The One with the Kirkland Costco

Have you ever wondered why Costco's brand is called Kirkland Signature? According to Wikipedia the name derives from the fact that Costco's corporate headquarters were located in the city of Kirkland, Washington between 1987 and 1996. Today the headquarters are not too far away in the city of Issaquah, Washington. And right between those two cities is my home town of Redmond. Chris and his Pops really like to shop at Costco, so when Chris came out to Washington for the very first time, of course we had to hit up THE one and only Kirkland Costco! Chris was very excited to be there so he called his Pops, and that's who is talking to on the phone in all these pictures. A new Costco warehouse is currently under construction in Redmond, so we won't go to Kirkland for very much longer. I'm bittersweet about it.

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The One with the "Pasickie"

PS - Hello to all those who arrive on this blog by googling "pasickie". In YouTube, you have to search for "Kai wants a popsicle". Thanks for stopping by, feel free to roam around.

Chris and I have watched this YouTube video over and over and over again and it still manages to amuse us. We'll whisper "Pasickie" to each other because it's funny. And no, it's not our child, I have no idea who he belongs to. Enjoy!

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The One with the Diamond Encrusted Skull

"I think most people would agree that their skulls are a priceless asset. But what artist Damien Hirst has done to the following skull has actually made a nondescript skull into one of the most expensive pieces of art ever. It is estimated to be worth more than $50 million, maybe even $100 million. It is believed to come from the skeleton of a man who lived between 1720 and 1810. From Reuters:

'British artist Damien Hirst revealed his latest work of art at the White Cube Gallery in London, June 1, 2007. “For the Love of God" is a life-size cast of a human skull in platinum and covered by 8,601 pave-set diamonds weighing 1,106.18 carats. The single large diamond in the middle of the forehead is reportedly worth $4.2 million alone. Hirst financed the project himself and estimates it cost between 10 and 15 million. But given the cultlike following for Hirst’s previous works — and corresponding financial takings — some hedge fund manager, and closet Hirst fan, may shell out the cash for the diamond-crusted skull.'”

Taken from Anthropolgy.net

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The One with the Decrepit Stairs

We moved into our apartment at the end of April 2007. We noticed then that the stairs were crumbling so we avoided those certain steps and assumed they would get fixed eventually. ONE YEAR LATER the stairs look like this. Notice the sharp rusty nail thing poking out the side... One morning about two weeks ago I got fed up and sent our management a rather intense email. I calculated that they have received over $45,000 in rent over the last year - WAY more than enough to fix the stairs. I also said this was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Would they rather spend a few dollars fixing the stairs or make large payments to an insurance company over an "accidental fall resulting in the slicing of an ankle." The stairs are literally crumbling under our feet... So this evening I came home from work and saw this pile of what looks like new concrete stairs ready to be installed. My ranting and raving worked! It pays to speak up, even though I hate complaining to the landlords. Now I wonder how long it will take for the stairs to actually be installed...

***UPDATE*** The steps were installed the very next day! Way to go Ellsworth Property Management! These stairs are nice and sturdy and I'm not afraid of slicing my foot open.

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The One with the Home Made Clock

I saw this clock while looking at a blog one day and decided I could make one of my own. I went to Anthropologie up in Salt Lake City and bought 12 eclectic door knobs. I had my dad glue together some scraps of wood and he brought it with him when they came out for my graduation. I painted it with different colors of gauche then drilled 12 holes around it. I screwed in the knobs, added the clock mechanism and set it on our DVD shelf. Literally two seconds after I took these pictures, it fell off the shelf and broke in half :( So, I'm trying to put it back together with E6000 glue then I'll sand it, re-paint it and put it in a better spot. *UPDATE on 4.30.2008* I fixed the crack and now it looks good as new!

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The One with Paige's Graduation - Part II

It has been a busy past couple of days! My family flew in on Wednesday afternoon. My mom and sister picked me up from work and they had fun picking out lots of scrapbooking supplies for super cheap. We stopped off at Einstein Bagel and what should have been a 10 minute snack stop turned into a 2 hour excursion...When we drove into the parking lot we heard a "pop" and when Mom got out of the car she heard a "hiiisssss". An allen wrench got stuck in the tire! How in the world did that happen? We took the car over to Costco where they pointed us to Big O Tires and they fixed the hole. Random huh? That night we ate pizza and watched a couple episodes of Supernatural then Allison came over to our apartment for a sleepover.

