GSP Christmas Party

More Pics to come. But this is my team! Left to right: Celeste, Laura, Henry, Heron, Me, and Chris.

Frosty the Snowman

I hate that song. I LOVE Christmas music, but that song makes me want to puke. I didn't know I hated it so much until I just listened to it. Bleh. Bring on the Mariah Carey. Now THAT'S good Christmas music.

Bedding awesome?

You know that things have really changed when you're a 26 yr old guy and you're excited about purchasing a new bed spread, sheets, and what have yous. Alas, I am pumped about the new arrangement on the bed. I had to endure a few months of a girly pink and green set up that included flowers and the occasional stuffed animal. Not anymore! We've upgraded and I feel much better about allowing a visitor to see where I slumber.

Christmas in the City

It's officially Christmas at the Larsen house! We made a cheery little stop to Target on Friday night to pick up our tree (yes, unfortunately, it's fake) and some cute ornaments. Our home is looking quite festive now! Especially with all the presents under the tree! I love Christmas! I can't wait!

Broadway in SF?

We went to see Jersey Boys with our friends the Larsens (no, we're not related, it's just a strange coincidence!) on Tuesday night. It's the story of Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons. (For those of you who don't know who they are, just remember the songs like "Big Girls Don't Cry" or "Walk like a Man" and that's them!) We had wanted to see it in NYC but there were too many shows to see and not enough time to see them all. Plus, Patrick didn't decided that he loved musicals until the end of our internships. Anyways, so we went to the show and had a really great time! I have to warn you that there is a good deal of swearing, but if you can tune it out (like we've been practicing ever since we moved out of Utah and into the "real" world) it's really fun, especially the music. I've been humming 50's tunes ever since...hmm...maybe that wasn't such a good pick after all :) And it was SO fun to go on a double date--we hadn't been on one in ages!

The Joys of Full Coverage Insurance

Since I can remember, I've had extremely dry eyes. (hence the reason I wear glasses almost every day) But, we never had eye insurance growing up so I was limited to one check-up a year and glasses/contacts on a need-only basis. That also meant Costco or Lenscrafters eye doctors. Now, don't get me wrong--they do their job just fine, but every time I would complain about my dry eyes, they simply ignored it or gave me a quick fix solution. They were there to give me a prescription, not to help me out. Starting my new job meant free vision insurance and a real honest-to-goodness optometrist! On my first visit, I already could tell the difference--this guy actually cared about me! He took my dry eye symptoms seriously and came up with a series of tests to help get my problem fixed. Last visit, they tested my tear production. The average adult has a tear production of 10. I have a tear production of 1. It's all starting to make sense, I haven't been making this up. So the doctor inserted little plugs into my tear ducts to make my tears stay in my eyes longer instead of dissolving so quickly. Although I was pretty skeptical at first, it was absolutely painless and absolutely miraculous! I couldn't remember the last time I had taken my contacts out and not had my eyes hurt so bad that I had to immediately go to bed. Now, I'm dry-eye pain free! I LOVE it! So for all you dry-eye sufferers, ask your eye doctor for some plugs. They're amazing!

I'm with Becca

I totally hate begging for people to post on my blog, but I want to know that you're actually reading it! You don't have to have an account to make a comment, so feel free to comment away!

The World's Most Delicious Burger

I think we've mentioned in previous posts that Patrick got a grill for his birthday present. Since then, he's become the family "griller". His most recent concoction was the Garlic and Herb Cheese stuffed Burgers. Honestly, I have NEVER eaten a better burger. And I'm not just saying that. It was absolutely DELICIOUS! We couldn't get enough. So I thought I'd share the recipe :) (I can guarantee they're tasty, I can't guarantee they're good for you!)

Herb Cheese-Stuffed Garlic Burgers
2 lbs ground beef chuck, 85% lean
2 T chopped/minced garlic
1/2 t Kosher Salt
1/4 t ground black pepper
3 T herbed garlic cream cheese (any cheese will work, just pick on based on what you like!)

Mix the beef, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl until well blended. Do not over mix! Using a light touch, form into 12 patties no more than 1/2 in thick

Put a portion of the cheese in the center of 6 patties; top with remaining patties and press together, taking care to seal the edges well.

Put the burgers on the grill and cook for 9 minutes, flipping after 5 minutes for medium-done.

*We added provolone cheese on top, and made the buns into garlic bread. They sound super garlicky, but they really weren't too over the top. You have got to try them!

