First Run

I went running last night for the first time this year. Yes, I suck again, but not as bad as I did when I very first tried it. I love running in this area... isn't it beautiful? So great. It's amazing to get outside in the fresh air and look at those mountains for the whole run.

My favorite trail: Kays Creek

Satan's Rainbow

If you follow me on Facebook at all, you may have seen my little post about how I'd been stressing out about paint colors for the house and how I'd finally chosen a color. Turns out that color wasn't what I wanted. So we chose a couple more colors to try out. No dice. Then we changed things up and decided to go the orange route. That didn't work either. So we went back to beiges. I picked three new beiges and sorta liked one. So we were gonna go with that. At this point we had purchased 10 different samples and I didn't like any of them. I don't know how this is possible. But it was.

The Carnage

The other night we were walking around in RCWilleys (after purchasing a new fridge... yeah!).They have a lot of small walls throughout the store, all painted a different color. These colors were also labeled with a paint brand and name. So we decided to scout out the store for paint colors. Can I tell you how awesome this was? I can see lots of colors! And they're named! And a WHOLE WALL is painted, not just a 1" square on a card. Who would have known the furniture store would be the perfect place to shop for paint colors?

Well it turns out I saw an orange and a beige I liked. So I ditched the color I'd previously settled on. I pretty much had to do this because the beige color I liked ended up having the best name ever: Smoked Trout. And the orange was just what I was looking for. Seth is picking up samples of these two colors today. If these colors don't look good in our house I quit. Stay tuned.

Spam

I'm not sure what it is about my food blog that attracts the spam comments. But I get them pretty regularly. At first I was sort of angered by them, but then I found them quite entertaining. And then I thought maybe you'd all be entertained by them also. So I've been saving all the spam comments for the last couple months. It's quite a nice collection if I don't say so myself.

Keep in mind these are all in response to recipes, not political issues or brilliant ideas.

p.s. I didn't keep the spam comments laden with gobs of porn site links. I figured you could find those on your own if need be.


"Good I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your website. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs as well as related information ended up being truly easy to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Quite unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, website theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Nice task.."

"thnx bro"

"i love it" (from "Facebook"... I should be honored such a large entity loves my stuff...)

"your good"

"as if!"

"Thanks, its usefully for me."

"It’s interesting to see this point of view. I can’t say fore sure if I agree or not, but it is something I will think about now."

"it seems quite trivial to expect"

"Very informative blog here. I couldn’t have made a better one if my life depended on it." (I was very flattered that "Penis Enlargement Pills" would leave such a nice comment...)

"Once you are done trying to ‘optimize’ this routine."

The Sycamore House

It was towards the end of January this year when Seth and I decided we should start looking for a house. Our apartment lease wasn't up until the end of July, but we figured we'd get a jump start on looking to see what was available and to give ourselves more opportunity to find a good deal. With all the short-sale homes on the market and the likelihood we'd end up with a fixer-upper, there was a good chance it'd be a while before anything serious happened.

We found an awesome realtor, Heather Higgs, who seemed as excited as we were about house hunting (seriously... she was AWESOME). We spent our evenings looking at homes on Utah Real Estate and planning outings to go look at the treasures we'd found. (By the way, Google Maps is the best tool ever for house hunting!)

Fairly early on we found a cute little house we deemed the "Sycamore House." It was a cute little house in a nice cul-de-sac here in Layton. It seemed to have all the things we were looking for: a semi-private yard, two car garage, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a large kitchen. And it had a huge Sycamore tree in the backyard. I have a small crush on Sycamore trees, so I was immediately enamored with the property. Especially because it was in the lower end of our price range!

For a couple days we mulled over what to do and eventually decided to put our first offer on a house. To our surprise the first bank accepted our offer within a week. And then the second one accepted it a couple weeks later with the stipulation that we had to close on it within a month. AHHH! This was definitely happening way faster than we ever thought it would!

The few weeks that followed were filled with discussions of paint colors and flooring options as well as trips to the hardware store & home shows to price all the different things we would surely need to fix the place up. We wanted to be ready to get to work once all the papers were signed. While the house wasn't a total disaster, it would definitely need a face-lift before moving time came.

And after what seemed like the longest month ever, we finally closed today! Woohoo! The Sycamore House is now ours and the adventure begins!

Which brings us to what you've all been waiting for: THE PICTURES! I wanted to capture the "before"  pictures of this house so you could all admire our handywork and excellent taste in tapestries when you see it finished. Actually, I'm begging you to admire it so I don't burst into tears about choosing the wrong color of taupe (you can tell your significant other/friends how much you hate it later).

