It is COLD

It is currently 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is NOT ENOUGH!!! I know that this is probably only the third day of sucky weather we've had this fall, but it's making up for lost time with its lameness. It's so cold that my face froze on the way out of the grocery store. It's so cold that I'm wearing my Snuggie under a blanket. It's so cold that I asked Matt to get me something from the car, and he dressed up like this. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I hope you have someone who can make you laugh as hard as my eskimo does!!!! (Yes, those are ski pants). 

OUR NEW APARTMENT!!!!!

Words cannot describe how FREAKING AWESOME it is to have this apartment. We love it. It's got a great location, it's adorable, and NOBODY knows that this complex is here, but it's less than a block from my work, and really close to the church too. Can't give too many details for all the stalkers out there. Anyways, this is the view out of our double doors in our living room.

There's a little black bunny who lives around here too, fed by an elderly woman who plants flowers everywhere and knows who everyone is and what they're up to. The bunny is the cutest thing ever, but seems to only come out at night. We've seen a bigger black and white one too. There were bunnies at Mom and Dad's too, and they were always there to cheer me up when I was having a bad day, so I think they passed on the message to their cousins down here to keep an eye on us :-)

Anyways, we just wanted to show off the interior of the apartment. It's just big enough, and has a little storage unit for us. And it has a DISHWASHER!!!! 

Here's a view from the front door. Our cute double doors on the left, kitchen to the right, and the two bedrooms straight back. The tree growing out of the back of the couch is these vinyl sticker things. It's way cute, and a nice distraction since we can't paint. Oh, and Matt with his guitar is a semi-permanent fixture also. I've drawn the line at it getting it's own pillow in the bed. 

Here's our sweet entertainment center setup, decorated for Halloween. The actual shelf thing used to be pale yellow, but we practiced our tagging skills, and spray painted it. It looks really nice now. Many thanks to the Phister's for giving us their old sound system, and other furniture.

Here's the kitchen with AC and dishwasher!!! And massive pile of recycling to be... recycled.

Other side of the kitchen. We're stoked to have our own fridge, full of yummy stuff that we like. There was not much room at Mom and Dad's for all of our (Matt's) ice cream and almond butter habits, so we're grateful for little things like that.

This is Cosmo, soon before we cleaned his bowl. We were fish sitting for some friends, and it made us feel very grown up. Matt made me laugh really hard by making sure Cosmo got his exercise and fun each day. He'd take a butter knife and swirl the water all around to make a current. We (I) also fed him so much that his water turned pink. And we let him stay up past his bedtime. Does this make us the best fish sitters ever, or the worst? 

This is the beloved ducky bathroom. We still haven't retrieved the ducky shower curtain rings from Mom and Dad's, but otherwise, this place is a haven for duckies of all shapes and sizes (NYAS duck included). Oh, and you can kind of see in the bottom right our Orabushes! Go Orabrush!! If you don't know what those are, YouTube it!! (Provo company made famous strictly by YouTube, therefore Matt is very fascinated with online marketing potential)

Our sweet bedroom, with two big windows. And our free dresser, from the dorms up at the College. Note the exceptionally stylish handles (embrace the Wyomingness). And our sweet Ikea lamp shade...

...And the all too awesome cowboy who shows up from time to time!!

Last, but not least, is the messy and unorganized office. But it has AC!! And the INTERNET!!! 

We'd like to say a massive THANK YOU SO MUCH to Jane and George for putting up with us for the 347 days that we co-habitated with them (not that anyone was counting). It wasn't always easy, but it taught us all lots of valuable lessons, like Ben and Jerry need to be kept under lock and key, and Chester could survive off of eating DVD's and electric razors if he had to. It also will forever make us grateful to live on our own, and not have to worry about how loud we're being late at night, or get annoyed at how loud two mostly deaf people can be on early weekend mornings when they're yelling across the house at each other, trying to figure out "...are the kids here? Where's my other shoe? What are we having for dinner tonight?" and my personal favorite "WHERE'S MY HEARING AID?" Hehehe. We're sure you don't miss Matt's office taking up 3/4 of the house at times, and our inability to turn off lights/listen to movies and music quietly/bring our dishes to the kitchen/argue without Ipods and other random objects being thrown across the house. We miss movie nights and early morning bagels, and are forever in your debt. Love you guys!!! 

