Silly names for your kids.

I know I am going to post one of these and I will get an angry parent email one of these times, but i could not resist with this one. While at my job i see A LOT of kids names, and some are just outrageous. Here is my favorite for the week........are you ready for it?


SURPRISE


Surprise is the name. Do you think this child was a planned pregnancy? Do you think anyone would believe she was a planned pregnancy. AAAAAH, Surprises can be good and bad :)

something new...

This year I am putting my skis back on! its been years since I have skied, I usually put my good old board Gertrude (yes she has a name, she is a lady afterall) to good use. But i decided in my spirit of change, to mix it up. So I ran to ski swap and picked up these beauties for 25$. thank you utah skiers who buy new skis every season and sell their olds for super cheap!

Back from the dead....

Hi loyal readers (the two of you out there)! It has been ages since I posted. I dont have much to write about, but i thought i would do a little updating.
Since March I have....

become single!! (ready to mingle?? maybe....)
gone to buenos aires....pics below
moved (down the block)
started to get my masters in public health
bought a ski pass (YAY!)
bought a computer
been involved in a law suit
been pregnant (hahahah, jk, making sure you are paying attention)
gotten another piercing -this one is true
reacquainted myself with climbing - climbing and i had a brief falling out- we are good now!
taken up yoga
taken up swimming
ran in the snow - just this week!
met Korean gangsters (no lie)
got invited to a Korean Gangsters yacht party
ran into a famous Gucci model on the streets of argentina and swoooooned
got myself a gay Peruvian boyfriend- aaah, Ivan!
ate piranha- this thing still had its teeth!
ate the stomach of an unknown animal- it didnt kill me so that is good
ate blood sausage (Love it!)
ate sweet breads (SO GOOD)
ate my first oyster (also GOOD)
gave up my dog (sad but true....i lost her in the break up)
been happy- lots of drama has been surrounding my life for a while, but i must say i am happy!

Here are some Argentina pics. I went with my lovely sister and played with my friend, Davin. He has lived in Buenos Aires for the past five years and loves it there. He has a GREAT group of friends who are excellent at dancing all night long and making us sad non-spanish speakers feel at home. I am so glad I went, it was a great time. Buenos Aires is a very cool ecletic city with lots of old and new architecture. It feels a lot like Europe but is a lot cheaper. We ate like kings and ran around town for two weeks enjoying food, art, music, and dancing. I have to go back soon, and you all should go at least once.




Here we are at Evita's museum, those are her dresses in the background....we are making the "it is so sad Evita died of cancer" face. This is actually very sad, because she was a pretty awesome lady....the randomness of B.A. This is a very french building that looks like it has been chopped in half. the buildings around it are all shorter, and feel like dirty strip mall buildings.
This is my cute sis, Megs in La Boca. This is the touristy section of the city. Lots of tango, art, and color
Here we are in Tigre. You cant really see any of tigre, but it is essentially a city built on little rivers (almost like florence only more backwoodsy). You take a river taxi up and down the rivers and stop at whatever businesses you want to visit.
this is at the BA university. Its petals close at night!
downtown BA, where the yacht party was!! i didnt end up going, because i am pretty sure getting mixed up with Korean Mobsters is not the best idea. They seemed very nice to me, but apparently they kill people....hmmm
This is a famous bridge in BA by a famous European artist. I dont actually know his name, sad i know.....i do know he is famous though and i know that he wanted this bridge to represent a man and a woman in the act of making love......weird, i know, artists are weird.
this is my new place! It is very nice with exposed brick and a fancy new kitchen and hardwood floors. It is a definite upgrade.

I will try to be a little more present in my blogging....but i make this promise often and havent followed through too well...now that i have the new computer, i have no excuses!

MOAB (and too many pictures)

Last weekend, Mike and I went to moab so I could run the half marathon. We spent the three days afterward hiking around. Since I am much dumber than this blogger program and still forget to upload things in the correct order, here is our trip.....backward

Fiery Furnace

Our last hike was the Fiery Furnace in Arches. This was really cool! I would recommend it to anyone. You are literally in a maze of red-rock towers. Unfortunately it is incredibly easy to get lost so you have to go on a guided tour, but it is worth the extra planning. If you are a GPS guru you can buy a permit and head out on your own, but i would suggest the guided tour first. The above photo is also the fiery furnace as well.


