Wow, this blog is riveting.

Big Foot

2011-03-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

I am now the proud owner of new running shoes! I visited Hill Country Running Company last weekend with Casey. The guy who worked there watched me walk and analyzed my gait on the treadmill as I was running. He then proceeded to bring out about 10 pairs of shoes for me to try on. I jumped on the treadmill a few times, and of course went home with the first pair I tried on. They are Asics and I got them in the only color they had – hot pink. (Well they are mostly white, but also hot pink!) The most interesting thing I learned was that your shoes (or at least your running shoes) should have a thumb’s width of space between your big toe and the tip of the shoe. That’s a lot of spaces. Usually my big toe is jammed to the very tip, which is probably why I was having problems. Your feet swell when they get hot, and they need room to expand. So my shoes are huge but they feel great! I tried them out yesterday and ran a nice 3.5 miles at the trail near my mom’s house. I don’t have any foot pain or any blisters! Half marathon here I come.

Success!

2011-03-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

I successfully completed 10 days of real food! It wasn’t hard at all, but it also wasn’t that different than how I was eating before. It was a little more expensive (only fresh produce, bakery bread) and a tad more inconvenient (no deli meat? Ah!), but it felt good to munch on carrot sticks instead of wheat thins. I’m going to continue what I’m doing, and hopefully introduce some new foods into the mix. A girl from work suggested spiced chickpeas , which sound delicious. (ooo or kale chips?) I’d also like to find some more ways to introduce more veggies into my diet, and eat less fruit. Fruit is so good – but a little too sugary and fibery (stomach pains!).

(ugh I just noticed that the rotisserie chicken I picked up at HEB has some additives, sugars, and milk. I’ll eat it anyway… but I didn’t even think to check the label! Dumb!)

On a completely different note, I just got done reading an entire blog about running. I spent every night last week curled up with my iphone and that blog instead of a book. It made me want to run! I’ve had a little cabin fever ever since I got baby Prim. She hasn’t had all of her shots so she isn’t allowed out and about too much yet. (Not that she will be able to run with me while she is still young anyway. I can’t be messing up her puppy joints!) But I’ve been spending every evening with her making sure she is getting plenty of mental and physical stimulation. I would just feel bad sticking her in her crate for another hour since she is in it all day. I’ve gotten a short run in about every other weekend, but I’m starting to consider waking up extra early (5:30! eep!) to get in a workout. I think it will be better once Prim has had all of her shots, and I can tire her out with a long hike/run/dog park play session after work.

But anyway, back to running. I need new running shoes. I messed up my foot last summer, which was the reason I toned down the running in the first place. It kills me to have to spend a bunch of money on shoes, but I think it will be worth the investment if it helps my feet. I’m planning to visit a running store and do that gait analysis thing to see what kind of shoes I need.

So that’s my life right now: dog, food, work, dog, work, dog, dog, food, dreams of running

Oh wait! I also wanted to share my puppy playschool story with you! I was ranting about it to my friend Casey in an email, and it went something like this:

“I was at puppy socialization class when you called. Prim got stuck playing alone with this one other dog that was being a nutcase. Prim was the only one that wasn't intimidated so she got paired with him. But the other dog was too busy barking his little corgi head off to play so Prim was just begging for treats from everyone. Eventually they moved a little pit puppy in with her (I think the pit was being a butt with the other puppies) and they played well for about 3 minutes, then class was over! Why is my dog the social worker dog?? I wanted her to be pooped out with playing. The good thing is that we get to move to the real dog classes earlier because the instructor said she was mature for her age, an old soul (I don't know how much I believe that!).”

Aren’t you glad you don’t get emails from me? I just blab and blab and blab. Actually… now that I think about it… it’s not too different from this blog.

Are you still here?

A Note.

2011-03-01T19:03:00.001-08:00

Dear blog readers (but mainly Aunt Jane),

I have decided to give up chewing gum.

Sincerely,

Lindsey "cold turkey" Brown

Leaves and Pimples

2011-02-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

Hello! Today marks my 9th day of eating real food – no additives/preservatives, no sugar, and no dairy. (I realize that sugar and dairy are real food, but I cut those out hoping they will help with my skin.) It’s been easy eating the food; it’s been hard not eating the food. My gosh, when I get into snack mode I just pick and pick and eat and eat. A few almonds, a strawberry, some blueberries, a few triscuits, on and on. That’s a whole other set of issues I have to deal with I guess. The good news, all of the food was “real!”

I feel like my face is doing a little better. Maybe? Perhaps? It’s still covered in unsightly red splotches and I’ve added a few more blotches to my collection this week, but they aren’t huge or painful. I’ll probably continue this way of eating for a while longer to see if it gets any better. I have a dermatologist appointment next week, so we will see what she says. It’s probably all related to my anxieties, which is so much harder to fix than my diet. *sigh*

In other news, my mom and I went to the lake house this weekend with our 4 doggies. It was kind of gloomy and overcast the whole time we were there, but the dogs enjoyed playing outside all day. Saturday was rake day. That’s all we did, raked, and raked, and raked. The porch, flower beds, and yard were full of leaves. I was up at 7:00 (thanks Prim) clearing off the deck, and my mom joined me after breakfast. We cleared out the front walkway, but left the rest of the leaves in piles since it is so difficult to move them to our leaf pile in front of the house. I’m sure the wind will destroy a lot of our hard work, but we put a small dint in it. Plus, my arms were burning Sunday so I feel like I got a good workout in.

We got home around 4:00 on Sunday. Prim was up most of the day on Saturday so she didn’t make a peep the entire ride home and was pretty tired all of Sunday night. I was exhausted too. I was able to get a short 2 mile run in on Sunday morning, and by that night my head was pounding – probably due to lack of sleep, increased exercise (I haven’t run in so long!) and too much food. I forced myself to take a shower, get a haircut, and get my grocery shopping done for the week. My hair is so short now, which is fabulous since it’s so much easier to deal with. The hair dresser lady was just shaking her head the whole time she was cutting it off saying, “Such pretty hair and you don’t like it. You are just cutting it off and it is so pretty.” Jesus lady, I’m paying you to cut it off, stop reprimanding me! She had pin straight, thinner hair, which seems like it would be so nice. She doesn’t have to deal with the crazy frizz or the weird waves and crimps. The grass is always greener I guess.

Hopefully I will check back here soon. I’m behind on uploading my pictures for the 365 project, but I have been taking them. (Whether or not there are any semi-good ones is another story!)

Prim Scrapbook!

2011-02-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

Look what I got! Look what I got!

I got a package in the mail today from my Aunt DeeAnn. It’s a Prim scrapbook! Look how cute it is, ohmygosh!! I took some quick pictures that don’t do it justice, but I wanted to show everyone.

Ahhhh! I love it!!! Thank you DeeAnn!!!!

Prim helped open it:

(not really though.)

Real Food for Realz

2011-02-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

I did my grocery shopping today and I’m officially eating real food, and only real food. I think I will take on the 10 day challenge.

Today I had oatmeal for breakfast with Stevia instead of sugar. I like Stevia better than any other alternative sweeteners I have tried. I also had a spoonful (or two…) of peanut butter, because there is no way a bowl of oatmeal would be enough to fill me up. Right now I am finishing up Skippy Natural peanut butter which has less than 5 ingredients, but I bought some (expensive) peanut butter today that is 100% peanuts and nothing else.

For lunch I had Triscuits Thin Crisps (3 ingredients), with fruits – strawberries, grapes, and an apple, baby carrots, celery, and some more peanut butter. It was like a party plate all for myself. For dinner I cooked some chicken tenders, which turned out pretty tasty. I marinated them in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic salt and thyme, then cooked them on the stove for about 5 minutes. I fixed some broccoli to go with it, and had an orange and grapes for desert. Now I’m eating grapes and blueberries as my nighttime snack because I can’t help myself.

I love fresh foods, and I think the only challenge will making my food last the week. I love snacking on fruits and nuts (and now peanut butter) so hopefully I can control myself so I won’t have to go shopping again. I’m also trying to stay away from dairy and sugar… all of this mostly to see if I can get my skin to clear up. I’ve been battling this acne on my face for way too long, and I’m getting sick of it.

In other news, Prim and I went to visit Pyro and Casey today. We had so much fun! Prim and Pyro played the entire time, and I got to see Casey who I haven’t seen for a few weeks (how do we let that happen?). I can’t wait until Prim is older so we can all go hiking and running and she will be better suited to Pyro as a playmate. He was good with her, they just got a little carried away at some moments and he is so much bigger than her that we had to break them up every now and then. But we shouldn’t let her size fool us, that little booger was constantly back at him trying to start a new game.

Good food, good weather, good friends, and a tired puppy. Today gets a thumbs up.

Girl Power!

2011-02-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

This weekend was way too short!

The weather was amazing! My mom came over yesterday and armed with the electric drill and hammer we hung shelves in my bedroom. I can't believe we were actually able to do it! (Doesn't that make you want to shout "Girl Power!"? no?) After the successful construction we visited a random Chinese food place where I got the fried tofu. It turns out fried tofu is kind of spongy and not very good.

