Just staying busy.

Well, I haven't really blogged all that much lately.

I've been busy.

Here are the main things that have been happening in my life:

I attended concerts! I saw Weezer live, which was excellent, and then the next week I went to the Rock Band Live! concert, which was also very good. It converted me to liking Dashboard Confessional, which I never really cared for before the concert. I also really enjoyed seeing Panic! at the Disco, and thought they did a great job. (I went because they were playing.) Plain White T's was less impressive. For both concerts I had tickets that were down on the floor, and I invited a guy from my Institute up here in Salt Lake. We were super close--so close that we didn't watch the big screens because we could actually see the people singing and the expressions on their faces, etc, without needing to look at the big screen. (PS, the concert pictures are from my camera phone.)

I visited New England with my friends. We went to a Shaker village in New Hampshire, visited Dartmouth, and then we went to Sharon, Vermont, to see Joseph Smith's birthplace. We also went to Lexington and Concord (and saw the spot where "the shot heard 'round the world" was fired, and also saw a live reenactment of redcoat stuff), and we had a tour of Harvard Law school. And went to church in Boston, which was basically the same as church in Utah or church in California. The trip was my favorite thing I've done in a long time. I've decided that traveling with my friends is my favorite thing to do. Of everything.

I ran a 5K last Saturday, which was part of Wellness week on campus. The actual title of the race is "Run Like Health", but nobody actually pronounced the "th" on "Health" and I'm pretty sure that was intentional. I got a cool shirt from it, which I plan to really wear, unlike my other race shirts. Also, on the same topic, I've started running most days. And I like it. (I always wanted to like running!)

I had the kitties, which obviously I already blogged about. It's kind of weird now that they're gone, because I come home and I don't have to make sure the kitties don't run out as I'm coming in the door. And then I go take my shoes off, and I don't have to put them up high, because the kitties aren't going to snag them or chew on them. And I take my earrings out, and I don't have to put them up high either, because the kitties won't play with them or eat them. And my house doesn't smell like kitties or waste, even though I empty the litter box zero times per day. And I sleep well basically every night now. So. Sort of I miss them, and really I'm secretly relieved to have my house smell normal and all that. Even though they were cute.

I watched season one of Heroes, and I liked it. And now I'm watching season two. Claire is my favorite of all the characters. I also like Hiro. I've been kind of slow about watching my other shows. I'm just busy enough with everything else that like, The Office and HIMYM are not as important as they were. I also watched season one of Pushing Daisies and I love it. Actually, though, I still haven't bothered to plug in my TV yet, sooo, my TV viewing is basically all online or while I'm running.

I don't have any fancy hobbies right now, really. I had this great idea that I wanted to knit washcloths for all of my married friends (because I think they make a house a home), but Jess thought it was a stupid idea, because everyone uses sponges nowadays. And I guess she's right, so now I'm not excited about spending lots of time making something that nobody wants. Jess said I should knit hot pads instead. Meh. We'll see. So I knitted one washcloth to try out one of the patterns, but that's all of the knitting I've done lately. (Although now that it's cold, maybe I'll want to knit more scarves and hats and socks.) I haven't been spinning either.

Hobby updates: remember how I was all into gardening this summer? And I turned out to have not a green thumb at all, but like a thumb of death instead? I was at my old apartment a couple weeks ago and turns out, my tomato plants grew a tomato! One. That was green in the middle of October, so probably would never be red. Too bad, but still kind of neat, since I started the tomatoes as tiny seeds. My other hobby update is about CERT-- this week I finally got my card that shows that I did it.

OH! AND I have been shooting! I signed up for a Pistol Marksmanship class, and I've had three classes of it so far. LOVE IT! I've always wanted to try, and frankly, I'm not very good (yet!), but it sounded like a fun idea, and I'm enjoying it tremendously. I like just doing things instead of thinking and thinking about them forever. So this was one of those things.

I've also kind of become a football fan, which is way new for me. I'm in the student section at school, and I've been to a few of the games. This week we're playing against TCU, and we're having a blackout game, which is, get this, where everyone wears black. Even the players. It's supposed to look intimidating. I think it will. Except if tomorrow is anything like today, we'll be snowy black, which I think it more picturesque and not so intimidating, but whatever. Yesterday I picked up my MUSS BLACKOUT sweatshirt. I think the game will be fun. And more fun if we win. [Not my car; just one I saw.]

