C if for Clue (or Cluedo if you are outside of North America)

Today I went to see "Clue: The Musical". If there isn't a part of you that's jealous right now, just stop reading. If you know anything about me you most likely know that I love me some Clue. In fact, this was the first board game that I ever cried over (although, sadly, not the last). Clue was the first board game that I ever received. I got it for my birthday and my Mom, Grandma and I played a game. My Grandma won. And I burst into tears. My Mom said I wasn't going to be allowed to play it again unless I stopped my poor sportsmanship. But unlike the playdough threat, she relented and I've been playing board games and crying over them for years. Thanks, Mom!

We went to the Old Creamery Theatre outside of the Amana Colonies and it was awesome! It was such a fun show. I had the best time. I won't be spoiling it for you if I tell you that it was Col. Mustard in the Lounge with the Rope. They picked out the three cards at the beginning of the show and put them in a big envelope marked "confidential" just like the game. Then Mr. Boddy gave us some clues throughout the show. It was really great. Zach's favorite character was Mrs. White. She was pretty great. Very animated, great stage presence. My favorite was Mrs. Peacock. She had a great singing voice and good delivery. It was the most fun ever! It's as though God wanted to create a show that I would love and he did. I got to solve a mystery and watch a show all in one! We also had the best seats in the house. Front row, center. Awesome. Zach commented that we were the only ones in our age group - everyone else was either over 60 or under 10, but whatever. It was so great.

We also had lunch and bought some wine, cheese and chocolate in the Amana Colonies. It was fun. On the way back from Amana we had to stop at the mall for a present and in the parking lot of the mall near the Children's Museum was a NASA semi. Zach loves space and since he was such a good sport about watching Clue, I decided to throw him a bone and let him walk around the NASA semi with the other kids. It was pretty neat. We saw a video, built a virtual space station, touched an authentic moon rock, learned that NASA plans to have a station on the moon by 2020, and got some awesome mementos. Today was filled with tons of fun. Seriously, it was so exciting. I wanted to write more, but I'm tired and worn out from enjoying the day so much, so I'll just leave you with this photo essay.

C is for cutting and judging by the fried content of the food we ate for lunch, C is also for cholesterol.

C is for chocolate covered cherry because just eating your weight in schnitzel, spaetzle, potatoes, gravy, cottage cheese and coleslaw is not enough. You should always round that out with some chocolate.

C is for corn and coffee cake. We determined that we needed these items from the bakery. C is also for charm bracelet, pictured in the bottom right corner.

C is for cask catastrophe avoidance. Good job, Zach!

C is for Clue: The Musical! It was so great!

C is for cramping, as in, my face hurts because I've been smiling so big throughout the entire show because I was having such an awesome time. Sadly, I'm not kidding, my face hurt by the end of the show.

C is for cute couple. Awww!

C is for cool collectibles. Zach went to Mars and I went to the Moon. We're just awesome people, we can't help it.

C is for caption. Create your own.

Ciao

B is for Bragging (which I'm about to do)

Certain people (Larry, I'm looking at you) have questioned my commitment to doing 26 posts in a row. I'm not saying that I have a lot of stick-to-it-iveness. Let's face it, if the going gets tough, I pretty much just get out. I don't like suffering, I don't like being uncomfortable, I'm not real fond of hard work. Hmm, I suppose this all counts as bragging, it almost makes me sound like a loser, but maybe I'm just more self-aware than you are, did you ever think of that Judgy Judgerson? Ok, wow, this post has gotten off on the wrong foot, let's just back it up a bit.

I'd like to take this opportunity to brag a bit about me. I know that's pretty much the entire purpose of a blog, but I thought I'd come right out and do it. So, here goes. Two things that happened this summer are:

