The nose knows...

This morning I was getting gas and the stupid pump didn't switch off, so when I went to unhook the pump gas splashed on me and proceeded to pour out of the pump! UGH!
So all day I've been smelling like gas (no wonder I have a huge headache right now).

In honor of my smelly day I thought I would try and turn my thoughts to pleasant aromas ... So here is a list of my favorite scents:

* Freshly baked bread (my Lion House Rolls are the BEST!)
* Leather (especially when it's coming from a new purse or new shoes!)
* A new pack of spearmint gum
* Cologne on an attractive man (some faves through the years have been Polo, Drakkar, Armani Gio, Cool Water, Polo Black and others...)
* Clean laundry ... Tide, Bleach and a little Downy fabric softner: the perfect combination!
* Candles that smell like something sweet is baking: Sugar Cookie, Butter Pecan Pie, Vanilla, etc...
* Christmas trees
* Oil of Olay (memories of Mom always smelling like that)
* Rain

OK, I could go on for days, but not all I want is some good smelling man to cuddle up to while bread is baking in the oven, it's raining outside, the Christmas tree is shimmering, I'm snapping my gum and lighting a scented candle. Oh and unwrapping my new leather purse and getting ready to climb into clean, bleached sheets.
But wait ... I think I catch a faint wiff of gasoline still. Drat!

What are your favorite scents?

Big Ben and Prince William ... here I come!

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

Utah bound!

It's official! I am moving back home to Utah in 2 weeks! I am so excited, relieved, anxious, and more. Being a very practical, responsible person, I am taking a huge leap in my newest adventure ...

I HAVE NO JOB!

Having realized over the past year that I am not a California Girl, I am excited to return to my familiar stomping grounds, friends and family who love me and actual DATING OPPORTUNITIES!!!

The downside to my "triumphant" return to Utah? Living with my parents once again. I think they now call people like me Boomerang Kids. Hopefully this will be a short stay with the 'rents. I'm hoping for a fabulous job and an adorable apartment in my very near future!
I keep telling myself that change is good ... that's been a mantra of mine for the past 18 months as my life has seen a good share of ups and downs!

Now on to the packing fun!

Tagged

A- Attached or single: Oh so single!

B- Best Friend: Where to begin... Alicia, Suzanne, Amy, Elaine, Brent, Joni, Shawna

C- Cake or Pie: Ooooo CAKE! Especially when it's from Costco. Also loving cupcakes from Bristol Farms.

D- Day of choice: Saturday for sure. But also enjoy a nice Sunday.

E- Essential Item: Chapstick and a hair tie.

F- Favorite Color: Green ... nearly all shades

G- Gummy Bears or Worms: Neither one. Yuck.

H- Hometown: Layton, Utah!

I- Indulgence(s): Cupcakes (see above!), Twinkies, Starbucks Chai Latte (working on cutting those out)

J- January or July: July in N. Utah, but January in either Palm Springs or St. George -- july is too hot!

K- Kids? Cannot wait to have them one day!

L: Life is Incomplete Without: My family, friends and dogs.

M- Marriage Date: I think Sept. 2008 sounds great! hahaha!

N- Number of Siblings: 2

O- Oranges or Apples: Apples

P- Phobias or Fears: Drowning.

Q- Quote(s): "Looking for my Mr. Darcy."

R- Reason To Smile: It's my BIRTHDAY!

S- Season: Fall (see previous Autumnal Abundance post)

T- Tag Three: 1, 2, 3 ... you're it.

U- Unknown Fact About Me: Unknown ... I'm an open book.

V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Bring on the meat!

W- Worst Habit: I'm really bad about taking pills ... vitamins, medications, etc... Maybe I need one of those pill-a-day boxes.

X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: whatever finds the broken parts of me best.

Y- Your Favorite Food: seafood

Z- Zodiac: Libra.

Happy 34th Birthday to Me!! hehehe

Kohen Mitchel King

New Nephew!

Jeff, Juline and Adi welcomed Kohen Mitchel to the King family Friday afternoon! Isn't he adorable!! I can't wait to see him when the family all flies out to New Jersey for his baby blessing in November!

