KaBOOM!

Today I celebrated my 100th win on Minesweeper.

Yes, it took me awhile.

At first I was only concerned with how fast I could clear the mines. Every game would start out with a free-for-all of clicking, willy-nilly style. But now I actually concentrate on winning each game that I play no matter how long it takes. I decided this would be a good idea after I came to sad realization that I will never be able to beat Scott Steele's score.

Farewell to my 118 seconds score, I don't know when I will be seeing you again.

A Childhood Dream Come True

Not my own, but Arin's. :)

I will be attending my first ever Harlem Globetrotters event. I really don't know much about the Harlem Globetrotters. I kind of had a whoop di do attitude about them. For some reason I thought they played a real game of basketball but maybe did a few tricks here and there. It wasn't until recently that someone informed me

***WARNING - SPOILER ALERT***

that the other team is indeed fake and that no actual game was to be played. I'm excited to help Arin fulfill her lifetime childhood dream of seeing these folks in the flesh, but at the same time, all I gotta say is - they better be effing amazing.



Sorry for using the word effing, Mom.

Also - Arin - still really excited to see them. :)

C.A.

Hi.

My name is Bekah and I'm a cruiseaholic.

It has been 483 days since my last cruise.

Every day I've spent on the mainland has been hard.

The only thing that gets me through each day

is knowing that I will get to see this ship again in

58 Days!!!!

Puerto Rico here I come!

Wii Would Like To Play

Santa came early to my house this year.


I'm really not much of a gamer. In fact, every time I've tried to play Halo or Gears of War I end up getting dizzy and all confused. But I have wanted to get a Wii for a long time. I love the sports games on it and my friend, Calvin, convinced me that this would be really fun for me, a non-gamer, to have. Now I just need to get some games and accessories.


I would love to get this for Christmas



Do you think it's selfish to ask Santa to come back?

Addiction of the Senses

Taste:

Dove Peppermint Bark

A week ago I bought a bag thinking

"mmmm, that looks tasty"

I was definitely right.

The bag is now gone.

Hearing:

Earbuds

I freaking love these things!

The noise cancellation feature is top notch.

I can't even hear myself singing along.

I accidentally left them in my sisters car last Tuesday and since I knew

I wouldn't be able to survive an entire week without my iPod

I bought a cheap pair of earphones.

Not only are they incredibly uncomfortable but they don't have

the noise cancellation feature. Which is a total bummer because,

as it turns out, I do not sound like any of the following people:

Beyonce

Robert Plant

Taylor Swift

Sarah Brightman

Brian Johnson

I am extremely happy to have my earbuds back.

Sight:

The Vampire Diaries

I don't care how juvenile or girly this show is.

I love it!

I might even read the books.

Hopefully they will also be a treat for my eyes. :)

Touch:

Bath Salts

One of my favorite things to do is take a bath.

Especially when it's cold outside and I just want to get warm.

I often put Bath Salts in with the water.

They just complete the whole relaxing package.

The other day my friend, Josh, brought his roommates over for a visit.

One of the roomies found my huge jar of Bath Salts and asked

"What the heck is this for, do you rub it on your back?"

I wanted to respond "Yes, roomie, it makes your skin taste yummy."

Sometimes boys can be really silly.

Smell:

Gain

Really, truly, a delightful smell.

Lately, I've been using Gain to make other things in my home smell good.

I know it's weird, but I just don't care.

Talent Show

The other day my niece, Jaycee, called and asked me for some advice. It's her "Star" week in class and she needed to come up with a talent that she could share with the whole class. All of the other kids decided to sing or dance for their star weeks, but I just couldn't picture Jaycee doing either of those things. Don't get me wrong, the girl can sing and she most certainly can dance, but we wanted to come up with something a little more original than that.

One of the things that Jaycee and I love to do together is cook. I told her we could make cookies or brownies to share with the class and that can be her talent. After all, cooking is most certainly a talent. Just then my sister and Jaycee's mom, Amy, interrupted - they won't let you bring homemade treats for the kids. Apparently schools are afraid of allergies, drugs or poison. Pffff! Remember the good old days when your mom could bring a huge Texas Sheetcake for your school birthday party and no-one was afraid to eat it? Man, I loved those days!

We got back to thinking about a new talent Jaycee could share when sheer brilliance struck my brain like a lightning bolt right out of the sky. Play Dough! You still have to cook it and, as previously mentioned, cooking is a talent. But the kids don't ingest it, therefore, making it a fun, safe, homemade option that the whole class can enjoy. Seriously, brilliant!

Last night I went over to Jaycee's house to show her how to make Play Dough. I made her do all the measuring and I did the stirring. I thought I had the easy job until after heating it for about a minute it became extremely hard to stir. I really don't know how my Mom did it all those times. I think I went through 4 different spoons before I grabbed the heavy duty spatula. It was the only thing strong enough to turn the dough. Seriously Mom, how did you do it?

After letting the dough cool down, we split it into a bunch of balls, so we could make each one a different color. Jaycee had a great time picking out the colors and adding the right amount of dye to each ball. She also had a great time watching me spend almost 2 hours kneading the color into each ball. The 14 different colors she picked out turned out great though.

If you have the desire to make play dough, you can find the recipe here.

Quitter

For weeks now I've been super excited for Ree Drummond to come to Salt Lake for her book signing.

Last Wednesday I bought this in anticipation:

But what did I do after waiting in line for almost 3 hours with no end in sight?

That's right, I gave up.

I so badly wanted to post about how awesome it was to meet The Pioneer Woman and I was going to take a picture of her autograph in my cookbook.

But no, I'm a big, fat loser!

So there you go.

Forrest Gump, You Can Suck It!

A representative from Sees Candies stopped by the office the other day. She gave me a 1 pound box of chocolates for free in hopes that it would persuade me to buy chocolates for all of our clients for the holidays.

Getting free chocolates, yeah, that's pretty cool. However, here is the problem with Sees Chocolates - they don't come with a little chocolate guide. I really like knowing what kind of chocolate I am committing to before I take the initial bite. It's one of the worst feelings in the world when you bite into a chocolate that looks like it could be filled with caramel but instead it has that pink crap in it. When that happens, I usually spit out the entire thing only to regret it later because I could have eaten the chocolate around the pink crap. It's very troubling.

I have decided that from now on I only want the kind of chocolates that come with a guide. No more of this ". . . You never know what your gonna get" nonsense! That might have been true back in the 50's or whenever Forrest's mom said that, but now, in this day of extreme convenience, we have the technology to determine what the hell kind of candy we are getting ourselves into.