, so it seems it's becoming an annual event for us! He performs outdoors at the Red Rock in their Backyard (which is actually their pool). It's really fun, you can sit with your feet in the pool while you wait for the concert...here's our feet.


I actually did the Henna tattoo on Elizabeth's foot - pretty good huh? That's another thing to post about another time - I love Henna!! I have been doing tattoos on myself, friends and coworkers every since I did a teen program at the library with it the end of July. It's so cool.

Well, since you've seen our feet, here's our faces - see how happy we are to be seeing Chris again!?

That's my new hair too! I got it done the day of the concert - really dark with blond streaks! I love it!! This concert was also Elizabeth's introduction to the FatBurger Turkey Burger - she's hooked (as I have been for a while)! We had a really great time and I hope he's back next year!


Next item of business - Jimmy and I have been getting ready for our big trip to South Korea and we're just about there! We leave one week from today - I can't wait. I'll blog all about it when I get back. In preparation we've bought luggage, gifts for family, and essential items (including new jeans & pjs for Jimmy). We've been planning this trip for so long I can't believe it's finally here!


So, today is the first day of school - the library was really busy with the middle school kids (around 2:30pm), but we didn't get the rush after the elementary school let out, which could have been because of our crazy rain storm! It rained so hard. We have a huge leak in our library, which has leaked the last two times it's rained as well, but it still hasn't been fixed. We collected most of the water in a huge Tupperware bin - you know the ones. It stands about knee-high to me and is probably two and half feet long or so. Well, within about 20 minutes or so it had about 10 inches of water in it - crazy - that's not a leak, it's a hole in the roof!! Our director and assistant director will be here in the morning for a meeting, so I am leaving everything overnight - hopefully they'll get the severity of the problem when they see it tomorrow!

Well, that's about all I have. I probably won't post again until I return from my trip so check back in a couple of weeks!

I Thought Dead Fish Float to the Top

A few days ago during a craving for ice cream, Jimmy stopped at the convenience store up the street and bought a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream. I love Phish Food - it's chocolate ice cream with marshmallow creme, caramel and fudge fish - in other words, it's heaven. Well this particular pint that he brings home is a little weird - it's kind of more icey than creamy. Does that make sense? I don't know how else to explain it, but that what it was, also there were no fudge fish. At one point I decided that the ice cream had probably thawed out and been refrozen, accounting for the weird texture and that would mean the fish probably all sank to the bottom and refroze there. I got to the bottom this morning, the fish were all there. Too many to eat! They are good when you get one in a bite, but when you get three or four in a bite, it's a little too much to handle! Now I'm wondering just how unfrozen this ice cream got and if it's okay that I ate it! What's your favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor?

Memories

The White Girls

So, I'm a little behind the game - it's been quite some time since my last post and I've been reading my sisters' blogs and came across a little thing on each of theirs...basically, they posted about memories and asked their friends and family to post comments that include a favorite memory with them. After posting a comment on their blog, you should put the message on your own blog so others can leave memories for you. Does that make sense? Well, it was really cute, but I was late on the draw and couldn't think of just one memory of each of them to include in their blogs, so since they're the ones who read my blog I thought I'd post some memories for them here!

Playing Restaurant - Now you have to imagine this - we were a little old (well, my mom, Corey and I were) to be playing pretend, but my mom is a wonderful individual and I believe her involvement in our lives let us be children when we were children and thrive and grow and create (I love you Mom!), so when I was in middle school we were playing restaurant during lunch over summer break. I'm not sure if I've got this all right, but Mom was the cook (my favorite lunches were Top Ramen or Chicken Chow Mein - in the can) and Ashley was the superstar - I think she would pretend to talk to Patrick Swayze on her cell phone! I can't remember Corey and I's jobs, but I know there was a food critic and we were always calling security! We sat around the table and took on our roles. It was fun, it was carefree and it let us use our imagination.

Rummy - In the Middle of the Night - Play to 10,000 (or so!) - My dad took fishing trips with my Uncle Ray one summer. They would go overnight and do their thing, so Mom, Corey, Ashley and I would do our thing. We took up playing Rummy. We would play into the wee hours of the night and rack up scores like no one's business. Sometimes we would play normally, but usually we ended up playing in teams - Mom and Ashley vs. Corey and me. But, we'd deal out 14 cards per team so we had hands like crazy - it was so much fun! Sometimes we'd play where you had to pick up all the cards on top of the card you needed from the discard pile and sometimes we'd play where you had to pick up the whole pile if you wanted to use something from it. Sometimes we'd make a number wild, sometimes a whole suit was wild. Get the White Girls together, staying up late into the night, and you have some pretty punch drunk girls on your hands!

Making the Video - For some reason all these memories seem to be from the same summer, but I can't really remember if they were. We spent one summer anticipating a visit from our cousin Stacey from Texas. We just didn't know what to do with ourselves, so we made a video for her - taping segments each day expressing our excitement and providing our brand of entertainment - it was great! If you haven't seen the video, just ask, Mom has it and will show it! It's much more funny to us since we spent so much time and effort (again, thanks Mom for encouraging our creativity) on this project, but anyone who sees it gets a good laugh out of it!

