sunny day

sorry to anyone not living in southern california, but this is how i spent my afternoon today.



last day of january and i'm out at the pool? yes please :)

victory!

woo hoo! so i have been on twitter for a couple months now (if you're on it, follow me: http://twitter.com/lyndseyrules). basically, it's like a blog made up of facebook status updates -- you update what you're doing and read what everyone else is doing too.

kind of fun, kind of addictive (esp. if you sit at a desk all day and actually follow a bunch of helpful work-related sources).

regardless, earlier this week i started celeb stalking on twitter. i follow taylor swift (!!) and demi moore & ashton kutcher. ashton's are totally hilarious. the other night i told b about something ashton had said and he said "you KNOW it's just their publicists, right?" this prompted a heated discussion about my newfound twitter friends.

today on ryan seacrest (total side note: how cute is ryan seacrest? the guy gets a lot of crap for being feminine or cheesy or a workaholic or whatever, but he seems like the nices guy on idol. i want to be his next door neighbor) -- demi & ashton were on, talking about their twitter pages! HA! sweet victory is mine. i love social media because ANYONE can do it...even celebs :)

chocolate for breakfast?

yes, my dreams have come true.

in germany, they regularly eat chocolate cereals (i.e. honey bunches of oats, but with chocolate chunks). we're talking grown ups eating grown up cereal -- it's not like they're chomping reese's puffs or something. i balked at this idea for about five seconds and then gave in...though my preferred euro breakfast involves toast and gobs of nutella. but anyway...

b found this cereal at tj's at it is yuuuuummy. plus i can feel good about myself because it has whole grains and two grams of fiber. bring on the sugar!

p-town haps

there's a photography studio across the street from my gym with the most ridiculous photos hanging in the windows. one is a baby covered with clothespins. our favorite is a guy [who ironically looks just like one of b's co-workers] wearing a t-shirt, suit jacket and backwards baseball cap, holding a basketball in one hand and pouring a pitcher of water on his smiling face with the other. uh...random.

tonight that window was full of balloons and a dress-clad mannequin. they are filming brothers and sisters there today and tomorrow. also down the street from our house another show is being filmed...i hear rumors it's fame (you know, w/ joey fatone. woo hoo! i loved *nsync). yeah. that's how we roll in pasadena. or as i now refer to it, the snowy city.

in other news, last night we saw this bad boy rollin on the streets (sorry for the blurriness):



yep, that's a tricked out hummer with two flat screen tvs in the back windows. sa-weet.

btw if you didn't know, we're in a recession. luckily b and i still have jobs, but let's just say that my industry is hurting. i read this depressing little article today about all the job cuts in the past two weeks...BOO. oh well, all is not lost -- dots is still opening a second location in old town!

and i can't post on a tuesday night without commenting on a.i. seriously?? if kansas city was the dentally-challenged city, jacksonville must be the CRAZY city. i've never had so many wtf moments in one night. between the adorable dog and the freaky jesus lookalike and inviting moms and friends into auditions and the TWO crazy bipolar guys totally crying -- keep me away from j-ville. (and randy was in journey??? awesome!)

those are my thoughts for tonight :)

so far today...

ate oreos for breakfast [at least it was a 100-calorie pack :) ]

desk was covered in dust and debris. construction-related.

seen six burly-looking men hovering around the office. construction-related.

had a mtg at starbucks.

worked worked worked.

ordered girl scout cookies.

marveled at how quickly regular two-day weekends go by, after becoming accustomed to holiday breaks and three-days.

blogged on my lunch break.

also i am rocking neon purple tights today. this pic is not photo-shopped.

wild? yes. that's my middle name.

just another morning in downtown l.a.

this morning b and i were walking up the hill from the subway station laughing about something [i think i was telling him how i've started telling people i'm 25, even though i'm six months away from that...it just sounds more official and grown up. i always think i'm too young] and some homeless man started yelling:

"hey! hey you guys! is she your girlfriend? are you together? i'm a lonely man. is she your girlfriend?"

