Bugs in a Rug

Or rats in a pocket hammock!

Butters and Mooch enjoying the ghetto fleece hammock I made them.

Moochie & Butters

Meet our new babies!

So we have two new additions to our home! Meet Moochie and Butters, our new baby rats. We adopted them on Tuesday. They are very energetic little brothers and we're having fun getting to know each other. They love to climb and jump and eat. We're finding Cheerios to be their favorite food.

The first three shots are of Moochie. He's a black and white standard coat with dumbo ears. Standard coat means he'll stay smooth like he is now. Aren't his big ears cute?? He's a little squirmy right now, but he'll get more used to us.

The next three are of Butters. He is a chocolate (grayish brown) and white double rex. A rex coat means his fur is all different lengths. It will be more pronounced when he's older. He'll get kinda nappy. :) Butters is more curious and adventuresome, as you can see in the shot where he's going for the camera.

And the last two are a quick peek at their mom and dad. We got to meet both of them too! Guapo is their dad. He's a hairless. And Eve is their mom, a double rex like Butters.

We're so happy to have new little furry friends!

"Even if you feel certainty, it is an emotion, and not a fact."

Well, I just barely made it to see this one in the nick of time. I meant to see it over the holidays, but I guess time and travel and other events just got bumped up in priority. For those of you that may not know, Doubt was the Pulitzer Prize winner for drama in 2004. I read it for the first time at BYU in my Dramatic Literature class, and was instantly intrigued by it. I became so interested that I made it my obsession my last year by choosing it for my senior directing project. And by the way, obsession IS the correct word one must use when describing something they are directing! But all of that aside, the text itself is remarkable, and the response it elicits is equally, if not more significant. I was often asked the question, “Well, what is your play about?” I would always respond initially by saying, “It’s not really about the plot, but rather our own personal examination of faith and how we deal with times of doubt.” This often proved unsatisfactory, because most of the time we are more interested in what happens in a story, than why it happens.

So, here I submit a brief assessment of the film. I was, of course, perhaps a more biased viewer than the next person. My mind couldn’t help but run through the lines as they were said on screen. It’s funny to think that over 2 years later, I still knew all the words, as they had truly been ingrained in me. I was also grateful that John Patrick Shanley (playwright, screenwriter, director), left in all my favorites, including that amazing line about how Frosty the Snowman espouses a pagan belief in magic. How could ANYONE do without that?? ;)

The acting was noteworthy, particularly that of Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. I realized perhaps more than before how the characters are more archetypical than actual people with experiences and history. They are more representations of how different people arrive at believing in something rather than why. Sister James, played by April Adams, perhaps left a little to be desired for me. She is such a pivotal character, and I felt her personal journey a bit underdeveloped.

I found it indeed interesting that Abram and I disagreed as to how we felt the film was biased one way or the other concerning the supposed “guilt” of Father Flynn. Though this certainly is not the key question to be considered, it was interesting that we had opposite views. The heart of the play/film lies quite simply in its title, Doubt. What exactly is it? Why do we think of it as such a negative or shameful experience? Is it in fact wrong to doubt? I believe that people of all faiths can truly benefit from finding their own answers to these questions, so I in turn invite you to see the film or read the play. Rarely does something like this come to movie theaters, and it saddened me that its stay was so short. We had to see it downtown in Salt Lake, because it was only in our local theaters for about two weeks or so. But I was glad for the experience and hope to have more like it in the time to come.

Oregon Trip

So it's about time I blogged again, eh? It was nice to have a bit of a break for New Year's and visit the various Hardy families in Oregon. We enjoyed Abram's mom's traditional Thai New Year's day meal, full of food with "lucky" names so as to bring you good fortune for the new year. GOOD STUFF. We also got to spend a lot of time with Barlow and Lexie out on the coast in their cute little house in Rockaway Beach. Abram's friend Eric came up for a visit too! We went to the Chinese Garden in Portland. (I'm kicking myself for forgeting my camera), and to Powell's of course for some new books and Japanese stationery (who can resist it?!) We visited the aquarium in Newport (always a favorite of mine), watched for whales at Depoe Bay (didn't quite see any...oh well!), went to Astoria and played 2 very long and intense games of Phase 10, both of which I failed miserably at. Overall, we had a great time, despite quite a bit of nasty weather. I look forward to returning when things warm up!!

A happy little seagull

The beautiful Oregon coast at Depoe Bay.

Can you imagine living in that house on the right?

"La la la la la la...and really bad eggs..."

"Captain" Abram at the helm. Funny, this, it's inside the whale watching building. So really, we're not going anywhere! ;)

Some videos from the aquarium. They had really cool "Chihuly-type" glass art in the tanks. It was awesome. Can you see the seahorse wink at me? And the touch pool with the rays was fun. I got a little too excited and drenched half my sleeve in ocean water! :)

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You can't really tell from the picture, but this little starfish was sucked onto the end of a hanging kelp, dangling in the "breeze." The entire plant was hunched over. Maybe not such a "little" star afterall.

Unfortunately it was getting dark by the time we went out to see the otters. Little Emmett here had already gone to bed. OH! So cute!

Abram, Eric and me on a very cold and windy morning on Rockaway Beach.

