Kevin

What? That's not an actual photograph of me?

My favorite part of that picture is the implication that my ears and nose are made out of hair. It prety much rocks. I wish I could get that on my driver's license or ward website.

While Alison's description is pretty accurate, I can't attribute the -stache to any of those things (motorcycles, Mountain Dew, etc...) I will say, however, that the men below probably had an influence on my current facial hair format.

I know that no Guns or Roses have moustaches. You see, I was having a tortured internal debate about whether I should be Axl Rose or Slash for Halloween. I thought that maybe watching Guns N'Roses videos on YouTube would help me to decide; but, alas, my decision became even more difficult to make. I realized that I was in over my head and reacted as any rational person would: I shaved my two weeks of full beard into some handlebars.

All of my years watching comedy films have convinced me that not only is my moustache stylish, but it's also a great career move. I could easily become an orderly, a wrestler or a race car driver. If nothing else, my current job is now more extreme.

Anyway, I decided to name my moustache "Kevin" in honor of Kevin Federline. The Britney Spears saga has been awesome. She's an unintentional reality TV show. I can't wait to see what will happen next. I'm hoping that maybe she can team up with fellow fallen-from-grace redneck Tonya Harding for some hijinks. My favorite moment in the past few months, though, was when K-Fed reportedly showed up to court wearing an eye patch. I like the statement. Losing an eye (or getting pink-eye in K-Fed's case) wouldn't be that bad if you got to wear an eye patch around. It turned me into a big fan. That's why my moustache is named Kevin.

Handlebar Mustache

Brandon had to leave for work earlier than I did last Saturday. I heard him bustling about the bathroom, giving himself his routine haircut and shave. He hadn't shaved for about two weeks, which I don't mind. I think he looks cute with scruff. Anyways, when Brandon was finally ready to leave, he came in our dark room to give me a kiss goodbye. As I opened my eyes, I saw something different...wait...is that a HANDLEBAR MUSTACHE??

Indeed it was. I didn't get a good view of it, however, since I didn't fully recognize the atrocity until he was already out the door.

And sure enough, I get home Saturday night to see the mustache in its fullest. While mustaches scream 'Eek! Child Molester!', this one just grates your eyeballs and makes you mumble under your breath: 'I bet that guy loves his motorbike, Mountain Dew, hockey, and shotguns.' No offense to those that simultaneously love motorbikes, Mountain Dew, hockey, and shotguns, I just don't relate and don't really care to. I asked him if it was part of some Halloween costume and he unfortunately said no. Someone at church asked him about it and I think his answer was something along the lines of, "I don't know, it just happened." Ha, ha.

I haven't yet had a chance to take a picture of it yet, but this image is strikingly close.

FYI everyone: I do freelance art. Microsoft paint is my medium of choice. As you can tell, I'm especially talented.

Back to the mustache: He can keep it as long as he wants. He cleans the microwave and lets me put my cold feet between his legs. Not to mention the fact that I just genuinely want to spend all my time with him. I might just poke fun at the handlebar mustache every now and then. Come to think of it, that'll probably just feed his joke even more. ;)

Monday Monday and No Rockies Tickets

Mondays are always long days. We always get up fairly early to get a head start on studying. Brandon usually spends the morning studying for a test that he has later in the day and I usually spend it getting caught up on reading.

I usually get to school around 11, do work study for four hours, then have six straight hours of class and get home around 9:20. Its a long one. Luckily though, I have my two favorite classes on Mondays--Mental Health Assessments of Adults and Trauma and Recovery. I think all my classmates think I am the biggest geek because sometimes I cannot shut up. I am a commenter. Luckily (part ii), Brandon and I don't have class together. He as a non commenter and generally thinks that the less comments the better because it increases the chance that a.) class will end early and b.) he won't have to hear someone say something stupid. My philosophy is: I'm paying for this + I'm interested in this + these are pretty serious issues x I'm actually a big academic nerd=You better believe I'm going to get a lot out of this class.

This morning was a nice exception. I just really didn't feel like getting up early, so I slept in and even convinced Brandon to sleep in too. Around 9:15 I made waffles with our new waffle iron that we got for our wedding. It was a nice morning

At ten o'clock we desperately tried to buy tickets for the baseball world championship finals. You can tell how much I know about baseball because I don't even know the right name. I do know, however, that the Rockies and the Red Sox are going and it is a pretty big deal.


Unfortunately, ticket sales didn't even begin until 10--meaning that we were trying to buy tickets along with the ENTIRE UNIVERSE at the EXACT SAME TIME. As a result, we kept getting 'problem loading page' messages and are empty handed. Sorry husband, we tried! Maybe you can mug this guy and get in and see the games. No one will ever know!

A Weekend Away

Sometimes you need some good friends to get you out of your routine...
Our excellent friends, Kersten and Tai, decided to vacation in Vail, Colorado last week. I'm sure that one of the reasons they decided on Vail was because they knew they had a better likelihood of having us join them there than in say, well, anywhere farther than two hours away from Denver. That's the unfortunate truth. With both of us in grad school, our time and cash is fairly strapped meaning that our idea of fun is usually a nice hand-in-hand stroll around the neighborhood or ordering Papa Murphy's and watching Scrubs on DVD. Don't get me wrong, those times together are a precious few and ones I wouldn't trade, but getting out and doing something different is always fun. Especially when mountains, good friends, amazing food, and cozy hotel rooms are involved.

So thank you dear friends for making the effort to see us and helping us have a fantastic time up in the mountains. And Rachel--Thanks for joining us Saturday night! It made everything even better.

