Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Order your advance copy TODAY!

One of the projects that I have completed at my job is to help with the editing and production of this book, "Fiscal Challenges: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Budget Policy" Thre is a very nice "thank you" to me at the beginning and I must say that I am very proud of all the work that I did on it! Don't you think this is going to be on the top-seller list for Amazon.com?

Just wanted to share with you all!

Love and such

Monday, September 17, 2007

Dinner Tonight?



So our realtor got us a crock pot as our closing gift. I've never had one nor had I ever used one so we'd thought we'd fire it up today since Brandon is actually in town this week. We went with a pork roast with potatoes covered with a ranch sauce comprised of cream of chicken soup, cream cheese and ranch seasoning. The house smells pretty good. It's been cooking for about 3 hours. And by the looks of the clock, we'll be eating in one hour and 56 minutes.







We'll let you know how it tastes.

xo!
-M

Karl's week of food

Monday
8:30 am – Vanilla yogurt and granola (8oz yogurt, 2oz granola)
1:00 pm – tuna salad (tuna, mayonnaise, ranch, relish) not a sandwich because we have no bread (6oz), apple
10:30 pm – two spoonfuls of peanut butter, two chicken kabobs (chicken, green and red peppers, zucchini) with 2 cups rice

Tuesday
12:35 am – One more chicken kabob
12:46 am – Haagen-Dazs caramel ice cream (2 cups) it was light by the way
8:55 am – Yogurt and granola same as yesterday
4:30 pm – Two bowls of Honey Bunches of Oates with vanilla clusters (skim milk)
6:00 pm – Pb&j (I tend to make a pretty heavy pb&j. If my memory serves me correctly I got this from Ryan who does the same) and some milk straight from the carton.

Aside: I try to drink from the container whenever possible. I also only use one Tupperware container as a bowl/plate. Whenever I’m done I wash it and the spoon I use and put them back in my drawer. I figure if everyone did it we would never have dishes. Not everyone else is on the same page though.

8:30 pm – 6 inch spicy Italian on wheat from subway
11:30 pm – 2 orders of grilled stake taquitos, a caramel apple empanada and some of emily’s diet mt. Dew

Wednesday
8:15 am – yogurt and granola again
12:45 pm – two slices of sbarro’s pizza from wright food court, my freshman eatery. Very nostalgic.
6:45 pm – Had a naked juice at work… the protein one. 40 grams of protein in a 12oz drink… cool dude.
9:45 pm – 2.5 cups of tuna noodle helper, some Parmesan flavor. 2 chocolate cookies
10:45 pm – 2 pb&js and some milk

Thursday
8:30 am – yogurt and granola
4:45 pm – two sugar cookies
5:10 pm – bowl of honey bunches of oats with peaches. (skim milk)
6:15-9:00 pm – We had a picnic and I had lots of cookies (probably 10-20) some potato salad (about 2 cups) some barbeque chips and a chicken breast… and two root beers… I ate way too much.

Friday
9:15 am – one packet of apple cinnamon oatmeal
12:10 pm – two chicken breast deli meat sandwiches… and two more cookies
7:10 pm – Naked juice at work again… protein one again
10:00 pm – Baconator value meal and a jr. bacon cheeseburger from wendy’s… I had a root beer with the meal… I know I’m fat… leave me alone. These wendy’s commercials lately though have been really stupid and I’m thinking about boycotting them too.

Saturday
10:10 am – yogurt and granola
11:00 am – two bowls of honey bunches of oats with peaches (skim milk)
12:00 pm – two chicken breast deli meat sandwiches
4:00 pm – Some cereal samples from the sample lady… like a handful
7:00 pm – 9 chocolate turtle things. These teenagers outside of Kroger were selling them trying to make money for basketball uniforms. How could I say no? Not to mention I had cash on my, which I never do.
10:15 pm – Someone’s leftover breadstick, 2 bowls of honey bunches of oats with vanilla clusters
11:20 pm – Big can of Bush’s baked beans… I didn’t finish the whole thing, but still… I probably shouldn’t have eaten it.

