Amberguity

Summer Summary

2009-10-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

Ok I know we are way into fall, but I still want to post my summer recap. It was a great summer and I wished it would never have ended! Here's an illustrated list of my going-ons:

Summer Highlights:

Sailing at Little Dell Reservoir

Doing field botany

Foraging for mushrooms

Losing weight

Summer Firsts:

Learning to sail

Ice blocking

Driving the back way from Strawberry Reservoir to Springville on treacherous roads in a mini van

Growing lots and lots of zucchini

Going to Capitol Reef National Park and Fantasy Canyon

Summer Activities:

House shopping with Megan

Moving to a new house

Taking hundreds of pictures of plants and the wild

Visiting with Stacey in town from Korea

Riding my Cruiser bike

Composting

Swedish Festival

Art City Days

Collecting thousands of seeds

Getting to know Vernal

Seeing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers on stage

Making wheat bread from wheat flour I ground myself! (um, didn't rise very well)

Good News

2009-09-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all two of my readers! ;) I have good news-as of late I have lost 30 lbs! It's been a great experience and easier to do than I thought it would be. I just had to make up my mind to really do it and come up with a good plan that I could stick to. Now I wish I would have decided to do this years ago! So far it's taken 4 months to get to this point and I am still going. Hopefully I can lose another 30 lbs by the end of the year (although it may be hard due to the feeding frenzy which begins with Halloween candy and ends with Christmas treats)! But I'm pretty determined. If you so desire you can check out my new blog: Losing It (http://www.losingitthesensibleway.blogspot.com/). Basically I just post about my weight loss strategies, etc. It may be helpful to someone out there, so pass it along if you feel the desire.

I Can't Believe It's Not Apple!

2009-08-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

Lately I've had an excess of zucchini lying around so I've been looking for every recipe I can that uses the stuff. This one I tried today was great. It pretty much tastes like apple crisp, but there's not a single apple in it! I'm going to give it two thumbs up. (ps I put in a little extra sugar and halfed the recipe)

ZUCCHINI CRISP

from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

8 cups cubed peeled zucchini
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Topping:
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cold butter or margarine

Directions:
In a bowl, combine the zucchini, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; mix well. Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.
For topping, combine brown sugar, oats and flour in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over the zucchini mixture. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until bubbly and the zucchini is tender.

I Knew It!

2009-08-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

Check this article out, it makes me happy: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html

Cruisin' and Compostin'

2009-08-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

I enjoy the simple things in life and few things in life are simpler than compost and cruising on a bike through your neighborhood, especially in summer. Take a look at the pictures below and feel my joy.

A Murray Cruiser bike, circa 1992. I thought it was the most hideous thing back then. But now it's cool, go figure.

Compost of my own making. I started it almost two years ago, but since the addition of a box and a pitchfork to the process it has really started to get brown and beautiful-can't wait to put it out in my garden.

Dinosaurland

2009-06-21T16:03:00.001-07:00

Hello All. I'm still doing the botanical gig every week in Vernal and then coming home on the weekends. Vernal is an interesting place. It's a small town with one main road, but the population of residents is probably matched by the number of tourists in town and people coming in for work-especially those working for the oil and gas industrial complex. There are many hotels and motels in town and they can all charge high rates, because the demand is high. We are staying a fairly nice motel for which we pay $130.00 a night before taxes! Vernal is known as Dinorsaurland because of all the dinosaur bones and fossil fuels that are found in the area and you will not fail to notice this fact while you're in town because of all the dinosaurs everywhere. One of my favorites is the one found above. This brontosaurus lights up and moves its arms up and down beckoning people to stay and swim at the local motel. There is also a huge pink dinosaur on one side of town welcoming people and there is another huge dinosaur sculpture in the middle of town that has changing accessories depending on the time of year. During high school graduation it was wearing a large graduation cap and holding a diploma. Now that it is fishing season it is holding a fishing rod with a fish on the end and wearing a fishing hat. It's unreal. Take a look below.Things are going well with the plants too. We have been surveying areas looking for our penstemon plants. We've been going down a lot of dirt roads, getting soaked by many rain storms, running from lightening and seeing some awesome views. Here I am at the top of a mountain ridge (don't laugh at my field clothes).

Wandering in the Desert

2009-05-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

I've been out working in the field twice this month and it's great. Take a look at some of the places and things I'm seeing. The Uinta Basin is more beautiful than I ever imagined. I love the desert.
One of our research sites

This is the Penstemon plant we are studying, looks like it's sticking it tongue out us, doesn't it?

"Willa crick" (Willow creek)

An evening primrose and our Jeep Rubicon that gets us down all the dirt roads we follow

Me in the field, glamorous, no?

A Job, A Job

2009-04-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, and just when you thought you'd seen the last of me-I'm back! So anyway, I found a job or should I say I got a job, I found jobs that didn't want me, but finally someone did! My days of searching are over, well at least for a little while. It just for the summer, but I think it will be amazing. I will be working for the Botanical gardens near me in their conservation department as a Field Botanist. Doesn't being a field anything sound great? So I will be travel around the state surveying plant populations, collecting seed, revegetating areas and whatever else a field botanist does. I'm not sure yet because I don't start for a week, but huzzah! I will keep you updated and you'll surely get lots of pictures.

Sharing the Wealth

2009-03-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

If you noticed that my background changed lately it's all due a great source for cute blog layouts. Check out my friend Cristi's FREE blog layots. She's awesome! http://cristiscreations.blogspot.com/

Jobs Schmobs

2009-03-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Ok so two things for today. First, the job search isn't going too hot. I know leave it to me to pick the best time to look for a job, but it's too late to go back. I was talking to a guy last night that is also looking for a job nowadays and he described the process as "soul crushing." I would have to agree, that is precisely the way it feels. If anyone would give me the chance I promise I am a very hard, smart worker, really! So if anyone knows of any good or even not so good jobs out there, let me know.
Actually I'll work for a lot less than this, I'm a bargain!

Second, on a lighter note, I found this funny blog http://www.sexypeople-blog.com/ . Don't worry it's nothing dirty, just very funny portraits of people from the 1960's to 1990's, like this:
Haha, these kids crack me up.

Haunting myself

2009-02-18T10:06:00.001-08:00

Hah! I just got a message from my past self from one year ago. So amusing. If you go to the site, www.futureme.org, you can write an email to yourself to be delivered at some point in the future. I had kind of forgotten that I had done this, so it was a fun suprise to get my email to me. Try it.

