What George eats for dinner...

So, pretty sure I had never seen anyone more famous than President Hinckley (not that that wasn't awesome) until last summer, when I saw James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) at Universal Studios in Orlando (see this post). Well, here we go for famous person number 2 (or 3 I guess, since Fred and George were 1 and 2).

So usually I don't work on Monday nights. However, I was scheduled tonight (Divine inspiration? Entirely possible), and when I got to work, who should I hear had a reservation there, but Jason Alexander! That's right, ladies and gentlement, this character right here:

Best known for his role as George Castanza on Seinfeld. Apparently he's in town doing some sort of acting seminar at UVU. Well, kids, I about flipped out. In fact, I did flip out. And definitely acted like a creeper for the rest of the night. He came in at 6, and I watched him go back with his little entourage to the private terrace dining area. Then, I went back to the kitchen and giggled myself silly (a ridiculous nervous reaction that I sometimes have). So then I spent the rest of the night creepin' on him through the windows and trying to get a picture from the bakery (there is a window that separates the bakery and the terrace). I did, however, get to go into the terrace to deliver food to one of his group members (thanks to my awesome manager for that one).
So around 8-ish (when I was in the bakery creepin' again), he and his entourage quickly got up from their table and made to leave. So, like a good little stalker, I went and walked out to the main dining room, trying my best to come up with a fast plan to get a picture or video as Mr. Alexander walked by. Well, as he got to the front, the server who had served his party asked if she and the managers could get a picture with him. He obliged, and I shot up to the front and leaned against the wall hopefully. And THEN, after they took their picture, I asked if I could take one of my own, since my dad is such a HUGE fan. And then he was like, "what, are you not cool enough to be in that group?" And I was like, "apparently not, haha," and then, after some height adjustment (he about came up to my shoulder), we took a picture. AND HERE IT IS:

That's right folks, I met and took a picture with freakin Jason Alexander!! KRISTIN FTW!!!! Anyways, this moment totally made my week. I kind of felt like I was living out my dad's dream (he is LITERALLY the worlds biggest Seinfeld fan. I'm not exaggerating in any sense. In fact, that's probably a gross understatement). So yeah. Freaking awesome night. Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, he had the salmon (with no sauce) and diet coke mixed with cranberry juice. So, if you want to eat like a star, come on in to La Jolla Groves and try our oven-fired salmon :D

The obligatory Valentine's Day post.

Hey friends. So I'll be honest. I'm only posting about Valentine's Day to brag. Hans did an excellent job this year, and I just want to show off :)
So first of all, we had to celebrate on the 15th this year, since Hans was working on the 14th. No big, it's not like the date actually matters, it's just a fun excuse to go out and give each other stuff. So I got home from work on the 15th and hurried to get ready, since we were supposed to leave once Hans got home. Well, I get done with my shower, and what do I see when I exit the bathroom?

That's right. My cutes husband smiling at me from next to a carefully displayed vase of beautiful flowers and the BIGGEST box of chocolates I've ever seen. Seriously. It's hard to see in this picture, but here's one that I took for scale purposes:

See?? It's GINORMOUS! I was...astonished, I think is the right word. AND....this part just made my heart melt...the flowers, Hans explained, were chosen specifically because they were our wedding colors. HOW FREAKING CUTE IS THAT?!? And you think guys never think about detaily stuff like that. That's why Hans is so awesome.

Beautifulllllll!! And they really are light purple. I know they look pink. But they're not.

So then that night, Hans took me out to Macaroni Grill (he picked, I told him I would have no part in the choice. LOVE IT.) And I had the most DELICIOUS meal of my life. I THINK it was called Chicken Scallopini. But I can't really remember. But in any case, it was delicious, and I reccommend it to ALL OF YOU.

 Soooo yeah. It was pretty great. Oh and then afterwards, we went to play laser tag with some friends, which is a new weekly hobby that we recently discovered. It was actually kind of funny...Hans's friend texted him to see if we wanted to laser tag as usual that night, and Hans (being ever so thoughtful) texted me to see if I wanted to, since it was "Valentine's Day" and all...and I honestly did, so I told him yes. And this, he informs me, is why he likes me so much...because I'll go play laser tag with him on Valentine's Day :) True love.

