If I Were a Billionaire?

Lindsey finally gets her wish: I'm posting. I've noticed a "tag" going around the blog community with a question which has been sorely misunderstood. The question, "What would you do if you were a billionaire." Now I'm sure many responders don't want to be taken as materialistic, but the question wasn't what you would do if you were a millionaire. Try 1000 times that. Ya, $1,000,000,000. The yearly interest alone on a billion dollars is a very conservative $50 million. That's a lot of money. So here is what I would do if I was a billionaire. If you want to think that I'm materialistic you don't have to be friends with me, although I'm sure my friends would really like me. First of all, I would finish dental school. I might never practice dentistry, but I would finish. It's not only so Lindsey can call me doctor, which she has agreed to for two months, but mainly since I value education and don't like ignorance. In fact I would also go to business school after that. I could go on about investments, and the "nice things" I could do with all that money, which I would definitely do, but here is a few more fun things I would do. Gosh, I hope I never have this much money though because I'd rather go to heaven.

My House $26 Million
Paradise Valley, AZ

It looks like there is enough room there to do anything I wanted. Is that a golf course? Come hangout whenever you want.

Summer House $1.2 Million
Montana

I've always had a dream of living on a lake. This house literally sits on a lake with the private boat dock right behind where the picture was taken. I'd post the picture but Lindsey gave me a picture limit for this post.

Kind of a Third House
Lake Powell Houseboat $500,000

I've been fortunate enough to spend several weeks on a houseboat at Lake Powell. If you haven't been there it's a great time to spend with family and friends. This boat seems amazing but some of the best times I had was with friends on "The Rainbow Connection" which went down the lake tilted because one of the pontoons had a leak in it and was full of water. Amazing memories and can't wait to make more!

Forms of Travel:
Jet $3 million

I decided it would be nice to have an airplane to not have to put up with all the frustrations of airline travel. I guess I could have this one if I was a billionaire. Fuel on this probably cost more than $1000 an hour. Looks like it holds 14 people so some of you can come.
Porsche 911 Turbo $9o,000

I've loved this car since I was five years old. My dad took me to the store and he bought me a picture of a red porsche for my room. Funny thing is that he also bought himself a huge 50 gallon plastic trash can for the yard, but I thought this was for me as well. So he was nice enough to go along with my innocence and let me have it in my room for a few days. So yeah, I didn't have to empty the trash very often.

GMC Kodiak 4500 $60,000

This is actually my dream truck and maybe just maybe it's a little big. It could be the little guy sydrome I was born with but I really hope to have a reason to own this truck some day. How will Lindsey get in? Not my problem!

Mastercraft X-star $90,000

When I was 14 my dad bought a 1978 boat for $3,000. It was a fixer upper for sure and our family put so much time into getting that boat into tip top condition. We all had a blast going to the lake and learning to ski. It was a good experience but I think I'm going big baby! It seats 12 people.

Just One More Boat
Yacht $3 million

So maybe you can tell that I love boats and water. I'm not sure why, but water just calls to me. Water does to me, what chocolate does to women. I think it would be amazing to be able to go from city port to city port on a yacht and dock for a day or so to see what the city has to offer and then continue up the coast. There's lots of room for friends and family so free up a week or so and we'll go.

And since I've only spent about $35 million so far, for the rest I would become the majority owner of the Arizona Cardinals NFL Team for $400 million and turn them into winners instead of losers and then build several high rises in the Phoenix, Los Angeles area and lease them out. I might throw in a golf course or two as well, and maybe a resort. It would be fun. Golf would be free for friends.

It looks like it would be fun to have $1 billion. Materialistic? Nah! For those that actually know me know that the thing I want to do the most in life is to help others out that are really in need and make a significant difference in their life. I see so many kids every day that were born into a hopeless situation and it really tears me apart. It really isn't fair. Someday I hope to make a big difference and not only in their smile, but also in their reasons to smile. It's something I want my future children to experience as well. But maybe we can have a little fun along the way, right?

Ever heard of SNUS?

If not, you will soon enough. But let me be the first to introduce you. Snus is a smokeless tobacco product that is new to the U.S. The two biggest cigarette makers - Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds - began test-marketing it here in 2006. Snus is the Swedish form of smokeless tobacco and has been manufactured there for over a century. It is different from regular American smokeless tobacco because it is SPITLESS and comes in small, flavored pouches that users place behind their upper lip while the product delivers nicotine to their body. It is also manufactured differently which leads to some interesting consequences.

