Monday, August 21, 2006

Cat

This is so ridiculous I had to post it here. Somewhere, I'm still humming this song and laughing.

What, Me Tense?

While this is admittedly really gross, I can also say it is effective in keeping the pens in my office from getting ripped off. Anybody got a Valium?



 Posted by Picasa

Why Are You Green?




When we got home from the Homestead, we came inside the house and the cats were instantly swarming us. We keep dry food out for them all the time, but have been feeding them wet food in the evenings. They're both pretty thin and they really love it, so we figure no harm done. As I was shuffling through the door, both of the cats were stalking Jon. He went into the room where we keep their food, and two rooms away I hear him say "Why are you green??". I thought maybe the white one (Coconut) had rolled in some grass clippings, etc. but no, some wiseass dyed my cat green. WTF??!! Posted by Picasa

Quack Quack

Check out the bouffant on this duck that was begging for scraps from the patio of the grill at the Homestead Resort. Looks like she took a wrong turn & missed the Aveda Spa.


Posted by Picasa

Tick Tock

The clock is ticking. Three days till my birthday, and two days till we head to TX. We have quite the road trip in front of us. I'll be taking the notebook & the digi cam so hopefully we'll get some great pics from the road. Stay tuned....

Oh, and speaking of staying tuned, KSL Nightside now has their own proper website. Sort of. Click above for some bios and cool graphics if you please. Oh yeah, and don't forget the gang is now taking listener comment during the show, so tune in, call in, and quite possibly they'll let you throw in your two cents worth. Word.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Lots of stuff going on. First off, we WON the company golf scramble. Big Shock. Actually, I must say that out of the 16 people, four were women, including myself. They were all really great, and I must say that they were huge assets to their respective teams. I think the other women in the tournament had more 'qualifying' drives than I did, and one gal had never hit a ball in her life. I stand humbled.

Here's a pic of our trophy. I've been with the company for twelve years and I've never won anything until now. Thanks honey.





Posted by Picasa

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Tick Tock

The birthday clock is counting down. eEeEEEgaaads!

Weekend Scramble

Went last night with Barb to the driving range. We pounded a few buckets of balls. I did pretty well, and was very aware of the fact that whenever I didn't do something I was supposed to, the swing was a disaster. BUT if I kept my posuture and movements on track I really can whallop that thing a good 150-200 yds. And at the risk of sounding like a goof geek, I am looking forwrard to the scramble tournament we're playing in this weekend at my company's annual retreat weekend at the Homestead in Midway, UT. (Just down the road from the Blue Boar Inn). We are favored to win, thanks to Jon Dunn. Let's just hope I can bring something of value to the playing field.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Fore!

Today was my first official day as a golfer. Well, okay not exactly. We ordered a set of ladies' hybrid clubs on eBay for about $150. They arrived yesterday and we took them to the course today and I got to whallop a bucket of balls. Jon's group played at the Sleepy Ridge links course in Orem, UT. It was nice--cool & breezy in the morning but by 2:00 it was roasting. I tagged along for 18 holes with the usual gang, and then Jon & I headed over to the driving range. I suppose I did all right for a novice. Smacked a couple pretty well, missed several times, skimmed some heads, sliced a few, and so on. Next week is the company tournament (scramble) and I suppose I'll be in good enough shape for that. I am hoping to make it to the range again some night this week, so hopefully that helps.

I am currently stalking a pair of golf shoes in eBay. I guess not a lot of women golfers purchase things on eBay because it is certainly one category I have discovered where you can still get really good deals on things. I asked Jon why seemingly all golf shoes in general are so ugly. He was offended at first, and then sort of laughed & shrugged his shoulders. I guess you don't feel like an expert unless you're sporting hideously ugly shoes. Go figure.

After we left Orem we went by the Old Mill pro shop and got Jon a new golf bag. Week before last he competed in a Farmer's Insurance tournament on behalf of KSL and his team came in 2nd place. For it he won a large trophy (which I still have not seen--it's apparently his new office decor) and a $75 gift certificate for the pro shop. Since he didn't need anything at the time he stashed the certificate. Today he realized that I would need a golf bag, so I have now inherited his, and he has in turn acquired a beauty of a new Titleist bag from the proshop for $100 with the certificate discounted. It was an all around win for all.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Der Ring

So I’ve sort of strayed a bit from the original purpose for this journal. (The wedding....) ~Bridezilla Schmidezilla!

