adventures never cease

things have been especially adventureful lately. and i must tell you... i am EXHAUSTED.

first i would like to discuss my first attempt at bread making. luckily i roped several other people into helping with my new little bakery. some photos!

stephanie, issac and kevin joined me for dinner and then the bread baking to end all bread baking. we had a lot of fun kneading and rising and chopping and throwing bowls of dough around. and then we enjoyed eating yummy paska bread. a special thanks to natasha for providing the recipe here. the best part though was spending time with these lovely people. there's something to be said for baking bread and then breaking bread. at any rate i had a great time learning some new cooking skills and playing in the kitchen.

friday night em and i decided to go for a little run. i got a book that has easy runs around richmond so we decided to try a new one out. the run was supposed to be just under 2 miles. if you don't get lost. which of course we did. we some how wound up on the wrong the trail and wound up running about 7 miles. if it wasn't for the fact that the trail was actually a lot of fun i probably would have wanted to die. but luckily it was a lot of fun and we've decided to do it again tomorrow. except this time i'm more prepared. i've purchased one of those backpacks that you can drink out of and i'll be bringing a cell phone with me. yes, last time we set off without any water or a cell phone. definitely won't be doing that again.

saturday em and i went to dc. we went to a lovely street market. we had crepes and we got some yummy hummus and salsa. i got a new cool necklace. a small piece of art for my bedroom. and a new purse made of alpaca! i love the purse the most. it's adorable. eventually i'll post a picture of it i'm sure. after the market we went to the national mall and played croquet in front of the capital. then bryce met us and we sat on a bench talking. then we went to a talent show where we met some guys from the naval academy. mostly em met them while i stood there gawking. after that we went to karaoke where we mostly sat in the kitchen talking to bryce. he is an interesting man.

monday night i had my pottery class. i was able to make three cylinders and not put my finger through them! i set them out to dry and next week i will add handles. YAY ugly mugs! i'm pretty excited to finish up some mugs so that i can ship them across the country to my adoring fans. i really want to make a colander. this is the one item i would like for myself. a nice blue colander. funny story about my pottery teacher: she smells *exactly* like ms. kolb my high school drama teacher... so, like an old cup of coffee. she seems like she's an interesting person. she wears a big belt buckle with a penguin on it. her nose is pierced. she has messy hair with random bobbie pins in it but it looks totally awesome. she talks about some guy who won't be her friend any more b/c she won't date him. i think she is the physical manifestation of my inner artist.

my boss is on a 'you have to play nascar with me' kick. i hate playing nascar b/c i'm not any good at it and i really hate to lose. no one likes to lose. just like no one likes to wait in lines and no one is perfect. anyway, he is always saying i owe him a game of nascar and i really don't know how much longer he thinks he can use that as a reason. especially if he is unwilling to play guitar hero with me.

in other work news, i have a new boss now. the old corporate boss got a new job and he's gone now. anyway, we had a big fight all day today about my paycheck but in the end i won. that never happens. i was pretty excited to say the least. i was mostly upset about the fact that they weren't paying me what they were supposed to b/c it meant i wasn't going to be able to fly my sister out to va but now i can! thanks for not ruining my life, work!

last night kevin convinced me to go to institute and i'm really glad he did. we went over the book of ether in the book of mormon. there's some pretty interesting stuff in there. mostly i learned that i need to try to be more kind, more charitable, more loving. i need to be more willing to help others learn and grow. one more step on the be less selfish ladder. after institute and some shopping we came back to my house and had the most random dinner. we had chips and dip, deviled eggs, pizza and truffles. it was the best dinner ever and i'm pretty sure that food had a party in my tummy. kevin made the deviled eggs and they were excellent. good job being awesome kevin!