And now I will leave you with more photos of my giant box of chocolate. I hope you can tell how excited I am about it. I'm not even halfway through eating it. (Not to mention the box of Belgian chocolate I got from my dad...I'm such a lucky girl :)  )

A note on restaurant service

Dear world,
Let me just start out by saying this: if you cannot afford to tip your server, then you cannot afford to eat out. Go eat at Burger King, Tabo Bell, Zupa's, or Costa Vida, where tipping is not necessary.
Now that we've covered the basics, let me explain how to tip, since obviously, a lot of you have forgotten. The STANDARD for tipping is 15%. That means that if your server is STANDARD, you should give them 15%. If your server is, in any way, above average (say, extra friendly, gives you good recommendations, refills your drinks, etc.), you should tip them 20% or more. ONLY if your server is INCREDIBLY below average should you tip 10%. And by this, I mean that your server either COMPLETELY ignored your, or very obviously spit in your food for no other reason than that they felt like being an idiot to you. If your food took a long time, NINE TIMES OUT OF TEN, it was NOT your server's fault. DO NOT penalize them for this. Most of the time, they are in the kitchen, trying their hardest to get your food out to you faster. IN ABSOLUTELY NO CIRCUMSTANCE should you EVER tip your server under 10%. You might think you're making a statement, but let me tell you what you're ACTUALLY doing. You are SCREWING OVER YOUR SERVER'S LIFE. In case any of you don't know, servers make approximately TWO DOLLARS an hour. That's not even a THIRD of minimum wage. In other words, SERVERS RELY ON TIPS. So when you think you're being smart by not leaving any sort of tip, or leaving your pocket change, you are not only RUINING that server's night, you are also WASTING THEIR TIME, because they could have spent that time they spent on you taking care of another table that actually knows how to tip. So next time you go out to dinner, think to yourself before hand, "Hmm, do I have the money to leave a decent tip for my server?" If not, rethink your decision to dine at a restaurant, and maybe go pick up some Lean Cuisine from the grocery store. Thanks.

Much love,
Kristin

Yay Hans!

So Hans just got accepted into BYU's school psychology grad program! I'm so ridiculously happy for him, I knew he could do it! At this point we're just waiting to hear back from U of U, because that's our other top choice, but as of now, we at least have some sort of a plan! ...which is much better than having a wishy washy plan and like 10 back-up plans haha :) Anyways, short post. But I am so, so, SO proud of my amazing Hansy. YAY!!

Just a short rant...

I don't know what it is that makes people think they can tell other people how to do their job. I mean, okay, if you're in the same business, and you're genuinely trying to be helpful because you are also good at that job, that's one thing (still sometimes obnoxious, but more generally acceptable). But when you literally have NO IDEA what you're talking about, you probably should not try to give others advice on what THEY do for a living. For instance: I have been doing newborn photography for almost 2 years. I have photographed literally HUNDREDS of babies. I also have a degree in photography. So yeah, I'm pretty good at photographing newborns. I know what I'm supposed to do because there is absolutely no variation in my routine from baby to baby. Soooo thanks for all those "helpful" tips you're trying to give me, random relation of mom in hospital, but I'll be completely honest, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine without them. I mean, were you in there when mom was delivering, too? Maybe telling the doctor that he should do something this way or asking if he's sure that will work? No. I didn't think so. So kindly stop bothering me with your obnoxiousness. Thank you.

I'm just gonna put this out there...

Sometimes, people are just stupid, and there's really nothing you can do about it. It's just kind of a fact of life. And it's frustrating, because sometimes, you really just want to do something about it. But all you can really do is just let the stupid things they do roll off your back. This is something that I am working on. Maybe it's a blessing that I have to work on it, because then, later in life, I'll be better at it.

Also.

I want a house.

