A "Blue" New Year

I (being the spoiled only child that I am) was treated to an amazing birthday this year. Danny made reservations at Benihana for dinner. The food was amazing, hopefully that will be my birthday dinner for years to come. Next we headed downtown to see Blue Man Group. We had front row seats. It was an unbelievable show that unfortunately really can't be described in words that would do it justice. The main show finished 15 minutes before midnight and the staff passed out champagne and noise-makers to the whole audience. At midnight the performers came back on the stage and played "Auld Lang Syne" on their unique instruments and shot confetti into the audience while streamers fell from the ceiling. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show, but I did get a cool shirt that I can show you. Wow what a great birthday. I also got a nice dinner at Gram's house that Danny's mom made and the kids were there to help me blow out my candles.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

We were all invited over to Jeff and Ginette's house for Emily's second birthday party. Now recently Emily had been showing signs of turning two. Some temper tantrums and just general non-happiness. The night of the party would prove to be no different. Danny and I walked into the house and the first thing we heard was the birthday girl repeatedly crying. "Mom, mom, mom. . . ." and Ginette trying very patiently to figure out what this little darling wanted, all to no avail. There were several bouts of just rolling around on the floor crying. Then the pizza came and this seemed to appease the little princess, or so we thought. Shortly into her second piece of pizza the birthday girl threw her fork and then her plate of pizza onto the floor and then cried to get get out of her chair.

Oh, I forgot to mention that earlier during one of the crying spells the little princess' Uncle Danny made a beautiful sign that read: I'm turning 2. (Can you tell?)" and pretending to console his temperamental niece, placed the sign on her back for all to see.

So after the pizza hit the floor it was now Aunt Cuckoo's turn to step in and entertain our princess. It seems all she needed all along was some good stretching exercises, because once Cuckoo had her stretching to this side and the "uder side" the smiles returned and we made it through the rest of the party.

A few new members to the Family

For a couple of years now we have been going downtown to the American Girl store for my niece Zoe's birthday. This year we also celebrated my niece Emily's birthday as well. This is the year Emily got to get her first American Girl Doll, her very own Bitty Baby. While most of the rest of the group went off to look at their own things, I got to go along with Ginette, Katelyn, and Emily to find Emily's new baby. We made our way to the Bitty Baby section and it was like the dolls were calling Emily's name. She trudged through all the other shoppers and right into one of the sections that had the baby-dolls. These areas are the perfect height for a two year old and she reached right in and pulled out a box that was almost as big as she was.

She tried to carry it, but kept dropping it and saying "too heavy", but she wouldn't let anyone carry it for her.

Finally "Grandma" came to the rescue by saying she would bring the baby to the lady who could take her out of the box. That made our little princess Emily happy and we were able to get the doll paid for. Now the other girls (also my nieces) had their dolls with, and my sister-in-law Colleen decided she wanted one of her own and not to be left out so did I. We both got "Just like you" dolls. You pick the doll with the same color skin, hair, and eyes as you yourself have. Now anyone who knows Colleen knows she is a princess through and through, loving it when she has a good excuse to wear a tiara. So of course her doll had to have a fancy dress and ,you guessed it, a tiara. My doll was having a problem picking a dress mainly because I was letting my nieces Zoe and Shannon pick the outfit. They went from two different ballerina outfits to an Irish Dancer's dress to finally a fancy creamy-gold dress with long gloves (her holiday dress). So now we have three more girls (dolls) in the family.

Girls and their dolls, what a wonderful thing.

Prius Camping?!!!

This is way overdue.

We had decided to take a trial run for our trip out west in the Prius with Bandit. This time we only stayed overnight one night just to see how the car would get packed up, what it would be like to sleep in the car, etc. Yes, I said sleep in the car. We wanted to see if the three of us would fit in the car for the night because most campsites allow dogs, and it can be difficult to find a hotel that allows an 85 lb. dog. This will make it easier to keep our schedule flexible for our long trip in August. No hotels, just campsites. So we packed up the car, 2 pillows, 2 sleeping bags, 3 small blankets, a twin sized air mattress (deflated), a pump for the afore-mentioned air mattress, dog food, bottled water, a small cooler, dog bowls, dog treats, 2 large rawhide bones, a stuffed dog toy, a duffel bag with a change of clothes for both Danny and me, and finally my camera bag, because we all know I go nowhere without my camera. So did I remember to mention we were in a Prius? Not a big car by any means, but loaded with lots of little places to hide things.

So we got on the road around 8:30 am (about an hour later than I wanted to start) on our trip to nowhere in particular. We had a tentative goal for Mississippi, but who knew where we would actually end up. We set a new rule early on that on any trip through the Midwest we would each only do the "Look, a bunch of cows. . . ." joke once a day, or it would get very old, very quickly, and wouldn't be fun anymore. We also found this works for goats, sheep, and horses. Try it. Replace "cows" with these other animals (which were all frequently seen on this trip), and you will see I am right.

