Finally a Fan on the Jury

So I was recently informed that posting pictures of the most recent survivor cast off or putting their name in the title bothers some of my regular readers who also watch survivor. I'll try to be accomodating but the reality is if you know I always blog about survivor on Friday and you haven't watched it yet, don't read my blog until after you do.

With that being said lets get on with the show. This week they did survivor auction. Watching survivor auction usually makes me want to vomit because they are just shoving food down their throats. And you know that later they either throw it up or have a bad case of the runs. Jason was sent to Exile Island and found the newly hidden immunity idol. When he rejoined the others at the immunity challenge Natalie told him he was safe and to let someone other than James win immunity. Everyone wanted Erik to win considering it was his birthday and he did!! During tribal council James made the point to announce that Parvati was the one responsible for Ozzy's elimination. Jason, convinced he was safe didn't play his hidden immunity idol and was blindsided just like Ozzy was the week before.

James is likely the next one to go. The girls have gone crazy and are determined to play the rest of the game without the boys. Poor Amanda is likely to be left out of the solid alliance of Parvati and Cirie. But she and James were not smart enough to try and tie the vote by joining forces with Erik and Jason and turning the tables on Parvati. That's their own fault then.

Rome and Broadway

Rome, On ANTM they traveled to Rome and had to due a Covergirl commercial in Italian. They were all pretty bad. But the worst of the bunch was awkward Lauren. She is so incredibly beautiful but she could not pull off the commercial and was sent home.

Broadway, On AI on Tuesday, the contestants sang songs from the Andrew Lloyd Webber cannon and there were definitely some weak songs. Jason Castro pick "Memories" from Cats. It was awful. Randy Jackson's description of a train wreck was the most appropriate description. Then Brooke White (I really love her) forgot her words at the beginning and stopped and started over. Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson had so much fun performing their songs that you could actually see it on their faces. They were both awesome. But unfortunately they both ended up in the bottom two and ultimately Carly was sent home. It was very sad. I'm going to log onto itunes and by her performance from Tuesday.

DISNEYLAND or BUST!!

I printed out the driving directions for our Disneyland trip. We leave Saturday morning at 7. We will stop in Orem to pick up Karri, she's bring the chocolate chip cookies so we don't want to forget her, then it'll be official road trip time. I'm pretty excited. Poor Paul though. He has never experienced the insanity that is road-tripping with Karri, Kylie and me. He loves music, but only his specific style and Kylie and Karri like completely different styles. So I hope he can survive as we have a musical sing-along. And I hope the girls can survive listening to his electronica. We will be returning home the evening of May 1. Kylie is trying to decide if she wants to force all of us to be back in time so she and Karri can make it to bunco that night. That would require us to leave California at like 6 in the morning. I kinda don't want to worry about it, but if she wants to I guess we can make it work.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIñO!!

Today is Paul's birthday. He is now the big 2, 6!! He is very excited. He likes to hold that fact that he is 2 months and 3 weeks older than me over my head. I keep telling him that doesn't mean he is older and wiser. I love him so much and I am so glad that I have him in my life. We had a crazy little beach party at our place on Saturday for his birthday so he invited his friends from work. The house was pretty trashed afterwards. Below are the pictures. Our front room.
The dining table.
The kitchen.
And the love sack shoved into the

bedroom so there would be enough room.

Talk about BLINDSIDED!!

It was one of the most shocking eliminations of Survivor history. After Jason got a "guarentee" from every survivor that they would not vote him out, he reliquished the individual immunity to Parvati. The majority of the tribe still actually planned on voting him out and were justifying their deceit by crossing their fingers during the "guarantee." Cirie decided it was time to get rid of Ozzy and the immunity idol all at once. She convinced Jason, Natalie, Alexis, and Parvati to all vote for Ozzy but to keep it from James, Amanada and Erik. She was banking on the fact that Ozzy would trust his alliance with her, James, Amanada, and Parvati. She was right and a stunned Ozzy was sent packing. (Truthfully I'm a little sad about it. But I do really want Cirie to win.)