Books on my mind

2009-02-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

So at the moment I'm looking for a fulltime job and since I can't spend all my time job hunting (or I'd go crazy), I'm also looking for some good reads. I want to read something enjoyable, it can be poignant, just not depressing and it has to end well. Currently I'm reading John Adams by David McCullough, which I'm thoroughly enjoying but I want a few more books in my queue. Does anyone out there have any suggestions? (Oh and any leads on jobs will be accepted as well :)).

Cool Nerdy Things...

2009-02-12T15:50:00.001-08:00

Hello blog buddies,
I know I haven't post in like 5,000 blogging years, but I think I lost my direction in how I wanted the blog to go. I didn't have any cool posting ideas so I just kind of stopped, but now I have renewed my determination to blog. I think my direction will go less to the things that I'm up to-(mostly boring!) and more to the things I'm interested in, including links and ideas, etc. But mostly it will be a random hodgepodge of stuff. So everytime you tune in it will be a suprise. Ok onto the topic at hand...

I was all alone at work today and didn't really feel like listening to music, but I thought it would be cool to listen to a book on tape. So I went online to look for free books on "tape" and found a really cool site, www.librivox.org. People volunteer to record themselves reading chapters of uncopyrighted books and then you can listen to or download them for free! So cool, I started listening to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide. It was read by a man with an interesting British accent. Actually the first site I found was one that had free audiobooks, but they were read by a computer and it was strange and discombobulated. Anyway, maybe you had already heard of this site and it's nothing new to you, but I'm excited to have found it. Now I'm going to volunteer to read some chapters, which I've always wanted to do as job.

Another cool thing, I found out at work (I work at a library) we have these Polk City Directories and you can look up by street and house number the name of the the people that lived in the house. So I looked up my house at found that it was most likely built in 1929. The first residents were the Hickoks, then the Croceks, then the Waterfields. I kind of like knowing a little bit the history of my house.

Taggage

2008-10-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Ok I've been tagged twice this week so this is the first of my tag lists.

8 TV shows that I watch
The Office
Heroes
The Biggest Loser
What Not To Wear
Project Runway
American’s Next Top Model
Jeeves and Wooster (reruns)
Sherlock Holmes (reruns)
But I don’t always watch these each week.

8 favorite restaurants
I don’t know that I have favorites, here are some I’ve been to recently and liked
Panda Express
Costa Vida
Mazza’s
Acme Burger
Belissimo Gelato
Rubio’s
Yanni’s Greek Express

8 Things that happened the day before yesterday
Took an Italian Test-did not too bad
went to Advanced Phonology class (that’s phonology not phrenology)
Studied for my Child Language Acquistion test
Made corn muffins
Talked to my roommates
Made dinner
Watched a movie
That’s it

8 Things that I look forward to
My nieces coming to visit in December
The end of the semester
Getting my paycheck
Saturdays
Hanging out with friends

8 Things I love about fall
Wearing my fall clothes
Crunchy leaves
Leaves changing colors
Halloween candy and autumn treats
Pumpkins!
Cool but not cold weather
Enjoying soup and hot cider or hot chocolate

8 Things on my wish list
Moving to Italy
Learning Italian
Buying a digital SLR camera
Having my own car
Visiting Greece and maybe India
Um other stuff I can’t think of now

Back for Now

2008-09-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted for over a month! I guess school already has me in its evil clutches. I just fnished grading 60 (yes, sixty) exams, bah! So what else have I been doing with myself? Um discovering the joys and frustrations of webcamming with my sister and nieces. Watching the premieres for Heroes and The Office and taking lots of pictures! For my newest project I'm taking photos of all the cool old churches I can find in Salt Lake City. There are a lot of them, but it's so fun to discover them.

Oh also I went target shooting for the first time in my life. My roommate and her friend and I went out to the west desert and shot shotguns, rifles and pistols. I kind of felt a little redneck, but it's not like I was going out to the dump to shoot rats or something right? Anyway, along the way we went to Horseshoe springs and the water looked so nice we just jumped in fully clothed! Also we went to the ghost town of Iosepha. This place like an hour from SLC where the polynesian immigrants to Utah settled. All that is left now is a monument and a graveyard. Ok that is all for now. Over and out.

Summer Days Drifting Away...

2008-08-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

So school starts tomorrow-blah! Where oh where has my carefree summer gone? It was a nice low key summer. I'm not really ready for deadlines and commitments, but oh well. Let's go ahead and do a recap of the summer-so if anyone asks, “what in the world did you spend you're time on” I'll have something to say. p.s. This is a work in progress.

Highlights:

Playing with my nieces

Visiting the Cotswolds and wandering through fields of Lavendar

All of the things I did for the first time this summer

Firsts:

Went to the San Rafael Swell.

Visited Northern Ireland

Drove in England on the wrong side of the road

Toured the Salt Lake Cemetery

Went to a play at the Cedar City Shakespearean Festival

Hit golf balls at the driving range

Swam in the Great Salt Lake

Went boating and swam in the Utah Lake

Became a Relief Society teacher

Festivals Visited:
Art City Days

Swedish Festival

Books read (ok not exactly classics, but very fun):
The Thursday Next Series: The Eyre Affair; Lost in a Good Book;
Well of Lost Plots; Something Rotten

Twilight

Reunions with friends I hadn’t seen for at least a year:
College friends Leslye, Andrew, Lia, and Jenn

Aunt Cherry and Uncle Dave

Holly, friend from Boston

Jackie, just back from her mission

Heather, Heather and Christy, friends from high school:

How I made money this summer:

Worked part-time at the University Library

How I whiled away my time:

Facebook, Email, Blogging

Taking thousands of photos

Playing the piano (mostly songs from the Jane Austen movies soundtracks)

Talking to my roommates

Sitting in my Party Pool

Watching the Olympics

Ward activities

Eating out

Working on Genealogy

New Friends made:

Lindsey, Emily, Holly, Jessi, Cristi

England, it's like a whole other country

2008-07-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

Ang and Baby on Beacon Hill

I'm back! I just returned from visiting my sister in England and every time I go I learn new things about the way the Brits live over there. Sometimes I forget and think they are just like Americans, since no other country is probably more like us aside from Canada, but the truth is just because they speak English or at least a dialect of English, doesn't mean they do things the same way. And there will always be an endless debate as to who does and says things the "right" way.