Today, Prim and I drove down to my mom's house. I did some laundry and decided to clean up the backyard. It's been pretty neglected all winter. My mom, Prim, and I visited Lowe's to buy some chicken wire for a compost pile. Prim met lots of people, and more times than not, people ask if she is a blue heeler. I guess it's the coloring (not that the coloring is very similar), but it's so weird how many times I've heard that. We spent the rest of the evening piling all of the leaves into a compost pile. The backyard looks so much better now, and Prim is exhausted. She ran around all day (trying unsuccessfully to get the little dogs to play with her); she loved zooming around in the leaves.

On a completely different topic though, I ran across this website the other day: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/. It's about eating whole food - stuff that is "more a product of nature than a product of industry." I love that idea. I read Michael Pollan's Food Rules last year, and one of his rules was to avoid foods with more than 5 ingredients. That has stuck with me (not that I've ever tried to follow that rule) and I want to give it a try... or at least head in that direction. I've stocked my cabinet with Lara Bars, Triscuits, oatmeal, and nuts. My fridge is full of fruits, veggies, and fish. My bread still breaks the rule, but I've found a local bakery that does make bread with only 5 ingredients. Let's see how hard this will be. Do you think you could give up processed food for 100 days? How about 10? It won't be convenient, but it seems like a fun challenge.

How to Drink Water

2011-02-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

How to Drink Water
by Prim

Step 1: Place front feet in water bowl.
Step 2: Drink water.

Hey Good Lookin'

2011-02-06T17:39:00.000-08:00

See that?

That's my new microwave.

Finnnaalllly.

So I said before that Casey gave me a microwave, which she did, but it stopped working before I could ever use it (she warned me it might not work). I spent about a month heating everything up in my one pot, which meant it was cleaned about twice a day. So I sucked it up and went down to Best Buy this morning, armed with my $25 gift card, and bought the cheapest microwave I could find. It was the last one left so I got the floor model at a 10% discount. After everything was said and done I paid $23 for my new microwave. I heated my beans for lunch!! In a microwave!!

Then Stephanie told me she had one that I could have had.

(This blog soooo lives up to its name.)

Snow Days and Sunny Days

2011-02-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

There has been some crazy weather lately! Early Friday morning (as in 3:00 AM) early, Prim and I went out for a potty break and it was snowing! We rarely get snow so it was rather exciting. When we got up later around 6:00, we found a nice, untouched layer of snow on everything. Now, I don't usually enjoy the constant potty breaks, but it was kind of cool to see the snow falling and the fresh powder before it had been trampled on. My boss called me around 8:00 and instructed me to stay home. Snow day!!

Prim enjoyed snarfling around in the snow, and I was able to get a 2 hour nap in! Unfortunately, I had to head to work around 2:00, but it was relaxing while it lasted.

Then the weather did a 180 and Saturday was beautiful! It was warm and sunny. I drove down to visit my mom and Prim tired herself out tearing around the front yard. She met a few neighbors, including the kids that are always playing on our street. My mom and I took advantage of the weather and went on a walk with the Yorkies. We also took Prim down to Half Price Books to meet some people and I picked up a book to read. I haven't started a new one since I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.

I also got the collar tag I had ordered in the mail! It is from Very Vintage, and I think it's so cute!

Today a few friends are coming over to meet Prim. I can't wait until she is old enough to get out and about more! I would love to go to Town Lake today since the sun is still shining.

Vet Visit

2011-01-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

Prim had her first vet check-up today (well, her first time with me anyway). She was so good; just chilled on the table and gave the vet lots of kisses:

bblrrheuuh?

2011-01-30T12:33:00.000-08:00

I've been living my life in a daze lately. My mind is constantly like, "puppy puppy puppy puppy." Also, I'm not sure if I'm sick or have bad allergies, but I'm feeling a little under the weather. So it's been rather difficult mustering up the energy to do anything. Even this post - I keep erasing sentences because I have no idea what my point is. Moving on.

Yesterday we were invited to Casey's birthday party. Casey had her whole family over, so Prim got to meet people of all ages. She even met little 3.5 month old Rhyan and Prim gave her some sweet toe licks. We went out to eat at Chi, a China Buffet, and I stuffed myself silly. Prim was exhausted by the time we got home, and so was I. On to pictures:

Back at home:

Weirdo.

Maybe I'll try to nap today, mmm.

p.s. Holy cow it's hot outside! It's January and people are in the swimming pool. What?!

Introducing...

2011-01-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

Hi there!!

I’d like to formally introduce Shalako’s Primrose of Zydeco, better known as Prim. She is my new puppeh!

She is an Australian Shepherd bred by the lovely Andrea Torres and Shelly Hollen. She was born November 27, 2010, which will make her 9 weeks old tomorrow.

She came home late on Wednesday night, and I’m already exhausted. She isn’t a bad puppy – she settles quickly in her crate, plays with her toys, and is easy to redirect when she is getting into something she isn’t supposed to – I’m just trying to get used to watching her all the time and losing sleep for night time potty breaks.

But I can’t complain too much. She is so poofy and adorable! We’ve have fun wrestling and tugging in the living room, and I’ve even attempted some clicker training but I’m not too good at it yet.

Right now my main concern is socialization. I’m trying to get her out to different places and meet new people. Two girls from work are coming over today during lunch to meet her, and Stephanie is coming by after work. She is making so many new friends!

On a slightly different note, I decided a while ago that I wanted to attempt a 365 project. That means I have to take one picture a day for a whole year. My aunt DeeAnn has already started one, and she is doing really well! I want mine to be 365 days of Prim, so we will see how long it lasts. I almost forgot to take one yesterday (day 2!) and ended up with a blurry tongue pic. The rules are – take one picture a day, upload a least once a week (we can be lax on this rule), the picture must be Prim related, anddd I can take it with whatever camera I have at my disposal. Some days I will probably take more than one picture – but I’ll pick one to be the picture for that day.

Wait... vlog?

2011-01-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

Soooo I wasn't going to post this, but I figured I would since I took the time to do it and for the lolz. I've always wanted to make a vlog!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-12-29T19:22:00.001-08:00

2010 Book List

2010-12-29T07:03:00.000-08:00

I figured I'm not going to finish another book this year, so here's the final list! My goal was to read 15 books this year.

1. The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
2. Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal
3. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
4. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D.
7. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
9. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
10. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
12. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
13. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
14. Don't Shoot the Dog! by Karen Pryor
15. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
16. Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor
17. Tales of Two Species by Patricia McConnell
18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
19. My Life as a Guinea Pig by A.J. Jacobs
20. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Goal pwned.

I Can Eat if I Want To.

2010-12-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

So it's my birthday today, and like a majority of my birthdays it was cold and gloomy outside. But I went into work and found this:

The girls at work decorated my cubicle! Yes, that is a blow up monkey! One of the girls gave me some new cookie cutters. They are the most amazing shapes - I got an owl, dinosaur, squirrel, and unicorn! Awesome? Yes! My supervisor also brought in the most delicious chocolate pound cake. I didn't even know such a thing existed.

Then my BFFs came over and took me out for some sushi! Then we had cake and ice cream. I've had about 4 pieces of cake tonight. The waves of guilt are overwhelming. *sigh* Oh well. I guess I'll work it off in 2011!

p.s. I have decided to do 52 weeks of dogs this next year. That means I'll be taking one picture a week of Teddy (or whatever dog I have at my disposal). This week was "practice week" where we just had to take a picture of our subject. I threw a hat on Teddy and came up with this:

happy birthday?

December, A Review.

2010-12-26T14:58:00.001-08:00

Hello person reading my blog! How are you? I forgot to tell you, I decided to take a month off from my blogging to rejuvenate. I've spent the majority of my time planning out my creative goals for this blog. I have lists, Venn diagrams, bar graphs, and even a few laminated signs. 2011 is guaranteed to blow your mind, so stick around!

Not really though. I've just been epically lazy.

But I'm back!

It's sad that I haven't posted because I discovered a lot of new things in December. While searching for Christmas presents on Amazon, I discovered a quilting book, which led to a quilting blog, which led to a colorful quilt that I love, which led to me jumping head first into a quilting project. Look at all the fabric I have! Ack!

Then I went to the lake house where I got to see my baby cousins Chandler and Dylon. I think 11 months old is officially my favorite age.

I did some baking which is no suprise. I made some Christmas themed cake balls for peoples at work! I also baked cookies for 2 of my coworkers' birthdays. It involved cookies spelling their names but I didn't take any pictures because baking and decorating cookies is effort enough.

I had also been working on a knitting project for a long while. I had absolutely no time to work on it, but was finally able finish it on Christmas Eve. So glad I got it done before Christmas - I made it for Stephanie; hope she likes it.

oh! oh! I also discovered dog parks. Okay... I've known about dog parks for a long time now, but I've never taken my dogs to one. But Toast absolutely loves the dog park. She was jumping in the ponds, running as fast as she could, barking at swans, running under people doing push-ups, and just, in general, drawing a crowd of admirers. People are fascinated by really small dogs. Teddy sticks pretty close to me when we go but he enjoys running about as well.

So that's about it for my December. How about you, dear blog reader?

