Birthday Week

I just had my 26th birthday on Friday.  It was a big one, full of... stuff, and things....

Free food is always good and a couple years ago I signed up for birthday clubs with a ton of restaurants and now each year I get freebies.  We had a few meals out and went up to Salt Lake to visit family.  2005 was the last time my mom saw me on my birthday.  We also went and visited with one of my mission companions and good friends. His daughter just had a birthday, and it was fun picking out princess toys and accessories for her.

I got Doctor Who Yahtzee from my mom, Allison and I have played that quite a few times now. And she gave me a coupon book...  Hehe, best present ever...ish... and we're not talking last minute, quickly hand written coupon book because you forgot.  This was done on the computer with pictures and well thought out gifts... she also used the sewing machine to make the pages perforated for easy tearing and redeemability.

The car was also finally fixed, again.  The parking break has had issues and once it was "fixed" it didn't actually hold us if we were on a hill. Now it is all good and our car likes us again for taking care of it.

We again went to Studio C on Saturday night.  It is a lot of fun to go to a live taping of a TV show. The atmosphere is great and you get to see them set up the sets and what goes on between shooting the scenes.  Over all fun experience and a perk for still living in Utah.

Healty and back to busy.

We’re both feeling a lot better this week. Woohoo! Good thing too because it’s been a busy week, though not overwhelming.

On Monday we had our All-Staff Training at the library. In other words, the library was closed to patrons but we still had to come in. We really enjoyed it though, especially since Café Rio catered our lunch. We learned some great things, heard from Provo’s mayor, and had a police presentation about active shooters in the workplace. We watched this video which was pretty powerful. This was the second time I’ve seen it and I got pretty emotional both times. It’s not gory or anything, but it’s powerful in such a way that reminds you this could happen anywhere. It’s scary to think that you could go to work one day and because of one person you might not make it home to your family, or your family might not make it home to you. That’s why I get emotional.

On Wednesday we went to another taping of Studio C. So far we’ve made it to every 9:30pm taping that they’ve had, and we’re signed up for another one this coming Saturday. I always get super excited; Studio C is such a blast! A recurring character they have this season is Ann the librarian… as a librarian I find it hilarious because no one at Provo Library is like Ann. Thank goodness otherwise we might scare all of our patrons away!

I took my car in to get fixed on Thursday. They installed the part and when I left it still didn’t feel quite right. I tested it using the ramps for the library’s underground parking and the break doesn’t hold, so I’m taking it in again tomorrow. He said he has another idea of why it might be having problems, so hopefully we’ll get it fixed and working this time.

Ezra had another quiz this week and got over 100% again. So proud! I had an article critique essay to write which I drug my feet about, but I got it done and turned in with time to spare. I was pretty happy with it so I hope my professor feels the same.

Where I usually sit and do homework at the library. It's pretty quiet first thing in the morning.

The week of continual sick, ugh

This week has been mostly about rest and relaxation.  We have remained sick and possibly got each other sick again. Allison is on the mend which hopefully means that I shortly will be too.

On the plus side Allison finished her first sewing project, an apron. Se is very excited about it and can't wait to use it.  I think she did a really great job on it. She is enjoying sewing, there were a few cases of frustration that arose but it was the sewing machines fault, mostly.

Ezra modeling the almost finished apron.

All done!

My mom spoke in Church today and that took us up to Salt Lake.  We had a great dinner and I got some of my birthday presents early since I might not see them again before my birthday. Doctor Who Yahtzee.  Hehe, the cup IS the TARDIS.  We have yet to play it, but I am sure we will enjoy it.

I'm also working on a personal project, An animation based on the Russian fairy tale the Snow Maiden. Not to be confused with Disney's upcoming adaptation of the Snow Queen, Frozen. I'll start posting images and progress on my art blog.

I'm still not very good at knowing what to say in these blog posts.

Studio C

This past week hasn’t been too terribly busy, but there were some definite highlights.