One of those consequences is that using snus is MUCH SAFER than smoking but it is still NOT SAFE. However, many people in the tobacco control community (called reduced-harm proponents) argue that the tobacco control community should actually PROMOTE the use of snus as a safer alternative to smoking.

So why am I talking about snus? Well it just so happens that last semester I took a Tobacco Control Seminar and ended up writing a 43 page paper talking about how the public health community should respond now that snus is being introduced in the U.S. It's going to be published in the law school's Journal of Heath Care Law & Policy in May! My article argues against the "harm-reduction" strategy of promoting snus use to those who can't quit smoking and those who otherwise may begin to smoke. Why? Because to do so would be to play right into the tobacco industry's hands.

It is difficult to give you a brief taste of what I say in 43 pages, but I do want you to know that this stuff is dangerous! I especially can't get into the science of the uncertain health effects of American vs. Swedish snus, snus vs. other forms of smokless tobacco, etc. But let me give you just a few reasons why any health professional promoting snus is a bad idea.

1. One of the reasons the tobacco control community has had success in reducing smoking rates is through labelling smoking as an "aberrant social behavior," because of smell, spitting, etc. Snus, however, isn't susceptible to those defects - no smell, no spitting, and it can be used discreetly. While most middle class youth are no longer interested in cigarettes, "snusing" could easily become the new thing - all we need to do is look to Sweden to see how that may happen.

2. Snus can only be a "reduced-harm" product if current smokers who wouldn't quit actually switch to using snus. This is unlikely because snus doesn't provide a good substitute for cigarettes in terms of nicotine delivery (getting that "fix"). What is likely to happen is that smokers will use snus when they can't smoke. This will undermine the beneficial effect of clean-air laws of encouraging smokers to quit. This, in fact, is precisely how snus is being marketed: to current smokers, for "pleasure for wherever." If all snus does is help smokers sustain their nicotine addiction, and encourage new users to start using tobacco, there can be no public health benefit.

3. It is unclear what advantages snus would provide as a replacement for cigarettes over nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) which unlike snus has been deemed "safe" for long-term use. Currently, NRT is expensive and formulated for short-term use in quitting. But surely the tobacco control industry should focus on developing and promoting forms of NRT that are effective and attractive to consumers before it helps the tobacco industry promote its latest product.

I hope that gives you just a taste of what we are up against. In my article, I argue that the U.S. should ban the sale of snus (as has been done in the European Union and Australia). Since this is unlikely to happen, I argue that congress must pass the bill currently before it which would give the FDA authority to regulate tobacco. As it stands, a major federal agency charged with protecting the public health still lacks authority to regulate a product that is one of the leading causes of death among Americans. I also discuss other actions states can independently take to counteract the negative consequences of snus marketing by Big Tobacco. At a minimum, the public health community should not team up with Big Tobacco by promoting snus. Tobacco manufacturers have brought snus to the U.S. to respond to falling profits and declining cigarette consumption - they hope to widen their consumer base and increase their bottom line, and so far it seems that it may be working. The public health community must take another approach, before snus creates a new tobacco crisis in the U.S.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me talk about snus. It was fun to write a law school paper that is actually on something I care about - tobacco control - although I hadn't ever heard of snus either until I took the class. And I figured since I wrote all about it I might as well blog a little bit about it, too. :) I am interested to see if any of you have heard of it! (By the way, it is coming to Baltimore ...)

Another Fabulous "Tag"

I am so flattered Kirsten thinks I am up to doing all these tags! I will at least get to this first one and we'll see about the other one at a later date. This one is fun because it must be answered with pictures! (Oh and I shortened it a little because it was taking too long.)

Favorite Color:
Blue! Went to the Natural History Museum last week and fell in love with all the blue stones and gems. I totally want this 2.64 carat topaz for a right hand ring ... way cheaper than another diamond!

Favorite Animal:

Frogs, of course. It was hard to pick just one picture because they are so cute.

Favorite Dessert:

I found a picture of two of my favorite desserts! Vanilla, not chocolate, cupcakes. And definitely double stuff for the oreos.

Favorite Hobby:
Ballroom dancing! I started dancing in 8th grade and don't do it any more, but I still LOVE it. These happen to be two of my favorite competitors from last season's So You Think You Can Dance - my favorite (only) show in the whole world!

My Job:
I was going to put a picture of a lawyer but at the moment I think the books are more appropriate - I have not passed the bar yet. Studying is my job right now.

Me:
At the Lincoln Memorial last week.

Now I tag: two of my sisters-in-law, Lori and Liz. Also Hannah and Kristen, and anyone else who wants to do the tag - it's kind of fun. It's okay if you don't get to it right away (I know I just sent around a tag like a week ago).