On Thursday I went into work for a half day then drove to Provo to eat lunch at the Pita Pit with the Evans'. It was so good! Too bad the parking situation is bollocks. There's about 10 parking spots and that's it. If you park anywhere else within a two mile radius, your car will get towed in 10 seconds. I parked in the faculty lot and prayed I wouldn't get a ticket. I didn't -yay. Then I got dressed in my graduation costume and we took pictures outside. It was snowing and I was freezing. It has never snowed as much as it has this last year. The first snow was in early September and it's still snowing in late April. The summers are unbearably hot here so I actually like that it's still cool.

Believe it or not, this is technically my second time walking. The first time was when I was in my mother's womb. Doesn't she look pretty? You can't even tell she was 8.5 months pregnant!















We walked about a mile for the procession then finally I found my seat in the Marriott center. Coincidentally my family was seated just above me so afterwards I walked up the stairs and we went on our way rather than having to search for them among over 6200 graduates plus all the visitors. My Grandma Doris cooked an amazingly delicious Thai food dinner. My little nephew Drew kept hitting his head and falling down, the poor guy! We finished up just in time for the return of LOST. Only the best show on earth! Thursday's episode was no disappointment.

On Friday my mom and sister and I went into work so they could get more scrapbooking stuff. Then we all went to the De Jong concert hall for the other part of graduation. This time they called all our names individually as we walked across the stage and received our diploma covers. I said goodbye to my professors, goodbye to my fellow graduates, and goodbye to BYU. I will miss it! I came home and took a much needed nap then we headed up to Sandy to eat at Texas Roadhouse. The traffic up there was horrendous and the waiter told us it'd be an hour and a half wait. Luckily Texas Roadhouse is in the South Towne Mall parking lot so we just perused all the shops. My dad *almost* bought me a new phone because the one I'm using now is on its last leg. Too bad the one and only employee was too busy helping people or I might actually have a new red Juke cell phone. Oh well, my birthday is coming up.

We ended up waiting only an hour and 15 minutes before we were seated at two tables, back to back. The bread rolls and honey cinnamon butter alone were enough to make the wait worth it. I got pulled pork and Chris got some steak. It was delicious!

Saturday we woke up bright and early and went on a hike. Our plan (at least I thought this was the plan) was to hike up to the "Y" and keep going until we reached snow. Here we are sitting at the top of the "Y."I wore Pumas that I work out in and are by no means snow shoes. Once we reached the snow, we kept going. Apparently that was the plan all along. My feet were soaked and freezing by the time we reached the summit, but the view made it all worth it. My body aches and I have a nasty sun burn, but there's nothing quite like being on top of a mountain. We found an abandoned air mattress and had fun sliding on it down the hills. Once we reached the car we went to J Dawgs. It was my first time eating one of those hot dogs and I was impressed. I will definitely eat there again, especially since it's so close to our apartment.Here is a GPS map of our hike. If you look closely you can see the white "Y" on the mountain (it's in the middle of the bottom third of the picture). Following the red line, we hiked up to the "Y" then turned right and kept going up through the canyon then around the back of the mountain. In total we hiked 10.5 miles with 4,011' of climbing. Good times.

This is me and my brother (I was about 8 and Eric was about 5) sitting in almost the exact same spot as Chris and me in this current picture.















After the hike, I quickly cleaned up (I was a muddy and stinky mess) and then went shopping with my mom and sister. We dropped her off at a friend's house then we went over to my grandparent's for Cincinnati Chili. I swear I have never eaten such good food as these past couple of days! Then Mom came over and watched two episodes of Supernatural but I fell asleep at 8.

I am officially graduated and it's a great feeling! Next time this year I'll be blogging about Chris' graduation!

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The One with the Congratulations!

