Thought Grapes

Hello again, friends.

My California trip was lovely, and I've got a post or two coming...but I need to grab pictures from Jami first, and that won't likely happen until Monday, so sit tight, and know that those pictures and stories will (eventually) be blogged.

In the meantime...

I am completely astounded and utterly flabbergasted at how quickly time marches on. I swear it was January 1 just yesterday. (Recall how I rang in 2012 in style? :) How can it already be March 2nd? (Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! That man was.a.GENIUS.) It hit me last week, as I was visiting with Mama and Jami, that I am within 3 months of turning 30. (So far I'm not dreading it, but still! Thirty is, like, a milestone for adults...right?)

Anyway...2012, although FLYING ON BY, continues to be a good year. Not exactly thrilled about winter rearing its ugly head just as February was on its way out, but what're you gonna do? I live in Idaho, after all, and it's been a really mild winter up until very recently...

Happy Leap Day, indeed...

I met my friend Missy for lunch today...which means I also got to hang out with Andrew. Which is awesome. (Thanks for the fun day, Missy!! And thanks for sharing Andrew for a while!)

LOOK AT THAT CUTE FACE! Oh, I have a special place in my heart for Andrew, I do...

I guess I'll end this post like I've ended some other (disappointing) posts: with pictures from my Instagram photo-a-day challenge (as proof that I'm still trying to be somewhat creative):

DRINK

HANDWRITING

GREEN

NIGHT
(watching the oscars with jami, aunt ramona, and uncle jack)

SOMETHING NEW
(light blue skinny cords)

MY SHOES

LISTENING TO
(the dude plays mr. rochester makes me swoon!)

Happy weekend, y'all!

lunch break...

On my drive home for lunch, I noticed a few things that caught my interest. Luckily, I had my handy-dandy camera with me. Now I shall blog it all...

I saw this car and thought of Back to the Future

Interesting plates, I might add...

Brooke is kind of annoyed that she has dandelions in her front yard. I think I counted 6 on my way inside. (5.5, technically; one of them is so close to dead it can only count as 0.5) Anyway...I can understand her annoyance; dandelions are weeds (unless presented to you by a small child, in which case they are beautiful flowers). However...on the drive home, I saw the following. (Prepare yourself...)

That's...a LOT of dandelions.
The poor lawn is being massacred!
(Please note: this is NOT Brooke's yard!)

I actually turned into a neighboring neighborhood to get that picture; as I turned into a cul-de-sac to turn around and head home, I saw another interesting "yard."

No dandelions in sight, my friends!
Not much fun to play in, either, I'd imagine...

Umm...I just saw a spider run across the top of my keyboard; silent screamed, grabbed a kleenex...and now he's gone! *gulp* Here, spidey spidey!

That's all for now, folks...

promises, promises...

A few things I thought I'd never do:

#1) I swore I'd never do this by myself ever again. Alas...my car needed it. It was filthy and sad; the last time I did it was roughly 9 months ago. Aaaand...I asked a certain someone for help, and he told me no. Twice. So on Saturday I broke down and waxed my car. Alone.

Fortunately, it was sunny and warm (but not hot) and it didn't take me as long as it did last July. I'm pleased with the results.

So shiny...

#2) I never want to ride a bike with flat tires. Any distance. Ever again.

Do you even recognize how difficult/exhausting it is to ride a bike with two nearly flat tires? Do you? It's been months since I last rode my bike; while it hung in the garage in the cold Idaho winter, the tires deflated some. Understandable, I suppose.

On Saturday, my good friend Brooke invited me to ride our bikes over to Tautphus Park to visit our friend Lisa at the Earth Day Celebration...thingy. I pulled my bike off the rack and hopped on, thinking I'd take off at top-speed and make it to the park in no time. Alas...it just wasn't in the cards; flat tires totally slow ya down. So I rode my bike to the nearest gas station to fill my tires with air. It's about a mile and a half to Sinclair from my place. My legs were like Jello, friends.

