Manburger Faces his Fear

Here I am, holding my little nephew. This look is not a pose, that is genuine fear on my face. I'm not sure why little babies scare me so much, but they do. They are just so tiny and cute and fragile. I guess when you are an ogre, you just get a little nervous around delicate things. He is so cute though! Not long after this picture, he got hungry and started to suckle at my teet. Hopefully that gender confusion won't last long. Here we are just shortly after the baby blessing with the proud parents. It is so weird for me to think that my brother is a daddy. Just yesterday we were both still 16. Well, I mean I was 14 and he was 16. They grow up so fast. Yogurl and I are both very grateful that they had a child though. Now the pressure from Momma Manburger is off for us to produce a grandchild for her. She looked so happy holding her little grandson. I wish we had gotten a picture of it. Maybe at Christmas we'll get a chance. This blog is being put up a week late. The baby blessing was last Sunday, the 3rd. This week nothing really interesting happened. We had a ward Christmas party with the theme of "Christmas in Zarahemla." It was pretty cool. We had paper mache volcanos on each table. They came around once and put dry ice in them so they looked like they were smoking. It was cool. We also got to eat yummy Hispanic food instead of normal Christmas food. Today I got a calling as the assistant scout leader for the 11 and 12 year old boys. I'm a little sad. Now Yogurl and I have to move again so I can get away from yet another calling. Oh well. We have a year lease in this place, though, so I guess I'll have to get myself deployed somehow. Just kidding. That's it for now. 

Fake Tree and Fake Egg Nog

Yogurl and I have decided to start a tradition of putting up our Christmas tree for FHE the first Monday after Thanksgiving. An important part of this tradition is drinking egg nog. Since egg nog is really unhealthy, we made some phony egg nog. It has egg substitute, protein powder, nutmeg, rum extract and sugar-free vanilla pudding mix. Believe it or not, it was really good. Not as good as the real stuff, but significantly less bad for you.Here I am assembling the Christmas tree. It was really easy. You just stuck the main part into the stand and then peeled down the branches so that it fluffed out like a real tree.
Et voila! Our phony little tree. We really like it a lot. It's four feet tall and it has fiber optic cables runing through it that light up different colors all through the tree and constantly change. It is really cool! We don't have ornaments yet, just a cheap string of beads we bought at the dollar store. It'll get better.
 

Thanksgiving at the Messhall

That's right. For Thanksgiving Yogurl insisted on eating at the Messhall. This has caused quite a bit of explaining on my part over the last few weeks. Conversations like this: "Hey Manburger, you got plans for Thanksgiving?"
"Yes, sir."
"You going up to eat with your family, or does your wife want to make it herself?" At this point I'm thinking, Oh crud, do I really have to get into this again?
"Actually, we'll be eating at the messhall for Thanksgiving, sir."
"Are you serious?" He asks with a look that says, What kind of a terrible husband makes his wife eat at the messhall?
"Yes, sir. My wife really wants to eat there this year."
"Look, Manburger, you guys can eat with us if you want. You know that they have giveaways of Thanksgiving food, if you need help."
"No, it's not that, sir. My wife actually wants to eat at the chowhall."
"Okay, man, whatever. If you need somewhere to eat, just let me know."
However, despite all coworker beliefs that I must be punishing my wife for something, here she is, happy as can be to eat at the chowhall. I got off duty at 7:30 that morning, came home, and we went jogging on the beach. Then we were off to get Thanksgiving breakfast burritos from the nearby mexican restaurant. What made them Thanksgiving breakfast burritos, you ask? Well, we ate them on Thanksgiving. Then I went home and slept for a while, and it was off to the messhall. We ate at the chowhall that serves force recon guys and amphibious assault guys. Needless to say, it wasn't like the airwinger chowhalls to which I've grown accustomed. Everybody in the place had a high and tight instead of having a haircut which could be mistaken for a civilian. I also sat down in the SNCO/Officer section for a minute, since the messhall near work doesn't make that distinction. We all just sit wherever. Oops. No big deal, there wasn't many people there anyway.
Yumm! Look at all that good grub! I thought it was really good, and so did Yogurl. The only real problem was that they had run out of pumpkin pie. That's okay, Yogurl made some at home and it was fabulous. 