Like, bad.

Not a big, fancy house. Just a small, cute one that I can decorate. Mostly thanks to Pinterest, I now have all these cute decorating ideas that need to be expressed somehow. And that only way that they will be able to be expressed is if I have a house. So, at this current moment in time, that is my top want. (Besides going to Paris, which is ALWAYS my top want). Unfortunately, that probably won't happen for a while...so I'm going to need to find some other way to creatively express myself. Maybe if I got a sewing machine....

East Coast Christmas

Well, Hans and I are back from break with my fam. I'll say that only one of us is really happy to be back. The other one misses her family quite a bit :( However, the trip out was definitely worth it! I had such a great time being with everyone and we did sooo many interesting things! We flew in on Christmas Eve, and then my sister and her kids came up on Christmas. Christmas at my parents' house was, as usual, amazingly perfect. Beautiful decorations, yummy snacks, a delicious Christmas dinner with perfectly-cooked turkey. I could probably do that every day. No joke.
So then the day after Christmas, we went to Mount Vernon (George Washington's Estate). I'd been there before, but it was cool to see it again now that I'm older and can appreciate it more. It really is beautiful...right on the Potomac and surrounded by acres of fields and forests.

After Mount Vernon, the girls went shopping while the boys went to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. Luckily my dad was on top of things picture-wise (much to Hans's dismay, I'm sure :)  )

Tuesday, we went to the Holocaust museum. It was a really cool experience; they have a lot of really interesting stuff there. Then at the end, they had a video of Holocaust survivors telling their stories. They were so sad to hear, but so amazing at the same time. 

Wednesday, the kids left. While Rachel and mom were taking them to the airport, dad, Hans and I went to the National Museum of American History. I think this is a really cool museum. They've got all sorts of things from American culture throughout the years. The first thing that we saw was the ACTUAL AMERICAN FLAG that inspired the national anthem. Tell me that's not so cool! I couldn't get any photos because it was a low-light room to preserve the flag, but trust me when I saw that it was awesome. We also saw stuff like the original muppets, Lincoln's hat, and old trains and cars. There are a ton more photos of this on my facebook, but here a couple just to give you a peek:

Lincoln's hat:

Sweet old car:

In an old timey train station...which one is real?!?

After the American History museum, mom and Rachel met us at the Spy Museum! This museum is also very cool. Unfortunately, it's not free, but it's kind of worth it. You get to see all kinds of sweet stuff that's been used by actual spies! And there are interactive activities where you can pretend to be a spy. You also have to assume an identity a the beginning and remember everything about your identity so you can be tested on it later. It's a super fun place and I definitely recommend it to anyone visiting DC.

The next day, Thursday, we set off for New Jersey to visit Missey et. al. and to go to New York. Along the way, we got to stop in Gettysburg for Hans. Hans has been wanting to go to Gettysburg pretty much his whole life. He said it was like going to Disney World for him haha. First we got to go in the museum, which included a movie, a cyclorama (which was actually a HUGE painting covering the whole round room, that was painted in the early 20th century by a French guy. Too cool), and a bunch of really neat old stuff from the battle. One of my favorite things was a pair of opposing bullets that had collided in MID-AIR!! How cool is that?

Part of the cyclorama painting:

Fused bullets:

After the museum, we went out to see the battlefield. The museum took a lot longer than we'd expected, so we didn't get to see the whole battlefield, just the Confederate side and a tiny bit of the Union side. It was really neat to see the landscape where the battle took place and to see all the different monuments for each Confederate state.

Hans scoping out the battlefield:

The Virginia monument:

The Georgia monument:

After only a few short hours in Gettysburg, we continued on to NJ. For anyone who's thinking about visiting Gettysburg, IT IS A FULL DAY'S TRIP. Don't expect to just spend a couple hours there, like we did. The museum takes at least 2 hours, and we were rushing. Then the driving tour takes something like 3 or 4 hours, and I'm sure that doesn't count you stopping and looking around. There really is a lot to see.