Several hours into the trip we stopped at a rest stop for all of us to stretch our legs and to go potty. I of course had to take some pictures of the surrounding area and of Bandit. At one point I was sitting/kneeling on the curb and Danny gave me the leash while he went to go do something, I don't remember what. Now before giving me the leash Danny reminded me there were other dogs around and to make sure I had a good hold, because if Bandit saw another dog he would take off running and I needed to stop him. I assured him I was fine and he went to do whatever it was. Within seconds Bandit saw another dog and tried to run over and introduce himself. I was on my knees at the time trying to take Bandit's picture and when he took off, so did I, pretty much a face plant into the grass. I managed to hold onto the leash, only because I had wound it around my hand several times (can you say nylon leash burn?). Ouch! While protecting my camera from hitting the ground I smashed a few of my acrylic nails into the dirt and broke them off painfully low. Double Ouch! The camera was fine. Thanks for asking. Danny heard all of the commotion and came to see what happened with an "I told you to hold onto the leash, because he would run." Thanks Hon, I think I got it. After that we got back in the car and continued on.

After a full 12 hours in the car, we found a KOA and pitched our tent. Oh wait, we don't have a tent. We're sleeping in the car. We had brought along a sheet to cover up the back window, and some bath towels for the side windows, and we used the sun shade in the front. OK, now no-one can see in. Could you just imagine waking up to some stranger staring in your windows trying to figure out why you're sleeping in your car in a campground? Now both front seats are pushed all the way forward, and the back seats are flipped down. The three blankets are layered in the front passenger seat like a little nest for Bandit. The air mattress is blown up and the two sleeping bags are put on that facing head to toe. Those of you who know Danny know you don't want his head right next to your head when you're sleeping, especially in a little car. Did I fail to mention I wore ear plugs? Danny laid head toward the front of the car (poor Bandit), and I laid with my head toward the back of the car, kind of tucked a little into one of the cubbyhole areas. Now because this is a Prius we could have the car on with the heat running all night and use only about 1/4 gallon of gas.

What did we learn from this little experiment? 1) Pack a tent, just as another option for sleeping arrangements. 2) Stop before it gets dark, setting all this up at night tends to attract the unwanted attention of all the mosquitoes in the area. Which leads me to 3) BRING AND USE BUG SPRAY! Even in late fall the bugs are nasty.

I have to admit it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'll let you judge for yourself from the following pictures.

Stream of consiousness

Ok, so it seems everyone I know is either reading blogs or writing their own, so I thought I might throw my hat in the ring. You see, in early October, my husband started his own blog, and I made the mistake of thinking it was OUR BLOG, not HIS BLOG. When I asked if I could post on it, he said if I had things to write about, he would create a blog for me of my very own. So now here we are. I don't have any mind bending, earth shattering, thoughts in my head that just have to get out or I'll explode, but there are the occasional things I might want to share. For instance, why is it people in the computer field or with family in that field have the worst computers. Case in point: My husband, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law's husband are all in the computer industry. So why is it about a year ago my hard-drive crashed and I lost all kinds of important things including pictures from a trip to Mexico. Then a few days ago I had another hard-drive crash. Even though less things were lost this time, because I had a backup drive, I still lost... you guessed it, more pictures. Including, get this... pictures we took on our second trip to Mexico, that we were hoping would replace some of the pictures we lost the first time.Thankfully, this time we had downloaded our trip pictures on my in-law's computer. We made a disk and copied them back onto our Brand New Computer. Maybe our old computer just had something against Mexican beach images. Doesn't it only make sense that if you are in a certain field, you would have the best equipment available?

I guess that's why they say, Doctors make the worst patients.

I live a pretty normal, typically uneventful life. There are a few new changes that have my patience at an all time low. My normally dull job at the photo counter in an Osco was recently turned upside down when the girl in charge of the department quit and I was temporarily thrust into her roll with a lot of extra responsibility. That is just a little mind boggling right now. Then to make matters worse, we got all new equipment that only myself and two other people are trained on. Because I only live three minutes from work I get all the problem calls and get to go in at night and on my days off to help fix all the problems. Again, I don't mind, just a lot of pressure. This week, I get to train my boss and all the people who work nights, so maybe my phone will stop ringing every night.

Final rant, I promise. About a week or two ago, I had the misfortune not to just be in, but cause, my first accident in almost six years. Thankfully, no one was hurt because I actually hit an unoccupied parked car. I did the smart thing and called my husband crying right away. He told me to call the police. While I was on the phone with the police giving dispatch my location, the other person came out from wherever they were, and before I realized it, they drove away. So while I waited for the police, I called my husband back to tell him the other person left and now I was going to have to worry about when they found the damage to their car, if they would report it as a hit and run. My husband reassured me the police would handle it as long as I didn't leave until I explained everything to them. The police showed up fifteen minutes later, took all my information, and said because I was on private property (a retail parking lot) no tickets would be issued. If and when the other driver contacted them, the police would pass on my information. A few days later, the police called me back and said the other driver called and said there was only paint transfer on their car so they weren't filing any claims. Thank goodness.

So what do I do when I'm stressed or just because I love it? I take pictures. Not only is it a hobby, but a mild passion. People say I am much too critical of my own pictures. I never let anyone see any rough images, only those that have passed the initial inspection and have then been rotated, cropped, and enhanced any way they can be to make them worthy of my own approval. This then leads to my other hobby, passion, obsession... travel. If I could afford it I would take a trip somewhere every month. Finances unfortunately allow just one big trip every few years or smaller trips once or twice a year. Our next trip is set for late August or early September 2008. Out west. Road Trip. Two and a half weeks in a Prius. My husband, me, and our Eighty-three pound German Shepherd. Am I nuts?