30 Years

I interrupt your regularly scheduled program to wish my totally hot, caring, smart husband, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Thirty years ago today, this adorable little boy entered the world (not in this exact outfit):

One of my favorite Rod stories happened when he was about 4 years old. Apparently after taking a walk around the LSU lakes, his parents took him to a frozen yogurt shop to get a cone. When the lady behind the counter tried to help him, asking him if he wanted one flavor or another, he answered, "No, I want to go to Haagen Dazs and get some real ice cream." :)

We're doing a big party with friends on Saturday, but we did a little celebration tonight at The Metropolitan.

Compliments of Uncle Eddie . . . Today in History - April 30
Today is Thursday, April 30, the 120th day of 2009. There are 245 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
One hundred and fifty years ago, on April 30, 1859, the Charles Dickens novel "A Tale of Two Cities" was first published in serial form in the premiere issue of All the Year Round, a literary magazine owned by Dickens. (The novel was presented in 31 weekly installments.)
On this date:
In 1789, George Washington took office in New York as the first president of the United States.
In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million.
In 1812, Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union.
In 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition opened in St. Louis.
In 1909, Juliana, queen of the Netherlands from 1948 to 1980, was born in The Hague.
In 1939, the New York World's Fair officially opened with a ceremony that included an address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1945, as Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.
In 1948, the Charter of the Organization of American States was signed in Bogota, Colombia.
In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon announced the U.S. was sending troops into Cambodia, an action that sparked widespread protest.
In 1973, Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, along with Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean.
Ten years ago: A bomb exploded at a gay pub in London, killing three people and injuring more than 70. (David Copeland, a white supremacist, was later convicted of murder for a series of bombings in London and sentenced to six life sentences.) The Rev. Jesse Jackson met with each of the three U.S. soldiers being held prisoner by Yugoslavia.
Five years ago: Arabs expressed outrage at graphic photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. military police; President George W. Bush condemned the mistreatment of prisoners, saying "that's not the way we do things in America." On ABC's "Nightline," Ted Koppel read aloud the names of 721 U.S. servicemen and women killed in the Iraq war (the Sinclair Broadcast Group refused to air the program on seven ABC stations). Michael Jackson pleaded not-guilty in Santa Maria, Calif., to a grand jury indictment that expanded the child molestation case against him. (Jackson was acquitted at trial.) Former NBA star Jayson Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in the shotgun slaying of a limousine driver at his New Jersey mansion, but found guilty of trying to cover up the shooting. (Williams faces retrial on a reckless manslaughter count.)
One year ago: The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for a seventh straight time, reducing the federal funds rate a quarter-point to 2 percent. An avalanche in Italy's northwestern Alps killed five French ski-mountaineers.
Today's Birthdays: Actress Cloris Leachman is 83. Singer Willie Nelson is 76. Actor Gary Collins is 71. Actor Burt Young is 69. Singer Bobby Vee is 66. Actress Jill Clayburgh is 65. Movie director Allan Arkush is 61. Actor Perry King is 61. Singer Merrill Osmond is 56. Movie director Jane Campion is 55. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is 50. Actor Paul Gross is 50. FIU coach Isiah Thomas is 48. Country musician Robert Reynolds (The Mavericks) is 47. Actor Adrian Pasdar is 44. Rapper Turbo B (Snap) is 42. Rock musician Clark Vogeler is 40. R&B singer Chris "Choc" Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 38. Rock musician Chris Henderson (3 Doors Down) is 38. Country singer Carolyn Dawn Johnson is 38. Actress Lisa Dean Ryan is 37. R&B singer Akon is 36. R&B singer Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees) is 36. Actor Johnny Galecki is 34. Singer-musician Cole Deggs (Cole Deggs and the Lonesome) is 33. Attorney, Chef and Bon Vivant, Rod Smith is 30. Rapper Lloyd Banks is 27. Actress Kirsten Dunst is 27. Country singer Tyler Wilkinson (The Wilkinsons) is 25.
Thought for Today: "Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future." — Ayn Rand, Russian-born author (1905-1982).

Happy Birthday Honey! I love you more than you know.

Happy Easter!

Is April seriously over? Our month was so jam-packed that I have not had a minute to write. Well . . . maybe I had a minute, but I didn't want to spend it writing. Sorry!

For Easter, we went to Idaho to surpise my grandparents. The night before we left, my mom flew in from Denver. My grandparents had no idea she was coming and were SO surprised when she walked in the door. :) With as many health problems as my grandma has had recently, it made my day to see her smile. The weekend was a bit of a blur.