Wednesday evening we went to a taping of Studio C. It was a lot of fun. If you’re ever in Provo when they’re recording the episodes, try to get tickets (which are free). It’s an hour and a half of laughs, and you get to see the skits before they air on TV! Fun fact (aka what I think I remember from what they told us), apparently two years ago the biggest audience for any BYUtv show was for Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting, with 8,000 viewers. Today, it’s Studio C with 500,000 viewers! That’s so awesome! Ezra and I love being in the studio audience.

On Friday we went on a date to celebrate the two year anniversary of our first date. We wanted to go back to the hospital cafeteria but decided instead on Jason’s Deli in Orem. We had a gift card and only ended up paying $0.23 out of pocket. It was awesome! And there’s free ice cream! As we were sitting there eating our lunch the sky dumped snow. The flakes were huge and we could barely see University Mall just across the parking lot. Thankfully the roads weren’t too bad and by the time we had finished lunch it had stopped snowing.

While we were out and about in Orem we stopped at Jo-Ann Fabric to pick up some stuff that I needed for the apron I’m sewing. I had gotten the wrong stuff earlier, but now I’m all set! So last night instead of writing a blog post I was playing with my sewing machine. Here’s what my apron looks like at the moment. Some sewing… lots of pins.

My ladybug apron. It took forever for me to figure out the pockets on my own but I did it!

When I'm finished everything (except the ties) will be lined in black like the pockets. I wanted to go with something that was yellow and black because according to Pottermore I would be sorted into Hufflepuff.

Ezra keeping busy.

Ezra had a quiz and test this week, both of which he got As on! So proud of him! I haven’t had any assignments to turn in yet, the first one will be next week. So far my classes have consisted of reading documents, listening to lectures, and participating in weekly discussions on class discussion boards.

Oh! There is one thing that I learned that I’d like to share:

Apparently way back when (long before the printing press when books were crazy expensive), ancient monastery libraries were so protective of their books that if you didn’t return one you borrowed you could be excommunicated and cursed. Here is one such curse:

For him that stealeth, or borrow and returneth not this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain, cry aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to his agony til he sing his dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the worm that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of hell consume him forever.

A part of me wishes that we could hang a sign over the circulation counter with that curse on it… but I have a feeling the library director wouldn’t approve. Oh well.

Well, that’s all from this past week. There’s nothing exciting on the calendar for this coming week, so we’ll see what happens.

Late Post

Superbowl Sunday is over and ... Yeah didn't watch it. But this post is late, which is my usual habit for the weeks that I post.  There are so many things that I can keep up on  and yet there are tons that I always forget about or don't put up there as a priority.  Sorry to you our loyal followers, you are a mighty 9 people.

Classes are up and rolling without a hitch for both Allison and I.  She of course is doing great, and I am putting both my feet into the mix and getting As on my quizzes and tests so far.  Here's to a great semester.

I've had this open on my computer since Sunday and it is now Friday night, Allison will tell you on Sunday about our date today I'm sure.  A lot has been keeping us busy.  We watched all 10 episodes of Taken, the Sci-Fi original series from the early 2000s before they changed their name to Sy-Fy....  anyway, it was good and kept you interested.  Before that we were watching Boy Meets World, and finished all 7 seasons in a few months.  Now Allison will start reading the Provo Library Staff Book Club book to me as I draw.  I'm not much of a reader and I tend to like listening to novels more than reading them.  So this little arrangement we've got set up works well for me, hopefully her voice holds out so that she can get through The Round House by Louise Erdrich.  Which, bytheway, every time I hear the title I think of the martial arts move called a roundhouse kick. But that's probably just me.  We'll let you know how it is.

Peace, and enjoy the Lightning snow.

First Car Problem Ever

As boring as last week was, this week made up for it, so it’s a long post, sorry. First, I have never, EVER had a major issue with my car. I got it in November 2005 and it was already about two years old. It’s always run great and aside from regular maintenance I’ve never had to take it in to get it looked at. That changed this week.

Tuesday: When we left the house everything was great with the car. I dropped Ezra off on campus and I drove over to the library. When I parked at the library I pulled my parking break, as I do every time I park, and it wouldn’t lock into place. So I texted Matt, (my brother and the best mechanic I know) and Ezra to let them know what was up.

