Thursday, April 27, 2006
Updates, updates, jiggity jig.
I've made some updates to my portfolio with some new images from the upcoming Viper comic, Villains.
Check it out.
I also added some pictures of Ben's cousin Kari and her baby, Grace, in the Family and Friends photo gallery. They came for a visit last week and we got to meet Grace for the first time. She's a real cutie pie.
In other news, Ben and I just got word that we got an honorable mention in the Comics Jam War that we competed in at the beginning of the month.
WOOT!
All seven of these stories will be in the book Comics Jam War, hitting comic shops in July with a cover price of $6.99. It is listed in the May Previews catalog on page 210, item code MAY06 2757.
Thanks to Lone Star Comics in Arlington for putting us up for the competition. It was my first ever "Iron Man" competition trying to put out a comic in record time (12 hours in this case) and I'm so stoked that it wasn't a waste of the 2 years of my life I probably took off by participating in this grueling and daunting task.
We're not allowed to post the pages of the comic on our websites so you'll just have to go to your local comic store and pick it up if you want to see it in its awesome entirety!!!
Check it out.
I also added some pictures of Ben's cousin Kari and her baby, Grace, in the Family and Friends photo gallery. They came for a visit last week and we got to meet Grace for the first time. She's a real cutie pie.
In other news, Ben and I just got word that we got an honorable mention in the Comics Jam War that we competed in at the beginning of the month.
All seven of these stories will be in the book Comics Jam War, hitting comic shops in July with a cover price of $6.99. It is listed in the May Previews catalog on page 210, item code MAY06 2757.
Thanks to Lone Star Comics in Arlington for putting us up for the competition. It was my first ever "Iron Man" competition trying to put out a comic in record time (12 hours in this case) and I'm so stoked that it wasn't a waste of the 2 years of my life I probably took off by participating in this grueling and daunting task.
We're not allowed to post the pages of the comic on our websites so you'll just have to go to your local comic store and pick it up if you want to see it in its awesome entirety!!!
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Lost
My uncle died yesterday. I found out last night and am reeling about it.
The funeral is probably going to be on Monday and I don't think I'm going to be able to go because its in Vegas and I'm broke and in Texas... I wish I could drive but that doesn't look like an option either, especially with gas prices the way they are. It would probably be cheaper to fly.
He had cancer, the same cancer that took my grandma on my dad's side. One of my aunts on my dad side has also recently been diagnosed with colon cancer. So yeah, there's another thing for me to be afraid of in my life.
My dad said he'd only known about it since Friday, and pancreatic cancer can be really fast and deadly, so I don't know if there was a lot of time to let everyone know.
I love feeling completely helpless when things like this happen.
The funeral is probably going to be on Monday and I don't think I'm going to be able to go because its in Vegas and I'm broke and in Texas... I wish I could drive but that doesn't look like an option either, especially with gas prices the way they are. It would probably be cheaper to fly.
He had cancer, the same cancer that took my grandma on my dad's side. One of my aunts on my dad side has also recently been diagnosed with colon cancer. So yeah, there's another thing for me to be afraid of in my life.
My dad said he'd only known about it since Friday, and pancreatic cancer can be really fast and deadly, so I don't know if there was a lot of time to let everyone know.
I love feeling completely helpless when things like this happen.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The Hill, she is a Silent, yes?
Not much going on with me at the moment, so I'll fill your eyeballs with some useless gobbledygook.
Saturday morning Ben and I went to go see Silent Hill. We've learned that it's NEVER a good idea to go see a horror movie on opening night because I always end up having to tell someone off for being an asshat in the theatre. We still do sometimes, but its usually when we make plans with friends to see it. Since it was just us, and on a whim, we opted for the first showing on Saturday when most people are sleeping in. The actual movie going experience was probably one of the better ones I've had in a LONG time. We almost came under fire at first because a group of teenage girls came and sat down in the row right behind us, but I decided to get up and move down our row where no one was behind us. This proved to be a good move because 10 minutes into the movie they were screaming and laughing out loud. But they didn't do it enough to piss me off and they did it in time with ACTUAL scares in the movie. Kudos to them.
So, Silent Hill...I've never played the video games, though I always wanted to, but just never got around to it. This being the case, I had no prior knowledge of the story other than what was offered in the trailer. That being said, the movie was pretty good. The dialogue of the characters was pretty cheesy, but thankfully the actors they got gave it the best go of it they could. The monsters were REALLY top shelf. One way to really wig me out in a movie is have bugs, and lots of them, come after the protagonist. This movie delivered that. There weren't a lot of "BOO!" type scares, which kind of annoy me anyway, so that was also a plus for the movie. It was more like..."we're walking along and then there's something weird kind of lurching at us" type of scares. The Pyramid Head monster-guy-thing was really rad and my fave of the monsters.
I had read somewhere before the movie came out that the writers had gone to the studio with the script and the studio said "there's no men" in the story. At all. So the writers wrote in Sean Bean's character (the husband and father) and the project was given the green light. Knowing this, it does seem that his scenes are a bit of an afterthought, and looking back, didn't really NEED to be in the movie to help it go along. I think this is another flaw in the movie. It was pretty long and I think the superfluous scenes with Sean Bean could have been cut and made the movie a lot better. A friend of mine also said that the dad was the main character in the video game to begin with. So why the mother was written in as the main character is another mystery to me...
But, I enjoyed the movie, visually, and though it got kind of weird at the end and Ben and I gave each other "Huh??" looks when it was over, I wasn't mad and didn't feel like I had lost 2 hours of my life. I don't know if its something I'd like to own, so I may have to watch it again to decide. I also hope I can pick up some of the video games so that the story might make a little more sense to me.
In other movie news, Ben and I also rented Beyond Re-Animator. Ok, I LOVE ALL of the Re-Animator movies and Jeffrey Combs. So, of course, I loved this movie as well. Its pretty gory, and yeah...there's a male body part that gets some special attention, but otherwise, its just what you'd expect from a Re-Animator movie. Ridiculous plot, tons of zombies and Jeffrey Combs' awesome deadpan performance as Dr. Herbert West. I think the movie was filmed in Mexico or something, because all of the actors have Hispanic names, and the main female character's voice seems to be dubbed, and rather badly. At first, Ben and I thought it was because she couldn't act or her voice was totally annoying, but then it occurred to me that she probably had a really thick Spanish accent and you couldn't understand what she was saying! (I looked her up on IMDB and see that she's in Snakes on a Plane so I'll be watching to see if she DOES indeed have a heavy accent or if she just acts like her voice is being dubbed.) Anyway, it made for a really funny thing for us to make fun of throughout the movie. So go rent all of the Re-Animator movies (I think there's only 3, c'mon!) if you enjoy totally absurd zombie humor and like a lot of gore. You'll be glad that you did.
I also watched Lady and the Tramp, which I recently bought on DVD, while I was coloring comics on Sunday. I really only bought it because its a classic Disney movie and it was "going in the vault forever", plus I want them so that I can show them to my kids one day. Because, honestly, this is one of my least favorite Disney movies. At least, that's how I remember it being. But after watching it again, I forgot how much I really like this movie. The characters are really lovable (I LOVE how Lady calls her owners Jim Dear and Darling), and the Siamese cats are just so evil you can't help but love that scene...its really strange how our tastes can change, or our perceptions of things we thought we didn't like are suddenly some of our favorite things. This is also true for movies that I remember being freaking fantastic, but upon watching them again are really lame or cheesy. Case in point: The Prophecy. Christopher Walken as Gabriel, and Viggo Mortensen, before he was anybody, playing the Devil. I LOVED this movie when I was in high school. I got it for Christmas and watched it recently and you know what? Its kind of lame...I still like it, but its not as awe inspiring as I used to think it was. Another movie: Phantasm. This movie and its sequels scared the CRAP out of me and my sister when we were kids. I rented it when I was about 19 (remember, Tony?) and I remember it being SO cheesy and weird that I can't believe it used to scare me. I bet if I watched it again now I'd probably really love it since I'm more into bad horror movies now than I was even then.
I'm hoping that THIS movie, which opens on Cinco de Mayo (and how I plan to spend the holiday this year), does a better job of scaring me. I'll keep you posted.
