Ga-rumpy

I'm grumpy. Annoyed. Ticked. Miffed. Whatever you want to call it. I made plans with my friend to go see Disturbia tonite at the dollar theater. Somehow it ended up that she and her fiancee' are now at the movies, and I'm at home. Long story, totatlly lame of her, and I'm left with nothing to do while Derrick's out at a vendor dinner at Carnivore, which I've been dying to try for months.

I hate being flaked on. HATE. I try really hard not to flake on anyone. Sure, I may be late, but I'll never flake on you. If anything, I hope people know that they can count on me. For anything. People that flake are one of the few things that really piss me off.

In order to cheer myself up, I went to a couple stores looking for napkin rings and white cloth napkins. IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND. Maybe I'm too picky. Not helping my grumpy situation. I finally find some rings at Target that I like. Then I'm hit with a revelation: I can make my OWN napkins! Why I never thought of this before is beyond me. I even have them all planned out, super cute and I don't even have to make hems. Bonus. Side note: In case you don't know, I love change. Any kind. As of late, I have become bored of my current kitchen decorations. And by decorations, I mean pot holders. For the past 4 years my kitchen has been decorated (slightly) in cherries. I do love cherries, and loved them while they lasted. But lately I have come to realize that when it comes to decorating a kitchen, one has few options from which to choose: apples, cows, sunflowers, coffee. Bout it, right? I say to hell with themes. From now on, no more themes in my home. Not that I have many. Instead, color schemes. You can do so much more, am I right or am I right? I'm loving my new kitchen colors, aqua and black. I have a pretty sweet tablescape (thanks Sandra Lee) right now, and once I get those napkins, I'll post a pic. I know you'll be jealous. I'm jealous of myself, to be honest.


Wow, just talking about my super awesome new kitchen colors has already cheered me up. Time to watch more OC for further cheering.

Done and done!

I finally finished HP today! Now I don't to worry about accidental spoilers. Whew. I loved it. I couldn't put it down towards the end. I thought the ending was great, and I was right about one of my theories. It's really sad to think that it's the last Harry Potter book ever. However, she could definitely keep it going if she wanted to.....

Now I've moved on to The O.C. Again. Derrick says I have addictive tendencies. He's right. At least the addictions aren't dragging my soul down to hell. Yet.

We had a bit of a movie streak last week. Thursday we saw Wild Hogs, which I thought looked superlame from the previews, but everyone said was hilarious. I was excpecting lameness, but it was actually pretty funny. 2 dollahs worth fo sho. Then Friday we saw Shrek the Third, which I had been wanted to see like, forever. It wasn't nearly as good at the first or second, but it had its cute moments. But aren't all sequels like that? In most cases they should stop after the first. Back to the Future and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are just two cases of sequels gone terribly wrong. Star Wars and Indiana Jones are rare cases in which sequels only got better. Leave it to Lucas and Spielberg to get it right, eh?

My eyes are exceptionally sleepy tonite. Perhaps they've OD'd on reading this weekend!

Need this:

I saw this bumper sticker today at the mall after lunch and cracked up. I was going to stop and take a picture of it, but well, you know, I had to poop and couldn't stop.



It's perfect!

You're a dork for trying to be cool.

I freely admit that I am a Harry Potter fan. I am not a fanatic, but I am a fan. Is fan short for fanatic?? I don't know. But what I'm trying to say is that I am a casual HP reader, not an obsessor. With the release of the latest, and last, Harry Potter book, which I have been anticipating, I have been met with much opposition. I have decided that Harry Potter books fall into the same category as coconut, iPods, and Oprah Winfrery: you either love it or hate it. I'm not sure why this is. Is it because ministers and preachers the world around compare Harry to some dark priestcraft, akin to the devil? Please. Genius though JK Rowling is, I don't think even she could come up with something like that. It's a story, folks. Even my grandma said, more than once this weekend, that she "wouldn't walk across the street to read one of them books!" You tell me what is so wrong about getting millions of kids around the world to shut off their TVs and video games and sit down and read a book. Nothing.

