My Favorite Things of 2008

10. iPhone. I’ve only had this thing for a week and I’m already addicted. If you see me walking down the street, you probably won't even get eye contact from me because I'll be too busy with my iPhone. Yet another way to alienate myself from the world. Sign me up!

9. Olive Snook on Pushing Daisies. I know I’m supposed to root for Chuck and Ned, I know it. They are absolutely great together…but Olive just steals the show for me. Her unrequited love for Ned is sad but she remains spunky and adorable and man-o-man, Itty-Bitty sure can sing! I wish I could go back in time to when she was on Wicked so that I could watch her perform. Here goes my most favorite Pushing Daisies/Olive Snook moment from this year:



8. The arrival of Sprinkles Cupcakes in Scottsdale. The famous Sprinkles cupcakes from LA opened its doors in AZ this year and I was more than happy about that. Ok, so I’m a total cupcake snob, whatever. These babies are delicious! I still think I like NYC’s Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes better but let’s just say that Sprinkles has gotten quite a few visits from the Miller household in the few months that it’s been open. Added Bonus: My sister’s mother in law is a baker there so every once in awhile my sis will show up at our house with a box full of cupcakes!

My favorite: Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting.



7. Slumdog Millionaire. Easily the best movie I've seen this year. In short, it's about a kid from the Indian slums who goes on India's Who Wants to be a Millionare. The authorities think he cheated, because, come on, there's no way a kid from the slums can know all the answers. The movie takes you through the kid's life and shows you how all those questions/answers played a role in his life. It is also a very endearing love story. The story is very well told, the movie very beautifully shot and the music was great. There wasn't a moment where you got bored of the movie. Go watch it.


6. Michael Kors Amherst Shoulder Tote. Raise your hand if you are a purse whore (*raises hand*). It was love at first sight. Well, more like love at first touch. Let me tell you, the leather on this bag feels like buttah. Yeah, the bag is big but that just means more space. The other day when it rained, do you think I got soaked walking from my car to work? Nope. And you know why? Because I had my umbrella in my purse. Yup. There's plenty of room in there for necessities like umbrellas. Plus look at how cute it is! It has the strap for you to carry it on your forearm and another strap in case you want to carry it on your shoulder. How handy and fashionable is that, right?! I have the black one. Love it!


5. Death Cab for Cutie Concert in Mesa. I just don’t think there’s anything more adorable to me than hearing/seeing Matt sing “Soul Meets Body”. There just isn’t. Matt and I had so much fun at this concert over the summer that we decided to trek it out to Tucson for another DCFC concert in early December. Good times.



4. Jim and Pam getting engaged! Nuff said.


3. Cruise to St. John, St. Thomas and the Bahamas. We weren’t just beach bums on this cruise. We actually hiked quite a bit, did some snorkeling and just relaxed. We also got to spend it with Mark and Tima. No, we didn't win $2k in this cruise like last time. That's the only reason this got bumped down to #3.

2. Meeting and working with John Krasinski! Come on. You knew this was going to be on the list, right? So, I didn’t write about it on our blog but I know you heard me talking about it. I got to spend almost a week with the guy… A WEEK! OK, so I didn’t spend the whole week with him, but I did make him laugh and I got a hello from him before he “met me” met me when I was just an extra. But that last day where I got to be a stand-in and really met him…A-W-E (clap-clap) S-O-M-E! We talked basketball and he high-fived me. He high-fived me, y’all! Yeah, he’s totally my sancho, now. A girl can dream, right? I still get goosebumps whenever I look at that picture. Such a sweet, nice, funny and hubba-hubba aooogah kind of guy.



1. Our trip to NYC. Seriously, why didn’t we go to NYC during our senior year in college? We all would have gone and fallen in love with it, like we did this time. The four of us could have gone to grad school at NYU or Columbia and we could have all bunked in a cute little brownstone in Greenwich Village or SoHo or maybe lived in Brooklyn and been Mindy Kaling's neighbors. Sigh. Ah well, hopefully we can get up there again this upcoming year and spend another week up there and do less sightseeing and more shopping and relaxing…and eating of course.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

I can’t wait to see what 2009 has in store for us! I hope you all have a great year!