In other sports news, I'm ref'ing (sp?) volleyball games for the next couple weekends. RANDOM! I don't know anything about volleyball. But it's cool. I'll figure it out.

My classes are going pretty well. EXCEPT, turns out I love love Accounting, and really hate English [literature], which is unfortunate becuase the English major here isn't English. It's English [literature]. And if I switch to Accounting, I'm basically starting from square one (3 1/2 years of classes, for just my bachelors, because I have to go through the whole business school thing). But if I keep going with English, I have 1 1/2 years left instead. SO, not sure what I'm going to do about that.

And then I guess my last item of news is just about my new job. I started working there this Monday, and so far things are fine. I don't love it. It's okay, though. And there are some things that I do like about it. Like, yesterday, I got to check in a bunch of books we had lent out to other libraries, and a bunch of places put these little thank you notes in the books, and that made me happy. I also do a bunch of scanning, and that is less interesting. I'm happy to be working somewhere, though.

So that's good.

I've kind of started coming up with names for them.

I've had the kitties for like six weeks, and I haven't named them.

I call them:

The girl one. = The gray and cream long-haired calico girl one.

The gray one. = The long haired gray one that poops on everything.

The white one. = The white boy.

The orange ones. = The two boys that are both orange.

Except, the orange ones don't look alike anymore. One is darker, and his tail has a dark tip. He has short hair. The other one has medium-long hair, and he's lighter, and his tail has a light tip.

Also, the orange ones get into different kinds of mischief now. And the dark orange one has decided we're BFF. So he keeps sitting in my lap and falling asleep, which is darling.

I've started thinking of names for them, though, which is a Bad Idea, because everyone knows that once you name them you start to get attached. Even though I don't like them, I sort of already am. Because I keep serving them. I feed them, I pick up their poop, I pet them, I talk to them, I come home to them. Everyone who's served a mission knows the way to love someone you don't love is to serve them.

I really want to call the fluffy light orange kitty Punkin. He's so round and orange! Wouldn't that be cute? It would, huh. The same way that babies born around Christmas are sometimes named Holly or Noel. And girls born on Valentine's day are sometimes called Valentina. And boys born on the Fourth of July should be named Sam.

And I had thought of another really good orange kitty name for the other one, but I forget it now. (It's better that way.)

And if I wanted to keep the theme, I could name the white one Spook. Cute. Just like how parents name their kids Julie and Jared and Jordan and Jennifer so that they all start with J's. Except instead of a letter theme, it's a season one. But he doesn't really seem like a Spook or ghost cat anyway. Maybe because of his orange tips.

Anyway, I'll keep calling them by their colors instead of naming them. Even though I feel like I'm in the 1950's because there's a white boy and a black girl. And a colored girl.

Oh well.

In other news, in my last post I said I didn't, but I actually did accomplish some stuff today:

- I registered for another 5k, which is this Saturday. Fun! And I went running today.

- I picked up my College Republicans shirt, which, frankly, disappoints me. It says on the front "Your Professor Doesn't Have To Know" and it's an ugly font, and each word is capitalized (why?), and I understand that some people get really picked on by their professors for being Republican, but wearing a shirt that says that makes me feel like I'm keeping a bad secret, which I don't think my party affiliation is. It just seems like my shirt is making some kind of an excuse to go get drunk on a school trip or something. But yay. Another free shirt. Although I wish they'd chosen the other idea they'd told us about, which was like GO RED (or some other verb)! BLEED RED (we have a big blood drive, which nobody takes seriously, but which everyone sees advertised like crazy), VOTE RED. (AWESOME.) Oh well.

- Right after I finish typing this, I'm going to watch the last episode of the first season of Heroes, which is obviously also an accomplishment.

- AND! Tomorrow I have an interview for a job! And that's exciting, since I am presently unemployed.

The End.

Neil Patrick Harris called me for my birthday!

Remember how I mentioned that I love Neil Patrick Harris? He plays Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. More people know him because he played Doogie on Doogie Howser.

He called me for my birthday! It was pretty much awesome.

