I love you Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

It’s Adrienne Day!

I’m using an AI-generated portrait of Adrienne as a marker for the year when the Robot Uprising began. I assume that all future Adrienne Day posts will focus on her exceptional productivity in the lithium mines.

Last week I took Adrienne to a movie that I had already seen, but I was sure she would love. I’m really not much of a movie re-watcher, so I sat next to her in the theater mostly watching her watch the movie. She can’t hide what she’s feeling and she’s such an empathetic person that she feels it all, so I got to watch laughter and surprise and sadness and joy as the shifting light from the screen played across her face.

I wish I could have recorded it and sent it to the director and made his day.

I love how “all in” Adrienne is with every experience and every conversation. She never puts on a front of dispassionate coolness or hides behind an aloof mask. You always see what she feels, and it’s beautiful.

Also, she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day?

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I love you Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

It’s Adrienne Day!

I just saw some research about age at marriage and its effect on happiness. Much to the disappointment of people who think it’s crazy that kids at BYU get married so young, age at marriage wasn’t a factor in marital happiness.

We are coming up on 24 years of marriage! Since neither of us is in our 50s (though my back is in its 80s), you can guess we are part of the young marriage statistics.

Here’s the crazy thing, In 24 years, we have never had a single fight!

Oh man, I could barely write that… I’m assuming that 99% of you got to that line and got super annoyed and stopped reading. That means it’s just me and you actual “never had a fight” sickos. What is wrong with you people? You baffle me.

I’m really good at fighting. In fact, I got mad this morning because when I told Adrienne that I had a rough time sleeping last night, she said, “I know,” but I knew that she was actually saying was, “I know, because you kept waking me up with your tossing and turning.”Some people, like therapists, might tell you that “mind-reading” is bad for relationships, but that’s only when you are a lousy mind-reader. I am super good at it, and I knew that’s what she actually meant, and that was not a perfectly sympathetic response. It also made me feel slightly guilty, so I was totally right to get mad. I’m super glad I did because you can’t let those sorts of things just slide by or who knows what kind of stuff she would try to get away with next!

Don’t worry; the fights aren’t one way. I bet I only start 85% of them. I don’t get away with it either. I love that Adrienne has plenty of fight in her. She’s the loveliest human I know, but she cares deeply, she’s no one’s pushover, and she’s as tough as could be! I have always secretly wished someone would maybe try and steal her purse, and Adrienne could haul off and punch them. She is supernaturally strong, and being knocked out by a 5’3′ woman would be a pretty great surprise for someone who deserved it.

My 2022 wish for Adrienne is a year with fewer things that require her to be so tough but, I promise you, she is up for the task.

Also, she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day?

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I love you Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

It’s Adrienne Day!

Story time…

In college Adrienne and I had been hanging out a TON but weren’t dating yet.

At the time I was playing volleyball for BYU on an incredible team. I’m not being falsely humble when I say that I was not incredible, but that team sure was. We would regularly set attendance records and were always a top ranked team. My teammates went on to win the National Championship, be All Americans, play professionally, and a couple of them even went on to win gold medals in the Olympics! My job on the team was mostly to give the actually good players someone to play against in practice and very very occasionally see some actual playing time in a game.

In spite of my very minor role on the team I had a weird experience with a girl who 100% only liked me because I was on the volleyball team. That’s something that sounded just fine to me in theory but in practice was pretty lame. So, even though we had been hanging out I didn’t tell Adrienne I was on the team.

OK, lets actually be honest, my aim in not telling Adrienne I was on the team was maybe 5% because of this experience and 95% how cool she was going to think I was when I dropped that bomb on her. Yeah, I know, I know. I was 21; cut me some slack…

One night Adrienne asks me what I’m up to this weekend:

“Oh, I’ve got a volleyball game.”
“Like an intramural game?”
“No, I’m on the BYU volleyball team!”
“BYU has a men’s volleyball team??”
😯

I then tried to impress her by offering to put her on the guest list and get her into the game for free, but turns out she was busy that weekend…

I’m open to Adrienne debating some minor details of my recollection here, but nothing that materially changes how amazingly she shut me down! And, honestly, I loved it.

