The Poinsettia Bowl Game

So, yes, we went to San Diego on the University's dime. And even though we did get to go to Disneyland, we spent the rest of the time opening boxes and selling merchandise.

One night, we were fortunate enough to be able to head down the the Gaslamp District to watch the "Battle of the Bands."

Which was really fun. Cal's band played, our band played, and everyone had a good time. Especially when the band played the Fight Song!

We were fortunate enough to be able to go the actual Bowl Game (we had everything re-boxed up and ready to ship out).

And I know that Jen is jealous, because we got to go here for the game: The San Diego Charger's Stadium. I'm pretty sure that it's what she thinks Heaven looks like.

The game started at a low point for the Utes, as Cal scored 2 touchdowns in the first half. But we rallied and things were looking up at half-time. Especially since there were fireworks!

The last one is my favorite, because it looks like the stadium is on FIRE!

So, anyway, we rallied and won. And I hate to say it, but it was COLD! I know, I know. It was 50 degrees and I shouldn't complain about that, because it was 7 degrees and snowing in Utah at the time, but come on! California should be warmer than that! That's why people go there.

I asked Tom to take a picture and this is what he gave me: So, I was more specific and asked him to take a picture of me and Mike with the field. I call this picture "Tom Being Snarcastic to Melissa":Snarcastic = Snarky + Sarcastic = TOM.

Then he took a real one for me: So we won!
Final Score:
37-27. Go Utes! The kid that was sitting behind us kept asking his dad if they were going to rush the field when we won. Mike kept laughing, because who rushes the field at the Poinsettia Bowl?!

After the game, we went out to dinner in the Gaslamp District again and found the most amazing thing!I loved this Big Red Chair so much I had to take a picture.

What We Did in San Diego

This is what Mike and I did in San Diego:
And apparently, I suck at transactions.

The Happiest Place on Earth?

Yes, yes, Disneyland remains to this day the "Happiest Place on Earth." Except when 4 billion other people decide to make it their happiest place on earth the same day we do.

Since Mike and I had to go to California for the Poinsettia Bowl (more on that in a later post), we decided to take a day and visit a place I love and adore and am completely happy in.

Yes, Disneyland.

Tom & Stephanie were kind enough to meet us in The Magic Kingdom for fun, SUN and Churros.Having left behind single digit weather in Utah, we basked in all the sunshine that California has to offer. It's really strange to walk around Disneyland hearing Christmas music while it's 70 degrees outside. Doesn't really seem like Christmas to me.

We decided to hit Toon Town first.

And, of course, I had to take a picture with Jessica Rabbit.

One of the best things about Toone Town is that it's interactive.

A possible future for Mike?:
I have a friend who works at Disneyland (he plays Prince Philip and Bert from Mary Poppins), and we kept trying to figure out where he was in relation to us, but we could never quite figure it out. So, alas, another trip to Disneyland went by without seeing Jared. (And another trip with Mike believing that Jared is my imaginary friend, because he's never met him.)

While we were on The Haunted Mansion ride, it broke down. Sad, I know. So we entertained ourselves by taking pictures with the new camera.

My friend at work, Kari, asked me to say "Hi" to Mickey. Unfortunately, this is as close as we came to him.It's a show in California Adventure.

So, onto my favorite part. Which, since there were so many people, we thought about skipping because it was nearly impossible to even get to it with all the damn people.

At Christmas time, Disney changes "It's a Small World" into this:

Beautiful! And instead of just the song, "It's a Small World," they play a mash-up of "It's a Small World" and "Jingle Bells." And since they've redone the ride, it now has several Disney characters incorporated into it.

Including: ARIEL! My favorite! (She sings "Jingle Shells" instead of "Jingle Bells." Clever.)

All in all, it was a pretty good day. Minus the 4 billion other people there.

ChRisTMas TaG

1. Have you started your Christmas shopping?
HA! Have to get past Mike's birthday (tomorrow) first.

2. Tell me about one of your special traditions.
My favorite is when Santa flies over on Christmas Eve and drops pajamas and a highway flare in the backyard and leaves a note telling us that he's flown over once and if we're not in bed the next time he flies over we're getting nothing for Christmas. (Santa's notes were more and more obscene the older we were.)
And I love that we open the presents one at a time.

3. When do you put up your tree?
This year it didn't happen until December. We were too busy going to Provo for the BYU/Utah game.

4. Are you a Black Friday shopper?
I went early with my mom and my sister once. ONCE. And I was so bruised by the time I came home from being hit with shopping carts that I vowed to never do that again. Black Friday shoppers are mean.

5. Do you travel at Christmas or stay home?
We travel to West Jordan to visit Mike's family.
But this year we're actually traveling to San Diego on the 20th and coming back on the 24th, because the Utes are playing in the Poinsettia Bowl on the 23rd. (I know! How fun is that going to be? Traveling home on Christmas Eve?! I just hope we make it back in time!)