Happy Birthday Ball

Well, I guess the biggest news from over here is that Yogurl and I got to go to our first Marine Corps Ball together! Last year I was on duty and Yogurl was in the wrong state anyway. This year we got to go together and have fun though. You'll notice that I am now Corporal Manburger and no longer Lance Corporal Manburger. It kinda sounds like a demotion since the title got shorter, but I assure you it is a promotion. Conveniently in the picture below, my arm is blocking my belt buckle. You see, when you become an NCO, you are supposed to get the buckle with an Eagle, Globe and Anchor on it. Oops. I knew I forgot something. Lucky for me, a Marine that I work with showed up with an extra NCO buckle not too long after, so I was able to change and not have to walk around with my cover in front of my belt all night long. Yogurl got to have lots of fun, too. She's eager to tell you all about it, so I'll let her write now.

It was fun to pretend to be fancy grown-ups for a night. Lots of pretty dresses and lots of alcohol. Fortunately, we didn't have to get smashed to enjoy ourselves ;) The food was pretty good, it was at a Marriott hotel. I guess Manburger and I are getting pretty old because we were back home by 10:30pm, sheesh! I'm looking forward to next year's event and seeing if it runs the same or if they change things up a little and maybe let us eat some MC birthday cake. I was pretty bummed that they used a huge cake for the ceremony, but we didn't get to eat any. What's a birthday without birthday cake? Oh well, we did have a yummy lime cheesecake instead.
I loved seeing all the different uniforms for the officers and the Staff NCOs. I definitely am a fan of the Staff NCO mess dress. Talking with Marines and their wives, whom I had never met was a bit of a challenge, but I think I feel better prepared for next year after floundering a little this time. Manburger was praised quite a bit by his senior officers and it just made me so happy to think I'm the one that got to marry him. What a stud!!
Here's my final ensemble after much advice from family and friends. It's fun having my own fashion consultants. I felt elegant and so mature, not at all like I felt for prom. And yes, this was about 6 million times better than prom. My date didn't have to go home at curfew ;)
Manburger: Thursday, Yogurl and I went to Knott's Berry Farm. It was free for active duty and a dependent. I guess they are doing it for Veteran's Day. Since we went early on a Thursday, there were almost no lines at all. It wouldn't have been worth full price, but for the price of parking, it was sure worth it. We were reminded that we aren't as young anymore after riding a spinny ride that made us, me especially, quite nauseated. After that ride, it was just easy gentle rides the rest of the day. Yogurl kept saying how she wished Knott's Berry Farm were still a berry farm and how free admission to an eat-all-you-can-pick berry place would be the coolest thing ever. The best thing all day was when I got to eat my first funnel cake. Yeah, I can hardly believe I had never had one before either. Needless to say, there will be plenty more in my future. Yogurl says, "Yummmm!"
Today we went to a little fall festival thing at a local ranch. It was pretty fun. Yogurl got to try different chilis for the chili cook-off, which made her day. I was a little disappointed that there was no Cincinnasty chili there. I'm sure it would have won "most unique." I also decided to try a pepper eating contest and almost died. It burned so bad and I had nothing to eat so I just wandered around gasping for a while as my nose dripped all over. Good times.
Exciting news from my side of the family is that we have a nephew now. We haven't gone out to see him yet, but we are going to go in a few weeks for the baby blessing in Lancaster. How exciting! That's all for now, take care. 

Happy Halloween!

I hope everybody around the country didn't give up on Halloween this year like they did on our street. We didn't have a single trick-or-treater come by. Of course, we were gone until about 7 because we went to our old stake's trunk-or-treat party, but still. I was expecting people to come by at least until 8 or even 9. Maybe kids around here actually care about school and so wanted to get to bed early. Losers. Well, John Kerry would be proud that they care about their education so that they won't end up getting stuck in the military, like me. Yuck, yuck.