That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Adrienne; she is totally non-pretentious. She is, in fact, allergic to pretension of any kind. If she likes or dislikes something or someone it is on its own merits. She couldn’t care less about impressing anyone, but I am still so impressed with her!

Also she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days
What is Adrienne Day? I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I love you Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

It’s Adrienne Day!

OK, it WAS Adrienne day but I didn’t have a chance to post anything because we were too busy running around Maui and then taking a red-eye flight home. That’s a pretty good excuse though, right?

Every year my work (shout out to Podium!) sends the top sales people and top performers from other departments, along with a +1, on a celebratory trip. I get to go because I’m on the exec team, as much as I would like to credit it to me being a top performer…

I have to say, celebrating Adrienne Day in Maui seems like a pretty great new tradition!

One of the things we did in Maui was Snuba , a cross between snorkeling and scuba diving where your air tank is floating above you on a raft and your regulator is attached to it with a 15’ tube. I was really really excited about this, Adrienne was really really not. Adrienne is cant-wear-a-turtleneck level claustrophobic. Just putting on the mask on dry land makes her really uncomfortable. Add in a regulator in your mouth and being 15’ underwater…not fun.

Luckily, I am amazing at dealing with phobias or other things I find to be irrational. Well, as long as you think “That’s dumb. Just do it anyway and quit being bothered by it!” is helpful. In that case, I’m your man!

I may start charging for my patented therapeutic approach. Is there a food you don’t want to eat because it grosses you out? That’s dumb. Just eat it anyway and quit being a baby. Feeling super anxious about something? Knock it off! Anxiety sucks, so don’t get anxious.

Solved! You are welcome. That will be $500.
(Note: This does not work at all and I am a jerk for responding this way)

Adrienne was a champ to agree to try snuba anyway, but she said that she might bail out or just stay on the surface and that I should go on without her. The look in her eyes though the face mask made it pretty clear that this was not happening.

That’s why it was so amazing when I looked up to check on her again and instead of seeing her hanging out on the surface she was swimming down to me and soon enough we exploring the reefs together.

After our dive the guide was blown away, “I’ve never seen anyone make that big of a change before! That was amazing!” She was giddy. So was I. Adrienne is one of the bravest people I know.

Gliding across reefs 15′ underwater while holding hands is always going be a favorite memory.

Hey Paul Baribeau, would you mind telling Adrienne how I feel about her?

Strawberry – Paul Baribeau 

To say that you are cute
Would be like saying that a strawberry is sweet
Because a strawberry has secret flavors
That are sharp, and tart, and red, and deep

And I would love to find you
Growing wild out by the woods
I would make a basket with the front of my t-shirt
And take home as many of you as I could

And to say that you are pretty
Would be like saying that the ocean is blue
Because the ocean is filled with all kinds of colors
And I see all kinds of things when I look at you

And I want to explore you
With my tennis shoes off
Standing ankle deep in a tide pool with my khaki pants rolled up

And to say that you are funny
Would be like saying that the night sky is black
Because the night sky is filled with stars and comets
And planets that no one has seen yet

And I want to look at you
Lying down on my front lawn
I’ll try to take you all in at once
But you just go on and on and on

Thanks Paul.

Also she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day?

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I love you Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

It’s Adrienne Day!

Look how stinking cute she is! Somehow she’s stayed the same age and I have aged exponentially.

I rolled out of bed this morning and tried to walk quietly on my way to the shower so I didn’t wake her up. I caught my left toe on a shoe I left on left on the floor, but I didn’t even notice that because that toe has been numb since my first back surgery in 2005 – The Hammer of Spinal Repair (Adrienne wrote that BTW). My right knee creaked as I walked, I had surgery on that in 2001, and I’ve had a bit of a limp in my left leg since I blew up my back a year ago and had to have a spinal fusion…

I trimmed my beard, partly to clip off the rampant gray hairs that have sprung up in the past year, and I had to squint a bit as I did it because it seems to take my eyes a lot longer to focus than they used to.