Happy birthday little sis!!

I am so excited to be making this post! 16 years ago today was a great day - my favorite sister was born!! She was born at exactly 3:13 in the afternoon while I was at gymnastics. I was 8. Katherine Claire (I helped pick her middle name - Claire is my favorite name!) was a miracle baby and certainly the answer to many of my little-girl prayers. I wanted a sister so bad and now I could NOT imagine life without her! Katie has always been so much fun, and a great sport about everything! I must have thought it was so funny putting her in my tennis shoes ...
Katie was a crazy and hilarious little girl. She loved to be outside daydreaming and had an imaginary boyfriend named Charlie. And boy did she have curls!! To this day, she still has beautiful curls, is a great artist, and has such a fun personality. I know she is my "little sister" but I will always look up to her in so many ways! She is sweet, outgoing, kind, and always tries to do the right thing. Being a teenage girl is a lot of fun, but it can also be pretty hard, and Kate is doing great. It is really hard for me to be all the way across the country and miss a lot of these wonderful years. The times when we get to visit each other are priceless!

Another thing about Kate ... she has always been super creative! Over the years she has made me several adorable "best of sister" books which I treasure and look at quite often! Here are a couple of pages that are pretty cute:
Yes - we like to eat snow!! We also love to dance together, laugh together, and just be silly. Sisters are the best!! Katie does not like to shop quite as much as me yet but obviously that is not a bad thing. She loves to sing and is also a great skier and a great climber. Someday she will have to teach me all she knows about climbing and we can do lots of fun climbs together!Happy sweet sixteen, Katesy!! When I moved away you were just 13 and you have grown up so fast! I am so lucky to have you for my sister! Miss you. :)

Easter Dinner and My New Easter Apron!

Check out this adorable apron my mom made for me! It came in the mail yesterday, just in time for Easter. I love it. I wore it while cooking our Easter dinner and everything turned out wonderfully ... it must be magic. Here's a pan of the homemade rolls I spent the afternoon making ... yum! I had to let them rise 4 times. But really they weren't hard, just a little time consuming. But it was fun. We also made a ham (first ham we've had since being married), rice and tomato gravy (it's a Southern thing - my Louisiana relations would be so proud!), and asparagus. Luckily Nate and Lori were there to share all the food ... and we'll all being enjoying ham sandwiches this week.

Here is my cute Joe. It was fun to cook together for a little bit of the afternoon ... though he did decide it was enough work that he should be exempted from the dishes. :) He wants to try making some soup with the ham hock ... my dad is the master soup maker so maybe Joe can get into that as well.

We did not do the whole Easter egg thing ... next year. We just can't do everything, okay?? Happy Easter!!

This is serious business ...

Well I almost hate to post again because my last post was so great. If you didn't think it was funny then maybe you just had to be there. Anyway, here are a few pictures from a week or so ago when Joe and I went out for RIBS! Ummmm, so yummy. We had a buy-one-get-one-free entree coupon so we could order the biggest meals and it still worked out. :) Joe ordered the full rack of baby back ribs and then the server was like, well, do you want all-you-can-eat? It's the same price. So of course he did. You can see that he took his rib eating pretty seriously. The baked potato was forgotten about and taken home for later - this was all about the ribs.

Not a laughing matter for me, either. Here I am going for some extra carolina honey sauce. (I got a half rack ribs/ salmon combo.)

Here is is the best picture ... all the ribs we ate, combined! Not bad. It had been a really long week so it was fun to get out and enjoy a nice meal together! We had fun!

More Cookies than we bargained for ....

Okay you seriously have to hear the funniest story EVER!!! So tonight (after a long day of doing NOTHING but work on a paper due on Monday) we had a barbeque with Lori and Nate and afterward Joe announced he wanted some chocolate chip cookies. So we whipped some up with a Betty Crocker mix my mom sent us (everyone helped), preheated the oven, and got ready to stick in the cookies. We opened the oven, and HOLY COW, there were already cookies in there, perfectly baked!! (Well, a tiny bit crispy). We just stared at them dumbfounded for a minute and then were like, okay, who put in the first batch???? Well no one had. We were a little confused. So GUESS WHAT ... the cookies were there from 3 WEEKS AGO when my mom had baked them for us on her last night here!! We totally cracked up for like 5 whole minutes. So basically, we somehow forgot about our last batch of cookies. And also, we obviously haven't opened our oven once in the last 3 weeks (we eat a lot of cold cereal). The funny thing is that Joe was all mad because he had come home from school the day after my mom left and been mad that I had finished off all the cookies. If only he had known to look in the oven!!!
So needless to say, we tried the cookies. And they weren't half bad. Although we decided to mostly just eat the fresh ones.
Nate thinks that maybe the cookies will be good if we crumble them up in a bowl and pour milk over them, like cookie crisp cereal. What do you think?? Are we crazy or what???!!