Black Friday Booty

2010-11-26T05:16:00.000-08:00

That's right, I was one of those crazies who got up in the middle of the night to go shopping. Actually, both my mom and I were crazies. We woke up at 2:00 AM (after getting to bed around midnight...) and shopped for about 4 hours. We hit up Kohl's, Sears, JCPenney, and Lowe's. All of the things we got are pictured below, except for a fancy microwave that we can pick up next week and a 4' x 6' picture frame thingy that I completely forgot to include. Our loot includes 2 vacuums, a slow cooker, a hand mixer, two 20-pc Pyrex sets, a Toaster Over, some scarves and gloves, flashlights, and slippers!

After all was said and done, we spent about $400 and saved $500!! Totally worth it. Now I'm off to work... man...

p.s. How 'bout them Ags?! We beat TU; WHOOP!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-24T01:45:00.000-08:00

Sitting is hard!

Woah!

2010-11-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

I went to visit Grandmommy and the rest of the family last weekend. I’m working the day after Thanksgiving so I knew I wouldn’t be able to make up there for a while. I brought Grandmommy a present in the form of a world map puzzle! How cool is that? The oceans are regular puzzle pieces, but the rest of the pieces are the actual shape of the countries! (I think I may have been way more excited about it than anyone else.)

Saturday morning, while Grandmommy slept and Jane took a road trip with Melissa to Austin, I took a nice long run down the bayou near Jane’s house then I baked the always delicious chocolate covered cheesecake. I sent a few pieces home to Grandmommy the first time I made it, and she had been asking me when I was going to bring her more. Grandmommy and I then worked on the puzzle and discussed knitting patterns. She let me borrow this really cool knitting and crochet book that has all kinds of different patterns that I want to try out. I haven’t yet ventured far from the comfortable knit and purl. We visited Melissa that evening and I got to see Carter’s baby room. Melissa is huge! After dinner I watched A&M beat Nebraska (Whoop!) with Thomas, then stayed up late chatting with Jane and Grandmommy. Perfect Saturday, no?

On Sunday, Jane and I drove over to Shannon’s house to witness Dylon’s first haircut. His Mimi had to, of course, take pictures of the monumental occasion. Dylon was a star, sitting nicely for his trim as his parents tried to keep his attention so he wouldn’t move. Afterwards there was a little bubble photoshoot in their front yard. Look how cool they look!

We ended the weekend by making cake balls! My work had a potluck lunch on Monday, and I signed up to bring a dessert. I may have got a tad stressed and been overly critical of Jane's ball rolling, but we finished it up and she let me borrow a pretty basket to display them in! (She's a great assistant by the way, I would highly recommend her if you are looking for free help.) Everyone at work seemed to like them. I saw a couple of people grab 3 or 4 bags!

All in a Day's Mail

2010-11-22T21:04:00.000-08:00

$6.00 compensation for going to jury duty - score!

$17.20 fine for going through a toll (a very confusing toll!) without a TxTag - fail.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

Halp!!1! i iz in tissue box jail! QQ

Cable Rib Dog Sweater

2010-11-08T18:42:00.000-08:00

I knitted something! I have this book called Stylish Knits for Dogs. It is full of amusing puns related to dogs and fashion (Vanity Fur, anyone?), but it is not full of good patterns. I started knitting the cable rib sweater but the instructions only had me doing one cable when the sweater clearly had 5! It turns out the book has at least 3 incorrect patterns, but I luckily found the corrected instructions on the publisher's website. Here is the pattern if you want to try it. On to pictures!

In the works:

I took this picture when I was done with all of the cabling. I didn't know how to proceed since I had to increase stitches. (Can you tell I'm a knitting n00b?) Anyway, I figured it out and I finished it!

I actually finished it about a week ago. I didn't post it sooner because I didn't have the photo I wanted. You know, the one where one of my dogs is actually wearing the sweater. But it turns out, it doesn't fit my dogs! It's way too small. (It was pretty hilarious trying to put it on... though, the dogs didn't care for it.)

I don't know if I just have really tight stitches or if size "small" is only for newborn chihuahuas. Oh well, I had fun. I might try it again in medium.

p.s. I don't know why the color looks so different between photos. They were taken on different days and at different times ... and ... and... I'm also a camera n00b. :(

Jack-o'-Lantern Cake

2010-10-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

I made another cake à la i am baker. It's a pumpkin cake, just in time for Halloween!

There is a special surprise in the middle, just like the fancy fourth of July cake I made in the summer. I used a cookie cutter and a knife to cut a hole in three layers of my red velvet cake. Then I baked a million (27) cupcakes so that I could use three for my cake. I used two white cupcakes for the bottom three layers, and made a yellow one to put in the top layer and act as the pumpkin's stem.

Then I "carved" the cake into the shape of a pumpkin.

After dying the frosting, which I think may be one of my least favorite things to do ever, I had some fun decorating. It was so hard to make a semi-decent green! (It turns out, you have to add some red.)

The inside was the coolest part! These cakes are so fun. I believe I jumped up and down when I saw that it had worked.

I took it to work, and everyone seemed to like it. It was gone in about an hour. (I made sure to have a huge slice myself.)

The BFFs were over while I was decorating the cake. (I believe Casey suggested the red food coloring for the green frosting. She is now my official frosting dyer.) I told them they had to decorate the left over cupcakes. They are very creative...

Time to go enter into my food coma!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Juries, Dogs, and Yarn

2010-10-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

So, I have this post-it note. And on it is written a list of things I need to do. There's stuff like, "clean rat cage" and "give the dogs a haircut" and "go to Goodwill." But all of these things are crossed off and finished. There is only one thing left on my post-it note. And it says "Blog." So here I am!

Last week I had jury duty. *boo* *hiss* It was really just jury selection, so I had to listen to lawyers for 4 hours ask everyone a bunch of questions. I didn't say anything, just sat and played with my little number paddle. When the defense attorney started cracking jokes I made sure to keep a straight face... you know, let him know that I wasn't going to play along with his little games. I also said "don'tpickmedon'tpickmedon'tpickme" over and over again in my head when they were making their final selections. I think all of these things played a very significant role in my not being chosen. (By the way, you can borrow my tricks the next time you get summoned.)

On Thursday, my BFFs and I had craft night. (Why yes, we are cool, thanks.) Casey made bows for headbands, Stephanie crocheted, and I started undoing a blanket I had started months ago. I never finished the blanket because it was looking like a trapezoid as my stitching became tighter and tighter. I've decided to knit sweaters for the dogs. Hopefully I can figure out how to make them; it's a cable pattern. (yikes?)

Saturday was spent crossing off my to-do list from my post-it note, but Sunday was fun! I dragged Stephanie to Waco to spend a day at the ASCA nationals. (ASCA stands for Australian Shepherd Club of America.) We saw stock dogs herding cows, sheep, and even ducks. We also caught the final conformation awards and a little bit of the agility. I was going to take pictures of all the pretty dogs we saw (and there were so many!!) but I was too self conscious. I took one picture:
Ah, well! It was fun anyway, and now I want one of these dogs more than ever! (I also want to learn how to work stock. Am I too much in the city for that sort of thing?)

Okay there. *crosses off item on to-do list* I'll try to bore you again real soon! Byyeee!

Food and Books. Typical.

2010-10-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Thursday the BFFs came over and we baked! We made the Chocolate Biscoff Cheesecake Bars that I've made before. I've had 3 slices in the last day and a half. (They are really good.)

Other than that I haven't been doing much. I've poked around my room, adding stuff to my Goodwill box. I also finished a few books, which makes my 2010 book list look like this:

1. The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
2. Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal
3. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
4. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D.
7. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
9. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
10. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
12. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
13. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
14. Don't Shoot the Dog! by Karen Pryor
15. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I know I have lots of things I could do today but I can't seem to think of a single thing. Nap time?

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

I Blog for People.

2010-10-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

Hi there. I'm exhausted; how are you?

Yesterday was my cousin Melissa's baby shower. It was a lot of fun (you know... in terms of baby showers), and the food was delicious. I snapped a few pictures. I was feeling a little rusty with this whole camera thing; I haven't taken pictures in forever!

Here's my favorite of the day, Papa Coach and little Dylon:

I didn't get any pictures of Melissa (well I took one, but I took her by surprise and she would skin me alive if I posted it anywhere), but I got two good ones of Shannon (hehe):

I wonder what Dylon will think of his new baby cousin:

We spent the night at Jane's house. My aunt DeeAnn and cousin Tim, both of whom I never see, were there and it was really good to see them. We all got together in Grandmommy's room and helped her with her puzzle. We almost had it finished, but we were missing one piece. The puzzle was set up on a drop-leaf table, and when Jane was in the other room looking for the missing piece, the side of the table was knocked down and the puzzle crumbled to the floor. Everyone thought it was hilarious; we were so close to finishing!

Later we went to Cracker Barrel for pancakes, followed by an ice cream cone at Marble Slab. (I got Birthday Cake with chocolate sprinkles in a waffle cone... ohmy it was good!) We stayed up the rest of the night in Jane's "scrap room" as Tim taught Jane how to use her photography umbrella and DeeAnn and I suffered through being the models.

And now it is already Sunday! I have to get up early tomorrow to run off that ice cream. All in all though, good company, good food, and good laughs... I declare this weekend successful!

Long Overdue, eh?

