A Little Family History

While in New York, I dug through some of Aunt Linda's photo albums. She went back to Taiwan when she got married and brought back some family pictures. My mom hadn't brought any pictures with her to America, and never returned to Taiwan like Aunt Linda. Because of this, I have almost no pictures of my mother before I was born. It makes me sad because I get pretty nostalgic about this kind of thing.

Now I am pleased to introduce you to some of my family. (Please excuse the quality. Due to lack of better equipment, these are just pictures of pictures.)

Warning: I am about to picture dump. I apologize, but it's gonna happen none the less.

The Grandparents

Look closely - do you see the curly hair? He's the man I got it from.

Isn't she stunning?

The Family

Does the person on the left look familiar? It's my mom!

I love the composition of this picture. I need a copy for my wall.

The Aunts and Uncle

Grace

Daisy with my cousin Peggy

Joe

Linda

Jenny and Peggy

Daisy, Joe, Linda

My grandpa used to own a factory that made blow up furniture. Here's the proof.

Linda

Linda and Mom

My Mother

Cousins!

Ong-Dee and Me

Xue and Daniel

Ong-Dee, Mike, Jackie

Mom, Peggy, David, Jackie

I love these people!!!

Weekend Eats - July 28

Being in a new city, with no friends, and a job that doesn't require working on the weekends, I was a little worried I would begin dreading Saturday. To combat that, I have decided to eat at a different place every weekend. This way I can have something to do and see the city.

This weekend I flew to New York City for my cousin's wedding. Talk about amazing food all weekend! My Aunt Linda is an amazing cook, and loves to feed me. Yay! When I arrived at 6 am, she fed me fresh spring rolls, an omelet, cherries, and yogurt. She fed me again at 9 am when my mom arrived. And so it went for the rest of the weekend. Happy day. I love Chinese food. I should learn to make it.

No pictures of food, but aren't they cute? Jackie was the best "man."

The highlight was the wedding dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the food. I was too busy eating and dancing. But, here's the menu. It was a 12 course dinner. Plus wedding cake.

1. Assorted Cold Dish Platter - mostly cold cuts, including pig feet
2. Mayonnaise Shrimp & Walnuts
3. Shark Fin Soup with Crab Meat
4. Abalone & Mushroom with Dried Scallop Sauce
5. Steak with Black Pepper Sauce
6. Fried Lobster with Scallions - my first time eating lobster!
7. Crispy Garlic Chicken
8. Salt & Pepper Sea Bass
9. Raisin Bacon Fried Rice
10. Vegetarian Fried Egg Noodles
11. Sweet Red Bean Soup
12. Fruit Platter
13. Wedding Cake - Rich Coconut Cake with Mango Filling and Coconut Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

I even got to help put flowers on the cake! And what kind of blog post doesn't have a wedding cake picture?

I went digging through my pictures for the finished product and, of course, didn't find one. Maybe Mom took a picture? We can hope. I added live purple orchids around the cake. The cake topper was Schroeder and Lucy from Peanuts (my cousin Daniel is a fabulous pianist).

The next day, we went to a restaurant for another 10 or so dishes including lobster, fish, chicken soup, lamb, and more. Yum. I really need to learn to take pictures of the food. We also stopped by a Chinese bakery and I brought a bunch of stuff home and froze it. I love Chinese food.

Big News in a Little Town

About a week after moving to Fallon, we had some exciting news. "They're putting up a new cell phone tower," exclaimed one of the technicians, "and they're trying to disguise it as a tree." We all rushed to the drive up window and shoved our heads out to get a good look. I felt a little silly, but it's not every day you get a new cell tower. Maybe we'll get better service, which would not be a bad thing. It was kind of fun to watch the tree "grow" too. I didn't give it another thought.

You'd think they could come up with a better disguise. It's the biggest tree for 60 miles!

That was the plan anyway. For the next week and a half, whenever a customer wanted to make conversation, it started off like this, "Did you see that big tree in the middle of town?" Quite a few didn't even know what it was. Got to make the best of any available news, I s'pose. :)

Jobs

There is a surprising lack of full time pharmacist jobs across the country. Especially in areas I want to live.

Here's the current dilemma:

I have an offer for a full time job working with nice people in a great pharmacy. It is in Fallon, Nevada. Population: 8,544 humans + wild horses + antelope + scorpions.

Photo by Brian T. Murphy (http://www.nevadamagazine.com/issues/read/wild_horses/)

As of yet, I have no possible jobs anywhere else. I've applied to quite a few, but apparently the people at several retail pharmacies (that shall remain un-named) don't think it is important to get back to you in a timely fashion, if at all. Although, I have heard that this is a problem in any job field. In fact, I applied for a couple of jobs back in 2007 and still haven't heard back. Hmm....

I may be able to snag a job in Tooele if I try quickly.

I still have 3 months before I can no longer work at my current intern job. So, I may find the job of my dreams in the lovely Portland, Oregon before then.

