Traffic for 2004 July

Well, I saw Spiderman 2 with my nephews on Friday night. It was kinda slow and predictable in parts, but I will say the subway scene was pretty cool. And the ending rather surprised me. Boy did they set this movie up for another one. I guess overall I would give it 3 1/2 stars (for good acting and mostly a good plot).

It was nice getting Friday and tomorrow off, but even nicer to finally have my first paid holidays ever. Working in my department at BYU, there are a lot of staff. It's frustrating because I do more work than most of them but get none of the perks (paid holidays, etc) so it's been excited to finally enter that level and leave the shackles of student employee behind me for the summer.

For now we are just chilling at mom's. Tomorrow I have to take Susie back to LAX to go home. I already bought my ticket to fly up for our anniversary. I'm glad she was able to fly down, as I am not ready to get on a plane again for a few more weeks.

Every night I go running I see these rabbits. I can't help but think they are wild, but then am so surprised that they stick around as man slowly but surely enters their habitat. Last night I had a roadrunner keep pace with me for a good mile. I figured he couldn't possibly fly because he just kept running ahead of me. Finally he did take off a little bit to get ahead of me, but only flew about five feet. I kept waiting for a coyote to show up with some Acme TNT, but to no avail.

I, like Allison, also swam one mile last night. It took me 35 minutes, so I must be really weak. But I was the only one in the pool, which was nice.

The mall scene has been good to me here. Nordstroms, unfortunately, is way overpriced, meaning that once we move here I'll only be able to afford to shop there on Utah excursions. Banana Republic, however, was a pleasant surprise. They actually do put "wearable" stuff on sale down here. I was impressed.

I'm ready to play with Tyler again. I hope they get back early on Saturday!

I went to the beach on Saturday. It was a little lonely, but nonetheless relaxing listening to the waves and read with a nice ocean breeze. I got toasted on my shoulders, but nowhere else. They must really be sun adverse.

I got put in the Nursery for the duration of my California time. They have 54 nursery kids in the Ladera ward, so they have four nurseries. I am in the youngest one (so as not to be with Tyler and have him traumatized when I leave in a month). We had an 18-month old there for the first time who cried the whole time except when she had fun wiping grape juice all over my pants. Then another boy got his fingers stuck in the door, and cried for a good half hour. Another boy got his head stepped on and cried and blubbered all over me. Not having any babies in the family at present, I forget how much they drool at that age. Needless to say, I am cured of having kids until 2007 again (sorry honey)!

This week the older boys are going to sports camp all day, and Justin hates it. He was in my room hiding when I can home from running this morning. I assured him that by the time he is 17, he can kiss organized sports good-bye forever, as I have done. I forget sometimes, but it really is tough being a kid having these fears and such. Well, back to Form 3115 and FAS 109.

Nursery went better today. It was only Ruby's second week so I took her to the see dad after an hour. That is long enough to have a child screaming in your ear. And Chris suddenly started crying for no reason. But the other Chris, my favorite, was good the whole time. I talked to the other male leader who loves nursery because it is the only time he sees his son all week. He's a lawyer still putting in his dues, and so is never home.

I can't believe I turn 24 on Thursday. Next year will be the big one, though, and that will be wierd. Thursday I have to go to LA for a tax intern dinner and then to Hollywood to a comedy club, so it's going to be one long day. Last week they took us to an Angels game and that was fun, because it was closer and we beat Boston 8-1.

I have found a reality show I actually like. It's the amazing race, and is on Tuesday nights. It's a pretty cool show, though the first three episodes have kept them in South America. I thought they would do farther away and stuff. But anyway, next week they go to Russia so that should be interesting. I think it would be fun to go on the trip, and not just for the $1M prize money.

I never watched the show, but that area of town isn't so hot. The comedy club we went to there last night was called Groundlings. Apparently a lot of stars got their break there. It was improv and was mostly pretty funny.

For dinner I was torn between steak and salmon. But I went with the salmon because I never get that kind of stuff with Susie (except last Pioneer Day)! I had them substitute my fried polenta for mashed potatoes because I didn't know what polenta was. When the recruiter next to me got her salmon with polenta, I knew I'd made a wise choice. It looked like tofu (even though it's corn meal) and she said it tasted too squishy. For dessert I got berries with creme. It was really good, but sad too, because the raspberries were missing. I for one find it false advertising to offer berries with creme and not include a handful of raspberries. What a travesty. I guess it was a good birthday (even though I was so busy I mostly forgot).