Good news, and The Blahs

First, and unrelated, I must announce, we just paid off Kenny's Vespa (mo-ped) loan!, thus finishing phase one of our plan. Next phase: we will pay off the remaining $7650 on my car loan by the end of July. After that, phase three: paying off the student loan by Kenny's graduation in April 08. Then we will have no debt at all, just in time for babys and house debt! Yay!
Our other happy news is we will be getting back enough in taxes for a good vacation to Houston this summer, and some couches. The futon is about to give up the ghost, and couches would make me feel more like it is "my" home. And Kenny is uber excited about a new entertainment center. The one we inherited from Nama is huge, heavy, not "our style", and doesn't fit our TV.

Next topic:
Is it possible it be bored while being blissfully happy? Kenny and I have been switching back and forth between the cheer-up-er and the cheer-up-ee. Part of it is we are sick of snow, and sick of Utah. We both have to coat each other in lotion each night so our skin doesn't fall off. For Kenny, it's mostly about motivation. He knows he has a good job (managing the wood shop, good pay, choose your own hours) but he just doesn't feel like he's accomplishing anything. IT doesn't help that his job has nothing to do with being a math teacher. And school takes a lot out of him- a couple of hours of homework a night, while he watches me get to play video games and stuff. I try to do something boring, like write thank you notes or read, but it's hard to not do something fun while he homeworks. His only motivation is towards me: all he really wants to do at this point is be with me, play games with me, just cuddle. While that's all very sweet, Kenny isn't the type to be content with mediocre grades. We just got to find a balance.
My big thing, as every one knows, is how much I want kids. I feel like everything is just counting down til Kenny graduates and we can be "real" adults. I hate that there is nothing I can do to speed up the process. I can't do Kenny's homework for him, I can't speed up time- all I can do is work and save money. I know that that is important, and we are very blessed, but it's hard devoting half of my brain to a piece of software that will matter nothing to me in two years.
Don't get me wrong, we are happy and grateful for our blessings. Just kinda.... blah... right now.

The tragedy of Cubicle Fish

So about a month ago I went to a coworkers cubicle and saw he had an aquarium with some fish in his cubicle. I thought "brilliant!" Kenny doesn't particularly like fish, so we don't' want them at home, but a cubicle is a perfect place. So we went to walmart and spent $30 of my $60 allowance on a ten-gallon tank kit (complete with filter and lights). I then went to petsmart and spent $30 on accessories- gravel, a fake plant, a decorative barrel for fish to hide in. I bought 3 fish at 5 dollars each.
Billy (joel) Fish was a tannish gold with a black pompadour and a "you lookin at me?" kinda face. Dizzy (Gillespie) Fish (aka bubbles) was a standard gold fish with ridiculous bubbly huge cheeks. He looked like a pretty miserable soul- that type of fish always looks sad- and since I am a horrible person, it makes me giggle. There was also Jerry (garcia) fish, who had a big pot belly and was a little spazzy. Lori was kind enough to accompany me in the picking out of these fish then went to work with me on a saturday to get it all set up in my cubicle. That was just over two weeks ago.
The first week was great. Others have since copied the idea and there are now many cubicles with fish, but mine were still the coolest. They made me feel more at home and kept me company during conference calls (which take up about half of my time).
Then last Thursday, I started noticing they were swimming pretty slowly and not doing much. Friday, they didn't bother eating. About half way through the day I went to feed them, and when I opened the lid I noticed a bad smell. Then I realized I hadn't seen dizzy fish all day. So I reached in, turned the decorative barrel upside down, and found his corpse.
By the end of the day, Jerry fish did nothing but chill at the surface, frantically gulping. Billy was the worst though. He just floated, kinda crooked, and I would have thought he was dead if his eyes weren't moving, looking at me with this "what have you done to me? put me out of my misery" look. I turned off the light, thinking the water might be too warm, and turned off the filter, thinking maybe it was causing too much current. They were both still technically alive when I went home on Friday, but it didn't look hopeful.
Sure enough, we came in on Saturday to check, and they had both passed on. All three fish were laid to rest in stall #2 of the women's first-floor restrooms.
I cried all day Saturday and still struggle, seeing my empty tank (yes, I cry over goldfish). Everyone here has been so nice about it- at least 6 coworkers came by to offer their condolences, and one even brought me goldfish snacks (how thoughtful!)
Eighty-five dollars, three fish, and many tears later, I think I've decided cubicle fish weren't that brilliant of an idea.

