blue and gold + heard in primary

We went to what I thought was pack meeting on Friday to see our primary class put on a magic show. It turned out to be the Blue and Gold banquet, and thus included dinner, the show, and a cake-making contest. After dinner, Jason and I were tapped to judge the (fifteen?) cakes on taste and presentation, which led to us eating a LOT of cake. We were both jittery afterward from all the frosting.

The magic tricks were cute and the kids were hilarious; I forget how little they really are until I see them in their families. We also (and I am not making this up) were cornered by a Frenchman who liked trivia and quizzed us for a while. When the banquet was over, we helped stack the chairs and headed home, where we watched a lot of basketball.
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The best part of Primary on Sunday was when we were talking about the apostles. I was trying to get the kids to name the current Quorum, but they got a little stuck (“Billard?” “Good, BAllard.”). Jason started giving them hints.

“One is named after a country.”

“Holland!” “Turkey!” (They think they are so funny).

“This one is tall and smiles a lot.”

The kids didn’t answer. Jason pressed. “Come on, guys. When he speaks in General Conference he always smiles.”

One kid raised his eyebrows. “How do you…know that?”

Jason and I were both confused. “Know what?”

“That he smells a lot?”

No, no, children, Elder Perry does not smell a lot. SMILE.

basketball + lunch date

Jason had to be in the city yesterday. We commuted in together, which felt like a very urban, dual-income-no-children thing to do. In the evening, we met up at Metro Center and rode home together. The one negative factor in this arrangement is that no one was at home prepping dinner, as is usually the case. We ended up having a quick pizza before heading off to help out at a ward youth activity.

We got home around 8:30 PM, scraped the paint out from under our fingernails, and turned on UK’s first (and, it turns out, only) round NIT game against Robert Morris. We caught the end just as our friends Elayna and Mitch came over for the BYU game. They brought Reese’s chocolate eggs, and we had chips and salsa and more of the rice krispies treats (a new batch, not the leftovers from Sunday. Those things are addictive).

Of course, BYU won and we were happy. It was such a fun game to watch, which hasn’t always been the case this season. We got to bed around midnight, which made waking up this morning not my favorite.

Jason was in town again today and I forgot to make him a lunch, so we met up for our midday meal. We wandered toward Chinatown, but the delectable aromas of Carving Room stopped us dead in our tracks. We went inside and enjoyed delicious cured meat sandwiches and french fries.

(An awesome first post-half run this morning + weekday lunch with Jason) * gorgeous spring weather = one fine Wednesday.

the frosts go out on the town

Saturday was the busiest/best day. We got up early and went to the DMV. When we arrived around 7:30 AM, the line was already ≈ 50 people long (we were prepared for this after our last DMV experience). We waited and waited and snow began lightly falling and we finally were let in at 8:00 AM. Upon reaching the front desk, we were informed that Jason would be able to get his new driver’s license, but because I had changed my birth name, I would have to bring in our marriage license to change my license, as my birth certificate, social security card, and current license were apparently not enough to verify my identity. I was mad and felt oppressed, but Jason’s license didn’t take long and we were on our way.

We picked up some groceries, then drove to the Metro and headed into the city. We stopped at my first ever Georgetown work event: a reception/lunch preceding the Georgetown vs. Villanova basketball game. The luncheon was good, and it was fun to spend some time with my coworkers outside of the office. I was also glad that Jason got to meet them.

Jason and I enjoyed the game from great seats, relished the Hoya victory, then left the Verizon Center with a vast throng of fans. We wandered down toward the National Archives, then headed up Pennsylvania trying to decide what to do next. We took the Metro back to Ballston to eat at Rock Bottom, one of the first places we ate with Jason’s family on our original DC sojourn. Afterward, we picked up some black tights for me and got back on the Metro.

We got off at Rosslyn and found the Artisphere, a funky gallery space where Rana Santacruz–a Mexican singer/songwriter/accordion-player from Brooklyn–was playing. When we found out about the concert last week, we considered just getting our tickets at the door. It’s a good thing we didn’t, since the show sold out.  We checked our coats and wandered around the Frieda Kahlo exhibit before the doors opened for the concert.

