Could she BE any cuter?

A list of cute things Helena has been doing recently. She'll be nine months old on the 4th of July! Craziness...where does the time go?!?

1. She finally has just enough hair to work up some decent bedhead. It's pretty cute.

2. She sits completely still when I cut her fingernails (helpful!) because she is so enthralled with what I'm doing to her.

3. She has an innate ability to sniff out and then immediately beeline for the one thing in the room that I don't want her to touch/chew on. Think cat toys, Ashford's shoes, trash cans, the remote control, you name it.

4. She's started nodding her head 'yes' in a very exaggerated way. And while I'm fairly certain she just does it because she recently figured out how to move her neck that way, she tends to do it at the cutest times. Like when we are actually agreeing or saying yes to someone or, more commonly, when I'm changing her diaper. It's like she's saying, "Yes, it's about time you changed that nasty thing!"

5. We've established a good reading routine before bedtime. If she's starting to get tired and we haven't started the aforementioned routine, she'll go ahead and crawl over to her books and start reading them herself. And when we are reading to her, we have to hide her favorite book, Tails!, until the end or she won't want to read anything else.

6. She laughs SO HARD when we play this game I like to call 'Trying to Give Dill a Nervous Breakdown'. Basically I hold her like she's flying through the air as Superman, we get down on Dill's level where ever he is (floor, couch, stairs, cabinet, etc.), and she 'flies' through the air chasing him around the house. Helena screams and giggles all at the same time. Dill wants to move back to Kansas, I think.

-Emily :)

What exactly do ya 'do', here?

I saw a disturbing / funny news story this morning on CNN. Jeanne Moos did a story on the computer skills of McCain, Obama and George Bush. (Watch it here).

The gist of the story, if you don’t have time to watch it, is that McCain doesn’t know how to use a computer, he has his wife help him. Obama is fairly competent. George Bush seems to have his own set of issues (surprise!) with using and referring to technology in general. My favorite line in the story is when he says "you can go on the Internets..." during a speech.

But back to McCain. Really? Computer ILLITERATE? I understand that he has been a very important political figure for a very long time and probably has better things to do than surf the Internet and people to do other computer-related tasks for him, but seriously? If you’re campaigning to be the President of the United States, shouldn’t you at least learn enough to get by? And I know, he’s really old (check out http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com/ for a few laughs) and that a lot of 72-year-olds don’t use computers…but many do…and as the older woman in the CNN story said…IT’S NOT THAT HARD!

I’m not sure about you all, but I want someone to be president who is a superior intellectual being to more than 90% of the general population. I want someone who I feel is at least smarter than me. That would include having decent computer skills. Something I think most of us can agree is essential in today’s society. There's no programming necessary, but one should know how to check e-mail and look something up on the Internet and maybe create a Word document or Excel spreadsheet or two for Christ sake. If Presidents don't use computers, do we really need a President?

Maybe this is a dirty little secret of politicians everywhere. Kind of scary, I think.

One more reason we've gotta vote, people!!!

-Emily

Celebrity Blogger...No, not me. :)

Yesterday was a very exciting, roller coaster of a day. First thing in the morning, I got to meet one of the funniest writers I've ever come across--all-star blogger (and Salt Lake City native) Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com. She was being interviewed on RadioWest, my station's morning talk show. I know only a few of you probably frequent her blog and would be as excited as I was to meet her (a shout out to Erin for kindly sharing in my euphoria yesterday!), but it was definitely really, really cool to say the least. Her visit to KUER made it onto her blog, too, so you should check it out. And no, before you ask, we don't eat endangered animals at work.

So, my co-worker and I greeted her and then took her back to the studio and then chatted for about 15 minutes. We got a bonus story about her daughter and then talked about how it was weird for her that everyone knew what was going on with her and felt like they knew her all of the time (including my co-worker and I!). I also got her to sign my copy of her first book "Things I Learned about my Dad (in therapy)."

Anyway, it was a pleasure to meet her and her husband, Jon, and they were as cool and hip in person as you could imagine. I'm glad I finally got to meet the only person I really 'knew' in Salt Lake City before we moved here. I think she's the most 'famous' person I've ever met, although still a tad obscure. I did meet Ben Folds once, but we didn't really talk, so I don't think that counts.

In retrospect, I should have done something totally outrageous or said something really stupid so that the story could have made it on her blog. Dammit! Maybe next time....I'll think of something good. Like ask her to sign my boobs or something.

One more update: We did find a new babysitter for Helena. She starts next week and I do think this will be a better situation in the long run. I'm not a super picky mom, but certain things do annoy me and my current sitter seemed to hit them right on the head almost every day. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern and graciously listened to me whine/freak out.

Emily :)

Shoes dropping everywhere...