Sunday
9:45 am – yogurt and granola
12:00 pm – two chicken breast deli meat sandwiches
9:15 pm – some gummy worms
11:15 pm – about half a pizza and four breadsticks and diet soda from pizza express

3:24 a.m. Monday morning insomnia

Well hello everyone. What? A post from Betsey? at 3:24 in the morning? What is going on? Actually in Indiana, mom and dad are up for their day, so I thought I should get up too. Okay, not really. I woke up at 2:15 and just couldn't get back to sleep. I've been catching up on some emails and thought I would post to the old Gimbel Family Forum. I thought I would give you all a weekend wrap-up from Team Hawkins. Keep you posted on our exciting lives here in LA. I will title it, Top 10 activities from Team Hawkins during the weekend of September 14 through September 16.

10. Friday drive to Fresno. One of my roommates from my time in Washington D.C. got married and had an open house in Fresno, where she grew up. Fresno isn't really a pretty town, and it is kind of in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't exactly on my top 10 list of places to go in CA, but it was nice to see my friends April and Cord (the bride and groom)

9. In Fresno, Richard and I wanted to find a yummy restaurant to eat at. We have been trying to limit our out-to-eat activities and only try new restaurants, or something that we are really looking forward to. Frankly, this is because we end up eating out at La Salsa all the time because it is close and we are lazy. So, we drove around Fresno for a while and ended up at Red Robin. Man, that place is a gut-buster. Delicious, but the rest of the night, we both felt sick.

8. Saturday was the bowling and cupcake extravaganza for my college friend Emmalee's birthday. I have to say, although it was great to celebrate Emmy's birthday, the highlight was the fact that I won bowling! I even broke 100 (okay, my score was 106, but still...over 100). Richard thinks that with daily practice, I could have a career. I think the best part was that I totally came from behind, with two strikes right at the end and won. I seriously was in last place the entire time.

7. Okay, since the last one really didn't focus on the b-day celebration as it should, I thought I could at least devote two highlights to the birthday party. Emmy is turning 28 on the 18th and apparently 28 is the year of the kitchen products. We gave her a pink cupcake carrier to transport all her yummy treats and her brother and sister-in-law gave her a deviled egg tray, for displaying her deviled eggs. She promised to invite us all over for deviled eggs and cupcakes. Yummy! (by the way, did you know that Casey makes the best deviled eggs? Have her make you some...seriously!)

6. This should really be the best highlight, number 1 from the weekend...but I seem to be following a chronological order rather than an excitement order...so we'll just keep it here. Saturday night we went to a lecture with IRA GLASS!!! That is right people. IRA GLASS! My NPR boyfriend. Richard is slightly threatened. He was discussing radio and storytelling at USC. He talked and shared stories for over an hour and then took questions from the audience. It was a great show and a fun date for me and Richard. Plus it was a cheap date! USC students and staff got in for free! Thank you tuition dollars!

5. We can't ignore the fact that Richard and I managed to squeeze in some very exciting homework this weekend. That is all we are going to say about that.

4. I made Jello! (maybe I am getting sleepy again...this is getting pretty boring!) I found some jello in our pantry and decided to make it. Richard was skeptical and thought that Jello was a lame idea. I convinced him otherwise when I busted out the whipped cream for the top. It was a tasty dessert!

3. Church! Where I said from the stand that I have a mental illness (long story people...this is getting to be a long post. I'm not even going to go into that).

2. Law and Order! The 7th season of L&O SVU is not that great. For every really riveting and exciting episode, there is one episode analyzing Benson or Stabler's psyche. I don't care about them as people! That is the beauty of L&O! You don't have to follow the story line each week, you can just enjoy the 42 minutes of adventure and criminal behavior and then call it a day. I don't care if Stabler has anger management issues and his wife left him! We had to watch two episodes to compensate for the one boring Stabler-based episode.

1. Richard! I love spending the whole weekend with my husband! He is the number one highlight because he is my favorite part of the weekend. Plus he is the best husband ever. I got out of bed at 2:14 and went to the living room. 10 minutes later, he got out of bed and joined me. He is right now sleeping on the other couch. He makes himself miserable for me! Isn't that just so sweet.

Maybe I should try to go back to sleep for a few hours.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Let's hear it for MARJORIE!


I just got a call from my big sister and she got a job offer as a global marketing director (or something like that. I'm terrible at remember things like that) She will have a job again! I'm sure Brandon is probably more excited than she is.

We love you, Marjorie and are so incredibly proud of you!


xo
-K

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Rude professor

I realize professors are busy, but I found this email to be pretty rude so I responded accordingly.