For those of you who haven’t heard Rana Santacruz, I highly recommend the following clip. (Also, he kind of looks like a Mexican Christian Bale. Just sayin’.)

The venue was really small (maybe 250 seats) and we had lined up early, so we were on the third row. Rana–because we are totally on a first-name basis–and the band were awesome. They played for just under two hours, but it didn’t seem nearly that long.  I’m so glad we got to go; it was a great show, even for a non-Spanish speaker like myself. They played a bunch of new songs, so hopefully a new CD is on the horizon.

We left the Artisphere around 10:15 PM, and made it back to the apartment (by way of Safeway, since I forgot that we needed chicken bouillon for Sunday’s winter squash soup) around 11:00 PM. We were both exhausted, but couldn’t stop talking about our wonderful day. I don’t think we could’ve squeezed in many more (or more disparate) activities. Love days out with my Jason.

wintertime is here

Today is officially the first day of winter. You wouldn’t know it from our Kentucky weather (57 degrees yesterday! No snow yet…and it can stay that way as far as I’m concerned).

I’ve been plugging away at my To Do In Fall 2011 list and am mostly pleased with how many things I’ve completed.  I started the list because I really wanted to read The Book of Mormon again this fall, which reminded me of other fall-y things to do. However, last night at 11:00 PM, I realized that winter started in one hour and I was only in Ether 1. I thought about going to bed and finishing up today, but realized I would feel like a fraud. Instead, I muscled through Ether and Moroni and finished with six minutes to spare! Hallulujah. 

Completed:

food
- Bake a pie
- Bake pumpkin bread or cookies
- Bake pistachio cookies
- Bake graham crackers
- Eat orange rolls and/or cinnamon rolls (thank you, Taryn)
- Bake pretzels (technically I made pretzel-y rolls, but that counts)
- Cook with butternut/acorn squash
- Eat Thanksgiving dinner
- Eat Pre-Christmas dinner
- Drink hot chocolate and/or cider

outings
- Go to/tailgate at a football game
- Go to North Carolina
- Go to Big Blue Madness/a basketball game
- Go to Washington, DC
- Go to an orchard
- Hike to Heublien Tower
- Decide what to do for Thanksgiving (and then do it)
- Decide what to do for Christmas (and then initiate travel plans in a timely fashion)

miscellaneous
- Read The Book of Mormon
- Put out our fall decorations (full disclosure: we only have one decoration)
- Put out our Christmas decorations

- Vote in the gubernatorial election on November 8th
- Watch It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and eat Halloween candy
- Take a midterm (not something I necessarily want to do, but it’s a foregone conclusion and thus an automatic check-off)
- Crochet something
- Watch Secretariat
- Watch General Conference
- Take more pictures, because I realized while preparing this post that we take a preponderance of photos during winter, spring, and summer, but completely neglect fall.
- Take a walk and/or go on a drive exclusively to look at fall leaves
- Figure out what we’re doing with the rest of our lives (or at least after December)
- Read (at least) the six books on my To Read Next list. I’ve since added more  books to my list, and now can’t remember which six were on the list when I made this goal. I did finish Rules of Civility, Food Rules, and have been dually plugging along in Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Also, can my school books count?
- Determine goals for 2012.

Not completed:
food
- Bake Christmas sugar cookies
- Bake ginger cookies
- Eat caramel apples
- Cook lasagna soup (if not during Soup Week)
- Cook french onion soup (see above)
- Cook beef stew
- Cook pork chops with apple-cinnamon glaze

outings
- Go to Keeneland
- Go to the temple
- Go to the Louisville Trader Joe’s (it’s okay. Soon we’ll have a much closer TJ’s)
- Go Bible mini-golfing. I am actually really torn up about not doing this, since we will likely never have the opportunity to Bible mini-golf again. Sigh. Maybe we can make a trip out for the opening of Ark Encounter and include Bible mini-golf in our plans.

miscellaneous
- Carve a pumpkin (though to my credit, I gutted several acorn squash and one butternut.
- Ride a horse
- Run another half marathon
- Watch the Butterball hotline episode of The West Wing.