We went to dinner with my Uncle and very pregnant cousin (who wouldn't let me take pictures of her),

dyed easter eggs with Mom Dena and Jordan,

celebrated Grandpa's Birthday, took Rod to see the new colt at my family's farm (Ellis Supreme Arabians), somehow fit in a trip to Easter mass, And . . . I still had one more suprise up my sleeve:

I had candy and something special for everyone.

What Easter would be complete without the Easter Bunny bringing Easter baskets?It was so hard to say goodbye. This is a picture of my mom's, my grandma's, and my hands.

It's April, Fool!

As great as March was, April has been pretty fantastic too. The first week of April was jam- packed with fun. Wednesday, April 1, was an unsurprise party for the Super Cool Alex.

Ari invited us all to Alex's house. We started arriving while Alex was still there, but he didn't know that it was planned until more people showed up. His Mom put together this fantastic spread.

Thursday night I went to Dial 'M' for Murder with the usual suspects and Inga. Friday, Rod and I decided to stay in to watch Slumdog Millionaire. The next day, was the best Saturday EVER.

Rod and I have totally different music tastes. My iPod is filled with punk rock,The Cure, Depeche Mode, and NIN. His is filled with bluegrass, americana, and alt country. One of the very few bands we agree on is Better Than Ezra. It helps that they are from his hometown and that I had never heard of them until we started dating. Apparently BTE never made it to Idaho Falls. :) So even though the rest of the world got sick of BTE in the 90s, they are brand new to me. For years, I have been trying to talk Rod into taking me to see BTE in Baton Rouge. But this weekend, BTE came to us AND it was FREE! The concert was at the Canyons. We got there late (because I had a fabulous sushi lunch catching up with my college roommates who were in town for a wedding), but it was perfect timing. We still got close to the stage and only had to wait ten minutes before the band came out. They were even better live! Half way through the concert it started snowing. It was so fun dancing in the snow singing at the top of our lungs. I didn't want it to end!

Sorry the sound isn't better. Here are some clips from their new album and some of their old hits.

After the concert, we met back up with Autumn and Val (the college roommates) for shopping at the outlets and dinner at Red Rock.

To round out our perfect weekend, we spent Sunday skiing.

We ran into Kelly and Seth and spent the rest of the day skiing with them.

The sky was as blue as I've ever seen it (and I got fried!). I did my first black diamond (on skis). It wasn't pretty, but I made it without hurting myself. :)

Ted the Lawyer, Woman to Watch, Still Rising, a Partner and other random things rounding out my March

Early in the month, our good friends, Clem, Joanna, Allison, and Scott, invited us to the annual Jackie Chiles Law Society Dinner. In addition to Sam Lloyd (the attorney from Scrubs), the dinner featured a presentation by my favorite law professor (Bill Richards), another law professor rapping to Vanilla Ice, an explanation by a very funny law student about why lawyers aren't good conversationalist (funny, but true), and (THE HIGHLIGHT) Clem almost peeing his pants laughing at Sam Lloyd.

Later in the month, I got a lot of great professional news. I am one of Utah Business Magazine's 30 Women to Watch, Superlawyers' Rising Stars (for the second time), and Parr Brown's shareholders (partners). It was such a good month!

March was the best month ever!

Between being incredibly busy, taking up a new hobby, and now being sick, I have barely had a chance to write about what was the most amazing month. In addition to the concerts and plays that I've already written about, Rod and I also got in some amazing ski (yes, I said ski) days.


For those of you who don't know, I am a boarder and have been one since high school. Until a couple years ago, I had never even been on skis. I grudgingly agreed to take up skiing because Rod wants to do more backcountry stuff. Until this year, though, I have not taken that promise seriously. I have switched to skis only during the last, already exhaused hours of an okay ski days. But in March I had my first full ski day ever. It helped that my friends Cynthia and Cristina had free passes to Deer Valley (where they don't allow boarders). The skiing was posh and may have ruined me for other resorts. The runs were all really wide, perfect for learning, the mountain hosts were incredibly helpful, and the turkey chilli rounded out a perfect ski day. I also graduated to my first blue run. It wasn't pretty, but I did it.


Then, just when it looked like it was never going to snow again, we headed to Big Sky to see what Montana had to offer. We were actually there to visit our friends and their adorable new baby, but the nearby ski resort was certainly a plus. Chris and Katie were only in Big Sky for a month while Chris did a rotation in the medical clinic. They just had a new baby, Adeline, in November. They had a beautiful cabin on the river.

The first couple of days, the snow was not great, but on the last day it was storming, filling in all of the bumps. Great day! Chris and Katie were such great hosts, we had such a blast.

More about our great month tomorrow (or when I get around to it :) ).

Out on a school night

There have been a lot of great concerts in SLC recently. Ever since the Zephyr left town, there have been a dearth of music venues. Well, that may still be the case, but at least there are some new venues attracting independent artists.

