Me and Dee

I know I haven't posted in almost a year, but that year has been pretty eventful. If you don't know about it then you shouldn't be reading this blog. My sister-in-law Louise is in the Phillipeans (no idea how to spell that) teaching English in the Peace Corp. She wants me to have a blog about Dee and me, so here it is.

I'm only going to post some things that I think are exciting. Because day to day life has already been updated with everyone that matters.

Exciting thing this weekend... Halloween, ASL retreat, Chili cook-off! I am totally going to win. Dee is using my recipie for chili con karen at his work too, but because he is a chef he's going to change it slightly. And he is going to use Hot picante and I only ever use medium because more people are able to eat it that way so I get more votes usually. Here is the infamous recipie that apparently just won Ben's chili cookoff too:

Chili Con Karen

1 lb ground beef

2-4 pork loin chops (diced)

1 packet Chili spices and seasonings (I prefer Lawry's)

8 oz Pace picante sauce at your level of hotness

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans

Brown your ground beef and drain the fat. Add packet of spices, 1/2 c. water (sometimes I use chicken broth), tomatoes, and beans. Do not drain the tomatoes or beans. Simmer 10 min. While that is simmering in a large pot put in another 1/2 c water (or broth) and your pork. Cook the pork until done. Add picante sauce simmer 5 min. Add in beef mixture simmer 5 min. Add cheese if you want.

That is all you have to do to win cookoffs. It takes maybe 30 min at most. I'll let you know if we win or not!

Btw: If you want to learn about why I decided to become an interpreter and how to do it yourself, I just started a blog : micheASL.blogspot.com

Mountain Biking!!

I got a new Fisher Marlin GS Mountain Bike seen above. I haven't gotten to ride it yet because it is way too cold. Dee and I are going to Moab, UT for Easter with his family. We'll get to ride and camp and have general jeeping and mountain biking fun. I got the new bike, cool special biking shoes (which were half off), and I'll be getting a nice bike jersey, socks, and shorts later this week. Don't worry you'll get to see my awesomeness as soon as it is warm. Now not only do I have my yellow bike Lily for some leisurely riding and transportation, but I have a hard core mountain bike. Riding a bike is really the best feeling in the world. You get to see places you wouldn't get to see otherwise, and you get there faster and easier than if you tried walking there. I just wish I knew more trails. All of the online sites don't give you very good directions. I'll prolly go to the visitor's center to see if they have a better trail map for the canyons.

I'm trying to get into shape so I can keep up with Dee on the trail. Does anyone have any tips for getting motivated to work out?

Linguistics

Linguistics is a pretty amazing study. You can write down what people say no matter what language they are speaking. It's awesome. I can look at a speech sample and tell what they are saying by the sound wave graph. Don't you wish you were me right now? Yeah you do. Ready for some IPA?

[go bi waI ju]

sorry can't post all the characters on a blog but thats pretty much what I do for fun now. Listen to people's dialects and transcribe what they are saying. For example, Dee used a pro-predicate 'do' the other day. Typical western us English. I said "Did your roommate go to Chilie on his mission?" he said, "Could have done." I laughed and told him about pro-predicate do's. Also did you know that most Americans don't pronounce a true b? usually we really pronounce a stronger p. But its ok because its just the voiced version of a bilabial consonant. And Craig Klecker always gets mistaken as saying his name is Greg. That's because [k] and [g] are both palatal stops its just the voiced and unvoiced pair. I can also tell you when we clip the vowel [eI] as in safe vs save. Say it out loud. One is a shorter vowel but its the same one. That's because we clip it before a voiceless consonant. Now say 'caught' and 'cot'. Can you hear a difference? If there is a difference you are from the east, if there isn't you grew up in the west.

There you go. Your linguistics lesson for today.

Crazy

Life is crazy... work, school, Dee. That's what I do. Go to work 27 hrs a week at the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. Which is AWESOME! You should all visit me. Then school. I'm supposed to be writing a 2000 word research paper right now. That's all I did this term. Whip out papers the day they were due. I was thinking I would pull a research paper a la High School and just write it late into the night tonight, but then I'll be wicked tired for my two finals. So I will leave you with this thought:

Why, if everything in the church is translated into ASL, doesn't BYU, an institution run by the church, have an ASL interpreter program?

That's what my research paper is about. Getting Cecil to add ASL as a major because its a great career.

I want to ride my Bicycle!

So I am back in Utah! It is very cold and there is still some snow/ice on the ground from a snowstorm we had last week. I really wasn't expecting to come back, but for some reason... I did. So here I am in cold Provo. After I decided to go (the day before I left) I remembered that I left a very dear friend in Utah... my bike Lily! I was so excited when I remembered that and I couldn't wait to get my bike from Jesse's house. So I finally got it last Sat night and then I got it tuned and fixed on Monday, and got it back from that on Tuesday. I now ride it to and from class! It is very exciting, but very cold.

