Thursday, July 30, 2009
Dedicated to Ariana Sikuvea
My sister and her husband had another baby today. Yes, he's 10 pounds and some change. They've decided to name him Monaco. Because he's big and Ari's had a hard pregnancy, I've decided to dedicate this blog post to her. Congratulations Ari! Love and Miss ya...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Empty Plate Syndrome
Today I had a battle. I was by myself eating lunch and my stomach was telling me "you're full, no more! no more!" And, I still had food left on my plate. I know, any normal person would've just packed up and thrown the rest in the rubbish. However, I have the dreaded "empty plate syndrome" (I don't think that it's contagious, so don't worry). For those of you who need it, I found this definition and I thought it was pretty amusing:
My mother introduced me to the term "empty plate syndrome" when I was younger. I think I sorta laughed it off at the time and I remembered it today during my 'battle.' Anyway, I guess I'm just writing about it now to admit to you all that I have this 'syndrome' and I'm working on it (because we all know that I need as much help as I can get). Closet EPS's place your comments below.
A big diet handicap affecting many dieters, clean plate syndrome (or empty plate syndrome) is characterized by an extreme reluctance to waste food. Given present day restaurant portion-sizes, this tendency to eat the plate clean can easily cause
weight gain. If you want to lose weight, a good antidote is to serve smaller helpings. And remember: your body is not a trash can you can empty at will. All
excess calories are stored as body fat.
My mother introduced me to the term "empty plate syndrome" when I was younger. I think I sorta laughed it off at the time and I remembered it today during my 'battle.' Anyway, I guess I'm just writing about it now to admit to you all that I have this 'syndrome' and I'm working on it (because we all know that I need as much help as I can get). Closet EPS's place your comments below.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Amish People
This weekend has been a blast! And, I have loved spending time with these people:
But, while we were out and about in Philly, we had a Cheesesteak sandwich AND the best lemonade ever. The lemonade was made by one or more Amish people. In fact, the man who sold it to me was Amish.
Tanner Clark, a friend from BYU who is studying Dentistry at Temple University, took us on a wild tour of Philly and we ended up at Reading Terminal Market. Probably one of the best market places I've ever been too. This fact is partly to do with all the Amish people cooking and serving food. I wanted to stare at them all day and take photos of them. However, I was a bit too embarrassed to ask...me, embarrassed? Yup.
So, I didn't get any photos of the Amish at Reading Terminal Market, however, I did want to dedicate this post to the Amish people of America--especially the ones who made my lemonade.
But, while we were out and about in Philly, we had a Cheesesteak sandwich AND the best lemonade ever. The lemonade was made by one or more Amish people. In fact, the man who sold it to me was Amish.
Tanner Clark, a friend from BYU who is studying Dentistry at Temple University, took us on a wild tour of Philly and we ended up at Reading Terminal Market. Probably one of the best market places I've ever been too. This fact is partly to do with all the Amish people cooking and serving food. I wanted to stare at them all day and take photos of them. However, I was a bit too embarrassed to ask...me, embarrassed? Yup.
So, I didn't get any photos of the Amish at Reading Terminal Market, however, I did want to dedicate this post to the Amish people of America--especially the ones who made my lemonade.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Too much goodness.
Some of you may or may not be aware that Bethany and Cindy came to visit last weekend. We just had a little blast. It was madness and good to catch up after all these months. Then, yesterday in fact, Mindy and Mike arrived for some good times this weekend. Mike is staying at my house actually. Also, we've all decided to head out to Philly for a bit of fun this weekend (Note: I was going to be singing in church this weekend, but I got bumped because this girl is leaving and this Sunday is her last day. Needless to say, now I'm singing on my last Sunday, August 16th. All good. It freed up this weekend).
All in all, I feel like I've had the most random visitors come out and spend time this summer in D.C. Not that they've come just to see me, I know that's not the case, but their visit has definitely lifted my spirits. So, I decided that, when all is said and done, I'm going to make a little collage of people that have come to D.C. and post it onto my blog. Stay tuned. It's going to be awesome.
P.S. Remember how I booked an earlier flight out of Washington, D.C. Now I get back to the mother-state (aka UT) on August 18th. Yeehaaa!
All in all, I feel like I've had the most random visitors come out and spend time this summer in D.C. Not that they've come just to see me, I know that's not the case, but their visit has definitely lifted my spirits. So, I decided that, when all is said and done, I'm going to make a little collage of people that have come to D.C. and post it onto my blog. Stay tuned. It's going to be awesome.
P.S. Remember how I booked an earlier flight out of Washington, D.C. Now I get back to the mother-state (aka UT) on August 18th. Yeehaaa!
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Future Ambassador, the HUD Secretary and the Speaker
Look, I know that you're all getting sick of me posting about who I've met or seen or heard...but I think that's what you get for reading my blog. On average, about 20 different people everyday skim over my blog (I'm not assuming this, my Google report tells me so). Although most people must do so to look at mutual friends blogs that have updated, I've got to hope that at least one or two of you want to know something unique about my life. And, the reason why I mention it is not to say, "Neener neener" it's only to get it out of my system. As many of you know, I get really excited easily. I never thought that I would ever meet these people...that's a big part of the excitement.
First of all, Jon Huntsman was really nice. I was running late (cough) trying to get to the intern lecture series. I get out of the elevator in the Dirksen (1st floor on my way to the Hart) and bam! There he is. I stuck out my hand and said,
THEN...I randomly snapped a glimpse of your favorite girl, Nancy Pelosi, as I was touring around National Statuary Hall in the Capitol (For those of you who don't know my political persuasion, Nancy is not my favorite girl. But, she's the speaker, and if America ran the same sort of political system as New Zealand. She'd be the Primeminister aka in-charge). National Statuary Hall, as you know, is the old House of Representatives room on the House side of the Capitol Complex.