We still have a few days to accomplish the following:

before leaving kentucky…sigh
Eat at Puccini’s
Eat at Planet Thai
Eat fried banana peppers
Eat at Josie’s
Eat at Graeter’s (if it is open before we leave. We may have to go north for this one)
Eat at The Local Taco
Find a new place to live
Find a job (if your name is Amanda). Working on this.
Celebrate Christmas
Get something for the house that will help us remember how much we love Kentucky

friday + saturday

Friday morning we had both recovered from our gorge-fest the night before, so we had breakfast and I went out with Jason’s mom to run some errands. Note: though it was Black Friday, we were not Black Friday Shopping. No coupons, waiting outside in the dark at inordinate hours, or pepper spray were involved. We are not so bold.

We had leftover turkey for lunch, after which Jason and I headed over to his friend Dave’s to watch the UConn game. Some of his other friends showed up (Mike, Tyler, Ken, and eventually Kevin), and we spent most of the afternoon hanging out and eating…and dressing up Bibble as Santa Claus.

Later that evening, we all went out to Lepri’s Burger Bar, where I had a most amazing burger with brie and caramelized onions and sweet potato fries (just accidentally typed “friends” instead of “fries”, which made me laugh a little bit. I do not have any sweet potato friends).  It’s fun to see Jason with his old friends; they’re a good bunch.

The next morning, we tailgated with Dave, Mike, and Ken at Rentschler Field before the UConn – Rutger’s game.  This was no hamburgers-and-hotdogs gathering, though: we had chicken fajitas, roasted red potatoes, chicken satay skewers, and Korean barbecue kabobs.

Jason and me, enjoying the warm/sunny day.

After the tailgate, we went to Grandma Funny and Grandpa Bill’s for a bit, then headed home. We were all getting a little sick of turkey, so we had Chinese take-out for dinner.  Jason and I did our laundry and packed, then played Uno and ate ice cream with his mom.

41/52

I kind of feel like this–the forty-first week of the year–didn’t even happen.  The days have all run together, and suddenly it’s Friday.

Monday
I had my first grad school midterm.  When I was sick last week, I skipped one stats class.  Apparently that was the day my professor announced that we could each use a home-made list of equations (no definitions) on the midterm.  I pored over the material and stressed out about knowing a bunch of different formulas and was less-than-pleasantly surprised when my classmates pulled out their guides, while I had to take my test unaided.  I think I did all right, and now I’ll always remember how to calculate the standard deviation for a discrete random variable.

After my midterm, Jason and I went to the mall to have my watch battery replaced.  We also went shopping, and Jason bought me a great dress for the annual dinner.

Tuesday
I stayed at work until my class started.  When I got home, Jason and I watched a little bit of the Republican debate.  I fell asleep on the couch before 10:00 PM.

Wednesday
Busy busy day at work.  In the evening, we baby-sat our favorite almost-ten-year-old.  Jason taught him to play chess, which was a huge hit.  A good time was had by all.

Thursday
I spent most of Thursday away from the office with Lisa preparing for our big events.  We had the Senior Star luncheon in the afternoon, and then the annual dinner in the evening.  The event was out at the Horse Park this year, and the keynote speaker was Kate Tweedy, daughter of Secretariat owner Penny Chenery.  Her presentation was awesome; she showed clips from Secretariat’s Triple Crown races and it was all I could do to not stand up and cheer.  Now we really want to get ahold of the Disneyfied film version (which everyone we know has told us is great, and lots of it was filmed in central Kentucky).

The event space looked amazing, and the food was delicious.  I can hardly believe it has been over a year since the 2010 dinner; I definitely felt more comfortable this time around.

Jason and I arrived home around 11:15 PM and crashed.  It was a completely crazy (but also wonderful) day.

Friday
Today we had the scientific portion of the Markesbery Symposium.  I was there most of the day, then came home and fixed Trader Joe’s mac and cheese and chicken nuggets for dinner.  I’ll cook real food after tomorrow.

Tonight we went to Big Blue Madness, the first UK basketball exhibition of the 2011-12 season.