COME VISIT US!!!!! 

Halloween Cookies

So, since we moved into our new apartment (upcoming blog about all the joy which that entails), I've discovered a  fondness for baking. I made some chocolate chip cookies which were pretty good, and I shared them with lots of people, and then set aside enough for the families of the two girls who I visit teach. I forgot to tell Matt, and since he liked my cookies, he ate most of the cookies for the smaller family. So the next day, I was going to make more chocolate chip cookies when Dallin came to me with two bags full of cookie cutters and asked me if we could do something with them. So I made some sugar cookies, and let Dallin and his little cousin Grace cut them out. They had a blast, and loved helping me roll out the dough. Grace picked out the bunnies and hearts, and Dallin picked the ghosts and pumpkins. I picked the ducks. Dallin is SO into Halloween right now, and has had his costume for almost 3 weeks. Their house is decked out with all sorts of things that terrify Grace, and delight little boys. Anyways, Dallin's parents didn't want that many of the cookies. I left them with a plate, and some blue and orange frostings and assorted sprinkles. Dallin's cookies had about an inch of decorations on them by the time I left. So I was left with all these sugar cookies in assorted shapes, and about an hour to decorate my own to take to the girl who I visit, so I just whipped up some colored frosting and spread it on them. Matt came in in the middle of my decorating and started laughing. He thought it was funny that I'd decorated ghosts and witches and cats and moons in Christmas colors. He also laughed really hard at my Gingerbread man, who he called the rock biter... He was a little uneven, since at the end I just smushed all of the dough into his mold, then flattened it out a bit with the rolling pin. It looked a lot funnier before he had frosting on him. Anyways, these are the Halloween cookies that weren't... Happy Halloween everyone!!!

B's Macbook Journal From Pixies Road Trip!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

8:28 pm.

We are driving to see the PIXIES!!!! We just left Riverton, Wyoming (yes, at 8:28, don't you dare judge us) and the next time we see Riverton we will have seen Matt Wright’s favorite band!!! Matt never believed that this would happen. They broke up in 93, and their first reunion tour happened while Matt was on his mission. He has been heard saying that that was one of the biggest sacrifices of his entire mission, to not be able to go see them. So a few months ago he joined the official fan club, hoping against hope that someday they would reunite. When he got an email from them saying that there was a second world tour, he was beside himself, and bought 2 tickets immediately to the Las Vegas show!! So that’s where we’re headed right now. We will get to Utah at approximately 3 am, and stay with Matt's sister, Emily Pugh. Tomorrow we’ll relax in Cedar Hills, and Saturday morning we will drive to Vegas, spend approximately 9 hours waiting in whatever capacity it takes to be front and center, then scream our heads off for about 3 hours, etc. Emily Pugh and Amy Joy Garfield and Josh will be joining us for the concert, and Susan Rydman and Elinor Pugh will be awaiting our arrival back at our hotel. At least that’s what we have planned… So that’s what this is all about. The Adventures of Matt and B; Super Road Trip Pixies Extravaganza Fest Sauce 2010.

Friday, September 24, 2010

1:48 am.

Exactly 5 hours after leaving our driveway (8:20-1:20) we arrived in Cedar Hills. What speed limit? Trip was uneventfully good. I slept most of the way. Matt listened to Pixies, Stuff You Should Know podcast (Kleptomaniacs and Ninjas), and Peter, Bjorn and John. At one point, I’d dozed off after a brief conversation, and Matt started talking to me again, which made me startle awake, which scared him… It was funny, you had to be there. Also, when we got into Salt Lake, he told me that we were in Pepper Ocean, and in my sleep fog, I thought we were in Park City and couldn’t figure out what Parks and Pepper had to do with one another. Now we are hanging with Em and Lola the Great Dane and Chelsea the English Spaniel (?), and Matt is warming up peaches and bread pudding. YUM! Our favorite old lady snack!



