So Much Going On

I always like to start my whine by saying that in the grand scheme of things I am a very lucky person.  However, the last two weeks have been extremely stressful.  We’ve had incompetence at its highest level with our closing, which precipitated a not so great ending to our lease at our current place because we couldn’t nail down our move date.  I won’t bore you with the details, but that kind of stuff makes me a nail-biting insomniac.  Maybe I should have reacted to the move as our cat Clive did.  He figured the way to play this move to new surroundings was to first spend a night in an empty kitchen cabinet and then pee on our brand new mattress.  Thank goodness I noticed it and it had a zip off top so I got it before it soaked through.  Oh pets, they overestimate our love, don’t they?

Sales, Sales, Sales

There are a few cultural differences here due to the high concentration of Latter-Day Saints in the area: Open Houses for property that’s on the market are usually on Saturday instead of Sunday.  Also Garage Sales/Estate Sales/Rummage Sales are all usually Friday/Saturday, and maybe even on Thursday.  I guess the high number of stay at home moms makes this okay.  Because we need so many things, we’ve been hitting some estate sales but I must admit I’m pretty bad at this.  At estate sales I’m too busy looking at people’s books to figure out the person that once lived here, and the rest of it, I’m not good at looking at a pile of junk and finding the bargain for me.  No instead a few weeks ago I walked out of one of the sales with a 1960’s edition of Life Magazine thinking the cover was so cool I might frame it.  Who am I kidding?  That sounds too much like a project and frankly what I need is silverware, not décor.

And by the way, we've had two closing dates now that haven't happened because of the incompetence of our bank guy and his problem with paperwork, which isn't that supposed to be a banker's specialty?  We are supposed to close Monday and neither of us have any confidence.  It's been the most frustrating bank experience ever. 

Coffee in Utah

I picked up this copy of City Weekly recently and was really annoyed by the cover.  I thought it was going to be a church thing but it wasn’t.  The article did go on to describe why Mormons don’t drink coffee, which I've been asked at least ten times.  Read here if you’re interested.

New Camera

Finally got a new point and shoot.  Had to share my fave of one of the boys.

And one of the night sky

Movin on Down

.We’re moving at the end of the month.  We’ve bought a house in the next town south and I say we’re moving down because we won’t have our beautiful view of the lights and mountains anymore.  I’m not the only one who will miss it. 

 Yes I’m excited about having our own place, but I need to get past the actual moving to appreciate it.  Funny when we moved into this place, I loved the fact that it was decorated because I wasn’t born with that gene.  The longer we’re here, the more I feel that décor closing in on me.  It all feels cluttered.  Does anyone really need a lasso in their bathroom with a picture hanging in the middle?  I’m here to tell you, it’s difficult to dust rope.

Tornadoes in the South

We lived in Alabama for a total of eleven years and I will contend that it’s the place that I became an adult and a place where some of my favorite people in the world still live.  It was amazing watching the coverage of the area last week especially knowing that the folks living there didn’t quite know the extent of the damage because they couldn’t see the coverage.  Friends in other parts of the country who also once lived there, we were all reaching out to each other to see if everyone we knew in common were accounted for.  My friend B who is a library director in a small Alabama town called after the tornadoes and she was describing the scenery to me.  She also told me that she’d gotten a call from someone outside of Alabama who’d called the library to find out about some elderly relatives who lived out in the country.  They were trying to verify that they were okay.  My friend B did what she could to assure them and then drove out to this couple’s place to deliver the message and had obviously chatted with them for a while because she shared some details about the family.  I told that story to someone I work with and they were amazed that someone would do that.  It didn’t surprise me at all that first off that B would do that.  She’s that kind of person and she, like many I know feel strongly about the community mission of a library.  But I’m sure there are hundreds of similar stories from the tornadoes because that’s just how people are in Alabama.

A Spring Like No Other

Here are some pictures from last Saturday.  By the end of the day all of this was gone.

Speaking of the Royal Wedding

I’m glad that’s over! Not because I didn’t enjoy it because I did wake up early to see some of it and did get a little teary eyed when they stepped out of Westminster Abbey as man and wife. It’s because unconsciously or consciously it seemed like everyone here when they talked about it decided to use a faux (horrible) British accent. Nails on a chalkboard people!


What did we learn from that event? Well wedding clothes (besides the bride) are bad everywhere you go. The hats were great but that solid color from head to toe or the bright blue with a floral or the purple with a floral looked like something you find at Easter at TJ Maxx on the sale rack, but you know those people probably paid a fortune.

Tim Gunn Visits Utah - For the First Time



Handsome and dapper



After errands on Saturday A reminded me that Tim Gunn was coming to the Gateway Mall in SLC for a promotion at Lucky Jeans. She really wanted to see him. I guess Mother Nature is also a Tim Gunn fan because by the afternoon the snow had stopped and the sun had come out and we stood by the side of the runway outside waiting for him. From where we were standing, we could see him waiting in the wings to come on stage. A waved at him and he smiled and waved back. She got all teared up, hahaha. The silver fox was as charming and loveable as all his fans hope he is. He introduced a runway show, talked about classic fashion rules and trends for the summer. He also gave us some dirt on his least favorite PR contestants like Kenley, Wendy Pepper, and this year’s winner, Gretchen. According to Tim, the editing room is kind to everyone so if someone is coming off in a less than favorable way, you should see all the footage, it’s even worse. Tim had just gotten back from covering the royal wedding and shared his distaste for Eugenie and Beatrice’s clothes and we all agreed.



This is so English girl at a music festival



We didn’t get a chance to speak to him personally. I wish I would have been able to because I wanted to tell him how moving his It Gets Better video was. We love you Tim Gunn!