ok go

i might go to the gym more often if they had a class like this.

what does elastigirl have on me?

my husband, dan, has a few secret crushes (that aren't so secret anymore).

1. jovie from elf. not zooey deschanel, but jovie.
2. j.t. the traffic girl on x96. he has never seen her, but thinks she sounds hot.
3. elastigirl.

so i guess this means that deep down he would love it if i would wear an elf outfit while talking about traffic issues and stretching? i don't know. help me out.

2 thumbs up

i have seen movies that make me laugh and movies that make me cry, but rarely do i see something that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. way to go little miss sunshine!

bdb and adem

last night dan and i dropped the girl off at my parents' house and went to the badly drawn boy show at urban lounge. since we didn't get there early enough to get one of the seats around the back, we decided that we might as well get close to see. so we went up front (front row) like the hard core groupies.

the opening act, adem - a guy from the UK, was reminiscent of the badly drawn boy show at the zephyr about 5 years ago. with adem asking the audience (remember we are at a club/bar) to be quiet. at least he wasn't yelling and swearing at the audience like bdb at the zephyr. anyway he was pretty good once the crowd calmed down. he even played one song with handbells, and one on the ukelele. i'll probably look into him some more.

the badly drawn boy part of the show was actually pretty good despite damon (aka-bdb) complaining inbetween every single song about the sound. most of the time it was just to the rest of the band, but being a few feet away we were able to hear everything. apparently, since the stage at urban lounge is so small, they weren't able to get all of their amps and stuff on stage, so they were going to play a more acoustic type show. however, when so many people showed up the sound was all messed up apparently. i couldn't tell, i don't think anyone else in the audience could tell, but i guess part of the privelege of being a "rock star" is being able to be tempermental. after the first couple of songs, i wasn't sure he was going to finish the show. but they stuck it out and played for about 2 hours. playing many songs from the new album as well as plenty of older songs. they even managed to cover part of "like a virgin" and ended the show with a rocking version of journey's "don't stop believing." it was great being so close that we could see everything that was going on including bdb spilling a couple glasses of beer and the bass player trying to get one of the roadies to take his picture. it made me a little nervous however when during "possibilities" bdb came to our side of the stage and was doing a little dance about 2 feet away from us. his pants were pretty low, and i just didn't want them to fall down and show us more than we paid for. dan was very impressed with the roadies who always seemed to be one step ahead even when at the beginning of the concert, bdb scrapped the song list and just started playing whatever he felt like. at one point near the beginning of the show bdb was frustrated trying to get the cigarrettes out of his pocket and the roadie handed him an pre-lit cigarette on his way up to bring a replacement beer. overall it was a very fun show to attend and going to live shows always inspires me to practice the guitar more, and revives my dreams of being a rock star.

gas station encouragement

on the gas station marquee down the street:

"home teaching - git er done."

(actually this was about a week ago, at the end of february)

only in utah county...

come on down

on saturday my sister blessed their little baby george at our house. dan and i spent all day cleaning, thus our house is the cleanest it's ever been since we moved in a year ago. sad huh? anyway, feel free to drop by if you're in the neighborhood.

not too shabby

the 2007 bonnaroo lineup was announced the other day. we went last year and there was an amazing lineup including radiohead, beck, tom petty, bela fleck, and others. this year we aren't planning on going, however i'm not going to rule it out yet. some bands i would like to see include, but are not limited to: the police, widespread panic, ben harper and the innocent criminals, wilco, the flaming lips, the white stripes, the string cheese incident, damien rice, ween, gov't mule, galactic, john butler trio, and xavier rudd. that's a pretty decent lineup and if it weren't so far away and we had unlimited funds i'd probably go fo sure. i might have to settle for gomez friday at suede.

thanks victoria

so i hate bra shopping. it is always such a pain, and i put it off for years because i don't want to do it. however, it was time for a new bra, so i went to victorias secret today and they made the experience enjoyable (or at least manageable). i walked in and told the girl that i needed a bra, and she sent me back to the next girl who measured me. that girl then sent me to the fitting room where they already had a little drawer of bras in my size to try on. i tried them all on, found the one i liked, they wrote down the size and style for me and pointed me in the right direction to pick out the color i wanted. it was painless. so thanks victorias secret for making bra shopping easier.

i do have to admit, that i walked by the store a couple of times before i got the courage to go in.

well traveled

i just got a roll of film developed. (the stuff you used to have to put in cameras to get pictures...remember?) this roll of film has been in my camera probably 4 years. here's what's on it.