2010-09-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Well aren't I just a horrible little blogger? I must make a new entry now before it becomes *gasp* a month since I last posted. I'm sorry Mr. Blog, I promise I haven't forgotten about you; actually I think about you every day. Nothing seems extremely blog-worthy (you know... like taking down my bulletin board... *sigh*), but I'm afraid that if I don't write in you soon I will stop writing completely!

Things that are new:

- I am no longer a lowly intern, now I'm a lowly samples receiving employee! I got hired full time and I have things like a salary and benefits! I even got my little insurance card today, and it doesn't have my parents name on it or anything.

- Due to an unfortunate storm that rolled through Austin a few weeks ago I have decided to start looking for an apartment closer to where I work. It took me an hour and forty-five minutes to get to work that day. Without traffic I could get to work in 20 minutes, most days it takes 40-45 minutes, but I couldn't wrap my head around an hour and forty-five minutes to drive 17.5 miles. It also takes me about an hour to get home everyday, and I don't want that to be my life.

- I finished The Hunger Games the weekend I got it, and have since bought and finished the rest of the series. Casey has read the first one and I'm trying to get the others to her. It is so fun sharing books!

- My Grandmommy fell and broke her arm. :( I went to Katy to visit her, but mostly I spent my time with Jane running around everywhere. I don't know how she was upright at the end of the weekend... she had to take care of Grandmommy, baby Dylon, help paint my cousin's house, cook for everyone, and she didn't even get to go to her scrapbooking class she had planned. Grandmommy seemed to be doing well, she worked on a puzzle all weekend and kept forgetting not to move her arm.

- I gave my final presentation for school, which means I have completed my advanced certification in Biotechnology! I was a little shaky at the beginning (there is nothing worse than when your voice gets shaky!) but got more comfortable near the end. Everyone asked lots of questions, and I was able to answer most of them without looking like a complete idiot. (Success!)

- I went out with my BFFs and had some Thai food at Blue Bamboo. Stephanie got some pineapple curry that she tried to convince us was really good, but it mostly tasted like a flowery candle.

- I went to happy hour at The Dig Pub with some school friends who I haven't seen since summer school. There was a lot of laughing, I miss them.

- I saw a bug on the bathroom floor at work (I think that's the definition of riveting, don't you?).

- I walked with work peoples in a Mental Awareness 5K hosted by NAMI. I brought Toast and she was a hit! Everyone was obsessed with her, and now people are always asking about her at work. (My dog has a better social life than me. :D)

- I also worked at a Rabies Clinic for TLAC. I love love love Rabies Clinics; they are so fun. The shelter sets the clinic up at a park in a low income neighborhood and give free rabies shots to dogs and cats. I'm always at the tagging station where we clip rabies tags onto collars. It's so much fun hanging out with the volunteers who are so passionate about their animals; they are involved in rally and agility and I love the atmosphere.

And tomorrow I am heading off to Katy to go to Melissa's baby shower!

That's about it... kind of. I didn't want to make this post any longer or duller (google told me that was a word). I apologize! I need to dust off the cobwebs from my camera and become a more diligent blogger. Until then, happy Friday!!

Your Bulletin Board is Showing

2010-09-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

When I moved out to go to college I bought this huge bulletin board. And I covered it in many things:

Pictures of my friends, football tickets, and my childhood dog's collar.

It held my Harry Potter glasses and tons of movie tickets.

It revealed my obsession with musicals and House. It held pictures of those I loved.

It pretty much held all the crap I could throw onto it.

And today I decided to take all that down. I've stored most of it away, but kept some of my favorite pictures to be displayed somewhere else. I loved it in college, but I felt like moving on.

Now it is ready for new obsessions and new memories, but I'm sure there will always be room for old friends.

I'm going to have to force myself to throw away movie stubs now; it feels so wrong.

I'm Special!

2010-09-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

Lookie!! My momma got me The Hunger Games cuz i is special!!

Special ed!

Man, I'm so tired.

My Eyes Adore You.

2010-09-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

I was going to just do a Wordless Wednesday today, but I think I would rather ramble to you about what's been going on. I was also going to exercise, but I'm taking an "I'm tired, my head hurts, It's rainy" day. (You can avoid anything if you have enough excuses.)

Last Thursday a family friend invited my mom and I to go see Jersey Boys. I had heard of the show, but I had no idea what it was about. It turns out it is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I loved it! It was funny, and I suprisingly recognized most of the songs. The cast was so good; I wish I could have bought a recording of their performance. I bought the musical soundtrack, but I don't like the broadway cast as much. I should have just bought the songs from the real deal! Oh well.

My mom and I listened to the soundtrack all the way to the family lake house, which is where we headed for Labor Day weekend. It was beautiful and sunny. The dogs had a blast running around all day barking at the neighbors and I read. and read. and read. I read a little more than 300 pages in two days and finished my book. The end was full of cliffhangers, and now I am waiting in anguish for the next installment. (My aunt informs me that the next one will probably be out in a couple of years. *sad*) That makes number ten for this year:

1. The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
2. Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal
3. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
4. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D.
7. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
9. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
10. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

I don't know what I'm going to read next. I'm considering Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or The Hunger Games. Whichever I can get my hands on first I guess!

Here's some pretty purple berries at the lake:

Baby Shower Baking

2010-08-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

My friend Casey's sister (follow me?) had a baby shower last Saturday. About a month ago her mom asked me to make cupcakes for the shower. My gut response was "oh no, no, no." I mean, I like baking for fun; I can mess up and no one would care. But this would be like... real baking. I eventually warmed up to the request (I usually need to sleep on an idea. I think it's an introvert thing.) and started asking about themes and colors and what they wanted. I learned that the theme was "baby" and the color scheme was "pink." Apparently they weren't picky.

So I set out on Friday to make 24 cupcakes, which was all that was asked of me. I wanted to go with a pink and brown theme since I was told those were the colors of the nursery. I made chocolate cupcakes and homemade buttercream icing. There were 5 different cupcake decorations:

1. My favorite, pink icing with white pearl sprinkles
2. A simple frosted cupcake rolled in chocolate sprinkles
3. Pink frosting with chocolate chips - didn't turn out as cute as I imagined
4. White frosting with candy melt shavings
5. White frosting with a candy melt pacifier

I had never worked with candy melts before, but I've wanted to try something with them for a while. I bought the "baby" candy mold and made pink pacifiers one at a time. It was pretty simple to do, though the candies turned out to be rather thick. If I did it again I wouldn't fill the mold all the way.

Then I was on a baking roll. While I was waiting for the cupcakes to bake I decided to whip up some cake balls. Cake balls are delicious and really easy to make. Just bake a cake, crumble it up, add a tub of frosting, roll them into balls, then dip them in melted chocolate. Viola, cake balls. I made the cake pink, but I don't think I made it pink enough. I wish they had been as pink as my "fourth of July" cake balls. Oh well. I don't think anyone cared.

I also converted a box I had in my room into a cute, pink cake ball holder.

Then I realized I had cookie dough left over from when I made my mom's birthday cake. I got that out and it made a surprisingly large number of onesies cookies. I decorated each one a little differently, and even made some baby stroller cookies with the baby-to-be's name.

I started baking the cupcakes at about 8:00 PM Friday night. I finished baking at about 7:00 AM Saturday morning. I didn't plan to stay up all night, nor did I need to. I know they would have been perfectly happy with just cupcakes. But I kept making stuff and just never went to bed. I think all the sugar kept me up. (Taste testing is important!) By the time I delivered all the goodies (around 9:00 AM) I had the shakes. Casey's family probably thought I was crazy; coming in with too many sweets, all hyped up on sugar. It all turned out well in the end, Casey emailed me later and said that everyone loved everything.

Want to know the best part of all? I slept for 8 hours straight on Saturday, woke up and read for a few hours, then got to jump back in bed for another 8 hours. Sleep is wonderful; I think I'm going to go have some. Good night!

p.s. I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I wasn't too happy with any of them. I had been up for more than 24 hours and I just didn't care.

Assignment: Books

2010-08-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hi, how've you been? I'm been rreeaaally busy so I couldn't post.

Okay. I'm lying. I've really just been too lazy to post. Though, I did do some marathon baking Friday night that I will tell you all about when I get around to editing the pictures. I did edit one picture tonight, but it has nothing to do with baking.

I like to visit a website called Digital Photography School. I mostly go there to check out the weekly assignments. A theme is picked, and everyone has a week to take a picture that goes along with that theme. I've always wanted to join in, but I've always been too busy or too uninspired or too blow away by all of the great pictures already posted. So without thinking much I grabbed a book (which happens to be the assignment this week), my dog, and my camera. I wasn't out to make an amazing picture, I just wanted to have something enter.

So here's what I ended up with after about 10 minutes of effort and some doggy treats:

Maybe I'll be doing some more weekly assignments. It was pretty fun.

Puppies & Cheesecake (Life is Good)

2010-08-22T12:12:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, sorry! I will make it up to you with puppies. Here ya go:

My aunt Jane and my two cousins, Melissa and Shannon, came to visit this weekend. (They are some of my favorite people in the whole world.) Yesterday was spent running around looking at baby stuff for Melissa who is due in January. I'm really excited for a new baby cousin; Melissa is going to be such a good mom! We were all pretty tired by the end of the day, but we made sure to drive down to my uncle's house where those sweet, newborn puppies have turned into naughty, adorably cute 6-week old puppies. Everyone picked their favorite, then forgot which one they had picked (for they all look the same), and picked a new favorite.

