friday night basketball

stanford mens basketball had an exhibition game friday night.  we went to it and it was a lot of fun.

we got special shirts for buying season tickets...

here is mine.

chris signed up to do a putt putt game during half time.  here he is.

stanford has a great basketball team.

look at them go!

blowing sonoma state (or sonomast, as i first read it) out of the water

not a suspenseful game... but i'm sure they'll meet their match one of these days.

christopher was checking hockey scores of course.

and there we are having fun.

the end.

good morning!

daylight savings this year has not been kind to me.  chris and i live on the east side of our building.  i absolutely love that we're on the east side of the building with the beautiful view of mountains and trees instead of the drowsy west side with a gross view of the parking lot.  but we have a number of large window/screen doors that let in plenty of light.  this was always a nice treat before.  it makes our home feel more cheerful.  and it makes it easier to wake up and get out of bed in the morning. 

but since the time change, it has been a little too easy to wake up.  monday morning i woke up with the question, "how did we fall asleep with the lights on?" and when i looked at the light and realized it was not a bulb giving off light, i shot straight up in my bed completely alarmed!  "how on earth did i sleep through my alarm?!?!"  "what time is it?!?!" to which the response was "oh, 6:00 am" ...fabulous.  only an hour and a half early.

first thing i did when i got off work on monday was to call mom (and dad).  lucky for me they actually stayed on the phone for an hour and a half!  (well, mom did... dad made a trip to the store or something somewhere in there)  although our conversation started out as "have you thought of birthday/christmas present ideas?"  it led to wanting blackout curtains for christmas, no, my birthday, no, i can't wait that long, help me find a way to construct makeshift curtains TONIGHT!

we discussed a number of options, and although dad was dead set on tin foil (i wasn't sure i had enough), i ended up going with...

hallelujah!

say good night to...

and good morning to...

it's not cruise-ship-perfectly-dark quality.  but it at least it kind of takes us back to pre daylight savings.  which for now will have to suffice.

_______________________________________________

mother,
i had originally said it was not worth the price of blackout curtains. after talking to a number of friends in my building also living on the east side, i might have to jump on their bandwagon.  y'know how these stanford people are smart like that.  surely they know when blackout curtains are worth it, and they have not been having trouble with daylight savings.

crafty emmy,
i heard it's super easy to make blackout curtains, or at least something to line my current curtains.  maybe you can work a deal with mom.

wonderful liza,
thanks for reading my blog.  and for calling me.  sorry i have been unavailable.  love you.

my sister emmy

here is a shoutout to my sister emmy (don't get jealous liza, i love you both equally) who i spend my nights with since i became an mba widow. 

these pictures are from when she came to colorado for a weekend.  we had a photo shoot in chris's parents' living room and again the next night while we were waiting for chris's hockey game to start. 

anyways, we spend hours online together at night on the phone, webcame, skype, and whatever it's called when you share your screen (which is what we've been doing tonight for the last 2.5 hours).  sometimes we look at blogs or facebook together.  tonight i helped her shop online for a camera and taught her how to use picasa and have been watching a bascially constant slideshow of her pictures ever since. 

my nights are incomplete without my emmy.  in this lonely world of the west coast and three hour time zone differences, i am lost without my wonderful mountain-standard-time, late-night-student-hours, internet-loving sister.

so tonight when i felt an absence, i sent her a text, and she got online to keep me company (as soon as she got home!) and i haven't been lonely since!

so here's to you emmy!  and to many long, late nights to come!

halloween

halloween this year was pretty laid back.  christopher and i decided this is not our holiday at this time in our lives.  we're currently rejects among our california friends.  our gsb friends were mostly partying (we don't drink) and our church friends were taking their kids trick or treating (we don't have kids) so we had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate as just the two of us!

after the ward halloween party (delicious chili and desserts including INCREDIBLE apple pie - gosh i need to learn to cook wonderful things) we headed to mountain view, per my request, to do some much needed grocery shopping at the dreaded walmart where we saw even more freaks than usual.  unfortunately, i think i was one of them.  i thought i was dressing festively but while i was crossing the crosswalk to enter walmart, i got a shout out from a ghetto black man in a low riding car yelling to me something about an orange shirt.  you tell me, did i elicit this shoutout?