As we all grew up I watched my sisters turn into wonderful women! I am so thankful for the childhood that we spent together and for the influence they and my Mom have had in my life! Here's to memories!

Diego at MGM Grand

When I first starting talking to Jimmy about setting up a blog we thought it would be fun to include restaurant reviews...so here's the first of many to come (I hope!). On Saturday evening we dined at Diego, a Mexican restaurant at MGM Grand. I had picked Diego for my birthday dinner two years ago, however, Jimmy ended up needing to cover a deposition in Los Angeles on my birthday, so we ended up taking a trip to southern California for my birthday that year instead. We never ended up making up the dinner, so finally Jimmy booked reservations (to celebrate our 10 year dating anniversary!) and we went!

I'm not sure if Jimmy is going to write his own review, so I'll include my opinion of both of our meals. Also, I apologize in advance for the photos - I need to get a smaller camera because my small digital camera is not that small, so I didn't want to take it with me. Instead I opted for the camera on my phone, which actually takes really good pictures - just not in bad lighting! I promise to get better pictures next time. Here's a good one of Jimmy and I before we left though (thank goodness for self-timers!).

So, we get dressed and head out to MGM for our dinner. We arrived a little early for our reservation so we scouted out the lion habitat and lost $40 on video poker, then headed into the restaurant. The hostess was nice and the decor was neat. The colors are vibrant shades, but muted by low lighting. Overall, a cool effect! So, first someone brings out water, chips, three types of salsa and three flavored salts. The chips and the salsas were delicious (Jimmy didn't care much for the green salsa, I think it was made from tomatillos). We weren't quite sure what to do with the salts, so I finally dipped a chip in one, and the salt stuck the chip - interesting. I think it was more fun to look at the salts in the little dishes than it was to actually eat them! Here's the chips and salsa and salts. Sorry about the quality, I know it's really bad! So, when our waiter arrived we ordered tableside guacamole. The guacamole man brings a cart to your table, asks if you'd like your guac mild, medium or hot. Then, he mashes up avocado and adds lime juice, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, onions, fresh jalapenos, and cilantro. Yummy! Jimmy decided right away on the carne asada (here's the description from their menu: Carne Asada a la Oaxaca - Beef Rib Eye Steak Marinated in Red Chile Adobo, Grilled over a Mesquite Fire, Mole Coloradito, Frijoles Maneados and Tequila Laced Roasted Cactus and Onion Salsa.). I on the other hand struggled to decide...I couldn't make up my mind, so I decided to go with a classic Mexican dish - enchiladas (here's the description from the menu: Enchiladas Oaxaqueñas - Fresh Corn Tortillas Cooked with Tangy Red Chile Sauce Rolled with Chicken, Poblano and Onion Finished with Oaxacan and Chihuahua Cheese, Diced Onion, and Cilantro.).

The food came out very quickly! Which was surprising because the restaurant was quite full. Here's my enchiladas. They were very tasty. I am not usually much of an enchilada eater so I'm not entirely sure why I ordered them, but I did! The only not-so-good thing I have to say about them is that they were not saucy enough for me. To me, enchiladas should be cooked in sauce and really saucy and cheesy. They were cheesy, but a little on the dry side. What sauce there was on them was good - just enough spiciness to make it fun! The chicken was good and the cheese delicious! It came with a side of Spanish rice which was good as well. I would give the dish a 7.5 out of 10.

Jimmy's dish, however, was out of this world! Here's a picture. Okay - so first of all Jimmy orders his steaks medium rare - which usually totally grosses me out when I think about it and look at it too much, but I think is really delicious when I actually make it past that and eat it! When I think of carne asada, I generally think of smaller pieces of meat - usually sliced or cut up in some way. This was a big ole steak though! Reading the description from the menu just doesn't do it justice! It had the perfect flavor to it - I don't know if it was the marinade, the way it was grilled, the sauce, or a combination of all those things - but it was fabulous! The smokey flavor in it was delectable! Jimmy's dish came with a side of beans (which I ate with my rice!) that were also yummy. I would give his dish a 10! It was that good!

A meal out is not complete without dessert - even if you're stuffed! We settled on the Chocolate tres leches cake (from the menu: Chocolate tres leches cake with crunchy meringues and Mexican chocolate Ice cream) - translation - chocolate three milks cake (not sure I want to know what kinds of milks - some of their desserts did have goats milk caramel...hmmm). Here's another crummy picture. The dessert was delicious! I especially loved the meringues topping the cake. They were crispy on the outside but soft and marshmallowy on the inside...yum...if I could I would have ordered a box of them to go! So good! The ice cream was sprinkled with nuts that were coated in cinnamon - delicious!

Overall it was a great dinner and a good experience. Would I go back? Not sure - it was good food and fun but I don't necessarily know if it worth a repeat visit. Would I recommend it others? Sure - but definitely order the carne asada! Hasta la vista!