Autumnal Amazement

It's now my favorite time of year! I love FALL!! October, by far, is my favorite month of the year.
In honor of the first full day of fall, here's my list of Fall Favorites:
* My birthday ... October 4!
* Crisp fall nights
* Beautiful changing leaves and long, romantic drives to see the colors!
* Halloween costume shopping or creating! (see Hurricane Katrina)
* Dad's dramatic stories from the deer hunt
* Halloween Parties
* Digging out my fall/winter sweaters
* Warm apple cider -- Starbuck's Caramel Apple Cider is the BEST!
* Halloween/Fall crafts
* Pumpkin-scented everything ... even though I dislike pumpkin flavored everything.
* And ... Scary Movies!

Speaking of Scary movies ... here's a list of the movies that scared me the most.
1. "Watcher in the Woods"
2. "The Ring"
3. "Rosemary's Baby"
4. "What Lies Beneath"
5. "Wait Until Dark"

These are all great films! What are your scariest movies?

Beard Papa!

It's been more than a year since I returned from Japan ... more than a year since my last incredible Beard Papa cream puff. ... That is until yesterday! As posted earlier, I found a Beard Papa shop in Costa Mesa, just a couple hours away. So yesterday I embarked on a little adventure: Orange County Swap Meet shopping extravaganza followed by a sweet treat or two.

Well, the day wasn't as idyllic as I had hoped. I caught a cold (probably from the pretty drastic drop in temperatures ... 105 to 85 within a week ... not that I'm complaining!! It's beautiful outside). So I wasn't feeling so great, but I was determined to enjoy a nice Saturday morning. I enjoyed a great drive, complete with a lovely rainstorm, but when I arrived at the swap meet the effects of the rainstorm were obvious ... not many vendors. A little disappointed, I still managed to find a few fun things: knockoff sunglasses and a couple of really cute hats (yep, going to start wearing hats more!)

Starting to feel not so hot, I decided it was time to reunite with Beard Papa! The shop was inside a cute little Japanese grocery store. Kind of fun to see familiar sites: bakery items, people eating ramen noodles ... and fresh pastry puffs being filled with sweet cream! I splurged and bought a whole dozen ... enough to hopefully take to work and share.

Even though there were a few disappointments and I didn't feel well, it was a nice morning that was followed by a nice long afternoon nap!

Neurotic Dog

I can't even get a massage in peace!

New paint job

My apartment got a bit of a facelift on Tuesday. Well, I should really call it a botched facelift.

Making improvements to the complex, the management is repainting all the front doors and stair railings. Assuming they would just put a fresh coat of green on the doors (the complex is, afterall, Emerald Place), I instead came home to a door that is a bright shade of Coral ... or is it Salmon. UGH! It looks so horrible! And, to add to the ugliness, it's a high gloss paint ... so it's a shiny Coral!

The worst part of the whole door-painting was that the brilliant painters left my front door WIDE open once they were done. No workers watching the paint dry ... nope, they just left my apartment exposed, welcoming possible burglars, while my dogs sat in their crates. Luckily Lisa came to the apartment before anything could be stolen. Furious, I called the complex and they just blew it off.


Lisa came home today, too, to a wide open apartment ... but it's OK cuz it was a freshly painted door. What kind of idiots are running this complex?

Cream Puffs

I was reflecting today with one of my reporters about my favorite treats in Japan.
Beard Papa was a cute little bakery, located near the train station that served up the most dreamy cream puffs ever!
Well ... turns out there are some Beard Papa shops here in California!! The nearest is just over an hour away and I'm already making plans for a weekend day trip! A little shopping topped off with a selection of fluffy, warm, fresh Beard Papa cream puffs.
Check out the web site (click on the "Cream Puffs" title or follow this link... www.muginhousa.com) and learn about the story of Beard Papa in Osaka, Japan.

Top Watch-Anytime Movies

There are a lot of movies that I could watch over and over again. I know every line, every scene by heart and I've seen them dozens and dozens of times, but everytime they come on TV, or if I'm not feeling too good, or just in a mood for a comfort movie, I pop one of these whos in the VCR or DVD player.

