oh my goodness, I think this is way too cute! this is sad. my sappiness is being affected by my current work. I'm in way too deep.

weekend

fun things this weekend! I'm not feeling well so instead of posting about them I'll direct you to cindy's and sarah's blogs. better posts next week!

he's happier; she's not- for girls, it's be yourself, and be perfect too

the new american dustiness:

"Mr. Krueger’s data, for instance, shows that the average time devoted to dusting has fallen significantly in recent decades. There haven’t been any dust-related technological breakthroughs, so houses are probably just dirtier than they used to be. I imagine that the new American dustiness affects women’s happiness more than men’s.

Ms. Stevenson was recently having drinks with a business school graduate who came up with a nice way of summarizing the problem. Her mother’s goals in life, the student said, were to have a beautiful garden, a well-kept house and well-adjusted children who did well in school. “I sort of want all those things, too,” the student said, as Ms. Stevenson recalled, “but I also want to have a great career and have an impact on the broader world.”

It’s telling that there is also a happiness gap between boys and girls in high school. As life has generally gotten better over the last generation — less crime, longer-living grandparents and much cooler gadgets — male high school seniors have gotten happier. About 25 percent say they are very satisfied with their lives, up from 16 percent in 1976. Roughly 22 percent of senior girls now give that answer, unchanged from the 1970s.

When Ms. Stevenson and I were talking last week about possible explanations, she mentioned her “hottie theory.” It’s based on an April article in this newspaper by Sara Rimer, about a group of incredibly impressive teenage girls in Newton, Mass. The girls were getting better grades than the boys, playing varsity sports, helping to run the student government and doing community service. Yet one girl who had gotten a perfect 2,400 on her college entrance exams noted that she and her friends still felt pressure to be “effortlessly hot.”

As Ms. Stevenson, who’s 36, said: “When I was in high school, it was clear being a hottie was the most important thing, and it’s not that it’s any less important today. It’s that other things have become more important. And, frankly, people spent a lot of time trying to be a hottie when I was in high school. So I don’t know where they find the time today.”

The two new papers — Mr. Krueger’s will be published in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and the Stevenson-Wolfers one is still in draft form — are part of a burst of happiness research in recent years. There is no question that the research has its limitations. Happiness, of course, is highly subjective.

A big reason that women reported being happier three decades ago — despite far more discrimination — is probably that they had narrower ambitions, Ms. Stevenson says. Many compared themselves only to other women, rather than to men as well. This doesn’t mean they were better off back then."

wow, sooo sorry not many blog posts from me lately. I guess last saturday isn't exactly me dropping out of existence, but wanted to let you know I'm still here! last week I spent a few days working as a paint scraper/painter for my friend allison, she and her husband and soon-to-be two kids are having their house appraised and were kind enough to hire me on. this week I've gotten back into the swing of book production, not much to document. ward and I went to see "The Last Legion" last night at the dollar movie. oooohhh man, that was a bad movie. really bad. "Waterworld" bad. "Mission to Mars" bad. there were maybe two scenes that looked like a movie and not something you'd see mid-afternoon on the SCIFI channel. and it had Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth in it, I'm currently waiting to see if either of their careers will recover. we even had horrible audience members too, someone eating crackly-paper-bag candy the next row over, two older women behind us, one who'd kick my seat and ask the other what was happening on screen repeatedly, and the other would give a description that I swear hardly ever was infact what was happening on screen. after a while ward and I were just laughing about it. what can you do. made me realize that my everyday normal routine may be a little boring but isn't so bad afterall. tomorrow morning emily has hired me to help her clean out her basement. I like being a handyperson for hire. it makes me feel like I'm in an Anne Tyler novel.
ok, back to it!

ed's cabin

we used to go up here a lot back in the day, a cabin on a river in woodland that ed's family has a share of. they're selling their share, so we had one final trip, it turned out to be really great, we all just like eachother so much. the weather was perfect, good food, I grilled hamburgers and peaches! I've never been a grill-master before, and with a spork because all we could find was a plastic spatula, so we used a metal spork and a fish-shaped oven mit. just a lot of laughter and playing around. then after we moved all the furniture and stretched out by the fire to go to sleep, we were just drifting off when sam sat bolt upright and said "AAHHHhh...!", then turned, looked at the fire, and went "AAAAAHHHHH!" even more loudly. he'd drifted off, smelt smoke, thought "my apartment is on fire", woke up enough to look behind him and see the fire a few inches away, and then REALLY belted out. some nights are like that. :) in the morning we had the most delicious breakfast with pancakes and whipped creme and peaches, with bacon and muffins and my favorite, candy corn. we sat in the sun on the porch for a while and it was just really great. someone needs to buy a replacement cabin. quick.