Hey all,
This is Chris. I just wanted to put a post up today to say CONGRATULATIONS to Paige! We just finished all the graduation ceremonies for her Bachelor of Art in Art Education. I wanted to tell her, and all of you, how proud I am of her. I love you Paige!

P.S. I'll put some pictures of the graduation stuff up soon.

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The One with Chris' Amazing Artistic Skills

I bet you didn't know that Chris is an amazing watercolorist. He's very talented. I'm going to MAKE him write some of his stories about being an artist so stay tuned. Meanwhile, I'm graduating in 5 hours!

Well, she kept her word. This is Chris, and here I am writing about all of this. I first tried painting in watercolor when I was a freshman in a drawing 1 class. I almost didn't take the class, but I did, and subsequently I took an art class or two every semester I was in high school.

I fell in love with watercolor and it has been my medium of choice since that drawing 1 class. I have had paintings in various art shows and have even won a couple Best in Show's, believe it or not. (I really don't think watercolor photographs well...)

Aside from my photography class, every art class I took during high school was taught by my favorite teacher, Mr. Sarmo. He is an amazing artist, in watercolor and other mediums, and he really mentored me and helped me.

I remember one funny story. During one of my art classes with Mr. Sarmo, the class was working on a watercolor project. No matter what the project was, I used watercolor. But this time the whole class had to use them. One of the other students asked Mr. Sarmo, "Hey, do we have any yellow ochre?" Mr. Sarmo replied, "Is there any left in the stock room?" The student said there wasn't so Mr. Sarmo said he would have to pick some up over the weekend. It just so happened that I needed that very color so I asked Mr. Sarmo, "Hey, do you have any yellow ochre?" He said, "Yeah. Let me go get my paints." And he went and let me use his own supplies.

Anyway, I love art. I'm not the best at it, but I love it. I guess that's why I'm an Art History major here at BYU. If you can't make it, study it. Right?

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The One with Paige's Gradation - Part I

I graduated from high school in June 2003 at Qwest Field/Seahawk Stadium. After all the 'rents and teachers left, we seniors stayed and watched an "illusionist." I didn't buy it for one minute and was actually bored out of my mind. Then we went to GameWorks (an arcade) in Seattle which was pretty cool because we had the whole thing rented out. Then at 1am we boarded a ferry and cruised around the Puget Sound. I am NOT a night person and basically fell asleep in a chair...

Tomorrow, I will graduate from college. I'm so excited because my family is flying in - they're on the airplane as I'm typing this. I haven't seen them since Christmas! And my in-laws are coming in tomorrow so it's going to be one big party. These are my "high school graduation" photos and tomorrow I will post my "college graduation" photos and we can see the difference. Have a "googley" day!

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The One with Paige's Project - Part I

I'm going to turn this pile o' papers and tiles into something...what will it be?

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The One with Our Menagerie

I have loved animals since I was a little girl. Or maybe I just liked feeding them... Anyways, I have had more pets than I can remember so I will just write about the ones that come to mind and that I have pictures of.