• pictures from when dan and I went to cabo san lucas, mexico with my parents the year after we got married.
• my summer class when i was teaching in the intensive english language institute at utah state.
• alyssa, emily and me somewhere. i think when they came to visit me in logan for my birthday.
• dan somewhere in southern utah i think.
• a balloon ride in new york.
• joseph smith birthplace in sharon, vermont.
• dan's brother robert on one of those velcro walls with a velcro suit on.
• the temple in hermosillo, mexico. dan and i drove down one december.
• my graduation from utah state with my masters degree.
• some of my students from hillcrest elementary in logan.
• dan and i in front of the parthenon - athens, greece.
• various mosques in istanbul, turkey.
• siena in a halloween parade in clifton park, new york.
• a few pictures to finish off the roll - annie, xander, me.

48 degrees

i am looking at the thermometer right now and it says 48.5 degrees! earlier i took annie to the park because it was sooo nice and 41 degrees. annie learned how to climb up the stairs and go down the slide all by herself. anyway hooray for a beautiful day!

graduation day

a momentous day in the bolke family. today annie graduated to nursery at church. it was wonderful to be able to go to class and listen. she had fun and we had fun! it's amazing how much more you can listen when you don't have to be shoving cheerios into your kid's mouth and reading books about animals, david's stinky diapers, or the lady with the alligator purse.

he really said this

dan: "don't you love our house? If I wanted to poo in the corner I could."

yep, that's my husband. he's excited about owning our own house. so i guess if you come over, steer clear of the corners just in case.

it's official

so i had a doctors appointment today and it's official. i'm pregnant. due august 10th.

well said

"I can't afford to be a music snob anymore, and if there is a piece of music out there that has the ability to move me, then I want to hear it, no matter who's made it. I used to have a reason not to like Little Feat (too polite, as far as I can recall, and maybe too musically precise) and Neil Young (overlong guitar solos) but no one can nurse those kinds of quirks in taste now. You're either for music or you're against it, and being for it means embracing anyone who's good."

Nick Hornby
Songbook

true hippie

dan: "a lot of things are going to be different when i get lasik surgery."

me: "like what?"

dan: "well, right now when get up i have to shower then put in my contacts, if i want to wear them."

me: "so when you get eye surgery you never have to shower again?"

dan: "yep."

what time is it?

so coming back from mexico delta lost one of our bags, and one bag from each of the groups in our party. seeing the luggage being handled in mexico city i am amazed not more was lost. there were bags piled all over, and falling off of the little carts they use to pull them to the planes. anyway, a few days after we got home i got a call at 2:00 a.m. (did you notice the a.m.?) it was a guy sounding exactly like my father-in-law asking me when i would like my bag. i told him in the morning would be great. he then said "well how about right now?" he was just in the driveway. (the guy with the bag, not the father in law). i hate it when people mess with me when i am not coherent.

all you need is love

annie is too young to write letters to santa, but i liked this letter written by my niece gretchen.

Dear Santa,
All I really only want for Christmas is lots of love and some money. I haven't been good but I haven't been bad.
Have a Merry Christmas
From,
Gretchen

gretchen and annie may 2006

howdy y'all

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

i saw this here.
when i was in istanbul, turkey, a guy staying at our hostel guessed from my accent that i was from west coast united states. he was right. i guess i do have a west coast accent (or lack thereof). although true to my utah roots, i do sometimes say fer instead of for. sorry.

the truth about nutrition

this was sent to me by a fellow ESL teacher.

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies:


1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

3. The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

4. The Italians drink large amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

6. Ukrainians drink a lot of vodka, eat a lot of perogies, cabbage rolls and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

i'm not a barbie girl

hate is a strong word, but i really really really don't like barbie. i never liked playing with her as a child, and i still don't. for 3 hours the other day i had to play barbies (really only one barbie, and the rest puppets, stuffed animals, or little people pirates) with a cute little girl i was babysitting. barbie is just so snotty with her perfect body, perfect hair, and self centered attitude. all the other characters have to watch her dance all day, give her presents, and stay out of her room. i never had a real barbie growing up. the only "barbie" i ever had that i liked was ms. hippo, a veluptuous doll with a hippo head, who would sometimes play with ms. giddyup, my sister's "barbie" that had a horse head. i just hope annie doesn't grow up wanting to play barbies. i'll just have to send her to play with liz or emily.