Trainer!

Dave and I have decided to buy a trainer. No, not a personal one, but the kind you connect to your bike so you can ride your bike in your living room without going through the walls. I had no idea what they were called. All I knew was that my dad has one and I could picture it in my head. I knew they existed.

So, when I started looking for one I went to bike stores all over Salt Lake. As I had no idea what they were called (or really what they looked like; my dad made his himself so I doubt there are many in the world that look like his) I would walk in to the store and ask if they carried "those things you can connect your bike to that let you ride your bike in your house without going anywhere". And the very informed employee (there are many bike experts in Salt Lake City) would respond, "Oh, you mean a trainer?" The first time I heard the guy at the Sports Den on Foothill say that, I thought he said "trailer". I pictured those things you connect to your bike to put your kids in when you go on Sunday bike rides to the park. So I repeated my very uninformed description of what I was looking for, or some version of it. I'm sure he thought I was the coolest girl he had seen all day.

Sports Den guy and I finally got on the same page and that's when I learned the real name. It was also helpful when searching for them on Amazon.com... Anyway, it's not like we can fit many more equipment-type things in our apartment with all Dave's musical intruments (which I love, don't get me wrong) and my many decorative pillows (which I also love), but I'm excited to get one. It will make me look forward to working out.

Which brings me to another topic. I have kind of figured out what motivates me to exercise: new stuff. I can so see how my little brother and I are similar... Whenever I get a new exercise video, or new weights I am all about it. But once they start to feel old, I get bored with it and stop working out until I can get more new stuff and start again. I know, I'm really lame:-/...

Goal with our new trainer: ride my bike in our apartment in the morning before work like 3 to 5 times a week. Let's see if I can do it...

Dave and Hannah Learn to Cook, Part II

Marvelous Mac and Cheese! And some fried zucchini...
This time we attempted homemade macaroni and cheese. We thought it was a success; however, we did learn a few things about how to make it better. I'll explain later... I think my favorite part about this dish is that we used pepper jack cheese. It adds a nice kick:) Also, this makes great leftovers!

You'll need:
-One 17.6 ounce bag of macaroni noodles
-About 5 cups of grated cheese, any and as many kinds as you want. We used chedder, pepper jack, and gouda mmm.
-One garlic clove, roughly chopped
-One large zucchini, sliced
-1 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-1 T butter
-Salt and pepper to taste


Directions:
1. Cook the noodles, drain and cool. Heat frying pan with olive oil on medium heat. Turn oven to 325.
2. Fry garlic on pan for about 10 seconds. Cook zucchini, stirring occasionally.
3. Mix cheese and noodles in a large bowl. Place noodles in a glass baking pan. Sprinkle extra cheese on top.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes and when the cheese is melted, turn oven to broil for about 2 minutes or until cheese is brown on top.
5. Keep stirring zucchini on the stove. Salt and pepper to taste (add garlic salt if you want it more garlic-y). When zucchinis are to your liking (we like them a bit crunchy) stir in butter and turn heat to hi and cook and stir until butter is browned.
6. Serve and enjoy! Serves 4 to 6 people.


After talking to my friend Lori, I learned that she adds heavy cream and whole milk when she makes it. Not the healthiest, but it's probably best for the consistency and taste. Next time we'll try that. We're still learning...

There's still more to come. Dave found this awesome-looking dessert recipe that includes caramelized pineapples and coconut sorbet:):) Mmm! I think we will try to make it when my parents come to visit here soon. I'll keep ya updated!

Dave and Hannah Learn to Cook, Part I

Totally Awesome Taco Salad.
We get some pretty toasty Summers here in Salt Lake City; the past couple of days have reached 100 degrees. The heat makes it hard sometimes to plan and cook a good hot meal. Especially when your tiny AC unit is well, tiny, and while set to HI, doesn't cool off further than three feet in front of it. Although this recipe requires a bit of stove cooking, you're in and out of the kitchen so fast that's it's hardly a bother.