aside from the colors, i'm wearing perfectly normal clothing!  of all the freaks to pick on at walmart, he picked me!  i was humbled.

anyways, while we were in mountain view, we stopped at a california pumpkin patch...

this california pumpkin patch is not your regular pumpkin patch.  it is set up in a giant parking lot.  the same lot that houses walmart, trader joes, milk pail, kohls, ross, and a bunch of other stores.  what a great location to dump hay and sell overpriced pumpkins!

check out the selection!  we strategically showed up about three minutes before they closed and christopher worked his negotiating skills.  he wasn't able to get us a pumpkin for free (maybe he'll be able to do that after he graduates?) but he got us a good sized pumpkin (originally $15) for $3 which i thought was fantastic.  and it was very pretty and nicely shaped too.

the other big one by his feet was our runner up.

to their credit, they had a real tractor for hayrides...

and a bunch of random games and activites set up for kids.  which i imagine was all a big hit during the day.  i want take this time to thank my friend cherie (if she even reads this blog) for warning me about california pumpkin patches.  she totally called it with the fenced in patch of hay covered parking lot etc.

so then we (chris) carved the pumpkin...

 

with such precision...

christopher wouldn't pose for any pictures but at least he let me take some!

look how well it's cleaned out!

and this is 100% of what came out!  i was disappointed not to get more seeds.  i thought we would for sure get lots of seeds and pumpkin innards... boy was i wrong!

finished product

doesn't it just look like a happy pumpkin?

anyways, hope you had a great halloween!!!

ps- this is what a GEORGIA pumpkin patch looks like... burt's pumpkin patch to be exact...

where was i? not blogging obviously

monday, we went out to eat at ray's, an on campus pub, with a bunch of people from our apartment building.  since it was an official activity, everyone's meal was covered by the activities budget!  i got a cardinal burger and it was delicious!  it was absolutely giant and it had all the good stuff including cheese, bacon, bbq sauce, and sauteed onions.  YUM!

tuesday, we went to a gsb small group dinner.  small group dinners are when a student (or in this case a student and his wife) sign up to host a dinner for ___ number of people at their house.  people sign up (normally six or eight) and then it ends up being a fun little dinner party, free for everyone involved (the host is reimbursed by the business school activities people), and a nice alternative to only meeting people at big parties where everyone is getting drunk and it's too loud to have a real conversation.

wednesday, was the sharks game.  of course.  obviously very fun.

thursday, i thought, was going to be very low key because i wanted to rest a little.  but i ended up getting off work a couple hours early and spent the next long while talking to mom and trying to search out a copy of my book club book at the main (and huge) library on campus.  and i spent the rest of the night doing who knows what that included my new favorite pasttime, writing my favorite missionary on dearelder.com,  and lots of eating.

friday, i got off work at TWO (the norm is around 6:15 or so) and didn't even know where to begin with my newfound afternoon of free time!  after making my mental list (i was going to write it down but kept getting distracted in my search for an adequate piece of paper) i took some time to relax, got a phone call from my wonderful sister eliza, started laundry, did some vacuuming, and made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 

then i got a call from chris reminded me of a halloween themed LPF (social mix and mingle) put on by the gsb (graduate school of business) so i met him on campus at five and we had a lot of fun at that. while i was there, i was also blessed with a phone call from my loving father (i talked to my mom on the phone for over an hour yesterday, i talk to my sister emily every day, i almost never hear from my brother walter but mom guilted him in to calling me at work yesterday for a few minutes...) which probably set a record because i don't think i have ever talked to my entire family one-on-one, long distance, in the space of 24 hours.  it was fantastic and i am still marveling that it even happened. 

beautiful campus

 

after filling my purse with lots of delicious halloween candy, we headed home, got our laundry, hung out, and got christopher dressed up for the gsb halloween party.   while he was gone, it gave me perfect opportunity to fold laundry, finish vacuuming, clean the kitchen, do the dishes, clean the bathroom, and write a blog.  what a very productive day!  i feel so good about life right now!

so now it's saturday and i'm just enjoying this sleep in, stay in bed, and hang out sort of day.


ps- happy halloween!!!