On a positive note, once my tires were full, riding was a breeze.

Brooke standing in front of the Psychedelicatessen
(isn't that a fun word?!) at the Earth Day thing.
PS The Psychedelicatessen bus sells uber delish bagel sandwiches.

#3) I never pictured myself bursting into a Saturday's Warrior song in the park with...anyone...to express...well...anything.

While celebrating the Earth this weekend, I saw this guy in the park who reminded me of Todd from Saturday's Warrior. You know...the guy Julie loves from the pre-existence? The guy who sings this song! I totally do NOT love this movie, but dang, this guy in the park made me think of him. (PS I looked all over the place for a clip or picture of this guy, but to no avail. Bum.mer.) Anyway...I tried to be stealthy, and I totally took a picture of Todd/park man.

Anyway, as much as I don't love the movie, I saw "Todd" and started singing Paper Dream to my friends so they knew who/what I was talking about.

A picture of "Todd."
Trust me, he looks more like the real deal in real life.
He even has a mullet!

#4) I never thought I'd care for Alec Baldwin in any way, shape or form. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way.

He's one of the main characters in 30 Rock, so I automatically wrote the show off as "not worth my time." But Vance and Abby insisted it's funny, and that Alec's character is actually pretty awesome. They lent me seasons 1 & 2. I've watched a handful of episodes, and it must be said...I not only like the show, but I love Alec Baldwin's character. I did NOT see that one coming...

Wax On, Wax Off!

Let it be known throughout the land: Waxing a car (by oneself!) is, in my official opinion, grunt work. For real. I had myself a slew of cancellations today (meaning my clients canceled for various reasons), so I decided to do something productive with my time off. I washed and waxed my car. All by myself.

I rather enjoy washing my car, honestly. I don't always do a dynamite job, but I do well enough to get rid of all those water marks and bird poos. Well today, since I had the time, I thought I'd go the extra mile. So I purchased some Turtle Wax, turned on some tunes, and set to work...

I'm not quite sure how long it took me, but it took a long time. I was out in the sunny heat for quite a while! And I'm almost embarrassed at how tired it made me! I've decided that I will never do that job by myself again! "I have counted to three." (If anyone can figure out which movie that quote came from, that'd just make my day.)

Anyway, here're some pictures of my hard work. I should've taken a picture of the way my car looked before because my car was sick! And I know that nobody will appreciate my hard work quite like I will. AND, I was only going to post one picture...but I worked hard enough that I wanted to show it from different angles. Admire my hard work!

What an attractive car...

"Ooo, Gina! Your car looks delicious!"

Ironic...

Which Fruit Are You?


I'm Banana
You are a softie! Loving, gentle, warm and sympathetic by nature is the banana lover.

You often lack in self-confidence and are quite timid by nature.

People often take advantage of your sweet temperedness, and sheer vulnerability to a situation.

You adore your partner both for their mental and physical beauty!

Your relationship is always in harmony!

I took this little quiz, just for fun, on facebook. I was curious what the answer would be. What are the odds that I'd be a banana?! I wasn't prepared!

Talk about ironic...

I'm Not Crying...

I really enjoy Flight of the Conchords. They have dynamite lyrics that typically make me giggle. I have to thank Jason for letting me know of their existence. Recently he told me about this little number:

*Make sure you pause the music down at the bottom of the page!

Play this tune next time you get broken up with, yeah? Heh heh heh...

OH YEAH. Guess what I did last night. I went on a bike ride with my roommates and a couple of other friends. We started out at our place, clear out in Ammon, and we rode to Reed's Dairy in Idaho Falls. Reed's Dairy is about as far away as you can get from our house. PS We went down Sunnyside instead of 17th because we hate 17th, so that added some miles. I don't know, but I figure it was about 10 miles each way. Not bad, really.

However...

