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.