"Let's Go Out Tonight" Roundup - Week of July 25

Time for the things-to-do-on-a-date-for-dang-cheap roundup!  This is for the week of July 25.

• Thursday, July 28 at 7PM: At Pioneer Park, the free Twilight Concert Series presents Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.  They've got a total of 13 members in their band and some are mean whistlers!
• Friday, July 29 at dusk: On the southwest lawn of Capitol Hill for Movies Under the Stars, they will be showing Despicable Me for free.
• Friday, July 29 at 7:30PM: At Deer Valley Resort, the Utah Symphony will be hosting Time for Three and Keith Lockhart as the conductor. We went to their concert a couple years ago and it was super fun.  If you're a student, you can get $10 tickets! We're planning on going and hanging out with the Vivace crowd.

• Saturday, July 30 at 11PM: At the Tower Theater, they're playing Jaws!  It's a classic!  It costs $5! You gotta love the campiness! Ah whaaat??

Enjoy your weekend!

"Let's Go Out Tonight" Winner

Did you have a good date this last week?  I hope so!  We sure had fun at everything we ended up doing.  One thing we really enjoyed was seeing the Decemberists--they were brilliant!

Not a great picture of lead singer of the Decemberists, Colin Meloy

After much deliberation by the True Random Number Generator, we have a winner for our "Let's Go Out Tonight" contest.  Surprisingly, it chose Comment #1, submitted by Emma.  (I realize that it's a True Random Number Generator, but it seems like it hardly ever randomly chooses the first or last number of the series!)

Emma said...

"well we were planning a cheap date night on tim's birthday to boondocks. with his free birthday unlimited pass and coupons in hand we tried to find a babysitter. no luck - anywhere. so we ended up taking the boys with us on our date. we figured it wouldn't be too bad. but then we got there and it was "DARE" night.  there were literally hundreds of unsupervised fifth graders running around like maniacs. totally rude, loud and obnoxious. we should have just stuck with our normal date to target."

Emma, congrats and please contact me so I can get you your gift certificates!

Thanks all for submitting your great stories and cheap date ideas!  Now go out and date!

"Let's Go Out Tonight!" Roundup and Contest - Week of July 18

If you know us at all, you probably know 3 things about us:

1. That our marriage is important to us.  We make the time to go on weekly dates and be friends and talk to each other and bond and all that other cheesy, gooey stuff.  We love each other AND we like each other!

2. That we are kinda cheap (read more about how we do cheap here and here).  Don't get me wrong--we will splurge when we deem it worthy of splurging. But in general, we are cheap. We're always on the look out for good deals and free things to do for our date nights.

3. Lastly, though we're cheap, we like to have fun.  And we'll find fun in anything! 

Fake chainsaws are always a good way to go for cheap fun!



So, we're going to start doing a weekly post called "Honey-we're-going-out-tonight-without-breaking-the-bank!" series.  For short, I'll call it the "Let's Go Out Tonight!" Roundup.

In a nutshell, Lee and I will scope out inexpensive or free activities you can do with your significant other in the Wasatch Front, Utah area (sorry, all you out-of-town peeps!) and list them here either on Wednesday or Thursday.

Then, you can ask your significant other (or someone who you'd like to be your significant other) out to a nice afternoon/evening activity for the weekend. 

Wink wink, nudge nudge. (tee hee!)

Here's the activities that we've found (and will probably be going to a few of these) for the week of July 18:

• Thursday, July 21 at 9 PM: At the City Park in Park City is a free outdoor screening of "The Music Never Stopped". (I watched it with a friend--the music, story, acting are all wonderful!). See the trailer here. I think Lee will like it, so I gotta figure out how to get him to a showing.
• Thursday, July 21 at 7 PM (gates open at 5 PM): At Pioneer Park is the free Twilight Concert Series where the Decemberists, one of my fave bands, is the headlining band (Typhoon is opening for them).  Woot woot!  I'm not familiar with Typhoon, but I love me some Decemberists!
• Friday, July 22 at dusk (about 9:45 PM): At Mueller Park Junior High in Bountiful is the Bountiful Handcart Days fireworks--free!  (I had to list this since we live up in B-Town and we're planning on hanging out at a friend's pool, having pizza and watching the fireworks.)
• Saturday, July 23 at 8 PM: Real Salt Lake soccer game against the San Jose Earthquakes.  Should be a great game!  Plus, there are fireworks after the game!  I love fireworks!  This is not free, but tickets range from $14 and up.

Now for the contest!

Just answer one of the following question in the comments section of the blog and we'll choose one winner at random to win $15.00 worth of gift certificates to Chili's Restaurant--hopefully it will make dating more fun and cheaper for you!

"What is the cheapest date you've been on?"

OR

"What is the cheapest date you've ever taken anyone on?"

I just KNOW you all have some funny stories just waiting to be told...so let's here them!

Last day to enter your comment is on Saturday, July 23 at 11:59 pm and we'll announce the winner on Sunday, July 24!

Take luck!