Happy New Year!

Dude, I SO called it!!!

You remember my TV blog way back in Sept? Remember when I said the dude who attacked Brooke is going to be related to the new girl in Haley's class on One Tree Hill? Remember how I said the attacker would also be connected to Q's death, as in, he was the killer? Remember how I said it would be money? M-O-N-E-Y, baby! Make it RAIN! Well, mostly money, not quite a torrential downpour. But close! The girl in Haley's class turned out to be Sam, Brooke's future foster kid. And as of tonight we finally know the connection between all of them! She got mad that Brooke caught her shoplifting, said something to one of her friends, who in turn had his brother, Q's killer, attack Brooke in revenge! I know, money, right?! :D Just had to mention that. Oh, and how weird/freakin' cool was it to see former WB/CW icon Dawson Leery playing none other than a coke-snorting film producer trying to produce Lucas' film?! Also freakin' cool? He "knows" a thing or two about best friends ending up together. Ha! Except him and Joey didn't end up together, she ended up with Pacey. So...sound anything like the Lucas/Brooke/Peyton love triangle currently playing out on Dawson's Creek's former TV network? Does it make it too weird that they're filming OTH in the same city and on the same sound stage as DC? No? It kinda does to me. Especially since Chad Michael Murray, the aforementioned Lucas, played a guy named Charlie Todd on DC for 12 eps. Seriously, incest! Good, old-fashioned TV incest! In the nicest possible, most freakin' cool way! :) Hahahaha!

Grand Canyon

Last weekend was quite an adventure. Some friends of ours came in from out of town and we decided to go up to the Grand Canyon with them for the day. I am so glad we ended up going with them because we had a blast! Matt and I hadn’t been to the Grand Canyon since we were kids so it was nice to re-experience this together and with some friends.

Matt

Me

Some Badass Chicks

We took a shuttle that dropped us off at the different viewpoints. I was amazed at the fact that there wasn’t any railing at some of the viewpoints. It made me crazy nervous.

Matt freaking me out a little

My favorite pic. Doesn't this look like a portrait?

Yes, I'm holding on to the tree. What?!

We had a late lunch/early dinner at this lodge at the GC. Was it wise of us to have drinks while visiting the GC? Others might not think that’s safe, but you know what? We got back alive so yeah, it was safe. I think we were in the restaurant for a couple of hours and when we were done, the outside was all hazy. No, we weren’t drunk. It was snowing, you guys! It was crazy how it just all hit all of a sudden. It was actually really cool…cold, but really cool.

Lunch with second and third drinks at the lodge.

Snow! The wind was blowing so hard.

The Matt's covering their cold ears


Did I mention it was freezing?


Our view on our drive home

Tweet Me!

Hey guys! I've decided to join the twitter bandwagon. I just started today and am having fun with it. You can find my twitter updates on the right side of the blog. Also, if you wanna follow me on twitter and feel like you want to know about all of the exciting things that happen to me all day, like when I have something stuck in my shoe, just hop on and follow me on twitter. Come on! You know you wanna. Nothing like a little peer pressure to get you out there.

Walking on Air

I must tell you about my new favorite flip flops. They are the greatest! They are made by North Face. They're called Base Camp flip flops. As you can see below they have the egg crate soles and they massage your feet as you walk! They are SO comfortable! My feet generally ache, throb actually, whenever I wear flip flops for any length of time, but I wore these North Face flip flops all weekend long and I actually forgot I was wearing them! That's how comfortable they are. I will admit the first day or two was interesting as I broke them in, but ever since it's been like walking on air. The straps keep the bottoms close to your feet, like they're hugging your feet, and the toe thingy is made of soft cloth (as opposed to painful rigid plastic, one of my worst enemies), and they even have anatomic arch support. I got them in black but NF makes them in other colors like the white and yellow ones below. And they're not expensive, about the same price as Reefs, one of my two other favorite flip flops (the other being the Crocs version). You can find them wherever sandals like this are sold. I found mine at REI in Denver.

