Music Swap

When Whitney and Jen were here for Sundance, we talked about music a lot on our drives up and down Provo Canyon. We decided that we needed to do a CD swap, and I have since been pouring over my music of the moment to decide what to send to them. I want to basically highlight what I'm listening to right now, but not give them stuff they are sure to already have. They have slightly different tastes, and I'm not sure they'll like anything I've put together, but I'm going to give this a shot. The following is the playlist of the innagural Winter 2007 CD swap disc. Enjoy, or ignore, if it's just too much babbling for your taste.

You Know I'm No Good
This song was a free download from itunes last week. I don't usually love the songs you can download for free, but this one just grabbed me.








Absolutely Cuckoo
I got this song from a guy I sort of dated a couple of years ago. At the time I wasn't all that ammused. But since then I've come to have a sincere fondness for this song. It cracks me up.







Love, Love, Love
This was a song from My Super Ex-girlfriend that seriously hooked me from the first time I heard it. I was putting together wedding music at the time, so this was a perfect addition to that mix. Upbeat and energizing.







Vincent Obrien
I had never heard M. Ward before Jen sent us a flyer about a concert that was coming to Sundance. Whitney mentioned how much she liked him, so I did some reasearch. Low & Behold, I really liked him too. This is different while still being my style. His voice is all gravelly and sexy. . . Can't quite get over it.





Show Me
A Grey's Anatomy song that I recently found and adore. A sexy voice in a totally different way, this guy is the definition of smooth. Beautiful.








Love Will Come Through
Another harvest from the Grey's Anatomy song list. I have always loved Travis, but I haven't been following them very well in recent years. I particularly like this song.








9 Crimes
I was a little bit taken aback when I found out that this album had explicit lyrics. I don't love it the way I did O, but I have grown attached to a couple of the songs. They're the kind that stick in your head for days. Damien Rice is generally the definition of "haunting and beatiful", and this song proves that point.





Closer
Oh, how I love this man's music. I'm not even sure why it sucks me in the way it does. It's pretty run of the mill accoustic stuff, but he switches up the instruments enough to make it interesting, and his voice is to die for.







Melt Your Heart
This is the first Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins song I ever heard, when Dainon played it on the radio, and I immediately had to email him and find out what it was. The lyrics are fantastic and the sound is equally quirky. I've had this CD forever and I can't help but keep listening to it.





Counting to 100
Got this one from Jeremy on a CD he made for my birthday. I find myself singing it long after it was on. Beautiful guy & guitar combo.








Stronger Than Dirt
Another of the artists playing at Sundance, I just looked him up in itunes and really liked his sound. This is one of my favorites I downloaded.








Faust, Midas, and Myself
I have always liked Switchfoot a lot, but I haven't been following them very closely. Everything they released sounded the same for a while. And so does a lot of this album. This song, though, I love for the focus on lyrics, if nothing else. I'm a sucker for someone who pays attention to what the song is saying as well as the music behind it.




Put Your Records On
I know, this isn't a new album. It's especially not a new song. And while I had heard it before, I just barely managed to download it and soak it in. I love it. It helps me out of the inevitable winter blues that come along with January.






Boston
The piano in this song just sticks in my head. It's so simple, and yet so beautiful. Without it, I don't know if I'd like the rest of the song, but with it, it's a gorgeous song. Makes me think of Cheers!







Something Real
This song is featured in the trailer to the movie The Dead Girl. The first time I heard it, I liked it a lot, but forgot about it. Then Nick pointed it out to me again, and I had to find it and download it. Luckily, itunes had it. It reminds me of Aimee Mann ala Magnolia, all airy and sad. So pretty.





Every Time It Rains
I know I've mentioned this song here before. I've had it a long time and it will never go away. It's just a great song. I'm still listening to it 2 years later.








Listen
A list of what I'm listening to right now wouldn't be complete without a song from Dreamgirls. I am an unabashed lover of the musical, so I don't feel too badly about including it. I think Beyonce got a bad wrap when it comes to this movie, and although Jennifer Hudson has some brilliant moments on this soundtrack, this is the one that sticks with me.




True Colors
It's a serious tragedy that this woman died so young. Her voice is nothing less than ethereal. Chris introduced me to her a couple of years ago and since then I have scooped up everything I can find of hers. I am mesmorized by her covers of songs I already loved. No offense to Cyndi Lauper intended, but this is a GREAT version of this song.