How I stuck it to the Man

I have my diploma, at last. Only 8 months after I "graduated", I've jumped through the necessary hoops and have the piece of paper. I feel amazingly... exactly the same. And I never did give in and take Freshman English- my way of sticking it to "the man". Here is how the "sticking" happened:
I signed up to take the class 3 times. Each time, I walked out of the class on the first day because it seemed that remedial. Mind you, I had taken English 101 AND 102 at Clark College, but they only transfered as half of the credit I needed. I got a 35/36 on the English ACTs, and that counted towards nothing.
So, I thought Independent Study would be better. I signed up for it, paid $160, got the materials, opened the book, and shuddered. No, I will NOT show you three different ways of brainstorming/outlining a paper. So, I kept the independent study materials around for years, calling each July to pay 30 dollars to extend my course time limit a year. 3 years later, I finish advanced technical writing, my senior seminar/thesis, and I still don't have that darn freshman credit.
At this point, I got to walk around the Marriott Center in a funny hat and robes and have mom and dad take pictures of me (pictures we won't show because my hair was taking over the world that day). But I'm still not done.
I almost gave in to the man- I did half of the Independent Study course before I couldn't take it anymore. I talk to there English professors and my Faculty Advisor. My only way out is to take the challenge exam, which is only offered every September. And costs 30 more bucks. Come September, I take the test. For the portfolio I'm supposed to turn in with the test, I turn in my 10th grade English portfolio.
I got a C. And there you have it. 4 years and about 230 dollars later, I finally got my English Credit, without having to sit through a "boring" and "remedial" class.
Ha, take that, "the man"!

Now, only 16 months left til Kenny gets his insignificant piece of paper- err, diploma- then we can really be grown ups. In the meantime, does anyone have a baby I could play with?

The alphabet campaign

With Lori's support, I have decided to formally announce my campaign intentions. We need to change the alphabet, and I feel I have the experience to head such changes.

First, and most important: the letter w (double-u). It's name is horribly inappropriate, for three main reasons:
-It is the only letter of the alphabet with more than one syllable.
-There is no "w" sound in the word.
-Most people write "w" with two V's, not U's.
I propose we call it "wee", to go with the general them of the alphabet (bee, see, dee). Other possibilities include "wo" and "why" (which would require renaming Y, which would be logical since "weye" has no Y-sound in it).

Second, the letter H (aitch). Such a harsh word for such a smooth letter! And it has no "h" sound in it. I propose "hee" instead.

For the long term: abolish the letter C. Both sounds are covered by S or K. Actually, let's just change it to the "ch" sound. It is now the letter "chee". "church" can now be spelt "curc". Think of all the letter space we are saving!

Also on my list:
Abolish the font "comic sans". It is acceptable ONLY in comics. Not for file labeling systems. Not for memos. Not for emails.

Who's with me?

Why on earth would someone elect that woman?

So, when I am bored at work (as I have been frequently lately, what with our email being down this week), I wikipedia things. A big focus has been the upcoming presidential elections. Mostly because I am mortally afraid that Hillary Clinton has a chance. So I've been trying to figure out who could beat her (democrat or republican) and that's who I will root for for now. For those who haven't yet taken note of the forerunners here they are, as well as my understanding of their chances (partially based on this article), and my preferences. And yes, I know I am the last person to come to for political advice. I just think this is all interesting enough to blog about:

Republican:
Rudy Guiliani-National Hero because of 9/11. The problem is he isn't the ideal republican. He's catholic, but he's pro-choice; favors gay marriage; has (more than likely) had multiple affairs and multiple marriages.) Not my favorite pick.
John Mccain- War hero. Kind of tarred by his open support for President Bush in the past. I think he is too war-happy for the nation to trust him (really, the iraq war is polical poison right now)
Mitt Romney- Mormon. I don't think the nation would elect a Mormon president, though that would be nice. If nothing else, I appreciate him coming forward and hope that the church will get some good press out of it.

All in all, I don't think republicans have a good chance. The national hatred of Bush would make it hard for any republican to follow up.

Democrats-
Hillary Clinton- As Lori (I think) put it, our nation sometimes loves to torture itself. We hated Bill Clinton but re-elected him after he had shamed our nation. We hated (as a nation) Bush but we re-elected him as well. For some odd reason, people like Hillary Clinton. She is at the top of the polls. That scares the crap out of me. I hate, HATE the woman.
John Kerry- The only man unelectable enough to have lost to Bush in '04.
Barack Obama- What a likable fellow. He's black and he has a weird name but lots of personality. Seems like a good, religious, family man. I know he is democrat but man, I hope he wins. Mostly because I want him rather than Hillary.