not that i'm really into picking up homeless guys, but thanks for the compliment (WAS that a compliment?).

then they were filming something on the corner right in front of our building complete with lights and a giant umbrella (yes, it's raining here again). no craft services table in sight, however, which is always my favorite thing to see. gotta love l.a.

absolutely mediocre

not a whole lot of blog-worthy activities have been going on in the payzant-wells hiz these days. i mean, sure we've been doing STUFF. lots of stuff.

stuff like attending three baby showers in two weeks. or actually cooking dinner -- what a change! (granted, this is only because i worked from home today and because my friend megan blogged about her amazing prosciutto mozarella pinwheels and i HAD to try them.) or celebrating three day weekends in a decidedly non-internet way. or watching inaugurations or going to target three times or vacuuming my apartment. or trying to track down every single red nikon L18 camera in a 200-mile radius. (seriously people! help me out here! is finding 30 cameras on their way out of production SO hard?)

or, my personal favorite, hanging out with some of our incredibly awesome friends in p-town (pasadena is so the new provo). but it's not like i'm going to bust out my camera and ask to take pictures while i'm sitting on someone's couch stuffing my face with a delicious brownie sundae, because those activities are def not blog-friendly.

in other news, it actually rained in southern california. granted it was still in the 70s and it was only damp enough for me to skid in my flip flops on the steps to my building but hey, we take all the precipitation we can get around here.



also, i learned a new term today. apparently brandon and i are DINKs - dual income, no kids - and you can all refer to us as such. i prefer "queen DINK" as a slight happy reward for being half of the only kid-less married couple in practically the whole world. i guess that title maybe makes up for the fact that i'm endlessly surrounded by adorable droolers and baby talk at every turn. maybe.

new friday night workout

last night i left work right on time. it had been a long day [a long week, for that matter] and i couldn't wait to start my three-day weekend. b said he'd be ready to go at 530 also so i swung by his desk to pick him up.

due to the never-ending remodeling, his team is now moving from the third floor to the fourth floor (we will now be working on the same floor...interesting...). he had to finish some stuff up so i offered to move one last box up to his new cube so we could leave and he'd be all packed up. then he got a phone call and who KNEW how long he'd be (similar scenario happened last week and he ended up getting home at 11 p.m.) so i headed for the train.

walked to pershing square, rode the subway to union station, got to the gold line train to pasadena just as it arrived. i love when that happens...i hate waiting long for a train. sat down and reached for my cell phone...and it was not there. searched the purse...nothing. then i remembered: i had thrown it into b's box while moving and NEVER PULLED IT OUT.

i weighed my options. i could leave my phone there, no big deal. but it was a three day weekend. there would be snoopy construction workers all over the place. we have a lot of plans involving other people this weekend so i'd probably need to get in touch with them; we have never owned a home phone in our married life so my cell phone is the only way for people to reach me.

the verdict: FRICK.

of course, i had no way of calling brandon to ask him to grab my phone before he left. i had no choice but to go alllllll the way back. luckily the train hadn't moved, so i got off and hurried down the stairs. in a last-ditch attempt to save myself, i bravely asked two girls sitting together in union station if i could borrow a phone.

one girl was european and apologized that she didn't have american minutes or some crazy thing. i didn't think the other girl was listening until she asked me what number i needed to call. she punched the number in her phone and held it out to me and said in a very thick latina accent: "don't you grab this and run - i'll chase you down, you know." i believed her. but i'm not into stealing phones, so we were cool.

but there was no answer. i reluctantly handed back the phone and headed for the subway, all alone. luckily who did i see coming up the stairs? none other than my sight-for-sore-eyes wonderful husband. we made it a subway-riding date and hiked all the way back through downtown (third time that day) to retrieve the lost phone. talk about a good night for walking. [earlier that day i had hiked another four blocks to return a book at borders...i think i got my 10,000 steps in for sure.]