Smog and Sickness

Today I am a weird kind of sick that's about half way to being really sick. It started Friday night. I'm sure I got it from Ben, but he seemed to be in more of a head cold kind of place. I just feel achy. I'm acutely aware of every move I make in a way I never am. Everything hurts, head to toe. But that weird achiness and tiredness are my only symptoms. I think I have lupus. . .

Or maybe that's just the hypochondriac in me.

Instead, I'd like to officially blame my weird illness on the ridiculous smog layer that has held us hostage for the past 2 weeks. Every day the weather man says "the air is VERY unhealthy. Don't spend more time outside than you have to". As if being in our houses or offices is going to make it that much better? We have a filter on our furnace, but nothing that will clean out the GUNK that is hanging in the air all the time. It's dowright gross. And every morning the same weather man says "and it's not going anywhere any time soon. The 7 day forcast looks just like today." Cold. Smoggy. Unhealthy. (the above picture doesn't remotely do it justice, but it's the best one I could find online)

I never thought I'd wish for snow again, but I sort of do, a little bit.

SAG Awards

The SAG awards were on TNT last night, and aside from being insanely fast paced, to the point of annoying, it was a good night. I was thrilled by a few of the winners (here is a complete list). My favorites:

1-- Little Miss Sunshine won best ensemble! I love that movie. It is so refreshing. And while I really liked a lot of the movies up for the award, I was really thrilled that this one took home an award. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I THINK if it wins the Oscar it may be the first Sundance film to do so. Fingers crossed.

2-- America Ferrera won. Again!! I was so excited. It was a little bit disappointing that The Office won best comedy, but I know how much people love that show, so I'm OK with it. I'm just glad America got the recognition again.

3-- Chandra Wilson!!! We were cheering like we were at a sporting event when that happened. We were just excited that she had been nominated. We love her character on Grey's Anatomy and she does some amazing acting work.


This just proves a point we've been observing through all of the award shows this year. This is the year of the chubby girl. I don't say that in a mocking-Tyra-Banks-for-gaining-a-little-healthy-weight way. I am giddy that this is the case. Look at the winners of best actress awards across the board. With the exception of Helen Mirren, who is decidedly un-chubby, there are non-stick bugs winning all over the place! Jennifer Hudson, America Ferrera, Chandra Wilson. . . It's amazing. I am starting to feel a shift in our culture, and I love it. From the runways in Milan to Hollywood, people are starting to realize it's OK to be curvy. It's a miracle! May we continue in this direction and embrace healthy body image. . . Our daughters will be far better adjusted people for it.

Sundance. . . Again

Today I had my final Sundance experience of 2007. I know what you're thinking. You thought I said I was done already. I totally wasn't. But this time the experiencen was a little different. I was there on official business. XanGo had a lounge there in the VIP building that was used for interviews and parties and general exposure of the product. And I'm sure it was very successful in that way the first few days of the festival. I had agreed to go up today thinking it would be fun to schmooze and such. Instead, we didn't do much of anything. Almost everyone is gone. So it was several hours of thumb twiddling rather than the crazy scene I expected. A lot can change on main street in a few short days.

We DID, however, get to help John Digles with a podcast. This consisted of a little recruiting of extras off the street and a little bit of slightly embarrasing on camera time. It will be posted on the web site soon, I'll post the link so you can laugh at me later.

Also, we had 2 celebrity sitings out on the street, just to cap off the week. Jared Leto and Crispin Glover. Woo Hoo!

RIP Sundance 2007.

Look What I Did All By Myself!

Yes, that's right. I hung the bookshelves in our office. They came in the mail over the past 2 days, and while Ben was at class last night I decided I wanted to surprise him. He had a rough day and I figured it would cheer him up to have the book shelf project over and done with. . . Plus I was kind of excited to see if I could do it.

As it turns out, it was totally easy. If anyone out there needs book shelves, and doesn't want the crappy $40 kind you can buy at Walmart, I would whole heartedly recommend Elfa shelving. It was easy as pie to put up (though it totally helps if you have a laser level if you plan on doing it yourself), and as you can see, it worked out beautifully.

I'm pretty proud of myself, I must say.

Opera at the Movies

You thought we were done going to movies for a while after Sundance? Boy, were you wrong!