Obviously we know they drive on the "wrong" or left side of the road. Last week I got to drive in England for the first time ever and I felt just like a teenager learning to drive for the first time. Not only do they drive on the left, the steering wheel is on the right side of the car and shift with your left hand (good for lefties, a little more difficult for the rest of us). I think I scared her because I kept hugging the curb (kerb in Englandese) and she thought I was going to hit it, but I thought it was better than hitting oncoming traffic. And the roads are so terribly narrow over there it just adds to the difficulty. But once I got the hang of driving, it was exhilarating. Although I don't think I went of 40 miles an hour.

So what else is different? Well they speak a different dialect than americans altogether, it's usually understandable, but sometimes you get a word throw in there that you don't know. Here's a little list of English to English translations.

the boot -trunk of a car

nappy- diaper

to let- for rent (like an apt)

for hire- to rent ( like a car or video)

on holiday- on vacation

torch- flashlight

footpath- sidewalk

chips- fat french fries with fish

crisps- potato chips

biscuits/digestives- cookies

rubbish bin- trash can

toilet- restroom (to an American this is a bit too descriptive, we like euphemisms like restroom or bathroom, but they just say it like it is 'which way to the toilet?')

aubergine-eggplant

to chuck something- to throw it away

lie in -sleep in

trousers-pants

girls underwear- knickers

pudding-any kind of dessert

Anyway, the list could go on and on. They also use different phrases than us. Instead of answering a question like 'Did you go to the store?' with 'I did' they would say, 'I did do.' In the region I was in they also say 'Hiya' a lot instead of just 'Hi'. They also spell things differently, besides little differences like colour and centre, they also have gaol (jail). My sister and her husband have pretty much adopted most of these saying and my little 3 year old niece pretty much has a Bristish accent.

Haha-the English way to say raised pedestrian crossing

And some things over there truly just aren't as good as American thing, take for instance plumbing. There sinks have two faucets, one for hot and one for cold. You can see how this could make it hard for washing your hands, face, contacts, etc. Also the service in restaurants and other places is not as good as in the states. Oh and everything costs twice as much for an American since the dollar to pound rate is two to one. Yikes.

But what do they do better? For one thing Chocolate. Hands down I like Cadbury's chocolate better than any other chocolate anywhere. On my last visit I got to go to Cadbury's World! Ah delicious. Also public transportation is really good and they are better at being environmentally friendly. They've also got the beautiful quaint little village thing down.

Mostly the things I miss when I'm away from England are foods-Yorkshire pudding (it's like a savory puff pastry covered in gravy, so so good), Sticky toffee pudding (this is actualy a sweet cake with dates and caramel in cake served with cream, very rich), Hob Nobs (chocolate covered digestive cookies), new potatoes, parsnips and scones. yes you can get some of these things over here, but they are just better there.

All in all it's fun to visit my ancestral land and I love finding the little differences, it's refreshing really. So although technically it is a different country it's really kind of like a second home.

Fare thee well...

2008-06-28T12:53:00.001-07:00

For those of you that don't know, I depart for Dublin tomorrow morning! That's Dublin, Ireland, I'm jumping the pond and then hopping over to England to stay with my Sister and family. It should be fun, we have lots of plans. We are going to have a Red Neck 4th of July BBQ and we are going to photograph her tiny village in England and then we are all flying back to Dublin right before I leave and driving around Ireland for four days.

I'm excited to see my nieces, I'm excited to see the Northern half of Ireland this time ( I went in '03) and I'm excited to get away for a vacation for a little while. Not that my summer has been too taxing or anything, but sometimes it's just nice to have a change of scenery. So wish me luck, the only thing I'm not looking forward to is 24 hours of traveling tomorrow, yuck. I hate airports and planes. But I guess they are necessary evils. To entertain me I have bought the 2nd in the Twilight series and the second in the Thursday Next series.

If you haven't heard of Thursday Next she's a character in a series of books by Jasper Fforde. There are really charming and fun, not like really any genre you've read-almost sci fi/fantasy/ mystery but not, with a little romance and a lot of humor and literary illusions thrown in. The first in the series is The Eyre Affair.

Ok so that's what's going on with my life lately. So I may not be blogging much, we'll see. Ciao!

Getting Back to My Roots

2008-06-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

I am 1/4 Swedish, I am more Swedish than I am any other nationality and I'm very proud of it. So this Saturday I participated in a holiday of my forefathers and foremothers-Midsummers. Midsummers is a celebration held at the Summer solstice, the longest day of the year. There is music and dancing and food. You wear flowers in your hair and there is also a Midsummers' pole which you dance around. I was never raised with any Swedish traditions so it was fun to go to this festival and learn something about my heritage and feel at least a little Swedish. Here are some pics.

There were a lot of darling little girls dressed up in Swedish garb with floral wreaths, so sweet.

I made this flower wreath myself with Birch twigs and Scabiosa, Valerian and Coreopsis Flowers.

I Want Answers

2008-06-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

So today I discovered a really fun place on the internet. A place to go to get answers to just about any topic you can think of. I wanted to know what kind of food my sister in England and I could serve at her 4th of July party that was really really American, so I asked the millions of people online and in minutes I got many answers, ranging from apple pie to 3 Musketeers to fried okra. So what is this site called? It's simply Yahoo! answers (http://answers.yahoo.com). If you already have a yahoo account you're set, if not it's free to sign up.

Then I started to answer questions. It's fun and what a great idea to share knowledge. I mean two heads are better than one and millions are better than one too! It's really fun so give it a try, whatever you wanted to know the world is your oyster!

The Big Parade

2008-06-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the big parade in my Hometown and it made me feel a little nostalgic for my childhood. I took my camera and tried to capture some of the fun, hope you can feel that same excitement as you look at the pictures. The kids were also loving all the candy people were throwing from the floats.

A Walk a day...

2008-06-11T20:17:00.001-07:00

Poppy Buds

So lately I've taken to going on walks in the evening. I guess it's my form of exercise since I sometimes (ok a lot of the time) have a hard time making myself go to the gym. But I really love these walks. I live in a beautiful area of Salt Lake that was built up in the teens, twenties and thirties and most of the homes have a lot of charm-think Tudor cottages and California bungalows. But even better than that are the lovely yards they have. Around here people have really caught on to the idea of xeriscaping with native and waterwise plants, so instead of front yards with boring mowed lawns they have heaping mounds of delightful perennials like penstemons and yarrow and red hot pokers scattered about! I like to try to identify all the plants I see while I'm walking. There are so many things in bloom this time of year.