[not] late for an important date

wednesday night christopher took me on a wonderful date to the sharks game!  for those of you unfamiliar with hockey/the bay area, the san jose sharks are the NHL (national hockey league) team for the area and they're really good (although not as good as the colorado avalanche this year) so we've always liked them, and it's fun that we get to go to their games now and adopt them as our own.

we took caltrain to the game.  i LOVE taking public transportation on outings.  especially to sports events.  especially at night.  chris was so cute.  the whole time he was giving me game updates of all the hockey games from nhl.com and i don't know why but i just thought it was precious.

this is me watching my sweet christopher excitedly take pictures of all the players while they warm up.  he was like a little boy looking through the window at a candy shop.  luckily i got off work over an hour early (which was totally out of the blue and couldn't have happened on a better night) so we were in time to watch warmups.  so even though we were able to leave much earlier than we initially were going to, christopher was still in a hurry (unnecessary) as usual.  glad not to disappoint!

it actually was pretty cool though because it was long enough before the game started that we could watch from the empty front row seats.

we were so close to the players.  i like seeing the faces of hockey players because it is always a rare and special treat!  i've started to pick my favorites for the sharks.

i thought this was cool that their zambonis have fins!

half way through the game.

still tied after overtime.  that means SHOOTOUT!

this is us after the sharks won in an extended shootout.  i love that if you compare it to the previous picture of us you can see that we are actually visibly happier!

i mean, look at this boy!  he's so happy.  and so photogenic too...

all in all, really fun game.  and thanks to my daring husband (it made me nervous at the time because i always play by the rules) we got to sit in much better seats than we would have.  we sat at the top of the lower section instead of the top of the top section.  ha, our tickets were actually in section 220...

i mean, who wants to be all the way up there?!?!

not us.

we're real fans.

so super busy

well, things really picked up. 

will blog when i have more time!

so bored i might die

that's how i felt about today.

you can't win them all.

flag football, real football

today was a pretty eventful day.

christopher and i woke up decently early to go to a "roundtable discussion."  we try to stay educated on things and it turned out to be pretty interesting.  for this one, charlie rose interviewed eric schmidt (CEO of google -- he was my favorite), john hennessy, garth saloner, guillermo ortiz, penny pritzker, and caroline hoxby who are all just a random bunch of important accomplished people.

2009 Roundtable at Stanford

The Road Back: From Economic Meltdown to Renewal

How Do We Get There?

Scholars, politicians, and government officials will long debate the question of whether the economic collapse of 2008-2009 has fundamentally altered the world's established economic and social paradigms. At home and abroad there will be questions as to whether the U.S. will remain in its traditional economic and political leadership role, or be overshadowed by new engines of economic growth and prosperity.
Optimists point to Silicon Valley-style innovation, new technologies, and entrepreneurship as the solution to regaining economic momentum both in America, and around the world.
Others look to shifting centers of economic vitality to places like China and India as the world’s economic superpowers of the future.
In this emerging new hyper-competitive world economy, where is the road to recovery and renewal? As we emerge from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, what changes can we expect to see, and are there silver linings to be found? What will the long-term impact be on our lives and our fellow citizens around the globe?
Join renowned interviewer and 2009 moderator Charlie Rose and a distinguished panel of leaders for the fourth Roundtable at Stanford University.

on our way home, christopher asked if i would make tuna sandwiches for lunch and i told him we had no tuna.  he said he'd seen some in the fridge.  i told him it was impossible since i hadn't bought any tuna.  i'd looked at it at the store and decided it was too expensive and tuna didn't even taste that great.  he insisted.  i told him, if you can find some tuna, i'll make you a sandwich.

darn that boy.

he found tuna.  i guess i absentmindedly threw some in the cart because i knew it would make him happy (although in my pride i still have not admitted this to chris... i adamantly insist that i have no clue how that tuna got there) and what happens?  i have a husband dancing around in my face, quoting me in mocking terms "you find tuna and i'll make a sandwich."  that's the thanks i get?

we wives do not get enough appreciation around here.