Yogurl and I had so much going on the last couple weeks that we hadn't really thought much about costumes. Fortunately, Yogurl whipped up two costumes while I was at work. She picked me up from work and we went straight over to the party with our only friends. I'm a French chef and Yogurl is a gypsy, just in case you couldn't tell. I wish I had been Quasimodo and she had been a gypsy, but that is what I am everyday, so it wouldn't have been much of a costume.

These are our only friends, Lisa and Ali. Ali is the cutest little Carebear! She got a lot of candy that the rest of us promptly picked at. It was for her own good, of course.
No post is complete without Yogurl adding a picture of one of her yummy creations. I'll let her describe it to you, as I can see she is eager to do.
These are yummy "Yogurl-acos" as Manburger called them, b/c we aren't quite sure you'd find them on a Latino family's dining table. Since we've moved out to California, I've really fallen in love with Mexican food. Actually, mostly just my "Mexican" healthy creations. These tacos have homemade refried beans (not actually fried), cabbage, cilantro, tomato/cucumber/red onion salsa, and fresh garlic salsa, also some Monterey-Jack cheese. Yummy!! I think I could probably eat them everyday. I've also been making winter squash tacos lately with all the fun squash Manburger and I have been buying. Sounds a little weird, but I really like it. Where's the meat, you ask, well I don't miss it at all. 

Lots of excitement

Here's me living up to my namesake by making YOGURT! Manburger and I got a gift certificate for test driving a Hyundai (sweet deal, huh?) so I got the yogurt maker and he bought himself the set of X-Men DVDs. My yogurt turned out tasty. And it's not too hard either, just heat the milk and dry milk, let cool, add starter, and place in yogurt maker for a few hours and ...it's yogurt!

Here's Manburger pretending to be truck driver on moving day. He did a great job loading and driving the truck. He definitely gets brownie points for making this move a lot more fun than I thought it would be. What a husband!!

This past weekend we went up to Santa Clarita to visit Manburger's best friend from high school. That's Bryce and his fiance, Rebeckah, in the photo with us. We had a great time and Bryce and Manburger really enjoyed themselves eating Nana's famous banana cake.
Isn't this a beautiful picture? It was kind of cloudy the day I took the picture, but this is what we see when we walk the 1.5 blocks to beach at sunset. Is it any wonder we chose this place over living in the desert?
The funny little dark spots in the water are surfers. No doubt this is California.
 

Our New Place

Tadah!! It's our new apartment...less than two blocks from the beach, less than a mile from "the Village" dowtown, and complete with a fireplace!

Here's our wonderfully large bathroom with big mirror and lots of storage space. Now Manburger can shave and I can do my makeup without having to fight over the mirror.
This is Yogurl's dream kitchen (atleast for now). The only catch is that the oven is electric, but I think I can put up with it for all the cabinets and counter space.
This is the bedroom with the double doors that open onto our private patio. Someday when we have money we'll buy a new dining set and move our current plastic table and chairs to the patio.
 

World Premier vs Free Burritos

This week we found out that the coolest thing was happening right near where we live. Chipotle was giving out free burritos for one night to all military and their families! Also that same night, on base, was the world premier of the WWE enternainment movie, The Marine, starring John Cena. As far as I know it's a movie about how John Cena is really buff and can kill people in ridiculous ways. Anyway, I thought it was really cool that they had the world premier here on base. We went at the beginning part when all the stars were showing up, and then left before the movie started. A free Chipotle burrito sounded more satisfying than a corny action flick anyway. Besides, I just wanted to go so I could see Rick Flair, Triple H and John Cena.
Yogurl here: Yesterday Manburger and I drove down to La Jolla for a ward temple assignment. Since we got there a bit early, we decided to go see the Mount Soledad Cross that has been a popular topic of controversy for the last few months (something about separation of church and state). The view at the top was amazing!! We drove up some crazy windy, steep streets to get there and saw lots of houses that were worth more than we'd make in a lifetime (literally). Thankfully our little blue car did just fine up the hills. The picture below shows most of La Jolla and the beautiful Pacific.

