i know. i'm blushing.

a word on making food delicious

kelly — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:35:45 +0000

If you can feasibly wrap it up in a tortilla, you definitely should. Everything is better when eaten like a burrito.

hummingbirds in winter

kelly — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:07:54 +0000

When I’m old, I’m going to sit in an orange floral armchair in my room at the nursing home, staring out my window at my hummingbird feeding all day long. It’s practically what I do now anyway, minus the orange floral armchair. I’ve become mildly obsessed.

Something I like about Washington is having hummingbirds come to my feeder year round. I took these today while it was snowing.

In the meantime, my hummingbird obsession has rubbed off onto Bryant in a weird way: he’s been sitting here googling the world’s smallest creatures for the past 30 minutes and reporting all his findings to me. It started with the world’s smallest hummingbird, and has since escalated to the smallest bat, the smallest mammal (which happens to be the same bat), the smallest vertebrate (which is a frog), the smallest primate (a lemur), the smallest crocodile (4 feet), the smallest snake (3.8 inches), etc etc. Now he’s reading to me all about honey bees. Maybe we should’ve been zoologists.

kelly — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:01:16 +0000

(This song has been playing on repeat in my house. I’ll upload it to the sidebar so you can listen, but you’ll have to wait until Bryant gets home because I’m having technical difficulty right now.)

i’d like courage

kelly — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:06:35 +0000

covering their intergalactic bases

kelly — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 03:11:40 +0000

I know I never talk much about my religion here, and I’m not really sure I want to change that yet, but I did want to share this funny little tidbit from today…

I was just getting online to create a mormon.org profile for myself (which, to be honest, I’m not completely on board with yet, but I’ve decided to do it anyway because, hey, it can’t hurt).

So I got online, was clicking through, and I skimmed across an interesting line in the Content Submission Agreement. I did a double take.

Additionally, you hereby grant to Intellectual Reserve, Inc. a royalty-free, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable license to use your Submission throughout the universe in perpetuity…

Wow, really? Who knew you could find comedy in a user agreement? Maybe it was because I was reading it with religion on the mind, but I felt… I don’t know… flattered (?) that the Church might want to use my submission in other worlds and worlds to come, throughout all perpetuity, forever and ever amen. I mean wow, right? ;)

But then I did a quick Google search of the phrase “throughout the universe in perpetuity” and found that it’s a phrase being used with increasing frequency in modern media contracts. A Wall Street Journal article calls it “lawyerese going galactic,” and if you want more of a laugh along these lines, check out this blogger‘s proposed phrase that would cover lawyers’ contractual butts even more. …You know, just in case there’s some parallel universe somewhere with a media outlet just waiting to be tapped…

In any and all media, now known or hereafter devised, throughout this and any other universes, whether known, unknown, parallel, intersecting, obtuse or otherwise, throughout space, time and all other dimensions, whether now known or hitherto discovered, in perpetuity, or longer, as the case may be.

Amen.

Alright, back to making my mormon.org profile. Wish me luck gettin’ famous in this world and the next.

blogging mood swings

kelly — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:08:41 +0000

Sometimes I miss blogging. Sometimes I can’t begin to imagine what it would feel like to ever want to blog again.

Sometimes I feel I have a lot to say. Sometimes I feel I have nothing to say. And sometimes the things I have to say don’t feel like things I’d want to say outloud. Or on a blog. And then again, sometimes they do.

Sometimes I click back through old posts and get all nostalgic, and I wish I was still writing. Sometimes I click back through old posts and feel so flushed with embarrassment that I wish I had never written anything at all.

Sometimes I have all these ideas flowing out of my ears, and I want to write about them all, but I’m too busy (or too lazy or too distracted) to actually get them down in writing. Sometimes I’m sitting in front of the computer, eager to write about anything, and n o t h i n g comes.

And so. Sometimes I post. Sometimes I don’t. For months and months and months and months. What can I say? I majored in economics: I have a lot of “on the other hand”s to go around.

big sister knows best

kelly — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 05:21:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure I’ve loved everything that my big sister has ever recommended to me. Music, books, food, movies. You name it. She knows what’s up.