CHESLER PARK

The day after running the half, we decided to hike a 13-mile hike called Chesler park. This is in the needles district of canyonlands and is BEAUTIFUL!! it was truly spectacular the entire hike. At about mile nine, i decided to cut the hike short due to some pain in my feet. below are the gnarly blisters i discovered in the car...it is gross i know, but this photo doesnt due my feet justice....i had about eight on each foot......no wonder I was hurting!!

little toadstools!

Climing through little crevices is honestly my favorite thing, it is always a surprise at the other side
its not hard to figure out why it is called Needles
pretty cool petroglyphs.....Mike thought they were fake until I pointed out to him that they were 20 ft off the ground....that is a lot of work for somone wanting the create fake petroglyphs

FINALLY the cars!! i was pretty happy to sit down-


HUNTERS CANYON

This little hike we did right after the 1/2 marathon....it was about four miles of flat so it was a good one to get my legs loosened up! It is tucked away down the colorado river...i dont even know where, but we were alone the whole hike which was nice.
I always make Mike take these pictures and he always gives me crap for it.....as you can tell by his little smirk!! i am such a sap!
there was a little spring the entire hike up
CANYONLANDS HALF MARATHON!!!
And finally the beginning of our trip...the half marathon! this is a beautiful race down the colorado river.....it is all red-rock and a lot of fun!

Expose for today.....

.....i share my bed with my dog!!!







I know, it is way gross, but honestly it was SO cute when she was a puppy....and now that she is sixty pounds and quite large, she is too spoiled to move off the bed...plus look at that FACE!!! she has the puppy dog eyes down! Are any of you other dog owners guilty of this?? Or am I the only one with such a slobbery bed companion!

Oh and just in case you were wondering how izzy feels about her first winter.....here she is devouring a snowball mid air.....apparently she approves

BORING!

Alright, i am the first to admit that my blog has hit an ALL TIME LOW!!!!! really, honestly I am blogging about shopping?? FOR THE LOVE, AM I THAT BORING?!?!?! i think i am just in a funk over here, but I got a new camera for my birthday, so maybe my blog will take a turn for the best. Until that time, I am going to add A LOT of pics (because I know that is what makes every blog reader happy) of cute puppies/kitties....because let's be honest, we all LOVE cutesie pictures.


anyway, i decided I needed to resurrect my EXPOSE FOR THE DAY column....

so here it is....

I am incredibly good at doing really stupid things...i mean REALLY stupid!!! I am surprised to this day that I am even alive at times....

case number one: while running in DC, i run into an unknown park area, run smack into a drug deal, and then hop into a strangers car who promises to take me to my hotel....HELLO?!?!?! how DUMB AM I?

case number two: while in a river running and safety course, i am riding in an inflatable kayak with another girl, i decide in the spur of the moment that I am strong enough to pull us both upstream against rapids and grab onto a rope held by a man on land. I fly out of the kayak only to have the rope wrap around my neck and strangle me under water....i am not lying...this is how dumb i really am...i seriously thought that i could pull my body, this other girls body, AND the boat against rapids? HAHAHAHHAHA

and finally case number three: while in the middle of the forest in france with climbing friends, we meet some random english guys who invite us to go "sleep in the forest" rather than in a hotel room. we decide this sounds like fun, wander into the woods with a bunch of strangers and SOMEHOW end up NOT BEING MURDERED OR ROBBED!!!!


so it is time i do a bit of evaluating....i am DUMB, it is pretty obvious when i actually had ten to fifteen of these incidents i could have written on here, and had to narrow it down to three.......here's hoping the next 26 years of my life are full of smarter decisions.

Luck be a lady....

During a second whirlwind trip to DC for a conference, I decided to do a little shopping.
Sometimes you know you are simply in the right place at the right time when you wander into one of the few United Colors of Benetton stores in the country and......everything is 50% off that day!





I usually have serious buyers remorse, but honestly man....i just can't feel guilty about that splurge.