On a side note, Manburger and I discovered an awesome new Weird Al song. It's called "White and Nerdy" and is a parody of the rap song "Riding Dirty." Really, really hiliarious. We found it on MSN Videos. There are a few things he says in the song that totally reminded me of those crazy boys in our ward who made Star Wars movies constantly and had most of the Holy Grail memorized. Anyway, just pull it up and watch it, it's sure to make you laugh.
Also, seeing as how I am Yogurl I have to mention something about food. Yes, our Chipotle burritoes were "da bomb." And after our trip to La Jolla instead of eating at the Whole Foods market like we tend to do, we decided to save some $ and buy ourselves wonderful Mexican pasteries from La Perla. Manburger and I are sure going to miss that place when we move, but since this is Southern California, there's sure to be another somewhere near us. Maybe not as good as La Perla, but possibly. They have this wonderful version of a Hostess cupcake with custard in the middle...fabulous. And their Tres Leches is the best I've had yet.
They finally closed the pools here. I know it's only October, sheesh! The weather is getting a little cooler, only in then 70's during the peak of the day. I'm starting to think I might have to wear non-sandals soon. It's crazy how quickly I've adapted to this warm weather. I'm trying to keep my body from thinking that the high 50's are cold. Soon enough the rain will come and end this eternal summer.
That's about it for this week. Happy Columbus Day to all and have a great week!! 

Yogurl couldn't find a dress and neither could the ring girls!

Hey everybody, great week here for Yogurl and me. We got approved to move to our dream place. It is bigger, nicer, cheaper, and most importantly only two blocks from the beach. It is quite a bit further from work, which means no more riding my bike everyday, but quite a bit closer to everything else. We still haven't told anybody in our ward that we are moving, but we'll get around to it. We'll have pictures of the new place up soon. We'll be moving in the 19th.
Friday night we went to watch some free boxing matches at the field right near where we live. It was pretty fun. Yogurl and I hadn't ever seen live boxing matches before. I don't know if Yogurl had ever even watched boxing before. It was pretty fun. The first match was a super welterweight match. I think they weighed like 110lbs each. One guy was making his debut and the other guy was 0-6. He was 0-7 after this match. Poor guy. Yogurl's favorite part was the ring girls who looked like they forgot to put clothes on over their underwear. After the first couple matches they put more clothes on, partly because it was getting cold I'm sure. After four matches our friend had to take her daughter home, so we just left with them.

The next morning Yogurl got up early and went to a gown give-away. She was number 314. Not surprisingly, she didn't make it home in time for the morning conference session. Sadly, she didn't find a gown she liked, though she did get free shampoo that smells like banana and licorice. She later found some gowns she likes online. They are a good price, so I like them too.

We thoroughly enjoyed conference. We got to see Mike's dad talk, and he did a great job, as well as my friend Derek's dad. Anthony Perkins was his name. No, not the one from Psycho. Conference was just full of really great talks, as it always is. Yogurl wanted to go to church for the Sunday morning session. She thought that there would be a lot of people there, but that is because she doesn't know how California works, yet. When we got there it was just us, three sets of Elders, and three other people I believe. A few more showed up, but not the amount she was expecting. It wasn't done very well at the chapel, either. The sound was about two or three seconds ahead of the video. It was like watching Kung Pow, Enter the Conference. We watched the rest online at home.

Everything else is going great here. Love you all, give us a call or e-mail us sometime!

