Culture Shock!

So we have made quite the culture circuit this week! Our weekend started with a concert at Gammage Auditorium on the ASU campus... Travis' work buddy Ed is in the choral ensemble, and they were performing with the orchestra in a concert about Life and Death. A little Shostakovich No. 2, Les Preludes by Liszt, and finally a Requiem by Fauré. Great performances - and free! Afterwards we found Four Peaks for reverse happy hour, and hung out with the work crowd for a while. Ed even brought a girl he met in choir. We were all so proud.

Tonight we went to an art showing for Jeff Lyon, a mechanical engineer that works with Travis. His art is really cool - he originally started with really concrete, almost photo-like paintings, but now he's branching out into more abstract drawings and prints - which are posted in this blog. I thought this would be at a gallery, but no, it's a loft of one of Jeff's clients. Whoa. I didn't feel like I was in a house - I felt like I was in an Ikea catalog or something. Everything was very minimalist and modern, complete with old episodes of Flash Gordon on the Flat Screen TV hung on the wall.

The food was awesome (half a globe grape with goat cheese and chopped pistachios!) - the wine was good, and all the beautiful people were there. I felt very special.

So now I am just basking in the culture, feeling very sophisticated. Almost makes me forget that I had to replace the gasket on my toilet today. Oh well- I'm off to the hot tub!

Hope everyone else is having a fabulous weekend!

Jenny

This is one of Jeff's earlier works. It looks so much like a photo - totally awesome.

This is a color field photo by Jeff - he got the idea from trying to take a photo from a speeding train in Italy.

Finally, some cooler weather!

I can't believe it - the temperature was only like 81 degrees today! What a nice change after the 90s last week. Oh wait, I was in KS where it was only like 62 or so. I had a great visit at home - too short, especially since I had the worst flu ever all week!

I flew out to KC on Wednesday, did some shopping at Galyan's, and took lots of cold medicine. I headed out to KSU on Thursday - campus was gorgeous, and luckily everyone was happy to see me in my department! The department head, Dr. Canter, has asked if I will help teach a summer institute for high school students interested in culinary arts. How cool is that?? Then I went and got free lunch out of the deal (Thank you Mr. Pence), and Call Hall ice cream to boot! That was truly awesome. Nothing like a GIGANTIC brownie sundae to top off your afternoon! Dad, Mom and Grandma came with me - I think the ice cream was the best part of their day, too.

I managed to get some BBQ and Boulevard Beers on Friday night, and I hooked up with the old college gang (Josh, Molly, Heather, Jason, Donner, and even Chris and Betsy!) at a pub in KC. Not bad, not bad at all. It was hard to come home on Saturday - but I had to get ready for the week. I plan to tackle some serious housecleaning, grocery shopping, and finally SHAKING THIS STUPID COLD!

On a lighter note, Travis and I are getting totally psyched about our trip to Europe. We're trying to get hold of our friends in the Czech republic so we can visit them (they know the BEST places to buy beer and Svickova), and we are trying to decide which cities and countries to visit. Hmmm, do we spend New Year's in Vienna or Zurich?? The decisions we have to make! These are the kind of problems you WANT to have...

Well, I'm off to cook dinner... for all my friends that read this- it was GREAT seeing you all last week! Keep warm!

LL Cool J

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig...

Well I made it back to Arizona. The ADA convention was awesome - I had a great time with my old boss and learned a lot of great things about what's going on in the world of nutrition. The weather was fabulous, but boy things got expensive fast! Thank goodness the district was paying for that one...

I am home sick today (too much happiness in the Magic Kingdom). I will probably go into work tomorrow, then leave for KC for the rest of the week. Gosh I love working for the school district. The kiddos are off this week, so I don't have to worry about taking a sick day.

I'm looking forward to seeing KC in fall- rumor has it the leaves are changing and everything is beautiful. I can't wait - I'm getting sick and tired of these mid-90s through the month of October.

I'll talk to you all later - my medicine is really kicking in, and I might type something I'll regret later!

Jenny

Greetings from the Happiest Place on Earth!

Apparently somebody else saw my doppelganger blog post - I hadn't been in the airport 10 minutes before someone came up to me and asked, Do you watch Sex and the City? Ummm, I am going to have to watch that show and find out about the gorgeous woman with red hair...

I am here in Anaheim, California, waiting for the ADA Convention to begin. So what do I do? Head straight for the free email! (well, of course I found food and a bottle of water first, but that goes without saying) Since I am here without anybody else, I get to go and find new dietitian buddies (or old ones, possibly from KS). And if all else fails, I am going to the Disneyland hotel for breakast with the characters! They won't let me down...

The weather here is gorgeous (except for the smog), and the amount of GREEN is amazing! Birds of Paradise EVERYWHERE... thank you, Disney dollars. I am staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel, and I even get the Disney Cartoon Channel - SWEET.

Big time classes start tomorrow - tonight is the opening session. In the meantime I am going to soak up some sunshine and steal a pen - I forgot mine. :)

Talk to y'all later -

Sunny D