And then you have Adrienne somehow getting younger and better looking by the day.

Some of this is just science — I’m 6’6” and she’s 5’3 (if we are being generous), so according to this article, “Larry Bird will die young. Just ask him”, I will live to be 50 and she will live to be two hundred and forty-five. Some of it is really just that she’s too tough to age — I can’t even keep up with her anymore when we walk or hike. Some of it is the dark rituals… but I’m not allowed to talk about those.

Don’t tell anyone, but Adrienne has some gray hair too. The difference is that her’s are super cute and perfectly symmetrical and the kind of thing that people go to the salon to have done.

There isn’t anyone I’d rather asymmetrically grow old with.

Also she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day? I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

Adrienne and I were sitting on the couch the other night choosing a movie to watch and trying to get Reese to go to bed. I was obviously coming down with something because I had a fever and felt miserable. I NEVER get a fever. EVER.

Adrienne and I were joking back and forth and, even though I was legitimately miserable, I was having a great time too. Reese begged to stay up late and hang out with us because he was absolutely delighted with how much fun we have together.

I can’t blame him; we really do have so much fun together (Even when I have an absolutely unprecedented fever that means I had the flu worse than anyone has ever had it in history and I was so very brave about it and barely complained at all).

I ended up coughing my lungs out a few nights in a row and tried to fix it by soaking in a tub at 3am after taking my codeine cough medicine. In my sleep-deprived and syzurup-addled state I had the stereotypical silly-stoner moment of thinking I had a profound insight about the meaning of life and then was totally unable to remember it. I tried to dig back through my thoughts and recapture it, but besides, “God probably thinks everything we ask Him for is hilariously out of line” all I could come up with was “Spend your time with your favorite and your best.” Which, thanks codeine, I think is straight from the kids show Charlie and Lola, but is really not a half bad attempt at the meaning of life if you let it sit for a minute.

Adrienne is definitely my favorite and my best, and I’m never happier than when I’m spending my time with her.

Also she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day? I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

It’s Adrienne Day! File Feb 09, 4 53 12 PM

I was looking back though my photos to find a good picture for Adrienne Day and ended up getting lost browsing through my instagram feed and smiling at all the adventures we had this past year. We had a couple big trips and lots of little hikes and family walks and sledding and tubing, and even just hanging out in the kitchen and cooking new things together.  Between my being a Scoutmaster and a few work trips there were also a several adventures that Adrienne didn’t get to join that would have been SO much better if she were there.

I love how Adrienne is always up for an adventure and that’s she’s such good company when we are on one. She’s fun and funny and smart and curious and everything is better with her around.

Also she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day? I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

It’s Adrienne Day!

No, we aren’t having another kid! This is just one of my very favorite pictures of us even though it is super grainy and not terribly flattering. I was thinking about all the things I love about Adrienne and this moment popped into my head. I feel like this picture is REALLY a picture of us. It captured who we are so well that I freaked out and destroyed my iPhone so it would release our souls. We were in the waiting room, waiting for what was almost certainly going to be an unwanted C-section to top off a pregnancy that had already been fraught. We were a little nervous and stressed, but we were together and we were laughing and we were ready to take on anything.

Sometimes I feel like we’ve had more than our fair share of practice with hard things in life, but the practice has paid off. When the going gets tough the Penrods will form Voltron and punch the Going right in the throat.

(If we were really Voltron we would have learned from the cartoon, and we would just immediately form the Blazing Sword and use it. It always took cartoon Voltron 45 min to figure out that they just needed to form the sword and the battle would be instantly over, just like happend the last 100 times)

This is pretty much exactly what we look like when dealing with tough situations, except Adrienne is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day? I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have been celebrating it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

Adrienne

It’s Adrienne Day!

The summer before Adrienne and I got engaged I was working coaching volleyball camps. I would drive or fly out to some crazy little town and spend most of the week coaching high school girls and then come home on the weekends. I ended up in some interesting places, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico being a memorable one for the name alone.