The world is right again

Last night on AI all my dreams came true when American finally got it right sending Amazing Grace home. I was so glad to see her go. From now on though all the eliminations are gonig to be hard. I like all of the contestants and I think they are all really good. My guess is that Syesha is probably next, unfortunately. I have loved her (and her poofy fro) from day one. The night would have been complete if only Fatima would have gone home on ANTM. Instead they forgave her for missing the photo shoot and sent Stacey Ann home instead. Fatima is so annoying. She missed the photo shoot because she is a refugee and didn't have the right papers to be able to travel outside of the United States and she didn't bother to worry about getting the right documents until like 2 days before they were possibly going to be traveling abroad. My gripe is that if she knew she didn't have the right paperwork the whole time, why didn't she try and fix it sooner? They should not have kept her. Her skipping the photo shoot to go get travel papers that she wasn't sure if she even needed just seems arrogant. I hope she goes next.

TROMPOS

Paul and I discovered a new restaurant by our apartment in Midvale. It just opened recently and we are proud to say that we were some of their very first customers. We even went there before they had their official big grand opening. It's a little Mexican restuarant with very authentic food. One of the only places I've seen that serves Al Pastor meat. (pork that has a special seasoning process) They cook it on a spike like Gyro meat in Greek restaurants. Its so yummy. We really love the food there. But I think our favorite part is the name and what it means. Trompo in Spanish means top, like a toy top that you spin. And they have a huge top mounted on their counter. Before they opened we were kinda hoping that they would give out little toy tops to play with while you waited, but they don't.

Eliza's Elimination

Last night on Survivor the two tribes merged. They were sent to spend one night on a random beach somewhere where they enjoyed the traditional merge feast and had to come up with a tribe name and design the new tribe flag. Erik suggested that they name the tribe Dabu, because according to him it means good in Micronesian. (Truth is it doesn't mean anything. He just made it up because he wanted to be the one to name the tribe something funny.) The tribe was then instructed to choose one of the original beaches to return to and set up camp. The tribe chose to return to the Malakal beach. The Immunity challenge was a repeat from a previous season where each survivor is positioned under a metal grate out in the water. Who ever stays under the grate the longest wins. Alot of the survivors lasted a long time. Amanda was the first one out simply because she wasn't paying attention. It came down to Ozzy and Jason and Jason was able to hang on a little longer and beat out Ozzy for the coveted necklace. Jason, having promised Eliza his hidden immunity idol if he won, presented her with the carved stick Ozzy had fashioned and re-hid as the hidden immunity idol. Eliza realized immediately that it wasn't the real hidden immunity idol but Jason convinced her to play it anyway. And sure enough she did only to have Jeff tell her that it wasn't the real thing and toss it into the fire. In the end she was just too annoying and ended up getting voted out 8 to 2.

G'day Mate

AI had their elimination night last night instead of Wednesday because of Idol Gives Back. And to my dismay, Amazing Grace didn't even make it into the bottom 3. Instead the bottom 3 was comprised of Michael Johns, Carly Smithson and Syesha Mercado. And from the looks of things (and by things I mean mannerisms and mouthings) Carly expected it to be her to go home. Her performance the night before was rocky and she looked angry during her "inspirational" song so it wouldn't have been a surprise. But when Ryan announced that Syesha and Carly were both safe everyone was in shock. Both Carly and Paula just let their mouths hang open. Michael Johns from Austrailia was eliminated.

Lucky 13?

