I've scheduled my defense. They've all signed off on it. It will happen on Friday the 13th. I will try not to take that as a bad sign. I've decided that instead of getting all anxious and worked up, I will follow Sting's advice.



When I can't answer a question they pose to me I know what to say.

U2 has posted their Los Angeles concert online and anyone can watch it. Wahoo.
Bono is still pretty much a spaz. I still argue that they butcher one of my favorite songs Breathe (the opening song) when they play it live, but Get on your Boots is awesome live.
They also posted dates for their North America tour, hopefully just some of it because Salt Lake is not on the list. I guess that just means I will have to move to Seattle:)

The third professor on my committee has my thesis and said he would get back to me early next week.

I heard this quote that I found hilarious:

Being a loser takes years of dedicated ineptitude.

My three nephews and I made a pilgrimage to Ernest Hemingway's grave site and memorial in Ketchum, Idaho last Saturday. He is their favorite writer, well a favorite writer for two of them. It was a lot of driving but it was a really fun trip. We had some bread and cheese and sparkling grape juice to commemorate what most of his books were about:) My nephews penned some tributes to him and our journey on a typewriter (Brad's, not Bryan's). It was lovely country out there.

Here is the grave. People had left a wine bottle, vodka, shot gun shell, a flag, some notes, and some money.



This is my nephew composing some of his own writing on the spot.


Here is the movable feast we had.

I have been copying my cassette tapes into digital files on my computer. I have some Danish tapes that I would like as mp3s. It has been so fun to listen to them. I haven't heard that much Danish in a long time. If anyone wants a sample...

I included this one because it has some talking as well.




This one has the Danish words written and an English translation (which is actually pretty good) below it.

I just discovered who the writer of this awesome song is and I love his version. I think I will have to check out some of John Hiatt's other stuff.



Apparently my chair handed my thesis to a committee member and we are still waiting to hear back. Agony.

I just finished reading Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. It was very informative not only about his life, but about the times. I enjoyed it.

I don't like romantic comedies in general, but somehow The Very Thought of You slipped past my guard and I really like it. It also has a great song in it. Enjoy.

Haven't heard back from my thesis chair-a little nervous. I know there's a lot there to uncover and work on, but can't I just be done already? Isn't like eight drafts enough to tell him it can't get much better no matter how crappy it currently is?

Anyway, as for good news... it's fall and I love the weather.
Sad news... my roommate likes the heat on a lot.

A momentous event happened today. My chair got back to me yesterday with some corrections on my thesis. I spent all day today fixing them and I turned it in TODAY. One day turn around. That is a sight better than the three month turn-around I was giving my poor chair before.

Then I came across this and thought it was sad ... and funny (shame on me).

I just got my application for graduation in December signed. One more thing off the list. Let's hope it sticks this time.

I just turned in another draft of my thesis to my chair. He thinks it will be the last one before it gets turned over to the other committee members and that I will defend in October. Great but aaaaccckkk.

So a guy in Lisa's ward was giving a talk in sacrament meeting. He talked about families lasting for eternity and how our good-looking resurrected bodies will last for eternity and then he said, "lust will last for eternity... ooops... ah, I meant looks will last for eternity... uuuhhh... I'm not good at giving talks." This is funny (and disturbing) on so many levels.

I saw a t-shirt on a guy today and I coveted it greatly. It said:
I got out of bed and got dressed. What more do you want?

Also my roommate showed me this video of Divine Comedy doing a spoof on the song "Single Ladies." They did a pretty good job with it. I thought it was funny. Oh and the Luv Sac one was pretty funny too.

Guess who busted out the thesis and has actually altered sentences and ideas-little help though that be?
I was filled with rage the entire time. Or crying. I hate this stuff.
Did I share too much?

In the old young women's personal progress program (I'm sure there is a new one by this point or at least greatly modified), it asks you to report on how you feel about your progress. Here is what I wrote at age 14, complete with English mistakes:

"Its helped me grow and with my family its helped me get along better. Also its helped me with everything."

Brilliant and profound, ain't it? It helps me understand why my thesis hasn't been approved yet. I died laughing.

Out of either self-centeredness or a desire to preserve my "family history," I have decided to scan in my "scrapbook." (I put that in quotes because in no way does it deserve the title of scrapbook when compared with anything that most mormons or any scrapbook store around here would call a scrapbook.) I started it as a young women's project and kept it up pretty good since then. Unfortunately for all who chance to read this blog, I will for the next while have plenty of material I can post up here. Starting with me as toddler and then me riding my favorite big wheel ...





I was showing a lot of leg in that second one. Watch out.


A greeting card cover drawing contest I entered at the age of 9. It was a finalist. You have to wonder how they were judged. Here is the card...



Here is the award...


I find it so hilarious that the weather archivist was called in to sign this award.

My family's house when I was a kid.



I can't believe that house in north Seattle would sell for the puny sum of $92,500 a mere twenty-something years ago!

So I really, really love this man's voice and this is a great song!

I have been listening to Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men as I drive. I wanted to read it again since all I could remember about the book was nearly drowning in it in the eleventh grade while trying to write essays on what then seemed unintelligable passages from the book. I'm finding it more intelligable now. I came across this quote that I thought was very applicable to thesis writing.

"If something takes too long, something happens to you. You become all and only the thing you want and nothing else, for you have paid too much for it, too much in wanting and too much in waiting and too much in getting. In the end they just ask you those crappy little questions."

These are some funny excerpts from educational television. These are indeed important and benign phrases that visitors to the US should learn.



This one combines a bunch of the phrases that were taught.