People "boycott" HP before they even gave it a chance. It's like they are trying to be different, and make a statement, by not doing the popular things. Oh, you super cool non-conformists, you! You are tres chic! I have been trying to think of something that I don't like because lots of other people DO like it, and I can't think of anything. Maybe Derrick can think of something for me, but right now I can't. I'm pretty open minded. I give new things a shot. Heck, I LOVE trying new things. (Unless "new things" means killing spiders. Then I'm out.) Cleaning supplies, makeup, gadgets, recipes, you name it, I'll try it. Why are so many people anti-Potter?

Now, as I have heard it said on another blog recently, why would anyone want to read about a teenage wizard boy who flies around on a magic stick? Let me suggest another book for you to read, one I know you've read before. It's about a teenage boy, who has a crazy vision of two bright white people standing in the air, and he finds this magic golden book hidden in a hill, and he has magic devices to help him decode the magic book. Hmmm....sound familiar? From the outside, (read: NoMo) this story can seem a little weird. Am I right, or am I right? Yet, luckily for you, and for me, we (or our parents) gave this story a shot. And lo and behold, it's one of the best books EVER! (In case you are not a Mormon, I am talking about the Book of Mormon.) Now, I have a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon, and while I do describe it as a farfetched story, I know that it is true. And I also have a firm testimony that the Harry Potter series is some seriously entertaining stuff!

So go listen to your underground music and read your obscure angst-ridden books and be "different." I'll be sitting on my sofa ready Harry Potter, ignoring all the haters, and loving every minute of it. And maybe one days all of these naysayers will get a clue and give something new and popular a chance. Millions of people can't be wrong!

Deathly Hallows

I bought my copy today after work! So if you don't hear from me for a couple days...you'll know why!

I also bought seasons 2 and 3 of the OC from Amazon.com and they should be here soon. Hooray! Blogging may take a backseat for awhile. Just kidding! I couldn't stay away.

Nothing else exciting happening. Still working at the CPA firm. I thought today was my last day, but my boss lady called and said they have some more stuff for me to do tomorrow. So maybe tomorrow is the last day. Who knows.

Did anyone watch Coming to America last week, about the Bechams? I forgot to TiVo it and only caught the end, but it was hilarious. I had never really heard her talk, and even if it was scripted for her, it was pretty funny. Too bad they didn't make it into a series. I would have watched it fo sho.

Time for Harry!!!

Another quick weekend

We figured 4 days in a row was too long to stay in Wisconsin so we left again on Thursday for Erie, PA where all of my dad's family lives. My cousin got married on Saturday so we drove over for the weekend. My parents came out so we got to see them as well. It was a pretty fun weekend, although busy. We got a lot of flack for sleeping in, but we haven't really caught up on sleep from DC so we didn't care--we needed it. We got in super late Thursday night (thanks to traffic in Chi-town and construction from Cleveland to Erie it took 10.5 hours) then spent the day Friday just hanging out around Erie. We went to see Meet the Robinsons, that Disney movie that didn't get much publicity. I can sorta see why--it was kinda weird, but I thought it was cute, and I bawled like a baby in the end. I don't do well with stories about little kids who get beat up or picked on, even if they are animated. What a dork.

Saturday was the wedding, which was outside in my grandparent's backyard. It was a short ceremony, which was nice, and then there was a small reception there, then the big one down where her husband is from: Hicksville USA. There were three kegs of Coors Light where you could fill your own plastic cup, and there was no shortage of people filling them. There was a dance floor, and the DJ opened it up for dancing and nobody danced. So I took it upon myself to grab my cousin Amy and we shook our groove thangs out there by ourselves until we got the party started. And boy did we. We, especially Amy, felt like horses asses until people joined us, but it was fun. The problem was that it was still really light out and nobody was drunk enough. But that soon changed. We left before it was over since we had to drive an hour back and then leave early in the morning.

Here we are in a mini photo-shoot down by the pond in my g-parent's backyard, "Romesburg Park."



You can't have a park without nude statues. This is one of three.