Saturday morning Ben and I went to go see Silent Hill. We've learned that it's NEVER a good idea to go see a horror movie on opening night because I always end up having to tell someone off for being an asshat in the theatre. We still do sometimes, but its usually when we make plans with friends to see it. Since it was just us, and on a whim, we opted for the first showing on Saturday when most people are sleeping in. The actual movie going experience was probably one of the better ones I've had in a LONG time. We almost came under fire at first because a group of teenage girls came and sat down in the row right behind us, but I decided to get up and move down our row where no one was behind us. This proved to be a good move because 10 minutes into the movie they were screaming and laughing out loud. But they didn't do it enough to piss me off and they did it in time with ACTUAL scares in the movie. Kudos to them.
So, Silent Hill...I've never played the video games, though I always wanted to, but just never got around to it. This being the case, I had no prior knowledge of the story other than what was offered in the trailer. That being said, the movie was pretty good. The dialogue of the characters was pretty cheesy, but thankfully the actors they got gave it the best go of it they could. The monsters were REALLY top shelf. One way to really wig me out in a movie is have bugs, and lots of them, come after the protagonist. This movie delivered that. There weren't a lot of "BOO!" type scares, which kind of annoy me anyway, so that was also a plus for the movie. It was more like..."we're walking along and then there's something weird kind of lurching at us" type of scares. The Pyramid Head monster-guy-thing was really rad and my fave of the monsters.
I had read somewhere before the movie came out that the writers had gone to the studio with the script and the studio said "there's no men" in the story. At all. So the writers wrote in Sean Bean's character (the husband and father) and the project was given the green light. Knowing this, it does seem that his scenes are a bit of an afterthought, and looking back, didn't really NEED to be in the movie to help it go along. I think this is another flaw in the movie. It was pretty long and I think the superfluous scenes with Sean Bean could have been cut and made the movie a lot better. A friend of mine also said that the dad was the main character in the video game to begin with. So why the mother was written in as the main character is another mystery to me...
But, I enjoyed the movie, visually, and though it got kind of weird at the end and Ben and I gave each other "Huh??" looks when it was over, I wasn't mad and didn't feel like I had lost 2 hours of my life. I don't know if its something I'd like to own, so I may have to watch it again to decide. I also hope I can pick up some of the video games so that the story might make a little more sense to me.
In other movie news, Ben and I also rented Beyond Re-Animator. Ok, I LOVE ALL of the Re-Animator movies and Jeffrey Combs. So, of course, I loved this movie as well. Its pretty gory, and yeah...there's a male body part that gets some special attention, but otherwise, its just what you'd expect from a Re-Animator movie. Ridiculous plot, tons of zombies and Jeffrey Combs' awesome deadpan performance as Dr. Herbert West. I think the movie was filmed in Mexico or something, because all of the actors have Hispanic names, and the main female character's voice seems to be dubbed, and rather badly. At first, Ben and I thought it was because she couldn't act or her voice was totally annoying, but then it occurred to me that she probably had a really thick Spanish accent and you couldn't understand what she was saying! (I looked her up on IMDB and see that she's in Snakes on a Plane so I'll be watching to see if she DOES indeed have a heavy accent or if she just acts like her voice is being dubbed.) Anyway, it made for a really funny thing for us to make fun of throughout the movie. So go rent all of the Re-Animator movies (I think there's only 3, c'mon!) if you enjoy totally absurd zombie humor and like a lot of gore. You'll be glad that you did.
I also watched Lady and the Tramp, which I recently bought on DVD, while I was coloring comics on Sunday. I really only bought it because its a classic Disney movie and it was "going in the vault forever", plus I want them so that I can show them to my kids one day. Because, honestly, this is one of my least favorite Disney movies. At least, that's how I remember it being. But after watching it again, I forgot how much I really like this movie. The characters are really lovable (I LOVE how Lady calls her owners Jim Dear and Darling), and the Siamese cats are just so evil you can't help but love that scene...its really strange how our tastes can change, or our perceptions of things we thought we didn't like are suddenly some of our favorite things. This is also true for movies that I remember being freaking fantastic, but upon watching them again are really lame or cheesy. Case in point: The Prophecy. Christopher Walken as Gabriel, and Viggo Mortensen, before he was anybody, playing the Devil. I LOVED this movie when I was in high school. I got it for Christmas and watched it recently and you know what? Its kind of lame...I still like it, but its not as awe inspiring as I used to think it was. Another movie: Phantasm. This movie and its sequels scared the CRAP out of me and my sister when we were kids. I rented it when I was about 19 (remember, Tony?) and I remember it being SO cheesy and weird that I can't believe it used to scare me. I bet if I watched it again now I'd probably really love it since I'm more into bad horror movies now than I was even then.
I'm hoping that THIS movie, which opens on Cinco de Mayo (and how I plan to spend the holiday this year), does a better job of scaring me. I'll keep you posted.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Manic Monday and Ruby Tuesday (not the heinous restaurant again...)
Ok, so I finally got the pictures up in the photo gallery for my actual birthday. Look there or here, if you want to cut out the middle man.
So on my actual birthday, Monday the 10th, (in case you forgot since its been over a week and I'm lame) we get up to go pick up my mom for some breakfast at Chick Fil A, since she has not yet had this wondrous delight. And I've now received specific instructions from my sister that I MUST take our mother there to eat.
We get to her hotel and I'm going up the stairs to her room when I hear "Hey, man. Excuse me, man!"
GROAN...I HATE when I hear people coming up to me or anyone that I'm with in a parking lot because you KNOW they are going to be begging or asking you a favor.
"Can you jump my truck for me? I have to take my girlfriend to work. Its just back behind this building."
BINGO! Now, there is speculation about whether this guy and his surly counterpart actually SAID the truck was behind the building. But that's what I heard, so I'm going with it. Normally I'm a pretty nice person, I give my change to homeless people I see when they ask for it. I help people out in the store if they appear confused or need help. BUT, I am also my father's daughter and I have red flags that pop up sometimes about people and I'm SUPER paranoid. So I look at these two guys and something just doesn't feel right to me about them...
I think Ben is ready to jump their car (I didn't have my jumper cables so I thought we were off the hook, but they said they had some. RATS!) but something told me no. The luck we'd been having so far with my mom in town just seemed like, yes, if I go and help these dudes, they WILL rob us or worse ON my birthday.
So I told these two guys that it was my birthday, we were just here to pick up my mom and we were already running late. Sorry, we can't help. I asked them if they could call someone (like, I don't know, a FRIEND someone you KNOW instead of complete strangers???) or something, to which I got no reply. Another red flag for me...
We run up the stairs grab my mom and get the hell out of there. Now I'm all freaked out that these guys will see what room my mom is staying in and do something to her. Thank GOD she was leaving the next day.
Chick Fil A was great, my mom really liked it. I took a crapload of pictures of it, but am only posting two of them here because the other ones were to taunt my sister, again, because we were eating her favorite fast food and she got none. ZING!
That morning Ben and I decided that it would be fun to take my mom to the Fort Worth Zoo because Vegas doesn't have a zoo and my mom likes animals and I like animals, so it was perfect! Check the photo gallery for about 50 fun pictures of us at the zoo. I narrowed these down from about 350 pictures. It was so much fun, I couldn't help myself! But now Ben has a plethora of reference pics if he needs to draw an entire zoo of animals for any reason.
The zoo was super fun and it was a beautiful day. I don't think the weather could have been any more perfect. It wasn't too crowded, since it was a Monday, we only had to share the animals with some elementary school kids on field trips and some moms who took their toddlers there for some exercise and a day out. It was fun to hear the little kids get excited about the animals and try to talk to them.
I got some awesome video of this little bear cub (he's in the photo gallery) who was sitting up on his bum and seemed to be waving to us. It was so surreal how personable this bear was. It almost, (ALMOST) made me forget about his huge razorsharp claws he was waving at us with, and that in a couple years this bear could gut a human in a matter of minutes. I was glad to be up high from him, but he was still completely huggable cute.
I also got some video of a kangaroo who was right up against the bridge you have to walk across to get to the kangaroo area. I could have reached through the mesh and touched him if I had wanted to. I didn't think that was wise so I just shot some video of him. I wish I could put the video up here for you all to see, but they are big files and my bandwidth probably can't take it. Sorry. If you really want to see it, send me a shout and I'll email it to you.