also on the return train i saw an exhausted-looking latino man covered in paint splotches give up his seat to a blind man with a seeing eye dog. i don't think the paint man spoke english but he guided the dog-man to his seat and helped him sit down and then stood up for the rest of the ride and i thought about how GOOD people are in the world.

between
the girl who offered up her phone at the peril of having a skinny innocent white mormon girl run off with it and
the tired man giving up his seat on the train and
the miracle of my husband coming up the stairs at JUST the right moment when i could reach him in no other way in a busy city of 3.8 million people,
my hourlong delay last night warmed up my heart.

and then, like i needed any further amazing blessings in my life, i got to eat THIS for dinner:



(we shared the fries and i only ate the hamburger -- no-tomato-grilled-onion-with-a-side-of-spread-thank-you-very-much -- this tray is not ONLY mine.)

all in all a good night.

yep, definitely mine

sometime in the past 24 hours it became "moving day" at the workplace (bye bye office...sad face) and when i came in all my stuff was in a pile on the floor and my desk was gone. this was not a surprise to me as i knew it was coming. i was, however, surprised that my desk was gone because i had not emptied it out yet.

i discovered pretty quick that all the desks were not GONE but had moved on to other spaces, so i went on a hunt to find mine. three offices later i thought i had found it -- but it was already occupied by a new vp. [he is cool and i like him. he and i kept getting each other's voicemails during his first few weeks so we have bonded.] i walked in his door and said "can i check your drawers?" he said that was the weirdest request he'd ever heard, but sure. i explained the situation and he said "i don't know if this is your desk, but i found some jelly beans in one of the drawers."

YES. thank you. my calling card has been left once again.

THIS....is american idol

for someone who considers herself an american idol amateur, i am RIDICULOUSLY excited about season eight. my a.i. experience thus far consists of the season one finale, most of the second season and only the top 12 finalists of season seven. but i have repented of all that and i am now COMMITTED.

first of all i'd like to admit that i got a little choked up not once but TWICE on the premiere. the first time was that musical montage in the beginning...i mean, come on, great music and scenes of the past winners and fan favorites and everyone crying and cute kellie pickler jumping around and i lost it -- i was already super pumped for the premiere but that just made all my dreams come true. and then the blind guy! man, i love him already. new tears. and i despise everyone who has made fun of ryan seacrest in the past 24 hours for trying to give the blind guy a high five. i thought it was nice.

so far season eight has done a lot for me:
introduced a new girl crush (kara dioguardio is pretty AND she can sing...and i like her clothes),
taught me a new word (i've learned that any teenager semi-connected to a "grand-friend" WILL make it to hollywood -- the original grand-friend girl in AZ and tonight's grandmother guardian),
reminded me that i need to download david cook's album and
informed me that the greater kansas city area SERIOUSLY needs a dental plan. i've never seen so many yellow teeth and jacked up jaws in my life. and that's coming from a girl who wore headgear AND rubber bands.
also i would like to state that i hate girls who flaunt their bodies in orange bikinis. if that chick makes it into the top 24 i will not be happy.

i think i need to ease back into a.i....four hours in two days is a bit much for me. thank goodness for dvr and newly freed weekends now that college football season is over. long live american idol!

twenty four point five

today is my half birthday.

once in college my bff brittany told all our friends that jan. 12 was my half birthday...but she left off the "half" part.

she got a pinata and we had ate some form of sugar (though i can't remember what...but i'm sure it was great. i mean HELLO we're talking about MY half birthday) and friends came over and we played games.

everyone was shocked they had forgotten my birthday and our guy friends showed up with random recently-purchased DI gifts like old records and framed pictures of people i didn't know. it was sweet. then we told them it was only my HALF birthday...and everyone went home.

this year i got to eat half a cupcake. (let's be honest, i'll take any excuse to get a cupcake.)

half a year older and wiser too.

new google icon

happy monday.

so today i noticed the little icon next to the URL for google.com has changed. it's even different on my gmail.





