BEST PIZZA OF ALL TIME

Yo, New York, I'm really happy for you and all. Ima let you finish, but I just have to say Beyonce makes one of the best pizzas of all time. One of the BEST PIZZAS OF ALL TIME! *shrug*

But seriously, if I learned one thing this last weekend when I headed East to New Jersey and the surrounding states, it's that we put lots of toppings on our pizzas here to hide the inferrior taste.

I've got 4 words for you: large cheese pie, please.

So, if New York and New Jersey have the best pizza around, then why do I have so many photos of me munching on hot diggity dogs?! Go figure.

RETHINK THIS IDEA

Maybe Golden Corral's marketing department should rethink this idea.

It just doesn't sound right to me.

HYMN 293

We sang this hymn in church today and it made me think about the kind of friend I am or want to be. As I have travelled, I have learned whether we are young or old, rich or poor, educated or humble, full of experience or just beginning, speak a different language or live in another country, we all have the ability to be a friend.

Also as a member of Girl Scout Troop 715, we sang the song...and I still believe the words to this day:
'A circle is round, it has no end; that's how long I want to be your friend.'

293 Each Life That Touches Ours for Good
(click this link for a cool interactive music player to listen to tune and read along with the text)

1.Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.

2.What greater gift dost thou bestow,
What greater goodness can we know
Than Christ-like friends, whose gentle ways
Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

3.When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

4.For worthy friends whose lives proclaim
Devotion to the Savior's name,
Who bless our days with peace and love,
We praise thy goodness, Lord above.

I have been blessed with plenty of good friends through family, school, church, work, and travel who give me love and support and I am so thankful for them. Especially those that comment on my blogs tee hee.

09/09/09

Maybe a little irreverent, but here is Hitler with today's date:
clicky clicky

SELF CHECK-OUT

If you do NOT know how to use the self check-out machine, please do NOT get in that line and cause your fellow shoppers who ARE smarter than the scanner to have to wait longer to pay for their merchandise.

Also, please do NOT pay for your $10 purchase with nickels and pennies causing a two person wait behind you to turn into a 12 person line.

You do NOT make it fast, easy, nor fun for me!

GO COUGS!

After watching tonights game, I'm still not sure if I like short socks or knee length socks with the football uniforms. Either way, BYU still beat the Sooners at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium 14-13. Go Cougs!

ALONE IN MY PRINCIPLES

"We don't really know what we believe in or care about until what we believe in or care about is threatened, challenged, or measured."
— Sheri L. Dew (If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard)

When the time comes to test my faith...am I really strong enough? It seems I often find myself singing that hit song "Alone in My Principles" and dancing by myself, but I'm OK with it because I know in the end protecting my values is way more important than being popular.

THANK YOU WAVE

Being the courteous driver I am, I stopped to let a pedestrian cross in front of me yesterday. They looked straight forward and walked to the other side without turning to give me a thank you wave or anything. Nothing. Who does that?! For crying out loud...I wanted my thank you wave. It makes me not want to be so kind. You HAVE to give a thank you wave...it's like THE RULE!

GONE LIKE YESTERDAY

You're asking me where to go to get the best pasta in town while in Provo...well, I can't tell you and this is why:
I drove down historic Center Street to get a delicious plate of Gnocchi Toscana, which I have been craving for about 3 months, only to find a sign on the door of Ottavio's Ristorante Italiano that said they have closed for good. My favorite restaurant is gone like yesterday. Ohmigosh. Could my heart break any more?
But I suppose you can purchase their crowd pleasing creamy tomato basil soup at the nearest Costco store (beautiful wall murals, accordion player, and owner who walks up to your table and asks if you are enjoying your dining experience with his Italian accent not included).

