Family in Town

It is so great having all these people I love so close together! My grandparents and Lesley and Scott and Ian are in town. It is so fun to see them all.
My grandparents are sooo funny (an example: my dear, sweet grandma, who likes--quote-- "shoot 'em up novels, spy novels, and books where people carry at least two guns and a knife." And my grandpa, who teases that the Crystal Light packets he's been putting in his drinks are "sex powder". There is no one like my grandparents.)
Also, it is fun to spend time with my nephew Ian, because he is so cute, and of course, I like Lesley and Scott because they brought Ian (okay, and I like them for other reasons too).
We all went to church together today because Dad and I are in a choir together that is touring the local wards (not like we're famous, we're just touring the wards of choir members). I got to see a few old friends today who were home visiting their parents. I saw Stephanie LeFevre, Joe Strickland, Tori and JJ Bell, and a few other friends who have moved back to the area and live here permanently.
After singing in my parents' ward, Jason and I went back to our ward to teach our Sunday School class of Sunbeams (the 4 year-olds). Our ward has a crazy tradition of combining the kids Sunday School classes with another ward the Sunday before Christmas. This meant we had 16 4-year-olds, to keep an eye on for 2 hours. Luckily we had another couple to help us this week. The kids were actually very good, all things considered. We taught a simple lesson about the birth of Jesus, using our little nativity set from Italy. The kids were so into it. And why not? It's a great story, with a baby, a mom, a bad king, some farm animals, and God. So cool. I love Christmas!

Also New: Allison's Recipes

Yes, it's true! Allison's Recipes, a creatively titled new blog, is available for your consumption! It's full of wittily titled recipes, like "3 Bean Salad". Hahaha, oh, that was a good one.
Okay, so it's not funny. But it is a site of all the recipes my friends and family ask me for frequently, as well as family recipes, and even some recipes I'd like to try, but haven't yet. You can find the link to the site in the sidebar, under "Blogs I Love".
If you have an Ogden, Buchmiller, Searles, Huff, Brown, or Avilla recipe you'd like to submit, e-mail me.
Also, I got my grades back for last semester--A's in Nutrition, Political Science, and Weightlifting, and a B in Math. I am very pleased.

New: A Slideshow!

Jason and I just added a slideshow of pictures from our Italy trip. (If you would like to see the pictures in a larger format, I think you can just click on them, and it will take you to Flickr.) We are planning an evening to remenisce about Italy while Scott and Lesley are here for Christmas, so we are thinking about our memories a lot. It is also almost the time of year that we took our trip. We are so excited--we have set out the tiny nativity set that we bought in Rome, and got out our two little Bufanas (Bufana is the Italian Christmas witch, for those of you who don't know).

Mmm...Indian Food

I wanted to write a review for a local Indian restaurant. It's an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a while now. But I just got an e-mail from my friend Joyce John that made me want to get around to reviewing it today.
That's because Joyce was the one who introduced me to my all-time favorite Indian/Pakistani restaurant: Naan'n'Curry in Berkeley. That is also where I got to know naan--a delicious bread that kind of looks like a gordito. (You know, those thick tortillas that Taco Bell made up?)
They have the best naan. But the closest Naan'n'Curry is about 20 minutes away in Berkeley, so it's not convenient for a quick fix.
Jason and I had been eyeing this new Indian restaurant about 3 miles from our house, called Monsoon Masala. We went there for date night about 3 weeks ago, and Oh my goodness! It was amazing. Even their naan was comparably pillowy. Also, the restaurant itself is a beautiful place (check the website for pictures, reviews, a menu, and lots of other fun stuff.)http://www.monsoonmasala.com/
I'm thinking that when the Larsons come up for Christmas (that's my sister Lelsey's married name, for those behind on their Ogden family trivia) I'd like to get them to go with us. I always think of Indian food when I think of the Larsons because I know Scott's family enjoys it. And actually, I think about Indian food whenever I can.

And another one bites the dust!

I have successfully completed a week at Clear Ink. I have already slipped back into a programmer's way of thinking.

Everyone has been extremely nice and it is going to take some adjustment. I am a member of the technologists' team. We reside in the back of the office, in a very dark area that I refer to fondly as "the cave".

I was planning on using Windows as my work machine's OS, but everyone else on the team is using Linux, so I figured when in Rome... I have to admit, Linux has made huge strides in progression since I seriously played with it last. The interface is snappy, fairly intuitive, and pretty customizable. However, it still took me (and the help of three people) over two days to get the hardware up and running correctly.

