Another plague

I'm sick again. I feel it really hasn't been that long since the last time I was sick. I guess it was January. Either way, this time has been worse. I've had a sore throat all week, Friday morning I woke up about 3:30am with a 99.4 temperature. I thought perhaps this was just going to be a really bad cold, but oh no... I also felt queasy all day yesterday, and wondered if this was a side effect of the fever. A cold and a stomach virus? Who's ever heard of such a thing? But then I was up much of the night last night 'loosing my lunch' and the fever still hasn't really gone away. It subsides when I medicate, which I was able to do this morning when I finally stopped feeling queasy. It hasn't gotten higher than 99.8, so its not incredibly serious. I just wish it would have ended 36 hours ago (PS Thats shortly after it started.)

The good news is that since I was spending the day in bed I reread Twilight. It seemed like a silly idea at first, since I have a stack of other books to read. But, I really wanted something that I knew I loved, that I knew would help me forget the present, and that I could read in one day. And I totally fell in love with the book all over again (it'd been like seven months since the last reading). If I'm still sick in the morning, I'll be reading New Moon tomorrow. Only I'll probably skip the middle section. If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about. I've read it twice, as Stephenie Meyer asked the readers to do, and I feel like thats sufficient. Go Team Edward!

I'm starting to sweat a bit. I think my fever is breaking... again.

the new job

I (finally!) got a part time job to supplement our income while we're both in school. I'll be working here. I'd tell you more about it, but I'm really not sure at this point. Today was my first day. I know I'll be handling their advertising, and that I'll be helping them keep track of their contracts and listings. I think I'm also in charge of that website. Not really sure yet. I just know I get paid.

I thought about including a tirade here about what I think about someone with a Masters degree who is working on their PhD working as a sort of office assistant... in a field other than the one said person is studying... but I chose not to. I needed a job and they've hired me. Beggars can't be choosers.

Appetizing colors

William taught me something new today. Did you know that the color RED actually increases your appetite? I'd never even heard that before (I did research before posting this though). Think about all of the restaurants that use red in their coloring: Applebee's, McDonald's, Chili's, Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, Firehouse, RED Lobster... these are just ones I thought of off the top of my head.



And APPARENTLY, the color blue (and I also read that violet does it too) SUPPRESSES your appetite. (One site even suggested getting a blue light for your fridge as a diet measure).



I'm thinking this is why I always feel so conflicted about eating at KFC.

A Good Laugh

So, William and I recently went to the local science museum. There were funny mirrors.




We love this picture. We look so awesome and squatty. We laughed pretty hard.

Fours: a tagging

4 Jobs I have had:

Bank Teller

Grant Writer

Administrative Manager

Perpetual Student



4 Movies I watch over and over:

Harry Potter

Lord of the Rings

Dead Poet Society

The Lion King



4 Places I have lived:

Claremore, OK

Westford, MA

Provo, UT

Boise, ID



4 TV shows I watch:

Big Brother

Survivor

Lost

Simpsons



4 Places I have been

Paris, France

Cancun, Mexico

St. Thomas, US

New York City, NY



4 People who email me regularly

CNN.com

KraftFoods.com

RealSimple.com

Brainfuse.com

I don't really get emails from *people*.


4 Favorite things to eat

Cheesy Mexican food

Cookie dough

Pizza that William makes

Chocolate stuff



4 Places I would rather be

On a cruise

New York City

Disney World

Some manner of tropical island all inclusive beach resort



4 Things I look forward to this year

Turning 30

Getting a new set of scriptures because I'm turning 30

Breaking Dawn

Half Blood Prince movie



4 People to tag

Bob(S)

Amelia

Rachael

Camille

So Much Good News!!!!

All in one little package:


Read this.


Deathly Hallows? Two Movies.


Hobbit? Two Movies.


Good times for me? You betcha!!!

Blog widgets and stuff

I've added a lot of stuff to our blog lately: the chat room, the goodreads widget, and the widgets for lds.org and jesuschrist.lds.org. Of course, if you read this blog on our myspace page, you have no idea what I'm talking about. Just click here to discover the wonders.



Awhile ago I added the AdSense widget. I just wanted to see what kind of affect it would have. Supposedly if people click on it, we get money. That hasn't panned out yet. Thats why I moved it up to the top. Maybe if I leave it there long enough, in a couple of years I'll get a check in the mail. Please don't construe this paragraph as an effort to get you to click on it. I think thats breaking the rules, and I'd for sure never get money that way.



The other most fun thing I've added recently is the sitemeter tag. Sitemeter rocks! It basically tells me who has been to the site. I mean, it counts hits to the site, but I've already got a site reader, so that's no big deal. But, it actually tracks WHERE THE SITE HITS COME FROM. Its super fun to keep track of. Sometimes its totally random (Japan, Netherlands, really?). There are several that I know exactly who it is (I'm talking about YOU Salina, Kansas!). Some of them are super tricky. Like, locations that show up repeatedly, but I don't know of anyone who lives there (who ARE you Pocatello, ID?!). Anyways, I'm obsessed with checking it everyday. I thought everyone should know about it. I thought about trying to add it to our myspace page, but thats set to private so I already know who visits it anyway...