Same Day

3:25 pm.

Fun afternoon. Slept until 11:30, so there wasn’t much of a morning, but I had a good time watching Scout (5) show off her ballet moves and listening to Elinor’s old man wheezes when she got excited. It’s literally just a sharp exhale that is completely adorable sounding. I did Scout’s hair and we played with some of her little animals, and then she got picked up to go to school at 12:20. Matt woke up shortly after that, and we hung out with Elle. She gets to play with Scout’s toys while Scout is at school, and that seemed to be the highlight of her day. Then we went to Draper and ate Café Rio (YUM) and went to the library, then drove back to be able to get Scout when she gets home. We’ll head back to Draper when she gets home, to get stuff for a wedding cake Em is making, and then Plato’s closet. So that’s all. Utah days are fun. Relaxing and fun-filled.








Still same day.

10:12 pm

Matt the trip Nazi is really cute. He’s pacing, and freaking out, and listening to Pixies really loud, and stressing. Worried they might cancel, worried about car trouble, you name it. He NEVER does this. Poor guy. He says that he’s going to fall over dead if they play U-Mass. He just can’t believe that this is actually happening.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

12:53 am Wyoming time.

So sweaty. So tired. So awesome. No time to spare to write, and we’re exhausted, but the concert was perfect. Matt didn’t float away, or fall over dead but he’s happier than he can express. Time for Smart Water, ice cream, showers and bed.


Same day.

8:38 am Vegas time.

So hungry, but the Matt Wright is still tuckered out from his adventures. Perfectly understandable. The concert was amazing. They played so well live. Frank could still scream. Joey was Joey, but happier and playing around with Frank more than I expected. Kim smiled the whole time, and David is just the most adorable nerd ever. The opening act was terrible, but just made the Pixies that much better. A fight almost broke out right next to us when this really really obnoxious drunk guy, who was trying to mosh with EVERYONE, started trying to mosh all the superfans in the front row, and it was super annoying and a lot of them got pissed. One in particular was going to fight him, but Matt and some other people got them separated and moved to a little farther away. I wished we could have just gotten that drunk guy kicked out, but if not, then I hope he really liked the concert, because he made it a little less perfect for the rest of us. Oh, and Matt Wright got screamed at by this really short little heavily intoxicated girl who we think confused him with the mosher. She was slamming elbows into his side, and he told her to cool out (or something cooler than that) and I turned around just in time to see her screaming at him that he shouldn’t go around trying to hurt people then. The funny part was right after that, and the almost fist fight, they played “La La Love You” and it was really awkward. But enough of that. The band played 2 encores, which was just perfect. I knew every song, except for the B-sides that they opened with. The crowd screamed and cheered the entire time, and sang along to so many songs. We couldn’t understand a word Kim said because everyone was just so excited to hear her talk. We get a free live concert download because Matt’s in the fan club, so we’ll get to hear what she said then. They opened with one of their two Manta Ray songs, and then played 3 other B sides. Part of what I heard Kim say was that some of these B sides were so unknown that they’d had to relearn them themselves. Then they started into the Doolittle album, and everyone went nuts "slicin' up eyeballs". It was so amazing. Everyone’s throats were raw from screaming. Matt says the only thing that would've made it more amazing is if his sister Catherine could've been there also (being a huge Pixies fan herself). More later. I need food…

P.S. One of my favorite parts of the concert was listening to Emily freak out and scream from behind me. Em's pretty mellow most of the time, and a mother of 2 small children, but she was up there throwing and bumping elbows and cheering along with everyone else!!

Here are some Matt Wright cell phone pictures of the show. Note: How awesomely close we are!



CHAINED!!! (Hey)

Pixies are back. Oh, how they are back.

In which Matt and B decided to be friends...

This post could also be titled "Why B sleeps a lot". More on that later.