what ARE those things called, anyway? the icon thing? some of my html-savvy blog friends made their own little pictures, i've noticed. i'm jealous but not brave enough to ask how it's done :)

regardless, just thought i'd share the news. not sure when this switched over but it's driving me CRAZY already. as someone who uses google for about 85% of my work day, i see a lot of their icon. and this one has already distracted me 46 times in the past 82 minutes.

get your feet away from me.

i hate feet. always have, always will. i don't think mine are very cute, and i'm slightly ticklish, so i've been pretty anti-touching, -looking and -allowing people anywhere near my feet throughout life.

in the meantime, however, i've seen PLENTY of other reasons [on other people] to make me hate feet even more. nasty things going on with toenails, surgery-requiring anomalies, all sorts of fungus. i won't go into great detail but let's just say the biggest form of torture imaginable to me would be to work as a pedicurist. YUCK.

which brings us to this morning, when i dutifully attended my yoga class. (yes! two weeks in a row! i am doing so great on my new year's resolution.) first of all we had a sub, which was fine, except she introduced herself by saying she was more of a pilates person (bad sign...i've had rough experiences w/ pilates) and THEN proceeded to direct the class without turning off the lights. yoga in full lighting? who does that?

so we're just warming up, doing all that downward dog and warrior pose stuff, and she has us lay down for some core work. the class was completely packed, like wall-to-wall yoga mats, and unfortunately my location toward the back ended up overpopulated by an annoying group of women who insisted on squeezing in to non-existent spaces AND speaking loudly in some asian dialect i could not understand.

then the directive comes to do leg circles, which i can only assume is a pilates thing. so there i am, trying to draw giant circles in the air with my pointed toe, breathing in on the out swoop and out on the in swoop, using my core, pushing my hips into the floor, trying to erase all distractions and outside thoughts.

and then a giant foot swoops down three inches from my face.

talk about destroying a chakra! i almost freaked out. you may also know that i don't have depth perception (if you didn't, i guess that's a post for another time), so who knows how close the foot actually was. but i was not happy. not to mention we still had eight more leg circles to do on that side. i could barely lift my leg off the ground, because i was so afraid the foot would come back and nail me right on the face. i'd have to drench my whole head in hydrogen peroxide if that happened.

yoga is a dangerous activity.

wearing my heart on my sleeve

brandon: hey. your shirt can remind you where you live. that's funny.



me: thank you, hollister.
and thank you, friday afternoon, for making me bored enough to post this.

best choc chip cookies EVER

if you know ANYTHING about me you are aware of my cookie obsession. the ironic part of this, however, is that i make crappy chocolate chip cookies. they are always too flat, too crispy, etc. etc. this doesn't mean i don't still make myself sick eating half the dough whenever i bake them -- isn't that why we bake anyway?

however i recently came across the BEST chocolate chip recipe EVER. they were fluffy, delicious and beautiful.

i found the recipe on a web site, claiming to have gotten this from "the essential mormon cookbook." i have never seen said cookbook, but i'm sure it's good. as my MIL (who herself is not mormon) once said -- "those mormons sure know how to plan a party" -- i might add "those mormons sure know how to bake."




here's the recipe, if you're interested:

the best chocolate chip cookies EVER

cream together 1 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

sift together separately 3 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda

stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture; add in desired amount of chocolate chips. drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet; bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes.

on tour.

thanks to my fam's new christmas present, we spent a whooooole lotta time doing this last week:



i LOVE playing the drums. all my rock star fantasies can finally come true, thanks to good old rock band. i guess all those hours i spent in the band room making chad bridgeford teach me how to play the drums paid off :)

my favorite song to play is "go your own way" by fleetwood mac. also i think i dented the drums because i rocked out a little too hard.



i'm on tour through 2009. my alter ego is named sahara sunshine and has hot pink and turquoise hair. and one-eyed side bangs of course.

beautiful sunset

the view from my office window about four minutes ago. i love the california sky.

the happiest ute fan in all the land

utah beat (and when i say beat, i mean creamed) alabama in the sugar bowl on friday. final score: 31 - 17. for you non-football fans, they are the ONLY undefeated college football team. this is a big deal.