Desert meets the Island

Yogurl here!! I have to apologize about the lack of pictures. We were doing so well about photos, but this weekend we really fell off the horse. Not to worry, we’ll be better in the future.
Manburger and I had a fun weekend up in Lancaster at the folk’s. The main reason we went up was for our sister-in-law’s baby shower, but it just so happened that she and Ian were moving into their new apartment from the folk’s house too. So Manburger and Ian got to move a heavy and awkward refrigerator up a long flight of stairs with a killer turn. I was most impressed with their moving skills. I helped too, but the men did the hard work. They were both thoroughly pooped afterwards.
That afternoon we went to the big baby shower bash, and no kidding, it was the best baby shower ever!! Why? Well Ian’s wife is Palauan and all of her family (men and women) got together for a huge party with tons of fabulous Palauan food. I don’t thing I’ve ever had egg rolls so delicious. Manburger and I totally enjoyed eating all kinds of fun things like tapioca dumplings, California rolls, pit-roasted pig, purple yams, donuts from scratch, and homemade egg rolls. They did a money dance where the aunts and uncles all danced around and taped money to Ian and Audra. They made out like bandits from that event. And this wasn’t a one-hour party, it went on most of the day. So, like I said, it made other baby showers look pathetic and boring in comparison.
Friday evening we drove up to Lancaster a different way than we normally do and ended up on two detours and got lost once. Fortunately we got there safely in relatively good time, but not without Yogurl having to apologize for getting “frantic.” Manburger is such a patient husband!!
The only really fun thing I made last week was a winter squash soup and a yummy cabbage salad. See the photo above. The salad had apples, red cabbage, sunflower seeds, carrots, onion, dried cranberries, and orange vinaigrette. I brought the salad to the monthly military wives luncheon and we ate the leftovers with the soup for dinner.
Manburger and I are doing wonderfully. The weather is just starting to get nice and cool in the evening. Perfect for a light sweater! Last Thursday we watched one of Manburger’s coworkers play football. The game was pretty small, but it brought back fond memories of high school football games with the marching band and colorguard. No offense, but I think my fave part of the football game was the half-time show, that and hanging with my friends. Manburger warned me that it’s a family tradition to watch football on Thanksgiving at his house, so I guess I’ll learn to better understand the game. Fortunately, he told me that was about the only time he’ll ever watch football during the year. I figure that 3 hours of football a year is fine by me considering all the “football widows” out there. Love to all our family and friends, till next time. 

Crappy Crackers

We got some crackers as part of a big box of cheap food a couple weeks ago. Yogurl, ever vigilant to keep me from eating refined sugars or scads of other taste promoting ingredients, discovered a unique one. If the picture didn't turn out clear enough for you, I'll tell you what it says. Butt Flavor. My favorite.

That's it for last week. When I was riding home from work Friday I felt like I was dying and then had the flu all weekend. So no fun adventures to report from last week. We are doing some appartment shopping now, so we will report more on that soon. 

Well sorry that it has been a while since we posted, not that anybody looks at this site except for Biz. Anyway, a lot has happened since we last wrote. First of all Yogurl and I went back to Ohio to visit Yogurl's family. We had lots of fun, and lots of great venison. Yumm. We had a little open house schindig as a celebration of our marriage. Thanks to everybody for their kindness, especially Momma for all that she did. It really meant a lot to us.

While we were there, Mike decided to shave his head. How cool is that? So I kept harrassing Yogurl until she let me shave my head too. The breeze sure does feel nice. Plus, the money we save on my haircuts is enough that Yogurl can go get her haircut by people who claim they specialize in curly hair.
Isn't she the most beautiful? She was pretty upset with the people who cut her hair. Even though they were supposed to be curly hair experts they didn't know the rope method. Or something like that. I guess it is the best way to cut curly hair. You'll have to ask Yogurl if that didn't make any sense. It turned out just fine though.

The above picture of her was taken at Sea World. I'd never been there even though I've lived in Southern California almost my whole life. I guess I was just pretty busy. Now though, Anheuser-Busch, or however it is spelt, has a program to send active duty and their dependants to Sea World for free. Well, that sure seemed like the right price to me. It was a lot of fun. We went with our neighbor and her daughter (our only friends). We saw fun shows and got to touch bat rays and sea stars and other fun stuff. Good times.
Pretty crummy Sea Lion display they have at Sea World now-a-days huh? Just kidding. This was actually from a San Diego harbor cruise that we took a week or so ago. I got free tickets after donating blood. It was pretty cool. We learned a lot about the San Diego bay area. We also saw the place where the Navy trains dolphins to disarms underwater mines and stuff. We didn't get to see any of the dolphins though.

