Winning Smiles

I enjoy the magazine ReadyMade very much. (Maybe not quite as much as the photo above would suggest, but a lot.) Yesterday I received an email inviting subscribers to help out at an indi-clothing tradeshow in Las Vegas next week. What’s not cool about that? I’ll tell you—there’s no way I can’t work next week. However, I decided it was worth a shot, just in case they could use a hand after 5pm.

The email requested 100 words explaining why your “winning smile” and savvy style should be selected as one of five volunteers to attend the show. I decided to skip the words and go straight for hard evidence. (See the final product below—it references the magazine’s website.)

Mostly it was just fun to play on Illustrator. I don’t get near enough creative time at my job, so even if ReadyMade doesn’t need any evening help, it was just fun to use those creative juices.

Also, thanks to Wendi who used her creative juices by staging our impromptu photo shoot.

The Plush Vacation

I’ve been preparing to defend a grant application the last few weeks (5 months, really) and so I haven’t been the best blogger of late. However, last weekend I took a break which was much more blog-worthy than the politics of water system grants.

My friend Wendi and I joined our friends in Mexico for a plush weekend. I say “plush” because it was plush. Everything was plush—carpets, couch, shower, and a bed more plush than I had imagined was possible. (I honestly untucked the sheet so I could see what kind of bed this was and possibly invest in one for myself.) Outside of the house the sand on the beach was plush, our meals were plush and I bought an antique necklace and earrings, which were not plush, but fantastic and only 200 pesos. Needless to say, it was a nice weekend.

This is where we were.




Amisdt all the plush surroundings, my absolute favorite part of Mexico was the taco stand where we had lunch in Rosaritto. I was hoping I would get to have some fantastic Mexican food while in Mexico. My experience has been that the farther one is from Mexico, the worse the Mexican food gets. Utah Mexican is decent. DC Mexican, not so much. The least Mexican-Mexican I've ever had was in Moscow. So I was looking forward to having Mexican IN Mexico. At least for lunch, my theory held true. It was easily the best taco I've ever had.

On the way back to Nevada, Wendi and I spent a day in San Diego. The highlight of our trip was visiting the LDS temple. They are all beautiful, but this one is stunning. For those of our faith, I would highly recommend taking the time to attend a session here. It was wonderful.

After the temple, we met some friends at Mission Beach. This was no easy feat as it took at least 30 minutes to park, but was worth the effort. Being familiar primarily with Florida beaches, Wendi was amazed by her first encounter with a pedestrian freeway running along the beach. She took lots of pictures, which I don't have. After the stroll along pedestrian I-5, We arrived at Mission Café with only minutes to spare before they closed at 3 p.m. (who wouldn't want to work here?) and had a delicious lunch.

A friend pointed us towards Old Town when we asked about little thrift/boutique-type shops. It wasn’t what were looking for, but we ended up at the nearby Mormon Battalion Visitors Center and got to watch the new Joseph Smith movie, which I have been trying to fit into a Utah visit for a while now.

We didn’t get to experience a ton of San Diego flavor, but concluded it’s just all the more reason to return again soon.

Run Against Terror

Yesterday was one of my early morning run days. My alarm went off at 4:30 a.m., and I half-consciously heard the BBC announcer saying that British police had averted a serious terrorist attack. I actually thought, “Oh good, I don’t need to go running this morning afterall”.

All you would-be terrorists watch out; Melissa and I will be back next week, running against terror.

Birthday Bash

Yesterday we celebrated Evan's birthday. He turned the big 3-0. (Just kidding, I'm not positive which birthday it was, but it was a number less than 30 and greater than 25.)

This is Evan {and Nicole}.

This pretty much sums up the evening. It is an awesome picture.

Here's a picture of what Christy really looks like.

This picture is an accurate portrayal of what we were doing when we weren't eating cake and ice cream.

We are happy for Evan and excited for ice cream. Unfortunately, Melanie did not make homemade ice cream for this occassion. Fortunately, someone chose some store bought ice cream with chocolate in it.

Do not disturb: Project Runway in progress.

Project Runway in real-life.

You might think this is an out-of-focus picture of Brent, but you would be wrong. This is an almost-in-focus picture of Tyler's "experiment" involving a cup of water tied to a balloon and hung from a ceiling fan. Tyler was preempted before he was able to test his hypothesis.