North Face Base Camp flip flops

Yogurtlicious

Have I told you guys about Pinkberry? I have a feeling that I’ve mentioned it before because I just love that place. Maybe I’m just falling for the bells and whistles and the fad that is Pinkberry but I just adore it. I miss it when I don’t have it and was pretty bummed that I could only get some berry in LA and NYC. Well, bum no more my friends! No, Pinkberry didn’t open in the Phoenix area…yet. But this other lovely Pinkberry wannabe called Yogurtlicious did. I’ll be the first to admit that I had my Pinkberry snob glasses on when I heard about this new place in town. I thought, “No way will this come close to filling my Pinkberry addiction”. Well guess what y’all? It kinda does. I mean, it’s no Pinkberry…but come, on. You couldn’t expect them to duplicate that awesomeness to the tee. It does come pretty darn close and serves as a great substitute until we get a berry of our own in town. Yogurtlicious had the tart froyo flavor that the berry uses as its signature and it has a lot of the fresh fruit that you can find at the berry. I didn’t see any kiwi but it had my favorites that I like to add to the froyo: mangos, strawberries and rasberries. Both Matt and I really liked it. You guys should definitely check it out. It has the Miller-Rodriguez stamp of approval!

Valley Locations:

Tramonto

3134 W. Carefree Hwy

Phoenix, AZ 85086

Laveen Pavillions

3424 W. Southern Ave

Phoenix, AZ 85041

StageCoach Village (Coming Soon!)

7033 N. Galloway

Cavecreek, AZ 85311

Walmart Neighborhood Market (Coming Soon!)

25155 N. 67th Ave

Phoenix, AZ 85301

The Office is baaaack! Every pot has a lid…even cracked pots.

There is no way in this world that I could be happier, right now. I’m serious. My show is back and whoa did it come back?! Just everything about tonight’s episode was great but could I have doubted it? I mean it WAS written by Gene and Lee, my favorite writing group on The Office. And yes folks, everything in the world is right, today. Jim and Pam are engaged! One of my most favorite things about this show is that it is a comedy that isn’t afraid to put emotion into its episodes. It has so much heart. It makes you feel for these people. When they have a momentous occasion, WE have a momentous occasion. I won’t lie to you, I’m still crying as I type this. Such a simple proposal and it still kicked Beesly’s (and our) ass like Jim said it would. Thank you Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski for playing these characters the way you guys do.

Finally! I LOVE love.

And then we have Michael and Holly. Are they the new Jim and Pam? I won’t mind if they are. I love Holly Flax so much and Amy Ryan plays her so well. That scene where Jim says she’s a dork and then they cut to Holly and Michael rapping was one of my highlights of tonight. I’m going to copy a quote that Amy said herself, “Every pot has a lid…even cracked pots.” Yes, Michael, there is someone out there for you. You better play this right, son! I can't say enough that love what they do with the relationships on this show.


Angerella-ella-ella-ella-ay. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Little miss judgmental is being very naughty. God is not going to like that, Half Pint. What are you doing to poor Andy? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I always thought her and Dwight were made for each other but why does she have to drag Andy into this? Just break up with him already. Poor guy. My heart broke for him when he told her that he didn’t care where they got married as long as he was with her. Andy, you should “take a chance” on somebody else.

There’s so much other great stuff and hilarious moments that happened in this episode but I’ve only seen it once. I haven't even gone over the hilarious parts. Kelly killed it as did Oscar. They rocked my world. Maybe I’ll update after the second viewing. But for now, I leave you guys with this:


Jim and Pam are engaged, y’all!!! (Look at that proposal and that kiss! So perfect. I'm scared to admit how many times I've seen that clip.)

Gene and Lee, I beer you five for this episode!

So, what were your guys' favorite moments?

Whoops, not so fast FireD Guy. First deleted scene is up!