Where I was last week

I was at our church's Girls Camp for 5 days with these crazy Young Women and the other Young Women leaders.  We are a small group, but we sure do have fun enough for 50 girls!  Now who wouldn't love being with these amazing, funny, spiritual, crazy kids??


After our skit titled "Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful"


I want to point out that there are a couple nerds on the left side of this picture, one super intense bubble blower in the middle of the group, and if you look toward the back of the group is one of the leaders dressed in a beekeeper's suit.

Oh and what's that you see on the right side of the pic? No, your eyes are not mistaken--yes, that's me and another girl (with the inflatable pink flamingo) sporting fake moustaches.

At least I think those are fake moustaches...

Maybe it's time I get my upper lip waxed.


Classic 80's style pose!

If my life depended on it, I think I could pass for a dude.  Just sayin.

Higher Math

Lee and I have been saving our pennies for the past few months so we could get some good running shoes for the half marathon we're running in October.

This is what we ended up getting at REI on Saturday.

Look at our cool new shoes!

We've received a lot of recommendations for these shoes from friends and random strangers, so we thought we'd give them a try!  (It does help that REI has the best return policy ever!) Anyway, Lee got the Men's Vibram FiveFinger Bikila LS (gray-colored shoes) and I got the Women's Vibram Five Finger Speed (blue-colored shoes).

A few things that I've noticed about these shoes in the 2 days we've had them:

1.  I really stink at getting my toes in their proper compartments.  Lee has had to put on my shoes for me the last few times.

Lee's bracelet says "I heart Asians"--I made it for him at Girls Camp this week.

2. Lee really, really, really likes his shoes.  Here he is taking a nap.  (Yes, he does sleep with his eyes a little open.  It weirds me out sometimes.)  

Eerie-looking, eh?

 And yes, he is sleeping with his shoes on.

I do make him take off his shoes when he goes to bed at night--I am such a drag!

3. Lastly, besides the benefits of letting your feet strengthen themselves through simulating running bare foot, Lee and I now can do higher math--we can count higher without taking off our shoes!

We can each count up to 20 now!

We're going to ease into them first by walking, then we'll try a little running--apparently, when you first start wearing these, you can tire quicker because you're using a new set of muscles.  We'll let you know how things go as we train.

Has anyone had any experience running "bare foot" or with these Vibram FiveFinger shoes? Any advice to us beginning FiveFinger runners?

How to cut and eat a mango

I had one of those people-are-different-from-me-hence-they-do-things-differently-than-I-do realizations a few days ago.

We were recently at a neighborhood potluck/BBQ and as all potlucks go, we were asked to bring something to share.

We decided to bring some mangoes since we got a lot of mangoes in our Bountiful Basket one Saturday. So I cut them up and laid them out on a plate and we headed to the BBQ.

The hostess later that evening commented on how she's never seen anyone cut mangoes in such a way, that it was easier to eat because of it.

Huh?

I asked her how she normally cuts them up, and she said she's always struggled to take the peel off first, then trying to get the fruit off the pit.

Hmm...that is really weird, I thought to myself, doesn't everyone cut mangoes this way?

Then in my next thought, I realized that the reason why I cut my mangoes this way is because of my parents.  My dad was going to school in Hawaii when I was born and the first three years of my life were spent in Hawaii.  Tropical fruits like mangoes are in abundance there! 

And mangoes are probably in abundance in Hong Kong too where my mom and dad grew up.  I'm sure someone taught them how to cut a mango this way.  I don't know who it was, but I'm going to say that it's an ancient Chinese tradition to cut mangoes this way!

(I'm sure this is how a lot of people have been doing it for years, but I like to play up my heritage whenever I can!)

Anyway, here's quick and easy guide on how to cut and eat a mango ala ancient Chinese tradition.

Disclaimer: Lee is helping me cut the mango while I take pictures.  In other words, I do not have big man hands and hairy sausage fingers.

You need your mango, a cutting board, and a good sharp knife.

A mango has a narrow side...

And a wide flat side.

There is a large flat pit, which can be quite fibrous around it--you want to make sure you cut around it. So, you're going to cut along the wide flat side just a little off of center.

As you can see, the pit is a whitish color.

Flip to the other wide flat side and cut that section off like the first side, just a little off center.

You will then have 3 pieces: one piece with some fruit and the pit and two pieces of only fruit.

Because there is a bit of good fruit left around the pointy side of the fruit, cut those sections off.  Because the pit is like a flat, oval shaped, when you're cutting the sides, don't cut straight down.  Cut along the contour of the oval shaped pit. You can either lay it down and cut...

Or you could stand it up and cut downward.

Here's what the mango pit looks like with most of the fruit cut off.

We had a rule in our house that if you cut the mango, you got to eat what was left on the pit.  We fought for this privilege.

Now to make the mango easier to eat:  Start by cutting into the flesh of the skin in parallel cuts, making sure you don't cut the skin.

Then cut in the other direction to make a cross hatch pattern.

You can see that Lee was careful not to cut into the skin.  There are a couple of slices along the edges, but that is fine if that happens.