Here's my Top 10 list ... in no particular order:
Mrs. Doubtfire
Army of Darkness
Addams Family Values
Hitch
Princess Bride
Bridget Jones
You've Got Mail
Breakfast Club
Star Wars

What are your favorite "comfort" movies?

Life's a beach ... at least for today

Ahhh ... Labor Day! Lisa and I finally had the same day off, so we set off on an adventure to Laguna Beach. A huge fan of laguna Beach the TV show on MTV, Lisa really wanted to go check out the scene. So we drove out, played in the water for a bit, ate lunch at a beachside French cafe and did a little shopping. Then we cruised up the PCH through Newport and into Huntington. Then it was to the huge South Coast Plaza mall for more shopping. After playing in the sand we really wanted to find a good mani-pedi place, but decided to head home and try and beat the holiday traffic instead. It was a great little trip and I wish I enjoy these kind of adventures more often. Guess I need to find some friends who don't work Saturdays!
Sorry the photos are kinda cruddy ... forgot my camera, so I had to make do with the camera phone.

A great vacation...

So I've been home from Utah for almost a week and I miss it so much!
Here were some of the highlights:
* Driving with two crazy dogs for 6 hours makes for a very LONG drive ... especially when one very spoiled dog insists on sitting on your lap the entire time.
* BBQ at Brent's newly finished, remodeled house with Amy, Elaine, Brent, David, Brian, Rob and Mike. Good food and GREAT friends!
* "Twelfth Night" at the Utah Shakespearean Festival with Shawna! Great comedy with an incredibly HOT Michael Sharon in a leading role. Great time visiting with Shawna catching up on love lives, gossip and other drama.
* Horrible, terrible, pathetic blind date. OK, so this one is another classic. I met this guy (37 and never married) at the Clark Planetarium in SLC. He stank of old man cologne. We saw a movie at the theater that was completely over my head. Somewhat interesting and incredible visuals, but I felt like I needed a doctorate in astronomy to understand it. Yikes! So afterward we wandered through the gift shop and he bought a 75 cent mini slinky and gave it to me ... I think it was just to get a parking validation. So we walked out to the parking garage. I knew my car was on an upper level, but he tried to convince me that it was on the save level as his. Well ... it wasn't. I told him my car was on the upper level and he then told me he had better go and find his own car, before he got lost. Yep, he actually left me alone in a parking garage to try and find my car by myself! I laughed the entire way to the elevator and continued to laugh all the way back to Layton. Including drive time that date lasted less than 2 hours ... thank heavens!!
* Uncovered new job opportunities in Utah!
* Took the parents out to lunch at a really nice new restaurant in Layton. Good food.
* Had plans to meet Joni in SLC at the Gateway for a little shopping/errand running and dinner, but plans quickly changed to just a quick visit instead.
* Got a text message from my favorite solider ... Keith and I met up at the Gateway. He had been serving in Afghanistan since Christmas and, after being wounded in a helicopter crash, he was FINALLY coming home!! He had arrived in Seattle the day before and then flew the next day to SLC. We spent a great time at dinner. I was completely excited, nervous and hardly ate any of my dinner. It was so amazing to finally see him after 10 months! The last time I saw him was on my 33rd birthday in October. We had a great time catching up, but I was sad it had to end so soon. I'm hoping we can pick up where we left off very soon.

* Shopping with Kristy for a little flirty nighttime fun was a great afternoon ... like old days when we managed to drop a good share of cash hitting sales.
* The drive back to St. George had a little extra "baggage" as Mom drove back with me.
* Visiting with friends once again, I dreaded heading back home to California, but it was a great trip!

Can't live without...

10 things I can't live without (in no particular order)
#10 - TiVo
#9 - iPod
#8 - Chapstick
#7 - Propel Water
#6 - Cell phone
#5 - Toothbrush
#4 - Camera
#3 - Great friends and family
#2 - A good pillow
#1 - Blogs to read when I'm bored at work (haha!)