6. What is your funniest Christmas memory?
When my grandparents were still alive, we used to always go to their house in Idaho for Christmas. My Grandpa would always pass out the presents, one by one. It would sometimes take hours for us to open all the presents (we were very spoiled as children; still are). I remember this one Christmas when my Grandpa was passing out the presents and he couldn't quit . . . well . . . passing gas, as he bent over pick up the presents.

My grandparents also had this really hideous fake white-flocked tree that really belonged in 1968 (which is when they probably bought it) and thinking about that tree now always makes me laugh.

7. What is your favorite Christmas movie of all time?
White Christmas. I love it. Poor Mike has to suffer watching it several times each year.

8. Do you do your own Christmas baking? What's your favorite treat?
I am this year. And I'll take anything with sugar in it.

9. Fake or real tree?
FAKE! My sister and brother-in-law used to get a real tree every year until the year their tree came with its own personal spider-sac. They had little spiders running around for weeks.
No, thank you.

10. What day does the actual panic set in to get it all done?
Now.

11. Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve?
Probably this year, since we won't be home until the 24th. And this is me we're talking about, so the probability of getting everything done before we go to San Diego is really minimal.

12. What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas?
I love it when we go see the Lights on Temple Square. But this year I really want to go ice skating at the Gallivan Center (HINT).

13. What Christmas Craft do you like the best?
Crafts?!

14. Christmas music? Yes or no, and if yes, what is your favorite song?
Anything from Josh's Christmas CD.

15. When do you plan to finish all your shopping?
I still have to get Mike something for his birthday first. Really, December birthdays should be outlawed.

Thanks for the tag Sar:) I tag Aimee, Candee, Jill and Jen, and anyone else who would like to play along:)

Team Down South ("TDS") Rivalry

After spending this past Saturday tailgating with the Crimson Club at the BYU game, all I can say is,

"BEHOLD, MY FUTURE:"

Saturday I received a little taste of how Mike would really like to spend game days: Hanging with the Crimson Club while they tailgate, play "corn-hole," and drink all day (minus the drinking, right Baby?).

Mike had to work, so basically, it was up to me to entertain myself. Mike wanted me to go around and make friends with some of the members of the Crimson Club so that when he doesn't have to work, we have people to hang with during tailgates. But that would have meant I would have been doing exactly what he wanted me to do and I just couldn't do that. His assistant, Sean, wanted me to "use my femine wiles" to get free drinks for him. When I refused to support his drinking habit, he resigned himself to teaching me how to play Corn-Hole (you know, that game where you have a bean bag and you throw it at the board with the hole in it) instead.

Those of you who know me well can atest that I hate losing. I freely admit that I'm a terrible loser. If we're playing a game, we play until I win. That's just how it works.

Well, after an hour of losing to Sean at Corn-Hole (he was really good, I'm pretty sure he scammed me!), I finally gave it up. I never got a single bean bag into the hole. Yes, my head is still hung in shame.

I should have tried to play with these guys instead: It's hard to tell, but these men are playing a rowdy game of "Ho-Shoes." The man with his arm in the air has just thrown a stiletto heel and is aiming for that bucket in the background. 2 points if you make it into the bucket, 1 if you manage to hit the bucket.

Ho-Shoes.

Hilarious.

I was also slightly saddened by this, because some of their stilettos were pretty cute and it seemed a shame to be wasting perfectly good shoes in this fashion. Still made me laugh, though.

Then the team arrived: Yes, these fans are in the middle of the street and it's really lucky that nobody got hurt. Keep in mind that for many, tailgating = major amounts of alcohol. Or maybe they're just that stupid. So, being with people who believe that tailgating = alcohol, I'm saddened to report that I was a victim of theft! Mike and I think that someone was either slobbering drunk and didn't realize what they were doing, or someone is extremely mean.

I had my red scarf stolen. STOLEN!

And I lost my lucky earring!

Adding it all up: I was mercilessly beaten at Corn-Hole, lost my lucky earring AND had my red scarf stolen.

All in all, the tailgating was not a great time for me.

And then of course, there was the game. But this is what I spent most of the game looking at: Yes, that is the man in front of me's back. The row in front of us was a group of soliders dressed in their fatigues and, of course, I'm sitting behind the one who stands the whole damn game. And how do you tell a man who is willing to die for my freedom to think about the people behind him and sit the hell down?

Or he could have at least taken a hint from his comrade who sat in front of Mike. That guy was really tall, but he kept ducking down because he knew that the people behind him couldn't see. Very nice of him.