Now, put your fingers on the skin and your thumbs along the edges of the fruit and push it "inside out", raising the fruit apart from itself.

And from there, you can bring the mango to your mouth and pull off a cube of fruit with your teeth.

Yum-O!

So now, please try cutting your own mango, ancient Chinese style!

How to have good luck in a bad situation

Did you know that there are 4 types of luck?

The first type of luck is just plain good luck.  That's always nice to have.

The second type of luck is just plain bad luck. Usually stinks, but it keeps us all humble.

The third type of luck is bad good luck. For example: Mom K "won" a Honda Hybrid for signing up with AAA, but she didn't technically qualify to win because she signed up a couple weeks outside of the contest period.  She ended up convincing the contest people to give the Honda Hybrid to one of the Runners-Up in exchange for his prize, an iPad2.  She didn't get a Honda Hybrid, but she does have an iPad2!

The fourth type of luck is good bad luck.  That's what we had over the 4th of July weekend.

We were heading down to St. George with some friends, we'll call them Teeroy, his wife, The Bod, and their 9 month old daughter.  We planned this little getaway to hang out with our good friends, Blue Steel and his wife, Maple.

As we caravanned, Lee and I stopped at our usual rest area--the first exit in Beaver, Utah.  Lee topped off the gas, checked the oil, went to the restroom and got a drink.  We called Teeroy and The Bod and told them to meet us there so they could rest also.

However, they missed the stop and decided to stop off at the second exit in Beaver, Utah. I know...two exits in Beaver!  Who knew?!

We joined them and hung out. We had lunch. We walked around with the baby. We took our time--about an hour.  It was nice.  I have to admit that my type A personality was a little antsy to get going, but I had to remind myself we were on vacation.

As we gathered to leave, Lee and I got in our car, Zoom, and drove over to their car.

That's when Lee noticed that the oil light was on.

That's never a good sign.

He checked the oil--there was no oil.

Huh?

The oil was full 2 miles ago at Beaver exit number 1!

So that's when Lee walked back to where our car was originally parked and this is what he saw:

Our huge oil puddle near the Eager Beaver Car Wash in Beaver, Utah

And then he noticed that he could see exactly where we had driven.

Look at our trail of oil!

Then, Lee put the car in neutral and pushed the the car back from where it sat and saw this puddle.

That's still a bit of oil

Lee quickly got Zoom to the garage attached to the Chevron.

As the garage assistant guided Lee in and saw the dripping oil, he said that they had seen something like this last week and it ended up being a cracked head because the oil filter was screwed on too tightly. 

(Cue sound of our sinking hearts here.)

As you can see on the right side of the car, that shiny spot was a nice trail of oil that one of the other nice garage assistants wiped up. It was still dripping when the car was lifted.

Click click click--we held our breaths while the car slowly lifted in the air.

And when it was finally high enough, we could see what happened.

We had no oil plug.

No oil plug...?

Now, I would like to point out that we had an oil plug a couple miles ago.

Where the heck did our oil plug go?!?  In two miles!  We concluded that when we had our oil changed the day before, they must have not screwed on the oil plug tight enough and it eventually loosened until it popped out right before (thankfully!) we stopped the second time.

We were counting our lucky starts at that point.

Fortunately, the mechanic was in today.

Unfortunately, the mechanic was towing a car to St. George. He probably wouldn't be back for another 2 to 3 hours.

We hung out at our booth in the Chevron--it was a good booth.

We found out that since it was the holiday weekend, most everyone was closed or was only staffing a skeleton staff that didn't know anything, including Napa Auto and the Mazda dealership in St. George.  No one could figure out what size our oil plug was including the Chevron mechanic while he was in St. George. We were basically told we would have to wait and hope that when he returned, he could find something at the shop that might work. 

Instead of sitting around twiddling our thumbs in our booth, we started googling about our oil plug and calling our car contacts and figured out what size we needed.

When Rick, the mechanic, came back, he used our specifications and found a plug that was "good enough for government work", filled it up with oil, and asked us to start it up.

It started up. No oil light.

Yes!

But then Rick warned us that there could have been still damage done to our engine and it may seize up within 25 miles.

Oh great.

We got in the car, said a prayer, and started driving.

10 miles.

20 miles.

30 miles. 

No issues.

We made it to St. George with no issues, no oil light on. 

What luck.  What good luck! Someone must be watching over us.

Anyway, here's a few of our tips on how to have good luck (especially in a bad situation):

1. Slow down a little. You may not notice good luck if you're going too fast. If we didn't hang out for a while at the second exit, we probably would have lost our oil plug somewhere more desolate than Beaver.  And killed our engine. Hence, killing our vacation.
2. Pick up on signals and act on them. If Lee hadn't heeded the lit-up oil light, things would have gotten worse.
3. Try to create a little of your own luck. We used our resources to find the right size of oil plug and thankfully we were able to get home without any more problems.

Are you lucky person?  We'd love to hear your advice on how you increase your luck!