With my 10-year-old cousin, Andy. He isn't allowed to have ANY sugar (ADD) but I kept sneaking him some anyway. Don't tell anyone.



With the bride, my cousin Amanda.


My fellow party starter, Amy.



This morning we had breakfast with the 'rents and my aunt and uncle and cousin at Cracker Barrel before making the trek back to Milwaukee. This time it only took us 8.5 hours. Hooray. I drove the first half, then watched The Notebook and slept the second half. Roadtrips go much faster when you sleep, as my dad always says.

So now were back. And we're not going anywhere (that I know of) until the end of August when we head to Vegas. Whew.

Bad news: I just heard they cancelled the Brat Eating Competition in Sheboygan. We were totally planning on going this year to see Kobayashi. I'm so bummed.

Harry Potter came out yesterday and I'm dying to read it. I have to read it SOON because I know I will come across as spoiler sooner or later. And like Lara told me, I can't read DListed until I do, b/c he will totally spoil it for me.

Funny license plate cover seen this weekend: "Don't bother honking-I'm listening to Clay Aiken" Is that hilarious or what??? Who buys that???

Random song heard: At the weddig, a song called "Strokin'" by Clarence Carter? I have never heard this song before in my life. Especially not at a wedding. I was cracking up at the lyrics, but only b/c looking disgusted would have been rude. Apparently there's a music video. Of course, I will share it with you! It gets really good around 2:55 and then 3:40. Beware, NSFW!

Long and strong

The moment you've all been waiting for! I've been debating how to blog about our trip. We saw soooo much in such a short amount of time, and I feel like I have so many things to say, but I don't want to bore anyone. So I think I'll just list where we went/what we saw, and my favorite parts about each.

Thursday:

Our Airtran flight (who seriously sucks...if they buy out Midwest I will cry for days) was stinky and crowded. I was sitting next to a smelly old man, who appeared to be asleep from the time I sat down next to him until midflight, when he suddenly and very obviously turned on his air guitar. Never opening his eyes, he jammed the ENTIRE TIME to something on XM radio. He only paused to order his Diet Coke, drink his Diet Coke, then throw away his Diet Coke. He shook the whole row, and it was everything I could do not to openly laugh out loud. Not that he'd hear me. On the other side of the aisle is the man on his cell phone having a conversation WHILE WE ARE TAKING OFF and for a good 2 minutes while we are in the air. Um...hello? Do you think the rules do not apply to you??? Not that I can talk really...I sneak Ike on all the time, but I think cell phones and iPods are two different animals.

We get to Baltimore and head to the shuttle desk. We wait for what seems like forever and then we're off. Our driver fell into the category of Inconsistent Speed Driver. He was constantly pressing and releasing the gas. Gas, release, gas, release. THE WHOLE TIME. Our flight was pretty bumpy, so I was already feeling a little queasy to begin with. I thought I was going to yak. We finally get to our hotel after midnight and then spend the next hour talking to Scott, when we should have been sleeping.

Friday:

Our White House tour was at 7:30 AM. Yikes. 6:00 AM comes pretty early when you go to bed at 1:30. The tour was pretty neat, although very quick and you only see the bottom floor. The Secret Service guy did tell us that Dubya and Laura were in the house while we were there, so that was pretty cool. The dudes dressed in all black and carrying machine guns were a little intimidating. It sucked that you couldn't take pictures. I feel like I already forgot everything I saw.

We had time to kill before our Capitol Building tour, so we went to the Air & Space Museum, which is where some of the exhibits from the Museum of American History were on display while the rest of the Museum is under construction. I got to see my favorite cartoon boyfriend, Kermit, and the ruby slippers and C3PO and R2D2 and Mr. Roger's cardigan. Pretty sweet.

Next I got my way and we went to the National Gallery of Art. Very cool stuff in there. We saw a DaVinci, Raphael, Michaelangelo, (no Donatello to complete the foursome, unfortunately) Picasso, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Mondrian, Warhol's, and Kandinksy (personal fave). Looking at all that art really makes me want to own some and hang it on my nekked walls.

