For my SIL

in case your 7-11 career doesn't work out you can always work at this lovely place I discovered this weekend:

(let's see how long it takes before she notices this is posted)

So there I was on Halloween...taking a break in the cool breeze outside, talking with Andrew, Nate, and a random boy dressed up as terrorist/rappper. Out walks a guy dressed up as him: Terrorist/Rapper Boy: "Oh, there's your date."

Me: dazed and confused silence.

Terrorist/Rapper Boy: "You know, Jessica. With Tony Romo"

Me: "Yes, I know who Tony Romo is thank you very much..."

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What I'm still trying to figure out is how this:

Reminded him of this:

?????

For the record: Yes I wore spandex in public. No, I will never do it again.

For the confused: I was one-fifth of a league of Super Villains. Because of my habit of never making decisions they dubbed me 'The Deliberator.' My weapon was time. haha.

For my sisters: No group shots on my camera...I'll send you some when I get them.

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in an episode of Seinfeld.

Does anyone else ever feel like this??

If you are, let me know and maybe we can meet up this afternoon for some soup from the Soup Nazi to eat with our stolen Marble Rye.

Happy Thursday!

You know you're in Corvallis when:

• Within 2 hours of being in town you run into 10 people you know including your second grade teacher, parents of your friends from middle school, and your high school counselor [who has no idea who you are].
• You eat at the new, chic restaurant and the people next to you are in pastel tank tops, khaki cargo shorts, and Birkenstocks.
• You go to a play on campus and know and/or went to school with at least 5 people whose names are on the program.
• You buy a really cute headband at your favorite store and 3 hours later when you're enjoying your gelato at Francesco's you see someone wearing the exact same headband.
• You see a bride and groom leaving their wedding reception...at American Dream. [Why would you celebrate your wedding there?? Why?? And at the risk of offending 95% of the Corvallis population I have to admit I don't even really like their pizza]

I can't believe that all of above happened in my quick, less than 24 hour visit! Oh, I love coming home! Happy Birthday Dad! (as if he even knows I have a blog!)

MamaNirvana's MeMe
1. Besides your family, what is your most prized possession?
Is it a total cop-out to say I cherish my memories most of all?! I don’t really have any ‘thing’ that’s super important to me…it’s just stuff. I do really like the painting I’ve been ‘borrowing’ from Kim for years. She painted it during her ‘red stripe’ movement and I love it.

2. If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
Mom’s fried rice, french toast, twice baked potatoes, Veda’s rolls, Betsy Rolls, orange-sherbet salad, corn on the cob, fresh strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, tossed salad with lots of cheese, flourless chocolate cake, strawberry lemonade, and ginger ale. (I’m on death row, who cares about calories and/or if the food ‘goes’ together?!)

3. At a party, would you be hiding in the corner or hanging out at the punch bowl talking it up? And, what food item would your bring to the party?
Depends who’s at the party. If it’s a bunch of people I know I’d be at the punchbowl. If I don’t know many people I’d be in the corner talking to those that I know. If I didn’t care about impressing anyone I’d probably bring a bag of chips.

4. What is the most "girly" thing about you?
People.com, high heels, & coats

5. What is your favorite piece of furniture in your home?
Right now: My wine rack from Dania (yes, a nice LDS girl with a wine rack...). It's actually the perfect bookshelf and has a great compartment at the top to store my blankets! But…if you asked me this question in 4-6 weeks I guarantee my favorite piece of furniture will be the Westin Heavenly Bed that I bought on Saturday. Can’t wait for it to arrive!!

6. What is most likely to be painted -- your toes or your fingers?
Toes.

7. If I was going to buy you a bottle of Bath and Bodyworks lotion, what scent would you want?
I don't really like scented lotions...if you're going to buy me a bottle of lotion I'd prefer Aveeno. But, if you had a gift certificate to B&BWorks and had to buy my gift there I'd want their clover scent which was sadly disconintued...so I guess I'd choose cherry blossom.

8. Do you like to nap? If so, how often do you get to during the week?
Yes I like naps but I only get one about 4 times a year. I don't think my boss would appreciate me sleeping at my desk! Check back in 4-6 weeks though and I might be sneaking in some more naps in my new favorite piece of furniture.

9. Do you have a place in your house where you "hide"? A place where you can have a long phone conversation with a friend without interruption? Where is your quiet place?
Anywhere I want to…one of the joys of no husband/children/roommates.

10. At this point in your life, are you living the life you imagined back when you were in high school/college?
Hmm…Whenever my brothers and sisters tell me I'm not old I like to remind them that by the time our mom was my age she was married, living abroad, had 3 kids, and cancer (go Mom!). So, I guess I thought I might at least have a husband by age 26 :0) But so far I haven't been too disappointed with where I've ended up. Oh, and when I was in high school I wanted to be a civil engineer-slash-architect. I'm glad that goal changed.

11. Would you ever get plastic surgery? What would you have done?
I’ve never wanted it but I guess I’d never say never.

12. What have you accomplished (besides having children) that you feel most proud of?
I don’t have children, does that mean I have to come up w/ 2 answers for this?! I like the sound of Diana R. Baumgartner, CPA.

p.s. My ultra-high-tech hairdryer died yesterday morning. No Joke. I think Revlon should remiburse me not only for the cost of the hairdryer but for the time wasted trying to figure out Ion Select (TM) dial. *sigh*

Where's the Owner's Manual?

A few months ago my hairdryer stopped working. I was getting ready for work one morning and it just stopped dead in it tracks. Dead. Ever since then I’ve been using my ‘backup’ hairdryer…one of those $9 no-frills ones from Bi-Mart that I kept around for those ‘just in case’ moments. Lately I’ve noticed that it’s been frying my hair, and since the only thing I like fried are French fries and chicken strips, I broke down this week and bought a new one.