EYE HAVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER

It's true. As I wrote in the previous post, I decided to buy myself LASIK for my birthday. It was probably THE best thing I have ever spent a wad of cash on in my life (even better than the loaf of bread and jar of Nutella I bought the other day with my niece).
Things I learned from having the procedure done:
1) 5mg of Valium is about 10mg too much for me but made me VERY relaxed about the whole situation
2) stealing a cookie from the hand of a girl who can't open her eyes because of the aforementioned valium pill is not a good idea (especially if you try it a second, third, and fourth time).
3) big black shades are cooler than they appear or cooler than maybe you appear as you wear them
4) eye drops come straight from the Rx counter in heaven
5) wearing glasses or contact lenses is great to improve your vision but do not even compare when it comes to 20/15 vision from Dr. Hoopes.

It's as easy as that! If you've even considered it a little bit, go for it. Have it done...you'll never regret it! In less than 24 hours, my eyes have never been happier than they are today (and I couldn't have left the office happier with my souvenir mug of candy and chocolate chip cookie in hand).

BEST PRESENTS

It seems I don't get as many presents for my birthday as I did when I was a young girl, but I will admit the few I got this year were rockin! Besides the texts, emails, voice mails, and other various messages I received from loved ones across the ocean, I came home and got 2 of THE MOST AMAZING presents in my life.

1)Big Matt made me the proud owner of a brand new precision aluminum bodied, 15.4-inch LED widescreen display with 1440 by 900 pixels, 500GB, 2.8 GHz, 2009 3rd generation MacBook Pro. I'm kinda in love. I still need to name it, so I'll take your suggestions.
2) I decided to buy myself LASIK so these peeps can see the world a little more clearly with less corrective lenses.

Here's me enjoying the two best presents money bought me this year!

DRINKING FOUNTAINS

I had a fantastic summer in Czech. I got to hang with my Czech family, visit my Plzen branch members, tour around 11 countries in Europe, and partake of plentiful amounts of chocolate, cheese, sausage, and dumplings.

Upon arriving in the Atlanta airport (where I spent over 9 of my 30 hours of travel to get back home to SLC) I was reminded of something I am very grateful for: drinking fountains! And drinking fountains with cool, no gas, clean, free, drinkable water. I've missed you.

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, & WALES...OH MY!

So during my free week I took the 16 hour bus ride from Plzen to London (with a stop in Brussles for some Belgian waffles). After my arrival, I picked up my 7 day Brit Explorer hobo pass that allowed me to hop on any National Express bus within the UK at any time without a ticket reservation.

My first stop was in Oxford where I got to see my old pal Kristy from high school and meet her husband Miles (thankfully they let me stay an extra night at their cottage the 1 time the bus schedule didn't work out).

I then went on to see Bath (with Jane Austin girly stuff), Oxford again (pretty schools), Bristol (lots of Indian stuff and shopping), Cardiff Wales (home of the Welsh love spoon), Cambridge (more pretty schools), and stopped in Manchester (average soup but a lovely ferris wheel) where I met my friend Marc.

Marc and I continued on to Liverpool (new friends in the cavern with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields just around the corner), The Lake District: Kendal (home of mint cakes that aren't really cakes)/ Windermere (where I experienced fish & chips with mushy peas with gravy for the first time at the Little Chippy)/ Bowness (sitting by the bay with the largest swans I've ever seen in my life), Lancaster (no thanks), Morecombe (boats with no water, 2 star resorts, and very interesting people), and Preston (pizza hut buffet...need I say more?!).

The next day Marc and I talked the front desk workers at the local Travelodge into a free birthday breakfast and bottle of shampoo before heading to Nottingham (where we hung out with Robin Hood and ate many pasty from Gregg's).

Marc left and I continued on my journey through Conventry and Leicester to Birmingham (chips & curry) and then took a bus overnight to Edinburgh Scotland with a short detour to Glasgow. I got to be part of the Edinburgh Festival, hang with Braveheart, eat haggis/neeps/and tatties, and see lots of men in plaid kilts.

After that, I headed back to London on the overnight bus, had breakfast with the Queen outside Buckingham Palace, and then boarded my bus with the all-too-familiar smelly Czech friends back to Plzen.