Anyway, that's that. Yesterday I saw a number of different Senators just chilling around. But, that's not out of the ordinary these days.
First of all, Jon Huntsman was really nice. I was running late (cough) trying to get to the intern lecture series. I get out of the elevator in the Dirksen (1st floor on my way to the Hart) and bam! There he is. I stuck out my hand and said,
"Governor Huntsman! I'm a BYU student."Pretty funny right? Then I got to shake hands with the HUD secretary as he was entering into the lecture. The two other guys I was with were introducing themselves (they are staff assistants in the House and Senate Rules/Administration Committees) with their roles. So, naturally, I was like, "I'm just an intern." Secretary Donovan laughed.
"Great. What brings you out here?"
"I'm interning with Senator Bennett."
"Good. Good."
"Wow, it's not everyday you meet the Governor."
"Go tell them how good it was!"
(insert laughter by me, him, and his entourage)
THEN...I randomly snapped a glimpse of your favorite girl, Nancy Pelosi, as I was touring around National Statuary Hall in the Capitol (For those of you who don't know my political persuasion, Nancy is not my favorite girl. But, she's the speaker, and if America ran the same sort of political system as New Zealand. She'd be the Primeminister aka in-charge). National Statuary Hall, as you know, is the old House of Representatives room on the House side of the Capitol Complex.
Anyway, that's that. Yesterday I saw a number of different Senators just chilling around. But, that's not out of the ordinary these days.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Secretary Gates comes to the Capitol
In case you wanted to know, I respect the Secretary of Defense. He's pretty much the man. Today he came to the Capitol to speak to the interns; after some short introductory remarks, he answered questions for about 45minutes. While he was there, I was assigned to run a microphone around the room. No, I didn't meet him "officially" (whatever that means). Ha ha. It was good.
And just so you know, I am the worst "bouncer" ever. For 15 minutes before Gates arrived, I was in-charge of keeping the interns out of the back door (aka they would try to come in the wrong door). I pretty much let in anyone who pleaded with me for more than 5 minutes (about 6-8 people). I know, it's bad. But, I felt better about myself and now I have some more friends.
And just so you know, I am the worst "bouncer" ever. For 15 minutes before Gates arrived, I was in-charge of keeping the interns out of the back door (aka they would try to come in the wrong door). I pretty much let in anyone who pleaded with me for more than 5 minutes (about 6-8 people). I know, it's bad. But, I felt better about myself and now I have some more friends.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tribute to family memories...
I don't know why, but recently I remembered a bunch of different family memories. Today (about two minutes ago actually), I spoke to both my mother and my father on Skype. We talked about some random experiences that I remember as a child, and some home videos they made when our family was younger.
What I wouldn't give to look at some of those videos again--Dad said he was looking into a VCR-DVD recorder. Also, I'd probably like some of you to see that I was cute, at one point in my life. Needless to say, we all had a good laugh about it. Regarding my siblings, let's just say that some things never change. I think that's the most diplomatic thing to say. Ha ha. I guess you have to be there.
This pic is on my Facebook. It's actually a seven year old photo of the last family portrait we took.
What I wouldn't give to look at some of those videos again--Dad said he was looking into a VCR-DVD recorder. Also, I'd probably like some of you to see that I was cute, at one point in my life. Needless to say, we all had a good laugh about it. Regarding my siblings, let's just say that some things never change. I think that's the most diplomatic thing to say. Ha ha. I guess you have to be there.
This pic is on my Facebook. It's actually a seven year old photo of the last family portrait we took.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Georgetown cupcake.
Some of you may or may not be aware that I have two middle names: "Paora" which is Maori for "Paul" and "George" which is English for "Hori." Anyway, I'll use that random fact as a bad way of introducing "Georgetown" in Washington, DC. Ta dah!
Georgetown was founded in 1751, predating the establishment of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia. Georgetown is located along the banks of the Potomac river and is home to an old Jesuit university called, Georgetown University. The oldest standing building in Washington, "the Old Stone House," is located in Georgetown; as well as the embassies of France, Mongolia, Sweden, Thailand, Venezuela, and Ukraine.
Most recently, Georgetown featured in "Throw down with Bobby Flay" from the Food Network, where he visited "Georgetown Cupcake." Anyway, I ended up meeting Tommy and Emily there--unaware of Bobby's recent appearance--and stood in line for cupcakes from this place. I purchased two: Red Velvet and Chocolate squared. The red velvet cupcake was amazing. The chocolate squared cup cake was like eating raw cocoa. However, both were worth the 10 minute wait, I reckon.
Georgetown was founded in 1751, predating the establishment of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia. Georgetown is located along the banks of the Potomac river and is home to an old Jesuit university called, Georgetown University. The oldest standing building in Washington, "the Old Stone House," is located in Georgetown; as well as the embassies of France, Mongolia, Sweden, Thailand, Venezuela, and Ukraine.
Most recently, Georgetown featured in "Throw down with Bobby Flay" from the Food Network, where he visited "Georgetown Cupcake." Anyway, I ended up meeting Tommy and Emily there--unaware of Bobby's recent appearance--and stood in line for cupcakes from this place. I purchased two: Red Velvet and Chocolate squared. The red velvet cupcake was amazing. The chocolate squared cup cake was like eating raw cocoa. However, both were worth the 10 minute wait, I reckon.
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