Our Capitol tour guide was a dude from Utah (we arranged our tour thru Sen. Hatch from Utah) and kinda was a tool. He didn't tell us very much, and I found myself just looking around and listening to other guides while he was talking. He said he didn't even like politics, and he just applied for the internship b/c he thought it would be cool. Dork. We had to wait like 30 minutes to take this tram over to the actual building. I thought it would be this cool underground ride. It wasn't. It was a little train deal that went 50 yards AT MOST and took less than 30 seconds. Um...it would have been faster to WALK. The Capitol Building is pretty cool, lots of statues everywhere, including one of Brother Brigham. We stood on the star, which is the very center of Washington DC.

After the tour, I was near death with hunger, so we ate at the Native American Museum's cafe. Ugh. If an Indian invites you over to dinner, eat before you go. Based on the food, we decided to skip the rest of the museum and headed to the National Archives.

This was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We were in the main hall, and looking at the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, and all the other documents that helped to lead up to the Constitution, and I started to lose it! I was crying right there in the middle. It just really made me grateful to live in a country where we have so many freedoms, where our founding fathers were inspired to write something that would benefit so many people for so many years. It's also amazing to me that we have the actual documents. That's crazy! We also saw the Emancipation Proclamation, which Abraham Lincoln's signature on it. I always seem to think that they lived so long ago, and were not as modern as they were. I'm always surprised to see pictures of old presidents--makes it seem a lot closer than I think it is. I must think cameras are a recent invention. Ha.

Jason and Erica are just landing so we head back to the hotel to meet them. And then it's off to The Cheesecake Factory! We stuff ourselves silly, and we're so tired and full that we can't even walk, yet we still head to the Mall and walk from the Smithsonians to the Washington Monument, to the WWII Memorial, to the Vietnam Memorial, to the Korean War Memorial, and finally to the Lincoln Memorial. I took the worst shoes ever, so by this time my feet are about to fall off. And they're the only ones I brought. Yikes. I'm taking truckloads of pictures this whole time, and everyone was super nice about waiting for me. They probably welcomed the chance to sit.

Saturday:

We slept in a little bit and headed over to Arlington National Cemetary. This was one of my other favorite parts of the trip. We took a little tram tour, which was nice, considering it saved us like an hour of walking. We stopped off at JFK's site, which was really neat, and the Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers, and the Arlington House, which used to be Robert E. Lee's house. I broke down again during the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns. It was very cool to watch. Much longer than I thought it would be. I didn't realize that they walk back and forth the entire 30 minutes of their shift.

It's blazing hot in the meantime, and I'm sweating like crazy.

After the cemetary we go to the Holocaust Museum and get tickets for a later time. We go to the Natural History Museum until we can go back to the Holocaust Museum, and check out their gems collection. I liked this a lot, too. We saw the Hope Diamond, Maria Antoinette's earrings, and the biggest, most beautiful gems ever. A huge yellow Tiffany diamond, an 800 carat aquamarine, emeralds and rubies and sapphires. Lovely.

We went through the Holocaust Museum, which was like I remembered it from 8th grade. I tried to read more this time through, but there is so much to read there, it would have taken hours and hours. It's really sad to think about what happened, and even crazier to think that there are people who believe it never happened.

We walked down to the Jefferson Memorial, which I feel is underappreciated since it's not on the Mall, and kind of out of the way. But it has a great view.

We went back to the White House to get some pictures, and heard almost every language except for English.

We were hungry again, so it was back to The Cheesecake Factory! While we didn't eat there every meal, we did make it there twice. And EVERY SINGLE MORNING we had McDonald's for breakfast. Yikes.

We were beyond pooped after dinner so we just went back to the hotel, but not before stopping to get some Coldstone. Yum.

Sunday:

Scott and Jason and Erica's fligh left around noon, but we thought we'd try and get tickets to go up the Washington Monument before they left. No such luck for them, but Derrick and I got tickets for 12:00, since our flight wasn't until 7. So after breakfast and farewells to our favorite travel friends, we went to the Ford Theater, where Lincoln was shot, and the house across the street where he died.