I realized the other day that I had failed to shower praises upon our favorite custom jeweler,
Charley Hafen. I can’t believe how fortunate we were to finally find a jeweler that we clicked with. And let me tell you we did our homework! Charley was actually referred to us by a friend who knew him from the days when Charley’s shop was located at Trolley Square. His gallery now independently stands in Sugarhouse. After all our valley wide searching, there he was all that time, just a half block from our home! So here’s how it happened.

When we decided we wanted to get married (we had an adult discussion about it—none of this archaic getting on one knee nonsense) I didn’t have to have a ring, but Jon was all for it, and hey, who am I to argue? I say this in all honesty, and people often still don’t believe me, but I never had any childhood fantasies about how my wedding would be or what my ring should look like. I had a few ideas about what I liked based on some looking I did last year with my girl Brooke when she & her now husband were looking at rings. But beyond some basic knowledge, I knew nothing. Neither did Jon. So we started doing a little research on the web, made a few calls around town to see who our friends knew, and then ventured into some jewelry stores. It was awful! You know that icky feeling you get when you are looking at used cars and a hairy, porn star looking guy who smells like cheap cologne is leering at you? Yeah, it was that gross. Apparently the jewelry business is extremely competitive and we heard just about every come-on there is. We looked at some pieces and there are a lot of beautiful things out there but nothing stole our hearts. Until we looked at tension rings. Tension rings are uniquely beautiful and we looked at a couple of different designers. As for diamonds, well, I don’t have any family heirlooms, and neither does he, so we needed to invest in a stone as well. I was and remain a ‘quality not quantity’ type of gal. I would much prefer a smaller stone that is finer and less flawed than a large, dull diamond. We checked out the tension ring dealers in town and boy they are pretty. But then I got a little gun shy and decided I didn’t want my center stone so vulnerable that it could potentially get ripped out of its setting. I’m pretty hard on my stuff (playing with the dogs, digging in the dirt, fiddling with doodads on my motorcycle, etc.) so I’m not really well suited for a delicate piece of jewelry.


So one day Jon stopped by Charley’s shop on his way home from work. He went in and chatted with Charley and was impressed with his mellow, friendly demeanor. He explained to Jon how he would hand craft the ring, make a wax mold, allow us to ‘proof’ it, and then cast it in gold (white gold was our choice). We showed Charley pictures of some of the rings we like, and with the photos he was able to design a unique composite sample incorporating elements of all the different styles we liked. Since we didn’t have a stone yet—the centerpiece of the ring—he said he would have his gemologist bring us a few samples. A few days later we went back to Charley’s shop together and chose the stone—a beautiful .9 karat princess cut (the clarity and color stats slip my mind at the moment—I’ll come back & insert in this post if I can locate the paperwork). Suffice to say it was a beautiful stone and we were eager to see it in our finished project. A week or so later we went back to see the wax mold. It was fragile and gave us an idea of what to expect, but we really had no idea how beautiful it would be in the end. Needless to say I showcase the bling every day and we are definitely very pleased with the outcome.

Bling




Posted by Picasa

Special Shout Out

Here's a shout out to our friends Drew & Terry Hall who allowed us to come over & continue the weekend debauchery. This included playing their slot machine--- undoubtedly the tightest and loosest slot in the state of Utah!


Posted by Picasa

Postscript to Giving Life

I neglected to acknowledge this cool sister website to the American Red Cross. GiveLife.org goes into detail a lot more specifically about donating blood. And per my description of the whole blood donation process below, you can check it out on this page of the Give Life website. See, I wouldn't lie to you. Now go make an appointment and do it.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Giving Blood


Posted by Picasa

I went and donated blood for the first time today. Mom called me yesterday and asked me if I would do it. Not having the cure for cancer, or anything remotely close, we felt this would be a good solution to cure our own helpless feelings toward the big evil “c” word that has so viciously attacked people that I love. We only wish there was more we could do…