So as many of you know I have been waiting to hear back from the Grand America about a position I applied for a few weeks ago. The position is Banquet Administrative Assistant. It would be a high-paced, constantly changing job that would keep me busy. A problem I don't currently face where I'm working now. I was first contacted by the banquet department on Tuesday, March 11, 2008. I did a phone interview with Robb Baron, the Assistant Banquet Director. He scheduled me for an interview on Saturday, March 22. I showed up for my interview and met with Robb and Corey, Banquet Director. The interview went extremely well (I thought) and it even ended with Corey and Robb giving me a tour of their meeting rooms and the office that I would be working in. They called me back the following Wednesday and we scheduled my second interview for Saturday, March 29. I show up on the 29th and met with 2 sales managers, 2 banquet captains and the pm admin person. They were all really nice and again I felt like the interviews went well. Afterwards Robb told me they would be making their decision by the end of the week and that I should expect a phone call either Thursday or Friday. When I hadn't received a phone call by the time I left work on Friday, April 4 I decided I should call and remind them how awesome I am and that the choice was really easier than they were making it. Robb said they hadn't had time to decide and that they would let me know. I waited "patiently" all weekend and didn't hear any news. So I waited til I left work Monday, April 7 and called again. Still the answer was undecided but this time at least Robb told me he had been out of town over the weekend and thus caused the undecision. He assured me that he and Corey would both be back in the office on Tuesday and that I should be expecting a phone call. I waited all day and still heard nothing. I decided to lay off one day and not call back. Then about 9:16 this morning a buzz buzz started on my desk. I didn't answer but referenced the business card I have and noticed that the first 3 numbers after the area code were the same as the number that was calling me!! Finally a call back. I listened to the voicemail and Corey explained that he would like me to return the call so we can discuss some things. (In the back of my mind I started celebrating because if the answer was no a voicemail was an easy way to get out of having to break the bad news to someone while they are on the phone.) So I hustle off into one of the stairwells at the hotel and dial Corey's number. He starts with a nice warm greeting asking how I'm doing. Then asks how I think my interviews were. I respond with I feel like they all went quite well. He confirmed that everyone I had met with did infact like me but that they were going with the other candidate however. (Who uncrossed their fingers?) I try to stay professional as he explains that the other persons transition into the department would be easier considering they already work at the property. He continues by saying that he wishes there were another position available that he could place me in. (I just want to hang up.) I listen to his "rambling" (as he called it) and tried to come across as the most gracious loser I could possibly be. (I think I pulled it off.) Immediately after I hang up I call Paul and give him the news. Now we don't have to worry about our room reservations in California for Disneyland. I have now been turned down 13 times in a row. I still work at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Orem. Lucky me.

In good company

So I recently discovered that I share my exact birthdate with 2 hotties. The 1st most of you are probably familiar with, Adam Levine from Maroon 5. He's totally HOT!! And the 2nd is from season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance. (SYTYCD) His name is Dmitry Chaplin and he's super hot too. He would always finish his dances by ripping his shirt open. All the girls in the audience would scream and Karri and I would swoon from the couch.

A little late but worth the wait

So I was just remembering that I hadn't posted about Survivor on Thursday. I worked the front desk on Friday morning and forgot to do my weekly post. So here it is, a little late but worth the wait. Survivor had an interesting night. It started out by allowing the two tribes to protect one person from the other tribe and give them individual immunity. Ozzy and Alexis were the 2 lucky winners. Then they were sent to Exile Island while the remaining members of their tribes participated in the reward/immunity challenge. (That's right folks both challenges combined into 1.) And of coarse "Ozzy's" tribe lost because he wasn't there to win it for them. Poor little Erik did the best he could but the ice cream scooper didn't stand a chance against the gymnast (Jason). And they were pretty much the only 2 that did anything. Amanda was competing (if you can call it that) with Erik and Eliza was with Jason but both girls were so uncordinated that they kept falling forcing the boys to step up their game. Since "Ozzy's" tribe lost (again) they were headed back to tribal counsel while the other team enjoyed a night with pizza and beer. (beer, yuck) Before Ozzy returned to his tribe Erik started spilling the bean to Amanda and Cirie about all the plotting Ami had been doing with him and Tracey ever since the change up began. Doubts started flying. Ozzy returns to his tribe and is greeted on the beach by a "lost puppy" (Erik) who also tells him of Ami and her plotting. Ami tries to defend herself and express that she would never have actually voted for Ozzy, which she didn't. And gave a tearful plea to Ozzy and the rest during tribal but in the end her luck had finally run out. Erik was saved and is the last Fan on the Malakal tribe.

Take a look

So I recently added some new pictures of my Potato Heads. This group is my friends and I getting ready for Disneyland. We leave April 26 and get home on May 1. We are all so excited. This will be my 5th trip to Disneyland with Karri, the 3rd time that Kylie has joined us and the 1st time Paul has come with us. Because Paul is coming we added an extra day to our normal trip and we're hitting up Magic Mountain on the last day. I'm really looking forward to that because I've never been there.