1. I taught my first class in which I was the sole instructor, designer, evaluator, etc.

2. I got married.

I feel pretty good about both of these things. The first went well. I enjoyed being a teacher. I always thought that I wanted to be a teacher. My parents used to buy me grade books (not that fake ones, the official kind from an actual teaching supply company) and I would make my brother and whatever other neighborhood kids were around be my students. I loved it. I'm not sure if I was giddy with the power or what, but I do love the control, I mean, the passing on of knowledge, I love passing on knowledge. That last part is true. I enjoy teaching. The class I taught was Introduction to Cognitive Psychology, as the name implies it was a class that introduced the topic of Cognitive Psychology. We covered: neuroscience, history of Cog. Psy., perception, attention, executive control, language, memory, thinking, knowledge, and motor control. I had 15 students at the start of the class and I finished with 13. They did well and I think they learned a lot. If I ever taught the course again I know it would go even more smoothly, so that's awesome. It was a ton of work and doing it on top of getting married was tough, but I'm glad I did it. I read the written evaluations of me today and their biggest complaint was that I talk too fast. That's fine. I can deal with that. I warned them at the beginning that I tend to talk fast. I talk fast when I am excited about something or nervous and often, I was both, so there. But, I was happy it wasn't something like, "Instructor doesn't seem to know anything about what she's talking about." Yeah, so there you have it. I'm awesome at teaching. Tell everyone you know.

As to the second topic mentioned. I'm sure I'll mention this more in the future and I plan to tie everything back to me getting married for at least the next 5 years. Let me just for now say this, "I had the best wedding in the history of the world." I include in this contest everyone one of Elizabeth Taylor's weddings and all of the weddings that you may have seen on "Platinum Weddings". It was so much fun. It worked out so well. It was perfect in that things went wrong and we all overcame them. Honestly, I couldn't have imagined a better day. And I had multiple people tell me that it was the best wedding they had ever attended. My brother says that this means that either people had a really good time or they like us enough to lie to our faces. Either way, that's good praise. It was such a fun time. I really loved it. Haytee was the best Matron of Honor ever (well, she was pretty good, I mean there was the whole m.h. outbreak, marraige debacle and creative suntanning, but she made up for it). Jamie was a great Best Man. I was really pleased with him and much to Zach's dismay, perhaps one of the nicest pictures is of Jamie and I dancing. I like it because I look thin, I can't help it. Anyway, I'll try to unfold the story over these Alphabet posts, but in the mean time, you can go check out the millions of pictures here. We might have more posted up there soon too, so feel free to check back. When we get to P, you'll have a whole new appreciation for them.

Bye

A is for Alive and Alphabet Posting

ALIVE

To dispel any of the rumors that might be flying around, I'm not dead. I just vanished for awhile in order to finish teaching my summer course and get married. It was a big undertaking, don't judge. The wedding was awesome and I will try to incorporate those stories into the alphabet posts. I'm going under the initials R.H.D. now. You can call or email me for the details (unless you are a stalker or identity thief, then you just get the initials). There are also big things ahead on the horizon and I really hope that everything works out ok. And no, I'm not pregnant. We may have had a short engagement, but that's just because being married is so awesome and we wanted to get right to it.


ALPHABET POSTING

Alphabet posting means that each day will have a topic starting with a letter in the alphabet in, shockingly, alphabetical order. This idea is so good I think I may have done it before and be ripping myself off, but I can't remember. Either way, it's gonna be awesome. It should also result in 26 days of posting. So hold on to your hats. I know this is sort of an inauspicious beginning and I know that there probably isn't anybody left checking this blog as I seem to have abandoned it. But I can dream.

Shout Out

My prison pen pal has a great blog. It's listed on the sidebar (A Low Life), though it's not for those who are easily offended, hell, it's not really for those who take a lot to offend. But it's pretty much always quality. However, I found this entry to be pretty much the best thing ever. He's normally funny, brilliant and poignant, but this one was awesome. So go check it out. I'm sorry, I'm wrapped up in teaching, working and getting married, I don't have a lot leftover, but Larry's repaying his debt to society and much, much more!

P.S. It's fairly g-rated, so you can probably check it out, unless you are a 12 year old kid, then just get off the internet now before some predator finds you. Where are your parents anyway?

Yet More Things I Find Disturbing

1. The Space Bag commercials. Have you seen these? It's sort of crazy. Not quite as crazy as the lady who is trying to sell me that stuffed sandwich grill. She's got the red hair. She's excited about the product. The other disturbing thing is that I've sort of always wanted the Space Bags. I wanted to buy a bunch to move with, but I was vetoed by Zach.
   