My very first pet was a guinea pig named Tanmerry. Where did I come up with that name? Well, she was a tan color and I liked the name "Marie", put them together and you've got Tanmerry. I guess technically I should have spelled it Tanmarie, but I was only 7 or so. I remember I was sooo happy to finally have a pet. My dad was reading about guinea pigs one day and found out they like to be in groups so they let me get another guinea pig. I named her Squeaky because she squeaked all the way home.Around the end of October in 1994, my aunt and uncle found abandoned kittens in their yard. Being the sweet and caring people that they are, they took the kittens in and hand fed them. I desperately wanted one but the 'rents said no. My uncle had to take the kittens to work with him every day to feed them and since he shared an office with my dad, eventually he gave in to their cuteness and let me get one. I remember before we went and picked her up we stopped off at a bread store and I swear we spent five hours shopping for ingredients... I named my kitty Tip Toe because that was what I decided I would name my first kitty when I was about 5 years old. If you do the math, Tip Toe will turn 14 this October. And she's still young and spry!
In 1997 my sister went to a birthday party and got a goldfish. I took him as my own and named him Karp. Have you ever read the book "A Fish Out Of Water" about the goldfish that gets bigger and bigger and bigger? That's exactly what happened to my goldfish. Every time I gave him a tank upgrade he would grow. He started out about 1/2" long and eventually grew to about 7" long and 1" wide. He was HUGE! When I left home to go to college, his tank got moved into my sister's room. One night she heard a noise, got scared and went to sleep in my parent's room. In the morning, she went upstairs and Karp was missing from his tank! She looked around and found him tangled in the curtains. Amazingly enough, he lived! 7 hours outside water and the silly goldfish lived! Karp died in 2005 at the ripe old age of 9 years old. That's gotta be some kind of record. (Sorry I don't have better pictures of him, it's hard to get good photos of a moving fish in a glass tank! Just look at the size of him compared to the rest of the stuff in my room.)Of course once I had a cat I needed a dog! It wasn't until right before 9th grade that my family finally bought a Shetland Sheepdog - or Sheltie for short. We named him Sneakers and I wish he liked me more. But, I guess it's true what they say, a dog is a man's best friend. Sneakers prefers my brother Eric over anybody.
When Chris and I first started dating, we got a hamster named Kissyfer. She was super cute. She wouldn't run inside her wheel, instead she's situate herself so her tail would stick out and she'd run on top of the wheel. Watch the video to see her in action! (I don't know why the lights were off in the room when I took the video, but you get the idea.)
Like I said in the post about my scrapbooking career, I bought myself a pair of zebra finches as a "reward" for getting a new job. That was in 2005 and I still have them. I first found out about zebra finches when I was in 6th grade. I remember visiting a retirement home with my youth group and there was an aviary filled with the little birds. I needed some. I begged my dad for months to let me get some birds. Christmas morning came - no birds sitting under the tree. Our last present comes at the end of a treasure hunt in the form of clues and my last clue said something like, "I love Reeses Pieces, your present is over at Larisa's." I ran across the street to Larisa's house in my pajamas and there was a cage with two little birds! Two weeks later, they laid three eggs. Two weeks later, I had five birds. Six months later I had eight birds! Zebra finches are known for being quite prolific, although the pair I have right now are not.In the summer of 2006 I decided I needed more money so I got a second job at PetCo. While working there I acquired lots of pets. The first was a chinchilla that I named Li'l Chinchilla (creative, I know). Apparently she was pregnant because one day while she was running around there suddenly appeared a baby chinchilla which I named Li'l Chinwilla.

While at PetCo, I was in charge of filling food dishes in the aviary and this one little conure was so nice to me. I had to have him. Or her. It. (You can't tell the gender of this specific type of bird unless you get DNA testing.) And so, I bought a maroon bellied conure and named "him" Jadis after the evil ice queen of Narnia. He likes candy just as much as me!
Chris and I were out running errands in the summer of 07 and stopped at PetCo to pick up some supplies. We were looking around at all the animals and my eyes fell upon this sweet bunny. I had to have him. And so we bought him and we named him Chandler. He's a Netherland Dwarf and he has the cutest little ears and a fro!I did my student teaching Fall 2007. On the second day, as I was walking the students to the cafeteria, I noticed a kitten trying to get in through the front doors. I ate lunch outside and fed the kitten some of my sandwich. I didn't want her to get run over by any cars so I put her in my car. And then I took her home. The first thing she did was plop herself in the very middle of this huge love sac and fell asleep. A side story - I kept a drawer full of change for over five years. We sorted all the change into rolls and took all $50 to the bank. When I went to Wal-Mart that day to buy kitty supplies, it came out to just over $50. I like to say that I saved for five years to buy a kitty. After no one called saying they lost their cat, we kept her and named her Rachel.
No more pets! It takes me about 4 hours every Saturday to clean all the cages and tanks and the litter box... But I love them all and wouldn't trade them for anything. Right now in our apartment we have:
1 Cat named Rachel
1 Conure named Jadis
1 Rabbit named Chandler
1 Chinchilla named Li'l Chinchilla
1 Beta Fish with no name
1 Guppy Fish with no name
2 Zebra Finches I just call Birdies

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