When is free ice cream disappointing?

When you don't get any of it :(

It was free cone day at Ben and Jerry's, and so Dave and I drove down into the depths of BYU-area rush hour traffic (a.k.a. petty much what hell would be like) to get to the one and only Ben and Jerry's shop I know of in the valley. I could almost taste the sweetness of the iced-dairy dessert, but...it was not meant to be. The Ben and Jerry's was GONE.

Who closes a Ben and Jerry's? How sick is that?

And even better--in its place was a Sub Zero ice cream place. WHY? WHHHYYY?! (by the way, Sub Zero ice cream isn't even that good. So there.)

I was mad about the whole thing, so we went to Macy's and bought a pint of Cherry Garcia. Not free by any means, but delicious nonetheless.

What the heck, here's a post

It is the beloved week of finals, and let me tell you, it's not a picnic. I'm all done, myself, but the memory of the week shall forever stay with me, haunting me. Well, no, it wasn't that bad. For creative writing, my "final" was to bring something ready to submit to a literary magazine/journal. So packed up a few of my poems, all pretty in an envelope and ready to go. My math final wasn't so nice. It was your typical math final, you know? There are so many things to remember from the beginning of the semester that there was NO WAY I was going to be able to recall everything. Plus, I don't have the greatest memory... Anyway, I finished the test, and I think I may have passed. I then proceeded directly to the bookstore, where I was grateful beyond words to hand in my crap-happy textbook for a fistful of cash. Nice. I guess we can go to dinner to celebrate the end of the semester without guilt!

Dave is still pushing along through his finals. He techincally gets the summer off from school, except for one math class. I might take a class, too, if funds permit.

What else? Oh -- we want to go camping soon. I haven't been since girls' camp in young women. We would probably just go for one night, though, so it wouldn't be the same. I can't say I've ever been a big fan of girls' camp. I mean, for the first day or maybe two it's fun, but then your hair is all greasy and there are no showers, and that is NOT okay. Everyone stinks and I'll tell you, you're in pretty close quarters with the other girls in your tent. So a camping trip where I can say "Okay, let's go home now" would be terrific.

So, any ideas?

I went through a time about a year and a half ago where I lost a decent amount of weight by making some changes in my diet (Dave, too). It felt great to lose the weight, but recently I've hit a rut. I kind of stopped losing and just stayed within the same weight, give or take 4 pounds in either direction.

Recently I feel a lot less healthy. I've been staying on the higher end of what I usually weigh, and haven't been able to easily get rid of it. I'd like to lose 10-15 pounds at this point. My diet isn't the best...I have a love of sweets, and on top of that I have a job that is more sedentary than my last one. I fit 2 workouts a week into my schedule, and then do some walking to and from school. I eat 3 meals a day with a few snacks here and there. But you can bet that I have at LEAST one serving of candy/sugary junk food a day. I really feel deprived it I don't have any sweets at all, so...

My question is: what can I do to still get the satisfaction of sugary foods without being horrible to my body? How much can I safely allow myself in a day? And, how much do I need to be working out to lose weight? ANY tips you guys have would be great. Thanks!

In other news...

Dave and I were lucky enough to be given tickets to the play "The Miracle Worker." It was a very neat show, very well done. Lots of yelling and screaming, though :) Gave me a headache.

Simplifying?

We re-arranged our front room last night on a whim, and it looks so much better now. In the process I realized something: I want to simplify things. I mean, we have so many things in our apartment that we don't use. I'd say that we could get rid of 75% of the crap in our spare room, and we'd never even miss it.

I'm thinking that over the next few weeks I'm going to try to get rid of as much as I can. We own too much, and what good is it going to do us? I'll tell you one thing, it'll be a pain when we move. Getting rid of clutter is hard, but it feels great when it's gone and you realize how much open space you really have.

Banquet and stuffed creatures

We went to a banquet for Jana last night, since she was accepted into some scholarly society because she was on honor roll at the Y. I had never been to anything quite like that before. They had some people speaking (not very exciting, really) and a yummy dinner. The catering staff came out and served everyone the same meal, except for the three of us since we told them we were vegetarian. Everyone else had some kind of chicken, but we had curry over rice...and it was some of the best I'd ever had! I know Jana wasn't all that in to going in the first place but I think we all had a good old time. We even got brownies. Mmmm.

Afterword, Dave wanted to take me somewhere I'd never been before: the Bean Museum. I guess I'm the only one in the world who hasn't gone there before, but I don't know how much I was missing, since it's mostly a bunch of dead, stuffed animals just kind of hanging out. The ones in the basement were mostly just laying on their backs or in jars. At least the animals upstairs looked alive, you know? It was a lovely little date though, all morbidness aside.

My thumb is doing okay. Still hurts a bit, and wearing the bandages on it is so restrictive (ie, working and showering). Monday I'll take off the bandages and see how it's healing :)

I wish I hadn't done that...

Well, I sliced my thumb open.















I was attempting to pry open a can of olives with one of our beloved can openers, and because it didn't open the whole lid after several tries (we only use the highest quality of hand-held can opening devices in OUR home!) I set to work trying to physically pull the lid off myself. Well, it started to come off, alright...very suddenly, which caused my thumb to slide right onto the blade-like side of the can lid.

I moved swiftly to the sink and put the cut under water. As I saw the amount of blood coursing out and the deepness of the cut, I admit it--I absolutely lost it. I don't quite know what it means to go "into shock," but I started shaking and crying and sure felt like I was. Dave ran in to save me, and it's a good thing, too! He helped me to get a paper towel to hold against it and put pressure on the cut. I sat on the couch shaking and flipping out for ten minutes, and then Dave helped me put bandaids on the afflicted thumb. It had stopped bleeding by then, but it was such a deep cut we decided that I'd better see a doctor about some stitches :(

I could not stop shaking to save my life the whole way to the clinic. I tell you, I have to wonder: if that's the way I react to a little (okay, not so little) cut in my thumb, how will I ever someday handle the joys of child birth? We got there and a nurse saw me almost immediately. As she took my blood pressure, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Are you under stress or something?" she asked.

"Uh, well, I did just slice my thumb open!" I held up my shaking hand.

"Oh! Because in the past your blood pressure was fine but now it's...not so good."

I had to laugh at that through the pain.

The doctor came in to have a look. He was a nice guy. Thankfully, he told us that the cut didn't seem quite deep enough to need stitches, and he would put 'steri-strips' on instead to help it heal without an ugly scar. He also found that I was over due for a tetanus shot--oh joy of joys. I was given the shot (not as bad as I expected, but I WAS a little distracted with the gash in my thumb) Then the doctor cleaned out the cut and put the tape on, and then wrapped it up.

On the way home Dave treated me to a banana split (a well deserved one, I must add) and we went home and actually eat the dinner I had nearly killed myself preparing. No, I did not get blood on anything while making it.

So the steri strips need to stay on for a week. That sucks...my thumb is practically useless for that time, and trust me, I need that thing! Try getting dressed without using one of your thumbs. Seriously, try! And typing isn't very easy either. Plus work isn't going to be a cake-walk. BUT...at least I didn't need stitches, right?

And no, it's not an April Fool's joke. I wish! :)