Yesterday morning I took it out of the box, plugged it in, and flipped the switch…and got…nothing. I flipped the switch again, reset the power-surge button, and still nothing. I looked down at the hairdryer in frustration and realized that I was flipping the wrong button (duh). So I flipped the other switch and still…nothing! Why was this so hard you ask? Because my hairdryer has SIX different

options!

Ceramic

You can turn it on or off?? I thought ceramic just was…

as in a ceramic pot. Ceramic tile. Ceramic figurines. Never heard of turning those off??

Hot/Warm

Pretty standard option

Turbo Boost
wow, sounds powerful! (can't figure out how to flip the picture...sorry, but you get the the idea)

Cold Blast (pretty standard option here)

The elusive ‘on’ switch

(again, can't figure out how to flip the picture in blogger)

And last but not least…my favorite

The Ion Select (TM) Dial

The folks at Revlon clearly mean business. Not only do I have to somehow learn how many ions my hair needs, I also now have to figure out the color coded system. Does my hair need Red, Yellow, or Orange levels of ions?!

When did hairdryers evolve into finely tuned scientific devices that have to be calibrated every morning?? I just want something that will dry my hair!

Farmers Market

Good News: I bought these lovely flowers yesterday
Bad News: They're already wilting.
But At Least: that means it's finally warm here and that June-ary is finally over!

Good News: I bought some fresh, local strawberries
Bad News: There's no picture because I already ate them. All of them.
But At Least: that means they were as good as I was hoping they'd be!











Farmers Market, Flowers, and Strawberries.
Can't beat a Saturday with 3 of my favorite things!

Suomi
(That's apparently the correct name of the country I'm in)


I made it here without too many mishaps and was checked into my hotel by 2pm this afternoon. Despite only getting 3 hours sleep I took advantage of the beautiful sunshine, put on my flip-flops, and took off to explore the city. I get the impression that the weather's not usually this nice and so there were tons of people out having picnics on the Esplanade. The city is a little more modern than I expected, nothing really looks more than 100 years old (if that) and there aren't really any skyscrapers to speak of. The city reminds me of a smaller Copenhagen, which I guess isn't too far fetched, as I am in a Nordic country and Helsinki is smaller than Copenhagen. My hotel is in the same building as E&Y and I also saw the KPMG building-I don't know why I think that's so funny, but I do.





I really like how many parks there are--Kind of like the park blocks but nicer (the grass is actually growing and not just mud with patches of grass!) I think I'll bring my book along with me tomorrow so that I don't feel so weird just sitting on the park benches!

I also stumbled across the largest H&M store I have ever seen and I'm not gonna lie--I was pretty darn excited! I first became addicted to H&M when I was in Aarhus and I got giddy with excitement the other day when I realized I would probably be able to get some new, fun, relatively reasonably priced clothes on this trip! I probably spent more than I should have but really only looked at about half of the store...I guess I'll just have to go back. I also spotted a Zara that will have to wait until after work some day next week.

Does anyone have any idea what this is?! It's perched next to the sink in my bathroom and the only thing I can think of is that it's some sort of hand-held bidet...which is why I refuse to touch it!

Don't Say I'm Not Domestic

Lots of food + 3 borrowed tables + 8 borrowed chairs + 1 studio apartment + 10 friends =

1 incredible Easter

I thought the table looked pretty good

Yes, I was channeling my inner-Jan / mom-ness

Can you believe these were only $10

(I love Trader Joe's!)

The Easter group sans Emily

(Ben, Matt, Diana, Nathan, Megan,

Andrew, Eveling, Jon, Brittany)

I'll post a picture of her later...blogger won't let me upload anymore right now.

I love this shot of the open dishwasher and trashcan

And the most important lesson of the day:

Don't mess with me when I have a knife in my hand!

Making Papa Proud

All afternoon my nephew Gage kept telling me he wanted to play with the crocodile that his younger brother Cole got for Christmas. Unfortunately, the crocodile was already packed away for the trip home and we were not going to unpack everything just so he could play with it. Brilliant aunt that I am, I pretended that I had no idea about the Christmas present crocodile and instead got out the Crocodile Dentist game in my parent's game closet (are you following me with all the crocodiles roaming the Baumgartner house? I could mention the pet crocodile my dad had when he was a kid, but that might just confuse the issue...)

So I pull the Crocodile Dentist game out of the closet and put it on the carpet for Gage to play with. The gyst of the game is this: you put the plastic teeth in the plastic crocodile and pull its teeth out one-by-one with these little plastic pliers. If the crocodile closes its mouth while you're pulling (or should I say extracting) a tooth, you lose. (And yes, I think this game must have been invented at the North Pole by Hermey the "I always wanted to study dentistry" Elf).

Gage looks at me and says "I need gloves Aunt Diana" and I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about. The house was warm, so no need to wear them for warmth. The plastic teeth are pretty easy to pull out--it's not like the pliers are going to give a 3 year old callouses or require work gloves for protection. So being thoroughly confused I tell Gage that we don't have any gloves...and luckily he was easily distracted and moved onto playing with something else.

A few hours later Gage again asks for the crocodile and I again suggest that he play with Crocodile Dentist and he again informs me that he needs gloves and I am again thoroughly confused. Lucky for me my brother Lans (who I think wins the award for the best daddy ever) is in earshot this time, runs out to the car, and comes back in with a little plastic bag that my dad's assistant Karla gave Gage that morning when he visited my Dad's office.

And suddenly Gage's request for gloves made complete sense:

As a side-note I think my favorite quote of the day was: "I'm going to the dentist. Do you know the dentist's name? (long pause) PAPA!"