We went up the Washington Monument, which kind of freaked me out, but the view was amazing. You could see (barely) the Washington DC temple, which is my all-time fave. Awesome.

I wanted to check out the National Botanical Gardens so we went there for a bit. The flowers in there are beautiful. I took a lot of pictures, as you can imagine.

We still had time left and we wanted to see Georgetown, so we took the Metro over and walked through all of Georgetown, across the Francis Scott Key Bridge and over to the Iwo Jima Memorial. We. Walked. Forever. And it was HOTTTT. But the memorial was way cool, and way bigger than I was imagining it.

And that was it! We went back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and we took the Metro as far north as we could go, then took a bus to BWI. It took 2 hours, but oh well. We got there in time to make our flight, even with the huge security line. We grab some Quizno's for dinner (since we hadn't eaten since breakfast) and find out our flight is DELAYED. THREE HOURS. Ay caramba. So we wait. Well, I wait. Derrick sleeps. I get told I have boobs. We fly home. The end.

I know it was long, and it was more than highlights, but really, it's more for me to remember than anything I guess. I kept a list of everything we did so I could remember to blog about it later. :)

Here are some pictures. I'm too lazy to insert them into their proper place in the story, but you can pretend you looked at them as you read about them. I'm sending out an Ofoto album too, so you might see these twice. If you aren't on my Ofoto list, then you're probably lucky. I'm sure those on the list are sick of getting my pictures. But if you want to be on it, let me know, I can make it happen. Anyway, on to the pictures.






If you look real close, you can see The Wet Donkey on Jason's crackberry! I must get one....

We're back!

I know you're just DYING to hear about how awesome our trip to DC was. And I'm just DYING to tell you. But I'm also DYING from lack of sleep. I edited all 545 pictures, (yes, that's right), and now I just have to decided which ones to show you. Really, I've been literally exhausted since Thursday night. I should have gone to bed hours ago. I'll leave you with a picture and a conversation I had with a 4 year old at the airport coming home. (They are not related...obviously.)

A family sat down next to us, 3 kids under 4, obvious g-lines, no doubt they're Momo, especially since I heard the girl ask her mom what she was drinking, and the mom said, "Coffee, even though I'm not supposed to be drinking it."

So I'm talking to the girl, and asking her about her shoes (crocs), and she starts to ask me questions. Somehow it leads to babies, (Honestly, is there anyone who DOESN'T ask me if I have kids??? I mean, total 4 year old strangers even!).

Girl: Do you have any babies?
Me: Nope. No babies yet.
Girl. Oh. But you have boobs!
Me: Yes, I do have boobs!

At this point, the parents' head jerk up and realize their daughter told me I have boobs, and look like their about to die of embarassment. I was dying laughing. Too bad Derrick was in the bathroom and missed the whole thing. Hilarious.

More to come...

Can we do it?

It has been proposed that all meals to be eaten this weekend in DC take place at the Cheesecake Factory. All in favor, say 'ay.' All opposed, shut up.

Big

I've got a case of the bloat. Ugh. Hopefully a weekend in sweltering DC will help me sweat it out.

I got my ring back today. It feels mini.

I didn't really eat anything today. And now I'm starving.

Still haven't packed yet. Much to do, much to do.

Since I will be computer-less for the next few days (gasp!), Happy Friday the 13th in advance! No walking under ladders or breaking mirrors or anything like that!

Peace out!

Things I cannot live without

Here's a wee list of things I love. Can't live without. Use them constantly. Some are girly, so I apologize in advance to the dudes in the audience. But who knows, they may like them too.

Coalface

This facewash from Lush is the best. Zaps oil and seriously gets your face clean. Don't let the black scare you. The charcoal soaks up any nasties and does the job. Lasts a long time, too. And you can rest easy knowing there's no crazy chemicals in it.



Mint Chapstick

What used to be a rare find is making itself more abundant lately. I am NEVER without chapstick, and this is the best, in my opinion. It doesn't dry your lips out more, but adds just the right amount of moisture and minty freshness. And for a buck, you can't beat it.