SMACK BOTTOMS

I was thinking of inventing a game that teaches children good morals and builds character. You know, one that wouldn't contribute to "wasting their time" and will make them good members of society.
I've got it! Maybe I can put up two life-size twistable torsos and have them spank the booty as a music video starring Britney Spears plays in the background. I'll include in-depth instructions on how to twist and slap just the right way. That's it! And I will call it Smack Bottoms!
Was that thought really going through someones head as this console was designed?!

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

My Czech family is going to some super posh resort in Spain for one week starting this Sunday. I'm not going because it's too expensive to take me. I was a little bit sad until I checked the Student Agency bus services and booked a ride to London. Then tonight I phoned national express to buy a 7-day hobo pass to get around the UK (yeah I'm hoping to hit England, Scotland, and Wales) and I swear it sounded like I was talking to one of the Spice Girls...Brit power! Got me excited. I heart English boys!

BIRTHDAY WISH

I forgot my birthday is coming up. Hard to believe huh, since I love celebrating birthdays so much. So, what do I want...well, besides a plane ticket to a new continent I've yet to step foot on or any of the items listed here, I kinda really love this:

hand-made with real license plates from Aaron Foster
But since it costs $3900, I'll settle for this one on canvas for a price of $39.99. It combines two things I love: my America and art.

CAN'T GET ANY swedeR THAN THIS

My CZ family informed me I had a free weekend so I had 3 words on my mind: student agency bus. I grabbed my American friend Chris from the German speaking countries vylet before (the other 2 girls Jackie and Britny were headed home to Utah) and we went to visit Denmark and Sweden. After 30 hours on bus roundtrip, 6 ferry rides, and 3 currency exchanges, we had 3 days of F-U-N.

Hitting up Prague for a few hours before getting on bus #2

Our bus was on a boat...on a boat! as we left Germany.

We made sure to eat danishes, world famous Ost (cheese), and salty black licorice as we searched for the Little Mermaid, Hamlet, and Squash in Elsinor, Denmark.

We stayed with our new friend Szilvia in Sweden 1 night then hit up the town in Helsingborg for my list of Swedish treats: IKEA, swedish fish, swedish meatballs, princess cakes, and dala horses. Done and done. Back to Plzen.

FREE WEEKEND

I was told I have a free weekend while my Czech family goes to Austria to some super posh Kinderhotel. (I went last month so I'm not too heartbroken). So I decided I will hop on a student agency bus and go to Sweden, Denmark, and whatever else happens to be in between tomorrow.
Then I had someone tell me I have a travel bug. This is my response:

It's true
I want to see the world
the whole thing
all of it
green and blue parts
and the little white and yellow pieces too
every longitude and latitude line possible
I love it

PHOTO CLASS

Even if you have never taken a single photography class in your life, you should be able to take a camera, look through the view finder (or at the big digital screen), push a button, and take a decent photo.
I kinda hate to love and love to hate having other people take photos for me. I mean, if I'm at some tourist site and ask you to take a photo of me in front of something...I don't just want a photo of me...I want that something in there too.
Examples:
I think the Eiffel Tower is behind us


The most beautiful tree in SLC. Oh wait...there is a temple behind that?


Both the castle and I barely made the photo


My other favorite is getting their thumb in on the action


I know I shouldn't complain. I mean, I am the one who asked for the photo and they are doing me a favor (I think), but I try really hard to take nice photos for other people. Sometimes self-timer or long arm is a better option. I just wonder what their photos turn out like... It's good for a laugh at least.

3 GERMAN SPEAKING COUNTRIES

I spent 9 days in the Sumava forest with 2 Czech moms and 3 children who hate to love and love to hate playing with eachother. Then my new 3 American friends came on a rescue mission and picked me up. We left Borova Lada and made it through 3 German speaking countries in 3 days:

Salzburg, Austria (where we danced to the Sound of Music and Mozart, ate weinerschnitzel and Almdudler dinner with Meryl Streep, and walked the streets through the rain).

