Best Friends in VEGAS, Baby!

On my trek from California back to Utah, I made a quick, extra trip to Las Vegas to see my best friend from high school and her husband -- Alicia and Anthony!

We met up at Planet Hollywood Casino and ate a great dinner at a little restaurant and then visited and caught up while wandering through the shops.

It had been about 16 months since we had seen each other (last time was in New Jersey over lunch at Harold's with my brother, sis-in-law and niece), so it was great to catch up!

Alicia and Anthony just relocated from N.J. to Seattle! I'm so excited to have them so much closer. Next trip ... I'm going to have to go see them in Seattle!!

Adi's Halloween!

I didn't get to dress up for Halloween this year, so I thought I would post a couple of the pix from my niece Adi. Cutest bumblebee ever!

Utah ... at last!

Brrr... it's kinda cold here in Utah! But I guess this is what I wanted. I have missed the cold weather for the past year, so the chilly temps will be a welcomed change. Now if my blood would thicken up just a little!

The Budget truck is unloaded. The storage shed is filled. The basement is slowly becoming my own ... kind of. Now I'm working on hauling in all my clothes! Let the fun begin!

Oh ... and I've also found a few more blogging friends! Check out my links for more blogs.

The exodus begins!

Today was my last day at The Desert Sun! After working a 12-hour day Wednesday, today was a blessed short 1-hour long! Just enough time to have my exit interview and say a few goodbyes! Ahhhhhhhh......

Now begins the heavy lifting, literally.

I really hate, hate, hate moving! My head already hurts, I'm trying to get everything done and not forget any of the details. No wonder my head hurts!!

Fall favorites!

Lisa and I just went to see a sneak preview of "Dan in Real Life" with Steve Carell. This was one of the best movies I've seen in a really long time. Hilarious. Sweet. Poignant. Endearing. And ... the previews don't give away the whole story!
So "Dan in Real Life" is one of my Fall Favorites!

Also on the list is ABC's hit "Pushing Daisies."
What is NOT perfect about this show?
* Bright and colorful
* Romantic chemistry
* Love triangle
* Creative plotline
* He's a pie maker
* Great narration from great Jim Dial
* And ... Broadway star Kristin Chenowith! (did you see when she sang "Hopelessly Devoted? GREAT!)

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!