So Matt and I didn't really have anything to do this weekend. Phisters were out of town, no epic adventures to Utah, no weddings to film, we went camping last weekend, etc. We decided that we were going to just be really nice and have fun with one another. We also made a pact that the entire weekend had to be full of positivity, and there could be no put downs, of either of us or of anyone else for that matter. Friday night, after work, we decided to eat out. "Eating out" in Matt and B terms normally means going through the Drive-thru at Taco Bell and eating in the car while listening to whatever music we want. We did this, and got their AMAZING new Cantina tacos!! We highly recomend the steak and chicken ones, but they haven't quite figured out how to fix pork yet. That's ok Taco Bell, you are forgiven because you make us amazing food, you've gotten us through countless hardships, and it sure beats cooking!! We then drove to "Black Bridge". Black Bridge is a bridge built in the 1800's halfway between Riverton and Shoshone, off the beaten path, that you have to walk about 1800 yards to get to.
When you arrive, there are spots where you can jump off at about 8 feet from the water, or 35, or 65. The current of the river you jump into is really nice and lazy, the water is so deep that you never touch the bottom, even if you jump off the top, and the water is warmer than a pool!!! It's pretty yucky and green, but for jumping in, it is wonderfully pleasant. I'd only ever been the photographer on our excursions there, but I promised Matt that I'd jump off this time. So... back up a couple of steps. One of my objections for jumping off was that I wouldn't be hot any more by the time we finished dinner and got out to the bridge. It was a nice, 95 degree day, and I'd just gotten done chasing after little boys. I knew that I'd get all nice and cozy in the air conditioning and jumping into a river wouldn't be as appealing. So, Matt got the wonderful idea to turn on the heater as hot as we could stand it, and keep it on until we got to the bridge so that it would feel nice and refreshing to jump in!!! I went along with it, and got a large ice water in the drive-thru. Otherwise there'd be a B shaped puddle in the bottom of our car! So we sweated our guts out, and listened to "Keep the car running" by Arcade Fire the whole way out there!!! We sprayed ourselves with 100% Deet, and ran until we got side aches so that we wouldn't cool off too much. Matt did a backflip in right when we got there, and then it took some coaxing and an awesome countdown to get me in, but I jumped off the lower part, and it felt AMAZING!!!! I was so tempted to just stay in there and let the current wash me away, but one of my biggest, most irrational fears is water that I can't see through. You have no idea if there are sea monsters or sharks or crazy killer bacteria or freaky bugs or 10,000 foot dropoffs... So I just booked it to the edge and put Matt between myself and anything "yucky". There were these 3 awesome little boys playing in the river.
They had a rope swing, and were letting the current carry them, and finding driftwood and just everything that a magical kids summer could be filled with. They were kind of wary at first, and made us promise not to steal their bikes, but after we made them promise not to steal our clothes, they were great! They showed us the best parts to cross the river onto this rocky sandbar, and cheered for Matt when he jumped off the 30 f0ot part, and were in awe of Matt's rock skipping abilities. I was amazed too, I think the average number of skips per rock was at least 10!! So we played around on the shoreline for a while, and Matt kept good of our pact of no put-downs, and didn't make a big deal out of me not wanting to go where I couldn't see the bottom. Then we went back to the bridge, and I wanted to take a picture of Matt jumping, so I did, and it made us laugh really really really hard... because I didn't quite get the timing right, so all you can see, at the very bottom of the screen, behind the lovely profanities, is his splash.

Good times!!! Driving home, we decided we wanted to keep being alone together, so we listened to some "Stuff You Should Know" about brainwashing (more about recent fascination with brainwashing in a later post), and drove to Phisters!!! Where we took yummy showers and changed into our new clothes, and cuddled on top of Scott and Amy's bed and watched South Park. Normally we'd cuddle somewhere else, but... they're kind of cramping our style with this whole "new carpet and paint" thing that they've got going on. All of the furniture was set out of the way, and Scott and Amy's was the only TV besides the itty bitty one from the kitchen. And Amy kind of gave us permission to do that (I feel like I'm totally confessing here. Your bed's really nice Amy, thanks!!). Whilst we were doing that, I saw a friends facebook status that said that there was a garage sale in the morning that was going to have furniture at it, and we need furniture!! I got Matt up at 7:30 and we ate Crunch Berries together, and we went and bought furniture!!! To move into our new house!!!!!! Which is.... <

TA-DAH!!!!!!