Munich, Germany (where we toured the town with men in lederhosen, went into cool churches with great organ pipes, and traveled across the green country roads to Bavaria to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle). This was my favorite city of the trip--Munich is gorgeous!

Zurich, Switzerland (where we paid for 3 pots of fondue but could only eat 1...remember to order it with no alcohol next time..., ate some stinky Swiss cheese, saw our friend Martin, and bought cuckoo clocks).

Nuremberg, Germany (where we made a 1 1/2 hour stop to eat some sausage, get scared by little kids on the street next to the castle, and stock up on Haribo before leaving Germany and heading back to Czech.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA

Not quite sure what the Constitution is, Ivanka heard us practicing this in the garden and called down from the balcony asking, "Is this really necessary for him to learn?" Well, after watching this video clip I think you will agree that it was absolutely necessary!

(yes, that's the Preamble...4 year old little Willy style)
This July 4, I may not be IN America, but I am still definitely OF America.

I DO NOT INTERNET DATE

For months, my dad joked about signing me up on eHarmony.com so he can marry me off since I haven't done it on my own. Funny...kinda. All of the sudden, I have started getting a lot of emails from that site (that I do not open I just delete). Is my father a jokester or is God trying to tell me something?
PS I do NOT internet date!

ANIMAL SOUNDS

Did you know, just like humans, animals in different countries speak different languages? Check the differences between American animals and those living in the Czech Republic:
Bird
A- tweet tweet
C- pip pip

Cat
A- meow
C- mnau

Dog
A- woof woof
C- haf haf

Pig
A- oink oink
C- chro chro

Frog
A- ribbit ribbit
C- kvack kvack

Duck
A-quack quack
C- taj taj

Cow
A- moo
C- bu
Yeah...so apparently, a cow says bu and a ghost says mu and an owl says hu and when you want to scare someone you don't jump out and say "Boo!" (because that is what a cow says) you say "baf!" I'm so confused.

ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SIGN

My absolute favorite sign that summer is approaching is Chaco tan lines on my feet.

POSTFONTAINE

Once upon a time, these guys helped me have a fun summer. So I thought I'd return the favor and add a link on my right hand side for their blog. Postfontaine: your guide for a COMPLETE LISTING OF UPCOMING SHOWS in the Salt Lake area (cap letters are your cue to click on it to go to the official website).
PS there's a pretty sweet line-up for the upcoming months...and a link on the blog to get 10% off coupons at Bastille for all of your tasteful shopping needs.

NEW IN TOWN

Last night, I went to the Plzen Plaza to see the movie New in Town. I'm not the biggest Renee Zellweger fan but I liked this movie because:
1. Renee's character Lucy had an amazing wardrobe (love that plaid coat and her heels).
2. Harry Connick, Jr...enough said.
3. It played in English and had CZ subtitles so there were certain parts where I was the only one in the theater laughing because you can't really translate the joke and have it be as funny. Examples:
Blanche is giving hints to the ingredients of her tapioca pudding and says it's mostly something and whey. Another lady says, "No way!" and Blanche responds with, "Yes, whey!" And then there is the sign in the background at the cafe towards the end that reads Fish Fry Fri. I love the English language!
4. I often feel the way Lucy felt towards the factory workers in her little Minnesota town, dontcha know. I just love and appreciate people and new places for their uniqueness. Every time I travel I fall in love with the area and leave a little piece of my heart there. (Tulsa...little piece, Ireland...little piece, Utah and California...kind of a bigger piece, Czech...little piece, Mexico...little piece, and so forth.)
Which reminds me of an awesome quote that was shared with me by my friend LaRee from St. Augustine that says: "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” Followed up by a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”

Enough sappy talk--go see the movie.

