Masquerade...Paper faces on parade

About a month and a half ago a good friend of ours named Chris Hill told me that there was going to be a masquerade ball in Provo on the 29th. I knew that Michi had always wanted to go to one and so I bought tickets and was going to surprise her...only then we were out dancing with Chris and he asked me in front of her if I had bought tickets yet. The surprise was ruined, but it all ended up working out in the end. In fact, we ended up being able to spend the whole day together due to an altogether unexpected turn of events...

For anyone who has ever had a class in the infamous Clyde Building on BYU, you know that the whole thing is made of brick and cinderblock and terribly underfunded because they like to pour their money into the business school. For example, last semester they were drilling holes into the wall next to my desk for three weeks to mount these safety monitor boxes. Then they were drilling holes for 4 weeks next to the main computer lab after that. Basically, if you can't hear drill reverberations, then you know that it's 5 p.m. and time to go home.

Anyway, Thursday morning there were contractors in the basement of the Clyde who were...you guessed it...drilling holes into the walls. Unfortunately, one of them drilled right into the main powerline and caused a surge that fried the main circuit board for the entire building. He was taken to the hospital with severe burns, but luckily he's in stable condition and should be fine. The circuit board, however, was burnt to a crisp, and because it was a specially designed part from the 60s or 70s, they had to reorder it from the original manufacturer in Ohio. So all classes within the Clyde Building were cancelled for Thursday and Friday until the part came in.

So Friday morning, instead of going in to work, we went up to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and watched a movie called Bran Nue Dae (click on the title to see the trailer). It's a musical comedy about an aboriginal boy in Australia who runs away from boarding school and is trying to get back home. It was actually really enjoyable and clean (we were worried because none of the movies there have ratings). We cruised main street afterwards to see if we could spot anyone famous, but we didn't.

We got home a couple hours before our dinner reservations with our friends so we could get ready. Michi rented her costume from the Hale Center Theater and I wore my tux, and our masks were vintage from Venice, Italy (Michi bought them traveling around during the Olympics). Anyway, I can let the pictures tell the story from there, but in short we had a great dinner at Macaroni Grill and a lot of fun masquerading with our friends.

Whistler and Chris' birthday

So Michi and I spent Tuesday through Friday up in Whistler for training (we flew up Monday and back on Saturday). It rained every day until Friday, when it snowed heavily in the morning and then cleared up for the last two hours of daylight Friday afternoon. I was surprised how pretty it was once everything cleared up, too bad it wasn't like that for longer.

Training actually went really well. I was pretty worried because I was her coach and I'd never seen the track up there before and didn't know the lines at all and because Michi had had problems up there the last time she trained. She started out at junior start and then slowly progressed up to ladies start and we were able to correct all the problems that she had been having, and on her last day she had 4 completely clean runs out of 5 pulling off the handles from ladies start. It was a really successful week, we saw lots of improvement, and she said I was a great coach.

My birthday was Friday, which was also the last day of training, and in between runs we went down to Whistler and checked email. My family had emailed me during the week to wish me a happy birthday, but I was pretty bummed because none of my friends had written me anything. Michi told me to check facebook because they'd probably written there, so I did and there was nothing there either. Michi saw that I was a little disappointed and wanted to do something for me, so she very sneakily signed into her facebook and wrote happy birthday on my wall, and then once we got back to the track she called the tower from ladies start and had them announce happy birthday to me over the PA system. She'll never know how much those two little things meant to me, it really made my day.

Recipes from Chris and Michi

The first recipe is one that a couple people asked for from over the holidays. The other one came from the creative genius of Michi's culinary mind, we had it today so I had her write it down so I could share it.

Christopher's Heartstopper Spinach and Artichoke Dip

What you'll need...

Serves 8-12

1 pkg frozen spinach

1 jar marinated arthichokes

8 oz. Cream Cheese

8 oz. Sour Cream

3/4 c. shredded Parmesan Cheese

8 oz. shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

1/2 onion finely chopped

1/2 stick butter

red pepper flakes (optional)

First, sautee the onions in some butter (not the whole half stick because that will just drown them so they won't sautee). Then add the ingredients in this order, mixing well after each ingredient is added:

Butter (the rest of it), Spinach, Cream Cheese, Sour Cream, Parmesan Cheese, Artichoke Hearts, Red Pepper Flakes to taste.

I like the red pepper flakes but Michi doesn't so I usually leave them out. The artichoke hearts can either be added chopped or pureed. If you like having chunks of artichoke heart in your dip then leave them chopped, I like to have the flavor of the artichoke hearts in every bite, so we usually just puree them in our Isablender (a.k.a. magic bullet).

Finally, you move your molten concoction of goodness into pyrex, top with Monterey Jack Cheese (pepper jack is actually my favorite), melt, and serve with bread or tortilla chips.

Michi's Shrimp Primavera

What you'll need (Michi says you can use however much of anything you want, but here are some guidelines)

Serves 4

2 Tbsp Butter

1/2 lb Shrimp

1 Onion Sliced

1/2 Red Pepper Sliced

1 Clove Minced Garlic

1 1/2 - 2 Cups Chopped Mushrooms

1 Chopped Tomato

Handful of Spinach leaves

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tbsp White Wine

2 Tbsp Cream Cheese

1 Cup of Milk

Feta Cheese

Cooked Pasta

Sautee shrimp, onions, red pepper and garlic in butter on medium heat until shrimp is cooked. At the same time in a separate pan, sautee mushrooms with some red wine vinegar and some butter (not included in measurements above) on low heat and covered. To the first pan add olive oil, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, white wine, 1/2 cup of milk, and cream cheese in this order. Stir and let simmer. When the mushrooms are evenly cooked, add them to the sauce along with diced tomatoes, spinach, and the additional 1/2 cup of milk. Let simmer, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Serve over pasta and top with feta.