more birthday

This is my 5th anniversary of wearing a tiara for my Birthday, my Mom got this for my 30th and it is so much fun to have!

I wanted to make my own cake and do at least 4 layers. After watching the Food Network and Ace of Cakes I wanted to experiment, just a little.

I love rainbow chip icing, yummy!

Lost Symbol

I just finished reading Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol. It is a continuation of the Robert Langdon adventures. It was a little different with the addition of Masonic mysteries. I can understand why it took so long to write the book, with all the research he must have done. I highly suggest it to anyone who liked the other two books, but if you haven't read Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code read those first.



A couple of years ago an old roommate suggested I sign up for GoodReads to keep track of all the books that I read. I don't update it very often, but it is another fun free website to join.

What if George W. Bush had done that?

There is an article on Politico titled "What if George W. Bush had done that?" It is really interesting:

A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser.
Snubbing the Dalai Lama.
Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers.
Freezing out a TV network.
Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too.
President Barack Obama has done all of those things — and more.
What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character — or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda.
It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news judgment, and an illustration that, in politics, context is everything.
Conservatives look on with a mix of indignation and amazement and ask: Imagine the fuss if George W. Bush had done these things?
And quickly add, with a hint of jealousy: How does Obama get away with it?
“We have a joke about it. We’re going to start a website: IfBushHadDoneThat.com,” former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie said. “The watchdogs are curled up around his feet, sleeping soundly. ... There are countless examples: some silly, some serious.”
...Managing the press
When the Obama administration moved in recent weeks to isolate and disparage Fox News as a wing of the Republican Party, there were few immediate howls of outrage — even from Fox’s fellow journalists in the media.
Press defenders and First Amendment advocates who jumped on the Bush administration for using military analysts to shape war coverage reacted with a yawn to the White House’s announcement that it had deemed Fox to be not a “legitimate news organization.”
“Had I said about MSNBC what the Obama White House said about Fox, the media uproar would still be going on,” said Ari Fleischer, who served as Bush’s press secretary until 2003. “I instinctively would have known ... the media would have leapt to their feet to defend them. I’m shocked it’s not happening now.”
One press veteran agreed. “If George Bush had taken on MSNBC, what would have happened?” said Phil Bronstein, editor-at-large of the San Francisco Chronicle. “That’s one place you can point to a real difference in how I’d imagine Bush would be treated.”

There is more, so here is the link to read the whole article.

Birthday 2009

Ok, I will admit it is my 35th birthday today. I normally don’t have a panic attack about the fact I get to another age milestone, but this year is a little different. I knew this one was coming up and have been in denial for a while, but I just can’t avoid it. I really do like having Birthdays because you get cake, ice cream and presents, it’s an excuse to party, but not this year.
On July 18th, 1883 my great-grandmother, Madora Laverna Rogerson, was born (yes my great, great grandparents gave in and named her one of those weird Mormon combo names, except their names were Sarah and John, so how they got Madora is a mystery). In 1918, when Madora was 35, she finally told my great-grandfather to get his sheep shearing act together and marry her and a year later, at age 36, my Grandpa and his twin were born. Since I am not dating anyone worthy of marriage, then I will be breaking her record. Granted it is 2009 and not 1918, so I am not considered an OLD MAID yet, . . . maybe?

Julie/Julia project

I started reading the book the movie is based on, which is based on a blog. The real life person is named Julie Powell, here is her link. The story is she had a boring life, so her husband convinced her to write a blog about her experiences cooking all the recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My "beef" is that her family did not support her! She quotes her mother and the frequent saying is "your pushing yourself too hard". Oh please! Like it is really difficult to read a cook book then do the recipe! There is definately a difference between cooking and joining the Navy Seals, so what do you think is "pushing yourself too hard"? Maybe I am coming from a different perspective since I have a family that will support me in whatever crazy idea I come up with (yeah like, I want to go to England for my PhD). So I must say thanks to my family and friends who are supportive!!!
Plus I must say that French cooking requires LOTS of butter, lard, gelatin, and other versions of things that harden the arteries. I can't even fathom eating all of that after reading the book.

*I must warn you she swears frequently, so if you don't like swearing don't read it.

professor shirts

I always give my family a list of what I want for my birthday and Christmas in about Aug/Sept so they have time to look for what I want. I decided I want button up shirts since I am about to start my PhD and need to look like a professor. Mom and I were at the Park City outlets today and went to the J Crew store and found some great shirts (bought dark blue and purple), however the white version was see through. Same problem going to all the other stores. Does anyone know where I can get this shirt in white and not be see through?

outliers

I just finished reading Outliers. It was really good. It's all about why successful people are successful. I suggest you check it out!

Important new computer software

My friend Karen sent me this and I laughed too hard!

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend to Husband and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend. In addition, Husband uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance and Personal Attention and then installed undesirable programs such as Rugby, Football, Sailing and Continuous TV. Conversation no longer runs, and Housecleaning simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed, Desperate

.....................................................................
Dear Desperate,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend is an Entertainment Package, while Husband is an Operating System. Please enter the command: 'http: I Thought You Loved Me.html' and try to download Tears. Don't forget to install the Guilt update. If that application works as designed, Husband should then automatically run the applications Jewellery and Flowers. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband to default to Grumpy Silence, Garden Shed or Beer. Beer is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources). Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband.

In summary, Husband is a great system, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. It also tends to work better running one task at a time. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food and Hot Lingerie .
Good Luck,
Tech Support

itunes

I downloaded all my cd's to my itunes so that I don't have to take them with me to England. Then I got bored...so I have been checking out cd's from the library to download. I have been checking out at least 15 cd's a day from different categories, not done yet. I have over 3000 songs so far. It's fun to have new songs on my ipod. How many do you have?

General Conference Weekend

We went to Boise for Conference weekend to play with Caimon and Brylee. I didn't get a good picture of Caimon because he wouldn't sit still, that's 2-year-olds for ya, but I got some great ones of Brylee. She has grown sooooo much since I saw her two months ago, she is getting that baby chubbiness right before she starts to walk. She has these BIG eyes and she is quick to smile.


I also had the opportunity to visit with one of my freshman roommates on Saturday night while the men were at Priesthood session. We played monopoly with her son who had turned 8 that day. I hadn't played in a while, so it was fun playing with a kid. Thanks Em!

So my favorite part of Conference is that you can watch church on tv in your pajamas on the couch. Last week the Relief Society teacher said you shouldn't do that because it doesn't put you in the spirit to hear and feel what the General Authorities say. But then she went on to talk about family traditions and that is our family tradition. Do you agree or disagree?