Enjoy!

So Much Fun!

We're Back!!! (well, at least for the weekend!)

Highlights Include:














'Nuff Said here















K, I think you all know how much of a "consumer advocate" I am so here is my hard sell for Ottavio's in Provo. Last minute reservation for 20 people? No Problem. Private room? Free of charge! Delicious Food: Absolutely! Affordable? Yessiree. Lets just say, dinner was amazing! But it wasn't only because of the restaurant. I LOVED seeing everyone again! And I can't wait to come back this weekend too for Heather's wedding! Hooray!!!

Other highlights with no pictures include:

1. Staying with Julie (Patrick's Twin) and seeing the niece and nephew--So Cute!
2. Hanging out with Robert and having the best chicken Kebab's EVER (no joke. He is an AMAZING cook)
3. Kneader's Breakfast (minus the two zoobies with their laptops and chemistry books out while sitting down. Pretty sure there's a rule about Kneaders that includes eating and getting out asap. No loitering please! )
4. BYU Bookstore Fudge (that's from Patrick, not me :) )
5. Hanging out until midnight with Hotel D'Enclave

Utah here we come!

Who'd have thought we'd be this excited to go to Utah!? Except, when you stop and think about it, there are LOTS of reasons why we would miss Utah (and specifically Provo). In no particular order:

1. Friends and Family
2. The Ad Lab
3. BYU
4. BYU Football
5. Sam Hawk (for those of you who have never been, you REALLY need to. It's AMAZING. Get the Beef Kalbi and you'll love me forever)
6. Sundance (Both restaurants and brunch)
7. Goodwood
8. Nicolitalia (but only for take-out)
9. Driving anywhere with no big issues or big traffic jams
10. Fairly Adequate Parking
11. Provo Bakery
12. Snuggling on my lovesac with my roommates
13. Deciding my 9 am class isn't THAT important and sleeping in
14. Everyone is Mormon ( I thought I hated that when I was in college. Now, I miss it. How Ironic.)
15. BYU Ranch
16. Creamery Ice Cream
17. Having people to hang out with

I'll continue updating as I remember more.

We'll see you all in Provo! And our dinner date is Saturday night at Ottavio's, 7 pm.

So cute, you'll want to puke

I don't think anyone really wants to know this, so I'll be brief. I've recently discovered a teeny baby wart on my right hand ring finger. Coincidentally, Patrick also has a baby wart on his left hand. We've since realized that the warts match up perfectly when we hold hands. A sign of true love...(this is where the puking comes)

Clever, aren't I?

So the other morning I went to make our lunches and realized there were only two pieces of bread left. No problem, I thought. I'll just make Patrick a sandwich and something else for me. I saw a box of macaroni and cheese and thought oh, I have plenty of time to make that for lunch--perfect! Except it seemed to take longer than usual to make it and we HAD to make the 8:30 bus...thinking on my feet, i drained the macaroni, threw it in a Tupperware with some butter and the cheese mixture and ran out the door to the bus, shaking it as I went. I have to say that was a very delicious lunch! Even if everyone on the bus was looking at me strangely the entire ride to work.

On a side note, anyone have a good financial planner? Or know of a good one? We aren't quite sure how this whole financial planning thing goes...so any advice would help!

The Grand Tour

Here's a tour of our little home :)

The Outside













OUR Entrance (We're the "rear" unit which means we have our own entrance but not our own mailbox--we have to share the mailbox with the other 667 in our building...seems a little fishy but it works!)









Our Cute front door


















The coat closet we made with a pull-up bar


















My great-grandma's dining room table.













The Kitchen













The cute island that Patrick put together for us. Notice my cute mixer and fancy knives--my favorite things in the house!













The bathroom that's connected to the kitchen


















The living room (the picture makes it look much more cluttered than it really is!) Notice Patrick's fancy TV. His favorite thing in the house :)












Our cute couch. One of our most prized possessions!












Our desk! Also, looks more cluttered than it really is


















The bedroom! It's tiny and full of dressers and closets. Also, it's my bedding from college so don't judge Patrick! We're getting new stuff soon!

















































The backyard we share with the other tenants


















The deck we don't share with the other tenants (notice Patrick's sweet grill he got from his sweet wife for his birthday)
















Our storage shed

So that's our apartment! Yeah, it's tiny but we absolutely LOVE it!!! It's perfect for what we need right now and helps us from keeping too much junk!

