Follow Them to the Edge of the Desert

I haven't written in a few days, but now I have a lot to say! I just got back from visiting my friend Tracee in Arizona. It was her bridal shower last Saturday and it was a blast. The whole weekend was as a matter of fact. Lots of chit chat, wedding stuff and Gilmore Girls watching. That's right, Tracee is a Gilmore freak like me and the title of the post is a reference to the episode where Lane's band plays their first party and they can't figure out a band name. Its also good considering I think we went to the edge of the desert in Phoenix because Tracee and Justin live so far out!

Tracee picked me up from the airport and right away we were talking as if I'd never moved away...hmmm...15 years ago. Wow, that's a long time. Of course we had to check out each other's rings and talk about the fiance's at home. Then we got to Tracee's house, finally...like I said, it was like we were at the Edge of the Desert. It is a really cute 3 bedroom, 2 bath house on a lot of land. Her soon to be hubby does landscaping and plans to build a nursery out back. I couldn't see much of the outside at night, but I could smell it. they live next door to horses, pigs, and pretty soon, billy goats. It wasn't really that bad, but I did point out to her that she made fun of me because we had cows near our house in Kansas and now she lives right next door to some! Ha ha! Here is a picture of the pig next door.

The next day was the shower and it was so fun. She has such nice friends and everyone was in a good mood. We ate wonderful food (chips and salsa, dips, chicken enchilada's, and quesadillas), opened presents and only played two silly games. Of course I didn't win, because the first game was that you couldn't say the word "wedding" during the shower and I'm too much of a talker for that.

It was also great seeing Tracee's mom and sister. It had been a while since I'd seen any of them. They all seem to be doing well. Here is Tracee and her mom. She's holding a bouquet of bows from the presents. Its a tradition to keep the bows and make them into a bouquet for the wedding ceremony rehearsal. Supposedly, however many ribbons you break is how many kids you have. Tracee was pretty careful with the gifts, so I don't think she broke too many. Maybe she'll only have 5 kids or so...

The rest of the weekend consisted of watching Gilmore Girls (and the James Bond Casino Royal movie), shopping, hair cut and coloring, and just general girl stuff. I was also able to see Tracee in her wedding dress, but I can't post pictures just in case they get into the wrong hands. Since I can't go to the wedding I was so happy I picked this weekend to visit her. I was able to meet (and approve) Justin and got to spend more quality time with her this weekend than I would have the weekend of the wedding. I also go to meet her kitty cat. I can't remember her name, but she was a sweetie.

Tracee says she bites, so I was afraid at first, but she's a good cat!

Thanks for the fun weekend, Tracee, Justin, and Kitty!

We Have a Date!

We finally booked our reception hall so Mike and I officially have a wedding date!

Of course I had to have a picture to go along with it! It took me so long to decide on a date because I couldn't find a reception hall I liked that was also close to our Church. I didn't want a regular banquet hall, I wanted something unique. But you normally have to go downtown to find that. But we did find Spazio in Westport and really liked the Garden Room. It's a banquet hall, but is decorated in Venetian decor and is really cute and only about a 15 minute drive from our house and Church. I really liked it when we first saw it a few months ago, but we had to see what else was out there. There is a lot of places, but nothing that I really loved besides this place! Now all I have to do is book the photographer, DJ, limo service, get the invitations, make party favors....oh wow, I think I need a nap!

And All That Jazz!

Last night, my neighbor Amy and I went and had ourselves a night on the town. We went to dinner at the Schlafly Taproom and then see the musical Chicago at the Fabulous Fox theater downtown...and all that jazz. ;)

Dinner was good. Schlafly is a local microbrewery and so they had more bar food than steaks and seafood, but we enjoyed it. It was incredibly close to the Fox so we wouldn't be late for curtain call. We thought about bringing our boys (Ryan and Mike), but decided it wasn't worth the kicking and screaming. And then when the second song and dance number was all about how the women in jail killed their husbands, I think it was a safe bet that they wouldn't have like it. But the musical itself was great. It was so funny. I had seen the movie and enjoyed it somewhat, but don't remember laughing. I enjoy seeing the live shows because they can gauge off audience reactions and take jokes farther if they want.