Last night we got to see the Metropolitan Opera's production of The Magic Flute. They broadcast it to movie theaters a couple of weeks ago, and we weren't able to go. But we found out there was a repeat performance, so we got tickets. It was really cool. Julie Taymore produced and designed it, so the costumes and puppets were incredible. It was in English, so I though it would bug me, but it really didn't.

If you ever have a chance to see one of these productions (and I think they are showing several more in the next few months) Do it!

Oscar Nominees

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. Rather than make a LOOOONG post of all of them, go to this link for a list.

I am really surprised over a few things.

#1-- Dreamgirls was not nominated for Best Picture. Whether or not it is the best picture, it won at the Golden Globes. I can't believe it wasn't nominated. Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy got nominations, and a ridiculous THREE songs from the film were nominated (while the best original song from the globes wasn't nominated at all), but no best picture.

#2-- Volver wasn't nominated for best foreign language film.

#3-- Abigail Breslin was nominated for best supporting actress. I'm thrilled! She was amazing in Little Miss Sunshine, and now ties with Tatum O'Neil for the youngest actor/actress to get a nomination at 10 years old.

I have at least 3, but preferably 5, movies to see before Feb. 25th. Notes on a Scandal, Little Children, Letters From Iwo Jima, Pan's Labyrinth, and Blood Diamond.

That's all for now.

The Departure

Day 4 was the send off of Jen & Whitney. Before going to the airport, we had to go get lunch at Big City Soup. It's one of my favorite places in Salt Lake to eat, and it's got such weird hours that I seldom get a chance to eat there. We had to take advantage of the time of day and get some soup.



Also, one thing I forgot to add to Saturday's summation. . .

I got my first speeding ticket on the way home. I had made it 29.5 years of my life without ever having been pulled over. And my first time, I got a ticket. The man was a speed trap, pure and simple. I was speeding, though, so I didn't fight with him. Stupid speeding ticket.

Sundance, Day Three

Day 3 began with brunch up at sundance village at the Foundry. This is our favorite place for brunch and this morning was no exception. Wonderful food. Beautiful atmosphere. All around relaxing way to start our last day.



Our first movie was at the Eccles again. Waitress. It was a more independent film, starring Keri Russel and Nathan Fillion, who I must admit to having a little crush on. It was a very stylized movie, but I liked it very much. It was written and directed by Adrienne Shelley, the woman who was murdered in her own home in LA a few months ago. A very tragic story. The whole cast as well as many other stars were there for the screening. A big part of our list of star sitings for the day came from this screening.



After a little bit of shopping on main street, and a few more star sitings, we headed back to Salt Lake for our last movie.



Our second movie was The Great World of Sound. It was the definition of an independent film as they have always had at Sundance. It was personally my least favorite of the films we saw, and I think everyone else agreed with me, but it was stil entertaining. It was about scammers in the music business that take people's money and promise things they never deliver.

Films Seen
2

Celebrities Sited
Keri Russell
Nathan Fillion
Cheryl Hines
Jeremy Sisto
Dennis Hopper
Sam Rockwell
Scott Speedman
Gary Coleman
Kevin Bacon
Bobcat Goldthwait

Hours Spent Waiting in Line
0

Sundance, Day Two

Day 2 began bright and early with Rocket Science. Although we were up early, it wasn't so bad as Day 1, as we had gotten plenty of sleep. Also, the movie was at the Eccles, which is a very comfortable place to watch a movie. Also, the movie was really good. It's about a high school boy with a serious stuttering problem that gets recruited for the debate team. I can't tell you much without giving it away, but let us just say that it was a very good film. I highly suggest you all see it. You won't know the actors, because, for once, they used actors that were actually high school age kids. And it worked. The following shot is of the Q&A. It's pretty awful and grainy, but I like it anyway.



Following Rocket Science we went back to wander Main Street for a while and get some lunch. We went in to the Airborne lounge and had some pink grapefruit airborne in raspberry soda, which was surprisingly tasty. I think I need to mix my airborne in something other than water more often. We saw some famous people. Jen went outside for a bit while we were waiting for our pizza and saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, but as I didn't see them, they aren't on my list at the bottom of the page. After lunch we went to The Racquet club to begin our quest for tickets to Grace Is Gone, starring John Cusack. After the previous day's wait list experience, we weren't taking any chances. We showed up at 1:30 to wait 2 hours for our wait list numbers.