We ended our zoo trip and went home to take some quick showers. It was a beautiful day, weatherwise, but we were still sticky from all the walking and being in the sun. After our brief interlude we picked my mom up from her hotel and headed to Saltgrass for a birthday steak dinner!
All my pictures from Saltgrass came out fuzzy, so I'm not posting them here, (damn new camera and its 500 "best shot" settings) sorry. Chris came with us, which was fun and we had a good time. This was the BEST meal servicewise, the entire weekend. Our waiter was nice, but I think he thought my mom was slow because she had never been to Saltgrass before and didn't know the menu backwards and forwards. He took his time explaining EVERYTHING to her. And then he dropped a 28 oz. beer that Chris had ordered right next to us, but thankfully we didn't get any backsplash. So it was a really nice dinner. My mom liked Saltgrass alot.
For dessert we went to Steak and Shake so I could get a banana milkshake, because, well, they are HEAVENLY...I LOVE all things banana, and these milkshakes TAKE the banana cake, my lovelies. Again, we were cursed with the service from hell. We got our milkshakes and then *POOF*, our waiter was never seen again. He never came back to check on us or ask if we wanted our check. Steak and Shake isn't a big place, and there was one other table with people at it while we were there...so...I don't know what the problem was. Maybe he saw all the picture taking and got scared. In any case, we did have a good time, but had to hunt down our waiter when we'd have enough and were REALLY ready to leave. I got some nice pictures that are in the photo gallery for your viewing pleasure.
After shakes we went home and we watched Shaun of the Dead on DVD. Because, you know, its the BEST zombie movie EVER. Plus, my mom hadn't seen it, and I thought it a good way to end the trip.
I'll tell you of the last day of our trip now since there's not a whole lot to report. I was scared those dudes would be back so I made Ben come with me before he went to work to help me get my mom's luggage out of her room because I'm chickenshit and thought they'd try something while I was alone...I know I'm a big wuss.
My mom couldn't check out of her room until 11 am, no easy check out here folks, so we went to Starbucks and had a croissant and talked until it was time to go.
We met Ben for lunch at Chick Fil A, more pics of my mom eating in the photo gallery. YUM! Then it was off to the airport...
It was really sad to have to say goodbye to my mom. We got there REALLY early, in record time, actually. So we had about an hour to sit and chat before she had to go through to the ticketed passengers ONLY area and board her plane.
At about 1:45 I gave her one last hug and then had to run to my car to keep from crying too much. We were both telling each other to stop, because if one of us got going, the other would surely follow. I kissed her goodbye and ran for it. There are photos in the photo gallery of it...well, not of me crying, but of my mom and one of us before she left.
I only stayed in my car for a couple minutes, crying, and then I started the drive home. I can't believe I didn't get pulled over, and I probably should have gotten SOMEONE to drive me there because I was really in no state to be driving. So I thank whoever it was watching over me to insure that I didn't kill myself or anyone else on the road going home.
I had a few hours to kill alone at home before Ben got home from work. I downloaded all of the pictures from the weekend and just looked through them all...
It was a wonderfully fun time that ended far too quickly, but I'm so happy that I was able to have at least that much.
So thanks, for the best birthday, Mom...I love you. And thanks to Ben for helping to make it all possible. I love you more than I could ever say in words.
That's IT! Now back to my regularly scheduled life of chaos, mayhem and a little bit of nerdery. Hope you guys enjoyed the ride as much as I did...
So on my actual birthday, Monday the 10th, (in case you forgot since its been over a week and I'm lame) we get up to go pick up my mom for some breakfast at Chick Fil A, since she has not yet had this wondrous delight. And I've now received specific instructions from my sister that I MUST take our mother there to eat.
We get to her hotel and I'm going up the stairs to her room when I hear "Hey, man. Excuse me, man!"
GROAN...I HATE when I hear people coming up to me or anyone that I'm with in a parking lot because you KNOW they are going to be begging or asking you a favor.
"Can you jump my truck for me? I have to take my girlfriend to work. Its just back behind this building."
BINGO! Now, there is speculation about whether this guy and his surly counterpart actually SAID the truck was behind the building. But that's what I heard, so I'm going with it. Normally I'm a pretty nice person, I give my change to homeless people I see when they ask for it. I help people out in the store if they appear confused or need help. BUT, I am also my father's daughter and I have red flags that pop up sometimes about people and I'm SUPER paranoid. So I look at these two guys and something just doesn't feel right to me about them...
I think Ben is ready to jump their car (I didn't have my jumper cables so I thought we were off the hook, but they said they had some. RATS!) but something told me no. The luck we'd been having so far with my mom in town just seemed like, yes, if I go and help these dudes, they WILL rob us or worse ON my birthday.
So I told these two guys that it was my birthday, we were just here to pick up my mom and we were already running late. Sorry, we can't help. I asked them if they could call someone (like, I don't know, a FRIEND someone you KNOW instead of complete strangers???) or something, to which I got no reply. Another red flag for me...
We run up the stairs grab my mom and get the hell out of there. Now I'm all freaked out that these guys will see what room my mom is staying in and do something to her. Thank GOD she was leaving the next day.
Chick Fil A was great, my mom really liked it. I took a crapload of pictures of it, but am only posting two of them here because the other ones were to taunt my sister, again, because we were eating her favorite fast food and she got none. ZING!
That morning Ben and I decided that it would be fun to take my mom to the Fort Worth Zoo because Vegas doesn't have a zoo and my mom likes animals and I like animals, so it was perfect! Check the photo gallery for about 50 fun pictures of us at the zoo. I narrowed these down from about 350 pictures. It was so much fun, I couldn't help myself! But now Ben has a plethora of reference pics if he needs to draw an entire zoo of animals for any reason.
The zoo was super fun and it was a beautiful day. I don't think the weather could have been any more perfect. It wasn't too crowded, since it was a Monday, we only had to share the animals with some elementary school kids on field trips and some moms who took their toddlers there for some exercise and a day out. It was fun to hear the little kids get excited about the animals and try to talk to them.
I got some awesome video of this little bear cub (he's in the photo gallery) who was sitting up on his bum and seemed to be waving to us. It was so surreal how personable this bear was. It almost, (ALMOST) made me forget about his huge razorsharp claws he was waving at us with, and that in a couple years this bear could gut a human in a matter of minutes. I was glad to be up high from him, but he was still completely huggable cute.
I also got some video of a kangaroo who was right up against the bridge you have to walk across to get to the kangaroo area. I could have reached through the mesh and touched him if I had wanted to. I didn't think that was wise so I just shot some video of him. I wish I could put the video up here for you all to see, but they are big files and my bandwidth probably can't take it. Sorry. If you really want to see it, send me a shout and I'll email it to you.
We ended our zoo trip and went home to take some quick showers. It was a beautiful day, weatherwise, but we were still sticky from all the walking and being in the sun. After our brief interlude we picked my mom up from her hotel and headed to Saltgrass for a birthday steak dinner!
All my pictures from Saltgrass came out fuzzy, so I'm not posting them here, (damn new camera and its 500 "best shot" settings) sorry. Chris came with us, which was fun and we had a good time. This was the BEST meal servicewise, the entire weekend. Our waiter was nice, but I think he thought my mom was slow because she had never been to Saltgrass before and didn't know the menu backwards and forwards. He took his time explaining EVERYTHING to her. And then he dropped a 28 oz. beer that Chris had ordered right next to us, but thankfully we didn't get any backsplash. So it was a really nice dinner. My mom liked Saltgrass alot.
For dessert we went to Steak and Shake so I could get a banana milkshake, because, well, they are HEAVENLY...I LOVE all things banana, and these milkshakes TAKE the banana cake, my lovelies. Again, we were cursed with the service from hell. We got our milkshakes and then *POOF*, our waiter was never seen again. He never came back to check on us or ask if we wanted our check. Steak and Shake isn't a big place, and there was one other table with people at it while we were there...so...I don't know what the problem was. Maybe he saw all the picture taking and got scared. In any case, we did have a good time, but had to hunt down our waiter when we'd have enough and were REALLY ready to leave. I got some nice pictures that are in the photo gallery for your viewing pleasure.
After shakes we went home and we watched Shaun of the Dead on DVD. Because, you know, its the BEST zombie movie EVER. Plus, my mom hadn't seen it, and I thought it a good way to end the trip.