The Sycamore House (BEFORE)

Back deck... they got a little carried away with the gazebos. There's also an above ground pool. Yippee.

 Living Room: The paint and floor aren't in as good of shape as they look.

Kitchen: The cabinets are disgusting. I don't think they've ever been cleaned...

 The counter by the fridge space is falling off the wall. And there's really not much cabinet space despite the large size of the kitchen.

The paint job in here pretty much sucks. All the white paint in the house could use another coat. And I hate this brown.

Family Room: There's some missing tiles on the fireplace hearth and the room definitely needs paint, carpet, and new window coverings.

Another view of the family room. See that old furnace? Yeah, it'll probably have to be replaced...

 Downstairs Bathroom: Lovely shade of blue, eh?

Downstairs Bedroom: This is a nice large room, but it definitely needs some paint, carpet, and blinds. Oh and probably a new ceiling tile or two.

Master Bedroom:  Needs some new carpet, paint, and some curtains!

 Master Bedroom: One small closet for the master bedroom, that's a problem!

Upstairs Bedroom/Office: It looks nice but the paint job sucks. As does the carpet.

Downstairs Bedroom #2: Yucky paint and carpet. And those curtains have got to go.

Downstairs Bedroom #2: I don't know why, but there are no closet doors in this whole house. (That flower is a nice touch though...)

Laundry Room: Very laundry roomy. I'll definitely be doing a spider check in here...

So there you have it. The new Hanson home! There are a few other things that may need to be fixed later such as the swamp cooler, garage doors, and aluminum windows, but it's not so bad.  Despite all of its many flaws, once we get done with it I think it will be great! We're really looking forward to all the extra space and LIGHT! We'll finally be able to have people over and not eat on t.v. trays! Woohoo!

My Obsession with Trains and Trout Continues...

This winter has proved to be very busy. Ok mainly just the last month or so. I'm not going to get into details yet, but a house hunting endeavor has been sucking up all my time. I realized how bad it was when I went to write the February book reviews post and realized I'd only finished one book. Sad. And my computer is on the fritz. And then somebody stole Sexyterra's license plate. It's been a mess. Which is why this weekend was so great.

For the first time this winter I actually got in some fly fishing. Yes, I went ice fishing several times, but it's just not the same. This weekend I got to put on my waders TWICE. And I even caught a few browns. Man I've missed those little guys (who may or may not have inspired some decorating ideas...).  Plus, have I told you how beautiful it is up on the Weber River? What? I have? A million times you say? Ok I know. I'm obsessed. But look at this... how could I not be?

Posted up at a good spot and caught these guys all day!

Seth fishing on the bridge as a train passes.

I don't think anyone could be more handsome holding a fish. It's unpossible. (Heidi, I stole your word!)



Ok fine I'll stop. Even though you're probably begging for more because I've left you high and dry for so long. It's not my fault. But I promise there is more to come. Some time. Not really sure when, but hopefully soon. Who am I kidding... the craziness is only just beginning...

Mascara Wars

Warning: This post contains explicit material about make-up and really girly things. Take heed male readers.

Even though I'd pronounced my favorite mascara here, I couldn't help but get sucked into marketing schemes and try a couple new mascaras. I mean, how could you not want to try a mascara called "Falsies." HA! So today we will be pitting the challenger, CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume Mascara against a couple contenders and see how it fares. Can it stay the ultimate mascara champion or will it crumble into a streaky black mess of failure? Let's find out...

CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara

 

vs.

CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion Mascara

After declaring the CG LashBlast Volume Mascara as my favorite, CoverGirl came out with a new formula that was supposed to be both a volumizing and lengthening mascara. Well that's clearly better than just a volumizing mascara, right?


It took me a couple purchases of the Fusion mascara before I could really compare it to the Volume mascara. I accidentally bought the brown color of the Fusion my first time around, which I couldn't compare equally with the Volume because color can make a big difference in how the mascara looks. Still, the formula felt a little drier than the Volume. I thought it might be a fluke... maybe it'd been sitting on the shelf longer than normal because brown isn't as popular of a color. So I went back for a second tube and this time got my regular color: blackest black.

I immediately noticed the Fusion mascara formula was indeed drier than the Volume formula. I'm sure they did this to increase the length and volume, but it wasn't obviously more so than the Volume mascara. And because it started out drier, the tube didn't last as long. I saw little clumps on my lashes pretty early on. The Fusion mascara used the exact same wand as the Volume which I liked, but the one thing that sealed the deal on Volume being the winner was price. The Fusion mascara was more expensive than the Volume formula, by $.50 I think.