While we were there I served up my newest creation:

It is cheesecake with a Biscoff cookie crust and a layer of chocolate on top. I was too tired to take any good pictures of it, but it was delicious. I found the recipe at bakerella (where you will find deliciously good pictures of how it is supposed to turn out).

(Sorry for the disjointedness of this post; my blogging muscles are out of shape.)

Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-08-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is. (Pretty old. :P) And being the kind (poor) and loving (crafty) daughter that I am, I made her a cake. It's chocolate fudge with buttercream frosting covered in fondant*. I hope she likes it! First I made the "Happy Birthday" cookies. I'm really enjoying my 100 cookie cutters!

Then I made three 8"-round cakes and two 5"-round cakes. I stacked and iced them, then rolled out the fondant and threw it on. I glued on the cookie letters using some left over frosting.

I dyed a piece of fondant red for the top because it was looking a little plain. Then I added some crazy candles and I was done! It only took 5 hours! I think I consumed about 1000 calories while making this, so I need to go workout now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

*Store bought fondant. rrrr.

Melted. Marshmallows.

2010-08-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the water was turned off in our whole neighborhood due to some construction down the road. We didn't have water for about 3 hours. They didn't notify us beforehand. This has happened before and I always wondered how crumby it would be if say, you were in the middle of doing your laundry. Or if you had to take a quick shower before going somewhere... or if you were actually in the shower with shampoo in your hair. I wasn't in the middle of doing any of those things yesterday when the water was turned off. Nope. I had just started making homemade fondant. Homemade fondant requires that you knead melted marshmallows with powdered sugar. Melted. Marshmallows.

I had been doing some baking, and as soon as a stuck my hands into the stickiest thing ever I glanced at the clock. D'oh! The cakes I had put in the oven needed to be taken out. I moved to turn the faucet on with my wrists to rinse my hands when I hear a *gurgle gurgle clunk* and no water came out. So there I am, hands covered in marshmallows and two cakes ready to be taken out of the oven. I was not a happy camper. What did I do? I called for my mom of course. She took the cakes out as I succumbed to trying to eat the fondant off of my hands. (I later found some baby wipes to finish the job.)

I spent the rest of the day in front of the TV because some days you just don't belong in the kitchen.

School is Out!

2010-08-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

Whew! School is out. I don't have to go to class anymore... ever! The last week was tortuous with two 8-page homework assignments due back to back and a group project assigned last minute where we made a white board look like this:

But I survived. I went to happy hour with a few friends from school after the final, where we (i.e. they) drowned their school angst in alcohol. I was there for the sushi and fro yo. I had a lot of fun and it really hit me how much I'm going to miss some of these people! Maybe I'll bump into them again sometime in my biotech career. Or maybe we should just plan another happy hour!

Jillian, Heather & I outside Sushi Zushi

And yesterday my brother finally graduated from college. This meant I had to travel down I-35 for 35 miles in 5:00 traffic directly after work. I plopped into the seat next to my mom an hour and a half later as James Williams was walking the stage. Since our last name starts with a 'B' I knew I had completely missed seeing Steven. Literally 5 minutes later we were getting up to leave. I was able to snap a few pictures with Steven in his cap and gown. We went to Matt's El Rancho with his friend Nick (the only other person who could make it) after the ceremony. I had the chicken tacos. They were delicious.

Class of 2010.

Steven & Mom
And today I'm free to do whatever I want! Ah! What should I do??

Very Wordy Wednesday

2010-08-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I haven't updated in a while. I blame it on the fact that my life is rather boring lately.

I was going to post directly after my incident with the cockroach on my towel. See, we are waging war against the cockroaches who have taken residence in our house. We're fighting back in the form of those little cockroach houses. Apparently they contain poison that one bug eats and takes back to the nest where they regurgitate it for all of the other cockroaches to eat. (This, I'm sure, is completely incorrect but I can't be bothered with looking up the ways of cockroaches and their demise.) Anyway, the outcome has been a lot of drunken, dying cockroaches everywhere. First, there was this one in the kitchen that was just flipped over and twitching. Then I saw one in the bright bathroom just laying forlornly on the rug. Well last night I hung my bath towel over the shower curtain bar as I always do, and started to take a shower. As I was going to grab the end of my towel to wipe my eyes I notices to long antennae peeking out from the fold. It turns out there was this huge (like King of the Cockroaches cockroach) one on my towel. I spent the rest of my shower with water in my eyes, huddled as far away from the towel as possible. Sadly the King lost his life in an unfortunate drowning incident. We think it was an accident.

I was also going to post about how amazing summer is, and how sad I am that it is fading away. I sat out in our front yard (where the grass is as green as it can be) with the dogs and snapped some pictures. Toast absolutely would not look at the camera. jerk.

This weekend I also visited Sam's with my mom and we bought the dogs some chew sticks to try. It was hilarious watching the little dogs carry them around everywhere. Tinker got about half way through hers, Toast just sat on hers and growled at any dog that got near, and Teddy probably ended up eating his, Toast's, and the rest of Tinker's.

I also thought about signing on to complain about school. I have ONE day left! The final is tomorrow, and I haven't started studying. *eep* I was all gung ho about studying last week. I even made a post-it note with a list of all the book chapters I was going to read! I didn't even open my book this weekend. For some reason I've decided to leave everything until the last minute (i.e. study tomorrow morning before my 1:00 class). Ugh, I can't wait for this class to be over.

I was going to tell you about all that stuff, but I figured they weren't interesting enough to warrant a blog post. I figured no one would care.

oh well.

First Thursday & New Space

2010-08-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

Why do I always decide to wash my sheets/pillow cases/comforter at 9:00 at night? Do I not realize that it takes 2 + hours for them to be washed and dried? Apparently not, because I'm horribly tired and my bed is in the drier.

Yesterday, my two BFFs and I went to First Thursday. There were a bunch of little vendors selling crafty things, a duet of clarinets playing on the street corner, a whole bunch of doggies to "aww" at, a really cool costume store, and live music. The live music was actually provided by Stephanie's boyfriend Trey, so we snacked at the Snack Bar and watched him play. The Snack Bar served water in really cool Erlenmeyer flasks (what's even cooler is I didn't have to look that name up), but apparently their chips taste like cereal. All in all it was good times, mainly because I have the best friends ever.

Today was exciting because I got my very own desk/cubicle at work! I sit in the corner, which is totally the best spot because no one is passing you by all day and I only have one neighbor. It's kind of dark back there though. My hole:

(I made sure no one was around while I was taking this. That would have been weird, right?)

Just wanted to make a quick update. I will be a lot more interesting when school is out (she says). I have to go to school tomorrow morning to work on a group project. lllaaammee. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

p.s. I got a little link happy up there. I apologize.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

Books

2010-08-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Ah! I finally finished reading my book, all 1439 pages of it. It was the best one of the series so far, and I'm itching to start the next one, though I'm thinking I should wait until school is out. I read about 300 pages this weekend alone, and now I'm very behind on finishing the mound of homework I have. Apparently the last two weeks of class is the best time to pile on all the work.

Here's the books I've read in 2010 so far:
1. The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
2. Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal
3. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
4. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D.
7. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
9. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

mmm... books.

100 Cookie Cutters!!

2010-07-31T07:10:00.000-07:00

I think I've lost all sense of self preservation. I am so tired. I've been on the go everyday this week. On Wednesday I attended a presentation at the animal shelter where I volunteer. It was about the spread of disease, an important concept to grasp in a shelter environment. The most memorable thing I learned was, "If feces fluoresced, the world would glow."

Thursday I was invited out to happy hour with two friends from school, Jillian and Angela, in celebration of Jillian's birthday. I didn't like the idea of showing up empty handed to a birthday celebration so I decided late Wednesday night to make cookies. I think I forgot how labor intensive making cookies is - make the dough from scratch, cut and bake cookies (with only one cookie pan), let cool, make all frosting by hand, decorate cookies using a toothpick because I can never seem to get the frosting consistency right, and boxing them up after they've dried. I didn't get to bed until around 2:00. (Then I got up that morning before class to go swimming with Casey and Stephanie which was really fun, but left me with little sleep.)

So anyway, I wanted to make Jillian cookies but I didn't have the time or energy to be very creative. Thankfully I bought the best thing ever last week - a bucket of 100 cookie cutters! I poured them onto the table and giggled (literally) with glee. I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but I laughed the whole time I was picking random cutters, having decided to make all of her cookies different shapes. I guess I figured funny shapes would make up for the fact that the cookies weren't that extraordinary.

So many choices

My cookie cutters set has the whole alphabet!

T-rex's head broke off. :( I was forced to eat him.
Jillian seemed to really like them, and we had a fun night - we ate at Sushi Zushi, had tea at the Steeping Pot, and shopped around the Domain. Friday was a blur at work, but thankfully we were busy all day long. If I had been idle I think I would have fallen asleep at my desk. I was able to wake up at a respectable 8:00 this morning with enough energy to blog! Now I need to go exercise with all this eating out and baking I've been doing.