anyways, after lunch (pancakes for me, tuna sandwich for chris) i took a nice nap while christopher studied.  it's good not to be a student.  i don't even know why he likes it so much.

i finally went to one of christopher's flag football games.  here are the highlights...

what a great run

already bored

great catch

bored again

 two guys running into each other and the ball hitting both heads

i snapped this picture on our way home from the flag football game.  who else thinks these palm trees look weird?  how does this even happen?  they're the only ones on campus i've seen that look like this.  it reminds me of when i take my hair out of a ponytail and it doesn't seem to lie flat again.  little did i know that palm trees and i have this problem in common.

then we went to our friends' apartment where they had a bunch of people over to watch the sad and disappointing game of byu against tcu.  the food was wonderful and the company was even better. 

and finally...  the real football game.  stanford homecoming game against ASU, which we left early but are still in the process of winning.

and if you hear about my husband failing out of stanford... specifically because of finance class... and even more specifically because of his finance midterm next week...

you'll know why.

this i can do

i got online this afternoon to check the weather and this is what i saw...

uh what?  am i dreaming?

no.  it's true.  i am in heaven.

you don't even know me

it's true, i'm a different girl now.

100% different.

and i know many of you never ever EVER thought this day would come...

but it has...

even if it might only be temporary.

but really, who knows?!?!


I BUY PRODUCE.

i haven't told many people, not knowing how long it would really last. but it's been going on long enough now that i feel i can share the news. i, carrie hillier, have been buying fresh produce since arriving in california over a month ago.

it first started when i went to safeway and had a breakdown. the food prices were outrageous. i talked to carolyn and my mom for support (grocery shopping is so traumatizing these days whereas it used to be the highlight of my life) and advice on what items SHOULD cost. according to carolyn, the food here is about double or triple the cost in colorado and according to mom, produce is about the same price or cheaper than it is in georgia.

so i used to not buy produce because it cost so much more than the easy tasty prepared and packaged foods, but now that doesn't apply so i have altered my grocery shopping accordingly. i spend at least six (but no more than ten) dollars on fruits and veggies per shopping trip and then another fifty or sixty dollars at walmart (aka my own personal version of hell). --some day i might devote an entire post to how much i LOATHE walmart-- then i call it a day.

the first few times i was going to safeway for produce and then walmart for everything else (not having a super walmart, this walmart provides a whole 3 or 4 aisles of food options) but then i discovered milk pail!


milk pail is like an indoor open air market with a farmers market feel so it's actually really fun to shop at. sometimes the prices are scribbled on pieces of torn cardboard or something ghetto like that. i normally get tomatoes, mushrooms, and a bell pepper for my breakfast burritos. i always get a number of pears since i've totally been on a pear kick recently and eat a few a week. and other than that it just depends what's on sale. sometimes sugar peas or a cucumber to eat with ranch. sometimes apples or peaches to send with chris to school. normally bananas because they're so cheap and easy and i've been loving banana sandwiches lately too.

and i normally try to find something new or different too. plutots have been my favorite (they're a hybrid of something but they look like a mini plum and taste super sweet). and this week it was a pomegranate. i haven't eaten it get so we'll see how that goes.

six or te n dollars buys a lot of produce and my goal is to eat it all before it goes bad so it gives me something to work towards. i do this best by accessorizing. instead of plain cottage cheese i'll eat it with a chopped up peach. bananas go on sandwiches, cucumber, tomato, carrot, goes on salads (and yes i've bought lettuce too... which i'm normally opposed to) or sandwiches or ranch, pears are my late night snack, etc.

to prove it

saturday evening i was bored, so i made a pasta salad (from a box... don't let your imagination get too carried away). wasn't ever in the mood to eat it until tonight. i put some in a bowl, added lettuce, ranch, grated carrots, peas (those were actually frozen) and wedges of a roma tomato. (i would have added boiled egg but didn't have one ready, avacado but wanted to save it for a rainy day... or tomorrow, and chicken chunks, grated cheese, crushed up bacon (i actually didn't have any bacon) but thought maybe it was getting a little to big for a one person dinner. still, instead of an average carb and fat meal, i snuck in lettuce, tomato, carrots, and peas... making it healthier, beefier (in a veggie sort of way) and cheaper (since i used less of my boxed pasta salad.