Some things are just cool to see.

So, check out this picture:


Apparently these two guys raised this baby lion from birth. They live in England (not that it matters). Of course, the lion grew up, and it when was grown up the authorities would not them keep him. So, they responsibly took him to Africa and released him in a wild life reserve. A year later, they went to visit their lion friend. There were told not to expect the lion to remember them, so they were just going to check him out.

(Head's up, there is no sound on the video. Your speakers aren't broken.)




I got this in an email from Camille (thanks for that!) and checked it out at hoax-slayer.com. This is what it said:
The story is true although the events described happened many years ago in the late 60's and early 70's. Two young men, Anthony Bourke and John Rendall bought the lion cub from the Harrods department store, London, in 1969. They called the cub Christian. Christian's parents were zoo lions, so he was born in captivity.


In that somewhat simpler age, people could apparently buy exotic animals from department stores as well as keep them in normal human habitats without council or government restrictions. For a year, Christian lived the high life at a furniture shop on the swinging King's Road in Chelsea. This urban cool cat cruised the streets in the back of a Bentley, attended lunches at a local restaurant and played football with his human companions in a nearby churchyard.


But, as Christian grew to adulthood, Anthony and John realized that his urban environment would not remain suitable for much longer. An article about Christian in the UK's Daily Mail notes:



He grew and grew - from 35lb when he first arrived to a rather more serious and imposing 185lb a year later - and he was beginning to acquire a mane that made him look more fearsome.



He clearly could not stay with his two young owners for ever.



His future was decided by a chance encounter - when the actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna walked into the shop to buy a pine desk.



They had recently starred in the film Born Free, which tells the true story of the wildlife conservationist George Adamson and his wife Joy, who raised a lion cub called Elsa in Kenya then rehabilitated it into the wild.



And they immediately suggested that Adamson might be able to help.



Certainly, the conservationist was intrigued by the challenge of introducing a King's Road lion to the wilds of Africa.


In 1970, Christian was taken to Africa and eventually released on the Kora Reserve in Kenya with two other lions, Boy and Katania. Boy later died, but Christian and Katania gradually adapted to life in the wild. In later years, Anthony Bourke and John Rendall re-visited Kora and were reunited with their feline companion. The Lion at World's End, a documentary film about Christian, was released in 1971 as a companion to the book "A Lion Called Christian" by Anthony Bourke and John Rendall. The film was also known as "Christian the Lion" and "The Lion That Thought He Was People". The movie clip that accompanies the email message is probably taken from this film.


According to the Daily Mail article, the men visited for the last time in 1974. Even though by that time Christian was living as a wild lion, he still recognized them and approached. The trio romped and played together for some time before Christian returned to his pride.



I'm gonna have to check out that documentary some day.

Time Out for Women

I attended Time Out for Women this week-end. Its a conference (for women, if you couldn't guess) sponsored by Deseret Book. (If you're not familiar, Deseret Book is a religious book store owned by - but not run by - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) It was so fantastic. It was just really the shot in the arm I've been needing lately. I didn't really know I need the shot in the arm until I got it.


The speakers we heard from were Sheri Dew (I mention her first because she's been one of my heroes for about 10 years), Wendy Watson Nelson, Chris Stewart, Douglas Brinley (I was also very excited about seeing him speak. I read this book just before I got married, and recommend it to all newly weds. Heck, I'd recommend it to any weds.), Jason Wright, Mary Ellen Edmunds, Merrilee Boyack. Music was presented by Hilary Weeks, Cherie Call, and Kenneth Cope (who has been one of my favorites for a loooong time!). I took a lot of video of the musical performances. I was gonna post one here, but as it turns out the sound quality isn't very good. I'm going to try and tweak it, and possibly post something later.


And I came home with this book by Sherie Dew and this CD by Kenneth Cope.


Anyway, like I said it was super fantastic and I'm so glad I attended. Sometimes its just nice to take a couple of days to leave life outside the door and focus on your beliefs and the kind of person you want to be. If Time Out for Women comes to my area, I'll definitely go again!

Not as much of a geek as I thought...

Found this on Sara's blog:

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: High Music Geekiness: High Internet Geekiness: Low Movie Geekiness: Low Fashion Geekiness: None Gamer Geekiness: None Geekiness in Love: None General Geekiness: None SciFi Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?

The Final Disney World Trip

Last week-end we went for our last trip to Disney World. We were able to get to most of our favorite rides and whatnot. The whole thing went by too fast though.

The highlight was eating in Germany again. The restaurant there was really one of our favorites out of all of the ones we ate at in Disney of the past year. The Crystal Palace came in a close second.

Another cool thing was seeing the lions on the Safari in Animal Kingdom. We've been on that Safari somewhere like 5 or 6 times and this is only the second time we've seen the lions. They sleep like 20 hours a day, so spotting them is actually pretty rare. I think the key is going on the ride earlier in the day. I'm excited we got to see them on our last go.

Our passes expired on Monday, so that will be our last Disney trip unless (or maybe until?) we can afford to get them again. Its the saddest thing ever.