We killed time taking a TON of pictures while we waited in the cold. This is just a mere sampling:




In the end, we were numbers 10-13. We were pretty pleased with ourselves, and pretty darn certain we were getting in. . . we were so naive.

While we waited out the hour between numbers and line again, we went up to the restaurant at the racquet Club for some warmth and some food. While there, Parker Posey joined us (in a really loose sense of the word). Really, she came in with some guy, they sat at the bar and had a beer while we stared at her back. And took a picture of her back:



We went back to the line and after an hour of waiting again, they only left 8 people in. When we had the option of only one of us going in, we let Whitney go. It was her first time at Sundance, and wouldn't have extra chances to see something else. So she went to that, and the rest of us headed back to Main Street to try to get in to a concert. We wandered a bit, visited the XanGo lounge, and then got in line again. But after 45 minutes in line, and no opening of the concert door in site, we were done. We walked up to the bus station and waited for Whitney to get back so we could go home. We were a little sad.



We went home a little defeated and drowned our sorrows in home made house dressing and some Nintendo with Ben.

Films Seen
1 (2 if your name is Whitney)

Celebrities Sited
Christopher McDonald
Dante Basco
David Moscow
Joanna Kerns


Parker Posey
Sam Rockwell
Sienna Miller
Timothy Hutton

Hours Spent Waiting In Line
5

Sundance, Day One

After a speedy trip to the airport to grab Jen, and a grateful sigh of relief that she hadn't checked any bags, we hauled ourselves up Parley's Canyon to Park City. We were blissfully on time for our first film, and excited to be there, despite our short 4.5 hours of sleep the previous night.

Our first film was a documentary called War/Dance. It was about the children in a refugee camp in Northern Uganda and a music competition they were a part of. It was also a peek into the awful things they had experienced in their short lives and a beautiful picture of how optimistic they are despite those experiences. It was gorgeous. It was a brilliant example of how a documentary can move you, when it is done right. We didn't pity these children. We loved them and believed in them.

After the film, the director asked us all if he could take a picture of all of us applauding the film so that he could send it back to the children. We were the first people to see the film, and he wanted to record our reaction to it for them. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house as we all stood up and clapped for these kids. In the end, I think this was our favorite film. To compare the films we saw isn't totally fair, but we were all really moved by this one.

After the film we went up to Main Street for some lunch at the Wasatch Brew Pub. It was very tasty.



We then did some back and forth on the shuttle. first to the eccles to get numbers for the wait list line for The Savages. Unfortunately, we didn't get there early enough. We were #s 161-165. The odds were not in our favor, but it was a big venue, so we decided to try.

We went back to Main Street and went to the Festival Store for some swag. I got an official poster that looks like this, to balance the 2005 poster hanging in our office.


We took a few more pictures along the way. Luckily nick was kind enough to be our photographer. We had to take a picture with the bear, and the other one we thought looked like a puzzle behind us. Whitney is in the red jacket, Jen is in the pink scarf, and I'm the other one.



In the end, we didn't get in to see the Savages. About 120 wait list people got in, but we were still too far back. It was our own fault, and we were determined to do better on Saturday. As it was, we were exhausted and decided that there was nothing to be done but to go home, get some dinner, and then go to sleep. We had a 9 am movie the next morning, so we needed to get to bed early.

Films Seen
1

Celebrities Sited
Mandy Moore (I have a picture of the guy behind her because we didn't get cameras out fast enough, but you don't care about that guy)

Hours Spent Waiting in Line
1.5

Thursday night

We have completed our whirlwind Sundance weekend now, and although I didn't make time to blog while it was going on, I'm going to divide up my entries about it into days. This should serve to make it less massive, and also remind me of what actually happened.

Whitney & Jen were both supposed to fly in Thursday night so Ben & I ran around like headless chickens trying to get the house ready for them. We actually succeeded, too. Check it out!


Our guest room. Even the closet is clean and organized, though you can't see it here. You'll have to take my word for it.


The office. And finally a good view of the desk we refinished 6 months ago. I love how it turned out, especially with the awesome drawer pulls we got at Restoration Hardware. It's a really great desk now.

In the end, Jen's flight got stuck in Atlanta because of weather issues and Whitney's flight was an hour late. It then took an hour to get her bags because some kind soul took them off the conveyour for her. We still have no idea why. But, we also had our first celebrity siting at the airport that night while we waited for her plane. Lili Taylor.