I had a sad night

First on ANTM (America's Next Top Model for those of you that don't know) my favorite person got eliminated. Poor Claire. She was hot but she really only showed one look. Time for her to go back to her husband and baby. Then on AI (American Idol) Amazing Grace managed to stick around again. I am so over her. It was country week, which is clearly her genre, and she wasn't good. (Well I'm assuming based on what the judges said because I didn't actually listen to her.) People shouldn't vote for her if she's not good on the week that caters to her. GO HOME AMAZING GRACE!! America, stop voting for her. Poor little Ramielle. She was so sad. And how in the world did Brooke get in the bottom three? She's in the top two best girls. American needs to pull their heads out of wherever they put them and start voting better. I hope Survivor is good tonight.

I'm not sure how I survived

So I should have blogged about this yesterday but I didn't really think about it. Yesterday I totally forgot my phone when I came to work. I left it plugged in by my bed and just left it there all day. I didn't realize I had forgotten it until I was in Pleasant Grove and was going to text Paul about forgetting to grab my breakfast. By then it was much to late to turn around and go back for it so I just suffered all day. It was awful. Several times I thought I need to text so-and-so or I'm bored I wonder whats-his-face is doing. I was having extreme separation anxiety. Even the people I work with realized I was having a problem and offered to let me send messages from there phones. But considering this is the modern age and nobody memorizes phone numbers anymore, I couldn't. I flew home as fast as I could to be close to my phone again. I had 3 missed calls, all from my best buddy Billy and 5 text messages, 1 from Billy and 4 from my sister Kylie. Both thought I was either dead or ignoring them. Neither was the case. So sorry I didn't text very much yesterday. It wasn't because I didn't want to, I simply am stupid and forgot my phone. I'll try to not let it happen again.

April Fool's Day

So I've been trying to think of a good April Fool's Day joke but I've been kinda drawing a blank. So instead I decided I would just blog about a couple of April Fool's Day jokes that I remember from over the years.

The first when we were younger my siblings and I always bugged each other. And one year on April Fool's Day in the evening all 4 of the younger siblings were either in our bedrooms or my parents room. (I don't remember where everyone was specifically.) But Erik being the biggest teaser decided he would lock all of us in our rooms. He cleared it with my mom first to be sure not to get into trouble for playing a prank. Then he went out to the garage and got enough jump rope to tie all the door handles together. All the doors were shut and he quickly and quietly tied all the handles shut so we couldn't get out. Then he got my mom to call us from the kitchen. We all jumped and run toward the doors all trying to get out. Each screaming at Erik who stood right outside the doors laughing and saying April Fools, April Fools.

In one of the following years in an attempt to get him back I disconnected the tube in the toilet tank that fills the tank with water and positioned it so it was pointing out from under the tank lid. The plan was that when he flushed toilet he would get a stream of water shooting out at him from the toilet. Poor planning on my part didn't take into account the weight of the tank lid pinching off the water supply. Needless to say it didn't work and my revenge went down the drain, so to speak.

And the last April Fool's Day joke I remember took place in 2004. I was attending UVSC at the time, but still living at home in Sandy. As I was making my commute listening to my favorite morning show (now I have no idea what station that was) the DJs started talking about a major delay on south bound I-15 in American Fork. They were reporting on an incident that had occurred and had left a whale stranded in the middle of the freeway. They were claiming that the whale was being transported to SeaWorld in San Diego and the truck and crashed leaving the whale stranded. I remember thinking how strange it was that they would be traveling on I-15 to get to San Diego from whereever they were coming from but how cool would it be to see a whale up close in such a circumstance. (Obviously I didn't remember that it was April Fool's Day.) The radio station was asking people, "anyone listening," to please bring as much water as they could to help keep the whale wet. I continued my drive expecting to get stuck in traffic at any moment. And when I reached American Fork and saw no whale I started remembering that it was April Fool's Day and I did indeed feel kind of foolish. But I was also impressed at how thought out the whole thing was. Kudos mystery radio station.