We were invited to Mike's parents house for dinner today. It almost didn't happen because they live up a mountain, and it has been snowing there all day.

These are some pictures I took when we were getting ready to leave.

Across the street from their house, out the front window, and out the back window.

It was beautiful, but Mike's Dad followed us down the hill to make sure we would be okay.

We made it home safely, in spite of the snowflakes that were as big as my head.

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Another important safety tip coming up-

On Friday, January 23, Mike took me to Z'tejas in Salt Lake for dinner. He won a gift card off the radio so we decided to use it (his birthday is this Thursday after all).

First of all, it was so foggy that in places we could hardly see the front of our car. We made it safely to the Gateway. Then we realized that we were in our van and would have to find some place to park the beast. We have only parked in places that said there was an eight foot clearance. We managed to get in a place that was seven foot. We held our breath the whole time until Mike stopped and I got out and looked. We realized that we had a good three inch clearance so we were good.

We got to the restraunt and ordered. I got the Barbacoa enchiladas and Mike got the Gorgonzola Steak. Both excellent choices. Here is my meal.

What you can't see is the pepper I already took off the plate. Here it is-





I nibbled the end to see if it was a hot pepper or what. It tasted like a green pepper so I decided to take a bite. This is me telling how long the pepper used to be.


This picture was taken about twenty minutes after I took the bite. It took me that long to be able to breathe normally and to not be crying anymore. The only way that I can be smiling in this picture is because I had two ice cubes in my mouth. I am usually the one that says "the spicier the food the better". I found out from the waiter that this is a serrano pepper, the next step down from the scotch bonnet (hottest in the world) and the habanjero (next hottest). If I had taken a bigger bite I know that I would have told Mike to dial 911. The fumes from the pepper went up into my sinuses, into my ear canals, and down my throat. I think the only thing that saved me was the fact that as soon as I bit into it I realized how hot it was and I spit it out. For dinner that night I had one bite of a serrano pepper, probably eight or ten chips, a few bites of cornbread, about twenty ice cubes, and five glasses of water. Good times, good times.
I did bring my food home and had it for lunch yesterday. It was very good.

So, if you get a pepper on your plate that is supposed to be just a garnish, ask your waiter what it is before you decide to sample it. If you do decide to partake, please make sure you have some ice or maybe some ice cream handy.

Here is a fantastic site that I stumbled upon the other day. It was one of those things where I was looking at a blog and they recommended this other person's blog. Then they had a favorite site they followed, so I looked there. Then they recommended another place and before I knew it I was here-

http://boston.com/bigpicture/

You should totally check it out, but only if you have some time to spend. It will be worth it!

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My last post got me thinking.

How many pictures do you take on average in a month?

Here is my list of the last six months-

August 2008 - 245

September 2008 - 176 plus 311 taken on my trip to Oregon between the 25th and the 29th for my Grandma's funeral

October 2008 - 178

November 2008 - 101

December 2008 - 279

January 2009 - 353 so far

Average: 252 per month

If you read this blog, leave a comment with how many pictures you take on average in a month. It would be nice to know that I'm not so strange after all. Maybe I am. It might be nice to know that too.

Have a great day!

I am doing a project (along with about three-fourths of the country, maybe the world) called Project 365. You take a picture every day and write a sentence or two about what happened in your life, or your families life, or whatever. Then at the end of the year you have a great overview of your year. My thought process was, "I take a picture almost every day anyway, and I don't always have time to write in a journal or blog, so why not?". Well, I think I may be in trouble. It is January 22 and I've taken 341 pictures so far.

What does that say about me?

ATTENTION!

IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP COMING UP-

This is how I spent my day yesterday-

Why you ask?

Our dryer has been working strangely lately. It gets really hot and stays hot long after the cycle is over. I have fixed our dryer a few times before, and decided to try it out again before we have an unfortunate fire.

I started by taking off the back of the dryer. I knew right away what the problem probably was.

There was (and I'm not even exagerating here) about five inches of lint across the bottom and up the sides of the machine. I don't know how it got there, but there it was. The lint is supposed to go through the holes on the right of the picture below into the lint screen.

Then the lint screen is removed, cleaned and replaced - ready to catch the lint of the next load. Somehow some of the lint has been bypassing the lint screen and going into the innerds of the machine.

This is only about two-thirds of the lint I removed. The rest is in the vacuum.
Apparently, when the dryer was used, the heat built up in the lint and stayed there - kindof what insulation is supposed to do in your attic. Anyway, Mike ran the dryer for about five minutes just to remove wrinkles from a shirt and the dryer was still hot to the touch about an hour and a half later. I walked in there to get something and could smell the heat - that's how I knew we had a big problem.

While I was cleaning out the machine, I noticed that most of the holes for the lint to go out of (in the above picture) were clogged. When the lint goes out and some catches in the holes, then the next load is put in, then the moisture from the load makes the lint moist. Then it gets dried with the clothes and becomes hardened. After awhile, the hole is closed over with hardened lint. I had to clean every hole (there are 130 of them in my dryer) by scraping them out. Good times, good times.

Please Please Please check your dryers to make sure you don't have lint building up where it shouldn't be. It's easy. Just undo the screws and remove the back panel (make sure you unplug the machine first). If you don't know how to work a screwdriver, call me or a neighbor or someone. I would hate for anyone to have a fire because of this problem when it is such an easy fix.

AND - you can also clean out all the assorted stuff that makes it's way into the laundry and into your machine.

This is what I got-

2 rubber bands

1 bandaid

1 receipt - dated April 30, 2008

4 beads

2 seashells

1 button

1 ponytail holder

1 hooks (from hook and eye enclosures)

1 play money nickel

3 paper clips

2 necklaces

56 cents - 5 dimes, six pennies

1 staple

3 nails

1 small screw

1 allen wrench

1 barbie tiera

If you are wondering what I'm doing with the wires in the picture above, I had to fix those because when I opened the top to clean around the drum I didn't support the top properly and it fell. It pulled out some of the wires so I had to figure out how to put them back where they belonged. Luckily, the wires were marked P1 and the slot where it belonged was marked P1, etc. so I lucked out.

Have a great day!

ATTENTION!

I just found out that for today only (January 14) you can go to

www.suavenomics.com

and they will send you a coupon for a free full sized bottle of a Suave product.

Just thought you should know.

Guess what I did today?

And guess who "helped"?

He's a pretty cute helper, but not much help.

Seven random things about me-

1. I like tuna sandwiches - with onions, mustard, dill pickles, and lettuce.

2. My smoke alarm works. How do I know? I manage to "test" it about twice a month.

3. I cry when I turn on the radio to the "all Christmas music, all the time" station and it isn't anymore. Especially if it's only the day after Christmas.

4. I'm a closet lounge singer.

5. I cannot make a good apple pie to save my life. Unless I use canned apple pie filling, and even then it isn't very good.

6. I learned to drive in the same car that I was brought home from the hospital in when I was born.

7. I have a birthmark on the back of my leg. It is the same shape and in the same place as one my cousin has on her leg. We were born exactly two weeks apart.

tag to Sara, Kati, Jolene, Suz, and Eric.

You're it!

Happy New Year to all! We love you!