The Totally Awesome Taco Salad is totally awesome for a number of reasons. First, it's cheap. Dave and I didn't have to buy anything to make this, we already had all the ingredients at home. But if you do have to go out and purchase certain items, it will not break the bank. We even got free bananas for buying the lettuce a few days ago:) Secondly, it's very healthy. It's packed with protein and fiber, it's light but it fills you up. Since there's no creamy dressing, there aren't any extra calories loaded on. Lastly, it's oh so tasty and perfect for Summer!

You'll need:
About a tbl of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 can of black beans
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
About 2 tbls chopped onions
About 2 tbls of taco seasoning, more if you want a richer flavor
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheese. You can use whatever cheese you want, these are just the two we had in our fridge. a Mexican cheese blend is good too.
1 bag of romaine lettuce
8 large tortilla chips
Salsa
Serves two with some left over :-)

Step 1. Heat black beans in a sauce pan on medium heat, stirring occasionally. When they reach boiling, turn heat down to low.
Step 2. While you have a frying pan, with olive oil, heating up on medium heat cut chicken into strips. I cut mine pretty thin and we thought it was conducive to eating it with salad but you can make yours as large or small as you want.
Step 3. Chop onions.
Step 4. Cook chicken, with onions, on frying pan. When chicken is cooked all the way sprinkle taco seasoning and water and stir. When the water has boiled turn heat down to low.
Step 5. While chicken is cooking shred cheese and distribute lettuce into two salad bowls.
Step 6. Serve. Pour black beans over lettuce followed by the chicken, cheese, salsa, and top it off with crumbled tortilla chips. The black beans and taco seasoning left in the pan act as a healthy dressing for the salad.

Do this all while watching game shows on Spanish Language TV. And then finish it with a game of Boggle (while you're digesting) and a bike ride to 7-11 to pick up dessert. Perfect summer evening...

More wedding parties: SLC wedding reception:-)

The day started out gloomy and thundery but it cleared up:)

Little Theo Hoover:)

Some of the draw night-ers

Isn't it funny when you have giant rubber ants on your head??!

Baby Ronan. He was so happy looking over at his mama:-)

Dave tried to take a picture of me and I rolled my eyes at him...

Geoff and Emily Shupe. Cute couple:)

So much good food!!

Adam and Lisa. We've known them for over five years. They're great:)

My mother-in-law surprised me with a wedding cake:) I'm so lucky, I got TWO wedding cakes!

Saturday.

So it's Saturday morning and I am sitting here at work listening to my iPod through my work headset. I work a ten hour shift today, bleh. But I brought a lot of things to do to keep me occupied between calls. And I'm drinking tea out of this really cool mug Dave and I got from some good friends. It's super fun and fancy and it tastes better than drinking out of those Styrofoam cups they have in the break room. Plus, I'm saving the environment, right?...

I brought with me today the remaining thank you cards for the wedding gifts. I have to say, my handwriting is getting very nice:-) Haha. I also brought a ton of makeup. If I get bored later I can always be really vain and look at myself in the mirror and apply all the makeup I want. And then take it off and do it again. I think it's kind of tacky to do makeup at work but I have to admit, I've sacrificed my classiness before and done my makeup at work anyway. And it's Saturday. Whatever that means:/ I also have my book to read, Anne of Green Gables. It's one of my favorites. I was going to read To Kill A Mockingbird again but then I saw this lying so delicately on the shelf that I just had to pick it up and read it again.

I'm also looking forward to the left over spaghetti I have! With homemade meat sauce and garlic bread! Thanks to my mom for the recipes:) I'm every excited about lunch time. I have oatmeal and peanuts in my locker, too, and there's always the vending machine down the hall for the occasional Snickers Bar yum...