I'll tell you of the last day of our trip now since there's not a whole lot to report. I was scared those dudes would be back so I made Ben come with me before he went to work to help me get my mom's luggage out of her room because I'm chickenshit and thought they'd try something while I was alone...I know I'm a big wuss.
My mom couldn't check out of her room until 11 am, no easy check out here folks, so we went to Starbucks and had a croissant and talked until it was time to go.
We met Ben for lunch at Chick Fil A, more pics of my mom eating in the photo gallery. YUM! Then it was off to the airport...
It was really sad to have to say goodbye to my mom. We got there REALLY early, in record time, actually. So we had about an hour to sit and chat before she had to go through to the ticketed passengers ONLY area and board her plane.
At about 1:45 I gave her one last hug and then had to run to my car to keep from crying too much. We were both telling each other to stop, because if one of us got going, the other would surely follow. I kissed her goodbye and ran for it. There are photos in the photo gallery of it...well, not of me crying, but of my mom and one of us before she left.
I only stayed in my car for a couple minutes, crying, and then I started the drive home. I can't believe I didn't get pulled over, and I probably should have gotten SOMEONE to drive me there because I was really in no state to be driving. So I thank whoever it was watching over me to insure that I didn't kill myself or anyone else on the road going home.
I had a few hours to kill alone at home before Ben got home from work. I downloaded all of the pictures from the weekend and just looked through them all...
It was a wonderfully fun time that ended far too quickly, but I'm so happy that I was able to have at least that much.
So thanks, for the best birthday, Mom...I love you. And thanks to Ben for helping to make it all possible. I love you more than I could ever say in words.
That's IT! Now back to my regularly scheduled life of chaos, mayhem and a little bit of nerdery. Hope you guys enjoyed the ride as much as I did...
Monday, April 17, 2006
Blue Monday
Sorry guys, no post about what I did on my ACTUAL birthday yesterday and most likely I won't be able to post it today either... I had some comic work that I had to finish up yesterday and then in celebration of Easter, Ben and I ate Cadbury eggs and then he watched me play video games!!
So I'll leave you with this, I finally finished playing The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge game that I got for Christmas (it was AWESOME!). I had to finish THIS game so that I could start playing Kingdom Hearts II which I just bought with some birthday money.
I would now like to say that Kingdom Hearts II is one of the raddest video games ever. I absolutely LOVED the first one, and the second one is just as awesome. The beginning level was kind of slow, but now that I'm really getting into it, I just want to go home and play it until its done...
Sadly, I just realized that there is a GameBoy Advance game called Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories that apparently bridges the gap between the two games. Great, so now I have to find a way to get a GameBoy Advance and this game. Man, I am such a nerd.
Did I mention that Christopher Lee does one of the voices for the game (Ben and I were joking that his character in the game looks like his character in Circus of Fear)?!? That ALONE is enough for me to play it...
So if you like Disney, video games and Final Fantasy (but you don't have to like all three, because I've never played any Final Fantasy games in my life and I'm still hooked) then pick up Kingdom Hearts. Its so freaking fun, I swear.
So I'll leave you with this, I finally finished playing The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge game that I got for Christmas (it was AWESOME!). I had to finish THIS game so that I could start playing Kingdom Hearts II which I just bought with some birthday money.
I would now like to say that Kingdom Hearts II is one of the raddest video games ever. I absolutely LOVED the first one, and the second one is just as awesome. The beginning level was kind of slow, but now that I'm really getting into it, I just want to go home and play it until its done...
Sadly, I just realized that there is a GameBoy Advance game called Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories that apparently bridges the gap between the two games. Great, so now I have to find a way to get a GameBoy Advance and this game. Man, I am such a nerd.
Did I mention that Christopher Lee does one of the voices for the game (Ben and I were joking that his character in the game looks like his character in Circus of Fear)?!? That ALONE is enough for me to play it...
So if you like Disney, video games and Final Fantasy (but you don't have to like all three, because I've never played any Final Fantasy games in my life and I'm still hooked) then pick up Kingdom Hearts. Its so freaking fun, I swear.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Pleasant Valley Sunday
So now we've reached Sunday in our little trip down last weekend's memory lane.
Not a whole lot happened on this day. We were going to take my mom to Chick Fil A for breakfast, but since it was SUNDAY, we soon realized that Chick Fil A was closed, because they are closed EVERY Sunday. So naturally this is always the day that we crave it most, since we know we can't have it. We ended up eating a late breakfast/early lunch at Taco Bueno.
Only two pictures from that day, and they are both from Taco Bueno. Exciting, yes?!? So take a peek, if you will.
We ended up just chilling and watching movies that day. We watched the new Harry Potter movie on DVD, then we took my mom to see V for Vendetta (Yes, that makes 3 times that I've seen it now. It's just THAT awesome!) and then we rented some movies to watch (Constantine and the Island) for if we ran out of things to do the rest of the evenings that my mom was in town.
Side note: Constantine was REALLY good, I was surprised. I was kind of tired and it was LONG, so I think I'd like to see it again when I'm more alert, but, and I've said this before, I LOVE Tilda Swinton. My only problem with the movie was Keanu Reeves. He just didn't come across as THAT believable as John Constantine to me. I haven't read alot of the Hellblazer comics, but I've read enough of them to just not "get him" as the character...but it was still a good movie.
Another side note, we didn't end up watching the Island while my mom was in town, but we did watch it later on and two actors from Constantine were ALSO in the Island and we had NO idea. How wacky is it that we rented two movies that had two of the same actors in both? I was weirded out, I must say. The Island was also good. It kind of unraveled at the end, and Scarlett Johansson just SUCKS as an actress (Sorry, she does, she was only good in Ghost World and that was because her character is pretty snotty so it wasn't that much of a stretch for her, I'm guessing. I was SO mad that she was in Lost in Translation as well, but that's for another day...), but I again, enjoyed it. Steve Buscemi is so rad in everything and I love me some Ewan McGregor!
So that was really all we did on Sunday. We just kind of relaxed and had a good time watching movies and hanging out. We went to eat at On the Border, another fave Mexican place of mine, for dinner and then we came back to the house. I still had some birthday cake leftover from Friday, so we went to the grocery store to get some ice cream to eat with it, and my mom bought the tiniest carton of Ben & Jerry's ice cream known to man. Behold:
And then she forgot about it so it's still in my freezer. Ben plans on eating it tonight.
So that's it for Sunday, it was a nice peaceful and relaxing day.
In other news, I've made a few minor changes to the website, as you may have noticed, and I finally updated my links page by placing all the links in alphabetical order.
Tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel, for my actual birthday, the Zoo and the longest milkshake EVER!
Not a whole lot happened on this day. We were going to take my mom to Chick Fil A for breakfast, but since it was SUNDAY, we soon realized that Chick Fil A was closed, because they are closed EVERY Sunday. So naturally this is always the day that we crave it most, since we know we can't have it. We ended up eating a late breakfast/early lunch at Taco Bueno.
Only two pictures from that day, and they are both from Taco Bueno. Exciting, yes?!? So take a peek, if you will.
We ended up just chilling and watching movies that day. We watched the new Harry Potter movie on DVD, then we took my mom to see V for Vendetta (Yes, that makes 3 times that I've seen it now. It's just THAT awesome!) and then we rented some movies to watch (Constantine and the Island) for if we ran out of things to do the rest of the evenings that my mom was in town.
Side note: Constantine was REALLY good, I was surprised. I was kind of tired and it was LONG, so I think I'd like to see it again when I'm more alert, but, and I've said this before, I LOVE Tilda Swinton. My only problem with the movie was Keanu Reeves. He just didn't come across as THAT believable as John Constantine to me. I haven't read alot of the Hellblazer comics, but I've read enough of them to just not "get him" as the character...but it was still a good movie.
Another side note, we didn't end up watching the Island while my mom was in town, but we did watch it later on and two actors from Constantine were ALSO in the Island and we had NO idea. How wacky is it that we rented two movies that had two of the same actors in both? I was weirded out, I must say. The Island was also good. It kind of unraveled at the end, and Scarlett Johansson just SUCKS as an actress (Sorry, she does, she was only good in Ghost World and that was because her character is pretty snotty so it wasn't that much of a stretch for her, I'm guessing. I was SO mad that she was in Lost in Translation as well, but that's for another day...), but I again, enjoyed it. Steve Buscemi is so rad in everything and I love me some Ewan McGregor!