However, I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before. I did fairly well during the day on such a wee amount of sleep...but peddling back from watching my friends eat ice cream, I lost my steam. Right about the time we hit Woodruff, I lagged behind my roommates. My energy was spent. When we pulled into our yard, I actually had to have Brooke put my bike away because I couldn't lift it to hang it in the garage. (Wow, do I sound like a weakling or what?!) So then I went inside and ate some protein and sugar and then took a shower and then collapsed in my bed.

I sure did sleep well last night!

RaNdoMNeSs...

A quick glance through my June posts will make you wonder if I've truly been up to anything this month. Well I have. I've even taken pictures to document it all. But my computer has been ridiculous and I had issues uploading the pix from camera to computer. (And it's NOT because of computer illiteracy, etc...although I AM techtarded, I know how to upload pictures!)

But I digress...

I recently deleted enough unnecessary documents (that I swear my computer downloaded on its own...) to free up enough space to upload said pictures. (Thanks to Tracie and Jeff.) More de-crapping of my computer is necessary, but that's another story...

So, here are some random pictures of what I've been up to this past month!

SOFTBALL

Yeah...I've been posting a lot about our sad win/loss record as of late. Mostly because of the lack of anything to blog about b/c of the aforementioned computer issues. But I've captured your interest in slow-pitch softball. Somehow. Haha...

Last year:

This year:

So last year we had a better win/loss record, as I recall. Currently, we're sitting on 4 and 6. But we have another game tonight, and we've taken to winning on Mondays. (I surely hope I didn't just jinx us!) Regardless, we're still out there having fun. And I think we look better in red.

Post Scriptum: Take another gander at the softball pictures of yesteryear and the present. My hair has grown quite a bit! YEEHAW! Oh wait, I just realized that my hair is pulled back in the "this year" picture. But if you'll notice last year's picture, there's no WAY I could've pulled my hair back into a ponytail. Not without looking ridiculous, at least...

THE HOUSEWARMING PAR-TAY
June 14th

We've been moved into our new place for just over a month, and we think it's swell. We had a little get-together with a bunch of friends in the middle of the month, and it was a good time. Delicious food was consumed in excellent company. (What more could I ask for, really?)

Kattie graced us with her presence...
She and her cute roommates drove all the way from
Rexburg to attend the festivities!


Callie and yours truly...

Briant and Missy...
(they're gettin' hitched in a couple of weeks!)

Tracie's loverly profile...

There were a TON of people who came by to help us celebrate our lovely new home. I just didn't take any pictures of them. -And I made the mistake of leaving my camera outside near Missy while I went inside to have a quiet conversation with Cal...all sorts of random pictures showed up on my camera, including...

this one...

There were more. LOTS more. But I wanted to fill you in on other fun things. Such as...

MISSY'S BRIDAL SHOWER
June 26th

Callie and I threw a little party for the future Mrs. Giles. It was a good time, if I say so myself. Missy got some fun stuff...including some pretty little nighties if you catch my drift.

Speaking of cute jammies,
this is what Missy's mama gave to her.
She looks good in pink, wouldn't you agree?

Answer the question to match Briant's,
or suffer the consequences!

She only missed 7 questions out of about 32 or so...
but that's a lot of Bubblicious!

The three amigos!
Gina, Missy, Callie

Great fun. Knowing Callie and me, of course we had yummy treats at the little gathering. (Not that I'm some stupendous cook or anything...Callie and I just enjoy food. Deeply.)

THE R.S. RETREAT
June 27-28

This past Friday night the IF 1st branch had their annual RS retreat. (Good thing we decided not to switch branches until July, huh?) It was a lovely time. We talked a lot about personal history and all that good stuff.

Everybody!
Sister Baird, Tara, Mandy, moi, Brooke, Jen, Kandyce, Tracie, Marci, Emily
Lisa, KaTrina, Sister Stevenson, Chris
Callie, Tish, Chanelle, Brianne, Gregorie, Jess, Emily
Missy, Shalene

Eatin'

The gals who got the memo to wear green...

Me and Callie in our jam-jams...

Anyway...that's mostly what I've been up to this past month. Lots of pictures to look at, lots of descriptions to read...I'm glad to have this post done!