Shiseido Concealer

I have perpetual dark circles under my eyes. While this doesn't make them disappear, it does help. A little. It's actually green concealer, but I couldn't find a picture of that, and I'm too lazy to take one of my own. I really like Shiseido packaging too. Those guys in marketing are laughing all the way to the bank, I'm sure.



Tide to Go

This truly is a miracle pen. I don't think there's anything that I haven't been able to get out with it. I carry it with me always. It really bugs me that I can't carry it on a plane though. What if I get a pretzel stain???



Tropicana

The unprecedented king of orange juice, hands down. I prefer it with Some Pulp. I have to have some form of juice every day. Orange juice is preferred, although I have been on a grape juice kick lately. But I think that's winding down.



Ike the iPod

He goes everywhere with me. I love him like he's my own son. He doesn't have color and he doesn't play videos, but that's okay, b/c I'm a purist. I just want him to play music for me. And he does. And I love him.



Oh okay, this guy too....



I won't get all sappy, b/c I'm not really like that anyway, but he makes me laugh and happy when I'm sad, and just fun to be around. He teaches me a lot, especially about sports and who plays for which team, but more importantly about the gospel, which I feel I know so little about sometimes. We make a good team, and I sure am glad he's my husband!

Photo project

I've been meaning to post this for a long time, because I was really excited about it. But I can't really find a way I like to dislpay it, online or hard copy. I didn't like Picasa's collage view b/c it cuts off the edges of each picture. So for this, I put it in word, then screen printed it and pasted it into Paint. Then I cropped it and saved it. Yeesh. I need to work on it more, obviously, but it's an idea, and I think it's cool. I really need to learn more about photography. And my camera. I took most of the pictures in Texas, but some here in Milwauee, and some in Port Washington. All on my dinky Nikon CoolPix 2100.



Hopefully you can tell what it is/says. If not, then I REALLY need to get back to the drawing board. (You may need to click on it to get a better view.)

Season Two here I come

Thursday night I finished the last episode of The OC, season 1. My mind is racing with questions! Does Ryan come back? Is the baby his? Can Seth really survive on that little catamaran? Please note: I DO NOT want the answers to ANY of these questions! I am 100% clueless as to anything that happens in the next seasons. NO SPOILERS! Since then I have been debating how to watch the next two seasons. I had the idea to join Blockbuster Online for like 5 bucks a month but I'm too impatient for that. Then I just looked on Amazon and eBay and you can buy each season for a mere 20 bones! Done and done! I'll just sell them again when I'm done! For some reason I was thinking each season cost like 80 bucks or something. Why did I think that? Loco. I should move fast, so I'll have them for the 9 hour drive to Erie next week. I can get a good 15 episodes in, right?? Except that I think I'm driving the night shift on the way out....hmmmm....

We leave for DC on Thursday. We are in a bit of a pickle. Will the blog world somehow come to my rescue and prove that the universe does indeed make sense? We fly into BWI at 10:30, just barely missing the last bus to DC. We'll get a shuttle if we have to, but is there a chance that someone knows someone in the DC area that has nothing to do Thursday night that would love to give us a ride down to DC? I'm sure some arrangement for delicious Wisconsin cheese can be made!

We have tours lined up for the White House and The Capitol. Should be pretty sweet. We will hit up the Smithsonians and monuments, of course, and possibly Arlington and the Holocaust Museum. We are pretty much going to try and cram in as much as possible in 2 days. We are also, as Scott so eloquently put it, "sweat like a whore in church" while we're there. Who picked July???

I made carrot cake again today.

A spider attacked my church bag in sacrament today. I was freaked out, and got the shivers and shudders and gross bug feelings, and Derrick saved the day by squishing it in my Sunday School book. Knew that thing was good for something!

I'm working tomorrow! Gasp! At a CPA firm, doing employee satisfaction surveys or something like that. Sounds like a blast.

I have crazy sweaters on my teeth. Too much cream cheese frosting. Must brush now.

I guess you have the put the cursor above the box to make a comment. Interesting.

So last night we went to Summerfest. We walked around for a bit, then watched the BMXers, including some wipeouts. I think the best part about Summerfest, or any midwestern festival for that matter, is people-watching. It's fascinating.