The Results Are In...

Thank you to my family for thinking that we don't really watch much TV - really did you see their guesses on how many hours we'd watch? So, it was actually eight days that we recorded our TV watching for and our grand total of combined TV watching hours was...drumroll please... 54.25. At first I was thinking - whoa, that's a lot of TV. But when I did a little math I found that first of all, that's only a smidgen over 27 hours each, on average. So, over the course of eight days, that works out to be not quite three and a half hours a day. And, it's not like we actually watched three and a half hours of TV everyday - on the weekend we watched a little more since we hung out at home mostly, so we probably watch a couple hours a day usually. That's not too bad. However, I am sure there are many more constructive things I could be doing with my 27 hours a week!

Another item of note in the TV watching diary - probably about 90% of what we watch is reality TV. We love it! Some of our favorites during the week: So You Think You Can Dance, The Real World (Hollywood), Wipeout, and Hell's Kitchen (the season finale - Yay Christina!!). It was interesting to take such a close look at something I hadn't really paid much attention to. I mean, I know we watch some TV but it was fun to see exactly how much and what it is we watch. Oh yeah - an entry all about TV wouldn't be right without mentioning that I faithfully record and watch my soap opera too - All My Children! I mailed the TV diary off yesterday and our $30 has long been spent. It was fun though!

The Nielsen Ratings Family

So a couple of weeks ago we kept getting calls that showed up on our caller ID from the Nielsen Ratings. One day when I picked up the phone to check the caller ID as it was ringing, I actually answered it and it was the Nielsen Ratings. I thought they were going to ask a couple of questions about our TV habits, but they actually asked if we'd be willing to keep track of our TV watching for a week in a TV diary and mail it back to them at the end of the week. So, I agreed. So early last week we receive our big envelope in the mail. The envelope included a welcome letter, instructions, two TV diaries (one for each TV in the house, even though our second TV isn't even plugged in), and $30 in cash. Our TV viewing week began on Thursday and you basically have to write down the station and channel, program, and who's watching it for whatever time slot your on. Then, if you're watching something you've recorded (which we do A LOT of with our DVR) you also have to write when it originally aired.

Things we've discovered in the past four days:
I will read and Jimmy will play video games to avoid writing anything in the diary.
If you don't watch a program for more than five minutes you don't have to write it down so Jimmy channel surfs even more aggressively than usual.

We really do keep track of the things we're watching though. It will be interesting to look back at it at the end of the week and see just how many hours are wasted on random TV watching. Anyone want to guess how many combined hours of TV watching we'll have logged at the end of the week?

Weekend Highlights

We celebrated the Fourth of July in Brian Head this past weekend! We had such a good time! Jimmy and I slept in a little on Friday (7/4) then got up and packed our bags in preparation for our weekend excursion. We packed up Hannah's stuff and dropped her off at Jimmy's mom and dad's house to spend the night. We then made a drive-through stop at McDonald's (if you haven't had their iced hazelnut coffee you must make a trip to get one!) and headed out of town. The drive out was pretty uneventful except for our stop in Cedar City, UT to pick up a watermelon for the barbecue. We stopped at Lin's (or maybe it was Lind's). The parking lot was crazy - everyone stocking up for their July 4th barbecues, I suppose. So, finally Jimmy maneuvers us into parking spot and we get out of the car. Well, this spot was next to a van (on Jimmy's side), so as he gets out a young boy in the van next to us says "Excuse me..." so Jimmy turns toward the van, the boy then tries to sell us some tamales. Weird! After picking the perfect watermelon (and a Snickers bar for Jimmy) we were back on the road.

The drive from Cedar City into Brian Head is fairly short and very scenic. When we arrive we head straight to the Cedar Breaks Lodge which is where my parents were staying. After hanging out there for a while and trying to teach Saydi (age 7) and Heidi (age 4) how to play pool in their game room we head to my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rance's cabin for our barbecue. My Uncle Wilford, Aunt Penny, and cousins Ken & Lisa joined us for the barbecue as well. The food was fantastic and the cabin is beautiful! Here's a view from their deck...

It really is in the middle of the forest...gorgeous. So, we enjoyed our barbecue, then most everyone headed out the field to watch the fireworks, but Jimmy and I stayed at the cabin with Mom, Dad, Ashley, Kelly, Uncle Rance and Aunt Kathy to watch the fireworks there. We had a great view!

Here are some more photos:

Jimmy & I with Mom & Dad

Fireworks from the cabin's deck

Jimmy & I with Uncle Rance & Aunt Kathy

We ended up staying at the cabin with my aunt & uncle - and woke up the next morning to a delicious breakfast. Ashley, Aunt Kathy and I took a walk down to the crafts fair later in the morning - I bought the cutest turtle for my garden! Then Jimmy and I headed back to Vegas! Hannah was glad to see us and we still had a lot of the weekend to get things done to be ready to head back to work on Monday!