But.... we have the coolest chairs. Aeron Chairs - they are extremely expensive chairs. I am pretty sure Clear Ink bought them off a failing dotcom. I think the base price is about $750 per chair. I am telling you, they are the best and absolutely customizable to make it the PERFECT fit for you. I need to save up for about a decade before I can bring myself to buy one - but they are oh so worth it.

I am learning an interface called Free Energy, written by my boss, Leon Atkinson. The very simple website is here. It is incredibly powerful - very similar to other PHP frameworks like Cake, Zend, etc. but extremely customized for the things that Clear Ink creates and maintains. There is a feature that I learned about on Friday that alone would of saved me about a month of real life programming time if I had it back when I was programming for Impression Design.

At work, I have Michelle who helps me with the hardware/user requests, and Eddie has been helping me with all the programming and server locations. Leon patches me in on what client does what. It is like trying to bottle a tornado with the amount of information that is tossed to me. I got a request in on Wednesday that needed an update done exactly at 11 AM. Eddie was at Autodesk, Michelle was out sick, and Leon was at Sun Microsystems. I got the request done, but let me tell you, it was a wee bit stressful.

On Friday, we also had Clear Ink's Christmas party. They basically rented out a restaurant in Berkeley named De La Paz - with an open bar, great food, and a very fun band. Unfortunately I caught a fairly serious cold and was so doped up on DayQuil that I didn't think I would be able to stay awake during the day while at work. I came home to pick up Allison and we had an enjoyable time. I felt like I was about 6 bottles of beer into a good buzz with all the decongestants but I was even able to dance I think a few times with my lovely wife.

Techie Help

For those of you who have experience with site meters, I signed up at site meter.com, but can't figure out how to get it actually onto my site. If that's what I'm supposed to be doing. A little help here?

Just Checking In

I like to post every couple of days, because I get so disappointed when I check other people's blogs, and they haven't updated recently (Lesley. Just a hint.)
So even though I'm busy studying for finals, I wanted to post and let you all know that I'm doing swimmingly. And a little bit tired. I procrastinated my two make-ups for my weightlifting class, and since today was my last day of class, I had to do them both within 12 hours of each other: one from 7-8 pm last night, and one at 8 am this morning. Then my actual class at 10 am. That is a LOT of weightlifting!
Studying isn't going too badly. I'm lucky enough to have an open-book Nutrition final, if you can believe that. I have no final in my PE class. But I have a lot to study for my math class (how soon I forget!) and I have to find out all about Nigeria and it's prospects for a Liberal or Leninist society by Tuesday for Political Science. It's one of those in-class essay finals, which I've done well at before. Assuming I know the least bit about my subject. Which I don't. Yet.
Wish me luck!

Allison Is the Most Glamourous Wife in the World

(Okay, this isn't from her haircut, but I like the picture of her striking a pose in Florence, Italy)

Here are some shots of her haircut.

Smoky Cheese Pizza With Artichokes and Mushrooms

(For you fortunate ones, all the ingredients can be found at Trader Joe's)
Ingredients

2 ounces of Oak-Smoked English Cheddar (it's $10/lb, but you don't need much, and the leftovers are great mixed with jack cheese to top casseroles)
2 packages refrigerated pizza dough
5 Tablespoons of bottled Artichoke Antipasto Spread
5 or 6 whole cremini mushrooms

Roll out each bag of pizza dough on a floured surface until ½ inch thick, to make two pizzas. Begin preheating the oven to 450 degrees.
Place on a cookie sheet.
Spread dough rounds with artichoke spread.
Slice the mushrooms and sprinkle them on top of the spread.
Slice the cheese into about 1/8 inch slices, and cover the pizza with them.
Bake in a 450 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese bubbles.

Makes 2 personal-size pizzas. Also can be baked on a barbeque grill for a truly sublime, crispy crust. I'm tellin' you, this is the best pizza I've ever had.

The New 'Do

Okay, these pictures aren't me. But you knew that, didn't you?

I considered a lot of hairstyles before hitting the salon yesterday. Some were very different from what I have now.
But I eventually settled on something a lot tamer, after deciding that I'd like to keep my long hair for a while.

I did take some pictures of my new hairstyle, but I will have to wait until Jason can put them on the computer--I don't know how.