Rupp was packed, and decked out with lights and (no joke) indoor fireworks as the players were introduced and the teams scrimmaged.

Coach Cal addressed the 24,000 devoted fans, and former players who have moved up to the NBA were in attendance.  The whole spectacle was awesome, and made us both really excited for the season.

I’ll be at the community symposium in approximately seven hours, so I think it’s time to go to sleep.  Tomorrow, I plan to get a nap–hopefully before the BYU game so I don’t miss it.

Before…after

It snowed last night.

Thankfully, it was gone by the time we got home from church.

In other news, I french braided my own hair today and we are having macaroni & cheese for dinner.  Judging from the fireworks going off outside, I’d wager UK is going to the Final Four.  Good news for my almost-year-old wildcat pride, but bad news for my sad bracket.

Rainy Saturday

Grocery list in progress

It’s been a good/lazy Saturday.  We got up a little late (thanks to UK keeping us up last night with a nail-biter win) and I hit the gym for a bit before we headed over to renew our cell phone plan.  We came home, did some cleaning, ate some dinner, and are now watching some basketball.  I like spending Saturdays this way.

Thinking deep thoughts about the weather

 

The condensed version

It’s been hard to write the blog because we’ve been too busy having fun in CT.  Here’s a recap of our recent adventures–which possibly only Jason and I will find interesting, since we lived them.

Last Friday: Flew to CT.  Ate delicious ribs.  Watched the most hilarious home videos of 1) Jason pretending to be a weather man, 2) Boom-booms down the stairs, and 3) Dave dancing forever.

Saturday: Talked to David on the phone bright and early (7:00 a.m.).  Opened presents.  Ate an eclair for breakfast.  Went to Grandma’s around 1:30, where we had dinner, played games, and hung out with Jason’s fam.

Sunday: Church, but the second and third hour were cancelled because of a blizzard.  Came home and started working on the reception food.  Had some fun with almond bark and pretzel rods.  Lasagna for dinner.

Monday: Set up for the reception.

Tuesday: Jason and I went to the gym.  Set up for the reception.  Reception.  Clean up from the reception.  Because we weren’t required to stand in line or mind the food, Jason and I were able to hang out with some of his old friends.  I forgot my camera in the car, but I made Jen take a few pictures of us.  Maybe someday I’ll post them.

Wednesday: Did not go to the gym.  Thought about going to the Wadsworth Antheneum.  Hung out with Jake and Justine instead.  Went to dinner with Dave Liner at Trattoria da Lepri and met Tyler’s cat.

Thursday: Wadsworth Antheneum.  Bought a Mark Tobey print from the Moderns on Paper exhibit.  Went to a party at Dave’s and enjoyed 1) awesome food, 2) good company, and 3) a rousing game of Funglish.  i think Jason and I would be very successful Funglish players if we would make sure we’re on the same word.  Spent the night in Avon.

Friday: Trader Joe’s.  Cheesecake Factory.  UConn basketball game (in which they did not lose).  Inception.  Lots of food.  Happy new year!

Saturday: Taking the Idahoans to the airport in approximately 2 hours.

This trip has gone by really fast, but I think we’ve hit most of the things we wanted to do.

The latest and greatest

It’s been a great week–not particularly noteworthy, but great nonetheless.  School is good.  Work is good.  We still like Kentucky.

Last night, we went to our first UK basketball game.  They played Eastern Tennessee State (or something) and won (not surprisingly).  I’m not sure we’ll be able to hit any more games, since the student tickets are awarded by lottery and the general admission tickets were 3.5 times more expensive as the NBA tickets we bought in DC.  We’ll see.

Today we went to the UK football game, which was also fun.  It was perfect football-watching weather and we demolished Vanderbilt.  We were also pleased to discover later that BYU won and Utah lost: not a bad weekend for sports, as far as the Frost household is concerned.

I feel like the end of the year is nigh.  There are two Mondays left until Thanksgiving.  The next week, Roni comes to visit.  The week after that is Jason’s last week of classes for fall semester.  The week after that is finals.  The week after that, we’ll be in Connecticut for Christmas.  It’s going to be 2011 before we know it.