b was so happy he almost cried. and now i have to keep that dumb red flag up in my house another week. i wish byu played better :(

rose parade

i've been to the rose parade a few times before, but b had never even watched it on tv. now that we live right next to the parade route, i decided we needed to go.

at 5:45 a.m. we grabbed blankets and chairs and walked two blocks to colorado blvd...we found some great spots just four rows back from the street, which was amazing because people were HARD CORE out there. many had been camped out since noon on new year's eve, with blankets and couches and card tables and bbqs and tents.



by the time we showed up they had been there for a long sleep-deprived while and were NOT giving up space. b took a nap as soon as we sat down (he is such a good sport), but i was too pumped to sit.



street vendors were selling all sorts of things at 6 a.m. -- cotton candy, donuts, bacon-wrapped hot dogs. a few years ago, i actually bought and ate one of these babies at 7 a.m. to watch the parade. sanitary? probably not. weird things start to happen to your brain when you get sleep deprived!



i LOVE parades. not quite sure why. might have something to do with the fact that i marched in rancho's founder's day parade and the disneyland parades a few times with the high school band; it was so much fun to have people cheering and little kids waving and your adrenaline pumping as you did your thang down the street. parades are just happy.

and it was so fun to have all this happening right in my neighborhood this year! we heard helicopters and the good year blimp flying all night and morning, watched the drama of the campers every day this week when we went to the gym or drove to target. i drive / walk this street almost every day and it was so cool to have it look like THIS for a change:



doris & hannah joined us just before it started, and we were ready to go. btw, i hope that someday i'll be game to walk to a parade when i'm 8 months pregnant...doris is amazing.



spectators ready to go! this is what brandon and i will look like in the future (if we adopt, that is):



finally it was time to begin! we had awesome spots because everyone in front of us sat down, but we stood up with everyone in back of us. an unfiltered view for all :)

honda's asimo robot got everything started. almost as cool as the toyota trumpet-playing robot...hey, why weren't THEY in the parade??



this was one of my favorite floats. (it was also our first elephant sighting of the parade -- we counted three elephants all together. also, between the floats and the bands, we heard the quintessential crowdpleaser "celebrate" a total of three times as well. time for some new material, folks.)



celeb count: 1 (jack hanna rode this one.)

i recognize this chick in the middle from the women's world cup soccer team...but i don't know her name. julie something? whatever...celeb count: 2.



celeb count: 3 -- cynthia nixon from s&tc, riding a purse float. of course she turned her head right when i got my camera out:



then it was usc time! we were so excited for the cheerleaders and band to come by. b and i wore our usc shirts and the band cheered and yelled and gave us the victory V when they saw us. too bad we're not actually alumni...but i feel related anyway.



i am seriously in love with the marching trojans. they are so cool.



celeb count: 4. cloris leachman, dancing w/ the stars extraordinaire and this year's grand marshall. once again, for some reason everyone likes to wave at the other side of the street when they get in front of my camera. take my word for it.



more elephants. more bands. bands from mexico with weird helmets.

(which, being the band nerd that i am, were obviously deterrants to the band's peripheral vision b/c their marching lines were SO off. boo.)







this is christy lewis, a lady from my ward at church. she was in one of the equestrian units and we were so excited to spot her:



and then the parade was over! we followed the mass of humanity down the street and watched all the people get in their cars and stop in traffic. we turned the corner and walked into our apartment complex. such a lovely location we live in :)

happy new year!

well, we've made it two point five days into 2009 without disaster, so i guess we're doing well. i'm trying to go with this whole "fresh start" thing... and despite my best intentions, i still ate a chocolate chip cookie with breakfast this morning so i guess some things will never change.

actual 2009 resolutions:

1. find [and stick with] a yoga class i love
2. get my flute out of dustballs and maybe play it sometime
3. create more. learn a new skill. sew curtains. start cooking real dinners again.
4. be more appreciative
5. balance.

here's to a brand new year.