Just kidding. I know how badly you all would love to come visit us in this house, but... we would rather be homeless, or sleep in non-clear water. The awesome thing is, look at what's parked out front. Looks like someone's given up a nice house for a nice car!!


So yes, we bought furniture, and we are moving to an apartment somewhere in Riverton as soon as we can.

After purchasing said furniture and taking it back home, and Pops helping us fix a couple of loose screws (the furnitures, not ours, haha!) it was time for *Dum dum dum* PAINTBALL!!!!

Our friend recently purchased a set of inflatable bunkers and all the equipment from the one paintball place in town that is closing down because the owners were pedophiles (no joke!!), and that saturday was his test run of all his new stuff!! He's going to try to start a legit business, because paintball is a surprisingly (ok, it surprised me) big pasttime in Riverton Wyoming. So we dug out our guns (I have my very own Tippman 98 Custom that I bought to impress Matt, and it's very wonderful and has never broken a ball, and works great as long as I remember to put paint in it and take it off safety.) and headed out to the fort, forgetting our sweatshirts in the process. Paintballs travel at about 300 feet/second, and it's very good to wear protective gear, because if they contact skin, they can make you bleed. Plus, I bruise like a peach, as you'll soon see. Well, we happened to be playing with a very excellent player, who is also about 90% deaf. He's this awesome older man named Ed, who everyone wanted to be on the same team as. He added some interesting dynamics to the game, because he really could hardly hear a thing. He was pretty much in his own trigger happy world the whole time. For the first game, my team, which was not Ed's team, kicked trash because Matt took out the whole team! He even shot Ed right between the eyes. And I didn't get shot, which sucks, because I'm always super nervous about the first hit, which is the worst one. So round two, same teams, switched sides, and I ended up behind this dumb cone that does NOT provide very good cover, especially when there are people on either side of you shooting at you, as I found out. I got hit in the arm, which produced this bruise...
Even though I'm half banana, this still stung like crazy, and I shouted "I'm out" and sort of backed up behind the cone, away from the person who'd shot me. This wasn't so good, as Ed now had a perfect shot of me, and since I wasn't standing 2 feet away from him, he didn't hear my yell. He shot once, which hit my neck, but didn't "break", so he shot me 2 more times in the back. After the first shot, I remembered that when you're out you're supposed to put your gun in the air when you're out, and that it was probably Ed shooting me, but I was panicking, and getting shot at from what felt like every angle, so I just started doing a little Mexican boot dance, and shrieking "I'MOUTI'MOUTI'MOUTI'MOUT". The ref saw me and came to the rescue with his little white flag. It'd only been about 30 seconds since the first shot, but I was pretty shaken, and Ed felt terrible that he'd shot me after I was out, and left this mark to boot...

(Note: that is bruising... not purple paint)

It freaking stung. But I took it like a... champ, and played every round except the very next one. I'm definitely never forgetting my sweatshirt after that. Matt was also being really sweet, and took a bullet for me in the next round that I played (I found out later that he'd just barely gotten out and was walking out of bounds, and just walked through the gunfire of the person shooting at me... but we'll pretend he was being heroic).

It's fun when Matt Wright and B are friends. We even got matching friendship welts!

Congratulations Matt Wright!!!!

(Sorry Matt, that's the only picture of you I could find in your cap and gown!!)