2. The lack of new shows on television currently. Obviously I know it's the off season or whatever, but I need something to distract me from reality. That seems unfair.
3. The pain in my foot. But that's ok, I'm going to the student health center on Monday so that they can look at it and tell me they don't know what's wrong and then refer me to someone else.
4. Humidity. Man, it might be 120 in the desert and that might be really freaking hot, but at least it's not 120 with 90% humidity. At least when you sweat it evaporates instead of hanging around and making you feel gross. At least everyone who lives in a desert has central air conditioning.
5. The amount of things I have to do and the amount of time I have to do them in. Some people aren't happy unless they are busy. I'm not one of those people. Give me the ability to sit around doing nothing all day and I'll be happy.
6. So-called White Noise. I hate background noise. Background noise like the incessant whining of the emergency generators that the erected in the parking lot outside my window. Does that make me a bad person? I don't think so.
7. My lack of posting. But you know what? That demon has to be put down for the day. I've got a ton of work to do (seriously, a ton) and I have to go teach in a bit. So that's it people. I'm out.
   

I May Have Been Premature

In my last post I stated that I was "Back and on the Attack". I may have spoken prematurely. I'm obviously not really back, nor it appears am I really on the attack. I was just speaking big and trying to impress you, but now I feel a bit guilty. It appears I'm not really ready to put my money where my mouth is, as the that old chestnut goes. But here's what's been going on with me. If you are interested:

• When we last left Z and I were going on a vacation with Z's family to Seattle and California. Successfully completed. Check that one off the list. We can discuss that more later. And I took photos, when I say "I", I mean, "Zach took photos". But I brought that camera and the memory cards and the batteries, so that's almost like I did it, right?
• When we got back from vacation. I took about a week to recover. The vacation was great. It was just a whirlwind, so I needed a little rest when I got back.
  
• Zach started his new job. A "permanent" job at the University Hospital Pharmacy. He's basically doing the same job he was doing before, but instead of working from 6:30 AM- 3:00 PM, he's working from 3 PM until 11:30 PM. He's adjusting well to the job and he likes it. I'm not adjusting as well. If I had my way, we'd spend every waking moment together, but now, we don't seem to spend quite that much together. Oh, whatever, Zach would tell you that we're together 14 hours a day for the most part, but I'm sleeping for part of that time.
  
• I started teaching my class. I'm in charge of the whole thing. If you need an introduction to cognitive psychology and you attend the U of Iowa, I'm your gal. I really do like it actually. It's just very work intensive and it's taxing to speak for 50 minutes straight each day. I'm sure you'd think I wouldn't have any problem, but trust me, it's tiring. But I do enjoy making the lectures and trying to provide the best education that I can.
  
• There was another natural disaster here in Iowa- this time a flood. A big, giant, inconvenient flood. I'll likely complain and rant about this again. For right now I'd like to just list the various horrible things that have happened in Iowa since I've lived here:
• Ice storms - knock out power and make it hard for me to leave the house
• Snowiest winter on record for a long time - again, stupid, crappy, not leaving the house
• Tornadoes- scary, frightening, can't leave the basement, F5 destroys at least one town
• Earthquake - seriously? Seriously, there are earthquakes in Iowa??
• Plane crash by my house - no, really, right down the street, heard the explosion, smelled gas, couldn't leave the block
• Flooding - yeah, classes canceled for a week, can't leave the house. Not a good time
• They canceled classes last week and no one could get to campus on the Friday before they canceled them, so I have 6 class periods that I now have to cram into the semester. That's not that cool.
• Keeping up with the whole wedding planning thing. Almost got that thing sewn up. We picked up my dress, crown, um, I mean, headpiece and veil yesterday. This weekend we are going to church class on Saturday for the day. That's gonna be awesome.
• Other than that, just working, missing Z, missing our neighbors (not the dinner-serving mormons, the other ones) who just moved out, working, eating gummy bears, being depressed about living in Iowa, working, watching British television, watching Twin Peaks, missing Zach, eating ice cream and working.

More to come, I'm working on it. I'm just very, very slow. But I'm always here for you.

I'm Back and on the Attack

Well, I'm back now. And I have so much to tell you. But I can't do it all right now. I'm going to have to pace myself. But I just wanted you all to know that I'm back and I'm going to start posting like a mad man, so keep checking in, I'm here for you.

Until I can get my act together and start churning out the stories please enjoy this video. It's honestly the cutest thing you will ever see. Yeah, yeah, you've looked into the eyes of your precious newborn, etc., but this is super cute. Seriously, click on link and enjoy that video.