Love this House, Isn't a red door inviting?

Variegated Iris, Sage, Yucca, thyme? and something else

Sometimes I'll take my camera along with me just in case I run into something really divine. Also depending on when I'm walking I get a great view of the sunset through the trees. Tonight was a really beautiful one, mainly pink with golds and purples. You also don't realize how much wildlife there is in these suburbs-birds galore and also their nemeses, cats, who love to loll on their driveways at dusk. I saw this one cat tonight, the fattest black and white cat I had ever seen. It waddled up the driveway and let me pet it for awhile.

I try not to think about any of my problems as I walk, but to just enjoy life and summer and nature in whatever form I can find it. Ahh...

That's Just Swell

2008-06-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm going to let you in on a little secret I discovered this weekend. The San Rafeal Swell in central Utah is a dazzling place with breathtaking scenery rivaling both Arches and Zions National Parks! I had heard of the swell a few times before, but had never been there or known what it was like, until my new roommate Megan and I decided to go exploring. We drove down on Friday morning and proceeded to get lost on a few roads in the Swell, not really knowing exactly where we were, but really enjoying the scenery.

We made camp next to Muddy Creek and stayed the night. Megan provided the camping gear and I provided the transportation-a white mini van (not exactly a All Terrain Vehicle, but more than sturdy enough to make it through the swell). Now many of you know I'm not a big camper, but I might start changing my mind. It's refreshing to take a break from the world and just go to somewhere really remote and forget about everything. And seeing the millions of stars so clearly at night against the black sky was a really good perk.

The next morning after a breakfast of bacon and pancakes we found our way out of the swell and onto I-70, taking many photos along the way. At this point we were out of gas and had to partially fill up in Emery a very tiny town on the outskirts of the swell and pay $4.20 a gallon for unleaded!!! After going through a few small towns and stopping for lunch at Sherald's Burger Bar in Price, we made our way back to Salt Lake. It was a capital adventure! Megan told me that "an adventure is just an expedition that is poorly planned." Maybe that is true, we could have planned a few things better, but we had a wonderful time regardless. Now here are some pictures.

Megan contemplates the meaning of life in a rusted out truck

The Old "Lucky Strike" uranium mine (ps I now glow in the dark)

Family Butte

Hondu Arch and company

Festival Time

2008-05-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

In two short days it will be June, my favorite month of the year. It's not my favorite just because the weather is lovely or because so many things are flowering. I also love it because it's Festival time. All kinds of festivals are going on around Utah and I plan to go to many of them. Here's a list of what I want to go to this June.

Art City Days-June 7-14th! This is Springville's time to shine. There is a carnival and other activities, including a hot air balloon festival and a Children's Art Festival (June 13th) at the Museum, leading up to the "big" parade on Sat the 14th. As kids we'd always sit in front of the Museum and watch the parade go by. We made sure to always sit in the front row so we could catch any candy that people would throw from the floats passing by. It was great!

http://www.springville.org/calendarevents/events/artcitydays/

Utah Scottish Festival and Highland Games-also June 13-14th at Thanksgiving Point. Ah there is nothing like a man in a kilt. I've never been to this festival before so I can't wait to see what it is going to be all about. Plus I am partly Scottish so that should bump up my enjoyment of the activities as well

Ok this photo was mostly for my benefit, isn't Gerald Butler dreamy?

Swedish Midsummer's Festival-June 21st at the International Peace Park 1060 S. 900 W. in Salt Lake. This is a celebration of the Summer Solstice. You put flowers in your hair and dance around a maypole, correction midsummer's pole, and then gorge yourself on a Swedish smorgåsbord. It's delightful.

Picture pages

2008-05-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

So I realized this weekend that I dare not call myself a "photographer." Although I do love to take photos and do it quite regularly, I just don't have the right equipment or technical skill to call myself a photographer. At the end of last year I did have one of my photos published in a calendar that was printed and distributed by the University, so I was beginning to think maybe I was some sort of photographer, but now I think I was letting it go to my head.

This weekend my friend invited me to the Salt Lake Photo Safari. Sounds cool no? We didn't really know what it was, but once we got there I realized I was way out of my league. Everyone had really nice big cameras with telephoto lens and tripods, etc. and I had my little dinky point-n-shoot digital camera. We didn't end of staying very long needless to say. It was all a bit over our heads. I also was a bridesmaid this weekend for my now former roommate and she had a photographer there all day as well and I asked him a little about photography and began to realize that to get "good" would take many hundreds of dollars and a lot of time.

So until I get more money and a good teacher, I will have to be content with my my little Panasonic digital and rely on my own ingenuity to take good pictures. What I love to take photos of are nature/plants and architecture, especially interesting textures and shapes. So without further adieu here are some selected photos from this week by a wanna be:

And here is the winning picture that I talked about before. It was taken in Buesa, Spain.

Could a rose by any other name...

2008-05-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

If you know me well, you know I love names. I know the names of a lot of plants and a lot of artists. There is not much I love more than walking through a garden or a museum and knowing the name of everything I see. I don't know why I have that passion but I do. What I also find fascinating is how people name their children. What I like to look at most are the trends and see what they say about society and people. Yesterday the U.S. Social Security organization released the top 1000 names of 2007. Good reading!

So go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/. There is a wealth of information on this site, including tops names of every decade back to 1880 and you can trace the popularity of a name back 100 years! For example, my name has been in the top 1000 since 1945 and reached its pinnacle in in 1986 at 13th most popular name of the year. It's popularity has been falling ever since but it still holds strong at 146th in 2007.

But back to the top names of 2007- Emily, Isabella, Emma, Ava and Madison top the list for girls and Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua and Daniel top the list for boys. So what does this mean to America. Well I think it shows that for the majority of people they want girls to be girls and boys to be boys. All the top girl names are very feminine and all the top boys names are decidedly male. Transgender names like Taylor and Jordan are dropping in popularity. And some names are duking it out for rights to be either male or female, like the name Jayden is now most decidely male now although some still girls have it. I think it shows that most people want a return to traditional values. Emily and Jacob ae both very old, very traditional names. Jacob, Daniel, Joshua are also all biblical, as is Hannah (no. 9 for girls) and Elizabeth (no. 10).