So that was really all we did on Sunday. We just kind of relaxed and had a good time watching movies and hanging out. We went to eat at On the Border, another fave Mexican place of mine, for dinner and then we came back to the house. I still had some birthday cake leftover from Friday, so we went to the grocery store to get some ice cream to eat with it, and my mom bought the tiniest carton of Ben & Jerry's ice cream known to man. Behold:
And then she forgot about it so it's still in my freezer. Ben plans on eating it tonight.So that's it for Sunday, it was a nice peaceful and relaxing day.
In other news, I've made a few minor changes to the website, as you may have noticed, and I finally updated my links page by placing all the links in alphabetical order.
Tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel, for my actual birthday, the Zoo and the longest milkshake EVER!
Friday, April 14, 2006
One More Saturday Night
Welcome to episode II of the recap of my birthday weekend extravaganza!
The pics are up in the photo gallery for your viewing pleasure. You'll have to bypass the ones from Friday. If you're lazy, click here.
Saturday morning, Ben and I wake up and grab my mom from her hotel for some breakfast. We try to go to IHOP so my mom can get some coffee, and it seems that EVERYBODY in the city of Arlington had the same idea. Its like this EVERY weekend. Does NO ONE MAKE breakfast on the weekends anymore? I guess I've been spoiled by Vegas as a kid, being able to throw a dart and hit a breakfast buffet that you could go anywhere and not really have to wait, but not here. There's 2 IHOPS in Arlington and they were FULL UP.
We found a Denny's, IHOP's red-headed stepchild, and ate there. It was pretty yummy in fact. I haven't been to a Denny's in ages, and I forgot how good it was. IHOP is overrated in my opinion. Breakfast is breakfast, I say.
The rest of the morning we spent shopping for me for my birthday because my mom decided it would be easier to shop here than to lug a bunch of stuff from Vegas for me. I got some spiffy new Vans, restock on my perfume, a couple purses and some choice Paul Frank stuff. THIS was the best piece, since, you know, I'm a freak about watches.
We took my mom on a whirlwind tour of Dallas, namely the grassy knoll where President Kennedy was shot. (I think its so amazing that I live somewhere that something to pivotal to this country happened and its just 20 minutes away. I can go see it anytime I want. Yes, I'm a history nerd sometimes.)
One destination was Deep Ellum, the place where we see alot of shows and what I guess can be considered the Dallas version of "The Strip". We were just going to drive through because there really isn't alot to see in the middle of the day there. We stop for a traffic light and WHAM! We get rear-ended.
And I'm driving my Explorer that I'm trying to sell.
Son of a B!
Thankfully she wasn't going very fast and there was zero damage to my car or else she would have FULLY realized my wrath. She mumbled some lame excuse to the effect of "I don't know what happened, my brakes didn't work..." Really?!? Cause I think you have to USE your brake pedal in order to get them to work, sweetheart.
Anyway, no harm, no foul and we were on our way.
We got some lunch at Pei Wei, please please go to the photo gallery and see my pictures from the lunch. I about lose my shit EVERYTIME I look at the one of my mom with her chopsticks. I don't know why.
Then there was dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. Take a look at their website. Go Ahead. I'll wait. It looks nice doesn't it? Very well put together site, I must say. The food looks good, so what the hell?
Ben and I had NEVER eaten there before, and there wasn't one in Arlington, so we had to drive to Bedford or Euless or something to eat there. AND we invited ALL our friends to go too! NONE of them had eaten there before either. What a fun experience THIS will be, right? I mean its my BIRTHDAY! What can go wrong?
Oh, my lovelies, let me tell you. MURPHY'S LAW at its WORST was dining with us that evening. Since I HAVE waited tables, I'm usually the MOST tolerant person at the table when it comes to waitstaff and problems. But not this night. This girl seriously needs to reconsider her choice of profession. Some people just can't cut the mustard, and she's their Queen.
Ben, my mom and I get there first, so we sit down and talk to our waitress (from here to be known as Waitress From HELL AKA WFH), order drinks, chips and queso and wait for everyone. So our WFH brings the drinks with no hitches, save one. No straws, she says she'll bring some, and then never does. (I think she brought some later...) I don't know about you, but my lips CANNOT touch a glass in a restaurant. I don't know why. I guess since I've worked in a restaurant, I would just rather drink from a straw. Our spinach dip comes out later.
Yup, SPINACH dip.
"Um, we ordered chips and queso."
To which the server bringing it out stands about 3 feet from our table and bitches about us to our WFH that we don't want the spinach dip...
Um, we really DID order chips and queso, it wasn't that we didn't WANT spinach dip, we frigging ordered queso.
Everyone starts showing up and the party begins.
Ruby Tuesday's has these Mini burgers, similar to White Castle, called Sliders or something. Ben REALLY wanted to try these, and I decided on them too. I think about 8 of the 10 people who were there ordered them as well. Sadly for our WFH, we ALL like our burgers just a tiny bit different than they come. Me? I don't like mayo on burgers. Pat, he didn't want mustard OR mayo. I think someone else didn't want ketchup and so on and so forth.
Well, when the food FINALLY comes out, its chaos, again dogs and cats are living together. I get Pat's burgers, I think he got mine, Arno got someone else's...mass hysteria. NO ONE got their correct burgers even though the kitchen marked the burgers with colored toothpicks so the WFH would KNOW which burgers went where. Nope, we all had eaten at least ONE of the burgers before having to figure out whose food we had and make the switch.
Laura ordered the chicken fingers platter (smart move on her part, in retrospect because not only did we get the wrong food, those of us that ordered the minis, but they tasted like SHIT) BUT our fabulous WFH put them in wrong and so she only got the appetizer. She wanted fries, but got none. THEN, when she ASKED the WFH about her fries, WFH says "The platter doesn't come with fries."
???
At this point, Laura just goes along with it and continues her meal, and later, WFH comes back and says, "Oh, I was wrong it IS supposed to come with fries. Do you want some?" The rest of us are done with our meals, so Laura declines.
We're then ready for dessert! I have a coupon for a free TALL CAKE dessert!! WHEE! Which, I promptly discover that I have LEFT on my kitchen table because I switched purses out that day...So I ask WFH if I HAVE to have that coupon for my birthday dessert. She informs me that, yes, yes I do. NO free dessert for you without your coupon, no matter WHAT it says on your license, missy.
SIGH.
Well, dammit, I went there to get that cake, so I'm ordering it. Laura and Lori ALSO order a Tall Cake a piece and I think Chris got some brownie dish. WFH also asked what we were celebrating since I had presents around me, we tell her its my birthday and she asks if I don't mind being embarrassed. After a collective snort from the table, I tell her, no, I don't embarrass easily (unless someone is screaming "I hope you die of AIDS!" from a car window, in THAT case, I get highly embarrassed.) and to bring it on.
Well, about 30 minutes go by and I'm thinking, "Holy HELL, what are they planning for me back there?" Then our desserts come. No fanfare, no apologies other than "Sorry, I had to make ALL of these by myself." OK...
So we eat our desserts, again, check the photo gallery for some choice pics. And then its presents time. I also got some really swank stuff here, check the gallery for a run down. (I didn't get pics of all of it, but most, if you REALLY want to know what all I got, ask me...but I'm sure no one but ME cares so I won't bother you with it.)
We figure, while I'm opening presents, this will give WFH time to get our check together.
NOT A CHANCE!
Its another 25 minutes AFTER presents to get the check! Then she informs us she CAN'T split it up, but its arranged by seat number and to find our own seats and do our own math to figure it out. Not that hard, since we're all smart people, just a bit annoying. Everyone pays except for my mom and Josh and Laura, because they have debit cards to use.
Here's the WFH's crowning glory moment. First she can't figure out which card goes with which amount, she puts the queso on Josh and Laura's tab because she "forgot to ask" who it went to. And then she proceeds to come back TWICE to ask which card goes where. And then when she DOES bring the cards back, she's charged the wrong amounts on the two cards.
She then says "The check is always the HARD part..." As opposed to the rest of the meal which was a shining success???
She FINALLY gets the bill in order and we're sent on our way. 3 and 1/2 hours after we got there...3 and 1/2 hours of our LIVES that we are never getting back.
The last kick in the nuts she gives us is this: "Sorry we didn't, you know, sing or anything for your birthday, everyone was just too busy."
Thanks, bitch.