Her latest good advice: Downton Abbey.

via

Holy smoke I’m addicted to that show. Even Bryant—who normally only watches shows like this when he’s trying to get something from me—admitted that he liked it. He walked in halfway through the third episode and then stuck around for the whole fourth.

I’ve just finished watching the first season, and I’m close to mortified that there’s not a second season yet. I don’t mean to wish away the summer when it is just barely making its entrance, but gosh, I’m looking forward to the fall now, too.

Stream this sucker on Netflix. You will thank me… and Fara.

via
PS. No idea who all but two of these maids are. They must’ve just scrounged up some extras to fill out the picture.

trees drool. deserts rule.

kelly — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 06:51:39 +0000

I’ve had this weird feeling lately. It started as nothing—so faint it was hardly noticeable. But it grew. And then it was strong enough that I could name it. So I did. And goodness knows once you name something it sticks around.

I miss Utah.

It’s almost comedic, isn’t it? How life changes you so slowly and subtly. Like wind against rock. Until it’s suddenly shocking when you finally notice how different you’ve become.

It’s those dang mountains. I crave them. I miss living right at their base before they jut off into the sky. I miss having them tower over my head. I miss the comfort of those massive, steady landmarks, always in view no matter where you turn.

I have an old friend who’s a dyed in the wool Utah soul. She lamented the claustrophobia-inducing trees of Connecticut and the gaping emptiness of the mid-west’s plains. “There are no mountains to keep the sky up off my head!” she’d say. I didn’t get it. Now I do. Those mountains.

Plus there’s this:

Southern Utah. Glowing, gritty, sandy red rocks.

‘Nuff said.

It’s more than just the landscape I miss. You know, there was something cool about finally making my peace with the crazy culture. It was an awesome accomplishment. It wasn’t just that I appreciated the endless comedic fodder (and don’t get me wrong, it truly is endless). But I grew to really love the good parts. I learned to notice them, and see them more often. And I learned to make the best of the rest.

I haven’t forgotten that lesson. Washington is amazing. Breathtaking. I love this place. Plus I’m pretty sure I’m going to start loving it even more, now that I don’t have to work nights and weekends.

But isn’t it weird that moving to this gorgeously green state was what showed me I’ve become a desert girl? Me? The one who always maintained that no place is as beautiful as my green, rolling Connecticut hills. The one who would drive around the back roads of Provo and Salt Lake looking for tree tunnels that I could drive under and squeal, “It looks like home!”

And here I am. Nostalgically browsing through old photos. Reading Utah blogs and salivating. Fantasizing about Goblin Valley, Spiral Jetty, Antelope Island.

Sunbeams, verga, and big sky. Canyons, aspen groves, and a compass built right into the landscape. Tumbleweed, road trips, and all four seasons. Mexican food, carefree college nights, and the disgusting awesomeness of the Great Salt Lake.

Yes. Those are bugs. Love that salty lake.

I guess if I give it a couple years, I’ll probably be writing a post like this about the Pacific Northwest, too. But right now, even though I am terribly happy where I am, it’s a pretty nice feeling to have something to be nostalgic about. I’m a little homesick for my second home.

i think i’m growing as a person…

kelly — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 05:27:26 +0000

…either that or really lowering my standards.

I just consciously drank two-day-old expired milk because, hey, it still tasted okay. And I didn’t think twice about it. Until now, I guess, when I’m clearly thinking about it again. But that doesn’t count.

This is likely the first time I ever willfully consumed anything past its date stamp. It somehow makes me feel more grown up. Is that weird? Maybe it’s just that I’m noticing that I truly am becoming my mother. ;) (Hey Ma! Love ya!)

on going gray

kelly — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:00:37 +0000

Of all the random places to find this great poem, I found it hanging in a bathroom stall of a restaurant Bryant and I discovered recently.

Plans like these give you something to look forward to.