here are just a few pictures-

ward and I went to albertson's to pick up some ice cream and smelled the fried chicken aroma wafting out of the deli case, so we each got a chicken hunk for the road. it's delicate eating a hunk of chicken while driving


then, we got to the front gate to get in, and no ed! we called his cell a few times, I made ward play some video games on my phone because it was too cold out there to get out and walk down to the cabin, but finally she said "we're just going to have to do it". so we gracefully hopped the fence (as gracefully as we ate chicken in the car.)


my camera was out of batteries by then so all I got were a few cabin group shots. it was a good time! thanks ed and audrey!

soccer game


the wave crashing


chris has a moth!


sam showing us his pottery via cell phone camera, it's gorgeous stuff


sam hits the stage at Burt's Tiki Lounge

the baby is down, I repeat: the baby is down..

yesterday was fun, I went to the temple with my grandma and her friend that she met in 1950, back in the day. that place is great in the middle of the day when it's filled with older people and older-people-humor, so relaxing and kind of jolly. they've been through it all, they know life is nothing to get worked up about, I love it. then I ran over to ward's house to print out a resume and found her in full pioneer trek gear. go ward! it takes a certain amount of guts to dress up in layers of clothing and head out for three days of trekking, candle making, and turkey slaughtering. while I was printing my stuff out she went out to move the garbage cans back in from the street and ran back in, saying "someone was coming down the street! I had to hide". this is her when she got her gumption back up and made the dash out in public to get the bins in. I of course didn't help but photographed the whole thing, heh, sorry ward! the dashing Lanning then came to get her and they went off to a weekend of being "ma and pa". can't wait for the stories. after dropping off my resume, I walked around a bit, there is a gorgeous, GORGEOUS house for sale at 1208 lake street, if anyone would buy that I'd move in, even if you just let me live on the porch. it's seriously the best porch I've ever seen. then I went to yoga taught by carolyn. in the class- me, david, ubi, vanya, and dennis. woohoo yoga! it's the only place in utah where the male-to-female ratio is men=a bunch, women=me. no, I will not tell you where it is! it's my retreat now from the harsh world of utah women overpopulation. sorry. then I forgot to go help cindy finish painting, but it sounds like she got it done, so horray! can't wait to see the new apartment tonight all painted and fabulous.

whoo- life is moving quick! the last few days I've helped cindy paint, had lunch and tea with emily, found a part-time job I want to apply for, and spent all day yesterday waiting for my car to get fixed, along with my normal work stuff. since I had the time yesterday afternoon and matinee hours were in force, I saw a movie at the broadway, "The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters". It's much more engaging than expected, if you've heard of it it's the documentary about the world record in Donkey Kong the old arcade game. There's a guy in there who is so sad, what happens if you get all wrapped up in your pride and distance yourself from reality. I think we could show this at church. that would be great. :)

dad's birthday celebration

maker of the birthday cake- fab-u-lous carrot cake...mmmmm...



this is why we have that tradition of candles on birthday cakes in the first place


one of dad's presents, from his broke daughter- a jar of freshly canned peaches



the ball and rope game



ppffththhhttt... (emily had good picture timing to get a shot of me getting clotheslined)



aidan's got a great kick, lots of range


stories about cutting down the apricot tree


grandma reading to the kids and emily from the mockup of one of the books I'm working on. they looked entertained, this made me very happy since people their size are my target audience.


a very fun night! except, this is bad, it was downright chilly outside tonight. the end of summer. but still good giant beachball soccer weather, whoosh. happy birthday on tuesday dad!

my friend jane created simpsons versions of some of her friends, I think it's eerie how accurate they are, even down to skin tone and body type. here's mine. I find it both scary and compelling. I mean, I have shoes that look just like that... eeeerie. also I think I should wear more red. that reminds me of an anne tyler book, A Patchwork Planet. they find in the attic an old twinform. one requested a twinform with the requisite hair color, then you'd use it to put together outfits before you actually wear them. this might work too, if only you could scan your clothes in... hmmm..

tonight I had dinner with my good friend veronica and antonio. they live (for a while longer) in an apartment near where my sister emily lives in sugarhouse. the food was delicious, good conversation, I had a great time, hopefully they did too! we bonded again, and definitely stories which I'm probably not at liberty to share without antonio hunting me down were created. thanks guys! see you again soon hopefully.
(there were some more normal photos I took, but this one is the best, I'm the white glare in the foreground, I reflect light. luckily antonio has his eyes closed, that makes me feel better. veronica is just her usual happy self. good times.)

today after I got done with my day job and my dad got done with his day job, we did some hard physical labor and cut up the tree limbs he'd cut down over the weekend so they won't fall on the house. it was good to get out and be doing something, physical labor is the perfect complement to creative energy. these are for mom!

exhibiting good tree cutting-up form

dad up on the roof making it look

like this



not-so-good tree cutting form


this is the hole the birds used to nest in! where will they nest now? meanwhile it looks quite like a dinosaur skull



the creek started running for the first time in a long time!


man = 1, tree = 0