RE: Gerwigs

With all the recent traffic on the blog about the Gerwigs, I thought I'd share an anecdote.

We made many really cool friends in England, but one of our very favorites were the Bassetts. They're about our age and have the funniest four year old girl and a little baby named Oscar. Anyway, we were eating dinner once and we got to chatting about where we were from. I mentioned I was from Indiana and Ryan casually mentiones that he has only known one other person from Indiana.

"Yeah, there was this elder in my mission...Gerwig. He was really into hunting. Kind of a weird guy, always killing squirrels and stuff."

I was gobsmacked. Ryan had served in Greece with Mike Gerwig. And he thought he was weird too.

It's a small world after all.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Christmas List



I know this is a bit early, but I was doing the Christmas Exchange List for my family, so I decided to do the Gimbel list too to ease all our future consciences. I used Edward's 10 sided die to make sure it was random. (Nerd) So here it is:

Ryan gives to Brandon
Casey gives to Richard
Margie gives to Betsey
Brandon gives to Emily
Betsey gives to Meridth
Richard gives to Margie
Edward gives to Karl
Meridth gives to Casey
Karl gives to Ryan
Emily gives to Edward

Hooray for the holiday seasons.

love,

Meridth

ps. Miss you all

Monday, September 10, 2007

FOOD!!!


So I know it might sound boring but I think i'm going to record for you all what I eat in the next week. I think one of two things will happen. You will be amazed at all the junk I eat and it will stimulate some good conversation. You will become more aware of what you eat and it will help Gimbel Nation become more healthy. That or I will be self-conscience about all the peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches I eat and decide to eat better.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Ryan's quick quiz

The answer to one of Karl's questions shocked me a bit. 3 speeding tickets Karl? really? WOW.

I bet no one in the family can guess how many speeding tickets i have had and for what amounts over the limit. I'd be willing to put some money on this one. I'll give you a little hint. i have never had a speeding ticket out here in Utah.

-ryan

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Friday, September 7, 2007

Essay Portion

Alright, technically mom and dad are the winners, but they can work together on the essay portion since they're kind of a team. The other finalist is Betsey. Just write your answer in the comments section and of course don't copy the answer because I will clearly know and disqualify everyone. The question is...

If I were to win the lottery (say $250 million plus) what would I do with it? Feel free to write as much or as little as you like, longer is not necessarily better though. And anyone else can answer this too if they want. In the case of a tie there will be a question to decide the winner. Good luck.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

I'm shooting for the Gimbel Family Forum's first annual MVB award.


How well do you know me (karl). Take this quiz and find out. Record your answers to yourself and in a short time the correct answers will be posted for you to compare. The two top scorers will advance to take an essay test to see who knows me the best. Good luck.

1. Other than basketball, what sport did Karl participate in during high school?
A. Baseball
B. Track
C. Football
D. Soccer

2. Karl has worked at all these places except…
A. Little Caesar’s
B. Driggs Farms
C. Dolco
D. Kroger

3. Karl applied to three colleges: Indiana, Purdue, and…
A. Brigham Young University
B. Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne
C. University of Wisconsin
D. University of Montana

4. Karl’s intramural teams in college are called the…
A. Broncos
B. Braves
C. Decatur Gators
D. Bulls

5. Karl’s first NBA jersey was of what player?
A. Scottie Pippen
B. Shaquille O’Neal
C. Michael Jordan
D. Bernard King

6. How many summers has Karl worked at GM?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

7. What was Karl’s high school graduation ranking?
A. 26th
B. 34th
C. 45th
D. 51st

8. Karl played for what Decatur Football League team?
A. Bears
B. Cowboys
C. Colts
D. Steelers

9. Karl’s first flight was to…
A. Rusty’s wedding
B. Florida for spring break
C. Betsey’s wedding
D. Los Angeles for the 4th of July

10. Karl has had how many speeding tickets?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

11. Karl lost to whom for Homecoming King?
A. Ryan Kable
B. Tyler Fullenkamp
C. Sean Cook
D. Preston Russett

12. Karl lost to whom for Prom King?
A. Ryan Kable
B. Tyler Fullenkamp
C. Sean Cook
D. Preston Russett

13. Karl completed GRABAAWR how many times?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

Sunday, September 2, 2007