So the winner and remaining champ is.... CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara!

Ready for the next fight? You got it...

Entering the ring we have our continuing champ: CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara

And our new contender is.....Maybelline Volum' Express "the Falsies" Black Drama Mascara

I'll admit I bought this mascara just because of the name. Falsies? That name makes me think of these not these. My immediate opinion of the Falsies mascara was I didn't like the brush. It was too stubby and it looked like there was a lot of mascara loaded on the wand. Surprisingly it applied fairly well, not the gloppy mess I thought it would be. Still, I've come to love the plastic bristle brushes and this one was too bushy and not stiff enough. I also noticed there were a lot of hair-like fibers in the formula. I'm sure this is how they get the dramatic "false lash" look, but to me it just made the formula look dirty.

As far as performance goes, I didn't hate the look the Falsies gave. I did think this made my lashes look longer and fuller than the CG Volume mascara did, but not obviously so. However, the look with the Falsies was a bit clumpier than with the Volume mascara and it was tough to evenly cover my lower lashes without clumps and globs. The staying power of the Falsies mascara was comparable to CG Volume which was nice and I do think if you're looking for a super dramatic look you may like this mascara, but for everyday wear, I'm going to stick with my CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara. Especially because I can add additional coats if I want the dramatic look the Falsies gave me. I have heard the original formula of Falsies (not the Black Drama formula) is a better everyday mascara, so I may end up trying that one in the future, just to see if I like it. But for our purposes today, I officially declare the winner to be:

CoverGirl Lashblast Volume Mascara!!

Have you tried any of these mascaras? Which did you like best and why? Do you use a completely different brand you think I'd like better?

January Book Reviews: West of the Tularosa, The Hunger Games, and Peace Like a River

To start out the new year I thought I would revamp my book reviewing system. I started using a new website called Good Reads to keep track of the books I've read in the past, books I'm currently reading, books I want to read, and books I've finished. I've posted a couple different book lists on my sidebar: books I'm currently reading and books I've finished this year. This way you can easily see the ratings I've given for any book without having to dig through all my book posts.

Because I started using the Good Reads website, my rating scale will also change. I will now be on a 5 star system instead of 3. Here's the breakdown:

 *= Didn't like it; **= It was ok; ***=Liked it; ****=Really liked it; *****=It was amazing

West of the Tularosa

by Louis L'Amour

Rating: **

West of the Tularosa is about... well... let's see. This guy comes into town and finds some dead guys in a cabin. Then the bad guys try to frame him and they gotta figure out who done what.

This was my first attempt at reading a western. I listened to this on audiobook and thought it was entertaining, though maybe not quite my style. I'm typically not big on westerns and this just seemed to be a little too... I don't know. It's a good book to read on the beach. There. I think that says it.

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Rating: ****

For those of you who haven't read it yet, The Hunger Games is about a girl named Katniss who is involved in a deadly survivalist reality t.v. show. Every year, two children (a boy and a girl) between the ages of 12-18 are drawn in a lottery from each of 12 districts. These children are then sent into an arena to fight to the death. The winner gets immunity from later games as well as food and a home for the rest of their lives, something that is very valuable in a semi-communistic society where starvation is common. 

I didn't want to like this book, what with it being so popular and all, but I couldn't help it. I had it on loan from the library for two weeks, a shorter period than normal because there's such a long waiting list. Seth and I were both able to finish the book in the two week period. It was a very engaging book... I found that I kept reading and reading... something I rarely do. This was a great easy read and I'll definitely be reading the whole series.

Peace Like a River

 by Leif Enger

Rating: *****

I know. This book looks like it would be incredibly boring. The title does not do it justice. However, this was one of the best books I've read in a while. It's hard to say what this book is about without giving away too many plot details. Mainly it's about a man named Jeremiah Land who goes through a moral dilemma of whether he should turn his 16 year old son, Davy into "the Feds" after he is charged for murder and escapes from prison. The book is told from Davy's 11 year old asthmatic brother, Reuben's perspective.

I really loved Enger's writing style. He gave each of his characters such an individual personality and voice. You can't help but love each of the characters, even the "evil Fed" who is after Davy. This book is definitely on my Top 5 list for the last year.

p.s. I listened to the audio version of this book and really enjoyed it. Great narrator.