Working today is not so bad; I have things to look forward to when I get off:) I get to go to Cafe Niche and see Dave play. And, after that we are going to a house warming party for some friends of ours. They just bought a house right by us so maybe we will ride our bikes over there! :) Lastly, being 7-11-09, it's free Slurpee day! You can't go wrong with free Slurpee day:)

Some wedding photos by Briana Marie Photography. More to come still...

http://brianamariephotography.wordpress.com
That's all for now...

Annual Sugarhouse Arts Festival, July 4th 2009.

Dave and I went to the Sugarhouse Arts Festival which takes place every year on the 4th of July. It's fun, all sorts of things go on there. People bring their dogs, their babies, their bikes. Artists display their art. There is good food:) There is even pole dancing!
Me and Dave<3
There were so many dogs there, it was so fun:) Some people had like four dogs on leashes. I think I want a dog like this some day. I love big dogs. I would want to name it Horse maybe:)
Isn't he cute!!

This Is Dave and his mom at the Festival :-) Later we went to their house and had BBQ brats for lunch. Yum! Such a great 4th of July!

SYTYCD audition.

I am so sore from taking a ballet class on Saturday. I kind of like being sore, though. It makes me feel like I worked it, ya know? I have a lot of my dad in me... I am going to be auditioning for the competition reality show So You Think You Can Dance on July 24th (pray for me!) so I have to get back in shape:-/ For those of you who may not be familiar with the show, it is one of the best ones on TV right now. It's inspiring and entertaining. It's really a quality show. You should check it out.

I have a bachelors degree in ballet but I haven't been consistently dancing since I graduated. I was burnt out and turned off by the whole "ballet scene" so I decided to take a break. I guess it would be easy for me to regret that now, but that was then and then I wasn't feeling it. If I had forced myself I would have ruined it for me for the future. Now I am "feeling it" and I'm slowly starting to work my way back into the big scary world of dance. We'll see what happens...

I've been taking classes here and there with Ballet West and it's been a lot of fun. Ballet is beginning to be enjoyable for me again. And I'm excited about not only ballet but different kinds of dance, too. I almost forgot I have a talent for dance! :-) Every time I watch So You Think You Can Dance I get a little bit jealous that they get to do what they do. They get to work with the best choreographers, costume designers, etc. That would be a blast!

So, I'm not expecting much to happen at the audition. Like I said, it's not for another month but I will post pictures for sure and write about how everything went. Wish me luck!

Battlestar Galactica shout out.

When Dave and I first met he was very sneaky in the way he obtained my digits. For any young men who happen to be reading this and are searching for a smooth way to "pick up" a girl, take note...

We were sitting on the couch watching Batman Begins in a house full of people. Dave kept making fun of my feet saying they were dancer feet. As I was (and still am) self-conscious about that area of my body, I didn't get that he was trying to flirt. I was too caught up in trying to hide them from him. (Young men, don't make fun of her feet).

Then he grabbed my cell phone which was sitting on the coffee table. "Cool phone. Can I look at it?" I said, "sure". I thought it was weird, though, that he would want to look at my phone; it was not a cool phone. He gave it back to me a few minutes later. A few seconds after that he gets a text message. "Oh look! I got a text message from you just now! It says, 'Battlestar Galactica is awesome!' Cool, so you like Battlestar, too?" "Haha. No, not really". Truth is, I thought that show was lame. And I questioned his coolness for liking it. But he now had my phone number, and I had his so I guess he was the cool one after all. Ha ha.

But really what I wanted to say is that I like Battlestar Galactica now. Like, a lot. I'm totally invested. Dave tried to get me to watch it for over two years, I was dead set on not. It was dumb of me really. I finally gave in and started watching it about two months ago.

It's such a smart show. I had no idea. There are a few things that get annoying, though. For example, their swear word is "frack". And all papers that appear on the set have the corners cut off of them, making octagons. I guess the people who work on the set say that that's one of their biggest design regrets:/ Anyway, it's a great show and I can't wait to go home tonight and watch it with Dave:) I'm glad I let him convince me to be a nerd with him. For the rest of our lives...