Geography

I don't think goose girl knows I lurk on her blog, but I do. & today she brought up one of my favorite things, geography. I should say it used to be one of my favorite things. In 8th grade I was the reigning queen of Geosafari. (It looked something like this, but slightly less high tech because it was 15 years ago) Anyway, she brought up a web site where you can do geography quizzes, so I thought I'd see how well I can still do at these things. Turns out, I have lost my ability to locate countries on a map almost completely. & that is SO sad to me, that I feel I must now spend hours at a time on this site quizzing myself for the sake of my own education.

What happens to our brains once we leave school?! I used to be able to do calculus too. . .

Sundance starts tomorrow! And Jen & Whitney show up tonight! Hooray! If only the house were clean. . .

A Blur of Organization

While I must admit to having taken a short break for some guilty pleasure American Idol watching, most of last night was spent organizing. Having house guests coming tomorrow is the best motivation in the world. I haven't let anyone upstairs in our house in 6 months. It's been a disaster of EPIC proportions. It is finally taking shape now. After weeks of weeding through, throwing out, shredding, and filing away our top floor may finally be walkable. I managed to do something last night that I never thought I'd get around to (although it's silly that it took me so long). I put up the 4th peg board in our office. I put the other 3 up almost 2 years ago. None of the remaining 3 boards I painted fit. I had to cut one of them. It took me 10 minutes, and now it looks awesome. I am so glad I finally did that.

It's been stressful, but I can't imagine the JOY I'm going to feel when I have a clean, organized house, AND I have 2 wonderful friends here, AND I get to spend the weekend at Sundance. Seriously, how awesome is that?

2 days to go!!!

I had a bad experience. . .

Have you seen The Italian Job? Where Mos Def says that about dogs? Well I feel about Pier One, and about bookshelves, the way Mos Def felt about dogs. It's going to be a long time before I go into the Pier One in Orem again.

We looked all day Saturday for new bookshelves for our office. The goal was to get them up before Thursday when Jen and Whitney get into town for Sundance. No one had anything we liked in our price range. It was so frustrating. We found some great shelves at RC WIlley, but they were $3000.00. No way. We found nothing anywhere else. Except Pier One. These are the shelves we finally decided on.


They were more than we wanted to spend, but they were the closest thing to what we wanted and they were a lot more reasonable than $3000. So we went to the counter and told them we wanted 3 sets (the picture above is actually 2 sets). Then the trauma started. They informed us that they only had one set in back. And the AF store didn't have any. There were MAYBE a few out in West Jordan, but they weren't sure. So I asked if they'd sell us the 2 on the floor. The girl says "It's against policy, but maybe if you opened a Pier One card the manager would be in a better mood". Um, what? Seriously?! All the while the manager just stood there and ignored us, despite the fact that no one was there, acknowledging us just long enough to say "they never send us enough of those". THEN SELL THEM TO US!!

Ben told the girl that he used to work at a Pier One and they sold stuff off the floor every day. She paused for a second, and in a snotty voice said "well, it's a NEW policy".

We won't be going back there. And Ben is going to write a mean letter to them.

So. . . back to square one. AGAIN. I won't go through all the details of 2 days of figuring out what to do, we decided to go back to the idea we had in the first place. It's not cheap, but they're nice shelves and much better for our walls than the similar models they sell at Home Depot. Also, they were on sale. They are Elfa Shelves from The Container Store and they looke like this:


There will be floor to ceiling shelves 5 feet wide. Of course, our wall is red, so it will look really different, but I think it will be good different.

Of course, it will be at least a week before they show up, even paying a HUGE shipping charge. This means that the shelves won't be up this weekend, and that annoys me. But I suppose I have to live with it. And Pier One needs to live without the money we were going to give them.

Jerks.

On the plus side. . . 3 days until Sundance!! YAY!!