I knew the trip was going to be fun when a.) we got a screaming deal on a cushy Marriott hotel room via Priceline.com and b.) I went to the store to purchase snacks before the trip and ended up with chips, oreos, gummi bears, and snickers. Brandon and I have been watching our diet lately so I had fun splurging, obviously. We didn't get a chance to actually eat much of it at all, so now all that junk is taunting us. "Eat us and get fat" it says. "It will taste so good and make you avoid vegetables!" So so tempting. I succumb every now and then but Brandon is remaining strong. The oreos are just too good.

Colorado is truly a beautiful place. While Utah's mountains are more accessible, Colorado's are bigger and more striking. And the fall season combined with staying in a small town nestled in a ravine made the grandeur more apparent.
When we drove home on Sunday afternoon, we were well aware that winter is literally a hop skip and a jump away. Perhaps even closer than that. A snow storm had come during the night, making the roads slushy and the trees covered with white fluff. While I might complain about the snow and the hassle, there is no denying how beautiful winter in the mountains can be. Bring it on, I suppose!

It Felt Like Moving

As many of you know, the building we live in was recently sprayed for bed bugs. Luckily, we have not had a problem but we had to take precautions just the same. We pretty much had to pack up everything and put it on the balcony. This is what it looked like:
This is how Brandon felt about it:

Kilt Update

My eyes have been opened.

I was discussing the man in the kilt from my previous post with my brother Jake and he casually suggested that the man may have been wearing a "work kilt". Apparently there is a kilt revolution afoot. I did some investigations and found the Utilikilt website.

This website is tremendous for several reasons. First of all, it exudes masculinity. The manliness of the site demolishes the "kilts are just skirts, which are for females only" argument. Second, under the "Utiliclan" tab there is a lengthy list of convincing reasons to wear a kilt. Third, the photo gallery is hilarious. Fourth, they sell a track-style kilt (right) that cracked me up. It's the kilt equivalent of gym shorts. Imagine playing basketball in one of these and also being a "skin". That's about as free as you can get. Fifth, they have work kilts that are basically their own tool belt. This makes me think of when I work for my uncle and need to carry around tools and also stand on a ladder. Awesome.

I'm now a closet kilt fan. Some may say that the admission that you're in the closet over an issue is tantamount to coming out of that same closet. This argument doesn't apply to me.

I think the kilt revolution should join forces with the bow tie revolution. It could be synergistic. Imagine wearing a kilt and a bow tie to church or work. That would be hard-core.

The Highlander

The fall scenery in the mountains was even more beautiful than Alison wrote. One of the first people we saw when we got out of the car was this dude:

That's right, it's a dude. That's a leathern kilt, not a skirt, that he girded about his loins for his autumn adventure. I also believe that he's wearing some scissors in that sheath and some really high-laced work boots. I didn't have the opportunity to talk to him, so I don't know the status of his comic book collection. I have been having a good laugh at this dude for several weeks now. Don't feel too bad for him though, because he does appear literate and he was escorted by a person of the female persuasion.

I also want to share the news about the chupacabra. According to these folks, the chupacabra is really a mutated dog. Maybe the sasquatch is just a mutated dude. DNA tests on the chupacabra corpse are pending.

Fall Leaves and Our Lives in Brief

Happy Fall everyone! Denver has just about the perfect weather right now. It has been getting up into the high seventies during the day and then the low forties at night. Just cool enough to put on a sweater and snuggle at bit closer.

These pictures are from a recent Sunday drive up into the mountains to a place only an hour away from home called Kenosha Pass. As you can see, we timed it just perfectly and the leaves were gorgeous. Couldn't have been a better afternoon. I love that picture above this paragraph...we finally figured out how to work the self-timer on my camera. The picture is a little crooked, though. Turns out that car roofs aren't flat.

Look at those dimples!

We had a limited amount of time to walk around but it was worth it. The air was crisp and cool and everywhere you looked was just a burst of color.

Hope everyone is doing well. Since neither one of us have too much time to write these days...here's a run down of the top five events occurring/have occurred in our neck of the woods:

1.) Our condo is being sprayed for bed bugs tomorrow. Supposedly our building has had a terrible infestation that has spared us. That is a huge, blessing, by the way. Tonight, however, we'll be spending a couple of hours tearing our place apart to get ready. We have to put ALL of our clothes, bedding, books, and anything else that is on the floor out on our balcony. Yuck. We did find one poopy bed bug though ON MY PILLOW the other night, though. I suppose this mess might just be worth it.

2.) The Colorado Rockies made it to the baseball world championship (my special name for the event). Like we've mentioned before, we don't have cable and all the games are on TBS. But now, Brandon has discovered the joys of watching TV on the Internet.

3.) We have started watching Scrubs season 2 on DVD. It is such a good 22 minute break from homework and daily life stress. We recommend it. One of our favorite lines from that show is, "Sometimes I cry at night because I don't know if there is a kitty heaven." Just awesome. Jeff Williams, if you are reading, thanks for the introduction to that show.

4.)General Conference is this weekend! Brandon and I both took Saturday off so we can watch it (on the Internet) together. We are going up to his parents house on Sunday to actually watch it on TV. It should be a great.

5.)Brandon brought home some chocolate covered cinnamon bears the other day. How did he know I loved them so? They were even the yummy ones you can by in bulk from Sunflower market. We have been eating just a few each night after dinner to soothe our sweet tooth(s).

That isn't very exciting, I know. But we are happy and doing well. Enjoying fall and each other. What more can you ask for?