Local Radio (worse than local news, but far more charming)

Listen to this:

I may or may not have attended school in this same school district. My brother may or may not have been a teenage DJ on this station.

I was pretty pleased to hear this program highlighted on All Things Considered, the major afternoon/early evening news show on National Public Radio. Hearing the story brought back very happy family memories, especially considering that KEOM was usually the radio station of choice in the family vehicles, especially if my dad was driving.

Trip Photos

I have done my best not to overwhelm you with photos. If you want to see more, check out the album on Facebook.

Thursday:

Capitol Building

Museums:

Memorials:

Saturday & Sunday:

Family

Monday:
Shenandoah National Park

This picture has a story involved. We were hiking along a trail when we saw two bears. (Technically, I saw two bears, and Eric only saw one.) Since we were in the South, Eric decided to play the roll of a gallant hero and picked up a rock to defend my honor against the bear. Being the twenty-first century woman that I am, I also picked up a rock. We were too nervous to get any pictures of the bears. We also saw numerous deer (including two bucks!), a skunk and a gazillion chipmunks in the park.

Tuesday:

Back to the Mall:

Wednesday:
Spy Museum and the Mall one last time:

D.C. Trip Summary

I know you are dying to see our photos from Washington, D.C. Eric has the camera at work, though. Sorry. But, I will give you a list of all the things I saw, partly because people keep asking me, and I keep saying, "Everything." Here you go:

Wednesday:

• Arrival in D.C. late at night. We saw the hotel.

Thursday:

• Supreme Court
• Capitol building (including a tour)
• Ulysses S. Grant monument
• United States Botanic Garden (Dear America, Very nice indeed, but you need to go to New Zealand and see some real botanic gardens.)
  
• National Air and Space Museum
• National Gallery of Art - West
• National Gallery of Art - East
• Washington Monument (not inside)
• National World War II Memorial
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial
• Lincoln National Memorial
• Korean War Veterans Memorial
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Park
• Jefferson Memorial Park
• Dinner, back to hotel

Friday

• Drive to North Carolina to see Nate, Shalissa and the munchkins
• Stop at Pamplin Historical Park in Virginia

Saturday

• Beach
• Eric also went to a Civil War battlefield and very large military watercraft (I don't want to provide too many details about where we were in North Carolina since I intend to post pictures of my nieces and nephews.)
• Endless talking to Shalissa while the boys did their military activities.
• BYU football game. Unbearable.

Sunday

• Church
• Hang out at home with the folks.

Monday

• Drive back to D.C.
• Drive through Shenandoah National Park in Virginia
• Arrive in D.C. quite late

Tuesday

• Arlington Cemetery
• Across the Francis Scott Key Bridge to Georgetown
• Walk through Georgetown
• Washington Monument (inside this time)
• National Museum of Natural History
• Five Guys for dinner, hotel

Wednesday

• International Spy Museum
• Navy Memorial (where we ate lunch)
• National Archives
• Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (just the garden)
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Airport, home

The trip was awesome. We walked a ton. I love the Metro. A lot. Why doesn't every American city have a Metro system? It is genius. Why do people drive cars when they could ride the Metro?

Blanketing, part 4

This is the most recent blanket I finished for Matt and Michelle's baby. I finished it shortly after the little guy came (early), but it took me ages to mail. And even more ages to post pictures.

Why yes, yes, this blanket does have a hood. I have high hopes that the baby will consider it a cape when he gets big enough to consider such things.

Also, I adore this stitch. In American stitches it is a single and two doubles (in British it's a double and two triples). The pattern can be found here.

Utah State Fair

Oh, hello. I'm on my way to Washington, D.C. right now. Enjoy my pictures from the Utah State Fair while I'm gone:

This fish needs braces.

I expected the deep-fried Snickers to change my life. It did not. I was rather under-impressed.

It seems as though those are the only pictures I had. Bummer. But I will say I loved most of the Utah art. I have determined to crochet something and enter it in next year's fair. This is because I saw a really hideous afghan that won fourth place. Nobody get any ideas and try to beat me. You can enter things in your own state fairs.

My fair advice:

• Do not pay $1 to see Tiny Tim, the smallest horse in the world. I believe that he is the smallest horse in the world, but he wasn't very thrilling, and I wasn't allowed to pet him or take pictures of him. But I felt like I had the fair experience by being duped a little bit by a carnie.
• Do get very excited about going to the fair. And do get very excited about seeing all the cool and random stuff that is at the fair.
  
• Do not think about all the money it costs to get tickets and park. Just enjoy.
• Do sing the song from Camelot to your husband all the live-long day about how he may take you to the fair.
• Do not expect to see Big Tex greeting you at the fair. It is too far for him to travel, I think.
• Do tell me where all the animals were, because we never saw any or smelled any. Were we there too late at night?
• Do not wear your adorable shoes that have practically no padding in the bottom.
• Do not let your husband convince you that it might get cold later and therefore you must take his sweater in with you or else you will be cold. It won't get cold, just like it hasn't gotten cold all week.
  
• Do tell me your wildest fair stories.
  

Haircut

I don't post about my hair very often. But here you go:

This is me last night (with a deep-fried Snickers bar):

And this is me today:

Eric took a few pictures of me where I was just smiling, but the lighting was even worse on my hair for those, and I didn't feel like taking any more pictures. You get the idea though. Bangs are involved.

Huzzah, BYU!

Eric and I live in the heart of the major BYU student neighborhood. I won't give out our address or anything, but we live only a few blocks from campus, and I would venture to guess that at least 80% of the residents of our apartment complex are BYU students. Sometimes it's kind of annoying, like when school starts back again. Or when large groups of loud single people go walking by our open window at night. Or when a home football game is going on and we can't leave the neighborhood or get back in it.

But tonight - Tonight was a different story. Eric and I watched the BYU vs. OU game at his parents' house, and on the way home, we saw literally hundreds of students milling around University Avenue, standing on corners and cheering. Cars were honking, and the mood was overall joyous and entertaining. Mixed with a fair amount of shock.

We're not students any more, which is why I think I'm generally annoyed living where I live. I feel rather out of place. But tonight I was happy to fit right in with a bunch of rowdy BYU fans who didn't know what to do with themselves.