LESSON: LEARNED

I have this strange habit of picking up cameras whenever I see them lying around or even taking someone's camera who has asked me to take a photo for them and sneaking a shot of myself while they get ready/nobody is looking (yes, even on stranger's cameras). I guess I think it's funny. And, well, it pretty much is...until the photos get posted and I get caught with snaps like these:

Lesson: learned...for at least a day or two.

ONE SUGGESTION

So, maybe you smoke. It is indeed a bad habit (and we all have those) but whatver..it's your choice. I just have one suggestion:
DON'T STAND IN A CROWD OF PEOPLE AND BLOW YOUR SMOKE IN THE FACES OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T SMOKE.
It's disgusting and incredibly selfish and rude! Just had to get that off my chest since Czech is listed in the top 10 countries that consume the most cigarettes per capita.

DEUTSCHLAND

I had a day off yesterday, so my Czech pal Martin and I jumped on a train and had a super fun day in Germany visiting Amberg and Regensburg. While there I decided two things:
1)I've become sort of a gummi bear snob and will forever most likely only buy Haribo gummi bears (Haribo macht kinder froh und erwachsene ebenso...kids and grown-ups love it so) and
2)I'd much rather listen to people speak/read German and not understand it than listen to people speak/read Czech.
Deutchland...love that country and everything in it!

CARLSBAD

...and I'm not talking about California. Here the city is called Karlovy Vary and has a great history:

It is said that Charles IV went hunting in the woods. During the hunt, one of the hounds started to run after an animal. The hound fell into a pool where hot water does now burst from the ground. The hound began to howl so the hunters ran to the him. The marvel which they saw amazed them greatly. They stepped closer, pulled the hound from the pool, and then tasted of the hot water which had fallen in.

The event was reported to the Emperor Charles IV, who then went to marvel at this singular wonder of nature. In the presence of his physicians, the wise ruler said that such hot water may drive off many grave ailments, and that it was beneficial and invigorating. Then he himself used the water (it is said that he had an afflicted leg), and sensed assuagement and improvement. The ruler was overjoyed at this, and soon gave orders that the whole place be settled, and that around the springs, houses be built.

Today, locals go to drink the water from the springs to be healed and tourists mix the waters causing them to get diarrhea. I went yesterday with the local American missionaries and we drank the waters from our special cups.
deanna: 2
healing waters causing diarrhea: 0

BIGGEST PRESENT

For her birthday, Ivana said size matters for presents and she wanted lots of them. So, Milan and William did as directed and brought her home a 14 foot birthday trampoline. Judging by her face, I'm not quite sure this is what she meant or how she wanted to spend her time as we assembled the thing during her garden birthday BBQ. But good news is everyone else loves it!

DEAR UTAH FRIENDS,

Click here! Go to this!

Free fun for the whole family...or with friends. June 16. There is also a schedule of other cities on the tour stop for my non Utah friends. Come on ride that train!

BOOGER EATER

So picking your nose is gross...whatever. But picking your nose AND eating it completely disgusts me. I was NEVER a booger eater! I remember thinking one time when I was little: OK I'll do it so I know what all the hype is about...but, alas, I stared at the booger on my finger and couldn't bring myself to do it (I chickened out). Nope. Never. Eating boogers IS disgusting. End of story.

I DON'T WILL BE NEEDING YOU

I know what you're thinking...deanna, you were brought to the Czech Republic to share your English speaking skills, but sometimes when I hear the words "I don't will be needing you today," I just get so happy I don't want to hear it the correct way.

Otherwise, if I didn't have my free time, I wouldn't be able to give turtles high-fives, pose like a flamingo at the zoo, dance the pants off the czechs, see the sights, and other various bomba vylets.

OFFER THEIR SEAT

People in Czech will push you with their cart in line at the grocery store, be all up in your business when you are struggling with money to pay for things, and rush you to get on or off the train/bus/whatever. However, if an older person or a lady enters the tram, younger people and men will get up to offer their seat to them. I enjoy it every time I see it.