Hope your weekend is fabulous!

Needles and Old Friends

2010-07-27T19:51:00.001-07:00

Hello friends! My life has been super boring lately, just work and school, so I don't have much to report. I went to the doctor this morning and got a shot. :( I needed to get blood drawn for an antibody titer for work, and the doctor noticed that I needed an updated tetanus shot. I don't remember the last time I had a shot, but it was when I was still scared of them. To my surprise, it hurt a lot less than getting blood drawn, which is something I do every 8 weeks. I was so proud of myself for not feeling anything, but now of course my arm is throbbing.

And tonight I went out to dinner with an old friend, Carrie. (We go all the way back to first grade... she and Stephanie have known each other all their lives, and I met Carrie through Stephanie. All three of us lived in the same neighborhood and were best friends growing up.) Anyway, Carrie and I went out for some sushi. Stephanie was supposed to go but got sick, dang her! Carrie is exactly how she's always been, which is comforting. I had a good time, and we had a lot of stuff to talk about - a year's worth of stories. We're already planning to do it again soon, this time with Stephanie. I love having all of my friends live in the same city again! That's something you really take for granted in high school!

And since those stories were rather dull, I'll leave you with a fun picture. I don't know what's more amusing, our pose or the stuffed monkeys between us!

Me, Stephanie & Carrie circa 1998

Fish Tacos!

2010-07-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

I got to sort through frozen urine today! What does that mean? It means I finally have an internship. A paying internship. Once I finish 160 hours with this company, I'll be certified in Biotechnology. Huzzah! Right now I'm in the sample receiving division, which isn't very science-y. It's mostly data entry, but there is a lot of stuff to learn! Once I'm trained in sample receiving I may even get to move to the testing department which looks the most fun. Everyone I've met is really nice, and I'm really glad I have a chance to work there.

My first day was Wednesday and my two bestest friends took me out to dinner to Matt's El Rancho for some celebration and fish tacos! We should have got our waiter to take a picture of all three of us, but we didn't. All I have are these two gems where I said, "Hey smile or something! I need to put it on my blog."

Oh, I also learned - via the Walgreen's check-out lady - that there is a full moon soon. So if your cash register isn't working this weekend, that's probably why.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Puppy Breath

2010-07-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

I went to visit the puppies today! They are so big, I can't believe it. They were all being squirmy and they all look really healthy. I counted 6 girls and 2 boys. Maia is such a sweet girl! She was so happy when I showed up. She was being such a good momma, taking care of her pups. I'm excited to watch them grow up!

Kayaking Down the Colorado and Puppy Alert!

2010-07-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

mrrph. so tired.

I went kayaking with Casey and her crew today! We drove over to Webberville to a place called Cook's Canoes. The place was like a tiny, broken down house. It was a little sketchy at first, but the man (Mr. Cook I'm guessing) who met with us was very nice. It turns out he is an Aggie - class of '67. He even gave us a discount! After the initial scare the place was pretty interesting. The front of the house was bordered with a bunch of deflated soccer balls as if they were some type of flower arrangement and there was a big, huge - like 3 inches huge - spider on the mail box. (It was possibly a yellow argiope; it looked like this.)

It was scorching hot, which isn't really surprising for Texas in July at 2:00 in the afternoon. We couldn't get into the water fast enough. Casey's mom & dad were in one canoe, and her sister (her very pregnant sister) and her sister's husband had the other. The rest of us - Casey, myself, and Casey's friends, Alyssa, Joel, and Fro - were in kayaks.

There was a little mishap starting out as Joel seemed to be too big for his kayak. He immediately flipped over, lost his glasses, then his paddle, and was then swiftly pulled under a tree where he lost his kayak too. Casey grabbed the paddle, I rescued the kayak, and Fro rescued Joel. We mourned his glasses. Alyssa switched kayaks with Joel and we were good to go.

It felt so much better in the water and we paddled a relaxing five miles down the Colorado. At one point we stopped and did some swimming and had some snacks. Alyssa gathered some sea shells and I flung mud around using my paddle (I'm very mature). We also bypassed some very loud cows and an army of little, chirping birds. At the end of the trip we were picked up by Mr. Cook and his gang, wherein it immediately started raining. Good timing! Fun was had by all and I got a funny souvenir.

It's for when someone says, "I'll get around to it." And then I guess you hand them the token to show how clever you are. :D

As soon as a got home I got a text from my cousin Dana that read, "Just had the first born!" with this picture attached:

I didn't even know Maia (momma) was pregnant until a few days ago. My uncle asked me to visit tomorrow while he is at work to check on the pups. (Me, "okay!") As of now I am watching facebook updates. So far there are 8 pups. Grabbed this picture from Dana's facebook photos:

Stories of a Mundane Life

2010-07-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

Nothing new is going on here, except for the fact that my face is peeling. This is not wanted!

On Friday I went to the DMV. I got there 10 minutes after it opened and that place was packed! Apparently, the DMV is the place to be. I had to change the address on my drivers license since we moved uhm... three years ago. Man, time got away from me on that one. I know I could have changed it online but I didn't like my 16-year-old-self's picture, I wanted to change my height from 5' 5" to my real 5' 7", and I wanted to be an organ donor. Watching all of those medical shows like House and Grey's Anatomy has helped me understand how valuable organ donors can be. (Having said that, I rather hope I'm not ever in the situation to donate my organs. :-/) The guy at the counter next to me had to get a new drivers license because he had lost his old one. When he was finished he walked away and left both his wallet and cell phone on the counter. He rushed back a few seconds later with a, "This is exactly how I lost my license!" It was funny.

That night I went to bed at about 8:30 so I could read and get to sleep early. I probably stayed up until about 12:00. My book kept getting interesting! I would be like, "Okay, I'll read to the next chapter." And then my book would build up to this cliff hanger ending after every chapter! Anyway, so now I'm pretty tired today. Even so, I did do some shopping. When I was in a dressing room a little kid was singing that song from a mop commercial or duster or something... you know, "Who's that laddddyyy? *who's that lady* Sexxxxyy lady!" And her mom was all, "You can't say 'sexy' you're only 3 years old." And the little kid said, "I can see your boobies!"

I need some aloe!

2010-07-15T17:07:00.001-07:00

What was yesterday? Wednesday? Geez, it felt like a weekend!

My two BFFs and I drove over to Hamilton pool to go swimming, but it was closed due to high bacteria levels. (eww!) It's a shame because the place looks really pretty. Fortunately there was a river close by at Milton Reimers Ranch Park where we could swim. We had lunch on the river bank and then spent a couple of hours swimming and hanging out. It felt so good in the water, but it was so hot when we got out! I think we all got sunburned. :( But it was worth it, I had a lot of fun.

Group Picture! (I had the camera timer on - it was set to take 3 pictures. Good thing too!)

We hung out at Casey's house that evening, ordered in some pizza, and watched Juno since Stephanie had never seen it. Casey is dog sitting two Bernese mountain dogs this week for her neighbor so we watched the movie with them. They were soooo pretty! And big! We played a little in the backyard before it got dark.

Stephanie making friends with Casey's dog Pyro on the stairs:

Gretchen and Anja, the two beautiful puppies:

I love summer.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Geography Binge

2010-07-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Okay guys, I think I just spent the last hour and a half at this website. I was originally looking for a US map quiz where you have to label the states, which is where that link goes. (See how well you do! I had them down after a couple of tries.) But then on the right there is a "Try another quiz" option, and ohmygosh I am having so much fun! I can now get a perfect score on the Europe, Middle East, and Asia maps. Next I want to try Africa! I know I sound like an absolute dork, but for some reason my brain is enjoying the memorizing. I forgot that I needed to get to bed early tonight. I also forgot to snack all night long, or to put my sheets in the dryer. School has been boring me lately, and couldn't even get myself to study for longer than a couple of hours yesterday. But this! This is fun!

Speaking of not studying, my nails always get painted the day before a test.

High fives for procrastination! *slap*

i iz blind!

2010-07-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

hmmm... I think it may be time to give Teddy a haircut. :P

Kayaking with Casey

2010-07-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Is it already Sunday night? Why must the weekends go by so fast? It's been a pretty good one, though admittedly pretty lazy.

Yesterday I went kayaking with Casey. See, she bought a kayak but none of her friends have one and the kayak rental place isn't anywhere near the convenient kayak drop off place. This resulted in both of us sitting crosslegged in her kayak facing each other as we took turns rowing to the rental place. Hah, good fun, though we had a few people staring at us. (We also had a scare when I sat on the back and it started sinking.) We saw tons of turtles, two snakes, heard the bats under the bridge, and at one point got stuck in a really shallow spot. I filmed it for your (okay, really for my) entertainment. My arms were burning by the end; I had to have Casey row us all the way back from the rental place, hee hee.

Afterwards we ate at Chuy's (I love their "Mexi-Cobb" salad) and then went and donated blood. Because that's what Casey and I do for fun. I came home tired and determined not to do anything for the rest of the day. I rented Remember Me from RedBox (yes, that movie with Robert Pattinson) and it was actually really good. I napped after the movie then read my book (I'm currently reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes) with the dogs curled around me for the rest of the night. Life is tough.

