The Mormon View

Check this out. This article, written by a witty LDS reporter for Vanity Fair, The Mormon View, is a "great overview of what Mormon’s believe, Reader’s Digest Style. If you are ever asked as a member of the church for tips on polygamy or how we Mormon gals get our bangs to puff so high, (I think this photo speaks for itself) this is the post for you. " I loved it, especially since Mormons aren't really known for their sense of humor generally, kind of like CPAs. Don't even get me started on Mormon CPAs.

In other good news--Mike and I will be moving--about a quarter mile away to our old south campus neighborhood. We are going to manage a small female apartment complex (saying female like that makes it sound like a monkey exhibit...but oh well) starting in a few weeks.

Also--Mike got into the Business/Finance undegraduate program. It is very competitive and he starts this spring and should graduate next April. Bring it on capital budgeting, tempt me income statements, and blow me away cashflow analyses!

The other piece of resounding good news, tied together with the previous two, is that we are going home to Coeur d'Alene this summer! Yahoo for Idaho (the pretty part). We, hopefully, will spend about six weeks at home, working, playing, interning, sunning, swimming, family bond-ing, etc. It will be great to have my little brother home and to spend such quality time the family, maybe one of the last times we will have the chance. Topping the summer off as a bridesmaid for one of my best friend's weddings, I think summer 2008 will be fabulous.

Church Dates

I like reading Slate, especially the health section, which always has a nice roundup of health and science news from around the world (the kind of stuff from Universities and journals that I used to write and research). Although the articles are predictably slanted toward those who will either be voting for Hillary or Obama this November--it is a bit difficult to inject bias in a science article, not impossible, just more difficult.

I found this release interesting. It tells of a meta-study about how church attendance is the one significant variable in a group of churchy/spiritual variables that correlates with low infidelity among couples.

Shocker--going to church together as a couple (any church mind you, this isn't a BYU study or something) makes people not want to cheat on each other? Who knew?

I guess the sad part of it is that the other variables, which included a belief in God, prayer, etc., didn't correlate. I guess this could be fodder for the "faith without works is dead," lesson. It is great if you have a relationship with God and do tai-chi on the deck or feel in touch with the universe or whatever, but when push comes to shove, if you aren't making that trek to church with your spouse, your marriage isn't as protected as it could be.

Good news, I guess, for those who make it a priority to attend regularly, despite being distracted by a mass of children in a young family ward--children who pull on curtains, run laps around the pews, and eat enough snacks to rival a group of teenage boys playing Halo.

So, yeah for church dates. (like this one below...our Easter Sunday church date)

A visit from the take home chef

Fact: Kitchens have killed more people than the Iraq war.... Okay, maybe I exaggerate. We did however experience the destructive power of our broiler as Brittany graciously made cookies for her visiting teachees the other day. We were made an example of by every women's fantasy, Curtis Stone A.K.A. the take home cheff, as he pointed out the great dangers of the broiler...

Why I might be able to vote for McCain

I have to admit, I haven't been that jazzed about the Republican nominee so far. I'm not that impressed with his work experience (non-existent), his personal life (a divorce and a youthful daliance with a stripper), and his age (the man is at death's door...no offense to my spry grandparents who are also in their 70s, but also choose to stick to golf and tennis and not Iraq-Iran foreign policy.

However, I was pleasantly suprised by the tough stance he has taken on the-sub prime mortgage crisis, advising the Dems to calm down about throwing money to people who have proven their inability to make wise fiscal decisions when overcome by large dollar signs. I don't want to sound harsh on people who are probably feeling a big sting right now, they might be losing their jobs, their companies or their homes, but the government surely didn't make this problem (that is right--you can't blame the "man" for everything) and I am not so sure the government needs to fix it by throwing money at it.

As McCain summed up, “Some Americans bought homes they couldn’t afford, betting that rising prices would make it easier to refinance later at more affordable rates,” he said. Later he added that “any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren’t.”

The lenders definitely have some blame, they bought and sold those mortgages without thinking that maybe, just maybe something SUB-prime, might be a bargain deal because it has a unreliable cash flow and just maybe, won't actually materialize into any form of currency. Poo on you for speculating on mortgages taken out under risky terms and inflated values.

But poo on homeowners who buy big-A houses that they can't afford, trying to refinance or even take out the entire loan their bank is willing to offer them. It isn't a bank's job to decide what you can and can't afford really, who is the one in debt? Who is the one who needs to pay attention because they have a $500,000 or $800,000 cloud following them around and have no one to blame but themselves? Yeah, real estate values have risen astronomically in California, in Florida, in tons of hot pockets all over the country--but you didn't think it would always be that way, surely?

Did anyone take an economics class ever? Really people! Everything is in cycles, use caution and moderation. You don't buy the biggest McMansion the bank is willing to give you if you can't afford it under normal market conditions. How could you make the biggest spending decision of your life, gambling that the market would catch up to you time to make your payments?