Mother's Day Weekend...

This past weekend was really AWESOME. I headed home on Saturday morning by way of Logan; the drive to Logan from Downy is BEAUTIFUL! Got to Logan and bought some flowers for my cute little gramma, then went to see Jamie's brand new bundle of joy with Janae, and then visited with my granny for a bit. NICE. Then it was off to Brigham to chill with Goose for a lil while, and then I headed to Layton to meet up with my folks and Aaron at Red Robin (yummo!) for dinner. Sweet! Back to Brigham to get stuff ready for Mother's Day dinner, and chatted with my mum till it was bed time.

Sunday was pretty good too, but not as good as I had dreamed; in my dreams, Aaron and his family weren't sick; in my dreams, the whole family was gathered around the telephone for our missionary's phone call. Hmph. Anyway...church was okay...then chilled with the fam (including Vance and Abby), had a fantastic dinner, and talked to Brent for an hour. What an amazing day! Then Goose took me for a ride in his newly purchased 1974 Dodge Charger. It's awesome. Rather loud...but fun!

My new love, Miles.
He is absolutely PERFECT!

The beauty of my folks' yard.
I love this guy; his "hair" was for Mother's Day from my dad.
(Looks like Spring is actually happening in Brigham...)

A GORGEOUS dahlia flower...

More beauty my momma is in charge of...

Chatting with Brent in Brazil!

Me and Abby Jane

Goose's new love: I give you Margarita

And here's a pic Brent sent last week..."pretend eating" a wee turtle.
He said he couldn't bring himself to actually doing it;
it would make him too sad.
I guess eating turtles is something they do down in Brazil...?

Anyway...it was a rather fast trip home, but it was fantastic! I got to chill with my cute Momma for Mother's Day! And I got to talk to Brent! Could my weekend have been any more perfect?! (Well, it would have been more perfect if my nephews were there, but you get what I'm saying...)

if Gina were an alphebetized list...

Just a few of the things I love. Things that make me smile, if you will. From A to Z...

*Apple pie *America *Accents *Autumn *my Alaskan Adventure *BBQ *Brigham City *Blogging *Bon Jovi *Brown *Brothers *Being teased *Book stores *my Bike *Cala lilies *Coloring *Cinnamon rolls *Christmas *Covent Garden *Campfires *my Dad *Denali NP *Driving in Logan Canyon *Dreaming *Dr. Seuss *Edinburgh *Eskimo kisses *Endorphins *FAMILY *Freedom *FRIENDS *Flying *Flowers *Firefox *the Gospel *Grillin' *Guitar Hero *House *HIKING *Handsome men *Hygiene *Hoodies *Hawaiian pizza *Hugs *my iPod *Independence Day *Inside jokes *Idaho Falls *Jackets *Josh Groban *Jim Henson *Kids *Keeping in touch with friends *LAUGHTER *Lists *London *Loch Ness *Lotion *Logan *Leisurely Sundays *Music *Mexican food *my Momma *Mild temperatures *Mountains *Memory foam *Nectarines *my Nephews *Naps *OK Go *the Office *the Outdoors *Peaches (especially if they're fresh from BC!) *People *Potatoes *Pens *Portland *Phantom of the Opera *Quilts *Quiet nights *Road trips *Random acts of kindness *Raspberries *Reading *SCOTLAND *Singin' *the Scorpions *Sisters-in-law *Slurpees *Smiling *Sweaters *Soup *Stargazing *Sense & Sensibility *Travel *Tomatoes *Tom Petty *Teddy Grahams *Teton NP *Three-day weekends *UTAH *the UK *Utah State University (go Aggies!) *Urquhart Castle *Vancouver, BC *Vacations *Veggies *Walks *Wicked *Writing poetry *Watching the clouds go by *White water rafting *X Men movies (and Wolverine!) *Yellowstone NP *the Zoo *ZION NP *Zzzz

I'm tagging anyone else who wants to play...it's kinda fun! Took some time, and making a list. (Good thing I like lists, eh?!)