People are getting very creative as well though, especially with spelling. The name Jayden has at least five spelling variations and the name Caitlyn has at least 8 variations. Also different, rare names are becoming popular like Nevaeh (heaven spelled backwards) is no. 31 and Serenity is no. 126. Esmeralda is at no. 194, before Kendra or Chelsea. As for Boys they are quite a bit more conservative. From the top 100 you can also see that there is a large Hispanic population in the U.S. The traditional hispanic names: Angel, Jose, Diego, Luis, Juan, Xavier, Carlos, Jesus, Miguel and Antonio are all in the top 100 for boys names.

Anyway, it's all very fascinating so take a look at look up your own name. Maybe you will be suprised.

To Blog or not to Blog...

2008-05-08T22:39:00.001-07:00

So one of my favorite new activities is blog surfing. At least that is what I am calling it. At the top of every Blogger blog on the left side is a link that says Next Blog. I just click that and it takes me to a random blog that was just updated in cyberspace. I have found a vast array of blogs ranging from family blogs to art and photography blogs to business blogs to very strange and undescribable blogs. It's so interesting. And there is a suprising number of LDS blogs out there as well, I mean considering how few mormons there are in the world-they like their blogging. So what I think I'm going to start doing is adding a link to a blog of the week that I've "discovered" blog surfing, so you can enjoy them too.

So why do I like looking at strangers blogs? I don't know- I just find people fascinating. Like C.S. Lewis, the most quoted non-Mormon general authority, said, "We read to know we're not alone." I think that is true. We also blog to know we aren't alone. We write in hopes of people reading our blogs and responding to them. It's human nature. And what did people do before blogs? Well of course there have been books for a long time, but for the less educated it started with cave wall painting, then grafitti and then writing on bathroom stalls, a legacy that continues today. Oh I've read a lot of interesting (and suprisingly mostly non -perverted) stuff on the stalls in the Marriott Library. Stall 3 is like a 3D blog with people making comments about other people's "posts".

So to wrap this up, I've really enjoyed my blog and the feedback I've gotten from it. I'm most definitely not alone!

Resolved

2008-05-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Forget New Year's resolutions, I never keep them and I've stopped making them, what it's really all about is Spring and Summer resolutions! I mean who has the drive during the long and dreary winter to keep a cumbersome list of goals, ah, but with the Spring comes a renewing that just makes you want to start afresh. Plus there are more sunlight hours during the day to accomplish what you want to do and school is out (at least for me). So I am now ready to make a list of goals that I might actually be able to keep or at least plan a few good projects to do. So without further ado here is my list in no particular order:

tend my garden

organize my room and make it look "pretty"

go on a road trip

get to the gym a few times a week

work on my genealogy/do some temple work

lose a few pounds
do some volunteer work
get a facial

stop eating so much sugar (except gelato)

improve the appearance of my blog

work on my photography skills-maybe take a class

do my visiting teaching regularly

read a literary classic or some non-school related book-maybe Twilight ;)

edit my photos and organize them

practice my Italian!

Hmm, maybe this list is too long, but some of these things are related so it really shouldn't be all that daunting right? Well as they say shoot for the stars and mabe you'll hit the moon.

My Life in Six Words or Less

2008-04-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

So I've been tagged and invited to write a six-word memoir, which is funny since just a few weeks earlier I had been reading my roommates book, Not Quite what I was planning: Six Word Memoirs by the famous and obscure. It's quite the interesting read. People were asked to sum up all or part of the life or I guess the essence of it in six words. That's a pretty hard feat. Below are some of my attempts. Let me know which one you think epitomizes me and feel free to share your own six word bio, I'd love to hear it.

calm on surface, paddling furiously below

well I really had good intentions

found joy in the smallest flower

indiana jones stuck in librarian's body

One Woman's trash...

2008-04-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

So I pretty much believe there are two kinds of people in this world-Savers and Thrower-awayers. I myself am a saver, like my dad, and my mom likes to throw things away. This has caused no ends of quarrels, but I can't throw away perfectly good things just because I don't have a lot of space for them. First of all what if I need them again? Second I hate the idea of being wasteful and third a lot of these things I have are my history. Letters, ticket stubs, my old clothes and toys from when I was a kid-this is my past, my life. Somehow along the way my old barbie got tossed and I so regret that!

I also am a partaker of things other people are going to jettison, mostly books and furniture, (I just can't stand the idea of perfectly good things in a landfill! And some people do discard the most wonderful things). As you may have guessed I like yard sales, but what I really like are signs that read FREE on old furniture that people set out on the curb. I picked up a great big bookself this winter (good thing I drive a minivan)! My roommate is a bit of a bargain finder as well. Yesterday she found a really cool solid wood mission-style table on someone's curb-for free. Well she snatched that up in a jiffy and now it looks really cool in our house.

I read this article quite a few months ago in the New York Times about a group of people in New York that live entirely on garbage-I mean they eat things people throw away, like dumpster diving! and furnish their homes and their bodies with perfectly good things that people can't be bothered with anymore (there is even a term for this stuff-Mongo). And these aren't like homeless types, these are people with real jobs and such that have dedicated themselves to not consuming so much. Amazing. I of course could never live out of the trash, but it's an interesting idea.

If I do actually have to throw something out-like real garbage I always try to recycle as much as I can. As a kid I would recycle pop cans and newspaper (because that is pretty much the only recycling you could do in Utah County), but now I'm in Salt Lake I can recycle almost everything. It's lovely. I've decided to get evenmore earth friendly and now I recycle cups and plastic things that I get when I eat out. I just scrape them off and then put them in the recycling when I get home. I know it sounds a bit fanatic, but it is not hard and makes my conscience feel oh so much better. Along with recycling more, I try to use less, my mantra is Reuse, Reduce, Recycle! I hardly ever buy water bottles. I either opt for a drinking fountain or reuse a water bottle. I'm also going to start taking my own bag grocery shopping instead of getting plastic sacks and I try to buy things in larger packages instead of getting lots of small packages.
Well I'm not as Eco-friendly as I want to be yet, but it's a start.

