BONO HAS STILL GOT IT

I must preface this blog by telling you that U2 is my favorite band.  Ever.  Other "favorite" bands come and go, but every time I hear Bono's lucious voice I can't help but start belting out the song right along with him.  I think the love started during drives with my mom, then as motivation during long swim and track meets, and now Zach is a total enabler of my U2 craze.  So, last June when we found out that U2 was coming to Salt Lake City in May we bought tickets first and asked questions later.  It was pricey, but it was worth it.  So was the eight hour drive there and back from Boulder and working the weekend to make up for missing two days in the middle of the week. 

The structure of the concert left me in awe.  The spidery looking thing was higher than the stadium with a 360 screen going around the whole thing.  Lights were everywhere, including the biggest disco ball I have ever seen on top.



The age of the average concert attendee there was probably about 37, and that's because U2 has been really good for a really long time.  I'm all for older fans, but they sure did give us strange looks when we started whooping and hollering and jumping up and down during the songs.  We did it anyway.

Please forgive our amateur camera skills.  And if you think that Bono's voice is a little "off", it's probably because the camera is picking up the nice man singing loud and proud next to us.  There was one 40-something year-old that was willing to share his musical talent.

The 360 screen was amazing.  It was made of hundreds of LED screens and would expand and contract and light up like crazy.  I was inspired.

In conclusion, this was pretty much the best concert ever.  Bono has definitely still got it.

FARMERS MARKET FANATICS

The best part about living with hippies is the huge diversity of food that goes along with them.  Our new favorite Saturday activity is the Boulder weekly Farmers Market where we never fail to overspend our $10 budget.   Our first purchase (aside from a $2.50 tomatoe- so not worth it) was a huge bag of "completely organic" salad.  So organic in fact, that when Zach washed our first bunch he pulled out a very unique leaf.  Luckily a quick internet search confirmed that morning glory is not poisonous.

Zach: Yes, most of the leaves in the salads we eat I have no idea what they are.  It could easily be lawn clippings of whatever strange plants these people pass on their way to the market.  But we eat them anyway.

We're posting this next picture to make you jealous.  And to give you incentive to visit.  Who can resist authentic hippie lamb gyros?  And potstickers?  And tamales? And German pastries?

In a few weeks we'll be doing the "Boulder Experience" which entails going full out vegan for a week, stepping it back to vegetarian, and then pigging out on ribs.  If anyone has any good vegan recipes please pass them on.  I'm at a loss on how to cook without milk or cheese!

Zach: Who would win between all the vegans in the world and the carnivorous humans?  I would side on the meat eaters, mostly because I think vegans are sissies.  But then again, I don't know many vegans.

VEGAN CAROB CHIPS, ANYONE?

So last week I made the mistake of letting Zach do the blog, and just my luck- it tapped his inner creative side and he loved it.  How many other wives have to compete with their husbands to write their blogs?  Of course, when I was convincing him to start it it was a "we" thing, but that was before I knew that he'd actually WANT to post.  Control is a hard thing to relinquish.  But obviously this is a chance to "build our marriage relationship", so we'll be tag-teaming this one.

For those that need catching up, we're in Boulder, Colorado for the summer for our internships.  I'm working at the University of Colorado at Boulder (try chanting THAT one at football games) in their Facilities Management Offices, charged with the task of "saving the world" (direct quote from my boss).  Zach has managed to avoid the 8.2 million medical marijuana "pharmacies" and is interning at one that actually distributes medicince (Walgreens). 


This is Folsom Stadium, where my offices are located.  Have you ever seen such a beautiful sports arena?



To give you some perspective on size, that's me by my office doors.

The only way I can describe our new apartment in the University of Boulder's Family Housing is as "an adventure."  It begins with an elevator that I am sure is part of the original 1965 building that will take you up to the 5.25th floor and then, after the doors open, will drop down to the 5th floor.  The apartment itself is similar to our Wymount home, complete with lack of air-conditioning, no dishwasher, and cinder-block walls.  It also adds its own little flairs such as an all tile floor, suspended pipes along the ceiling, and a magical shower whose knob combinations never produce the same temperature twice.   Zach: Actually, the problem is its propensity to produce ONLY the same two temperatures: scalding hot or penguin cold.  (Clarissa has given me permission to edit with impunity, heheh.)