here's the hard evidence...

maybe it would have looked a little more appealing if i had taken the picture before i had eaten half of it (trust me, it started BIG) but you can tell from my eagerness that it was really just that good. anyways, my computer is being retarded and has made this the biggest ordeal ever so we're gonna call it good. 

but believe me. 

i'm a totally different person.

the weekend without pictures

dear liza,

here is the post you requested. i made no promises for pictures or entertainment. just a blog.

love you lots,

CARRIE


what did we do this weekend?

friday, after work, christopher and i went to the womens soccer game against USC (chris and paige, i wish you could have been there with us!) which was lots of fun... and we won! christopher was more talkative than usual so that was a very special treat for me.

saturday, we slept in and had a lazy morning. i daydreamed (this is required for my sanity and helps with my add tendancies) and wrote in my love journal (more on that another time if you wish) and took my sweet time greeting the day. that lead to a more rushed time getting ready but oh well. i went to the church to help out with a luncheon for a music workshop lead by by craig jessop. i missed chris's flag football game (again) but i think it was worth it to help out and it was good because i made a number of new friends. it put me in a fantastic mood for the rest of the day. i went to do my grocery shopping since i no longer have time to do that during the week (here's to being employed!) and picked up a number of things from milk pail (more about that later) and wal mart (the worst walmart ever ever ever). i almost have a breakdown every time i go to wal mart because it is just that bad. this time i called emmy for emotional support and she helped me finish my shopping and get to the register. the shopping trip took a total of two hours. way too long, but sadly, it's become the norm. christopher wanted to go to the stanford theater in downtown palo alto where they show old movies. we were going to see some like it hot when the cashier pointed out that if we'd come earlier we could have gotten the double feature for the same price. we decided to do that instead... so we'll plan on that for another night. in lieu of the movie we walked around downtown which was lots of fun. i always enjoy that.

man, this sure is a boring post.

sunday, we almost slept through church! luckily we woke up just as it was starting so we weren't too late. still anxious to get callings. after church we went to the GSB (graduate school of business) global fiesta which ended up being the highlight of my weekend. it was so cool. there were tons of tables set up with food from a lot of the different countries represented in the GSB. the students are so diverse and everyone is eager to learn more about everyone else. france had quiche and cheeses. brazil had the most amazing chocolates handmade by chris's friend sergio. two of the turkish girls from chris's class made food for and manned the turkey table. the columbian table had candies and coffee. the nigera table was grilling kababs, greece and egypt had gyros, a number of the tables had various types of teas and wines and one table had a hookah (with who knows what)... we didn't try any of those things but it was fun to hear what other people had to say about them. i left my purse at home so it wouldn't get in the way of my eating. smart move although i'm still sad not to have any pictures of the event because honestly, it was unbelieveable. some tables had music. the china table dressed you up in clothes and took your picture and printed it out for you while you were there. everyone was wearing clothes representing their country. the japan table was dressed up in japanimation costumes which was absolutely hilarious. the girls dressed up at the poland table just looked like a collection of lifesize national barbie or something. at the end, a bunch of students performed the bollywood dance and then everyone else joined in. seriously, the whole thing is nuts. i can't even describe it. and all of the food was phenomenal. i don't think i tried anything i didn't like. so then i came home and fell asleep and did some laundry and called it a day. but the food. the food was the highlight.

i pity whoever is reading this. i practically put myself to sleep!

MLK -- he's my man

what's not to love about martin luther king jr? chris and i went to a movie showing on campus of singing and how it affected the civil rights movement. it was pretty powerful and made me so thankful that people were willing to take a stand and make a change. i can't believe how recent it was that segregation was the norm. all of this stuff was happening 40-50 years ago. i mean, maybe it's because i grew up in atlanta where februrary was black history month, not valentines month or maybe it's just because i turn black during the summers. for whatever reason, this subject has always been very near to my heart and is something for which i am eternally grateful. i know it was tons of people, not just MLK, but he's kinda the symbol for it all. and last night in my prayers he (and his friends) got a special shout out. i love you mlk!