Wednesday: I called the dealership where I take my car for routine maintenance and made an appointment to get it looked at. They told me it would probably take half a day so I made the appointment for 9am the following day.

Thursday: Hello freezing rain! Thankfully I have a covered parking spot so the doors weren’t frozen shut. Ezra and I headed into town about 2.5 hours earlier than usual so that I could take my car to the dealership. We didn’t have any issues with the freezing rain until we made it to the dealership parking lot and I lost traction for a second. No damage done. They took my car into the shop and we sat down and started doing homework. Fifteen minutes later the guy comes out and says I need a new parking assembly. The nearest one is in Michigan. It would cost $450 not including tax or labor to install it. Great.

I texted Matt a lot more and asked him what he thought. At his suggestion, I didn’t order the part through the dealership and am looking into independent mechanics this week. I have an appointment to get my car seen again tomorrow (Jan 29th) so hopefully this guy (who had great ratings on Google and was recommended to me by a friend) will have something a bit more positive to say. I’m hoping for something like, “oh it’s just this small part and I can have that fixed right away.” I’d like the grand total to be under $200, but I think that might be wishful thinking. We’ll see.

Friday: First thing in the morning we went to donate blood. I love giving blood! Ezra didn’t have any problems but my iron was too low. Oh well, maybe next time. After that we went up to Salt Lake to meet a guy that bought something of Ezra’s on eBay. We met at the Salt Lake Public Library (first time I’d ever been there, it’s so huge!) and then once that was taken care of we visited Ezra’s mom and sister’s family who also live up there. We left around 5:30-6pm before the fog got really bad. I heard that by around 9pm it became so thick you couldn’t see the car in front of you.

The smog and light fog really darkened the sun in Salt Lake by 5:10pm.

Saturday: Work as usual. After work we went to a taping of the first episode of season 2 for Studio C! It was so much fun! I even got a t-shirt (which I’m wearing right now)! Definitely something we’ll try to sign up for again.

Sunday: A pretty normal Sunday. One exciting thing happened: I finally got my sewing machine out and started playing with it! I had some major frustrations for a little while with thread getting stuck in my bobbin case but Ezra fixed it for me. He’s amazing like that. :-) Maybe this week I’ll find some time to start working on my first sewing project, an apron.
 

My wonderful sewing machine!

The pattern I'm using for my first project. I'm doing the apron on the left.

So that was our week! Next week will hopefully be back to boring. The only major appointment we have is for me to get my car looked at.

After such a crazy and stressful week, here's some cuteness.

And some more cuteness. I feel better already.

The Great Purge

This week seemed to go by in a blur.  Not much excitement happened around here that we can remember.  We are on the 6th season of Boy Meets World now waiting for the new series to start.

I started to make the purge of my childhood. It has been a long time coming and I am now at a point in my life where I can arise from the dust (of my childhood), and be men (man, I'm only one after all .  My mom moved over Christmas time and it gave me a chance to go home and get the remainder of my stuff, now I am slowly working at selling it on eBay and through other sources.  It is nice to have it all under one roof for the time being, but a bit in the way....  Ok, lets face it, a huge burden to our living space.  As I sort through it, it tends to get strewn across the floor and tables, and couch... But on the plus side we were able to get the lovesac situated in a manner most befitting for the face of Boe.

I was able to finally take my bike out this past week too.  It was cold and I couldn't feel my toes for most of Friday, but it was worth it to feel the freedom of personal transportation again.

Allison sat at a desk really really board for upwards of 6 hours on Saturday helping with the Family Literacy Symposium at the Provo Library.  Shannon Hale was the guest speaker.

Allison pointed out last week that I'm not one to curl up with a book, that is mostly true, I don't do it very often, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it.  I just feel that when I'm in a long book that takes many hours to read, I could be using my time differently, like drawing or building something.  But I do get lost in art books frequently.

Allison starts up her real classes later this week and I am still working on mine. I will be stating to post more of my art on my art blog soon so go check that out too... http://ezrads.blogspot.com/