As for the theater itself, it was beautiful! We sat in the balcony so we could see everything. The Fox was originally built in 1929 then restored in 1981. Since then they have really kept it up and it looks like something out of a movie. I added a link to the picture on the right if you want to read about it or see more pictures. I really hope to go back and see another play there. I'm glad Amy likes to do that sort of thing, because I know Mike would go, but I don't think he'd enjoy it really.

Mosaic Pictures

I'm really loving this new Geek Sugar website I found...okay, so its new to me. They have a link to a website that turns your pictures into those mosaic pictures. They get the small pictures from Flickr which is a fun website to surf to just look at people's pictures.

Since its baseball season and I happened to have a St. Louis Cards picture and a picture of the scoreboard at The K...I thought I'd try it on those. Their example on Geek Sugar is a picture of the Olsen twins...I think its weird, but turning your pictures into a mosaic is cool!

Proud to be an engineer

I found this website that is pretty fun...its called Geeksugar.com. They got all types of articles showcases fun tech-gagety stuff. As an enginerd, I like this type of stuff, but they put a cool spin on it. Its all about Geek-chic! Gotta love it!

Click on the picture to the left to read the article about how some engineers at UC Santa Cruz decorated the front of their building as a Donkey Kong game. It also show's pictures of them creating their masterpiece...its impressive, but wow, that's a lot of time to devote to create a video game tribute!

Wintery Easter Weekend

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! I know I did. Mike and I took a little road trip across the great state of Missouri to see my family in Kansas. We arrived on Friday evening, ate dinner and watched the Royals game. They won, yay! We passed by the stadium on the way in and there was almost no one there. It wasn't that surprising since it was around 30 degrees...boy was it cold. Of course they still had the silly-guy-without-shirt to show on TV. Those guys must do some serious tailgating to do that in freezing weather!

Saturday we went to lunch with my Aunt Diane and cousin Kathleen. We talked about Easter plans and wedding plans. Then we went to David's Bridal to try on wedding dresses...again! Its okay, because it was a place I hadn't been before. I tried on about a dozen dresses. From the simple no frills dress...to the sequin everywhere dress. And of course they had to put a veil on, which really does complete the outfit. But this one girl kept putting a blusher on me. A blusher is the veil that goes over your face that your dad is supposed to lift up after he's walked you down the aisle. With my luck, it would get caught on my dad's watch and rip and it would mess up my hair. So no blusher, but I humored her because she really wanted me to try it on. Then this other lady kept yelling at me because I wouldn't put the slip on under the dress. I would've put a slip on, but what they gave me was more of a Scarlett O'Hara hoop skirt! When I swayed back and forth I looked like a church bell! Anyway, we had a good time, but I again didn't buy anything. But I have over a year, so what's the rush?

Easter day we went to Diane's for brunch and were entertained by our cousin's kids, Jennifer and David. They both just learned how to give bunny ears to each other, which is quite appropriate for Easter. They told us about their Easter egg hunt and what the Easter bunny left for them.

Then it was back in the car for another wonderful four hour drive across Missouri. At least stuff is growing, so the scenery is a little prettier to look at.

Happy Belated Easter, Everyone!

We're cookin now!

With all the pet food recall out there, I'm not too sure what to feed our pup Rouge anymore. He usually gets dry food with canned food on top. Since we don't use any of the wet food mentioned on the recall lists we hadn't changed anything. But since then they keep coming out with more and more recalls, I don't think I want to feed him anything from the store! I also heard that they aren't disclosing the news as fast as they are learning about it which is frustrating.

