RIP - the New Awesome

(cue the cheesy music. the really heartbreaking kind)

Is it on? Okay. Continue reading.

The time has come, friends. We have all seen it coming. Bets has been moved out and married for a few months now, and The New Awesome has been sitting here neglected and lonely, a brave little tribute to the good times that we had. It is time to finally lay this little blog to rest, and move on.



It just didn't seem right for either one of us to take TNA on as our own project when we started it together, so we have carved out our own little corners of the internet and moved to blog there instead. Please come visit us - we miss you all.

Bex - Permanently Disco

Bets and Steve - Santos (the family)


If you need to just keep the music on and stare at the photo for awhile, I understand. I did for about 3 hours last night.

coons are the old new awesome

giving birth to blogs on valentine's day is the new awesome

Santos the Family.

Sundance-dance-dance is the new awesome

I was out at Sundance last week for my yearly cinematic adventure. Anyone that follows the fest could probably tell you that there weren't many "wow" movies to brag about going to see this year. And it is a good thing there are so many people I like to hang out with in Utah anyway, because I'm not totally sure how glamorous the Sundance thing turns out to be in the end. Sure, when my friends invite me to go see "Choke" or "Be Kind, Rewind" in a few months, I will get to put on my snobbiest voice and tell them that I already saw the premiere, like, 6 months ago. And then joke will be on me as I sit home alone while they are all off at the movies together.

Of course, half the fun of Sundance is all the famous people milling about, and I see quite a lot of them in the theater where I work. I was tearing tickets at the door of the theater one morning when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and the tapping man said in a hushed tone, "Look, I've got (name of famous guy) here, and we really don't want a lot of picture taking or attention drawn to him. He just wants to come in and watch the movie." I looked behind me, and sure enough - I had just unwittingly torn the ticket of one mildly uncomfortable famous guy. I hadn't even noticed that it was him, and honestly, no one else seemed to be paying him much mind either - certainly not enough attention to warrant asking me to be put under some sort of special theater protection program. All the moviegoers were far too interested in getting good seats to bother standing there fawning over him. I turned back to famous guy's overly concerned handler and told him that we would do what we could if people started bothering him, but that as it stood, he could just go get a seat like everyone else. They both went in to watch the film and I didn't hear from them again. I am not sure which was more funny to me - the idea that someone that famous and recognizable would put themselves in such an obviously public arena like the Sundance Film Festival and expect that they can ask that everyone ignore them ... or to ask that people ignore them when embarrassingly, everyone already is.

Pizzeria 712 is officially the new awesome

My brother-in-law Joseph and his business partner Colton have done it! They've successfully opened their restaurant in Orem called Pizzeria 712! I've mostly had to hear about all the details from family but I've been able to participate in my own special ways.

Joseph & Colton come to San Francisco in June 2006 to research and Bex and I tag along.

Steve and Betsy conduct their own independent upscale pizzeria research in San Francisco in Spring 2007.

That whole "participation by proxy" thing ended this week when Steve and I were in Utah visiting my family for Christmas. We were lucky enough to have dinner and lunch the following day at Pizzeria 712.

They pride themselves on using local sustainably farmed produce, meats and cheeses whenever possible. If you don't know who Alice Waters is, you should read about her online...this quote of hers is on a large chalkboard inside the restaurant and it sums up Pizzeria 712 very well.


Thursday night Suzy, Steve and I set out for our dinner adventure.


Since Steve and I live in San Francisco and rarely get to visit the restaurant we decided to order lots, try it all and take the leftovers home. We looked over the menu.


For starters they bring you homemade hummus with Joseph's freshly baked pita bread. So delicious. We also ordered the short rib & polenta (one of the best thing I've ever tasted in my life) and the beet salad with homemade ricotta cheese.


They were also running a mac & cheese special...our lucky night.


Speck pizza.


Tomato, mozzarella & basil pizza.


Suzy enjoying the carmelized onion, potato, rosemary and fontina pizza.


To finish our meal we shared the homemade deconstructed s'more.


Colton & Joseph were too busy to talk to us...almost. We cornered them at the counter for a minute to thank them for the fantastic meal and congratulate them on their success.


Since we were staying the night in Provo we figured we better hit up P712 for lunch the next day because the lunch menu includes items (namely panini & soup) that aren't on the dinner menu. Here are some shots of the front of the restaurant...it was WAY too cold the night before to be bothered with picture posing in the freeeezing temps.



We started our lunch with Colton's amazing brocoli soup.


Then Steve ordered the braised beef panini and I ordered the ham, white cheddar and pear mustard panini and we shared.


This is Brian. Brian is also an important part of the P712 crew. Brian keeps things going in the front of the house while Colton & Joseph see to the rest.


Where the magic happens.


We showed up for lunch right before they were closing to prep for dinner so things were slow enough that Steve and I got a lesson in wood burning ovens from the masters themselves.


Congratulations Joseph & Colton for reaching your goal!!! I'm so excited for you both! 2008 will be an amazing year I'm sure. Here is a link to the P712 blog and other interesting/useful info.

DIY Christmas is the new awesome

I love the holidays because I feel like everyone gets all festive and creative. Especially this year, with so many people pledging to buy handmade gifts and with DIY being such a big thing, I just feel people are trying to keep things from just being all about the commercial aspect.

I have been seeing some great, creative holiday window displays. I LOVE this wreath out of sunglasses:

Or this festive chandelier made of stuff you can find in the hardware store!


And, all the holiday parties I am going to this year seem to be about getting together and making things too. Like the Kessler's annual cookie decorating party. (We even had those contraband cancer causing little silver edible balls to decorate with, so we got creative AND had the thrill of partaking in illegal substances)

Or Tom's birthday/ornament decorating party!

Any party with a table set up that looks like this is going to be my kind of place.

Everyone had a polaroid photo taken of them against this sparkly background when they walked in, and then had to make an ornament for the tree out of it. A fun activity AND such a pretty, personal tree.

So many great ideas!












I cut mine out so that my mouth opens and my photo can sing along convincingly to Christmas carols.


Merry Christmas, ya'll. Or whatev.

Got married is the new awesome

This is totally old news now but Steve and I got married on November 2nd and we were so lucky to have our good friend Karen Rusten there (with her fabulous assistants Minna & Greg) to capture everything in beautiful photographs.





You can check out all the pictures here. There are a ton so pace yourself. You can view them page by page so it doesn't take as long. They sort of go in the following sequence:

getting ready...
bride & groom...
bride, groom & family...
photobooth...
reception...

So if you want to find pictures of yourself from the photobooth at the reception you can try and jump to them. Enjoy!!!