The game sucked. The refs were HANDING the game to BYU! Anyone ever heard of a "disconcerning" penalty? Me either. I know I'm new to understanding the game of football, but we received twice as many penalties as BYU. Sorry, this picture is from Mike's camera phone. But, after overtime, the score was 23-26.

Yes, we lost to BYU.

Oh, well.

Next year.

Go UTES!

San Diego Game

Once again, we braved the cold (and supposed snow) to watch our beloved Utes play against San Diego this past Saturday.

Tom and Stephanie drove all the way from California just for the game (and Thanksgiving). They're here until after the BYU game, and I know Mike has been happy to spend some time with his closest brother. (Inside fact about Mike's family: Mike is the youngest of 9. Yes, 9. And there are 10 years between him and Tom, and then 10 years between Tom and the 7th child (which I can't remember who that is at the moment; sometimes it's hard to keep everyone straight in that family; I think it's either Elaine or Alan.), so even though Mike is the youngest of 9, he still was basically brought up as an only child. He also has siblings that are older than my parents. That really freaked me out in the beginning.)

The game was boring. Why? This was the score at halftime: You might think that it would be exciting to be up 38-0 at halftime, but in this scenerio it just made the game last even longer. I mean, there was zero excitement. ZERO. All we did was score touchdown after touchdown with no returns by San Diego. BORING. (Amazingly, I actually like it when there's some conflict during the game.) But, then the Sun Devils(?) (is that the mascot for San Diego?) rallied in the 2nd half and made one whole touchdown! Which made the final score: Wait a minute. We never scored in the 2nd half during this game? No wonder the 2nd half was even more boring than the 1st.

It was FREEZING! So cold, in fact, that Sarah and I had to buy new headgear to keep warm. Lucky for Sarah, she had Ryan to keep her warm, but I only had Mike next to me to block the wind for 1/2 the game. Anyway, we won. GO UTES!

Next week is the TDS RIVALRY! (TDS = Team Down South)

New Moon Premiere

Yes, it's true. We went to the New Moon Premiere. At midnight. I'm sure lots of you out there have seen it and can't think why this would be so special. So, allow me to enlighten you.

We went to the New Moon Experience. Yes, EXPERIENCE.

Let's start at the very beginning (and in the words of Julie Andrews, "a very good place to start"):

About 2 months ago, Sarah called me up and asked if I wanted to go to New Moon at midnight. Now, I had my reservations. Mainly because it was on a Thursday at midnight and I knew I would have to work the next day. But how could I say no seeing it at midnight and with Sarah, Jill and Annie? I couldn't! So, I didn't. (Yes, I went to work the next day, and yes, I was exhausted.)

But I wouldn't have traded it for anything! So, Sarah booked me, Jill, her sister, Annie, and herself tickets to the New Moon Experience, Edward-style. Yes, Sarah loves Edward. So, naturally, we went to an Edward-themed theater. (Later, we found out that Jill is Pro-Jacob. Now, being one who would take either in a heart-beat, I tried not to take sides. Just call me Switerzland. I also sat between them during the movie, just to make sure no there was no squabbling. I had to play referee more than once!)

Sarah and I decided we needed to buy shirts to wear that night. It was really fun walking past people and hearing them read our shirts out loud. I have to say, mine is very true. It says, "I was pale before Twilight made it cool," in case you're having a hard time reading my boobs. Sarah's is a little more naughty, "Edward can Bust my headboard, Bite my pillows, and Bruise my body anyday!"When first we entered the Experience we immediately had to get jeweled and feathered-up courtesy of some hair school:

Annie getting "Sparkled."Jill getting "Sparkled."

Sarah getting "Sparkled." And the final shiny, be-jeweled product:
Then we wait. Sarah is a genius and thought to bring Phase Ten to pass the time.

Now for the fun part. The goody bags! We actually got a lot of really cool stuff, all Twilight-themed, of course. There was a license-plate cover that said "Faster than a Speeding Cullen," a t-shirt (Jill asked if she could have a Jacob t-shirt instead, but the Twilight nazi's refused her. The meanies.), a button with Edward's head on it, some sun-changing nail polish, and lots of other really cool stuff.

Then we were allowed to take our picture with Edward and Jacob!Notice how Edward is staring right at Sarah and Jacob is staring right at Jill! They were both so happy.

Our goody bags also came with (of course!) FANGS! We had a really good time and can't wait to do it again in June! (Yes, can you believe that Eclipse comes out in JUNE?! And June, as in, 6 months from now!)

(Oh, yeah. The movie. it was MUCH better than the first one. It's amazing what having a decent budget can do for special effects.

But, cheese with money is still cheese.

And, boy, are there some parts that are cheesey!

Example (Spoiler Alert!): When Alice is showing the Volturi that she sees Bella as a vampire, it shows her vision of Edward and Bella running through the forest. In slow motion. Seriously reminded me of Baywatch. The whole theater laughed.)