I Am America...

I really like Stephen Colbert and his wonderful (Emmy-nominated!) show, The Colbert Report. I don't have cable, but fortunately Mr. Colbert is watching out for me, 'cause I sometimes watch little snippets of it on his website. (yeehaw!)

Stephen is currently in Pennsylvania, covering the PA (Democratic) presidential primaries. To kick off his show this week, Stephen sang the National Anthem with John Legend. They sounded pretty good too, so you should check out the link! (Unfortunately, Stephen's wonderful website didn't allow me to embed this little gem on blogspot.)

They pretty much rock!

2 Steves and a Jackson...

If you don't already think I'm a wee bit immature, let me prove it to you. Watch this video and see if it makes you laugh like a child. Because I laugh like a child when I watch it. It's beyond giggling...an all-out guffaw.

Waiters who are nauseated by food -
I told you I thought it was funny. Don't you agree?

Oh how I love Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell...

And now...a shout-out to my nephew Jackson!
Can you guess how old he is today?

I LOVE YOU, Bug!

Just what the doctor ordered...

I really like the TV show House. I really like it. A lot. Sadly, we don't have cable any more, so I'm not really up-to-date on the latest installments. (Even without the writer's strike, I was out of the loop.)

However...I live in the 21st century, and we love our boxed sets of our favorite shows on DVD. I happily own the first 3 seasons of House, so we're golden.


Our bases are covered.

Yesterday was a bit of an "off" day for one of my good buddies. She was a bit annoyed with a situation or two, and I was sympathizing. We talked for a bit and then decided to watch an episode of House. (It had been too long since our last viewing of the show, honestly.)

Anyway...maybe this is bad, but the cynical dialogue and unethical antics of Dr. Gregory House (portrayed by one Hugh Laurie) hit the spot...me and my friend were giggling and the mood lightened. (PS We also enjoy the rebuking remarks of Dr. Wilson, played by the wonderful Robert Sean Leonard.) Together, this doctor-duo keeps us laughing and entertained for just shy of 60 minutes.


I've missed you, House...

soundtrack of my life...

If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

How to do it:
1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc).
2. Put it on Shuffle.
3. Press Play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Be honest.

This is fun stuff!

OPENING CREDITS
"Animal" by Def Leppard

WAKING UP
"Mota" by the Offspring

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
"Wait, Wait, Wait" by the Format (seems about right...?)

FALLING IN LOVE
"These Dreams" by Heart

FIGHT SONG
"Love Don't Lie" by Def Leppard

BREAKING UP
"What You Give" by Tesla

PROM
"One Fine Day" by the Offspring

LIFE IS GOOD
"Hot and Bothered" by Cinderella

DRIVING
"You and Me" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

MENTAL BREAKDOWN
"You Say it Best When You Say Nothing At All" by Ronan Keating (what the...?)

FLASHBACK
"My Confession" by Josh Groban

GETTING BACK TOGETHER
"All I Ask of You" by Andrew Lloyd Webber (aww!)

WEDDING
"River Constantine" by Jars of Clay

FINAL BATTLE
"Straight From the Heart" by Bryan Adams (what kind of final battle is this for?)

DEATH SCENE
"Let's Go Dancing" by Drivin' n Cryin'

FUNERAL SONG
"She Is" by the Fray

END CREDITS
"Disappear" by Hoobastank

Surprise!

Last night I was chillin' with Lisa and Brooke. We were at dinner and Lisa decided it was time to dye her hair again. I've been considering dying my hair darker lately, since my hair is long enough now that dying it wouldn't be a waste of money. So we went to the store and bought our dyes and then got to work.

I'm not gonna lie to you, I was pretty nervous...I've colored my hair before, but I've never gone darker, and I've only done streaks...never all of it. Anyways, here's a before and after shot. Tell me what you think. :)

BEFORE
Kind of a dark blonde/light brown color.


AFTER
I'm now a brunette! It's so different!


Another after shot. Obviously.