When I was in Provo I spent every minute with Adrienne. When I was at a camp I spent every non-coaching minute thinking about Adrienne. Not just thinking about hanging out with her, but thinking about spending the rest of my life with her.

When we went to these camps we usually staying in the home of a parent of someone on the team, and in Truth or Consequences I can clearly remember excusing myself one evening to go for a walk. Their home backed up into some fairly wide open desert, and I walked around in the moonlight, trying not to step on cactus, and trying to decide if I was going to ask Adrienne to marry me.

It’s funny to think back on that and try to imagine what my thought process could have possibly been. What did I know about anything? I can’t believe I had to trust that idiot kid with my future! I would barely trust Young Josh to decide what shirt to wear!

And yet, somehow, that guy made an amazing decision.

You are kind of an idiot Young Josh, but you did good on this one. You should know that it all works out WAY better than you could have imagined. You couldn’t have chosen a better wife. You love being married to Adrienne. Just tonight you were reading through your journal and smiling at how many times you wrote something about just spending time with Adrienne doing even boring stuff like chores, and how often those entries ended with “A really nice day!”

You’ve had more than your fair sure of really nice days, and you owe an awful lot of that to marrying Adrienne. You did good Josh.

Also, she is still hot.

PS – go to class you idiot!

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days [1. I need to fix some broken images in these entries!]

What is Adrienne Day?

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, however, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have celebrated it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

Adrienne

It’s Adrienne Day!

OK, it’s not really Adrienne Day, but I’m going to tweak the date on this and pretend that it is. On Adrienne day I was building snow caves with Reese and the Boy Scouts and trying to make sure none of them froze to death on our winter campout. Then I came home and caught up on the sleep I didn’t get that night.

Adrienne is taking a well-deserved nap now. Really, she deserves about a month straight of them. We decided in advance, since we knew this campout was coming, to post-pone Adrienne Day. The fact that Adrienne and pretty much everyone in the house was sick made that an even easier decision. I’m excited for postponed Adrienne Day though, I have some fun things planned for her.

It’s so easy to write nice things about Adrienne. She loves everyone (and if she thinks you are lame, you should take a long hard look at yourself, because that means you are). Adrienne is sweet and nice and kind. She just absolutely IS those things. But don’t underestimate her toughness.

I love those Man vs Wild kind of survival shows and I sometimes make Adrienne watch them with me. She always says things like, “He is going to eat that snake raw and drink his own urine?! I would just die instead. There is no way I would do that!” That’s totally a lie. When the going gets tough Adrienne is actually unstoppable. I’ve seen her in the past month wracked with the flu, with pink eye caught from our germ-factory elementary school kids, eyes swollen mostly shut, and on not nearly enough sleep night after night, just go about her business dealing with whatever needs to be dealt with. She is no martyr about it, she is just tough and she is going to take care of her family no matter what.

She hasn’t worn makeup in a month, trying to avoid pink eye again, but even without makeup and with swollen eyes she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day?

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have been celebrating it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

adrienne.jpg

It’s Adrienne Day!

It’s no secret that I really, really, really like Adrienne. But here is a secret; I like her even more on our fifteenth Adrienne Day then I did on the first. That sounds kind of awful doesn’t it? But it’s true. That takes nothing away from how much I liked her before, I used to like her a ten. It’s just that, here we are, both with a little gray in our hair (her’s is cute), and I’ve found out this Like goes to eleven.

I couldn’t be happier/luckier/more blessed to be married to her.

Also, she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day with a comment!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day?

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when we were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have been celebrating it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

adrienne11b.jpg

It’s Adrienne Day! If that’s not a good reason to write something new on this rusty robot I can’t imagine what is. Let me give you fair warning though, if you don’t want to hear me gush about my wife just go away now. I’m serious; I’m totally going to do it. Even worse; I totally mean it.

I’m sitting across from Adrienne right now and she has no idea I’m writing this. We are playing songs and making mix tapes. We can still call them that right? It just isn’t the same to call them “mix cds” or, ugh!, just “playlists”. I’m trying to think of things more awesome that sitting here playing songs for each other and talking, but I’m not coming up with a very long list.