I'd been up in Salt Lake, apartment hunting. I was headed back down to Provo and my phone rang, with a number that I didn't recognize. I assumed it was someone returning one of the messages I'd left about an apartment. But a guy answered. Kinda weird.

"Is this Emily?"

"Yeah."

"Hi Emily, this is Neil Patrick Harris."

"Wait. Who?"

"It's Neil Patrick Harris." (He wasn't calling me back about an apartment.)

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah. I'm calling to wish you a Happy Birthday."

"Oh. Thanks!"

He said my dad shot him an email to let him know that it was my birthday and see if he would call. (They are members at the same private club in Hollywood.)

"Oh, did he tell you you're my favorite actor?"

He said he hadn't, and I told him that it had all started with How I Met Your Mother, and that I'd also watched Dr. Horrible. He was excited that I'd seen Dr. Horrible.

He talked to me a bit about them filming season four of How I Met Your Mother. I couldn't really hear what he said for that part, because the train made a bunch of noise. And then he asked me what I was doing to celebrate my birthday. I told him about how my roommates and I have a tradition of going out to dinner for our birthdays, and then doing something, but it's always a surprise. So I didn't really know what I was going to be doing.

And he wished me a happy birthday again and told me he hoped I would have fun (or something like that), and I thanked him and thanked him for calling, and I told him he made my day.

How nice. And awesome.

And then I thought of the things I wished I had thought to ask while I was on the phone with him. Like about the doormat in season one of HIMYM. And about whether or not he has a blog, since in Doogie Howser he did (well, an old-school blog, which was basically a journal on his computer), and in HIMYM his character is always talking about his blog. And Felicia Day is on twitter, so who knows, maybe Neil Patrick Harris is too.

And I thought about calling him back to ask, but stalking someone seems like a rude way to thank a celebrity for calling you.

Ted Mosby Is a Jerk !!! and other (real) fake websites

One of the many reasons that I love How I Met Your Mother is that they mention specific websites on the show. And then they create them. They may have to, legally. I don't know. They do a fantastic job with it all, though.

For example, there is one episode where Barney had told one of his girls that his name was Ted Mosby (which is the name of the main character in the show). After he leaves her a generic letter and takes off, she makes a website: http://www.tedmosbyisajerk.com . It's an excellent site. It has a picture of the letter (which is great), it has portraits of "Ted" which are actually pictures of Barney, and it features a 20 minute background song about Ted Mosby being a jerk.

Interestingly enough, someone created the site http://www.tedmosbyisNOTajerk.com from the perspective of Victoria, who is a girl that dated the actual Ted Mosby on the show for awhile. Her site is funny, too. It has a page of testimonials from other girls that know Ted on the show. Then it has a page suggesting that the "Ted Mosby" from tedmosbyisajerk.com is actually Conan O'Brien. I don't remember this site being mentioned on the show, so I don't know if it's something Conan had created, or what.

Another site created for the show: http://www.slapbetcountdown.com (although this one doesn't seem to exist anymore).

And then there's http://www.guyforceshiswifetodressinagarbagebagforthenextthreeyears.com which they mentioned on the show recently. Marshall suggests they start http://www.lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com and Lily jokes about the other URL, which they check on the episode and discover exists. Marshall's URL links to an auction (of HIMYM stuff) to benefit the LA Children's Hospital. Lily's URL does exist, though. It's a French slideshow with a song all about a guy forcing his wife to wear a garbage bag. At least one of the pictures (I noticed) was taken on a HIMYM set. The lyrics are in French someone online has translated it. The beginning starts: but Darling, I want you to wear a GARBAGE BAG Please, for three years, only a GARBAGE BAG Darling, it’s prohibited not to wear a GARBAGE BAG Please, for me, wear this, wear this GARBAGE BAG...

I would be very interested to know about other fake websites created because TV show episodes.

Anyway, it's Monday evening and of course there will be no How I Met Your Mother this week, but here is some happy news: Season 1 had 22 episodes. Season 2 had 22 episodes. Season 3 had 20 episodes. Season 4 has order for...26 episodes!

I LOVE Neil Patrick Harris, and other stories from today

I've had a super busy day today. The two main themes from today were doctors and potatoes.