I've been attempting to be funny and upbeat on my blog to date...unfortunately there was an extreme lack of both of those things this week. At the risk of sounding grumbly and whiny, basically the week started off with us finding mold in our master bathroom and then we found out our sitter is closing for good--next week! So, unexpected home improvements and frantic phone calls ruled the week on top of some stressful work situations for both Ash & I. Ugh! I'm fairly certain that every ounce of stress I've been dealing with since Ash started coming out to Utah to work in December, culminated all at once on Thursday with two hysterical phone calls to my mom and my sister. Well, at least I got it out of my system.

The upside: the new tile in our shower is going to look really awesome...and hopefully I'll find a new sitter who annoys me a bit less than the last one, and is maybe a tidge closer to our house.

Here's hoping for a less stressful week than last! Bring it on, Monday!

--Emily :)

CNN's getting snarky!

Have you all seen this? On cnn.com you can now order t-shirts featuring a certain headline of the day. Just click on the t-shirt icon when it appears to the right of the headline and BAM!, you can pick your own size, color, everything!

I find it interesting that this 'promotion' will possibly encourage the online news writers to come up with funny and witty headlines instead of the most informative headline, all to sell some t-shirts. Now, I'm all about ironic/funny/witty but I was under the impression CNN considered itself a pretty serious news organization. Although, after browsing all of the options, not all of the headlines are funny to me. I guess maybe I'm not getting the joke.

That said, I am getting ready to place my order for a small, black shirt that says "Victoria's Secret sued for thong injury."

Thoughts?

-Emily :)

Batter Blaster in my Belly

We sampled the previously mentioned Batter Blaster last night for dinner. And for all you haters, it was absolutely delightful. My only complaint is that it produced slightly thinner pancakes than I usually make myself, but the overall taste was excellent.

A funny side note: Ash and I commonly disagree over what TV show to watch and usually the only thing we can settle on watching together is the Food Network. So last night I tuned it to that channel and then Ash turns it to something he likes completely out of the blue. So I say, "What was wrong with that Indian food show?"-- his reply: "I refuse to watch a show about gourmet Indian food when I'm eating pancakes out of an aerosol can.".

Well said. I guess we can watch the History channel.

-Emily :)

Father in da hood!

A Happy Father's Day shout out to Ash...if she could talk, Helena couldn't ask for a better dad.

Here they are last weekend...both looking like they're getting ready to ride motorcycles or something. Maybe in 20 years or so... (Thanks for the cool onesie, uncle Mark!)

Batter Blaster

One of the things I'm enjoying about being in a new state is the grocery store. They have totally different brands, more types of things, more organic things...the grandma/nerd in me thinks this is very exciting.

Behold my most recent find:
Yes, what you're looking at is PANCAKE BATTER IN AN AEROSOL CAN, the Batter Blaster. Already all mixed up and everything. I haven't tried it yet, but there's no way something so simple, packed so well could be bad. This wonder of science takes the entire pain in the ass-ness of pancakes and gives it the finger. Ash and I are in total agreement that's it's the coolest thing we've ever seen. If anyone wants some, I would totally mail it to you!

The other thing besides amazing packing technology that's rampant in Utah grocery stores is misspellings on packaging. Somehow I don't think the tortillas really want to be called 'old fashion'. This implies they are somehow out of style, not authentic or like your grandma used to make. Everything is marketed to the giant families, too. Ash saw a grocery advertisement for bulk foods like 50 lb. bags of red winter wheat and 100 lb. bags of flour. Whoa! That's a lot of bread!

My trips to the grocery store seem to be more expensive now than when we were in Kansas. I'm positive it's the prices and doesn't have anything to do with things like trays of homemade Mexican food and organic hot mango chutney.

Emily :)

Public Radio + Emily = LOVE?

So my new job is definitely not helping me in the area of becoming LESS of a news dork. When I started last week, my boss showed me how to use my new HD radio at my desk before I even turned on my computer! Our station just launched 2 new HD channels, one is 'rock' and the other is classical. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. My job. I'm still trying to make sense of everything and while there are definitely frustrations involved, I'm going to try to focus on the positive. Besides my HD radio, here's the top five things I like about my new gig so far.

1. Everyone is SUPER NICE. And very hippie. But that's cool. I'll take hippie anyday over some of the obvious alternatives around here.
2. Lots of good schwag. No, not that kind...but free tickets to events, books, CD's, discounts to attractions. It's awesome. Oh, and we do on-air promo trade with a lot of restaurants in town...so we get to eat for free a lot. Our station events are fun, too. Last week I got a local brewery tour and some really good, fancy mexican food. This week I got to taste flights of tea and chocolate pairings. Yummy!
3. The view. Even though it's from a cubicle it's pretty sweet. I can almost see our house out there somewhere from my perch on the foothills. Oh, and the mountains. Can't forget those!
4. My schedule. 8-4. Nice.
5. We have an espresso machine. I don't know how to work it yet, but it's cool.