So we got into NJ and were able to spend some time just hanging out with family. Then the next day (Friday), we went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, which I was really excited about because as many times as I've been to NYC, we've never thought to do that tour. Unfortunately, we were already pretty museumed-out by the time we got to Ellis Island (I'll be honest, I didn't know it was a museum), so we only spent maybe half an hour there and didn't really take full advantage of it. But it was still cool to see.

So then after Ellis Island, the boat took us over to the Statue of Liberty. This ended up being a kind of poorly-timed visit because the Statue is currently being renovated, and no-one is allowed inside. Still, it was awesome to see it up close. I took about a billion pictures (duh). It was also really neat to see Manhattan from across the water.

The other cool thing of the day was that we got to see the New Jersey 9/11 memorial, which I didn't even know existed. But it's there, right by the terminal for the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty tours. We were originally going to go to Ground Zero, but apparently you need tickets, and none of us knew that until the week before we left, which is too late. So it was cool that we at least got to see one of the memorials for 9/11. It was a really pretty, but relatively simple memorial with all the names of NJ residents whose lives were lost inscribed on it. And in front of it, they had pieces from the actual structures of the towers.

Saturday, we went into Manhattan. For any of you that were keeping track, Saturday was New Year's Eve. Yeah, we went into Manhattan on New Year's Eve. That wasn't on purpose, it was just accidentally poorly planned. Luckily, though, we went in the morning and it wasn't TOO crowded, although people were already starting to gather in Times Square (imagine just standing there ALL DAY just to get a good spot for the party....crazy!). So anywho, we walked around for a bit, then got lunch at this random little deli/sushi place, and THEN we went to see WICKED!! For anyone who hasn't seen this, I highly reccommend it. I mean, it's definitely not Phantom or Les Mis, but it was definitely a good one! Interesting plot, great set and costumes, and really amazing singing! Overall, definitely a must-see.

So after the play, we drove Rachel to the airport (sadface) and then returned to Missey's house to wait out the new year. And I must say, this new year definitely started out better than last (if you don't know that story, ask me, I won't go into it here).

Then Sunday, we drove home. I think we ended up driving a weird way (thank you, weirdie GPS), and so found ourselves driving through Philadelphia. Well, this was very exciting because I didn't think we'd be going this way, even though I'd asked if we could, because another one of Hans's life goals was to eat a Philly Cheesesteak from Philly. So as soon as I realized where we were, I quickly looked up a list of good cheesesteak places (ah, the wonders of a smartphone), and navigated us to not just any old cheesesteak place, but the cheesesteak place that started it all! Pat's King of Steaks...how cool is that?? The guys who started this place actually INVENTED the Philly Cheesesteak. Another Hans Life Goal accomplished...with bonus points!

Yes, that the line wrapping ALL THE WAY around the building. Philadelphians take their cheesesteaks seriously!

Hans's first official Philly Cheesesteak:

So that was pretty exciting. Other exciting events on the way home included seeing the Ravens' stadium and the Eagles' stadium (which was literally right next to the highway and had a game going on when we passed it. Win.), making three total NFL stadiums that we saw on the trip (we passed the Giants' stadium while in NJ).

Monday was our last day in VA :( but it was definitely not wasted. We went shopping and SHOOTING! That's right, folks, I actually shot a gun. My dad took us to a shooting range and we all took turns shooting his old 9mm and revolver from his cop days. And I won't lie, we're all pretty good shots. Although right when I was really getting the hang of it, we ran out of ammo for the 9mm and had to switch to the revolver. Let me tell you, shooting a revolver is just not fun. Hans liked it because it was smaller and fit his hand better, but I very much disagreed. Since it's smaller, it's got a lot more kick to it, and it hurts when it pulls back :( But that's okay, because we had fun anyways, and now I know how to shoot a gun. Dangerous :D Ha.

So anyways, then on Tuesday (at some unearthly hour of the morning), we flew back to UT. Sad, sad. But it really was an amazingly fun break! If only real life could be like that all the time :)