If you weren't there, you should have been.

Wow! What a magical show last night! Dave played at the Utah Arts Festival with his six-piece jazz band called John Henry. They're great! They have played several times around Salt Lake City but this was probably the best show yet. :-)

The weather was so cool yesterday. It is an unfortunate comparison to make, but the sky looked CG. The whole day felt like a Tim Burton movie; it was so dark and gloomy. At any moment someone in a period costume could jump out and start singing some boring sing/talk song. I was Helena Bonham Carter and the world was my drab playground. A storm was on its way. I went straight from work to the Arts Festival and it was still gloomy but super hot outside. I think most people were optimistic about the weather so they showed up in summer attire. I was excited to hear John Henry play, as always, and I was expecting a great show.

About a third of the way through their set it started to rain. And then thunder. And then flashes of lightning. And then the rain started to come down in buckets! We were all huddled under a tent with a saggy roof. As soon as one side filled up with water the wind would come and dump it down on the poor person standing there and then refill and do it all over again. It didn't take long for people to learn they had to stay away from the sides. Pretty soon the tent was overflowing with people wearing shorts and tank tops and carrying broken umbrellas. But everybody was loving the music. We were all clapping and yelling. It was like a mix between a pub party in Irland and a jazz show on the New Jersey boardwalk in the early 1900's. Like I said, it was magical.

The music kept playing and people kept smiling. The sound guy announced they had to shut down temporarily. Derek, the piano player, had to unplug his Rhodes:-( He's amazing so it was a bummer. But other then that, the rest of the show went on accoustically. And Derek even played his accordian! Yes! I was so mad the I didn't bring my camera. There would have been some great shots.

So, sadly the show ended. The guys all played perfectly. I am constantly impressed with their talents. I am so lucky to be married to Dave and get to hear him and the others play their instruments so frequently:-)

I left to walk to my car right when the rain started letting up. When I was feeling angry with myself again for not bringing my camera, I looked up and saw not only one but two huge rainbows! :-) It was beautiful! Everything that evening was beautiful. What a great start to our summer in Salt Lake.

My next sort of big decision.

I'm thinking about cutting myself some bangs. I am getting tired of my hair so I think I will try something new; it just feels flat and boring. I have done this before, though, and I will only want to grow my bangs back out two days later. I can never make up my mind. The grassy fields are always greener in magazines and on TV.

Have you ever seen something in the media -- like an outfit, or jewelry, or a hairstyle -- and thought to yourself, "Mmm, I think I can pull that off..." and tried it out and it just felt awkward? It feels like wearing runway clothing on the street. You get this great inspiration and decide you're going to go for it but it doesn't turn out the way you thought it would. I'm a little afraid of that. But hair always grows back, right?

I'm also thinking about cutting my hair super duper short. A change I would have to get used to. I haven't had my hair short since I was eight. I have wanted to do that for a long time but I always had to keep it long for ballet and plus, I just haven't had the guts. I still don't have the guts I guess; I am hesitant to chop my locks now that I'm married. Isn't that the stereotype, women cut their hair short as soon as they get married and when they have babies? Not that we are planning a baby any time soon.

We'll see. I could change my mind about my hair again tomorrow. If I do decide to snip, it will most likely be an I-did-it-myself job. I'll work my way up to the trendy action you get in a real live salon. I promise to post pictures if anything goes down.

Some honeymoon photos

This is at The Plantaion House. It's a beautiful restaurant with awesome food. Our friends Lauren and Matt gave us a gift certificate for a wedding present:)


This is in Lahaina. It's much prettier in real life!


This was in Yountville the day we left for Maui. We walked around downtown and wondered into this fur shop... This hat was on sale for $600! Steal!


Bubba Gump Shrimp in Lahaina :-)


Whalers Village restaurant called Leilani's. We went out to eat a lot:-)



This is the view from our room. The perfect amount of pool and beach...