I stiiiink at this.

Oops. I did that thing again where I don't make a post for two months. I really have been making a poor show of it these past few months as far as posting goes. I'm going to blame it on still not having the internet (it's not that we haven't been trying--the Internet Hooker-Upper Guys have come to our house no less than 3 times [and stood us up when they were supposed to come a few times as well] [jerks]), but I think maybe it's just that our lives have not been terribly interesting for the past few months. And the past few times that I've tried to post, I couldn't get any pictures to upload (and got so frustrated that I didn't post anything at all, pictures or no), but lo and behold, here they are today!

These are all completely unrelated and go back a long time. But I guess it's been a long time since I took photos off of my memory card.

First up, I looked out my window one day early this summer and saw this:

From lots of randoms

That is our good friend and former neighbor Dean. He is inside of the dumpster. I wish I could say this was unusual for Dean (or for the complex we live in), but not really. Our kitchen window has a perfect view of the dumpster, and we can (and have) watch people take a box out to the dumpster, then wait a few minutes for someone else (usually Dean) to not-so-casually stroll by and scoop out the goodies. He actually got a lot of good stuff that way . . .

Remember my prize-winning zucchini bread? (HOW COULD YOU NOT?!)

From lots of randoms

THERE IT IS, BABY! That ribbon may or may not still be hanging on my refrigerator. Still feeling pretty proud of that.


This is what happens when Jeff is in charge of picking out the pumpkins for Halloween:

From lots of randoms

Those pumpkins easily weighed 40 or 50 pounds each. Or I'm a weakling. I think both are plausible.

Jeannette, as promised . . . Jeff in his "thinking cap":

From lots of randoms

It's hard to get high-quality thinking done with such a porous cap.


We visited Jeff's family in PA last month. For the record, 6 AM is not the best time to gather for a family photo, I'm just sayin'.



And I can't pass up on an opportunity to show off what just might be THE BEST (actually, "only decent" is probably more accurate) picture Jeff and I have ever gotten together:



There. Now leave me lots of comments so I'll feel really validated and not wait 2 months to do this again.

Shall I write another Harry Potter post?

Yes, I shall.

We finally saw the 6th Harry Potter film the other night (spoiler alert? I guess everyone knows by now what happens . . . ) and as we were leaving the theater, the guy behind us was saying to his girlfriend, "Don't worry, there's no way Dumbledore is really dead. He'll be back in the next movie."

Someone's going to be pretty disappointed . . .

What sisters are for.

I called my sister, Bekah, the other night reeeeeeaaaally late (about 11) while I was lying in bed, struggling to sleep, and we had the following conversation.

Bekah: (without even a hello) Isn't this past your bedtime?

Me: I can't sleep. I have a pressing Harry Potter question and I need you to answer it.

Bekah: Done. What is it?

Me: (Okay, I'm not kidding about this. This is ALL the information I gave her.) What is that thing in Dumbledore's office--?

Bekah: The Pensieve.

Me: YES! THAT'S IT!


Is she not a genius? This is why I love having a sister. I puzzled over the name of that thing for probably like 15 minutes before I finally called her, even trying to remember which books it was mentioned in so I could go look it up, and after a mere 7 words from me--not even enough description to give her a fair shot at figuring out what I meant--she knew exactly what I was talking about.

I love my nerdy sister.

I miss The Office.

A few weeks ago, Jeff was at a ward meeting that started by having everyone go around the room and state their name and calling. When Jeff's turn came, he said, "I'm Jeff Brown, and I think I'm the Assistant Ward Mission Leader," making up his title on the spot since no one has ever really told him what it is.

The ward mission leader, sitting next to him, leaned over and whispered, "Assistant to the Ward Mission Leader."

Sadly, a whispered joke is a joke wasted. Jeff was the only one who cracked up.

Although I haven't finished this book yet, I feel no qualms about jumping the gun and adding The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way (by Bill Bryson) to my Best Books Ever List, because it's been awhile since I was this thrilled by something I've read. And I'm not even going to pretend to be embarrassed by how deeply nerdy it is that I'm loving every second of this:

It's dorky, I know, but for some reason I get really excited to learn that once upon a time, the "k" in "knight" was pronounced! As was the "g!" WHOA! And that the "b"s in words like "debt" and "doubt" were added unnecessarily because early scholars were trying to make English words conform to Latin spelling rules! (As boring as I'm making this book sound, it's really interesting, and the author is very subtly hilarious.)

So now our dinnertime conversations are filled with these choice little nuggets of information, and I'm like, "Jeff, can you believe that if it weren't for the Normans altering English spelling so they would be able to pronounce it more easily, our word 'queen' would probably be spelled 'cwene'?" And Jeff's like, "Can you believe that that isn't even marginally interesting to anyone but you?"

I'm kidding, of course. Jeff would never use the word "marginally" in casual conversation.

Spellcheck, anyone?

I read this on a document left on a desk at the office, which I probably wasn't supposed to read, but what do you expect when you leave such enticing little tidbits out in the open? This is really, for real, unchanged, what it said:

"My creditnals should speak for itself."

I bet they probably do.

Zucchini Ahoy!

Here's my award-winning barely-modified (so I can act like it's my own when it's actually--) stolen-from-Betty-Crocker recipe:


3 cups shredded zucchini
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking powder


1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 (8x4-inch) loaf pans or 1 (9x5-inch) loaf pan with shortening or cooking spray.

2. In large bowl, stir zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs until well mixed. Stir in remaining ingredients. Divide batter evenly between 8-inch pans.

3. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on cooling rack 10 minutes.

4. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on cooling rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.


I don't know for sure, but my boss claimed that it probably made a difference that I stirred it by hand instead of using an electric mixer. All I know is I have a nice shiny red ribbon on my fridge.