Screw Aruba, We're going to Hawaii!

I think it's old news now, but in case some of you are out of the loop--we sort of ended up in Hawaii instead of Aruba for the honeymoon. We were supposed to leave Sunday night for Aruba and the hurricane warnings had all been lifted so we thought we were fine. Around 4 or so, we decided we should probably call the hotel to double check. They told us that it was totally fine to come--except that all the beaches were closed and the streets were flooded. Not exactly our idea of a sweet honeymoon. So somehow it worked out perfectly that we were able to cancel everything in Aruba and book a flight to Hawaii. We stayed on Hawaii (The Big Island) at the Marriott Resort at Waikalua. It was AMAZING. The best part was that Patrick had never been before.

Here's a little of what we did:

Parasailing



Can anyone spot Patrick swimming with the locals?

Snorkling was VERY fun. We even saw dolphins!


We went to a beautiful waterfall













Went on a helicopter ride over the volcano













And saw real flowing lava













Saw a Pot Church













Took Model Shots

































Hung out by the pool



























And had an all-around AMAZING time!


We don't know what we missed in Aruba, but we definitely didn't miss out on much!

Don't worry, they're coming!

I started the honeymoon post AND the apartment tour post. It just takes longer than I would like to upload all those pictures.

Plus I've been baking a lot lately. That takes up a lot of my time. So far my beautiful KitchenAid pro 600 has helped me make:

1. Devil's food Cake with fancy chocolate frosting
2. Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
4. Aunt Opal's

My favorite so far are the Aunt Opals. (For those of you who don't know what Aunt Opals are #1 you're missing out on the BEST cookies ever. #2 They're oatmeal chocolate chip walnut cookies) I don't know what Patrick's favorite was. But I'm pretty sure he's not complaining about any :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away

I appreciate the rain. (Really, Shannon, I do) It is wonderful and helpful and just great. But I think it's wonderful when I'm sitting at my house reading a book and drinking hot chocolate. Not when I have to run back and forth across the street at work all day long.

So much for doing my hair today.

Hooray for Today!

Ashley is on her way. Last I heard she was in SLO (San Luis Obispo). I can't wait to see her. And since this is supposed to be Patrick's blog too, he is excited as well :)

Blister Smister

At least that's what I thought. Until Patrick got THE biggest blister EVER playing basketball Tuesday night. It is basically the whole left half of the ball of his foot(if you're looking down on it). I'd post a picture but I don't want you to get sick.

Now he's on crutches that I found at work and wearing his ugly brookstone slipper on his right foot. I've been driving him to work since he can't walk from the bus stop to the office. It costs $21 to park by my office. So far this month we have paid $135 in bus passes, $9.50 in muni tickets for the rides when I hadn't gotten my new muni pass, $27 in taxi rides and $42 in parking fees. And it's only the 12th.

I'm praying it will end soon.

We're Back

I was scared to write my blog this week because of what happened last week.

My fear is dwindling.

Big Brother

Don't get me wrong, I love google. I love all the sweet applications they give us. I just don't love that they send the PARTNERS at my job updates about their agency every morning. And that this morning it included a link to my new blog. My new blog that says I was bored yesterday at least 3 times. And had 5 postings in one afternoon. At least it didn't say anything bad about the company. But that's because I don't have anything bad to say about the company. I love this company! I also will no longer refer to my agency by their name--just in case Google continues its amazing search powers and gives them more to call me into my director's office about. oops. They did tell me they were glad I found my wallet. (because apparently they read the ENTIRE thing. Does that mean I'm interesting?)

Look who went to a Bar

I've never been to a real bar before. I went last night for a work social outing. It wasn't so bad--they had good food and I like my co-workers. I think I'll go again.

Best Cereal Ever

The only good thing to come out of the I-House Cafeteria this summer.

I used to think Honey Bunches of Oats was the best cereal ever created. Then I tried this. Oh My Gosh. I'm obsessed. They sell it at Costco and it's the perfect granola-y deliciousness. I especially love it because one of my complaints about granola is sometimes I feel like I have to chew it for too long--not this stuff! I like it so much I've even taken to eating breakfast at work. Try it, you'll like it! And if not, give the box to me.