For those who have never had the pleasure of giving blood, I recount my experience and tell you that it is so not a big deal. I called this morning and made an appointment to go after work. Between the
Red Cross Website and the girl I talked to when scheduling, I found out it was only about an hour process (and ended up being less than that, actually). Because I was a “first timer” it took me a little longer because they had to register me in their computer and give me time to review the informative materials. They asked me questions, mainly basic health questions, and questions pertaining to lifestyle, place of residence, covering all the possible scenarios that could have resulted in a blood disease or contamination that could make me ineligible to donate. The first gal who set me up in front of a computer to answer the survey questions pricked my finger and took a small preliminary blood sample to make sure my blood levels were adequate (I’m not sure exactly what they were checking, but the minimum was 38% and I was at 41%). She took my blood pressure, pulse, and temperature (I was strangely 99.4, which is a little high for me). “Are you a little anxious?” she asked. “No”, I told her, “I think I’m just a little high in the blood pressure department because I’m overweight”. Quite honestly I’ve been a ball of nerves and anxiety as of late, but I didn’t offer that explanation to her. She took my name and address and other personal information, entered it into the computer, and told me they would send me my own personal ‘Donor Card’.

Next was the big room with several large medical dentist type chairs. There were already a few folks in the process of giving blood, and after a few minutes, they strapped me into my own (just kidding, no straps involved). I was asked which arm I preferred. “I don’t care, whichever one works better”. (Translate: whichever one is going to be easiest to poke ONE time). I sat comfortably as the male technician once again took my vitals and verified that I was the correct person with the correct paperwork. He looked at my arms and chose my right. He lifted my arm and slathered the inside of my elbow with alcohol and iodine, and waited for it to dry. He fiddled with a maze of tubes around my arm, which assumably led to a pint bag below my chair. After a few minutes he reappeared with a needle and “quick poke” (it was a little sharp) the needle went in but the pain was very brief and once it was in place, the sharpness subsided. I sat quietly and squeezed the foam ball in my hand as often as I could remember, and watched as my blood ran through the tubes beyond my sight. I felt fine the entire time, until the very end. Near the end of pint I began to feel lightheaded, and was experiencing the sensation that precedes fainting for me. I was breathing a little more labored than normal, was fighting passing out, and felt woozy. As the male tech took the needle and tubes away, another female tech was kind enough to bring me an icepack for the back of my neck and a bottle of water. She also adjusted my chair to put my feet higher in the air. After about five minutes in this stance I was all better and the dizziness went away. I hopped out of my chair, was showed the way to the fridge (cold water & juices) and snackies (chips, crackers, cookies, etc.) I grabbed a can of OJ and was out the door & on my way home. I gotta keep this cool pink bandage on for five hours, and no strenuous activity allowed. As if I needed an excuse to avoid the gym.

So that’s it folks. Go give blood. If I can do it, you can do it. You never know-- it could save your life--or the life of someone you love.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

My Four Eyes For Your Eyes

Introducing the newest member of the Geek Squad.

How I gained 40 lbs in seven months!

 Posted by Picasa

The Big Three-0 is Lurking

The big birthday is three weeks away. Yikes! My parents bought me a shot glass in Gruene, TX during their trip last week. It’s solid blue and reads,


“You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas”–Davy Crockett.

Gotta love that. So for my birthday this year, everyone can just go to hell and I will go to Texas.

All jokes aside, we are awaiting vacation approval but will likely be in Austin for the big day. Yes, once again we’ll be voyaging down to the Lone Star State to see my beloved family and take custody of my grandfather’s 1993 Ford Explorer. We’re replacing Jon’s 1991 Ford “Exploder”. Although the SUV’s are only two years apart in year of manufacture, they’re light years apart in condition and mileage. We're really looking forward to heading down and seeing the fam.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Fish

Posted by Picasa


Incidentally, Iceman (Betta, above), Patron (Tequila Sunrise Guppy), Harley (Yellow Tail Guppy) & the Tetras (Neon & Albino) are doing quite well considering their tank’s filter is busted.

New Toy

Check out the new toy! It’s our first major collaborative purchase besides the fish.


Posted by Picasa

What you"re reading...

We met in 05, married in 07, and now just three months after that wedding we are going through yet another life change. We are both working for the Best Friends Animal Society, and living in Kanab. This is our story.

Check out our Flickr Photostream!

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos and videos from jon_dunn. Make your own badge here.

Contributors