Our favorite apartment feature is the bathroom door, which we made the mistake of closing on one of our first mornings here.  Zach watched my struggle to exit with amusement for a few minutes before gathering his manliness to aid his damsel in distress. Soon all manliness was replaced with fierce gorilla strength as he bowed the door in with his efforts.  After many grunts from Zach and creaks from the door we learned that you have to push down and in before pulling out.  The poor missionary that came to our place for dinner tonight was stuck for quite a few minutes before we realized his plight.

What the apartment lacks in aesthetic appeal or utility is definitely made up for by surrounding Boulder.  We're lucky to have a beautiful trail running along Boulder Creek directly behind our complex that leads out the plains in one direction and up the canyon in the other.

I can take the trail straight to work at the University, which consequently, is the most beautiful campus I have ever been on because all the buildings follow very strict architectural guidelines, which unlike BYU, gives it an extremely nice uniform look.



Zach's guess on where we'll serve our Senior Couple mission



If you come across a huggable globe...



and of course, this being Boulder, all the trash receptacles include "the right choice" in close proximity.

All in all, we're enjoying our new home and look forward to sharing our hippie experience with you this summer.

JUDKINS VS. SIN CITY

Clarissa is taking a break from the blog, giving me, Zach, a chance to post.  Mind you, this is not something I'm used to doing.  As I told Clarissa, a blog should be functional.  People only read blogs if they are functional, have groundbreaking news, scandal, or if there are cute child photos laying around the site.  We don't really have any of that, or at least none to share (granted, cute photos of our child laying around would constitute one of the other reasons for reading a blog, two for one type thing), so I gave this blog post an exciting name.  Enjoy.

So Clarissa and I ran down to the City of Sin this last week to stay with her awesome cousin, Anthon and his marvelous wife Melissa. We completed the 6 hour drive down there to find it has seriously cleaned up of alot of the junk and low class promotions that are typically all over the bill-boards on the way into the city (the strip was not as clean-swept, there were some huge billboards hawking David Blaine in front of the MGM...).  The first thing Anthon had us do once we arrived is take the grand tour of the strip's main casino/hotels, and check out the Bellagio fountains.  Considering this was the first time that either Clarissa or I had been to Las Vegas in over 5 years, I decided to lay on the love.  Happy early Mother's Day, Clarissa!

In our epic fight against Sin City, we armed ourselves with a trip to the Las Vegas temple the next morning before hitting up the strip again.  Tragically, we just missed Marie Osmond getting married later that day.  Near brush with celebrity ruined.

To give you some idea of the photos that come next, I have to let you know something about the Judkins.  We vacation/travel with our stomachs.  Unless we ate it, we weren't really there.  So, now we can continue onto picture #3. 

This is our breakfast/lunch at a little place off the strip called "Hash House a Go Go".  And yes, your eyes do not deceive you.  Following a recommendation from the show "Man vs Food", this plate you see here is 4 waffles, with BACON FRIED INTO THE WAFFLES, two huge breaded chicken breasts topped with fried green onions and teriyaki sauce.  It was good.  The pancake there is a coconut mango pancake, also so delicious it could easily be legal only in certain parts of Vegas.

After this, we decided that the only thing you should do after eating a massive meal like that is to go do the rides on top of the Stratosphere (sorry, we don't have any pictures of us on the rides, but we went on them, honest).  Even though I was glad we stopped spinning super fast over the edge of the building before I lost some coconut mango over the better part of Vegas, I would highly recommend the stratosphere as a vacation stop for those going to Vegas, especially the big shot ride (it was super fun).

Next, continuing on the vein of "we vacation with our bellies", we made our way all the way through the strip until we got to M&M world LV, and World of Coca-Cola.  At the World of Coca-Cola, we tried 16 coke products from around the world.  Almost all of them were super good, but can you guess which weren't?  Man, those Italians...

We finished the day off with some of the best sushi in the world, at Henderson's "I Love Sushi" (this has the distinction of having some of the most unique sushi names in the business, examples including "Shouldn't Have Kissed My Ex" and the "Screaming _ _ _ _..."  you can look it up if you want, but I'm leaving it blank for the kids; good sushi though.). 

Finally we headed back to the strip to have desert at Max Brenners.  (Clarissa could probably do an entire blog about this alone, she is a chocolate lover)

Well, we're in Colorado now, but that will have to be another blog.  In the end, the Judkins survived Sin City; and may I say, conquered.