Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?

I had a major epiphany as I was getting ready to go back to school a few weeks ago (School started the 17th, ugh.)--we live near a huge university. Universities are surrounded by cheap, fast food. Why am I not taking advantage of this?!! So I've tried three new restaurants in the last two weeks, two of those with Paul.

1. Mr. Chao's Asian Bistro. I don't know why it's called Mr. Chao's when it's run by a Vietnamese chef named Tran, but whatever. Best American-style Chinese food ever! Super-tasty, ridiculously fast, the only downside is that it's nowhere near ASU. They make sesame chicken just the way I like--sticky sweet.

2. Republic Ramen. I'd heard good things about this place, but the whole "authentic Japanese-style ramen" angle had be scared. The thought of noodles and broth was more appealing Thursday, rain day 2 of 3 this week. I tried the shoyu, a soy-flavored broth, with pork. It was lip-smacking delicious and I will be warming the remaining broth up after this post just to drink. (I ate the rest for lunch on Saturday, it was even better the next day.) Their boba slushes were lousy though.

3. America's Best Taco Shop. Aptly named. They are the prefect trinity of cheap, tiny, and absurdly delicious. The store is also covered in cute one-of-a-kind pieces of art. It's small, filled with beaten-up furniture, and the owner talks with you a mile a minute with barking out orders in Spanglish. The guacamole is to die for and they give you garnish baggies--with cucumbers!

I can only wait to see what pocketbook-friendly delicious dives I will find this week. (That's right, I say pocketbook. Deal with it.)

Piper and Jules

This is a story about Piper and Jules. This is Piper in case you've forgotten. This is Jules. Jules is a chair, from IKEA. Jules used to belong to Paul, but now Jules is Piper's. This is a recent development. For a year, Jules sat empty when Paul wasn't using the computer. Now, Piper is in it all of the time. Paul has to forcibly evict her to use the computer. He gets up for a second and wham! Piper is there, lying all stretched out and pretending she totally did not just sprint across the room and jump into the chair before he turned around. We've decided to get a Jules for just Piper, but exactly where does one put a chair solely for cat lounging? I'm open to suggestions.

July, The Month that Blogging Forgot

Sorry for not blogging for so long. July was a crazy month. Assume it action-packed with family, holidays, vacations, etc. Here are the highlights:

June 26-July 6--in Provo. Send Matt off to the MTC, celebrate the Fourth, miss the Muhlestein reunion and feel appropriated shamed.

July 6-13--my sister visits. We do much swimming and watching of forbidden TV.

July 10-13--my mother visits. Watching of forbidden TV dramatically decreases, swimming and hanging out on the balcony exponentially increase.

July 18-23--I work on an abstract, which is subsequently accepted for a conference presentation. Feel smug for a while.

July 22--Tempe Town Dam breaks. This would be big news if it was a real dam and not like a dike. Also if the breach actually flooded something besides a dry river bed. Here's some pictures.



The remains of the "dam."



Looking east to show how far the resevoir dropped. Note there are only small pools upstream.



Looking down in the resevoir from the dam to show how low the level is.

July 29-Aug. 1--Paul's brother Spencer visits. Obscene amounts of swimming ensue.

In between I cleaned everything down to the baseboards and worked on that pesky paper. Oh, and I painted and decorated a bookshelf and a set of stacking boxes. Have some more pictures.



Look at those pillows! It's like a freakin' magazine.



Sorry for the blurry cell phone pic. We really do need to get a camera.

Umm, so that's that then.

Back in the USSR...Er, Provo

Hail Comrades! We're back in Provo and (mostly) loving it. I thought my bottom was going to fall off during church--those benches are hard and I was sore after the drive--but other than that, it's been great. We've already seen a lot of my extended family thanks to my brother's non-farewell farewell; sadly, we will not be seeing much of Paul's as we won't be trekking down to the cabin for the family reunion this year. We just not here long enough to do everything we'd like and the travel time makes it too impractical. Luckily, I hear the reconstruction of the deck will continue on despite the absence of Paul's strapping muscles.

Still we're happy to be here and visiting our families. We haven't seen them since Christmas and the weather is much nicer in the summer. Although the white Christmas was nice...though the driving is much easier in the broad light of day and on ice-free roads. Maybe Christmas should be moved to July.

The Fashionable and the Insane

Summer is in full-swing and that means I've moved over from changing stuff around the house to changing stuff about me. That's right, summer is when I decide to cut/dye/dry shampoo my hair, lose weight/tone/exercise more/eat better, get rid of worn out/ill-fitting/ten years out of date clothing, and paint my nails regularly and exciting colors. (Fuchsia! Teal! Lime!) I even plan to try out new makeup. I make the same decisions every year and they rarely make it to action. For example, since 2000 in the category of hair:

Number of dye jobs: 1
Number of radical haircuts: 3
Number of styling products regularly used: 0
Days of the week hair is styled: 0.5 (half-hearted effort on Sundays)

And for this year in the category of makeup:
Number of new lip products purchased: 7 (5 in a trial set)
Number of new lip products worn at least once: 1

It's not the best of track records. This year I have painted my nails once and been thoroughly annoyed at how fast it chips (seriously, one day?!!) and used some foaming shiny hair product once. I'm looking at leftover Panda Express for lunch, haven't even put on makeup, and threw my newly-cut hair into a ponytail. Why do I get these silly notions every year? What is it about summer that makes me want to redo everything in sight?

I'm still dying my hair purple this year after the family photos though. And trying the teal nail polish. And eating better.

Maybe I should just give up. :)

We Finally Have a Car Again!!!!

I put a lot of exclamation points because this was very, very, very exciting for us. After 15 (!) days of fruitless searching, disappointments, and two failed inspections, we finally found, inspected, and purchased a car!!! YAY!!!

This is our new car:




















It's a 2005 Sebring Coupe. It's awesome and I hope we're best friends forever. I love this car. It's nice and clean and everything works properly (including the CD player). There's plenty of leg room all around and yet you could still fit two adult bodies in the trunk. It's only drawback is that it has one of the chinzy gas caps that are attached to the door. Well, and the gas tank is on the passenger side. Other than that, I hope it is the best car ever made and we never have to buy one for again for a long time. The best part about the car is that it was within our original budget ($6500), which we had completely given up on and resigned ourselves to car payments for a while. I like to think of it as a car miracle.



Also when I say it's our car, I really mean it's my car.

This Week, I Swear

This week, I swear, is trying to break me. On Wednesday, Paul was in an accident. No human injuries but the Accord was declared a total lost. Thursday a bill from my health insurance came, informing me that they weren't paying anything for a doctor's visit. Friday and Saturday were spent look for and at cars. Sunday my e-mail address was swiped by a spambot. Sorry for anyone who was offered cheap Canadian Viagra. Oh, and thanks to Memorial Day--which I normally enjoy--inspection and purchase of a new car is delayed until Tuesday.

I have keep remaining myself how these are all inconveniences and annoyances, but not disasters. No one is hurt, the claim for the Accord was settled quickly, we're pre-approved for an auto loan, and found a replacement car. I fixed my e-mail (I think) and Paul has tomorrow off to play.

Oh well. At least I wrestled the doors on the bookshelf/pantry.