So, as I'm sure you all have heard, Matt Wright is almost officially a college graduate!!!!! He was able to walk and everything, he just has to finish a lot of hours of radio time in the next 6 weeks for one class (which will be cake), and then he's DONE!!! Our adventures in trying to get him graduated have been... PMS-ing teachers who shall remain nameless, a Bhuddist documentary/adventure in the middle of the semester, 18 credits of madness, and Biology, to name a few. The documentary caused him to miss 2 weeks of school, but luckily all of his teachers love him, and let him turn in any work he missed. That, and his awesome wife who read Death of a Salesman AND slogged through Oedipus just to help him write a paper. Just kidding. Like I told Matt, I just helped him kick it in to the finish line. He was an awesome student all semester. He gave up all video games for the entire thing, and never turned into a monster because of all the stress, like I would have done. Even the last week, when we couldn't see how he was going to finish and pass, he would still play me cute songs on the guitar to prevent me from smashing through any walls. A few almost all nighters (4 hours of sleep doesn't quite cut it for me), and we pulled it off!!!!!!!!!!! Matt got by with 3 A's, a B and 2 C's.

A few highlights/lowlights...

-Classes ended Wednesday. Monday, Matt went to one of his teachers and asked her if there was anything else he needed to do, or if he was for sure passing. She looked him up in the computer, and told him that he was just fine. Wednesday morning-ish, this same teacher left him a scary voicemail saying that she needed to see him immediately. I don't know the whole story, but he wasn't as safe as we'd both thought. However, she let him have until Monday, because she knew that he had most of his assignment done, and that he needed to Biology very badly at this point.

-Friday, the day OF graduation, another teacher stops Matt and tells him that he never got Matt's final paper, which was turned in online, and that he wasn't passing English. Fortunately, Matt HAD turned it in on Tuesday, and had the e-mail receipt to prove it, so that was a quick fix, but still made us wonder if someone was working really hard to keep Matt from graduating.

-Biology was what Matt opted to do instead of Math... (bravery? Or something else?). This 4 credit class Matt swears had more work than all of his other classes combined. So Matt saw that there were 8 (8!!!!) assignments due every single week (quizzes, chapter worksheets, labs, lab tests, virtual labs, etc...). So he opted not to do the 2 that were worth the least amount of points. Well, over the semester, all those points added up to the amount that he needed in order to get a C rather than a D (which wouldn't cut it for his major). So the last week is when we did those, because there was no way we could get to them before that. That was about 30 worksheets and virtual labs... there was a stack of papers about an inch thick that he handed in at 8 am on Friday. Graduation was that night, and we waited all day for a phone call that said either yes you did it, you can walk, or I'm sorry.... it didn't come, so we decided to just pretend that he'd passed (we were 75% sure at that point), and went out for a celebratory dinner, and then dashed home to attempt to iron his robe and get ready. Well, at this point, Matt thought that his stomach was going to explode, and he ended up getting a mild case of food poisoning 20 minutes before graduation started (the kind B doesn't talk about). At this point, we thought for sure Satan was doing his best to keep Matt from graduating. BUT the ceremony was awesome, and Matt texted a lot of people a picture of "This is what relief looks like" FROM his spot at the back of the stage. He was the 3rd to last person to graduate. Afterwards, his Biology teacher came up, almost in tears, and said "You did it! You did it!!" and gave him a big hug. That was about the best moment ever for Matt, and he was just beaming the rest of the night. I was asleep by 10:30 after that, and Matt went to a former teacher's house and watched a movie. The next 2 days we spent a combined total of about 12 hours at a job filming a dance recital, and then Monday was the day when Matt went to sleep at 6:30 pm, and I broke his keyboard.

- HIGHLIGHTS!!! Matt graduated. He made awesome friends with most of his teachers. He learned how to play the guitar, which was his haven for when his brain wanted to explode. He has a ton of work to do now that the semester is over (yay work!!), and hopefully he learned some things! He has a large radio following, that will probably only get bigger with all this summer radio time. He took advantage of some awesome opportunities, and will never be the same again!!! We are all sooooo proud of Matt Wright!!!!!!!!!

So here's what Matt is deservedly doing right now (don't mind the mountain of clean clothes...) after another rough week, and a long night on Phister's floor. I love the Wizard of Oz-ness.

I love you Matt Wright