In honor of my NPR-related job, you have got to listen to this. It's so funny that I about peed my pants the other afternoon. It's a tad R-rated...to entice you even more. David Sedaris is coming to Salt Lake in October for a station event. Can't wait!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91310499

-Emily :)

One bird, two bird, red bird, pink bird

The three of us had a little trip to the Tracy Aviary this past Sunday. We pick Sundays for our outings because things are a little less busy around town-- and generally the people that are out are heathens just like us! Anyway, Helena seems to really like birds, which is one of the reasons why we thought she might like this a little more than the zoo right now. Don't ask me why she likes birds...but you give her a choice of toys and she will probably pick the bird...be it a colorful peacock, a singing duck or a noisy rooster...we have them all!

Here's one of the coolest birds we saw -a scarlet ibis. I'm not sure I've ever seen something in nature (in person) that is such an all over, striking color. Way cool. Evidently Ibises are an ancient species with fossil records going back 60 million years!

At the risk of this post becoming a 'I guess you had to be there' moment, I'm going to talk about birds just a little bit longer. We also saw a pheasant from Thailand that looked like a less colorful peacock and several other unique birds from all around the world. Oh, and a giant vulture that just sat on its branch with its wings extended out, perfectly still, for the entire time we were there. CREEPY!

They had some cool flamingos, too, and I have to admit that I may have gotten a little too excited when it looked like we might get to see one flamingo have its way with another one. Maybe excited isn't the right word there. I mean, I was anticipating it being funny and entertaining. :) As one mother right next to us explained it to her child that the flamingos were merely 'playing tag', I was asking Ashford-- "Birds really DO that!?! Then what happens? They lay eggs???" We all know science isn't my strong suit. If I would have married a writer we wouldn't ever have anything to explain to each other now, would we? Anyway, as you'll see from my pictures below, the flamingo never quite sealed the deal. But that's OK, we can go back again sometime and maybe we'll all get lucky.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27437498@N04/sets/72157605562588644/

Emily :)

Snow or 'partially congealed rain'?

It snowed on me as I was driving to work today. Not a lot, but it was definitely snow. And, I'm wearing a sweater today. Someone needs to tell whoever is in charge of Utah weather that in 10 days it will officially be summer. So we really need to get our act together ASAP.

As soon as I quit falling asleep at 8:30 p.m., I plan on posting some pics of our outing last weekend to the Tracy Aviary (read: bird zoo) in Liberty Park in downtown Salt Lake. It's been fun to play tourist in a new town. We haven't even scratched the surface of fun things to do in the city, let alone the entire state.

My job is going well. I think I might not be 'hippie' enough to work here, surprisingly. But I'll work on it. Although, I draw the line at riding my bike to work. The weather is too unpredictable.

--Emily :)

Hiking up the mini mountain

Last Sunday, we decided that we wanted to go hiking...somewhere. Ash suggested a trail up the Little Cottonwood Canyon next to the ski resort we went to in December. After doing some research, I figured out that maybe wasn't the best idea since the webcam on the Alta ski resort website showed a pretty snowy picture. Yes, you heard me. Snow. Lots of it. Still. In June, for god's sake. So after talking Ash out of hiking in the snow with a baby...which, surprisingly (or not) did take some convincing...we decided we'd better do more of a city hike.

We headed north of downtown Salt Lake and hiked up Ensign Peak. The trail and mountain were the first climbed by Brigham Young and other pioneers as they settled the Salt Lake valley. The hike was classified as 'easy', but Ash & I were glad we didn't attempt a longer or more strenuous trail. I think hiking is definitely one of those things best eased into. Here are some pics from our jaunt up the mountain. http://www.flickr.com/photos/27437498@N04/
Enjoy!

-Emily :)

Back to the Grind

We've had a pretty busy and tiring week with me starting my new job and Helena deciding to get what the doctor says is 'multiple' teeth all at once. She's been a peach, I tell ya. She's moving around on her own very well now, and below, she is kindly demonstrating her newest trick:

Yep, that's her standing up in her crib all by herself when she's supposed to be going to sleep. This is our new game. Although I'm not certain I would call it a game because games are supposed to be fun. Anyway...I think she also gets that mischievous look from her dad. Maybe he should put her to bed. :)

I'll try to post something interesting about my job once I have something notable to discuss. Here's my station's website for any of you that are really really bored. It seems like a pretty cool, laid back place to work. I think I'll like it once I get everything figured out and some things whipped into shape how I want them. It will also be helpful when I quit getting lost, missing my turn, etc. on my drive to AND from work every day. Today I accidentally went to the airport on my way home. Maybe that's a sign???

I'm off to watch the Stanley Cup Finals with Ashford, because I'm the best wife ever. Hockey is bearable to me when I pretend it's basketball on ice. Try it sometime. Go Red Wings!

-Emily :)

Everyone Does

Just wanted to share a good quote from my niece Ellie that my mom told me about today. Ellie is newly potty trained and catching on very well. Yesterday, she was going #2 and said to her great-grandma in a defeated tone: "Grandma....I have to do this EVERY DAY."

We all do, sweetie. You're not the only one. :) Just wait...there's way worse things you'll have to do EVERY DAY.