My Birthday Cake

In my family we celebrate birthdays on a Sunday close to the actual birthday.  This last Sunday was a combined birthday party for myself and my brother-in-law Aaron.  My sister Melanie has been getting into making gourmet cakes and made 2 cakes for the occasion, one for me and one for Aaron.  Mine was a 3 layer pound cake with coconut buttercream frosting.  She just posted the recipe and pictures of my cake on her blog today.  Go check it out.  Then make it.  Then eat it.  Then you will know for yourself that it was divine.  Thanks again Melanie, you are the bestest!

Coolest Girl in America

Have I told you about Andrea? She's the coolest girl in America. Andrea is one of the dearest friends I've ever made. We were roommates in college 11 years ago, became instant friends, and have remained so ever since. Today is Andrea's birthday so I wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday this year!

August got a little busy for me and I did not get to blog about all the things that happened. The first weekend of August I hopped on a plane and flew to Idaho Falls to attend Andrea's wedding. It was such a great experience to be there with my best friend on her big day. I got to be 'part of the family' as I stayed in their home, helped set up for the reception, painted Andrea's nails the night before, etc. It really meant a lot to me to be there.

Andrea, I miss you. And I love you. Make me proud.

My New Celebrity Crush

Am I too old to have a young celebrity crush? Nah. I'll never be too old for that.

The other night I got sucked into this Korean drama/ romantic comedy called Playful Kiss. It's cheesy, but I like it. The lead female character, Oh Hani, is a bit silly and daydreams a lot about Baek Sueng Jo (played by Kim Hyun Joong). She writes him a love letter and he returns it to her graded with a D- saying he cannot stand stupid girls. As luck would have it Oh Hani's house is destroyed in an earthquake so she and her father move in with some friends, which turn out to be Sueng Jo's family. I enjoy watching the interplay between the two as Oh Hani continues to be accident prone and seemingly destroys Baek Sueng Jo's life while he in turn learns to loosen up and have fun.

So who's the new crush? Well the character Baek Sueng Jo, of course. Or Kim Hyun Joong (김현중), the actor.

He has nicer hair than I do. And after looking at a few pictures it appears he changes his hair style/color about as often as I do.

Upon further looking I discovered he's also a singer in the band SS501, a Korean boy band. This is so typically not my style, but today I seem to like it.

"It's because I'm part Icelandic."

A number of years ago I had a home teacher named Josh who is part Chinese and part Icelandic. Whenever Josh did anything particularly impressive or awesome it was always the same excuse, "It's because I'm part Icelandic." Josh can run faster, lift heavy objects, and even drive an awesome car all because he is part Icelandic. (He also minored in math).

I've never given Iceland much thought before, but an opportunity has come for me to visit this interesting country in a couple months. Today I picked up a book at the library about Iceland to learn more about where I'll be going and so far I'm rather impressed. First of all the swimming pool is sacred in Iceland and the hot tub is the social hub of every town. This sounds like my kind of place! Icelanders are also very proud of their country and can often be heard saying they have 'the best _______ in the world'. I like their attitude.

They have a couple awesome old Icelandic sayings, "If you don't like the weather now, just wait 5 minutes, it'll get worse."

"Betra er berfættur en bókarlausum að vera." (It's better to be barefoot than bookless.)

Icelanders also believe in the supernatural. In the lava are gnomes, elves, fairies, dwarves, lovelings, mountain spirits, and angles. I don't know what lovelings are, but I'm sure curious to find out!

I'm really excited to see Iceland and swim in their 'hot pots'. I think Josh is right: there is something special about the Icelandic People.

If you still aren't convinced then check out this silly video.

(but a warning to the more innocent of my readers: there is brief nudity)

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

A little trip to Cancun

The third week of August I spent in Mexico with 2 friends.  We stayed on a little island called Isla Mujeres just off the coast of Cancun.  We did some traveling (of course) to see as much as we could in the short time we were there.  The weather was hot, but welcome.  The ocean clear and inviting.  The ruins fascinating.  The friends a lot of fun.

Here is my week in pictures.  

Click here to view this photo book larger

Ranked #4

I registered for classes this morning and while poking around the UW Applied Math website I found a link to this site.  Turns out my program is ranked #4 in the Nation!  Go UW!

The Travel Bug

Tonight I skipped my regularly scheduled FHE to see my Grandma who is visiting this week.  I spent my evening trading traveling stories with her.  Thanks to my Grandma and her Time Share I was able to spend last week in beautiful Mexico on a small island called Isla Mujeres.  Tonight I showed her a few pictures of all the places I went while staying there.  My favorite part was showing her my picture at Chichen Itza because she then hooked up her video camera to the TV and showed me pictures of her in the exact same place a few years earlier.

I appear to have inherited my love of traveling from her.  Did you know my Grandma has been to 104 countries? 

I've been to 4.  I have some catching up to do.

Come November I will be able to tack on 3 more countries to my list.  :)

Helping a Friend

I don't normally do this kind of thing, but it's really easy and I know/like the guy who is doing it. My friend Austin is competing for an amazing job in Los Angeles, and is very close to getting it. But he needs our help.

It takes literally 5 seconds to vote for him - Click Here to VOTE!



Thanks, everybody.

He's Home

My li'l Brudder came home from his mission in Argentina today.  I've missed him.  A lot.

Betty Boop

At the beginning of this year my mother bought me a Betty Boop day calendar. It's one of those paper ones where you tear off a day at at time and have a new picture for each day of the year. By the way, I love Betty Boop. I also have Betty Boop checks. Betty pretty much rocks.

For the most part each day I tear away the page and promptly throw it in the trash. However there have been a handful of days that I liked the picture enough I put it in my desk to look at later. I decided to glance at the saved pictures recently and noticed a theme. Can you guess what else I love other than Betty Boop?