We have had a really crazy past year or so. Moving, me being in the hospital on Christmas Eve and doing my best impression of someone who is going to die, me on LOTS of airplanes… but Adrienne just hung in there through it all. I got laid off for the first time in my life shortly after the hospital stay and there was no freak out then either. She wasn’t worried at all because she believes in me. She makes ME believe in me.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been stressed about something I have to do and Adrienne just says something like, “Seriously? You will be amazing.” and she means it. I think, “Well then, there’s not a chance in hell I’m letting her down!”

I’m definitely a better me with her around than I would be on my own.

Also, she is hot.

Take a minute out of your busy day and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day with a comment!

Previous Adrienne Days

What is Adrienne Day?

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when were were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne Day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have been celebrating it ever since.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

Adrienne_day.jpg

Ugh, It’s Adrienne Day and I am on a business trip. I woke up early with the intention of making breakfast before I left for the airport, but I realized 2 things:

  1. Adrienne was not going to think it was a treat to be woken up to eat breakfast at 6am.
  2. If I tried to make breakfast I was going to miss my flight.

I have to be honest, this Adrienne day snuck up on me. Things have been a little bit absolutely insane lately and I didn’t plan for this like I should have. She should have woken up to breakfast in bed and had flowers delivered, and found a present waiting for her that I had bought weeks ago. None of that happened. Instead I got on a plane. I got on the same plane twice actually because they found a “suspicious object” and had to take us all off, do a full security sweep of the plane, and then re-board us. My bet is they found a spork on the floor and TSA swooped in to handle the situation. So I got on a plane on Adrienne day, flew a couple states away and worked all day. In fact, I am still sitting at my desk.

Adrienne, I am sure, woke up and made breakfast for the kids. Made lunch for Reese, helped him get ready for his early morning Spanish class, and dropped him off. I bet she came home and read with the girls a bit, did some chores around the house, made them lunch, got them ready for and took them to gymnastics. She probably ran some errands, did some more things around the house, made dinner for kids and is getting them ready for bed soon. A pretty normal boring day.

I wish I had made the day special for her. We will have a raincheck and I promise I’ll make it up to her.

Now, all that said, I really like our not too exciting days. Last night I was walking towards the dining room for dinner and there was this perfect image, framed through the doorway, lit warmly from above. My wonderful wife and 3 kids sitting around the table set with gold flatware, talking and smiling, and I felt as happy as I have felt about anything. I couldn’t be more in love with Adrienne and more happy that I get to spend my days with her, boring or not.

Also, she is hot.

Take a second and wish Adrienne a Happy Adrienne Day!

See Past Adrienne Days

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

I was just in San Francisco for work and I kept thinking, “This would be so much more fun if Adrienne were here!” After nearly 11 years of marriage I still miss her when I am away for just a day or two.  If it is longer than a few days I start doing  things like this. Not because of some sort of neediness, but because life is so much more fun with her.

Also, she is hot.

Past Adrienne Days

Take a minute and wish Adrienne a Happy Adrienne Day!

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

love

It’s Adrienne Day!*

Do you want to know what Adrienne got for Adrienne Day? See that heart right there? That is from the Holiday font set from House Industries. How great is it that my wife asks for fonts as a present‽ ←What my little font-nerd friends? Did I just drop an interrobang on you? Yes, yes I did.

It is harder to orchestrate a great Adrienne day now that we have three kids, but the way Adrienne deals with them makes me want to give her 365 Adrienne Days. She is far more likely to be drawing, painting, writing, reading, or having a dance party with them than she is to park them in front of the TV. I think that if we were landed gentry with access to the finest tutors in the world our kids minds would not be in better hands than they are in now–or my mind for that matter…

It is the greatest thing in the world to be married to someone like Adrienne. We can talk about anything as equals. The first time we really hung out together in college we ended up talking for 6 hours. We can still talk for 6 hours and never be bored.

Also, she is hot.

Please take a second to wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day.

•Here is a brief history of Adrienne Day.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

Adrienneday

Everyone wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day!