(http://www.travelandleisure.com/americas-favorite-cities/2009/city/portland-oregon)

Any thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Hughes, PharmD

Just My Luck

I met a boy today.

Today was ward temple night. We were the only two people to show up to carpool. We are in Blanding. The temple is in Monticello. That's about a 20 mile drive. Taking into account the snow, the dark, the chance of deer, it's at least a 30 minute drive. So, I had plenty of time to get to know him.

14 Nice Things About Teddy

1. His name is Teddy. Like Teddy Roosevelt. Does it get any better than that?
2. He drove to Monticello. Therefore I didn't stress about deer and driving in the snow.
3. He's very nice.
4. He opened all my doors for me.
5. He's tall.
6. He is quite good looking. Especially in a suit.
7. He is easy to talk to.
8. He managed to avoid hitting the deer that appeared out of nowhere. Also, I wasn't driving at the time (see #2).
9. He is great at making conversation. Almost no silence the whole drive, and the silence that did occur wasn't awkward.
10. His family owns goats!
11. He's smart.
12. He loves country swing dancing. Like more than me even.
13. He made me laugh.
14. He served his mission in Independence, Missouri.

Oh, did I mention? Teddy returned from his mission on Saturday.

In which I learn to photograph myself

Blanding is a beautiful place. But there's no one to see it with me. The problems with seeing the sites alone are many. One of which is the lack of photographers. I've never been good at sticking my arm out and taking my own picture. I've had lots of practice recently. What do you think?

Butler Wash Ruins - if you look closely there are ruins on the cliff behind me

Hiking at Natural Bridges National Monument - this is the first hike I've ever done that required climbing a ladder

More Natural Bridges National Monument

Natural Bridges National Monument - can you see the bridge behind me?

Climbing out of a Native American Ruin - too lazy to turn the picture. Again.

Half way in the Native American Ruin

 

 

Nations of the Four Corners hiking trails

 

 

 

A couple of times I was able to ask someone to take my picture for me. Check out how they turned out. It makes me smile.

Outside the movie theater. Yes, she used a flash.

The nice old gentleman I ran into while hiking does not have steady hands.

Ding Dong...

What time is it? 7:15? Who could possibly be ringing the door at this hour?

(shuffling to the door in my jammies...peeking out the eye hole...seeing no one)

Crackle crackle

Hmm. That's sounds an awful lot like a walkie talkie. I guess I'd better open the door and see who it is.

Hello?

A police officer! What happened? Does he think we witnessed something?!?!

Hello. Does a Madeline B____ or Kayleen S____ reside here?

Oh no! Someone got hurt or died! Madeline's dad!

Or Evan!

No, probably Madeline's dad.

Madeline lives here, let me get her for you. Come on in.

whisper whisper: There's a police officer wanting to talk to you.

Hi. Madeline? Do you own a Jeep Cherokee?

Yes. (in a sleepy, confused tone)

Is it supposed to be here?

Ack! Her car's been stolen! But how could he know?

Yes...is it not?

We found it in the middle of the street with the doors open. We wanted to give you the chance to pick it up before we impounded it.

Oh! Thank you. I'll get my keys.

Umm...the car is also registered to Kayleen S_____. Any chance she could have left it there?

No. She lives in Colorado.

Okay. I'll give you a ride to your car.

And so began the adventure. Well, maybe that was the most exciting part.

But, Madeline's car was stolen, hot-wired, in fact, from our own covered parking spot. When Madeline and the policeman got to her car, they found that her key would not turn the car on due to several cut wires in the steering column. They couldn't leave the car where it was because it was in a no parking zone. So, the officer brought Madeline back to me, and the two of us headed out to the abandoned jeep, a mere 4 blocks from our home.

Then began the fun of calling the insurance company, who called the towing company, who called their people in Utah, who couldn't find us because the out of state towing company insisted on giving them our address as a name instead of number ("We promise, it'll be easier if you tell them 950 S. than Mountain Road.*"). We didn't get back to our apartment until 9:15. Good fun, if ever there was.

Oh, and then we ate blueberry pancakes.

The End.

*Street names and addresses made up. So don't bother stalking us...

Pancakes

Check out this website: www.jimspancakes.com.
It's worth a few minutes of your time. I promise.

And yet another one.

This hobby is getting seriously out of hand. I need to spend more time studying pharmacy and less time smoothing frosting.

Disneyland

Another post? What? Why? How?

I didn't have to work today!!!! So I have plenty of time to wrestle with blogger and force it to post pictures.

I went to Disneyland for Fall Break this year. I spent 4 whole days in that happy land and one freezing day at the beach! It was glorious. I don't really feel like writing all about it, but a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Enjoy.

Whitney with Olivia and Eliza.



Olivia was tired. And the warm asphalt looked so comfortable.



Olivia and I went flying with Dumbo.



Good morning!!!



Ladybugs are almost as good as teacups.



Stephanie, Grant, Olivia, Julie, Whitney, Eliza



Another group picture. See if you can name the people in it this time. : )



Eliza loved posing for the camera.



Me and Whit.