Somebody is Six!

Today was notable for being Miss G's sixth birthday. I made her cake (with Sarah's assistance of course) with the instructions it was to be pink. Really Pink. The result is a from-scratch yellow cake, with pink butter cream frosting, fresh strawberry filling, and flowers made from edible candy clay. I don't recommend eating any of the candy clay. It was pretty gross. The flowers are decorated with Valentine's themed sprinkles. And to keep the princess theme alive, it's topped with Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Miss G seemed far more entranced with the cheap LED wand from the dollar store than she was with the cake. I can't blame her, the wand is pretty sweet. Pictured is the cake, the cake with Miss G and myself, then finally, the cake with Sarah and the birthday girl.

Bicycle Accident

Nick's bicycle was run over this morning. Fortunately, he was not on the bicycle at the time. Moments before he was making a right turn on his bicycle, when the wheels slipped out from under him. He was dumped onto the ground and the bike continued to slide into the next lane of traffic, underneath the wheels of the UPS truck. Nick is unharmed, the bicycle is ruined. He was not wearing his helmet at the time.

Wedding Revisited

Nick and I have been married for four whole years now, and we're on our fourth DVD player. Last week I rented a video, only to find out that our X-box no longer plays DVDs. Our first DVD player was bought shortly after our wedding, and returned in non-working order a month or two later. #2 was it's replacement, which decided to quite working shortly after our move to Missouri, which is where the X-box came in. We thought, why not apply the $40 we'd spend on a DVD player towards a used X-box that will play DVDs? So, now it is a year later, and we spend $40 on a DVD player. We certainly didn't wear any of them out, since we've watched about 10 movies total in four years. I'm hoping this one lasts a little longer than its predecessors.

As we were setting up the new player, we came across a DVD of our wedding. More accurately, it's thirteen minutes of Sam's footage. Most of the footage focuses on James Murray and his then fiancee (now wife), including an interview with Mrs. Murray and Elma Leta. There was very little coverage of the bride and groom, the decorations, the flowers. Somehow, Sam did manage to zoom in on pretty girls in the room. I don't think he missed his true calling in life by not becoming a film-maker.

The biggest surprise of the video was how much Mitch and Elizabeth have changed. Mitch was so much smaller, and when Liz was 14, she didn't look like she was in her mid-20's. My, how times change.

More Pictures

I've added Nick's White Coat Ceremony to our Picasa album.
Check them out http://picasaweb.google.com/karasjohnson/August2006

Culinary Creations

I spent Tuesday afternoon with Sarah Page. We made very respectable whole wheat bread. Look at that beautiful, even raising. Notice the crust is not too dark or too thick. I used Farberware's new "Champagne Finish" non-stick pans. The bread was very good, and as usual, even better with jam.

Sarah gave me the cutest present: Already been chewed cookie cutters. They look so sad, it's hysterical.

Luggage Thief

When I landed in St. Louis, I went to the turnstile to await my three pieces of checked luggage. I checked three pieces simply because I could. (Starting January 29, you will only be allowed to check 2 bags.) The first two I had almost immediately, then I chased down a bag that looked like my bag, but wasn't. Still waiting, but my third bag never came. After a few minutes I called the cell-phone number on the similar bag's luggage tag, but no one answered. My theory was that the owner of the bag in front of me actually had my bag with them.

After I went to the baggage office, they agreed with my theory, made a few phone calls, and actually got a hold of the guy. One problem was every minute I had spent waiting for my bag, he had spent speeding away from the airport. It was going to take him forty minutes to get back with my bag, and Nick and Brigham were outside waiting for me. Southwest said they would deliver my bag, so we went home.

A little while later, I got a call on my phone from the luggage thief. He called (because I had called him) to tell me he was now at the airport. I told him he would have to take it to the luggage office to get his bag. After a couple of other comments he said, "Goodbye . . bitch."

I was just totally blown away, he had taken MY bag, cost us an hour of our time, and then insulted me. I just wish I had rifled through his bag and taken anything worthwhile.

Back in Utah

Nick and I are in Utah for a few days. There are no blog entries about our Christmas because virtually nothing of note happened during the Holiday. The exception to that was a beautiful Christmas Eve dinner at the St. Louis Smiths.

Nick and I both had terrible colds. Nick even went to the doctor (which is a first since I've known him) because his cold came with a four-day-long headache. I had to work with my cold, which meant I wore a surgical mask all day. Very fun. I worked Christmas day, New Year's Eve and New Year's day. Then the morning of the 2nd we hopped on a plain to Salt Lake.

Once here, we went straight to the dentist. I got my permanent crown put on and we both had check-ups with no cavities. I feel this is largely due to everything that could have a filling in my mouth, probably does already.

From the dentist, we went to the eye doctor. Another excellent check-up . The hardest part was picking out our new glasses. I also ordered contacts, which I haven't worn in a couple of years.

Nick has been into extreme sports this visit. He's been skiing, surfing (see Dallas's blog for full explanation), and has stalked Tim for hours with the Nerf sniper rifle. Caesar did get shot in the cross-fire, but since it's Nerf, I don't think he minded much.