This morning I went for an annual doctor's checkup. I'm not sick or anything, but my health insurance company really encourages us to do our yearly preventative stuff, so I decided to go ahead and go. It was fine. My doctor is leaving Friday for a month in Italy, so we had a lot to talk about.

Also, I learned something interesting that is worth sharing. I always thought that the recommended amount of exercise was 30 minutes of exercise, 3-5 days per week. It probably was that before. The American Heart Association currently recommends exercising most days of the week ("5-6 days a week") for an hour each time. Whoa. That's a lot. And it's more than what is recommended for guys, my doctor said. Apparently they've decided that women benefit more from more exercise. "It's something to work up to, of course," she said.

The other reason my day was doctor-themed was that I received the first disc from Season 1 of Doogie Howser MD in the mail.

I love the show How I Met Your Mother, and while I was in New York a couple weeks ago, I told my friends all about it. And then after we did our Letterman taping, we stepped into the Buy Our Letterman Stuff! store, and HIMYM was on TV. "GUYS! Look! That's it!" I proudly told them. "Oh," one of my friends said, "Neil Patrick Harris is on it?" "What? The kid from Doogie Howser, I asked?" "Yeah, that's him right there." I had no idea! I love Barney. I didn't realize that he was the same guy who played Doogie Howser. (I never really watched Doogie Howser.)

And then my mom and I were talking about it the other day, and I think I told her how surprised I was to realize that he was the same guy. My mom said how fun it was to see him on the show because on recent episodes Barney typed onto a blue blog (which was a reference to Doogie Howser, who keeps a computer journal like that) and he also talked about how cool magic is. "Don't you remember Dad and I talking about seeing him at the Castle?" My parents are members at a private club in Hollywood, and apparently they've seen him there a bunch of times. AWESOME. I didn't realize my parents see Barney regularly (!) and in person (!). (And! Always SUITED UP!) I definitely didn't catch the reference to Doogie Howser with the blue screen, though, and my mom encouraged me to see some of the episodes (since I can easily get stuff like that with Netflix).

Well, that came today, and I watched the first few episodes. I love it! The funny thing about it is, in How I Met Your Mother, Neil Patrick Harris's character (Barney) is a total stud. He's handsome and charming, and he's AWESOME. And in Doogie Howser, I expected his character to be kind of dry or nerdy, but he isn't. He's a total stud in that, too, except just younger.

So now I'm totally jealous of my parents for getting to see him in person. I think Neil Patrick Harris is legen....dary!

The other part of my day was potato themed.

Basically, what happened was, on Sunday we had "Munch and Mingle" which is where people from church all stay afterwards and eat together. And talk together, so that we can get to know each other and find people to marry. Or something like that. And I'm part of the group that prepares the food. This Sunday we served loaded baked potatoes, with chili, sour cream, salsa, and a bunch of stuff. It was really good.

Afterwards, I went to the kitchen to help clean up, and the guy who is in charge of it all was throwing away baked potatoes. He tossed them into the trash one at a time, but there was a huge pile of baked potatoes in the big garbage can. "WAIT!" I stopped him. "Those are still good." (They weren't even opened. They were wrapped in foil, just out of the oven.) "Can't someone just take them home?" "I asked like 15 people and nobody wanted them." He kept tossing them. "And besides. Potatoes are like $3 for 15 pounds." "BUT!" I protested. "Do you want them?" he offered. "YES." I said.

So my roommate and I filled two big bags with right-out-of-the-oven hot baked potatoes. What are we going to do with all these? We discussed it, and I decided we would throw a potato party and invite everyone from our apartment complex.

So we did.

We made twice-baked potatoes, a real ham (which cooked all day) with ham sauce, broccoli and corn, and cut orange slices.

This afternoon I put fliers on everyone's doors in our whole complex. I had them printed on neon paper, and they said " WE KNOW YOU'RE BUSY BUT COME EAT ANYWAY!"

Quite a few people actually did come. Our kitchen and living room were both full of people. It was a huge success, and I think everyone who came had a great time.

And one final update: my garden is doing really well! I noticed today that a bunch of my plants already have roots that have grown through the little plant-starter things. And some of each type of plant is growing. Also, I ate my first home-grown strawberry yesterday. It was sweet, and full of flavor.