What are your top 10?

Vacation time!

I am gearing up for a much-anticipated, long-awaited, extremely-overdue VACATION!
A trip back home to St. George and Salt Lake City may not seem like much of an adventure, but it's just what the therapist calls for ... haha!
I'm so excited to visit all my St. George friends. Even though it's only been a few weeks since I've seen them, I love and miss them all so much!

My favorite restaurants, too, await me. Green Chile Chicken Salad at Bajio, Steak Burrito at Cafe Rio, Chicken Tortellini with Creamy Pesto at Pasta Factory, Taco Time's Crispy Chicken Burrito, Honey-Baked Ham store's Bedda Chedda, The Empire State at Gandolfo's ... Ahhh the food! Can't wait! I have missed it so much. I'm so incredibly disappointed in the restaurants here in Palm Springs. There is fast food, crappy Mexican, fancy-schamncy places and completely over-priced wannabes regular faves. There is no where in this desert where I could get a lunch as complete as the Pasta or Pizza Factory lunches (drink, breadstick, salad and pasta) for under $7. Boy I miss Utah!
OK, enough about food...
While I'm home, I'm also going to enjoy one of my favorite summer traditions... The Utah Shakespearean Festival. "Twelfth Night" is on the schedule for a Saturday matinee! Last summer was the first in 11 years that I have not enjoyed all the plays at the Tony Award-winning festival.
After a weekend in St. George I'm heading up the 15 to the 'rents' place. Can't wait to hopefully reconnect with some friends I haven't seen in nearly a year or longer. And maybe, just maybe ... a certain returning, recovering soldier boy will find his way back home while I'm there!

Survey-tastic!

So this MySpace survey was actually kind of fun, so I thought I'd post it...

Aside from Driver's Ed, who really taught you how to drive?My mom (it was a very stressful time! LOL)

What's the one thing you love/miss about your Grandma's cooking? Grandma May made a great chocolate cake, with a fluffy white frosting and then drizzled melted milk chocolate on top of that ... heaven!

If you had money to burn, what 3 charities would you donate to? Breast Cancer, Utah Shakespearean Festival, United Way

What "Late Night Radio" song would you request to your man/woman? Groovy Kind of Love ... hahaha!
Goodnight and Go by Imogen Heap ("Why'd ya hafta be so cute..." Favorite line!!)

What was the last high school/college project you did? Probably my senior thesis ... and for the life of me I can't remember what it was. haha!

As a kid, who was the first "famous death" you remember hearing about? Elvis

What kind of music did your parent's listen to while u were growing up? Classic 50s and 60s .... great stuff! "Calendar Girl" "It's My Party" "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" "One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater" and all of Elvis' hits

Name 2 historic events that have happened in your lifetime? Regan was shot and Challenger blew up, just to name a few

Who taught you to tie your shoes? my mom

Where did you go on your first "official" date? A girls choice dance

When you "cruised the strip"...who were you usually with? Went in Washington State with my cousin Chris. We thought we were so cool!

Who was like your "second Mom" or "second Dad"? That would have to be Kathy Piper

Who is your Strangest Relative and why? hmmm ... hard to pick just one! haha just kidding!

What's your typical ice cream order at Dairy Queen? Peanut Buster Parfait


THIS AND THAT
Animal House or Caddyshack? Caddyshack

Dorito's or Frito Lay's? Dorito's

Straight-Man or Comic Relief? Comic Relief

Survivor Man or Man vs. Wild? don't really care for either

Casablanca or An Affair To Remember? Affair to Remember ... it's all about Cary Grant!!!

Princess Grace or Princess Diana? Diana for sure! Although I was a fan of Grace, too

Books, Movies or TV? All of the above

Marilyn Monroe or Anna Nicole Smith? Marilyn Monroe for sure

Playboy or Hustler? I love the Girls Next Door

Disneyland, Disneyworld, or Universal Studios? Tokyo Disneyland!!

Halloween or Christmas? Both!

Leading or Following? I'm a follower ... haha ... but I do like to lead every once in a while

Planes or Trains? Amazing memories while traveling as a kid on Amtrak!