Some cool shroomage stuff growing on B & L's wood pile. (The house doesn't have a wood-burning stove anymore, hence the extreme shroomage)

Abram and a deck gun at the Maritime Museum in Astoria. Perhaps he's played a little too much "Call of Duty?" ;)

P.S. Sorry I got lazy with placing the captions. My blogging skills are lacking when it comes to the spacing. My preview looks NOTHING LIKE what actually shows up. Any pointers?

Breinholt Christmas Concert

So with the oober storm going on outside my office window all day yesterday, I sat there worrying about trying to get to Salt Lake for the Peter Breinholt Christmas Concert. Well, we had the option of leaving a bit early, so we headed out around 4:30. Getting to the freeway was interesting, but to our pleasant surprise, the freeway was quite clear and we realized that Provo got the brunt of the storm. We decided to take Trax for the first time. Now I'm sure those of you that live in bigger places or those that take public transportation everyday will think I'm crazy, but it was really fun to ride the train. And really easy if you want to go downtown without having to find a place to park.

Here's my Trax pass. Pretty exciting huh? So we made it with plenty of time to spare. The concert was really entertaining. Ryan Shupe was there. I think he always is. There were 5 guys on stage, with an occasional appearance by a guest singer who wasn't half bad. Peter sings and plays guitar. Shupe of course plays the violin/fiddle and the mandolin. There was a great pianist, a banjo/mandolin player and a bass/mandolin player. Yes, 3 mandolin players. That's got to be a rare find. By the way, sorry the image of the ticket at right is askew. Apparently I don't know how to line up things on the scanner, hehe. But the highlights would have to include a mandolin trio playing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." It was especially great because the showed pictures of screaming and crying children on Santa's knee in the background. It brought a whole new meaning to "you better not cry." ;) But I agree, some of those Santas ARE scary! I also REALLY loved the solo banjo performance of "The Christmas Song" (i.e. Chestnuts Roasting). Now, I know what you're thinking: "Airie HATES that song." Well, you're right, but that was before I'd heard it like this. So it's official, I like it played on the banjo, with no singing. Hazah. Pete did a couple of his old standbys and of course Christmas stuff. Overall, we had a terrific time and really enjoyed getting to see a concert this year, especially right before Christmas. There are few things that do Christmas quite as well as music, right? I'm hoping you all had/will have a chance to take some in this year! :)

Keys to the Kingdom

So it's one of those mornings. Well, really, it all started last night. I received a payment from a client just as the office was closing. The accounting department upstairs (where the nice big safe is) had already left for the day. Hmm...what to do. I knew that my front desk drawer locked, so I threw it in there, locked it up, and then, stupidly, tossed the keys into one of my other drawers. Fast forward to this morning. I come in after a marvelous trek through the snow (yeck!), sit down and remember the check. I reach for the drawer with the keys. LOCKED. I try all the other drawers. LOCKED. Now, you tell me how I could lock a drawer, THEN place the keys in another drawer and THEN have that drawer lock too? I swear the office is cursed. Last week our phones went down for a day, then we had a power outage that threw our server for a whole day, then I almost lit myself (and the office) on fire when I found a cut wire on the Christmas tree I was putting up. And now, the mysterious drawer that locks the 2nd time it closes. *sigh* When working in a profession that has a stigma for having a certain "bimbo" quality, and in trying to disprove that stigma, I'm not doing so hot today. A locksmith is now on his way. Can I take my vacation now please?

Christmas Tree Quest

So we set out last night after work with a mission: bring home a suitable Christmas tree for our ridiculously tiny apartment. “It’ll probably have to be a fake one this year,” we said to one another. Yeah, a fake one. They tend to be more space efficient considering their nice symmetrical cone shape. So we set out.
Stop 1: Robert’s Crafts. Well, I’ll be honest, the tree wasn’t the primary purpose of this stop, but we looked at them none the less. EXPENSIVE.
Stop2: Home Depot. We looked longingly at the real ones first. They had about 4 trees total. It appeared they’d been cleaned out. No dice. We looked at the fake ones. Gosh, they’re so fake looking! And only one or two had colored lights. We decided to move on.
Stop 3: Walmart. They had pink and purple trees at Walmart. Not quite what we were looking for. They had a few but they were either too tall, or just too darn fake! (The ones that don’t look as fake are too pricey!!)
Stop 4: Wendy’s. No trees, but some tasty Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers.
Stop 5: Target. They had a gold tree at Target. They called it “Fantasy Champagne.” Uh, no thanks. They had a few others, lit and unlit, but they still seemed too fake or too expensive.
Stop 6: (Yes #6) Lowe’s. Generally we don’t really like Lowe’s. They’re not as helpful as Home Depot, but hey, we were on stop 6 and were getting desperate.) They had a large selection of fakies. Unfortunately, the one I wanted cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $200. Yikes. So we moseyed outside to look at their real ones. At last, we found the tree!! They had several to choose from. We ended up with a Noble Fir from Sublimity, Oregon. Hooray! Yes, it’s a bit on the fat side, but it fit nicely in the tiny space we had available. And get this, it was 20 bucks. Yep. And you seriously can’t beat the heavenly smell of a real Christmas tree. HOORAY!!

OH TANNENBAUM! (or tannen-bum if you're Johnny Mathis)