I think this saver/collector personality of mine has extended into all areas of my life. Most of my jobs have revolved around collections of some sort-Herbaria, Libraries and Museums. I even love dictionaries which are really just collections of words.

Well here is to are the savers/collectors/historians/recyclers/scavengers of the world-I salute you!

In Bloom

2008-04-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

There are so many things in bloom right now, it's lovely to take a walk around the neighborhood. Here's what's in bloom in my neighborhood right now:

Trees:
Cherry, Plum, Pear and Apricot trees-Cherries usually have white to pink blossoms with smooth bark (also all of the "weeping" trees are cherries), Plum have purplish pink blooms with dark gray bark and Apricots have white flowers with light gray courser bark, Pears have white blossoms.

Maples-Large trees that look like they are getting light green leaves, these are actually green flowers.

Magnolias-Big white or Pink flowers

(Forsythia)

Shrubs:

Phlox-a little shrub with mounds of very light purple flowers.

Forsythias-Large bush with bright yellow flowers

Flowering Quince-Dark pink bloosoms and spiny branches

(Tulips and Grape Hyanciths)
Bulbs:

Tulips-yellows, reds, pinks and whites.

Daffodils-yellow bulb flowers

Grape Hyanciths-little dark purple clusters of flowers.

Regular Hyanciths-clusters of pink, purple or white flowers

Scillia (Spring Squills)-low growing light purple bulb flowers
(Scillia)

Herbaceous Plants:

Rock Cress-little mounds of purple flowers with four petals each.

Violets-low growing purple flowers

(Tulips and Rock Cress)

My Faves

2008-04-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

So I've been living in Salt Lake for almost two years now! That is crazy to me, I never thought I would live here, but it's close enough to home without being too close to home. Since living here I've discovered some fun places, so here is a list of my favorite shops in SLC.

Granato's and Dolcetti Gelati

Amazingly Salt Lake has a great little Italian community and I can't get enough of the food. Granato's has a great deli and delcious foccacia. There are four locations but the one I go to is in Holladay at 4044 South 2700 East.

Dolcetti Gelato is a bit closer to my house and I go there a bit more often, ok a lot. Their gelatos and sorbettos are the bomb and have less fat than ice cream, no joke! Go there 1751 S. 1100 E. http://markenglandart.com/dolcettigelato/index.htm

After you enjoy your Gelato head a few block down to Abode, a funky little consignment shop. Cuter than a thrift store but cheaper than an antique store. 1720 S. 900 E. http://abodepfm.com/index.cfm

Ten Thousand Villages is a fascinating little gift shop with fair trade gifts from all over the world. Shop and feel good about it.

Cactus and Tropicals-2735 S. 2000 E. It has plants of course I love it, but it just doesn't have plants it has plants with pizazz. Buy anything from Geraniums to Orchids.

And for Breakfast try Eggs in the City 1300 S. 1700 E. The blintzes are great! or go to Scandia Kaffe House 1693 S. 900 E.-Delicious pastries and food from my homeland!

Books, Allergies and Plants

2008-04-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

So It's getting to the end of the semester and I am way stressed out! Ah school, why do we do this to ourselves. I swear sometimes I think it is the least efficient way to learn. Anyway, so in this time of upheaval I'm looking to cut things out of my day. So I considered not going to my office today because I have loads of schoolwork and I just had to get to the store to buy allergy medicine (I had been sneezing and sniffling all day). But then I decided maybe I should go just in case a student shows up (although no one has yet this semester).

So I got off the elevator on my floor and I saw this handwritten sign "Free books this way". I pretty much never turn down a chance to get free books so I followed the signs to some professor's office and there was a full glorious wall of beautiful books, mostly novels and plays, etc, all for the taking! So 20 minutes later I had a good-sized box of Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, Eliot and the like. And what else did I find Henry Sweets grammar and reader of Anglo-Saxon! Joy! I shrieked when I found it. I guess you really have to be a linguistics nerd to appreciate it, but I just so happened to be writing a paper on Henry Sweet so it was perfect! So the moral of the story I is if you do what you're supposed to good things happen! Well at least today they did. Now I've just got to find a place for all these books.

Oh so I've also decided to start giving "how to" blog posts just to mix it up a little and also to share my vast knowledge with my readers. So my first topic is something I actually know something about-plants!

How to Kill your Houseplants

1. Give them too much water- yes, that’s right a plant can have too much water.
Some plants don’t need to be watered everyday, especially when they aren’t in full sun. If mildew or mold is growing on the top of the soil you are definitely watering too much.

What to do- check the soil, does it look dry and light colored? Pick up the pot, is it light? If so, then it’s probably time to water. Your indoor plants may only need to be watered once a week or less.

2. Treat them all the same- Each kind of plant has different needs, a cactus and a fern are totally different kinds of plants, one likes more sun and drier soil than the other. One is native to the swamp, one to the desert.

What to do- look up what climate your plant is native to and how much light, water, temperature and humidity it likes and what kind of soil it needs.

3. Sit your houseplants outside in the sun when summer comes along-your plants were doing fine in your house all winter long, they don’t need full sun like your outdoor plants do. They like a little shade, that is why they are indoor plants.

4. Leave for two weeks with no one to watch your plants-Think of your plants like pets, they are living things just like your puppy and need a little TLC.

What to do- If you have a tendency to forget about them pick a time and day when you will check them, make it a habit, mark it on your calendar, put it into your palm (no pun intended)-your plants will thank you (in their own plant way that is).

*If you have a half-dead plant now, you may still be able to save it. Just remove the dead leaves and stems then water it regularly, make sure it has some light too.

5. Water them just a little bit each day-This may work for a few plants, but not most.

What to do- water your plant, when needed, (with lukewarm, not cold water) until some water comes out the bottom of the pot (oh about 10% of what you’ve put in). This way you know water will reach all the roots and toxic salts that can build up in the soil will be flushed out. Also it’s better to water in the morning than at night. Night watering can lead to rot.

6. Never repot them-when a plant has been in a pot too long, it may become rootbound. This means there are too many roots in too little space (the root/soil ratio is off) and the roots start to circle around the bottom of the pot and come out the bottom. You may also be noticing that you have to water your plant a lot. This is because there is too little soil to hold much water.