So I want to formally THANK each and every one of my friends that came out and took one for the team for my birthday. I had a great time with all the company, if it wasn't for you guys, I don't think I would have made it through the meal. I promise, next year? We'll eat somewhere that at least ONE of us has been to.
After dinner we were going to go to a bar, but the one we went to was packed to the gills so we ended up getting a bunch of booze and going back to our house and boozing it up because after that, I NEEDED some liquid relaxation.
And then Lori spilled beer in her shoe which made the whole night worthwhile.
The pics are up in the photo gallery for your viewing pleasure. You'll have to bypass the ones from Friday. If you're lazy, click here.
Saturday morning, Ben and I wake up and grab my mom from her hotel for some breakfast. We try to go to IHOP so my mom can get some coffee, and it seems that EVERYBODY in the city of Arlington had the same idea. Its like this EVERY weekend. Does NO ONE MAKE breakfast on the weekends anymore? I guess I've been spoiled by Vegas as a kid, being able to throw a dart and hit a breakfast buffet that you could go anywhere and not really have to wait, but not here. There's 2 IHOPS in Arlington and they were FULL UP.
We found a Denny's, IHOP's red-headed stepchild, and ate there. It was pretty yummy in fact. I haven't been to a Denny's in ages, and I forgot how good it was. IHOP is overrated in my opinion. Breakfast is breakfast, I say.
The rest of the morning we spent shopping for me for my birthday because my mom decided it would be easier to shop here than to lug a bunch of stuff from Vegas for me. I got some spiffy new Vans, restock on my perfume, a couple purses and some choice Paul Frank stuff. THIS was the best piece, since, you know, I'm a freak about watches.
We took my mom on a whirlwind tour of Dallas, namely the grassy knoll where President Kennedy was shot. (I think its so amazing that I live somewhere that something to pivotal to this country happened and its just 20 minutes away. I can go see it anytime I want. Yes, I'm a history nerd sometimes.)
One destination was Deep Ellum, the place where we see alot of shows and what I guess can be considered the Dallas version of "The Strip". We were just going to drive through because there really isn't alot to see in the middle of the day there. We stop for a traffic light and WHAM! We get rear-ended.
And I'm driving my Explorer that I'm trying to sell.
Son of a B!
Thankfully she wasn't going very fast and there was zero damage to my car or else she would have FULLY realized my wrath. She mumbled some lame excuse to the effect of "I don't know what happened, my brakes didn't work..." Really?!? Cause I think you have to USE your brake pedal in order to get them to work, sweetheart.
Anyway, no harm, no foul and we were on our way.
We got some lunch at Pei Wei, please please go to the photo gallery and see my pictures from the lunch. I about lose my shit EVERYTIME I look at the one of my mom with her chopsticks. I don't know why.
Then there was dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. Take a look at their website. Go Ahead. I'll wait. It looks nice doesn't it? Very well put together site, I must say. The food looks good, so what the hell?
Ben and I had NEVER eaten there before, and there wasn't one in Arlington, so we had to drive to Bedford or Euless or something to eat there. AND we invited ALL our friends to go too! NONE of them had eaten there before either. What a fun experience THIS will be, right? I mean its my BIRTHDAY! What can go wrong?
Oh, my lovelies, let me tell you. MURPHY'S LAW at its WORST was dining with us that evening. Since I HAVE waited tables, I'm usually the MOST tolerant person at the table when it comes to waitstaff and problems. But not this night. This girl seriously needs to reconsider her choice of profession. Some people just can't cut the mustard, and she's their Queen.
Ben, my mom and I get there first, so we sit down and talk to our waitress (from here to be known as Waitress From HELL AKA WFH), order drinks, chips and queso and wait for everyone. So our WFH brings the drinks with no hitches, save one. No straws, she says she'll bring some, and then never does. (I think she brought some later...) I don't know about you, but my lips CANNOT touch a glass in a restaurant. I don't know why. I guess since I've worked in a restaurant, I would just rather drink from a straw. Our spinach dip comes out later.
Yup, SPINACH dip.
"Um, we ordered chips and queso."
To which the server bringing it out stands about 3 feet from our table and bitches about us to our WFH that we don't want the spinach dip...
Um, we really DID order chips and queso, it wasn't that we didn't WANT spinach dip, we frigging ordered queso.
Everyone starts showing up and the party begins.
Ruby Tuesday's has these Mini burgers, similar to White Castle, called Sliders or something. Ben REALLY wanted to try these, and I decided on them too. I think about 8 of the 10 people who were there ordered them as well. Sadly for our WFH, we ALL like our burgers just a tiny bit different than they come. Me? I don't like mayo on burgers. Pat, he didn't want mustard OR mayo. I think someone else didn't want ketchup and so on and so forth.
Well, when the food FINALLY comes out, its chaos, again dogs and cats are living together. I get Pat's burgers, I think he got mine, Arno got someone else's...mass hysteria. NO ONE got their correct burgers even though the kitchen marked the burgers with colored toothpicks so the WFH would KNOW which burgers went where. Nope, we all had eaten at least ONE of the burgers before having to figure out whose food we had and make the switch.
Laura ordered the chicken fingers platter (smart move on her part, in retrospect because not only did we get the wrong food, those of us that ordered the minis, but they tasted like SHIT) BUT our fabulous WFH put them in wrong and so she only got the appetizer. She wanted fries, but got none. THEN, when she ASKED the WFH about her fries, WFH says "The platter doesn't come with fries."
???
At this point, Laura just goes along with it and continues her meal, and later, WFH comes back and says, "Oh, I was wrong it IS supposed to come with fries. Do you want some?" The rest of us are done with our meals, so Laura declines.
We're then ready for dessert! I have a coupon for a free TALL CAKE dessert!! WHEE! Which, I promptly discover that I have LEFT on my kitchen table because I switched purses out that day...So I ask WFH if I HAVE to have that coupon for my birthday dessert. She informs me that, yes, yes I do. NO free dessert for you without your coupon, no matter WHAT it says on your license, missy.
SIGH.
Well, dammit, I went there to get that cake, so I'm ordering it. Laura and Lori ALSO order a Tall Cake a piece and I think Chris got some brownie dish. WFH also asked what we were celebrating since I had presents around me, we tell her its my birthday and she asks if I don't mind being embarrassed. After a collective snort from the table, I tell her, no, I don't embarrass easily (unless someone is screaming "I hope you die of AIDS!" from a car window, in THAT case, I get highly embarrassed.) and to bring it on.
Well, about 30 minutes go by and I'm thinking, "Holy HELL, what are they planning for me back there?" Then our desserts come. No fanfare, no apologies other than "Sorry, I had to make ALL of these by myself." OK...
So we eat our desserts, again, check the photo gallery for some choice pics. And then its presents time. I also got some really swank stuff here, check the gallery for a run down. (I didn't get pics of all of it, but most, if you REALLY want to know what all I got, ask me...but I'm sure no one but ME cares so I won't bother you with it.)
We figure, while I'm opening presents, this will give WFH time to get our check together.
NOT A CHANCE!
Its another 25 minutes AFTER presents to get the check! Then she informs us she CAN'T split it up, but its arranged by seat number and to find our own seats and do our own math to figure it out. Not that hard, since we're all smart people, just a bit annoying. Everyone pays except for my mom and Josh and Laura, because they have debit cards to use.
Here's the WFH's crowning glory moment. First she can't figure out which card goes with which amount, she puts the queso on Josh and Laura's tab because she "forgot to ask" who it went to. And then she proceeds to come back TWICE to ask which card goes where. And then when she DOES bring the cards back, she's charged the wrong amounts on the two cards.
She then says "The check is always the HARD part..." As opposed to the rest of the meal which was a shining success???
She FINALLY gets the bill in order and we're sent on our way. 3 and 1/2 hours after we got there...3 and 1/2 hours of our LIVES that we are never getting back.
The last kick in the nuts she gives us is this: "Sorry we didn't, you know, sing or anything for your birthday, everyone was just too busy."
Thanks, bitch.
So I want to formally THANK each and every one of my friends that came out and took one for the team for my birthday. I had a great time with all the company, if it wasn't for you guys, I don't think I would have made it through the meal. I promise, next year? We'll eat somewhere that at least ONE of us has been to.
After dinner we were going to go to a bar, but the one we went to was packed to the gills so we ended up getting a bunch of booze and going back to our house and boozing it up because after that, I NEEDED some liquid relaxation.
