and....SCENE.

i have no pictures of this weekend.

with that sad fact out of the way, here's a little more about what we've been up to.

saturday we started out the day with a delish breakfast at julienne with our lovely friends t&a. any place that serves creme brulee french toast is more than okay with me.

then we watched the new james bond movie. it was quite delightful but i must say those bond girls had the ugliest haircuts i've EVER seen. i used to be totally anti-bond (due to blatant man-ishness...it takes more to get me into a movie than hot half-naked girls and cool gadgets) but these new daniel craig versions have been fantastic -- great fight scenes, cool cars, not a lot of half-naked girls (but they are in fact usually hot).

i went to a craft day after that with the ladies from church...i made some cute christmas ornaments and a wood-block nativity scene that has since proceeded to fall apart. bummer. i did however enjoy some delicious soup and some fun girl time.

we had planned to meet up with our long lost friends at the LA temple that evening, but due to the fact that most of southern california is on fire they were unable to join us. b was feeling a little sick so we opted to stay home, bake and watch the utah game. it was a fun and relaxing night.

and TODAY was the first day in MONTHS that we haven't had plans. after church we came home, laid around, cooked dinner, read our scriptures together, watched byu-tv, and generally just enjoyed some couple time. it was fantastic.

and with that i am prepared for the week ahead, which contains but is not limited to the following: LA auto show press preview day, motorcycle industry communications symposium, driving to cypress, serving food to old people, learning to make pies, flying to utah and attending one of the biggest football games of the year. bring it on.

cookie wrecks

last night our wonderful friends/neighbors (freighbors?) the mcmullins were kind enough to invite me over for family home evening. i think they could sense my desperation at the prospect of not having face-to-face interaction for 24 whole hours.

anyway, we celebrated thanksgiving early by talking about gratitude, watching charlie brown's thanksgiving, and...decorating cookies. maybe that's not the most harvest-type activity but let's be serious...i enjoy cookies at any and ALL seasons.

and when i got them home i realized they all looked a little wreckish. i guess i'm not the best cookie decorator...or maybe i was just feeling abstract last night. so, in honor of my favorite blog, here are a few of my own wrecks:



not sure exactly what this one was supposed to be. i was really proud of the yellow and green squiggles in the middle, but the large circle and the blue addition were totally random.

i was probably distracted because we were laughing a lot over exploding frosting bags and the horrors of childbirth. is this a flower? a sun? you decide.



since the husband was gone i of course had to make something cheesy in his memory. i definitely could have added a little more creativity, though.

and yes, i do have a middle initial (it's M, if you'd really like to know...ten points if you can guess it correctly) -- the cookie was a little too left-lopsided so i decided to add b's middle initial last minute. the two anemic hearts and gross pink dots were just afterthoughts.



this one is in honor of jurassic park, me & the husband's #1 favorite movie of all time. i just love dinosaurs. not sure they belong on cookies, though. nor do they need giant suns hovering over them. didn't you know, that's how the dinosaurs went extinct? a giant sun. once again, another case of not knowing how to adequately fill my canvas. oh well. more frosting :)

we made the frosting out of various items including meringue powder, which you can buy at michael's if you didn't know. it tasted a little chalky but luckily we had delicious cream cheese frosting also.

i ate two un-decorated, cream-cheesed cookies this morning. then i had two joe-joes in the afternoon. i'm not quite sure how i developed this huge lack of self-control -- you'd think i was raised without dessert restrictions or dietary regulations, which is not the case -- but it's disgusting. i love -- and loathe -- cookies.

and i can't believe i just spent one hour on blogs. husband, come home!!

a comparison

on typical weekdays, my schedule looks like this:

ride train
work
ride train

i usually follow that up with one or two of the following: watch simpsons (husband's choice), go to gym, do laundry, grocery shop, watch jon & kate. ONE or TWO. not all.

on days like today when i work from home, my schedule looks like this:

yoga
big breakfast
work
walk to trader joe's
watch taylor swift's "love story" video three times (oops, make that four...though the quality is much higher on the mtv buzzworthy blog)
talk to my mom/jolee/brandon on the phone
make the best chicken nachos EVER
mail back netflix
straighten up apartment
clean kitchen
gym
crafts
blog
catch up on what not to wear / byutv

pretty good, huh? i even honestly worked a good eight hour day, and still got all that other stuff done. it's amazing what an extra two hours and no husband can do for a girl.

(p.s. - brandon was supposed to come home tonight but an interview got delayed, so now he's coming home tomorrow. BOO.)

trojan pride

last night we went to the USC football game. we had our usual awesome 16th row seats, thanks to granddad, and had a blast!

i was quite happy just to have my husband home again -- he landed at 3 p.m. and we were on our way to the game by 4:15. we started out with a delicious dinner at chipotle.

i've never seen b devour something in such a carnivorous manner:



i was content just to leisurely enjoy mine. it took me almost 24 hours to eat the whole thing -- those babies are huge! tasty though...mmm:



we drove downtown and admired the AMAZING sunset.





and then it was game time! we played cal and they never really had a chance...we won 17 - 3. and usc scored their first touchdown right in front of us! with the exception of some questionable fans nearby, we had a fabulous time. i never thought i'd be the type of girl to get all crazy about football, but i can honestly say there are few things i love more than watching a good game of football with my husby.







V for trojan victory! (i'm thinking of changing my blog name to "stories of a girl who sees life through one eye"...seriously, i need to get my bangs cut!)



and of COURSE we can't forget the amazing trojan marching band! (this one's for you, jean :)



here's us at the game. i think we look way older than we did this time last year.

FAIL

the husband has recently become obsessed with failblog. i'm not quite converted (probably because it does not involve food or baking, as most of my favorite blogs do) but i have come to quite enjoy the highlights.

tonight i think i burned off my whole chipotle burrito by laughing so hard at THESE:

(warning...they're pretty painful to watch.)

best man fail:



parenting fail:



grape fail:



i hope you enjoy.

the aftermath

so the election is over. HOORAY. i don't have a whole lot to say about it other than i am excited to see if obama lives up to all the hype (also, i am quite happy that we now have the first african-american president in the history of this country), and that i am pleased prop 8 won. however things are definitely not settled on that front so i guess we'll see how it goes.

for the record, ALL are welcome to believe what they want and stand up accordingly. i'm not quite sure how harassment and vilification play into that and i'm realllllly starting to get tired of it.

but enough of that.

brandon is in san francisco today, going to arizona tomorrow and coming home on saturday (i made him fly home early because we have tickets to the usc game! go trojans!). he leaves again on monday for texas. i more than happily passed my travel-champion crown onto him, but it sucks that i'm home alone. feel free to call if you'd like to hang out :)

tis the season

spotted on shelves:



yes, folks, it is that season again. SO excited. i bought two boxes and it's not even december yet.



then i proceeded to eat a few for my dinner. with no other food to support it. now i am sick. oh well, what else is a girl supposed to do when her husband is gone for four and a half out of six consecutive days? boo.

i did however find this picture on my camera tonight, from the LAST time he was in san francisco...which was about, oh, six days ago. i love my husband:



i am SO OVER payzant-wells family travel.