What to do- find a pot of the same material and just one size larger than your current pot (remember root/soil ratio). Make sure there is a drainage hole(s) at the bottom. You may place gravel or a some pebbles at the bottom to help drainage. Fill the pot part way with soil, place you extricated plant in the pot and fill the sides and just a little of top with soil, then water in. Be sure to leave some space between the rim of the pot and the soil line.

7. Let them sit in water-Again with the drowning issue. Make sure you dump the excess water in the catch plate under the pot.

8. Don’t give them light-when a plant doesn’t get enough light it becomes leggy. This means its stems and leaves become stretched and can’t support themselves, usually falling over.

What to do- If plants become leggy move them to a sunnier location, also remember to rotate your pots, so one side of the plant is not always facing the light.

*plants that get too much light may have dry, brown leaf edges.

California dreamin' on a Winter's Day

2008-04-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'm snowed in! I should be in class right now. But I'm here in Springville and just don't feel like braving the snow on the freeway up to Salt Lake. So not feeling like grading papers and with the satellite not working because of the snow, what is there to do but blog! And I'm way over due for a post anyway.

So lately I've been thinking about dreams. Not the kind at night, but the things you've always wanted to do and not the big ambitious life goals either, but the little dreams that you'd love to accomplish one day. One of my little dreams has been to own a Volkswagen Bug! Can't you just see me tooling around town in a little Beetle car maybe a convertible with the roof down? I don't know what the fascination is, maybe it is my hippie side coming out or maybe they just make me nostalgic for the past. I remember watching Gidget reruns on television when I was young and I'm pretty sure Gidget had a Bug that she would take down to the beach. So maybe I equate Bugs with youth, summer, the beach and freedom. Pretty good connotations.
Every once and a while I will see a bug for sale and I will long to buy it or at least test drive it. In the last few weeks I've noticed that a neighbor has had a dark blue bug for sale. And I've been itchin' to find out the price and maybe test drive it. On Friday I finally called and asked about the car-a 1973 VW Bug with a new engine for $5000! Well I don't really have that much money, but I thought there was no harm in test driving it just to see if it was a steal and I had to have it. So on Saturday I walked over and they gave me the keys and let me take it for a spin(now that is trust!).

So here I am in this little car trying to drive it up and down the hills of Salt Lake. First of all it had a very old stick shift (now keep in mind I haven't driven a stick in awhile) and I couldn't even get it into 3rd gear! Also the speedometer didn't work and neither did the blinkers and neither did the seatbelt. So here I was sticking my arm out the window everytime I had to turn and trying to remember from driver's ed how to sign a left turn and how to sign a right turn. It was probably an interesting sight. Oh and I also accidentally killed the engine at a stop sign and it took me forever to get it started again! Ok so not exactly a dream machine, but I probably looked really cool driving it around (except for maybe the occasional looks of panic on my face). I guess I'm not going to get this car, I don't think I have the mechanic skills to maintain it, but the dream lives on for the perfect Bug and one day, one day I will buy one.

But I have other dreams too, here is the short list:

to be a drummer for a band (I think I'd be really good at drumming, I just need a drum set and a teacher!)
to play the harmonica
to live in a village in Italy and maybe own a little villa
to learn Italian well
to have my very own garden
to be a great dancer

Sarah, this blog's for you

2008-03-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

My roommie Sarah called my blog a "dead blog", just cause I hadn't written on it in over a week. Well Sarah, here it is alive and kicking and here is a song inspired by Elf.

I'm singing, I'm writing my blog because Sarah thinks I should and I'm siiiiiingiiiiing!

I think I've maybe over thought this blog thing. I keep looking for an angle, but I guess I should just write whatever comes to me and if it's not interesting then I won't get any comments, but if it is maybe people will add me to their google reader. What I am really good at is making lists. So here are some lists from the mind of yours truly.

Things that make me happy:
the song Lasagna by Cherie Call that I am listening to right now.
daffodils
Cadbury Chocolate

Sunny days in the Spring
Talking to my nieces on the phone
an Italian accent
an Irish accent
gelato
laughing with my roommates
red walls
text messages
blog comments (usually!)

Things I don't care for and some things I detest:
people driving under the speed limit!
talking to people while I'm in a bathroom stall
being cold
homework
Chef Boyardee Mac and Cheese from a can
slow computers
splinters

Ok that pretty much sums up the last few months of my life. :)
If you'd like to reply with your own lists it would make me happy!

May you be a half an hour in Heaven before the Devil knows your dead

2008-03-18T14:00:00.001-07:00

A Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day to ye all-

I celebrated St. Patty's Day in high style yesterday. I invited a few people over for baked potatoes and we listened to Irish music and recited Limericks and spoke with Irish accents. It was too fun. I also watched Disney's Darby O' Gill and the Little People. It's a cute little movie featuring a very young Sean Connery. I love it! I believe it was this movie that began my obsession with Ireland.
I first saw it when I was quite young when my sister and I would check out all the old Disney movies we could from the library. I think I was first mezmerized by the delightful Irish accents and witty turns of phrase and then of course the landscape was beautiful and quaint.
But what I like best about this land is that it is a mystical, magical place. It seems like anything could happen there. It was another movie that really made me believe this, The Secret of Roan Inish. It took my breath away. It's a beautiful, captivating movie. I finally did get to go to Ireland a few years ago, but only for a three days! Not nearly long enough. I'm including photos from my trip. Wouldn't it be lovely to live there for a little while? Maybe in a little village, (like Waking Ned Devine) and just soak in the culture and ambiance. Ah, one day!

I will now leave you with an Irish blessing:

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.

Spring has Sprung!!!

2008-03-11T22:38:00.001-07:00

Today was a wonderful day! The temperature topped 60, the sun was shining, flowering were blooming (crocuses, snowdrops and violets to be exact). It hasn't snowed in over a week and I'm officially calling it spring forget the equinox, to me it's here and I'm never looking back. So I've decided to plant sweet peas and hollyhocks this week. Doesn't that sound divine? Sweet peas rank up there with my favorite flowers (in case anyone was wondering). I just can't get over their heady fragrance. As my friend Janae would say, Fabulous! Oh I also mowed the lawn today, if that doesn't herald spring I don't know what does.
This is spring two years ago when the muscari was blooming!

So I think we need an ode to spring:

Spring Again by Karla Kuskin

Spring again
Spring again
Spring again
Isn't it?
Buds on the branches
A breeze in the blue
And me without mittens
My sweater unbuttoned
A spring full of things
All before me to do.