And then Lori spilled beer in her shoe which made the whole night worthwhile.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Friday, I'm in Love...
I'm probably going to have to do this in parts because to recap the whole weekend in one entry would probably result in epileptic fits.
So we'll start with Friday, the 7th.
I had been antsy all week waiting for the weekend to come and work was DRAGGING...the night before, Ben had informed me that we would have to take separate cars to work because he was leaving work early to get one of my birthday presents...
My guard immediately went up, "What is it? Why do you have to go get it then? Why didn't you get it before?" Ben just said that he'd been working on it for two months and that the place was closed on the weekend and he had to get it on Friday in order to have it for my birthday.
I just assumed that it was a piece of art that he had drawn for me and had it framed or something. I was trying to go back in my mind to think of when he could have possibly had time to draw it, because we work together and then at home, we work together, so we're rarely apart, and hardly apart long enough for him to create some masterpiece for me.
But I just took him at face value and just assumed I would find out what the present would be soon enough. So I get off work early and take our checks to the bank like we do every Friday, and I go home.
I get home and I hear Ben calling from the bedroom "Who's birthday weekend is it?" I run into the room and say "MINE!" and then I see her.
My mom.
In MY room.
In Texas.
Ben's got our video camera out and is aiming it at me. I immediately start crying and run over to her. I gave her a 10 minute hug and we all start talking at once. "Were you surprised?" "How did you get here? Did you FLY!?" "Here's your surprise!"
My mom flew to Texas to surprise me for my birthday. It was the best gift. Ben had been keeping it a secret from me for two months, no one knew about it until the last minute, not even my sister because she's a blabbermouth and can't keep a secret from me to save her life!
We were planning on having dinner with Ben's parents, his brother and his two grandmas that night at Pappastio's (one of the BEST Mexican restaurants in town) and so we got ready to go meet them and we just hung out and chatted each other up. We gave my mom the tour because all she'd seen of the house was our bedroom before I got home.
So we get to Pappasito's a little early and settle in for some chips and queso while waiting for Ben's family to show up. My mom orders a mango margarita and our waiter brings it back with strawberries as a garnish. My mom is DEATHLY allergic to strawberries. This is a clue of how the rest of the weekend will go.
She sends the drink back and while we're waiting, the power in the restaurant goes OUT. It was REALLY windy on Friday and I'm thinking a powerline went down. So yeah, we're in the DARK for like 10 minutes. Ben's parents show up and we tell them the power is out, do we want to go somewhere else? Half of the power comes back on and stays on for most of the dinner, but we never get back to full power. Our waiter was either new, or just not very good at handling high stress situations because he was a bit dicey for the rest of the meal. He informs us that because of the outage, we cannot have enchiladas or nachos because the oven that melts the cheese is apparently part of the "still out" family. Great.
I think 6 people out of the 8 of us were there to order enchiladas that night. I think we should have just left, but we stuck it out. So the rest of the meal goes OK, a bit slow on getting refills and whatnot...then we realize that Ben's Grandma Ruth has yet to receive her meal.
We tell our waiter, he says he'll get it, and then we don't see him for another good 25 minutes. Finally, my mom had to give Ruth one of her chicken tacos so she'd have something because at this point she SO doesn't want her meal because we're all done with ours already.
The staff also had to hand write out our check because the computers were down, which I think threw off 98% of the staff and caused mass hysteria. Dogs and cats were living together at this point. We eventually get the check, get it paid, and we're off to go back to Ben's parent's house for some tasty cake and ice cream! YAY!
The rest of the evening went by without a hitch, we had delicious Italian Cream Cake, which is now my favorite cake, I got some pretty swank stuff from Ben's family and we called it a night. We were all dead tired from all the running and we had SO much more of it to do before the weekend was done.
I've put together a photo gallery of my birthday. I plan on adding photos to it as I document the days. So all the pics from Friday are available for your viewing pleasure in the gallery.
Or you can be lazy and just click here.
I love my husband for helping plan the surprise, and I love my mom for surprising me. She hasn't been on a REAL plane (puddle jumpers from Vegas to L.A. don't count) in almost 25 years, but she got on one to come see me. She hates to fly, and I feel bad that she had to, but I'm so happy that she did.
Tomorrow, my Mom in Dallas and the Ruby Tuesday's Dinner from HELL!!!
So we'll start with Friday, the 7th.
I had been antsy all week waiting for the weekend to come and work was DRAGGING...the night before, Ben had informed me that we would have to take separate cars to work because he was leaving work early to get one of my birthday presents...
My guard immediately went up, "What is it? Why do you have to go get it then? Why didn't you get it before?" Ben just said that he'd been working on it for two months and that the place was closed on the weekend and he had to get it on Friday in order to have it for my birthday.
I just assumed that it was a piece of art that he had drawn for me and had it framed or something. I was trying to go back in my mind to think of when he could have possibly had time to draw it, because we work together and then at home, we work together, so we're rarely apart, and hardly apart long enough for him to create some masterpiece for me.
But I just took him at face value and just assumed I would find out what the present would be soon enough. So I get off work early and take our checks to the bank like we do every Friday, and I go home.
I get home and I hear Ben calling from the bedroom "Who's birthday weekend is it?" I run into the room and say "MINE!" and then I see her.
My mom.
In MY room.
In Texas.
Ben's got our video camera out and is aiming it at me. I immediately start crying and run over to her. I gave her a 10 minute hug and we all start talking at once. "Were you surprised?" "How did you get here? Did you FLY!?" "Here's your surprise!"
My mom flew to Texas to surprise me for my birthday. It was the best gift. Ben had been keeping it a secret from me for two months, no one knew about it until the last minute, not even my sister because she's a blabbermouth and can't keep a secret from me to save her life!
We were planning on having dinner with Ben's parents, his brother and his two grandmas that night at Pappastio's (one of the BEST Mexican restaurants in town) and so we got ready to go meet them and we just hung out and chatted each other up. We gave my mom the tour because all she'd seen of the house was our bedroom before I got home.
So we get to Pappasito's a little early and settle in for some chips and queso while waiting for Ben's family to show up. My mom orders a mango margarita and our waiter brings it back with strawberries as a garnish. My mom is DEATHLY allergic to strawberries. This is a clue of how the rest of the weekend will go.
She sends the drink back and while we're waiting, the power in the restaurant goes OUT. It was REALLY windy on Friday and I'm thinking a powerline went down. So yeah, we're in the DARK for like 10 minutes. Ben's parents show up and we tell them the power is out, do we want to go somewhere else? Half of the power comes back on and stays on for most of the dinner, but we never get back to full power. Our waiter was either new, or just not very good at handling high stress situations because he was a bit dicey for the rest of the meal. He informs us that because of the outage, we cannot have enchiladas or nachos because the oven that melts the cheese is apparently part of the "still out" family. Great.
I think 6 people out of the 8 of us were there to order enchiladas that night. I think we should have just left, but we stuck it out. So the rest of the meal goes OK, a bit slow on getting refills and whatnot...then we realize that Ben's Grandma Ruth has yet to receive her meal.
We tell our waiter, he says he'll get it, and then we don't see him for another good 25 minutes. Finally, my mom had to give Ruth one of her chicken tacos so she'd have something because at this point she SO doesn't want her meal because we're all done with ours already.
The staff also had to hand write out our check because the computers were down, which I think threw off 98% of the staff and caused mass hysteria. Dogs and cats were living together at this point. We eventually get the check, get it paid, and we're off to go back to Ben's parent's house for some tasty cake and ice cream! YAY!
The rest of the evening went by without a hitch, we had delicious Italian Cream Cake, which is now my favorite cake, I got some pretty swank stuff from Ben's family and we called it a night. We were all dead tired from all the running and we had SO much more of it to do before the weekend was done.
I've put together a photo gallery of my birthday. I plan on adding photos to it as I document the days. So all the pics from Friday are available for your viewing pleasure in the gallery.
Or you can be lazy and just click here.
I love my husband for helping plan the surprise, and I love my mom for surprising me. She hasn't been on a REAL plane (puddle jumpers from Vegas to L.A. don't count) in almost 25 years, but she got on one to come see me. She hates to fly, and I feel bad that she had to, but I'm so happy that she did.
