The whole thing - over 8 feet tall, with 4 looong strings of lights, and bows and ribbon for decorations, under 50$!

The trees at most vendors were 80$ for 6 feet - we got this one at the grocery store for 35$.

Yay Bargain Christmas!

PS - It’s hard to do them justice, Christmas Trees this lovely are hard to photograph.

There’s not much to exploring the nightlife of Park City. But at least now that the slopes are open there are some tourists and things are starting to pick up (and get more expensive, boo). Those that did ski tend to favor happy hour or the bars on the slopes. We wanted to see if anyone would be out you know- at night time. The Main Street down town has maybe a dozen bars. We had a drink at Kristauf’s Martini Bar and when that place cleared out we headed to the biggest group of people on the street and discovered a basement bar appropriately named “Downstairs”.

Imagine my surprise to find out that we not only stumbled upon a super busy bar, but one with no cover, good drink prices, and a guest DJ. A celebrity guest DJ. Danny Masterson. That’s right. He was great. It was pretty exciting to know that although we might feel like we are in the middle of nowhere, there will still be things to do and goings on. It’s going to take at least that to convince me to get dressed up and head out in the freezing cold.

Did I totally forget to tell you? Oh my. Well, there is a giant Tanger Outlet in my backyard. It’s the only one in Utah, as a matter of fact. We’ve been quite a bit. Wednesday before Thanksgiving all the sales had begun. We got MK some sweaters and I got a new pair of jeans. Some of the sales were over 50% off.

Thursday night MK and I played video games until midnight. Upon noticing that it was midnight, we decided to take a peek and see if people were heading to the mall for the sales that started at midnight. We took a back road from our house and decided that the economy can’t really be that bad. Either that, or it’s soooo bad that sales at the outlet were the logical answer.

There were cars parked up and down the street. People that had taken the wrong exit were stuck in the roundabouts. The parking lot was full. The store lines were long, both inside and out. We didn’t bring the camera but if you’ve ever done Black Friday morning shopping I’m sure it’s similar. It was a zoo. We laughed as we turned around and headed home.

The next morning MK checked the ads and found a few things he was able to order online. We did go to WalMart and scored a dozen DVDs and some PS2 games for 2$. Good stuff to have for the winter! The store was fairly tossed, and fairly busy. Quite a few shopping carts were balancing flatscreen TVs.

When I lived at home Dadd and I would go to the mall Christmas Eve to make fun of the last minute shoppers. It was almost just as fun to have MK take me to see the late night/early morning Black Friday madness.

Shop the deals. It was pretty busy.

#73

Five Stores We Visited Today:

1. Kohl’s.
2. Walmart.
3. Dillards.
4. Cole Sport.
5. Subway. (Ha!)

Thanksgiving this year got me thinking about the fact that I’ve been doing this a while. I always question the cheesy autobiographical nature it tended to take on - but right now I can be thankful. Even MK has noted there is a bit of worth to being able to check here to recall our adventures.

Here’s two years of Thanksgiving’s at my fingertips.

November 2006

November 2007

I especially enjoyed the Thankful Challenge that I participated in last year.

I can easily remembering sharing Thanksgiving with my in laws and my crazy new San Diego friends. This year, we’ll be with great friends in Utah. Yet another day to write about, share with you, my friends and family, and make you a part of right here. So this year, I’m most thankful that you stop by, that you participate, that you keep me blogging.

There are only two things that SomeGoSoftly has in common with Dooce.

1. I have a blog.

2. I now live in Utah.

That’s where that ends. I was painfully reminded recently of the awesomeness that is the first blog ever to cause an uproar. Because hey, I’m in her state. I’m on her territory. I should be so good at blogging by now.

Not.

Her blog kinda set the standard other blogs fall short of. She’s got her own Urban Dictionary reference. She’s got ads. An income. Cute custom CSS blog design. I’m making myself jealous.

When Snippy first mentioned to me the big wide world of internet diary blog keeping…I was in a trance. I read some dude she pointed me to that I think wrote a lot about chickens or rabbits, I don’t remember. I read Snippy’s entire site. (At work.) And I read Dooce beginning to end. (Also at work…) I started this site. (Totally at work.)

I put up pictures. I tried to have an interesting life to tell y’all about. I made friends that hate blogs read this site by not calling. I moved around. Well, maybe that wasn’t for the sake of the site but you get the idea. So here I am, in cruise control posting when the mood strikes me, thinking that I can keep the love alive. Without so much as an afterthought.

But my pictures are crappy. And I don’t have cute dogs. OR kids. I’ve got Friday Fives. And we all secretly know that you don’t even find those very amusing. So instead of promising miracles of hilarity, I’m gonna keep being lame over here in my furry warm little internet corner, the niche about zombies and my dorky life. I’m going to keep on keepin’ on, so thanks to you (family and four friends that hit refresh 30 times a day) for your continued support.

Some of you are excited about Chinese Democracy, I’m just excited about free Dr. Pepper!

Not aware of the story? Link One and Link Two

Go to drpepper.com/freedrpepper now to get yours - only 8 hours left!!! NOTE - offer has been extended due to site issues yesterday. Go get you some!

Site is ridiculously slow loading, bear with it.

Top 10 Most Irritating Phrases of the English Language

In his book Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, Jeremy Butterfield outlined the top 10 most irritating phrases of the English language. (Why damp squid?)

… the book’s author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and “synergy”.

Other phrases to irritate people are “literally” and “ironically”, when they are used out of context.

Mr Butterfield said: “We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language.”

Here they are:

1. At the end of the day
2. Fairly unique
3. I personally
4. At this moment in time
5. With all due respect
6. Absolutely
7. It’s a nightmare
8. Shouldn’t of
9. 24/7
10. It’s not rocket science

Found via Neatorama

I like it - can you think of any others?

Kind of depressing.

#71

Five Easy Ways to Lose Your Perfect Tan:

1. Stop going outside.
2. Succumb to skin cancer paranoia.
3. Wear clothing instead of bikinis.
4. One word: sombrero.
5. Move to Utah.

You have to see this video. Better late than never. I almost forgot to post it since I was frustrated it can’t be embedded. But it’s good for a laugh.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are