We camped out and waited for Dashboard for about an hour. Highlights of this wait included an underage drunk girl asking Joel & Whitney if they were "going out." Joel said that she was his wife, and she replied that "OMG! You are like, the CUTEST couple EVER! (To Whitney): You are soooo pretty!! (To Joel): If you ever leave her, I'm going to come kick your A$$!" Then she went on about how she wanted to be in their wedding (didn't wife give that part away???) and that she wanted to be the flower girl. She kept apologizing for being an underage drunk girl and how she is sooo silly right now! It was really funny.

We were actually really impressed with Dashboard. They are very good live, which I wasn't expecting. They played "Screaming Infidelities", which everyone went crazy for, of course. The part I hate about concerts and popular songs is that EVERYONE sings along, sometimes the artist even "handing" the mic over to the audience, and you can't hear the artist himself. I didn't pay to hear a drunk crowd sing, I came to hear the band. We didn't have the best view--on a picnic table in the back right behind the sound stage. But I did see them when I stood on my tippy toes. Highlight during the show: a guy shimmied up a lightpole to get a better view of the stage. It was really quite impressive. The band even stopped and watched him. Everyone below was throwing food and beer bottles and garbage at him. He hung in there for quite awhile before he slid straight down the pole. The band stopped again, then announced that he was okay and started again. Pretty funny.



We left halfway through the set and headed for Chevelle. We heard bits of Augustana on the way over, who sounded good as well. Chevelle was a bit of a disappointment. Too much bass, couldn't hear the lyrics, and of course, a much rowdier crowd. We did hear them play "Send the pain below" during the encore, which is really the only song I know anyway, so I was happy to hear that. No real highlights here.

We parked super close for cheap at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the highlight leaving was when Joel pulled out and somehow got in the taxicab lineup, and we stayed there for a few minutes until we started to wonder why we weren't moving. All in all, good Summerfest experience.

This morning we left super early (like 8:30---yes, that's early for a Saturday) and headed down to Chicago with Joel & Whitney. We went to Taste of Chicago and tasted lots and lots of different things. We had jerk chicken and red beans and rice (gross), BBQ meatball sandwich (YUM), sweet potato salad (YUM), sesame beef (YUM), perogies (OK), italian ice (DOUBLE YUM), and I got a super huge pickle (Of course YUM).



After that we met up with our friends, The Simpsons. This was awesome, I'm not gonna lie.



After we were sufficiently stuffed with samples, the boys headed to the White Sox/Twins game and we went shopping. We didn't get too far before we hit Macy's and I got some stuff at Lush and we decided to eat in the cafe there. Who knew it would be the world's shortest baseball game and the guys call us like 2 hours later saying the game was over. And they were starving. So we met up and decided on Chicago deep dish at Giordano's. Delicious. All I did was eat today. It was wonderful.

My feetsies are feeling it though, and I'm ready for bed. Today was a super fun day, all around. Lots of "fun, food, and family" as Joel put it so well. Ha. But really, I laughed harder today than I have in a long time. Love it.

Today I went rasberry picking with my friend Linda and her sister and her kidlets. I don't think I mentioned how extremely sore I was for about 4 days after picking strawberries. But it must be like childbirth, because when Linda called me this morning to see if I wanted to go, I forgot all about the pain and went right over. I only picked 3 pints, came home with 4, courtesy of Linda's picking team. I'm not sure what to do with them. I don't know if there's enough to make jam. I think I'll freeze some. Make a salad. Look up some recipes online. If you got any suggestions, pass 'em my way.

Picking berries can wear a girl out, so I came home and headed to the pool to relax. My new pink floatie that I got for a buck fitty at Wal-Mart does a great job. After I was sufficiently relaxed, I headed out to run some errands. Derrick's driver got broken on the flight home from LA, so had to take it to Golf Galaxy to have it fixed. Bonus: Midwest is paying for it. Go for the best, right?