On BYU campus there is a hill southwest of campus major that is half for bikes and half for pedestrians. It is kinda steep and really fun to go down. Well Wednesday I was going down it and I was keeping my speed down, and tapping my breaks every so often so I wouldn't lose control. I had already avoided two pedestrians walking on the wrong side of the hill when all of a sudden at one of the breaks in the railing a girl on her cell phone steps out in front of me! I slammed on my brakes and almost killed myself in that process, but of course I was going downhill on a semi icy path and I couldn't stop. Luckily someone pulled her out of the way before I reached her or she or I would have died. The moral of the story is LOOK!

So I love my bike, and I love to ride it everywhere. Even when its super cold outside. The way I see it is I am in the cold for less time then if I were to walk. So there you go. I'm crazy yes, but also smart.

Christmas!

Christmas is coming. It's pretty much the best time of the year, so I'm gonna give you the top ten traditions of the Stay household....

10. Christmas Music. It's pretty much on all the time from the day after thanksgiving until Christmas Day. Never before, never after. But once the season hits, we listen to it at dinner, in the car, pretty much all the time. We love Christmas Music, and you always have to start off with Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas album.

9. Christmas Presents. We Stay children, although we fight and pick on each other non-stop, give each other presents. We rotate names cuz we don't want to buy everyone in the family a present.

8. Wooden Santa and elf. They live in our front yard until they blow down, or until my mom's birthday when we finally replace them with the clown.

7. Unfinished tree skirt. It matches the little balls, and angel for our tree. Mom never finished it and its been like that since before I was born so I figure its tradition to use the unfinished tree skirt.

6. One present on Christmas Eve. Everyone gets to open one present on Christmas Eve. Usually it is the present from the person who has your name.

5. Movie. We watch a movie every Christmas Eve. Usually its a Christmas one, but sometimes its not.

4. Eating. We go out to eat every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we have a pop tart for breakfast that we get in our stocking, and then for dinner we have Ham and fruit jello and yummy potatoes.

3. Best buy run. After Christmas my dad always goes on a Best Buy run. Its fun, we get to exchange gifts or get more stuff.

2. Reading. We always read the Christmas Story from the Bible, and then Twas the Night Before Christmas. Then I go off on my own and listen to our tape of Polar Express. After which I (yeah just me, and yes I still do this) leave cookies out for Santa.

1. Christmas Morning. They set a time when I'm allowed to go around and wake everyone up cuz otherwise I'll wake up at 630. Then I have to wake everyone up, and once everyone is up I can wake up mom and dad. Then everyone can go downstairs and open all the presents. Its pretty exciting. And ppl get annoyed with me, but it wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't wake up rediculously early and get everyone else up now would it?

That is what we do every Christmas no matter what.

How To: Have a healthy voice, or get it back

I have noticed a growing trend among singers and other people for that matter. They don't know how to take care of their voice. For singers your voice is your instrument. If you were a pianist you wouldn't pound on it with a hammer so why should you try to sing with a voice coated in mucus which would be essentially the same thing. Also not many voice teachers think it necessary to teach their students how to take care of their voices either, so more and more people never learn how. So here my friends are the essentials to getting back your voice and then keeping it.

1. DRINK WATER!!! Everyone should drink at least 8 oz a day and singers should drink at least a gallon. This one is the hardest for me cuz I hate going to the bathroom, but it is the most important thing to do.

2. Use a Vaporizer. It is a steamer that lets you moisturize your nasal passages and vocal cords. There is a picture of it at the top. I have only been able to find them at Walgreens, so if you don't have a Walgreens or you are poor you can boil a pot of water and put your face over it with a towel. However, if you do that you have to be a lot more careful that you don't burn yourself. you should do this at least once a day if you are sick for 15 min, or at least before a performance or audition.

3. Use a Netti Pot. This little thing looks like a very small teapot with an extra long spout. It is kinda gross but essentially you pour salt water up your nose and into your sinuses and it comes out your other nostril. You should do it every day at least once a day, but at the very least when you have allergies, a cold, or anything else that makes you snotty, or if you are especially dry. If you don't get one that comes with packets, you can use a 1/4 tsp of salt. Make sure you mix it really well before you pour it up your nose or it stings like the dickens.

4. DO NOT COUGH!!!!! Coughing irritates your vocal chords and causes them to basically bang against each other like hitting your piano with a hammer. If you feel the need to cough breath in sharply and drink water instead. Take a throat drop. Do something. Just don't cough. I have a friend that coughed so much he tore his vocal chords and started bleeding. gross. Don't cough!

5. Drink Throat Coat. Its an herbal tea that gives your throat relief. Add honey to make it sweeter if you don't like tea.

6. Sleep at least 8 hrs a night. If you have an early morning audition or performance wake up 3 hrs before it to give your voice a chance to wake up before you tart singing. and by wake up i mean start talking too otherwise it does no good.

7. Do not talk after 930 at night. Do not talk at all if you don't have a voice. Do not let yourself talk in a lower grumbly register that everyone gets when they are sick.

These things should help you keep your voice healthy or get it back.