Star struck

It's a good thing I don't run into celebrites, or their relatives, that often, because I get seriously star struck when I do, and I end up wanting to ask them all kinds of questions and I'm sure they get sick of me.

Here are my celebrity encounters (or close encounters) recently:

Benji Schwimmer-the winner of "So You Think You Can Dance" season 2 (he's a Mormon, by the way, and the cousin of David Schwimmer, who plays Ross on Friends). He came to Ashland to host a swing dance workshop, but the tickets were spendy so we didn't go. The next day he was at the Central Point stake center (next to the Medford Temple) giving a fireside for the youth before their stake dance. (If your not Mormon and aren't familiar with Mormon lingo, I've probably thoroughly confused you by now.)

Benji is in the suit in the middle. Tilly is on the right, but you can only see her profile without a body. Hyatt is on the left in my arms, and I'm in the red shirt, looking cruddy since I spent half the day bawling my eyes out because my favorite little dog was hit and killed by a car earlier that day. This was last September when I was pregnant.
Wes Chapman-one of Duane Chapman's sons. You don't know who Duane is? Yes you do! He's Dog the Bounty Hunter!!! The mohawk mullet man!

Actually, Wes looks sort of like an attractive, darker version of his dad in the picture below. Wes is Mormon, believe it or not. He was baptized when he was 9 because of his grandma. He's on his second marriage right now and he lives in Alpine, UT because his wife is from there, and he met his wife on none other than ldssingles.com. He's the marketing guy for his dad's show (http://www.getlimed.com/ is his website), and said he could help Hyrum out with his marketing. Wouldn't that be funny to have Dog's son be Hyrum's marketing guru? Too crazy.

We met Wes because he had the seat next to us on our flight from Chicago to Salt Lake. He slept most of the flight because he hadn't slept in 3 days, but when he was awake, I couldn't help but ask him questions, and Hyrum couldn't help but play with Wes' iphone. He didn't say he was Dog's son at first, but it came out later. I knew I had recognized him! He has been on the show before, and when it comes back on (Wes is going to Hawaii in a couple weeks for it), Wes will be on the show a lot this season. Look for him!!

Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs did one of his shows in Coquille at the Winter Lake shingle mill. It wasn't as much dirty as much as it was dangerous. They had a fire there not too long after that episode aired. I didn't meet him, but I did see the episode! I also purchased shingles from that mill before, back when we were repairing the shingle siding on our last house.

Mike also did a Dirty Jobs episode at a cranberry bog in Port Orford, following it up in Bandon at Misty Meadows where they make jam...even cranberry jam! If you weren't aware, my neck of the woods here in Oregon is HUGELY known for it's cranberry production (and lillies, and myrtle trees). Even Oceanspray has a plant here. Anyway, the owner of Misty Meadows was on the show a lot, and her house is there where the jam is produced. Actually the jam used to be made at her house until recently, and when she remodeled her house, she of course remodeled her kitchen. And who do you think designed her fabulous, massive, amazing and expensive kitchen (the corbels alone were $600 each and there were 14 of them in that kitchen)? None other than my wonderful, talented husband, Hyrum! Here's a picture of the spendy corbels.

FYI, the lighting is terrible in the pictures, and Hyrum's a kitchen designer, not a photographer, so he didn't know how to make the pictures not come out orangish. Also, the kitchen's not quite finished in these pictures and isn't cleaned up or staged. You just can't get a feeling for how amazing this kitchen is just from the photos. Unfortunately, her kitchen was not shown on the Dirty Jobs episode since it took place out in the warehouse thing. Hyrum is actually out today with a professional photographer getting photos of that kitchen and others for his homeshow this weekend.

Her stove hood is a Stanisky and has pull out spice racks hidden behind the corbels on each side of the stove. In the foreground is one of the islands.

Gotta love her range.

Here's another island that has seating on the other side. (That's one of Hyrum's old installers.)

Here's the microwave and fridge side. Notice all the fluted fillers, egg and dart crown molding, etc. She went all out, no expense spared.

This is a hutch.

Here's her wet bar, which is the square footage of some people's kitchens.

That's enough of that kitchen. Hmmm...I can't think of any other celebrities right now.