I have been wondering where all the good looking guys in Wisconsin are hiding. Today I found them. They all work at Golf Galaxy. If you are ever in a visual drought, head on over to GG and feast your eyes upon the eye candy there. You won't be disappointed.

Today I was a hair model for a lady in our ward who is a stylist. I have to be honest--I was very apprehensive. You know how it goes doing "business" with ward members. Sometimes things can get weird. I was a little nervous throughout most of it, but I actually really like how it turned out. I'll see if I can get some pics.

Despite the poll results, which said the best day to go to Summerfest was on the 4th, we are going tonite with Joel & Whitney. Dashboard, Chevelle, Peter Frampton. I'm not overly excited about any of them. Barring a few, most of Dashboard Confessional's songs just sound like 3 minutes of pure whining. I've seen Peter Frampton, who opened for Journey, at a first (and only) date with a guy named Mike, who worked with my dad (young Coast Guard guy....sounds weird...kinda was...but not creepy like it sounds), so nothing new to see there. I wouldn't mind seeing Chevelle, but I only know a few of their songs. But this way, I won't be disappointed when I don't see someone I've been dying to see, and I can just enjoy whatever and whoever we do see. And mostly people watch, which is a great activity, especially in the drunken land of Milwaukee. Last time we saw no less than 3 people peeing in places other than bathrooms.

For some reason blogger's not letting me enter a title. Weird.

Things I love about the 4th of July

BBQ's
Fireworks
Sparklers
The sun
Swimming
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

I was really pulling for Kobayashi, especially after his jawthritis. But it wasn't meant to be. Kobayahsi suffered what appeared to be a "reversal" near the end and Joey Chestnut ran away with the victory.



There's always next year, Kob.

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th! So far so good, I haven't cried yet! Swimming this morning, BBQ this afternoon, fireworks tonite! I can't wait to use my sparklers!

Strawberry Fields Forever

After reading about how everyone else went strawberry picking, and me, having wanted to do it for ages, but we're always in LA when the picking is ripe, decided once and for all that I was going. So yesterday, I went. The picking was, well, slim, but I did manage to get about 7 or so pounds of mostly small and overripe berries. But since they were picked with jam in mind, I figured it didn't really matter.



So last night, Derrick and I made jam. I have always LOVED freezer jam, and now I know why. There's TWICE as much sugar as there are strawberries!!! Yikes! We decided that what good is fresh jam without fresh bread? So we made homemade rolls. YUM. There was a lot of strawberry mush left over, and thought about what we could use it for, and we decided angel food cake, of course! We were in the kitchen ALL NIGHT. Dirtied almost every bowl and dish. But it was fun, and now we are stuffing ourselves with rolls, jam, and cake. Delightful. Anyway, do you know how much jam 7 pounds of berries makes? A TON.



Yes, that is 3 LARGE mason jars, and NINE small zip lock containers. If you would like jam, PLEASE ASK!!!

I am not working yet, but wish I were. In the meantime I have run errands and done stuff around the house. When we got home on Sunday we unpacked EVERYTHING and put it all away, which we never usually do. It's soooo much better to do it right away, but I'm sure you already knew that. I've already finished ALL the laundry, which never usually happens either, and I know this b/c we never have enough hangers when it's all done. Ha.

Last week I was looking at my wedding ring and noticed that my diamond was loose. Great. So I took it in today to have it fixed. In the meantime I have this gigantic fake replacement that I've been wearing. I've gotten tons of compliments on it. I always tell them it's a fake, but maybe I shouldn't.

Speaking of weddings, we went to one on Saturday for Derrick's best friend in high school and his high school girlfriend. Ha. Funny situation. He goes on his mission, and the friend swoops in. It was a nice wedding. Lots of dancing. It was fun.



They handed out props for different songs...hence the sombrero. We kept that bad boy. Oh yeah.

It's nice to be home, but I do miss the California weather. When we got back it was in the 60s. Welcome to July. Tonite are the 4th of July fireworks downtown. But it's not the 4th you say?? Welcome to Wisconsin. They also do not believe in trick or treating on October 31st either? Nope, Sunday closest to Halloween instead. Bunch of communists.