The Week A Mormon Calls Into a Foodie Podcast

The exciting thing that happened this week was that Ben was the feature caller on one of our favorite podcasts, the Sporkful!

The podcast's tag line is "it's not for Foodies, it's for Eaters" and it focuses on how to make the most from your eating experience. Whether that be to fold your slice of pizza in half, cheese-side out, to have immediate contact between tongue and cheese (an idea I disagree with, but admittedly have yet to try), or whether or not it's best to have more bite variety or bite consistency, when you listen to the show, opinions arise in you that you didn't realize you had, and it's really fun! Dan Pashman, the podcast's host, interviews various food experts, restaurant owners, food bloggers, Weird Al, and even a meteorologist, about their approaches to food and eating, as well as getting glimpses into places like the Campbell food test kitchens (they have five "types" of kitchens that reflect different eating/cooking personalities of their consumers). It's a really interesting show that I highly recommend to anyone who gets any enjoyment out of eating.

Back in the Swing of Things

On Sunday (the day I actually typed most of this post) Ben and I enjoyed a romp through YouTube introducing one another to various choral and orchestral music that we each either grew up with or discovered at some and really enjoyed. It's a nice Sunday tradition that I would love to keep. It all started with Rene Clausen's "Magnificat." Our lesson at church this morning was in part about Mary's response to the angel who announced that she would birth Christ so I felt compelled this evening to find a performance of this song, which I sang with my high school choir. It is a gorgeous song, that I highly recommend listening to at some point.

This week was a LOT of work for both Ben and me. The Utah Opera opens Pearl Fishers next Saturday so they asked me to put in a few hours extra to help get everything finished. I'm assisting in crafts, which generally isn't my forte but I've really enjoyed it. I've made all the turbans for the chorus and two male leads, and gotten to do some jewelry things, which I've never done before. It has been a great learning experience. 

Happy 2015!

Last year was a sad, sad year of blogging. And for our "goals for 2014." Granted, we did a lot of amazing things that weren't on the list, like complete grad school (I can't believe I didn't put that on my list, I mean, that was an easy thing to cross off! It's like adding things to my to-do list after I've completed them to make myself feel better...), move across country, and put together a Western-states tour of Ben's show. We had a freaking awesome year! Ben reminds me of this when I complain about how I never finished blogging about our summer tour and didn't finish the Book-To-Movie Challenge I had set out for myself. In fact, there are four more blog posts that are sitting as "drafts" because I read the book but never got around to seeing the movie. They may actually get posted this year... I mean, I did put in the work to read the book and write a post about it.

Alright, I just checked those four posts, and three of them just have a title... So they may never get posted, and I'm choosing to be okay with it.

That being said, there are THIRTY-EIGHT books coming out as movies this year and I WILL READ THEM ALL!!!

Just kidding. But I am putting a book list together for this year consisting primarily of books off my own shelves and Nook, with merely a handful of these movie-books thrown in; just the top few I'm really excited to see, or planned to read anyway (like Frankenstein!)

I'm also aiming to blog each week throughout the year. I did in 2013 and really enjoyed it, plus it gave me an excuse to take, go through, organize, and post photos.

We have a few other goals that we've focused on making simple and attainable. We have dreams, folks, and we're going to get 'em!

Late in April a tiny person is joining our family and will undoubtedly turn all our beautifully arranged "goals" on their head, but we'll take it in stride and figure it out when the time comes.

I'm a little rusty and have forgotten how to gracefully end a post... so for now, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's a pretty photo collage of us and my new years' sparkles:

Abbotts go West Part 1: Bloomington to Utah

So we said goodbye to our friends...

... painted our walls (remember when we first moved in?) ...

... packed up our things ...

... and hit the road!!!

Silver Lining

A few weeks ago Ben and I taught a workshop for the local youth of our church at their annual youth conference. The conference was held about an hour and a half south of Bloomington and was in the midst of our packing, working, and hosting my mom, but we were looking forward to the event and discussing a topic we feel passionate about: people feeling like they don't belong, specifically at church.

The workshop went really well and it felt great to have a fairly large thing crossed off our list (another big thing was speaking at church that weekend... it was a really busy weekend). The kids seemed to enjoy the discussion and they got a really big kick out of Ben (he's pretty great). Free lunch was consumed, great conversation was had, and we left for home to work on the many things we had to work on.

Then, twenty minutes into our drive, our rear breaks blew up. We knew they needed work and we even had an appointment to take the car in the following Thursday (this was Friday...) which was the soonest the mechanic could see us. Nevertheless, the breaks decided that specific moment was their time to go. We pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot, learned we were in Washington, Indiana, and desperately searched for a mechanic that could squeeze us in. We drove a short distance and found ourselves "downtown" about two blocks away from Main Street. Washington is a seriously small town with seemingly little to offer; nevertheless, we decided to explore on foot while our car was getting repaired.

Almost immediately upon turning onto Main (only really a few blocks long) we stumbled upon the local museum. It didn't look like much, certainly only one, maybe two, rooms with handful of artifacts from town locals. Little did we know we were in for a treat!

Book to Movie Challenge: Vampire Academy

The first book available from the library was Vampire Academy - not surprisingly, it had the shortest waiting list. I don't blame anyone as this is the book I was also least excited to read.  In fact, the only reason I decided to read it at all was because it was the first book available and I was anxious to get started (I also wanted something I could easily read during the semester).

 THE BOOK

A synopsis from the Buzzfeed article:

St. Vladimir’s Academy is a school for dhampirs, vampire-human hybrids who serve as guardians, and Moroi, “good” vampires with an ability to use magic from one of the four elements (water, fire, air, and earth). Vampire princess Lissa Dragomir and dhampir Rose Hathaway are best friends, connected through a special bond that they can’t quite explain. After escaping school for two years, the girls are brought back to the academy and are faced with Lissa’s mystery element (or lack thereof?) and the danger it brings.

First impression: the girl on the cover looks like Angelina Jolie... which didn't work for me.

Midnight Dinner

It is time for an actual update!

Rather than try to play catch up I figured I'd focus on what happened this past week. We (the folks working in the costume shop for the summer plus spouses and a few inter-departmental friends) held a Midnight Dinner!

What is a Midnight Dinner?

A Midnight Dinner is inspired by the book, The Night Circus, in which a group of characters meet together at midnight to feast and plan the inception of a magical Night Circus. The first course of dinner is served at the stroke of midnight.