The Winners

And the winners ARE:

Best Film, Drama: Babel
Best Film, Musical or Comedy: Dreamgirls
Actor, Film, Drama: Forest Whitaker, Last King Of Scotland
Actor, Film, Musical or Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat
Actress, Film, Drama: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Actress, Film, Musical or Comedy: Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Supporting Actor, Film: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Supporting Actress, Film: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Director, Film: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Screenplay, Film: Peter Morgan, The Queen
Orginial Song, Film: The Song of The Heart, Happy Feet
Original Score, Film: Alexandre Desplat, The Painted Veil
Foreign Language Film: Letters From Iwo Jima
Animated Film: Cars

TV Series, Drama: Grey's Anatomy
TV Series, Musical or Comedy: Ugly Betty
Mini-series or TV Movie: Elizabeth I
Actor, Mini-series or TV Movie: Bill Nighy, Gideon's Daughter
Actress, Mini-series or TV Movie: Helen Mirren, Elizabeth I
Actor, TV, Drama: Hugh Laurie, House
Actor, TV, Musical or Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Actress, TV, Drama: Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
Actress, TV, Musical or Comedy: America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Supporting Actor, TV: Jeremy Irons, Elizabeth I
Supporting Actress, TV: Emily Blunt, Gideon's Daughter

All those listed in RED are the actual winners in categories in which I predicted someone else would win. Apparently, for all the TV I've been watching, I have no idea who will win awards.

I was shocked at the number of surprises last night. I love Ugly Betty, but I didn't suspect for a second that it had a chance of winning, especially in both categories. I am thrilled for America Ferrera. I am thrilled that Grey's won. Again, surprise. There were quite a few that really surprised me. I bet none of the guys in the Supporting Actor category EVER thought they'd lose an acting award to Eddie Murphy. Crazy stuff.

I can't wait for the Oscars!

Golden Globe Predictions

I make these predictions purely to see if I'm right, and I'm usually not. I'm not sure what it is with me. I watch a lot of movies. I like a lot of movies. But I seldom guess in the top five at award show parties. . . this year I'm going to do better. These guesses are not based on what I actually enjoyed most myself or what I want to win. They are predictions of what I think WILL win.

Best Film, Drama: Babel
Best Film, Musical or Comedy: Dreamgirls
Actor, Film, Drama: Forest Whitaker, Last King Of Scotland
Actor, Film, Musical or Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat
Actress, Film, Drama: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Actress, Film, Musical or Comedy: Annette Benning, Running With Scissors
Supporting Actor, Film: Mark Wahlberg, The Departed
Supporting Actress, Film: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Director, Film: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Screenplay, Film: Guillermo Arrainga, Babel
Orginial Song, Film: Listen, Dreamgirls
Original Score, Film: Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel
Foreign Language Film: Volver
Animated Film: Monster House

TV Series, Drama: Heroes
TV Series, Musical or Comedy: The Office
Mini-series or TV Movie: Elizabeth I
Actor, Mini-series or TV Movie: Bill Nighy, Gideon's Daughter
Actress, Mini-series or TV Movie: Helen Mirren, Elizabeth I
Actor, TV, Drama: Kiefer Sutherland, 24
Actor, TV, Musical or Comedy: Steve Carrell, The Office
Actress, TV, Drama: Patricia Arquette, Medium
Actress, TV, Musical or Comedy: Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
Supporting Actor, TV: Masi Oka, Heroes
Supporting Actress, TV: Toni Collette, Tsunami: The Aftermath

We shall see how wrong I was later tonight.

Laid Back Friday Night

It's been so ridiculously cold here all weekend. When I got out to my car this morning, with the sun shining, the temperature was 1. That's not a typo. And apparently it got down to -4 last night. I'm not sure if the cold has anything to do with the power outage we had Sunday morning or our internet being down all weekend, but it probably does. Needless to say, it's been a few days since our Friday night party, but I'm posting it anyway.

Nathan & Jenny are finally back from their trip to AZ, and we found a moment that Jules had free to play, so we all got together for some stew and Nintendo. A perfect combination, really. . .


We also managed to make a dent in the remaining Christmas candy. I'm pretty happy about that. It all just needs to be gone. . . Tanner made the biggest dent of all, and shared a little bit of the chocolate goodness with Nick.


Then he decided a game of walk under the legs was in order. I think Jules & Nick had as much fun with it as Tanner did.



Tanner is in a mimicking stage. When I handed him his water and leaned back against the counter to drink mine, he had to join me.


Basically Tanner is the only one that will let me take his picture all the time. . . So that's what you get.

4 days 'til Sundance! The countdown begins!

If anyone wants to see a Sundance film at 11:30am Friday, we have some extra tickets we're trying to sell to "Expired". Let me know.