Advenure: May

I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to make my trip for May because I was supposed to go to AZ, but then Andrea got married which I definitely didn't want to miss, and I had work...so I didn't go. But then the next weekend was a 3 day weekend, and I didn't have any plans... so at about 9pm on Friday night I decided I wanted to go to AZ and visit some of my cousins. And I conned a friend into taking the trip too, so I didn't have to drive alone through the worst stretch of highway in the middle of the night. It turns out I wouldn't really have been alone because JR and Summer were heading out too, and they were only about an hour ahead of us...but still, being the only one in the car is all that really matters. I mean, there is absolutely nothing to look at to keep yourself from going crazy.
Anyway, we finally found my cousin's place (seriously, in the middle of no where.) at like 4am.
Now, is it just me, or does AZ have a ton of speeding camera's on the highway/freeways? They seemed to be everywhere. I don't think I like it, because even if you are going with the flow of traffic, you could get a ticket, without even realizing it. I can appreciate that they want to do something to control traffic, but I'm a huge fan of the old fashioned getting pulled over. I mean, it sucks to get pulled over, but at least then you know you did something wrong at the time you did it....As I learned in school, the closer the punishment (ticket) is to the undesired action (speeding), the more effective it is. Getting a letter in the mail up to a month later (I hear it can take that long with our red light camera's. lame.) doesn't really create a mental correlation to the action. It just seems like a lazy way to give tickets. ...Ok, sorry. I guess I'll stop now. Back to the trip!
So, we got there at around 4am, and the next morning I was awakened at 7am by one of my cousins to go shooting...ya, I appreciated the gesture, but we decided sleep was more important. Especially when we heard that everyone wanted to go shooting again on Monday morning. When we got up I spent the day hanging out with my family. :-) Several of us decided to make a trip to the "local" Cabela's (it was the longest trip ever. I don't know why, but I seriously felt like I was in the car for 4 hours. I wasn't, but I felt like I was). On the way home, we had to make a quick stop at Costco,
On Sunday they all had church at 8am...So I decided to hit up the singles at 2. Haha. I slept in and then watched TV and then hung with my family.
Monday morning we got up and drove about 20 minutes to the open state land (I told you we were in the middle of no where) we went past the dairy

and the hay stacks

around the corn fields

to a dirt road

where shooting is allowed, and we set up some targets in the side of a cliff to shoot at with .22's

and a hand gun.

My cousin saved my life.

Then my other cousins threw some clay pigeons which we shot at over the desert brush. I hit about half of mine-not too bad.

When did my family become such gun nuts?
After that we all went to lunch at Logan's Roadhouse (my uncle's favorite place),

and then started our trip home. It was a long drive, but much easier during the day. I was a passenger for most of that trip--I was going stir crazy. I'm sure I irritated the driver to no end with my useless questions and fidgeting, but other than that it was a really good trip. So good, in fact, that I already want to go back. I love my family.

Remember this?

For whatever reason I was telling a coworker about the katie-palooza trip to Santa Barbara and I mentioned that I was on the news in February of last year*...So he made me show him the video clip. That was a fun trip.
*I actually said that. "in February of last year" and then I realized that that was from a song and I had to quickly research which one.

I still can't believe it.

A while back I was hungry as we left a sporting goods store and saw this place:

We decided to go in and try it out. It was fun because we got to sit in the special area (I cant remember what they called it) Where there are blocks placed around the table, so it's almost like siting on the floor to eat your food. You have to take your shoes off before entering the booth, and you walk around on the blocks to find your seat. We ate some interesting food.
I ordered the teriyaki chicken.

It was very good, and well presented. (This is after I'd taken a few bites because I forgot my camera in the car...Someone was super nice enough to go get it for me. :-)) It came with some California Rolls (in the front of the picture--Don't you love the tray it is served on!?! I think the rolls in the background are called spicy rolls, but I'm not sure.).

But definitely the most crazy/exciting thing I ate has to be the Vegas roll, with cream cheese.

You notice that in the last picture it's white on the outside, because of the rice? And see how on top of the Vegas Rolls it's not white? That would be because there is eel on it. That's right--EEL. And I ate it. Two pieces of eel topped sushi. I definitely deserve some ice cream. Something with chocolate and caramel and peanut butter and...*

*Sorry--I'm lost in a dream of ice cream toppings. I might have to make a trip out to 21 choices on my lunch break...

Look at that Smile

I just wanted to share these pictures because they are so dang cute!

Hidden Mickey?

I wonder if Disney is somehow involved with Buick (or maybe there will soon be a lawsuit):

What's This For?

I can already tell this is going to be a good day--Want to know why? Because my boss came in with this:

And since I was on the phone he just handed it to me and walked away. I was a little confused, but thought someone had come in to make a payment for their software and I needed to process it. But when I asked what it was for, he replied "You."
Yep--my we-survived-tax-season bonus. :-) A good start to the day. A good start to the week.

* And in case you are thinking about robbing me as I leave the office tonight, you should know that I have my nunchucks class tonight, and am prepared accordingly, if you know what I mean. You've been warned.

Nunchucks

I was looking for a good picture of nunchucks so I could write a clever* blog about how our class is going, but instead I found this picture on the Lord of the Rings Online website:

Pretty funny.

*Ya, I'm not that funny anyway, so it's probably better I found this picture!

Why?

Why is it that the day I get a
Is also the day I'm wearing a
?

"I'm Sorry" Roses Explained

I love my roses!
My story is not entirely unusual:
Girl meets boy.
Girl and boy spend time together.*
Girl asks boy not to do something;
Boy does it anyway.**
Boy lies about doing it.***
Girl knows boy is lying.
Girl and boy fight.****
Girl cries.
Boy feels bad.*****
Boy brings girl flowers at work in an attempt to make her forget what he did.******

*Can you figure out who it is? I'm not gonna put it in the blog world...although maybe I should...He'd probably love the credit for the flowers.
**What he did isn't really all that bad (but dont tell him that. As far as he knows it's the end of the world). He just had really bad timing. And I'd already asked him not to do it (which is the problem).
***And then he lied about it, which automatically makes it worse (well, actually this is the real problem).
****By "fight" I mean: he apologized profusely while I sat quietly because if I tried to talk there will be no stopping the tears.
*****Really. He put it second to when his mother passed away.
******Except that instead of just flowers they are Roses. Beautiful Roses. A whole dozen of them. In a vase. With a bow. And purple (my favorite color) filler.

Roses really do make an apology better.

I got flowers today. And while I was really trying to stay upset, they make me smile every time I come back to my desk. Which has been often today, because I was working it the conference room, but the phone was still on my desk in the lobby.