So, that is my rant about this. It is unfortunate that it will have ripple effects on the rest of the economy. Whether we will go into recession, I am not so doomsday as finanical reporters with beats due and nothing else to write about-- I think we will be fine overall. And look, there is always a silver lining to cycles, crazy house prices will start to come down, because shock, the market isn't willing to pay $999,999 for a 2 bedroom, one bath 1,300 s. ft house in Socal...it just won't. So, some people will be able to buy houses now that haven't been able to in the past few years. I can only hope that prices level out long enough for the boy and me to afford a house someday!

Get Yer' Boots On!

Rubgy is an interesting sport. It makes appearances in Irish romantic comedies like Circle of Friends and in New Zealand begins with a ancient and terrifying Maori war dance known as the Haka. It is rumored to be manlier than football since there are no pads, yet the men wear shirts with a collar and lift each other up in defiance of gravity and sensibility.

Simply put--the sport is popular anywhere the British managed to conquer, which if you recall from your world history class--is a lot of places. Although they don't really get into it in India, which kind of makes sense --I don't really see vegetarians and scrums going together like naan and curry.

My husband is a rugby player. If you know anything about a rugby uniform, you can appreciate how menacing a six-and-a-half-foot male in booty-shorts can look when approaching you on the pitch. Maybe something like this.

Of course, he doesn't even wear the grey spandex anymore under his shorts, so the effect is even more pronounced. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my man has thighs. However, his size is scary enough that some Utah sports writers included him in their sizeup to the game.

Now, there are all kinds of legitimate positions and elements of rugby that sound very dirty. At least they do to me. If "hooker", "scrum", "flanker","ruck", "maul", and "tap," don't sound like something out of a Spitzer phone conversation rather than a collegiate sport, you tell me.

All of it certainly puts confused looks on the poor freshman girls who flock to the friday night games, swaddled in their blankets because their oufits for the event are neither blue, white or warm. Classic.

Congrats to the BYU team for whalloping the Utes on Saturday. I hope my boy's ankle is better so he can get in the action sooner rather than later. Go Cougs.

How can he hold a ring if he's only made of feathers?

Ok. I apologize for using such an obscure LOTR quote that only a handful of people on the planet will recognize it. Most of them probably single, lonely creatures who like D&D, Risk, fight about Macs vs. PCs, have never even seen a chicken, and yet have watched the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies--with the commentary on.

But check this hobbit-hole out! This crazy family in Wales built it from the woods, literally and apparently are going to start an eco-commune with a bunch of folks next year. Sounds like Lost meets Swiss Family Robison, but I would oggle it, sure. Just had to share. I swear I can almost see Frodo sticking his head out to go the Green Dragon. Awesome.

The Hottest Snow Bunny Around

Normally, people don't look sexy skiing/snowboarding. They just don't.

Clothing is by nature of the sport large, puffy, cumbersome, with solid colors and enough overlapping layers to make even the most attractive and athletic people look like farily androygnous snow-beasts.


I love when I am on the moutain skiing or boarding, but hot I am not.

But, that being said, my husband surpised me last night with a completely new snowboard package--board, boots and bindings. He said it was "getting into law school present.
And I will glady take that. And yet, while I am still reconciling myself to the fact that all the pieces don't really match, especially not when the variable of snow clothes are thrown in, my stuff it hot. Especially my bindings. You can't get hotter bindings than this. Behold.


That's right. That is some faux snake skin, gold-looking aluminun plated goodness in a EVA plated binding straight from a Vegas nightclub. I love it!

I am so excited for this pacakge to get here (please UPS man don't get caught in the frustrating "can't deliver because you are in a shoebox newlywed apartment and you aren't home so we will punish your lack of a house and general adulthood by making you come and pick this up between the hours of 9-5, since we just proved you are so available then!"). One can hope. I don't know how this stuff would feasibly fit into our actual shoe-box size mail locker, but maybe I can hope for a HP miracle.

The bindings are only matched in ghetto-fabulous by yes...my boots with the fur...if only apple bottom jeans were waterproof...then I too could be the subject of a hip-hop song and set the women's movement back 50 years.

Awesome! Now, if only I can get my rugby-slave husband to go boarding with me, we can break these suckers in!

Other than that, I have had a fun time breaking into the blogosphere reading about moms with really great taste, Design Mom, Heather Bailey, MMW, other moms who are going to law school, just plain old law school students, and just about anything in between that keeps me occupied at work.

No--I am not a mom yet or even pregnant (please, don't go and say anything to my mother, it is just mean to taunt a poor woman with a beautiful canary nursery with a picturesque Land of Nod crib and no grandchildren to speak of yet), but I like reading about these women, because this is who I want to be in the next few years of my life.

The sun is out and yes, while I only know that by craning my neck outside of my cubicle to see the view from the real person, (e.g. attorney)'s office, it makes me happy. Welcome spring, please sit down and stay, especially with a few amazing spring skiing days thrown in for good measure.