Go On, Rub it in

Goodby has been hiring a lot of new people lately. So to keep everyone "in the loop" they send out welcome emails every day telling us about each other. Nice, sure. But it also helps reinforce the point I've been trying to disprove. "Yes, I'm new. So yes, I don't know anything." This is mine. (slight resemblance to the chain emails most of us received at age 15)


Welcome Sarah Larsen, AAM



Where do you sit? 717 3rd Floor

Account you are working on ? Sprint Retail

Where were you before GSP? College

Where did you grow up? Laguna Beach, CA

College? Yes. Brigham Young University (BYU)

Do you have any tattoos? No

What animal do you most resemble? Beta Fish (?)

What is the last thing you bought on itunes? New Collective Soul and Maroon 5 Albums

Pet Peeve? People correcting you when they obviously know what you meant

What’s your personal dance anthem? Justin Timberlake Sexyback

Where is the quietest place you have been? At the Pompidou in Paris, there was an installation exhibit of just pure housing insulation. Your ears felt heavy from absolutely no sound coming from the room. It was incredible.

What’s the last dream you can remember? I think there was someone chasing me...

I hate it when people ask… "Do you know anyone on the show?" (Refer to Question 4)

Do you know how to break into a car? No

Cats or dogs? Neither but if I had to pick--Dogs.

What’s the best breakfast? A Las Vegas Buffet

Are you the oldest, youngest, or only child? Second Oldest of 4

Missing Wallet

Tuesday night was our "New Hire" dinner. Needless to say, I was really excited. (Free food!) Also, I got to expense a cab home after. (Not that I don't love the bus. I just don't love how long the ride is if you don't catch an express). Anyways, so I went to the ATM to get cash out for the cab and somehow misplaced my wallet. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that until I got home and went to put my change from the Cab into my wallet. Alas, no wallet. Oh Crap. I called the restaurant, and although they were sweet, they couldn't find anything. They promised to call me in the morning with an update. I was sick to my stomach all night. I don't even want to tell you what was in my wallet in case it entices you to steal it from me in the future. I went to work the next morning hoping someone had grabbed it and wanted to give it back. No luck. And no phone call. Luckily, no one had charged anything to the the cards yet so I still had a teeny tiny bit of hope. At noon, right when I was about to give up, I called the restaurant again just to check.

HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME

They found my wallet. The only thing missing was my bus pass. Which definitely sucks (and means I have to spend $95 to ride the bus this month) but in the big scheme of things, I know it could have been a lot worse. A LOT worse. I still can't believe I got it back. I swore to Patrick I'd never let it out of my sight again. (Which might have been a lie--)

On another note, never go to E&O Trading Co because the food isn't that good. But if you happen to go, you can leave your wallet 'cause they'll give it back.

My Desk

I know this is 2007. And I've had a camera phone for at least 3 years now. But look what I learned how to do today: take pictures with my phone, send them to my email, and post them on my blog. Wow. How's that for being bored :)

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

"When can I see wedding pictures"
They have been posted, you can access them by going to http://bellapictures.com/photos and entering the password V0901LARSON
** warning--there are thousands of pictures. And I haven't had time to go through them yet. So get comfortable and do it in chunks.**

"When can I see honeymoon pictures"
I'll bring my camera to work tomorrow and post them. I promise. Except it's a half day. So realistically it may be Monday.

"How is San Francisco"
AMAZING. We absolutely LOVE it. I'll embellish later.

"Do you have jobs? And if so, how are they?"
Yes. We are both currently employed. Patrick works at Grey on Nokia and I work at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners on Sprint. So far Patrick is super busy and thinks his job is fine and I'm fairly slow and think my job is sweet. Mostly Patrick doesn't LOVE his because there is lots of finance and mostly I like mine because I've made friends and lots of people are my age. Also, I got a MacBook for my work computer. AND welcome flowers.

"Can I come visit?"
PLEASE! We have a nice couch AND a decent air mattress. Both free for you to stay on! We would LOVE to have you come!


"Where do you live?"
We live in Inner Richmond. As in by Golden Gate Park in the city. Not Richmond, CA. Our aparment is the cutest little thing that was ever built with no closets. (Yes, no closets which means I have a dresser in the living room and three wardrobes in our bedroom. Also, our food pantry is open for everyone to comment on). It has a backyard, is 1 1/2 blocks from the park, half a block from the bus stop and is in Asia. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our apartment and never want to move. Patrick wants to move in a year. We'll see who wins. I'll also post pictures of the apartment tomorrow

Look who got a blog

I was bored at work today. Also, I was bored of stalking other people who have good blogs. So I decided it was my turn.