FAVORITES
Painting? "Sometimes the Spirit Touches Us Through Our Weaknesses" by James C. Christensen (left) and any of the Amish series by Eric Dowdle. Also love anything from Renoir and Degas (WAY too hard to pick just one!)

Museum Exhibit? Paintings and sculpture

Thing to do when you're sitting home alone and the power goes out? Chat on the phone or play card games by candlelight

Snack/Junk Food? Twinkies or pink and white animal cookies

Pet name for your significant other? Either baby or sweetie

Nickname for your best friend? too many friends to just pick one... here's a sampling... Joni loves Chachi, Sliz, Licia, Aim, Charlie Brown

Revenge tactic? hmmm that could be pretty damning ... better not divulge.

Song to sing in the shower? Last song I heard on the stereo.

Bill that you have to pay? Ugh they never end! Electric bill right now ... freakin' $200

Cuss word? So many ... my fave is sonuvabitchin'

Era to read about or watch a movie in? Elizabethan and Victorian

Poet? I'm not huge into poetry, but I do enjoy Poe and Shakespeare's sonnets. Sylvia Plath, too, was intriguing.

Villain in a movie? Anthony Hopkins.. The man is incredible

Topic to gab with your family about? other family gossip and cute things Adi said

AND FINALLY...
If you could be invisible for one day, what would you do? not really sure...

If you could know everything that one person was thinking, who would it be?
It would be a silly boy for sure

If you could have coffee with 3 people, living or dead, who would they be?
Shakespeare, JFK (find out who really shot him) and ... well Brad Pitt!

Amazement continues

I'm planning a Primary lesson for tomorrow and I thought I would jump on LDS.org to see if I could find one of my favorite new Primary songs, "Hands Around the World." Anyway, I am once again amazed at how the Church has stayed completely on top of technology. Not only can I download endless resources for talks and lessons (came in very handy when I spoke in Sacrament Meeting a couple weeks ago), but now I can download MP3s of my favorite songs (I LOVE "Scripture Power"!). Any hymn, children's song and even the newest melodies for Young Women's ... all found in one great site. I don't know why I'm so impressed or surprised. The Church pioneered genealogical research, so it should come as any great shock that their Web site would be so complete. I continue to be amazed.

The list continues ... are you sick of it yet?

#44 - While in college I somehow managed to get away without taking the required math class! Turns out a clerical error was in my favor!! WHEW! I HATE math!
#43 - My favorite fairytale growing up was Rapunzel. I would tie a towel or bedsheet around my head and pretend it was my hair and I was trapped in the tip top tower of a castle waiting for Prince Charming.
#42 - Speaking of walking around with a towel on my head ... I would also pretend I was bride on my wedding day.
#41 - I was nearly a prima ballerina ... nearly. My mom signed us up for ballet once and I think we lasted maybe 3 classes. They apparently didn't have any slipper to fit our feet. Ballet on bare feet isn't fun.
#40 - I had glasses when I was in Kindergarten. I was the only one in my class with glasses. But they were the coolest glasses ever! They had Pink Panther on the side of them! Even though they maybe have been cool, I still tried to lose them or break them every chance I got so I wouldn't have to wear them.
#39 - I always wanted to be Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie." I would even try to do my hair in that high ponytail.
#38 - Four of the guys I had crushes on ... 2 in high school and 2 in college ... all turned out to be gay. (and no, I did not turn them gay!)
#37 - I am a huge klutz. One classic example (and more the follow) was when I was with my friends playing basketball. There was a guy there I was trying to impress (even though his girlfriend was sitting on the sidelines), and in typical Jennifer fashion on the first play of the game I fell and sprained my ankle. Such a klutz!
#36 - While getting my sprained ankle X-rayed, the doctor was totally hot! I, however, was mortified to realize I hadn't shaved my legs in quite a few days ... and there was this hot doctor holding my prickly leg trying to assess the damage.
#35 - My favorite song to karaoke to is "Love is a Battlefield" by Pat Benetar.