Happy Early Birthday To Me!

Thanks to my mom I can now play DanceDance Revolution to my hearts content. Here is a photo of my mom playing the game when she came for a visit last night. I enjoyed the game for more than an hour tonight, and I am hoping that if I can play on it for about an hour every day I can get into some kind of shape.

Thanks for the birthday present, Mom!

Randomness

I have been tagged by Alyssa, so here goes.

1. I think that my internal thermostat is set at a different point than most other people. I am always warm. I have always hated to wear a coat, even as a small child. I was too warm.

2. I am an incredibly light sleeper. I can't have any light or noise when I am sleeping. When Stephanie lived with me I had to wear ear plugs to bed, and sometimes I have even worn earplugs when I am alone in the house because the sound of the furnace or air conditioner turning on will wake me up.

3. I have an unreasonable fear of my home being damaged by water. Possibly because at my old house the swamp cooler used to leak.

4. I don't like chick flicks. I would rather have a root canal.

5. Stephanie, Ava, and my mom all claim that they have seen ghosts in my house. I have not seen them, and they are welcome to dwell here as long as I don't have to see or hear them.

6. This is related to number 5. I have never seen ghosts in my house, but the scent of bacon and/or maple syrup sometimes moves through my house. I like to think that this might be my dad since he was very fond of bacon and maple syrup.

7. I live 4 blocks away from the cemetary and I enjoy walking though it after dark.

Relief Soceity Retreat

We had our annual Relief Society Retreat last night. I am on the planning comittee and some of you will remember my griping and moaning about the experience last year. We had meetings on almost a weekly basis for 5 months fighting over what to eat, how to decorate, what kind of activities to have, what the theme should be, and anything else that could be fought over. Our ward had two Relief Societies each with about ten members on the committee so we could never come to a consensus on anything. I was all about doing things as quickly, cheaply, and easily as possible, but my vote apparently didn't count. The retreat was held at a cabin at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. The cabin is huge and beautiful, but it was a really tight fit for the 150 people who showed up. Dinner was absolute chaos and we worked feverishly all night to feed everyone and get the place cleaned up.

This year we had only one meeting, which was fabulous. We now have 3 Relief Societies and basically the presidents got together and planned the whole evening themselves. We were asked to be at the cabin as early as possible to help with set-up and preparation. I chose not to take the day off work and I got up there at 5 p.m. I'm not sure why things were so much easier this year, but everything was done by the time I got there. I asked if there was anything I could do and I was told that I could dump a couple of bags of salad into 2 big salad bowls which took me about one minute to do. Then I made my way over to a corner where two teachers from Davis were sitting in the comfy chairs and we chatted for about 2 hours until dinner started. One of the teachers was freaking out that she had to administer the ACT test this morning and she couldn't find anyone to help her with it. Apparently 2 adults are required to be in the room during testing, so I volunteered.

After dinner and a very short speaker the gathering broke up. I helped with clean up for a few minutes but I felt like I was just in the way. I figured since I spent hours washing dishes last year someone else could do it this year, and I was out of there by 9. This morning I headed over to the high school and got paid $75 to read a book for 4 hours while the students took the test. My only assignment was to gather up and count the 29 booklet when the test concluded, so all in all it hasn't been a bad weekend.

This is a picture of the cabin. It is more impressive from the other side, but it is almost completely obscured by trees. It is probably almost as big as the Heritage, but it only has one big gathering room and more bedrooms. Unlike the Heritage it is absolutely gorgeous. The owners are also the owners of Modern Display, so it is beautifully decorated.

PlayStation2

I have been wanting to find a PlayStation, but as you all know that I am so cheap I had not found one that was inexpensive enough for me to justify the purchase.

Denise was kind enough to give me an old PlayStation that her ex-roommate left behind. Unfortunately it was the PlayStation only - no power cord, no connecters, no joystick - nothing. Luckily for me Colton had an old joystick that he was willing to part with, and after searching a few different stores I was able to find a power cord and the connecter cords. The connecter cords didn't have a price tag, so the guy at Game Stop sold them to me for $1.99. I was thrilled with that price since my three options at Wal-Mart ranged in price from $19.99 to $39.99. So for a mere $7.99 I now have a working PlayStation. The only game that I currently have is The Chronicles of Narnia which Steph gave me for Christmas a few years ago. I had never played it because I was too addicted to X-Men, but I broke it out tonight. It is okay, but I'm still going to need to buy X-Men. I also want to get DanceDance Revolution, since I am justifying having a PlayStation by telling myself that I am going to work out on it regularly. I need to find a dance mat and a memory card so I can save my games, and then I will be all set.

Don't bother me, I'm gaming!

Adams Canyon

Okay, I know you guys are probably all sick of my hiking pictures, but here are some more. Steph ditched me today so with nothing to do I decided to head up Adams Canyon. Apparently most of the people in the Layton area had the same idea because I have never seen the trail that crowded.

Hike #3

It's UEA weekend so I'm off work Thursday and Friday. Steph wanted to go up to the mountains above Pineview for a hike hoping that all of the aspens would be pretty and yellow. Unfortunately the aspens were completely bare and the scenery was mostly just brown, but it's still pretty in its own way.

I forgot to take my camera so I had to use my cell phone which doesn't take the best pictures and doesn't allow you to zoom, but I think they turned out okay all things considered.



Since Stephanie is missing in action on the blogs I wanted to take a picture of her to prove that she is actually alive and well. Here she is doing some weak robot moves.

Are we really supposed to be in this area? Do we really care?

This is the dog that Stephanie has basically stolen from her boyfriend. This picture doesn't do justice in capturing how fat Peanut is. I don't ever again want to hear Stephanie make fun of how fat my dog is. (I will admit that Peanut is a very sweet animal, but she is not at all majestic.)

Steph wantede me to take a picture of this sign.

Snow

I'm not quite ready to agree with Alyssa about loving the first snow. Fall is my favorite season and I would like to hang on to it for a little while longer. I did, however, think that the snow next to the green lawn and the red Virginia Creeper made a nice contrast.

Obviously this is not a hiking weekend.