We finally decided to only give him dry food with Parmesan cheese on it or something. He's too snobby now to eat only dry food...oh poor puppy! I did contemplate making my own dog food for him. Then I thought about it...I barely cook for Mike and I, but I am going to try to cook for the dog...that's just weird. But if the recalls keep coming, I will probably try to figure something out.

I found this article on MSN.com that talks about how people are going to start making their own food. Better talk to the vet before I try it, but I really hope it doesn't get to that. Everyone else makes fun of my cooking...I don't need my dog laughing at me too!

So Many Weddings...

in one day!

My friend Kim (lives in California) is getting married May 12th in Florida. She graciously asked me to be a bridesmaid and I said yes! I'm very excited about it! Get to wear a cute bridesmaid dress, go to the bachelorette party in Florida, good times!

My friend Tracee (been great friends since second grade even though I moved away from Phoenix in sixth grade) got engaged last year. It was so exciting to hear the news! But then she told me that she had also claimed May 12th as her wedding day. I asked her to change it, but I guess I'm important, but not that important. :)

Anyway, so then I tried to reason that it will be daylight savings so there is two hour time difference between the cities and the flight is probably 2.5 hours... so I could try to make it both... but... oh never mind... it would never work, so I will have to miss Tracee's wedding.

So I decided that since I can't go to Tracee's wedding, I will for sure be at her wedding shower. What day is Tracee's shower in Phoenix? April 21st...and then what day is Kim's shower? April 21st! ARG! I think these two know each other and are playing an evil trick on me. Anyway, I will still go to Tracee's shower and am very excited. I finally bought my plane tickets after a few weeks of deciding wheather to use airline miles or just spring for the flight. I finally decided to go on Southwest, so everything is set!

Well, I guess when you have your wedding on May 12th, your shower must be on April 21st and your shower invitations must get to the guests on April 3rd exactly. That's right...they did it again! I got the shower invitations on the exact same day! How are they doing this? Oh well...I guess I'll throw them off by RSVPing on two different days. Take that!

I really am so happy to have Tracee and Kim as close friends and am really excited for thier upcoming marriages. I don't usually have best friends having all their parties and weddings on the same day, so I hope they understand why I have to keep making these hard decisions about who's party/wedding to go to. I better at least get to see pictures, Tracee!

April Showers...

Today is rainy and cold and I don't like it. I thought it was summer and I didn't like having to wear a sweater to work today. Oh well, I guess I can try brightening up the day with some pictures I took of my tulips that finally bloomed! Enjoy!

Opening Day!

Before I say anything...an update on our bunny situation: There have been no more bunnies left on our front steps so we feel it was just a cat who found a nest and wanted to show us what he did. Good for it, now on with our lives.

Baseball is here again! I like baseball, it means summer is here!

Its pretty odd that the defending champs (St. Louis Cardinals) lost on their opening day (luckily we watched it with Amy and Ryan so we could at least entertain ourselves by socializing during the boring game) and the Kansas City Royals won. Oh well. Cards had a bad regular season last year and looked what happened. KC had a good start last year and...oh well, never mind. I will always love my KC Royals because they are the team I grew up rooting for with my Dad. When we would visit KC we'd always try to go to a baseball game since Phoenix didn't have an MLB team at the time. Unfortunately, I've never known them when they have been good. I was only 5 when the won the series and I had an even shorter attention span than I do now (if that's even possible), so I doubt I watched games. But be careful while in St. Louis if you like the Royals at all. If you even mention the 1985 World Series that KC won and STL lost, you will get into it with someone. Apparently there was a bad call. And because of that, they think St. Louis should've won. I don't know, it was so long ago I can't believe they haven't let it go, but they haven't so this is your official warning. Anyway, I feel I can honestly say I am a fan for both teams. Since they are in different leagues its allowed to be a fan of both unless they play each other. When they do play each other, I root for the Royals (as I normally root for the underdogs anyway.) Since I'm in St. Louis and go to more Cardinals games than I do Royals game, we support the local team with our little flag.