Today I woke up early and took the dogs around Town Lake. I felt bad keeping them cooped up inside yesterday. Tinker pooped out about a third of the way through, but they had fun playing in the water and getting out. The rest of the day was spent eating and sleeping and playing with the rats (who are currently sleeping somewhere in my closet). I had all of these plans to study today, but I guess I'll do a cram session tomorrow for my Tuesday test. It's hard to get motivated on lazy, summer days.

Checkerboard Cake

2010-07-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I was showing off my Fourth of July cake to a classmate while we were waiting for the HPLC to run. She then asked me if I had ever made a checkerboard cake, which apparently involves using a special pan insert. I asked if you could just make separate cakes and cut them up and assemble them - but she said that would be way too hard. I don't know about you, but to me that sounded like a challenge. She also had problems making a chocolate/vanilla checkerboard cake because the chocolate was so much heavier than the vanilla, so it would sink under the insert and mix with the vanilla.

Friday morning I made two 9" French vanilla cakes and two 9" Germain chocolate cakes. (Very international huh?) I leveled both to 1" and after some calculations grabbed a bowl and a cup to use as stencils for the two circles I had to cut out. (The cakes turned out to be 8" after baking, so the math was slightly more difficult than 9 divided by 3. Don't lose faith in me!)

I stacked the cakes, cut a small inner circle using the cup, and a larger outer circle using the bowl. I then switched them up and assembled the pieces, using buttercream frosting in between each layer.

Then I got a tad bit fancy and frosted the outside in two flavors - chocolate and vanilla. I figured it was only fitting since the inside represented both flavors too.

Cutting into it was the funnest part!

Eating it was pretty fun too.

And if you are ever at a loss for what to do with the cake top scraps and extra icing, I have an idea for you.

Make a mess! (A delicious mess.)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

Dad's Birthday

2010-07-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

It's my dad's birthday today. He would have been 57. I wish he were here. I would give anything, anything, to get that look from him again. And here's another picture just because it is hilarious.

mmm... Freedom.

2010-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I'm still on my baking roll. I saw this at i am baker, an idea inspired by 17 and Baking.

Just an ordinary white cake...

Or is it?

My family seemed to enjoy it. I think just about everyone asked how I made it, and I fumbled through an explanation of layers and cutting. (If you want to know how it's done look at 17 and Baking's blog post.)

My baby cousin having the first taste.

Hope you have a fun weekend. Enjoy your freedom and stuff. :P

p.s. I used Duncan Hines classic white cake mix and homemade buttercream frosting. The frosting recipe is here. i am baker suggested adding 1 tsp of almond extract, and it was gooooood.

American Pie

2010-07-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea over at Mommy Topics and I had to try it. They are cupcakes with a little twist in honor of the Fourth of July. The cupcakes in the tutorial look way better than mine, but I bet mine taste just as good!

First, I baked little short cupcakes. Aren't my cupcake papers festive?

Next, I filled the tops with canned fruit. I went with cherries and apples. I absolutely love cherry pie!!

Then I piped frosting on to make them look like little pies. Aren't they cute? I didn't get many good pictures of the finished product. I was so tired by then; I made a lot!

I wasn't too tired to try one though!

mmm... gooey deliciousness!

Thinking of You Cookies

2010-07-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

I made some cookies today using "i am baker's" sugar cookies recipe and her frosting recipe. These are for some family friends whom I thought might be going through a tough time around now; just a little "thinking of you" gift. I actually make them cookies a lot. I hope they aren't too tired of them!

I made a few different sized flowers and outlined them...

Then I filled them in with a lighter pink frosting.

Some finishing touches and they were done!

Pink, White, & Blue?

2010-06-30T23:32:00.001-07:00

I've been reading a bunch of baking blogs lately. I've also been feeling rather ambitious. I decided to make some cake balls tonight after seeing them at Bakerella. She dipped her red velvet cake in chocolate, but I had to do some improvising. I was trying to go for red, white, and blue since the 4th of July is right around the corner, but that didn't quite work out.

More like pink, white and baby blue. I also used vanilla instead of chocolate since we already had it. Even so, they were delicious! I had 4 in one sitting and now my stomach kind of hurts. :(

I didn't realize how quickly the vanilla dries. I need to work on my covering technique as I had big globs of vanilla at the bases, which were hard to break off. I'm sure I'll have more practice because they were pretty fun and easy to make. I packed these up and told my mom to take them to work. Hopefully she'll find some willing stomachs there!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter Theme Park: Part IV

2010-06-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Part IV: Hogwarts

Ahh, Hogwarts. I think we could have spent all day just gazing up at the castle. It was magnificent. Two winged boars (hogs?) sat at the entrance, and the walkway ran up to the entryway embellished with the Hogwarts school seal. The Forbidden Journey ride was in the castle, and the line wound through the familiar rooms and past the magical objects that had only existed in my imagination.

We first tunneled through towards the back of the castle, passing the Mirror of Erased and doors to the potions classroom and the kitchens, finally reaching the greenhouse in the back where we encountered some devil’s snare and a few potted Mandrakes. Back into the castle we saw a few statues including the hippogriff statue that marked the entrance to Dumbledore’s office. We also saw the hourglasses keeping track of the house points (RavenclaW was in last place… boo!). Then we moved into a tall corridor covered from floor to ceiling with framed oil paintings. The four “paintings” of the school founders were talking to each other discussing an upcoming Quidditch match. From there we moved into Dumbledore’s office. It had cabinets full of dusty objects and a pensieve off to the side. Gryffindor’s swore sat on the top of one of the cabinets. And there above Dumbledore’s desk was a hologram of Dumbledore. I didn’t really catch what he was talking about, but Kelley said he was just spouting random quotes. (Urging us to be good I’m sure.)

Then we moved into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione appeared from beneath the invisibility cloak (again in hologram form). They were talking about how Professor Binns was going to be teaching DADA that day and that we should probably skip class to watch the Quidditch match instead. Ron then tried to cast a spell but instead made it snow; snow was very welcome after standing in the Florida heat all day. After that we shuffled through the Gryffindor common room and came upon the sorting hat, which I thought was really funny. He was chanting the safety precautions for the ride… “Do not ride this ride if you are pregnant. If you get motion sickness or feel dizzy you probably shouldn’t ride the ride…” Heheee.

Then came the ride. It was amazing; I think it’s the coolest ride I’ve ever been on. Each “cart” held 4 people in a row and it was separate from all the other carts. First we saw Hermione we threw green powder on us to make us fly. A burst of green air blew on us and our seats were raised up and we were off! I don’t know how well I can explain it without using my hands as props, but sections of the ride involved moving movie screens so it looked and felt like we were flying around the castle or on the quidditch pitch as our seats moved with it. The screens were curved so you couldn’t see the edges – it was just really cool. We were immediately chased by one of Hagrid’s escaped dragons. We were moved from the movie screen past props of fire breathing dragons, water spraying spiders, the flailing whomping widow, and spooky dementors. After successfully vanquishing the dementors and escaping the dragon a couple of holograms of the movie cast waved and cheered us on and we were back at the beginning. I know it sounds lame when I describe it but Kelley and I rode that thing five time – it was definitely one of my favorite parts.

And now I’m back at home and back at school, but I had such a good time! It was fun hanging out with Kelley – playing 20 questions in the long lines, making videos for everything edible (“Butterbeer! *points* … *sips* …mmmm!”), and making fun of her for playing with her wand in the hotel room (hahaa <3). Kelley also knows way more about Harry Potter than I do; I used to be such a devoted fan! I need to reread the books.

I feel like I’m back at the Dursleys’, now that I’ve been to Hogswarts. *sigh*

The End.

Harry Potter Theme Park: Part III

2010-06-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Part III: Park rides, Performers, & Pumpkin Juice

The park had three rides – Dragon Challenge, Flight of the Hippogriff and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The entrance to Dragon Challenge was sandwiched between the Hogwarts Express and the Owl Post. It was two roller coasters – one representing the Chinese Fireball and the other the Hungarian Horntail. Banners for the Triwizard Tournament champions lined the walkway to ride. (“Fleur to Win” “Krum… You can do it!” “Support Potter” – strangely there were none for Cedric.) The wrecked Ford Anglia was displayed at the end of the line before you entered the building. The goblet of fire, triwizard cup, and the golden eggs were set up inside. The ride was a typical roller coaster: fast, loopy, and quick to stop. We road it twice (both times before lunch) so that we could experience both dragons, and that was good enough for us.

The Flight of the Hippogriff was at the end of the street across from the castle. It was the “kiddie ride” but I thought it was pretty fun. Hagrid’s cabin was built alongside the line; you could hear barking coming from inside as if Fang wanted out. The building to the ride kind of looked like the inside of Hagrid’s cabin. There were hanging keys, a can of Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent, a basket of Doxy Eggs and a box labeled “Baby Nowegian Ridgeback” sitting on the rafters. At the beginning of the ride you had to bow to Buckbeak before you got to fly!