My First "Tag"

So, it looks like I've got a tag to do. I knew it would happen sooner or later ...

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Well, I was 14 and in 8th grade. Junior High can be tough, and I didn't fit in all that well with all the Utah girls (I moved in 7th grade). Luckily, I had 2 amazing best friends, Summer and Karalee! Basically, we were obsessed with Mary Higgins Clark books. We had tons of fun sleepovers and we loved going to Brick Oven. We thought were were way cooler than we actually were. But we had so much fun!!

2. 5 things to do today
Well today is almost over so I'm not too optimistic about accomplishing 5 more things. But here's what I did: studied (preparing to give a 2 minute testimony to state senators on Tuesday about a bill), ran on my treadmill, showered, ate food, and now blogged. It was a pretty boring day (didn't leave the house) - I promise they do get more interesting than this. Is that seriously all I did??

3. What snacks do I enjoy?
What foods count as a snack? Well, fruit is my favorite snack - varies by the season. Apples, watermelon, grapes, oranges, strawberries, whatever. That only counts as one snack though. I also like: kettle corn, candy/sweets (though I don't eat it that often), bread and honey, and muffins. Besides fruit my most common snack is probably granola bars, but of course I'd rather have cookies or something.

4. What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire?
Start designing my dream house - I mean houses. Go on lots of trips!! Don't worry, you all can come!!

5. 3 bad habits
I asked Joe and he said 'chewing on ice.' Also - crying too much (is that a habit?), and getting stressed out easily.

6. 5 jobs I've had
Law firm summer associate (favorite job!), CareFirst Financial Specialist (computer all day), Ann Taylor sales associate (spent all of my paycheck), Economics TA (perfect college job), Perfect Tan front desk and bed cleaning (sexy arm muscles from cleaning beds, skin cancer), Jamba Juice (first job!).

7. 5 things people don't know about me
Ok, last one, this blog is getting long. 1 - I have OCD about certain things (just ask Joe), 2 - I think I am good at wasting time, 3 - If I could change one thing about me, I would give myself a tan, 4 - When I see a spider, I stop breathing (ok so maybe you already knew that), 5 - right now, I am listening to Joe cough up his lungs (very sexy. Poor guy!).

I am tagging - Tristina, Summer, Heather, and Adrienne.

Two weeks ago ...

Previously, I posted a little bit about my mom's latest visit to Baltimore. I seriously can't believe it was only two weeks ago she was here - it kind of seems like forever. But I have been neglecting my blog (life is getting a little crazy so get used to it!) and am just getting around to posting more pictures from our Saturday outing downtown for the "Great Tastes of Baltimore" event. It was fun to experience one of the nice things downtown Baltimore has to offer ... there are many, but sometimes I forget because going to school each day I pretty much feel like I'm in the slums. Anyway, thanks to Lori our adventure was well documented - enjoy!

Here we are enjoying ... what was it? Something with chicken. Who knows. But it looks like we liked it.

Yes, Lori and I found the chocolate strawberries! I was a milk chocolate fan, she was dark. Either way ... YUUMMM.

Here we are in line to try a popular dish ... luckily there weren't that many lines, just kind of crowded in certain spots. My mom is to the right of Joe - I don't know how we ended up without any pictures with her in them. When we were getting the chocolate strawberries we were yelling for her to come for a picture (Christie! Mom! Mrs. Lewis! Franklin! (maybe she'd answer to my dad's name, you never know)), but couldn't get her attention. And we were too focused on the strawberries and chocolate to actually go grab her.

The tiramisu was without a doubt my favorite thing there. I didn't even know what tiramisu was, really. Probably not all tiramisus are good but this one was divine! We walked by the building I worked in last summer (and will be going back to for the last few weeks of this summer). It's the Bank of America building, floors 7 - 14. I had pretty great view! (Side note: Joe and I are watching Live Free Die Hard and I saw my building in the movie! It is easy to spot because of its gold top. Now that is exciting!)
This shot was definitely not my idea. I mean who needs a picture by the name of the firm they worked for? But I was very obliging for my mom and Lori, who thought otherwise.

Well that's it for our fun time. It is something we of course would never have done on our own so it was fun that my mom was here and wanted to do it! It was such a fun weekend, and once my mom was gone the shift back to "real life" was very abrupt. But it was fun while it lasted!!