I am afraid it hasn’t been a great Adrienne Day for Adrienne. I ended up being really sick today and instead of taking her out I have been wrapped up in a blanket moping on the couch. But let me take a second to give you an example of why Adrienne deserves an Adrienne day. When she was little she had a little oscillating fan in her bedroom and as she fell asleep she would make sure to smile at the fan when it turned her way so it would know she appreciated its hard work. How cute is that!?

Also, she is totally hot.


Here are some Amishrobot entries about, or involving Adrienne.

I Love You Adrienne, Happy Adrienne Day!

Adrienneandanna-1

Once again, I ask you to take time out of your busy schedules to wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne Day (Here is a brief history of Adrienne Day).

I could easily start another site called “Things That Are Wonderful About Adrienne” and keep it much better updated than this one. Until I get around to that, here are some Amishrobot entries about, or involving, Adrienne:

And, I think the funniest thing on the site was written by Adrienne, The Hammer Spinal Repair

Also, I am really glad the kids got her looks.

I Love you Adrienne, happy Adrienne day!

heart Today is Adrienne day.

I hate Valentine’s day. It is a cheesy, commercial mess of a holiday. I can’t stand it. Adrienne, on the other hand, I love. So, when were were dating and Valentine’s day was approaching I decided to take control over my own holiday destiny and I invented Adrienne day. I arbitrarily chose February 9th and we have been celebrating it ever since.

Oh I know, you come for the funny and here I am with all this “love” talk! Take one second to leave a comment and wish Adrienne a happy Adrienne day and I will go back to being your prank monkey.


California Stars

I am sitting in Starbucks in Fullerton CA writing a report for work. How I came to be in Fullerton is a story in and of itself. It involved my family being down here and me being in Utah, a crushing case of burnout, and a song I couldn’t get out of my head. It ended in a spur-of-the-moment 90 mph drive to California.

I really enjoy my job, but it is mentally exhausting. A couple of quotes from websites describing being a usability specialist:

Observing well is hard and exhausting…

The tester’s job requires an intense and exhausting level of concentration…

I was exhausted.

A couple days ago I woke up at 4am replacing the back of my alarm clock. I had been dreaming that I had to evaluate its interface and make recommendations to improve it by morning. I later noticed that I had managed to move the time forward by four hours and 15 minutes.

I don’t know how to explain how burnt out I felt. It wasn’t like I was going to go postal, more like I was going to crawl under my desk and start sobbing.

Adrienne and I had planned to go to California, but I couldn’t go. There was too much work and too few workers. Two babies born to two of my team members within a week, and another team member was in Mexico, leaving just me and my boss.

I sent Adrienne and Reese off to play in California for eleven days while I focused on work. By Saturday morning, day nine, I was completely and totally fried. I was sitting on the couch writing a report for work and listening to music, when California Stars came on.

California Stars

I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars

I’d love to feel your hand touching mine
And tell me why I must keep working on
Yes, I’d give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars

I’d like to dream my troubles all away
On a bed of California stars
Jump up from my starbed and make another day
Underneath my California stars

They hang like grapes on vines that shine
And warm the lovers glass like friendly wine
So, I’d give this world
just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars

– Woody Guthrie

That was it. I was taking a break. I had to. I was going to lay my head on a bed of California stars, and I was going to do it that night. I IMed my boss and said, “I am going to California.” To his great credit, especially since it meant him holding down the fort at work all by himself, he just replied, “Have fun.” I quickly packed and jumped in the car. I only stopped to get gas.

As I got off the freeway in Fullerton the air was cool and moist and smelled like orange blossoms, and out of the 4,000 songs on my ipod, California Stars began to play.

Adrienne and Reese were rather surprised to see me 750 miles from home.

But vacation has to wait. Right now I am paying $10 for high speed wireless internet in Starbucks and hammering out a report for work. Even though I am still working, just being here is such a relief, I feel like my brain works again. I can think clearly again, and I feel physically lighter. I am going to finish this report tonight and not think about work at all for a few days.

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I am done with the report now, and the California stars are calling.