Yes that is nice, tomorrow maybe I will write one myself. something about crocuses, grass and sun and thawing.

Flu Thoughts

2008-02-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone Happy Leap Day or whatever you call February 29th. I really think this day should be a holiday because I mean think about it your employer or school gets an extra day of the year out of you for FREE that they don't get the other 3 years before. Either you should get overtime for working it or you should get the day off, that's my stand on the issue.

Anyway so I've had the flu the last couple of days and have been totally useless to the world. Mostly I've just been laying on the futon watching tv and movies and feeling like this sickness will never end. That's how I always feel when I get sick, I forget what it's like to feel normal and having this foreboding that the rest of my life when be lived out in a foggy, aching stupor.

Yesterday I thought I was feeling better so I went to a meeting with my professor to discuss my final project. This was a mistake, she must now think that I am really not too bright because I was kind of dazed and it took me twice as long to understand the concepts that she was talking about as it usually would. Plus on top of that I started worrying about this project a lot, because when I get sick my perspective and rationality kind of goes out the window. This fear started to manifest itself in my dreams that day as well. During a nap I dreamed that my friend Jenn and I went to out professor's houses to talk to them, except the professor's lived in a mall in Amsterdam. It was quite the random dream and I kept getting lost and losing stuff. Does anyone have any interpretations for that?

So one of the movies I have watched during my sickness is called Word Play. It's a documentary about the Crossworder's (or Cruciverbalists, if you will) and the Annual Crossword Tornament. It's something like the documentary Spellbound, which was about the National Spelling Bee, but this is about crossword people (who really aren't that different). Anyway these crossworder's they feature are very very good at solving crosswords, probably the best in the world. Now I myself like solving the New York Times Crossword. Whenever I get a chance I try to solve the Monday and Tuesday puzzles, but that's about all I can do. (They get progressively harder as the week goes on.) But as much as I like trivia and words and puzzles I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to be great at solving at them. I may be good, even about average, but I'm never going to be among the best.

Take the games boggle and scrabble which I am good at, but since I've been playing them online I've realized just how many people are so much better than I am. So why do I really care, well because I'm a nerd, a competitive nerd. This is kind of a reflection of my life, I'm good at things. I know a lot about a lot of different things, but I'm not great at anything. I'm kind of a jack of all trades, master of none. I don't really have one passion in life. I really envy those people who are so passionate about something and really pursue it, but I'm more like a butterfly fluttering from one flower to the next. Oh well at least I like flowers.

It's Delightful...It's Delovely

2008-02-21T21:59:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I'm amazed how delightful the unexpected can be. When something good happens unexpectedly I always enjoy it more than when I've been waiting for it. Like when you go to see a movie and you don't think it's going to be anything much, but it turns out to be a new favorite. Or when you start out a day on the wrong foot, but then out of nowhere things turn around. Today was such a day. The day started with rushing to finish an assignment, traffic and being late to class, then I went to work and there was a letter on my desk from HR. "Effective February 16, 2008, the beginning pay for the position you are in will increase to $*.** per hour. Your pay is also being brought up to $*.**, an hourly increase of $2.41."

What a boon! and entirely unexpected. My boss had pulled some strings and got me a better pay which was great because I have been working at this job for over a year and not getting payed very much at all. I had thought about quitting a few times, but I just couldn't leave my boss who needed my help and had been so kind to me. Today my loyalty payed off and who would have thunk it... Delightful.

I have had a few other great unexpectations lately too, one of them being that an old friend of mine from college that I had lost track of just happens to be in my new ward and just happens to be looking for a new place to live right when one of my roommates is getting married. So she will be moving into our place in May. Who could have seen that coming?

Thank heaven for all the those delightful little turn of events that make life delovely!

Day 2

2008-02-18T18:43:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Day 2 of my blog! Fun stuff.

So I have this cool roommate Sarah who is an internet guru. She always knows all the most interesting websites. I don't know where she finds them or how, but I learn at her feet everyday. Sadly she is leaving me in May to get married. Here is a few humdingers that she has recommended:

www.futureme.org
At this site you can write a letter to yourself in the future and choose when it will be sent to you. Even more interesting though are the letters you can view that people have written to their future selves. Is there anything more personal and revealing than writing to yourself?

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/
This is a group of random list complied by readers. Funny and very random

www.zafu.com
find your perfect pair of jeans, I don't know if this really works though.

Pad Thai Night

2008-02-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog family and friends!

Tonight I made dinner for my roommates and I decided to be adventurous and make something I've never made before-Pad Thai. For those of you unfamiliar with Thai food it is a very common dish made from rice noodles with bean sprouts, peanuts and eggs. Its sounds a little strange, but it's oh so good. What I made tonight somewhat resembles Pad Thai, it tasted pretty good for my first attempt and I'll definitely make it again. Things would been easier if I had had a wok. Here's the recipe from Allrecipes.com which I have modified a bit in parentheses. You should be able to get rice noodles (get the thick linguine sized noodles) and fish sauce in the Asian section of your grocery store.

INGREDIENTS
1 (12 ounce) package rice noodles

2 cloves of garlic-minced
2 tablespoons butter or oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup vegetable oil (less)
4 eggs
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (you could double this)
2 tablespoons fish sauce (you could double this)
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/8 tablespoon crushed red pepper (perhaps some more)(some recipes call for paprika instead)
2 cups bean sprouts
1/4 cup crushed peanuts

Soy sauce (to taste)

lime juice (to taste)

3 green onions, chopped
cilantro for garnish (optional)
1 lemon or two limes, cut into wedges

DIRECTIONS
Soak rice noodles in cold water 30 to 50 minutes, or until soft (this may take a little longer than 50 min). Drain, and set aside.
Heat butter in a wok or large heavy skillet. Saute chicken until browned (with two cloves of minced garlic). Remove, and set aside. Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. Crack eggs into hot oil, and cook until firm. Stir in chicken, and cook for 5 minutes. Add softened noodles, and vinegar, fish sauce, sugar and red pepper (perhaps some soy sauce). Adjust seasonings to taste. Mix while cooking, until noodles are tender (you may need to add some water at this point to get the noodles soft). Add bean sprouts, and mix for 3 minutes.
Garnish with crushed peanuts, chopped green onions (and/or cilantro) and wedge of lemon (you could add all these in the last few minutes of cooking just to bring the flavors out.