Would you stop?

Cute one

The other night, our friends invited us over for dinner. It was a wonderful time. While we were chatting, he took some photos with his new lens, then his wife did some editing. Let's just say, I am a fan of his photography, the new lens, her editing, and most definitely, this cute little boy.

To give an update

Lots of things going on and things to share... but no time to do it. So, in the interim, know that we are happy and figuring life out for this fall. I can feel the crispness in the air. Here's the happy fam:

Looking for apartments is a drag

and just about as boring as this blog post...

the best things

We've all heard the old proverb, "The best things in life aren't free."

Well, one afternoon, while my mother tested my grandpa's sugar levels, I wandered around his house looking at things.  A small piece of paper with something scratched onto it caught my eye.  In my grandfather's shaky handwriting it read, "The best things in life aren't things, they are family and friends."

As we venture off, once again heading for the east, my grandpa's words echo my thoughts.  I've loved this summer.  I've cherished being around family and seeing old friends.  I've loved the dry air, the cool nights, the wind in the mulberry trees.  I've enjoyed the Sunday dinners, the impromptu outings, the home theatre nights, the Heber crispness.  The smiling faces of family and friends are best though.  

Hope your summer has been splendid too.

into cooking these days

which I guess is a good thing, seeing as I'll be cooking meals for a fam for the next few (or so) years. This summer, we've had the luxury of enjoying the food network. I now know the meaning of sous vide, mojito, amuse bouche, and boeuf bourguignon. The last one thanks to this film, Julie&Julia:

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit; although I could have watched a show solely about Julia and been perfectly happy.

So here's to cooking some better recipes in the near future. But first, I've got to buy some wooden spoons...

and the living is easy

You know it's summer time when your dad let's you try out the trampoline and you get to wear awesome sunglasses, all in one day.

You also know it's summer when you rock the waterski with a wipeout like this. No pain no gain, right?

Giving Statistically Proven

I read an article a few days back. It was about giving and why it's important. The article piqued my interest.  We all know that giving makes us feel good.  What's different with this article is that the economist, Arthur C. Brooks, quantified how giving benefits us financially.  Here's an excerpt from the piece:

"Say you have two identical families—same religion, same race, same number of kids, same town, same level of education—everything’s the same, except that one family gives $100 more to charity than the second family. Then the giving family will earn on average $375 more in income than the non-giving family—and that’s statistically attributable to the gift.

... I ran the numbers again and looked at volunteering. I found the same thing: People who volunteer do better financially. I ran the numbers on blood donations. Think about that—giving blood. You’re not going to get richer if you give blood, are you? Well, yes, you are.

... If we were to increase our private charitable donations by just 1 percent, which is about $2 billion a year, that would translate into a gross domestic product of about 39 billion new dollars."

How's that for an economic stimulus?  

It's always interesting to find that a researcher has proved something I already knew was good.  Take a look at the full article, Why Giving Matters.  It's worth the read.

image from Shel Silverstein's, The Giving Tree

pH balanced

The other day, Jess left the house wearing my deodorant. He returned home to exclaim with surprise that my cucumber & green tea stick proved to work quite well throughout the day. He has since used it more than once (It took us a while to re-up his stock).

I, too, have been known to use Jess' deodorant. There have been times I've been out of my own. I recall thinking once, when talking with a coworker, "Do you think he can tell I smell like Old Spice Sport?" That's when I decided I probably shouldn't do it any longer. I liked Jess smelling like his deod, not me.

This brought me to thinking, are we the only people using each others' antiperspirant? It's all the same stuff, right? With different scents.

Hello There

Picture courtesy of my sister.