We were walking on the beach yesterday morning, and we saw this boat parked in an unusual spot. I know that the water level will rise, but I don't think it will make it all the way up there. Then again, I can't say that I know that much about it. After our walk on the beach, we went and got yummy Jamaican food. Yogurl really liked it, which was a surprise considering how much of it was fried. I guess it must be good PMS food.

That's it for now, we'll try to post more frequently! 

Here's the picture of our fun night with our neighbors playing Settlers.


This is Yogurl's fave meal from last week... Yummy chili, exotic cucumber salad, and a great gourmet pizza from Trader Joe's. 

Where, oh where could the Grunion be?

This was a pretty good week over all. Yogurl got another babysitting job on Monday, score! Yogurl loves babysitting! Tuesday, I had duty at the barracks, which means I got to sit around and do nothing for 24 hours. At first I was a little excited because I get to eat at the chowhall whenever I have duty. It just wasn't as good as I remembered it being. I guess I'm just getting spoiled by Yogurl's cooking. The Duty NCO I was working with was an MP, and he busted some guys who were driving around the parking lot like idiots. That was pretty cool. Other than that, it was just really long and made me very tired. Meanwhile, Yogurl watched Bride and Prejudice, some Bollywood chick flick. So I'm glad I was on duty watching the news instead. She really enjoyed it, though. Also on Tuesday, I went in and got qualified on my second position. That means that I am no longer just a student. It also means that I am now deployable, so I guess we'll see what happens next.

Wednesday we went to Trader Joe's and I realized that I can't take Yogurl there because she spends all our savings. She spent at least an hour deciding which salad to buy. "Oh Manburger, they're all so yummy and healthy looking. I just don't know which one to buy." That's okay, Manburger is very patient. While Yogurl ate fun, organic pizza, I ate a free Chipotle burrito that I got for giving blood. Both of our tummies were happy.

Yogurl wants to tell you all about her exciting Thursday, so here she is...
Thursday I was invited out to lunch with some sisters from our church who all have children. They were nice enough to include me even though Manburger and I are far away from that point of our life. We took the kiddies to McDonald's and they ran around the play area. A few of us women bought lunch from Rubio's and took it over there so I didn't have to suffer the tragedy of eating McDonald's. I really enjoyed getting out of the house and talking to some ladies my age.

For dinner on Thursday I made the yummiest chili and a really good cucumber, mango, coconut salad. The pizza is from Trader Joe's.

If you want the recipes, sent me an email and I'll pass them along. You know, copyright issues.

Friday we had a fun date night with our neighbors two doors down. It was also the one year mark when Manburger proposed after bootcamp. For our date we went to our fav, La Perla Tapatia for desserts and then across the street to Eriberto's for real food. I had a yummy machaca torta and Manburger had a chimichanga. After we ate we went back to our friend's house and played Settlers.

This is Manburger again. Yogurl was kind enough to leave out that I almost ruined our date night. After I got back from work, I went to help a member move. Yes, they were moving at 6pm on Friday. So as you can imagine nobody volunteered to help, so I said I would. Anyway, I was supposed to be back at 7:15 or so, but I didn't get back til about 8:20. Yogurl was kind enough to forgive my tardiness. They didn't have much stuff to move, but their storage unit was on the second floor and inside. As you can imagine, that complicated things a bit. Everything turned out just fine, though. I would have left when I needed to to get back in time, but there was only the Elder's Quorum President, a youth, and myself. So, I would have felt bad leaving early. Anyway, we still had time for our date night. Also, we tried to go see the Grunion which the news said would be on the beach in abundance between 11:45 pm and 1:45 am. We arrived at approximately 12:30 only to find nothing made sand and water. What a rip-off. See if I ever believe the news again.