Tomorrow, my Mom in Dallas and the Ruby Tuesday's Dinner from HELL!!!
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
I've got sunshine in a bag...
So sorry for the non-updates, but as most of you know, Monday was my birthday, and so rather than spend my time sitting in front of a computer I've been gallivanting around town wreaking havoc wherever I go.
I have about 4 gazillion pictures to go through and then I will give a full recount of the festivities of Friday the 7th through Tuesday the 11th WITH a photo gallery, hopefully...
Here's a sneak peek of why I haven't been around much though:
And here's something else for you to ponder:
So until next time, kiddies...
I have about 4 gazillion pictures to go through and then I will give a full recount of the festivities of Friday the 7th through Tuesday the 11th WITH a photo gallery, hopefully...
Here's a sneak peek of why I haven't been around much though:
And here's something else for you to ponder:So until next time, kiddies...Wednesday, April 05, 2006
It had to be done.
Since I've been bombarded with the news, I felt that I needed to respond to it.
Katie Couric, my arch nemesis, has finally left the Today show. Or at least she will in May.
I guess the power of prayer and positive thinking (as well as voodoo curses) really DO work wonders.
Read the news story here.
She's moving to CBS to anchor the nightly news.
This is good news for me for two reasons: I can watch the Today Show without the fear of hearing her annoyingly nasal voice and I don't watch the evening news on CBS.
Though part of me thinks about the scene in Kill Bill Vol. 2 where Michael Madsen asks Daryl Hannah which R she feels about the supposed death of Uma Thurman's character. Relief or Regret? Am I relieved that once she's off of the show I will never have to look at her face again unless I choose to? (not that I HAVE to look at her face now...) Or am I regretful that I will soon no longer have her to make fun of and call out when she makes herself look like a horse's ass?
That, my dear friends, is something that I will have to ponder on for a while...
Katie Couric, my arch nemesis, has finally left the Today show. Or at least she will in May.
I guess the power of prayer and positive thinking (as well as voodoo curses) really DO work wonders.
Read the news story here.
She's moving to CBS to anchor the nightly news.
This is good news for me for two reasons: I can watch the Today Show without the fear of hearing her annoyingly nasal voice and I don't watch the evening news on CBS.
Though part of me thinks about the scene in Kill Bill Vol. 2 where Michael Madsen asks Daryl Hannah which R she feels about the supposed death of Uma Thurman's character. Relief or Regret? Am I relieved that once she's off of the show I will never have to look at her face again unless I choose to? (not that I HAVE to look at her face now...) Or am I regretful that I will soon no longer have her to make fun of and call out when she makes herself look like a horse's ass?
That, my dear friends, is something that I will have to ponder on for a while...
La La Love You
Welcome the newest member of the family:
His name is Murphy (no, he wasn't named after RoboCop), and he's the new love of my sister's life. Murphy is a family name, and I'm sure my Gramma and Grandpa are smiling down on him at this very moment.
I can't wait to meet him when Ben and I go home to Vegas for Christmas this year.
Give 'em Hell, Murph!
His name is Murphy (no, he wasn't named after RoboCop), and he's the new love of my sister's life. Murphy is a family name, and I'm sure my Gramma and Grandpa are smiling down on him at this very moment.
I can't wait to meet him when Ben and I go home to Vegas for Christmas this year.
Give 'em Hell, Murph!
Monday, April 03, 2006
Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun.
So this weekend went by SO fast, its unnerving. As you saw (with yesterday's post), I obtained new footwear. Ben and I hung out with Brock on Friday night for his birthday.
He's already practicing his paparazzi poses for when his comic comes out in June.
Then on Saturday, no April Fool's joke...we spent 12 hours at Lone Star participating in the 12 hour comic jam. What a hellish experience THAT was. It was fun to create something like that with Ben, that was mostly why we did it, but still, I think it shaved about 10 years off my life. Ben wanted to do something together in the same vein as 24 hour comic day, but not turn the screws on me THAT much by trying to do the level of work a 24 hour project would entail. Which is good, because there's no way in HELL I would EVER do a 24 hour project, not after this one. I was ready to toss it in at the 4 hour mark. (FYI: Ben didn't even have a single page ready for me to work on at the 4 hour mark, just the SITTING there was killing me. My iPod didn't even help that much.)
It ended up being pretty cool, but I'm glad its over and hopefully something will come of it, and we also NEVER have to do it again. Ben has decided that was his last marathon of drawing as well, he wanted to go out with a bang. We're not allowed to show the pages until the judging is done, so I'm going to finish the pages as I WOULD have done if I hadn't run out of time and had to just throw some flats down in order to finish. I'll post them on the site at a later date.
We finished at 11 pm and then went over to Josh and Laura's for some MUCH needed R,B&R. Rest, Booze & Relaxation. And LOTS of it. Laura's sister, Elyse, and her boyfriend, Austin, showed up to make it even more exciting. I felt REALLY bad for Austin, because he seems really nice and he was thrown to the wolves with our carrying on and nerdy jokes.
With the time change and everything, I think we got home about 6 AM Sunday morning. (I do have SOME pictures of the evening, but I promised Josh they would go to his watery grave with him.)
WHOA.
Sunday was spent reaping what we sowed the previous night so that our mundane chores we normally do every Sunday, laundry, grocery shopping, took on a WHOLE new and different perspective.
All in all, it was a jam packed weekend of fun and friends, we had a good time and I came out with two new pairs of awesome footwear.
Was my recap as exciting as you thought it would be?
Yeah, I didn't think so either.
* Kudos to anyone that can name the artist and album this entry's (song) title comes from.
Then on Saturday, no April Fool's joke...we spent 12 hours at Lone Star participating in the 12 hour comic jam. What a hellish experience THAT was. It was fun to create something like that with Ben, that was mostly why we did it, but still, I think it shaved about 10 years off my life. Ben wanted to do something together in the same vein as 24 hour comic day, but not turn the screws on me THAT much by trying to do the level of work a 24 hour project would entail. Which is good, because there's no way in HELL I would EVER do a 24 hour project, not after this one. I was ready to toss it in at the 4 hour mark. (FYI: Ben didn't even have a single page ready for me to work on at the 4 hour mark, just the SITTING there was killing me. My iPod didn't even help that much.)
It ended up being pretty cool, but I'm glad its over and hopefully something will come of it, and we also NEVER have to do it again. Ben has decided that was his last marathon of drawing as well, he wanted to go out with a bang. We're not allowed to show the pages until the judging is done, so I'm going to finish the pages as I WOULD have done if I hadn't run out of time and had to just throw some flats down in order to finish. I'll post them on the site at a later date.
We finished at 11 pm and then went over to Josh and Laura's for some MUCH needed R,B&R. Rest, Booze & Relaxation. And LOTS of it. Laura's sister, Elyse, and her boyfriend, Austin, showed up to make it even more exciting. I felt REALLY bad for Austin, because he seems really nice and he was thrown to the wolves with our carrying on and nerdy jokes.
With the time change and everything, I think we got home about 6 AM Sunday morning. (I do have SOME pictures of the evening, but I promised Josh they would go to his watery grave with him.)
WHOA.
Sunday was spent reaping what we sowed the previous night so that our mundane chores we normally do every Sunday, laundry, grocery shopping, took on a WHOLE new and different perspective.
All in all, it was a jam packed weekend of fun and friends, we had a good time and I came out with two new pairs of awesome footwear.
Was my recap as exciting as you thought it would be?
Yeah, I didn't think so either.
* Kudos to anyone that can name the artist and album this entry's (song) title comes from.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Bathroom Bunnies and Happy Feet.
This was on the back of one of the bathroom stall doors in the ladies room at the Meridian Room in Dallas.I couldn't help but take a picture of it, because the image is so absurd.
I apologize to the woman that was apparently waiting to use my stall because the other one had "stuff" in it, because I had to take about 4 shots of it to get a good one since I forgot to turn off the flash. So I hope she knows that I wasn't taking pictures of my "stuff", I was trying to get a pic of this weird ad.
This was just the start of the wackiness that ensued this weekend. I'm too tired tonight. Updates tomorrow.
I did get new shoes today though. This pair was from Ben's parents for my birthday, because my old running shoes have given up the ghost.
This pair I bought, just because. Just because they are DAMN RAD and I couldn't NOT buy them.
Chew on that until tomorrow kiddies. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.
Poopshoot.
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