A couple weeks ago, we even went out on a school night (gasp!) to see Todd Snider at the Murray Theater. It was fantastic! Todd's tunes went from haunting to irreverent in a matter of minutes. And the stand up comedy routine in between songs was a great bonus. The venue was more intimate and mellow than some of the alternatives. It would be nice if they had a bar, though. Check out the videos at the bottom below.

My concert photography skills leave something to be desired. :)

This last weekend, we checked Murray Theater's twin venue, the Avalon Theater, to see Rachael Yamagata. I have been following her since Inga introduced me to her five years ago at Liquid Joes. She is a truly talented singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist. Rod was less than thrilled about the bitter chic rock, but I was loving it. The Avalon was also a more intimate, mellow venue, but its seats were more uncomfortable, the sound guy was horrible, and there is still no bar.

Next weekend, we'll be checking out Better than Ezra at the Canyons free concert series. I'm SO excited!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum

Sorry for being MIA lately. Don't worry it's for a good reason. I'll update about everything that has been happening later, but I promised some new friends to get the word out about their play before its run has finished.

Run, don't walk, to see A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Egyption Theater in Park City. It ends this weekend. The play is side-splittingly funny. The only thing that could improve your experience (I know it did mine) is the cast party.

Patty, a good friend who just happens to play one of the cortisans in the play, invited us to her place for the cast party after the show. It went from out of control to just plain silly as the night progressed. It was so funny to see these characters out of character. P.S. Show tunes and alcohol do not mix. Also, sorry for the lack of pictures. There weren't any G-rated ones.

Come Back Soon!

For the last three weeks, Rod and I have been entertaining the perfect house guest: Flat Stanley. Rod's cousin, Lauren, asked us if we could show Stanley around Utah. We had a great time doing so.

We took Stanley to enjoy Utah's favorite past time: Skiing. We also took him skate skiing and intertubing.


After he sampled all of the great snow sports, we took him downtown to see Temple Square, apparently the most visited tourist attraction in Utah, and the State Capitol Building.


Last weekend, we took him to Park City to check out Olympic Park, where the Olympic athletes train.



Thanks Lauren for sending Stanley our way. You'll have to come out with him in the summer time so we can introduce him to all the great climbing, biking, and national parks.

Happy Birthday Everyone!

Apparently February is popular month for having babies. June must be a good month for cuddling :) We have had a lot of fun celebrating with everyone.

Last weekend, we celebrated with Karthik and Eve at Cafe Madrid. Yummy sangria, good tapas.

Karthik participating in a Spanish tradition.

Then we headed to Alex's house for Ryan's B-day. The only pics from that party are these totally sober shots I took of myself when we got home at 2 a.m.

This past weekend was another weekend of birthdays. Friday night we started to celebrate Jess's birthday at the Bayou. But after it became clear that our table for twenty was not happening (despite our best-intentioned reservations), we headed to J&A's for pizza and karaoke. Here's the birthday boy chillin'.

Rod got into the action too.

Saturday, I celebrated Cristina and Alisha's birthdays at Melting Pot. I know it's a chain, but I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't love all the melted cheese and chocolatey goodness. Sorry no pics.

And, if we didn't get enough the night before, there was more karaoke at Matt and Val's engagement party. Rod and Sarah were a big hit.
Unfortunately, I think we may have to do an intervention with Sarah. She seems to have an unhealthy obsession with karaoke. When we met up again for brunch (and later skate skiing), she had sung herself hoarse.

Martha Lies

Only my closest friends (and now the three people who follow this blog) know that I have a secret obsession with Martha Stewart. This is a deep dark secret that I only rarely admit even to myself. I won't subscribe to her magazine (to maintain plausible deniability), but I can't go to the grocery store without picking it up. I am not delusional enough to believe that I could do everything as well as her. I just don't have the time, patience, or, as my friend Allyson was so kind to point out, minions. But some of her DIY projects are just too cute to resist. Although I've had some success,

Cute idea for wrapping wine bottles.

Most of the projects end up just okay

and I usually end up feeling frustrated. My most recent frustration was with her conversation heart sugar cookies. Here is what the cookies were supposed to look like:

Martha Stewart Living

Here are how mine turned out:

Where did I go wrong? Well, Ms. Stewart said that the writing could be added to the cookies by simply soaking a paper towel with food coloring and using a reusable letter stamp (available through Martha Stewart, of course). So I went out and bought the supplies and anxiously waited for the morning of valentine's day to surprise Rod. I was SO disappointed when the food coloring wouldn't stick to the stamp. I tried brushing the stamp with frosting, but this only made a mess. I ended up writing on the cookies (and not well) the old fashioned way (with a frosting bag). Maybe it would work with gel food coloring. Any suggestions?