Saturday, Yogurl took me shopping for new cute clothes for her trip home. I guess that any sort of trip obviously requires a new ensemble. At least, that is what Yogurl tells me. Maybe if I hadn't grown up in a house with 4 boys I would know these things. Anyway, the best part of the day was when we went to Barnes and Noble. They had a deal where you could buy something from them and then go next door and get a free burrito from Chipotle. So I got to have a second free Chipotle burrito in the same week! What a sweet deal.

Saturday evening we rented Just Like Heaven. Even though it was a chick flick, it had the guy who was Napoleon Dynamite, so I thought it was pretty decent.

Anyway, I guess that is about all for this week. Just looking forward to going to Ohio to visit. Yogurl says she is looking forward to seeing her cute niece and her cute sisters and her cute friend and her cute parents and her cute house and her cute ward and showing off her cute husband.

Death by Chocolate Cookies

Here's a crazy recipe I fixed for a sister in our ward for her birthday. Ultimate chocolaty-ness.



Death by Chocolate Cookies

1 stick light butter, softened
1 stick reg butter, softened
Just under 1 c turbinado sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 c cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
3 c oatmeal
1/2 c slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 c dried cranberries or cherries
12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar in large bowl. Add vanilla and egg, mix to combine.
In another bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and spices.
Add to creamed mixture, mix well. Stir in oatmeal.
Fold in almonds, cranberries, and choc.
Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets,bake for 8-9 min.
Makes about 3 dozen large cookies.

A brief review

For those of you who don't know, Yogurl and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple back in February. After the wedding, Yogurl went back to BYU where she attained great success and I went off to my duty station awaiting medical clearance. At the end of April, Yogurl joined me here in Southern California and we've been enjoying our time together ever since. Being newlyweds sure is fun!

Here's a pic

Just wanted to post a picture so that everybody can see how lucky I am to have the beautiful Yogurl by my side. This is at the San Diego Temple in La Jolla.

Our week

Yogurl and I ate wonderful Mexican food at La Perla Tapatia. It's just a little hole in the wall Mexican shop, but it was cheap and wonderful. Yogurl was greatly intimidated by the lack of English being spoken in the shop. Fortunately Manburger spoke English to an employee who spoke English, thus saving the day. Yogurl had a big fat veggie burrito, which she devoured. I had the Asada nachos. Yumm.

After dinner we went to the nearby theater and saw Nacho Libre, perhaps the greatest film ever made. Yogurl got a little tired of me talking like Nacho after the film, but I could not resist. Hey, take it easy!

I guess I should go in order of the week. Last Sunday, Yogurl and I gave talks in church on honesty. Yogurl's talk was excellent; mine was mediocre. Anyway, I'm going to let Yogurl type for a while now.

On Friday I went to a bread making class with a church women's group. The recipes were whole-wheat bread and whole-wheat hamburger buns. Now that's my kind of cooking. The sister who hosted the class fed us afterwards and we had the best sandwiches I've had in a long time.

This Sunday marks the first time that Manburger and I have entertained since getting married. We had our neighbor, whose wife is out of town, over for dinner and played Settlers of Catan. And who would've guessed, entertaining isn't so stressful. Our guest did have to bring his own chair however, seeing as we only have two green patio chairs. Ahh, the joy of being newlyweds.

For our dinner I made yummy stirfry with broccoli, carrots, onions, mushrooms, and waterchesnuts. We also had flounder fillets rolled and stuffed with cilantro, soy sauce, ginger, and lime juice. I made this crazy rice I bought in Utah called "mahogany and black blend." It turned out really pretty and nutty. For dessert I made a yummy chocolate cake from my new Moosewood's Dessert Cookbook. It called for baking soda and cider vinegar to rise instead of eggs. Manburger really liked it, too. I'll try to keep updates on my cooking adventures every week.

Manburger had a tough time this week because he got two flats on his bike. He even had special slime filled innertubes that were supposed to repair themselves, but I guess not! He was rather depressed, fortunately Yogurl lifted his spirits with a yummy lunch.

That's all for this week!

New to this

Yogurl and I aren't really sure how this thing works yet, but we thought that we'd give it a try. Hope this works!