Also across the street from the castle was a little performance space. They had two acts – the frog choir and the Triwizard spirit rally (I stole that name from some website). The frog choir was four “students,” one from each house, conducted by a Prefect. Two of the singers held big toad puppets that also did some singing. They sang the classic “Double Double Toil and Trouble” song and a few others. The “spirit rally” was performed by students from the Durmstrang Institute and Beauxbatons Academy. The Durmstrang guys jumped, kicked, and hit each other with sticks. The Beauxbaton girls danced around with their ribbons. Every now and then the girls would let out a sigh and the Durmstrang boys, who were busy looking stern in the background, would fall out of order for a second and start fanning themselves; it was pretty amusing. We got pictures to take pictures with them at the end!

Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods was the last shop, and it was connected to the castle. I feel like we visited that place 20 times because it became our mission to get Kelley a shirt she wanted. See, the first day we were in the park everyone was wearing this cool black shirt with gold lettering that said, “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” (or something to that effect). And Kelley wanted it, but all the smalls were always sold out. We went there multiple times and made sure to stake out the rack during restock times. Finally on the last day she was able to snag a small; the rest had been grabbed up before she even checked out. Filch’s was the most touristy of all the shops – shirts, mugs, keychains, stuffed hippogriffs, and even a $70 (!!!) marauder’s map. I got myself a Ravenclaw shirt and a Hogwarts crest pin. We also made sure to get some pumpkin juice from the street vendors. It was pretty much apple juice with pumpkin flavors and lots of spices. It was rather gross the first day, but the second day it had grown on me and I gulped the thing down without a problem.

That just leaves Hogwarts!

Harry Potter Theme Park: Part II

2010-06-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Part II: Hogsmeade

After a lot of cheering and merrymaking we finally stepped into Hogsmeade. The first thing you come upon is the Hogwarts Express. We got a picture with the conductor who prepared for the picture by saying, “1... 2... 3... Hogsmeeeaade!” Luggage was set up on the platform and steam blasted out of the bottom of the train intermittently.

To the left were two of the main shops, Zonko’s and Honeydukes. Zonko’s joke shop had a bunch of toys: rubber chickens, Jacob’s ladders, color-changing hair brushes and funny hats. They also had some fun items out of reach (and therefore not for sale) like Filibuster’s Wet-Start No-Heat fireworks as well as Portable Swamps. Nothing was very “Harry Potter” so we didn’t buy anything there. Apparently they also sold Pygmy puffs, though we never saw any; they sold out the first day.

Honeydukes was attached to Zonko’s making it one big store. (Good thing too as we had to wait in line for 45 minutes to actually get into the store. The shops were all very small, and after complaining about it to Kelley, a store employee explained that J.K. Rowling wanted the village to be as authentic as possible. Apparently this meant small stores.) Honeydukes didn’t disappoint though. They had everything you could want – Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Pepper Imps, Chocolate Wands, Dark-Mark Lollipops, Chocolate Cauldrons, Canary Creams, Lemon Drops, Chocolate Frogs, and more! There was also a wall between the two store that read, “Shhh... the walls have ears” with a hand pointing up. When you looked up there were extendable ears hanging down from above. Why weren’t those for sale!?

Just past Honeydukes was The Three Broomsticks, the only restaurant in town. We had lunch there (after waiting an hour to get it!) – I had the shepherd’s pie and Kelley had the chicken and ribs. We both had a mug of butterbeer! The butterbeer was very sweet. The cream was like vanilla ice cream and the drink itself was like very sweet cream soda. Truthfully I could only drink about half of it, but it was fun to try! There was also an outdoor seating area in the back, which is where Kelley and I would hide from the heat - and then the rain - on the next two days. Not too many people knew about it so it was a nice hideaway. To get to the back you had to pass by the ATM machine, which had a sign that read, “Gringotts Bank: Automatted Teller Machine” plastered above it. The Three Broomsticks also had fun signs that read, “Please do not feed the birds or other winged creatures” and “Notice from the Department of Intoxicating Substances: Underaged wizards will not be served alcohol.” The Hogshead was connected to The Three Broomsticks, and it was just a bar for buying the above mentioned intoxicating substances.

There were other cool shop fronts with fun window displays, but you couldn’t go into any of them. They had Gladrag’s Wizard Wear, Potages Cauldrons, Dogweed and Deathcap and Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment. The window fronts had moving quills, stacks of cauldrons, flying papers, rustling plants, heaps of books, owls, and even a broomstick and a Quidditch chest complete with rattling bludgers.

On the other side of the street was the Owl Post, which was just a covered sitting area with (fake) owls on the rafters above. The Owl Post was connected to Dervish & Banges and Ollivander’s Wand Shop. I was most excited to go to Ollivander’s! Of course, before we got in we had to wait in another line. While we were waiting the Hogwarts Express conductor walked by and paused to look at the red headed girl in front of us and said,“Ah, another Weasley! You can’t degnome a garden without hitting a Weasley!” then he kept on walking. How could you not love it there?

We finally got into the shop to have the “Ollivander’s experience.” It went down similar to the movie scene. About 12 of us were shuffled into a small room where the walls were stacked to the ceiling with wand boxes. Mr. Ollivander called a girl to the front and measured her arms, asked for her wand arm, and presented her with different wands. He asked her to point at a bell over head or swish it a certain way. The bell clanged and crashing sounds emitted when she had the wrong wand. Finally of course she got the right one, and we were moved into the very crowded Dervish & Banges where Kelley and I got our very own wands!

Harry Potter Theme Park: Part I

2010-06-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Part I: Lines

Kelley and I took off to Florida on Thursday, the day before the grand opening of the Harry Potter theme park. We had a shuttle take us to the hotel, and after nudging Kelley and pointing to the huge Harry Potter billboard out the window, we discovered that everyone else in the van was there to see Hogwarts too. That night we had dinner at T.G.I. Friday’s (who had a Harry Potter WALL) and we met a kid from Australia who had flown more than 18 hours to be there.

The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn… okay it was only like 6:00 am, but that’s 5:00 am Texas time! We were sure we were going to get a good place in line. We had special passes that let us into the park an hour before the general public (pft, peasants!) and we made it there by 7:30, thirty minutes before even we were supposed to be let in. This is not what happened.

The crowds were so huge that they let everyone in early as to avoid mass hysteria or something. (Harry Potter is serious business if you didn’t know.) We still thought we had it pretty good. We stationed ourselves at the end of the line, and not armed with any type of map we were sure Hogsmeade was just around the corner up ahead. As 8:00 rolled around we waited for the line to move so we could glimpse the castle. Helicopters hovered in the sky and by now we were nowhere close to the end of the line.

By 8:30 the crowds were getting anxious. The family behind us were upset that after spending $5,000 to stay in one of the Universal hotels they weren’t going to be able to see the opening ceremonies. Apparently members of the Harry Potter cast and the news stations were living it up on the streets of Hogsmeade. Good Morning America was interviewing Daniel Radcliff and Rupert Grint, and we were all waiting outside. They didn’t actually open the park to the public until 10:30 after the cast had left. (Personally I don’t blame them, Warwick Davis might have been trampled or something!)

So by 10:30 we took a look at a map, courtesy of our line friends April and Uncle John (when you stand next to someone for half a day it’s easy to make friends). It turns out we had started waiting about 2 miles outside of the park gates! Some people were quoting 4:00 as the time we would be in. Some said we wouldn’t make it in that day. Either way, we weren’t getting out of line.

It was hot. We eventually whipped out the umbrellas we had brought in case it rained. Everyone held places in line as people went to get food, drinks, or take bathroom breaks. At about 11:30 a guy who had been in the park was coming out down the line with his son. We all huddled for information. What was it like? Did he see the cast?? He said he had been there since 3:00 AM and had got some paparazzi style pictures of the cast by standing on a boulder and holding his camera over his head. He also said the ride inside the castle was the most technologically advanced ride he had ever been on, but that the park wasn’t worth the huge wait. (Pssh, said the guy who showed up at 3:00 in the morning.) We got back in line excited for what was ahead, a little envious, and completely stumped on why the guy would leave after only being there for an hour.

By 12:00 we were getting close, and people who had not been waiting in line for 4+ hours were trying to cut. Silly, silly people. Every now and then we would hear cheers as people were kicked out of line. “Woo! End of the line buddy!” Some girls even tried to sneak in behind us, but security was immediately called. One of the security guys, Steve, started to stop people from moving past the lines towards the park. He was very loud about it, shuttling people backwards, and he developed a huge fan following that day. There were yells of, “Steve for President!” and mentions of facebook fan pages. (I need to check if that actually happened.) Finally we made it to a bridge that looked out over a lake and onto the castle and the back of the Hogsmeade shops. One girl fainted from the heat and a wheelchair was fetched for her. The crowd cheered her on as she was rolled up the line into the park. We were all in good spirits; we were so ready to be there! At one point a squirrel was running along the bridge’s railing. Someone (possibly me) yelled, “Line jumper!” and it caught on as everyone watched. “Cutter!” “Back of the line!!” The squirrel, caught off guard by the yelling, stopped and took a few slow steps back then ran forward as fast as possible. This left the line in giggles and many mentions of animagi. (Harry Potter fans are cool.)

Finally, after making it through a weird dessert park, we passed under the gates to Hogsmeade (which says, "Hogsmeade. Please respect the spell limits."). It only took 5 ½ hours, and yes Mr. I-woke-up-really-early-man it was worth it.