And there you have it. I may vote for a democrat when the time comes. We'll see.

New Years Resolutions

I used to be real big on new years resolutions, but not as much this year. Here's a list I'll make up as I go:

• pray every night with kenny (we were mostly doing this anyways, and we've already missed two nights this year so I think this resolution no longer counts)
• read scriptures every night with kenny (same as above)
• go to the temple once a month (I've been endowed since august and have only gone to one session since then)
• get out my wedding thank yous by the end of the month (yeah, yeah I know, I'm a horrible person. But I'm working on them now- got 30 done int he last few days, only 50 or so more to go)
• get more pics up on the web- either update my website, or use flickr or photobucket or something (maybe googlepics?).
• visit teach every month (I've been in the ward 5 months and just now got my assignment)
• fulfill my sunday calling (handing out RS fliers- requires showing up to Relief Society)

That's all I can think of, other than the unmeasurable, basic ones (be less sensitive, be more spiritual, la la la).

Happy new years!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We certainly did. Christmas was really great. We spent christmas eve in logan at the house of kenny's sister, Margie. His brother Bryce was there, and his wife Trina, too. Kenny and Bryce are both video games nerds, so they have a lot of fun together. Margie has adorable kids, so I was content to play with them. Margie made a delicious ham dinner (ham being my favorite meat) and it was really great. I'll admit it's still hard for me to feel comfortable around kenny's family, but we had a great time and there wasn't any awkwardness.
Christmas Day we opened our presents then went to Lori's for a lovely Christmas dinner. (see her blog for details).
New Years Eve we went to Anna Rose and Christiaan's place for a party. Christiaan served a mission with kenny then was roommates with him last summer (who are we kidding, I might as well have been a roommate too). He married Anna Rose in July then dropped off the face of the planet, so we were thrilled to see them. The party was a lot of fun.

Things we got for christmas:

• a pink shirt that says "hyrule is for lovers" with a triforce and a heart on it (its a nintendo thing, kevin) (from kenny to me)
• a t-shirt with mario in a frog swimmy suit (from mario 3) (for kenny from me)
  
• the board game clue (from kenny to me)
• apples to apples (from kenny to us)- we've played it a lot since and it's been a blast
  
• a fluffy bathrobe for kenny (from me) I was nervous he wouldn't like it, but he loves it. it looks much on him then my pink one, at any rate.
  
• the muppet's christmas carol (from kenny to me), which we watched christmas day
• The sword in the stone (ones of our favorites, from Kevin and Candace)
• the little mermaid, from my mom (even though she bought us an off-brand kid's cartoon on accident, we were able to exchange it for the real Disney thing)
• the complete Friends series (from us, to us, paid for with a generous gift from kenny's mum)
  
• season one of the office (for me from kenny, but really, its for him too)
• a gift card for target, Kevin and Candace, that we used to get a new pyrex set
  
• The Eyre Affair- a witty and delightful book involving Jane Eyre (from Kenny, based on a recommendation of a chick in our ward). It took me all of two days to finish.
• Ultimate Spiderman Collection- #7 (to kenny from me, though I also enjoy reading them)
• Nintendo Monopoly (from me to kenny- and I let him open it early because I was impatient and we were having a rough day. he loved it)
• A settlers of catan card game expansion set (from me to kenny, but really, just as much for as for him). The card game is a two-player version of the board game. We got the first set for our honeymoon and love it. The expansions are a lot of fun (we've played a game pretty much every day since Christmas)
• a wii points gift card from mom (we can use it to download classic nintendo games to our wii)
  
• a king-sized heater blanket (yay no more cold sheets) from my mom
• 5 DS (nintendo gameboy) games from kenny's brother, Bryce. Such an incredible gift. I've been playing sudoku on Brain Age non stop.
  
• A can of compressed air from Kenny's sister Margie
• A very nifty clicky measury spoon, also from Margie

A pretty good haul for out first christmas together. More than anything, it was just so nice to spend time together. It'll be hard for me when kenny goes back to school. He isn't tutoring anymore this next semester, so he shouldn't be as busy. Anyways, merry christmas and a happy new year to everyone.