As seen in the San Francisco airport

Posted on November 26, 2006 by Laura

Meggan – You didn’t tell us your dad was in the coffee business!  Nik and I arrived home safely this morning after a long flight through the night from Portland.  The Alaskan Amber arrived safely as well. And now I’m going to sleep!

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Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on November 20, 2006 by Laura

Yesterday, I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Nik and his family at his mom’s house.  I especially enjoyed the Greek style stuffing, which is rice instead of bread and had chestnuts, pine nuts, and almonds in it as well as whole cloves and other spices.  Tonight, I ate an entire turkey leg for dinner, courtesy of Tina, Nik’s mom.  (She insisted that I take it, rather than Nik, after I told her that I had always wanted to get one at the AK State Fair!)

Oregon here we come!

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Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted on November 20, 2006 by Laura

Yesterday, I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Nik and his family at his mom’s house.  I especially enjoyed the Greek style stuffing, which is rice instead of bread and had chestnuts, pinenuts, and almonds in it as well as whole cloves and other spices.  Tonight, I ate an entire turkey leg for dinner, courtesy of Tina, Nik’s mom.  (She insisted that I take it, rather than Nik, after I told her that I had always wanted to get one at the AK State Fair!)

Oregon here we come!

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A Shameless Request

Posted on November 19, 2006 by Laura

If someone (or multiple someones who want to give me a gift together) would like an idea for what to get me for Christmas, I am really missing Kristen’s Alison Krauss CDs, particularly the Live album (which is two CDs) that came out a couple years ago.  I love that music and borrowed the CDs all the time from Kristen.  It’s a little harder to do that now that she lives 9 miles away!  So if you need an idea, there you go.

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Beat This

Posted on November 15, 2006 by Laura

Go to www.typingtest.com.  Click on “Start Typing test” and choose “Fishing In Finland” as your test text.  Type as fast as you can.  See if you can get a net speed of 91 words per minute or faster.  If you’re fast than 91 wpm, you beat me.  (91 wmp was on my second try I must admit.  My first time I got 79 wpm but that was because I made 19 errors.  So really I was at 98 wpm.  I never was the most accurate typer!)

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Political Ads

Posted on November 13, 2006 by Laura

This is a little outdated now but you should definitely go listen to this NPR article.  It’s an interview with two guys whose job is to make negative political ads.  It’s fascinating to hear them say the same phrase in several different ways.  It made me realize how easy it is to be manipulated.  The funniest part is at the very end – you’ll never think about Humpty Dumpty the same again.

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Christmas

Posted on November 10, 2006 by Laura

To all my of devoted readers (OK maybe 6) out there, my apologies for the Very Boring Blog as of late.  I’ve been tired and not motivated at all the past couple weeks.  Chalk it up to unpacking my room and getting myself out of the very deep grading/school hole that I dug in the last two weeks of October.

Regardless, at some point, I’m sure I’ll have something interesting to say.

In the meantime, for my Alaska family, I just bought my Christmas plane ticket.  I was hoping to fly in on the 22nd but tickets were SUPER expensive (850) for that day.  So instead, I just bought a merely expensive (705) ticket to fly in late night on the 23rd (after midnight).  Then I take off at 1:30 am on New Year’s Day.  So I guess I’ll be able to say, “Happy New Year” with the fam and then race over to the airport!

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Progress

Posted on November 2, 2006 by Laura

Kristen’s married (I guess that means the wedding was a success ) and I’ve moved.  So more later…

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Things could definitely be worse

Posted on October 28, 2006 by Laura

So this weekend I have been dealing primarily with two people:

The flexible bride:
Kristen has been incredible.  She has made her preferences known but then if things have not gone exactly her way, it’s been OK.  We’ve changed some things that we’ve needed to change and it’s been OK.  Her dress was altered in a way that still looks beautiful but was not perhaps 100% envisioned.  But that’s OK – we’ve gone with it.  All in all, she deserves a button that says, “You’re dealing with a FLEXIBLE bride.”  That’s been our slogan for her.  She has made my job of bridal assistant/wedding rehearsal coordinator easy and a pleasure.

In contrast

The demanding nephew:
Last night on the phone on the occasion of Noah’s 6th birthday, I called him (on the way home from the rehearsal dinner)
me:  Hi Noah!  Happy Birthday!  It’s Auntie Laura!
Noah:  Did you send me anything?
me:  Oh, I’m so sorry Noah!  I’ve been so busy because my friend is getting married tomorrow.  But I did buy your present and I promise I’ll send it next week.  Guess who helped pick it out?  Nik!
Noah:  I know what it is.  Mario Brothers!!!
me:  No but you’ll find out!
[at the end of the conversation]
me:  I love you Noah.  I have to go now so let me talk to your mommy or daddy OK?
Noah:  Aren’t you going to sing me Happy Birthday?
[So I did]

At least, he knows what he wants! To his credit, he’s been getting a lot of packages in the mail (as the priviledged oldest grandchild on both sides) from relatives so he’s pretty much right in expecting that all far-away relatives would be sending him things!

I do have to say that I far prefer a demanding nephew to a demanding bride!

I must be off to shower, finish Kristen’s laundry, collect all her church and honeymoon bags, transport all of that plus THE DRESS to the church,  finish the reception hall with Patty, get changed myself, help the bride with “more makeup” advice, help run the picture session, be the “walk in now” person for the ceremony, help keep the reception on time, do a little bit of cleanup, and then, finally, get to ride home with Nik to spend my last night in my apartment.  Although I have spent many a night alone here, it will be strange to be here alone knowing that Kristen will not be coming back again.  I think it will be a little less hard knowing that after tomorrow I won’t be here either.  It will be quite a day.

Posted in family, friends | 3 Comments

Because I don’t have time to write…

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Laura

Amuse yourself by going and seeing what the moon looked like when you were born (or on any other random day that holds significance for you).  It’s pretty cool!  I was born under a full moon and Nik was born under no moon – does that mean something?

(P.S. My move went really smoothly.  And now for the wedding!)

Posted in just for fun | 1 Comment