April 5, 2010. Indianapolis, Indiana.
Hoops season starts today! This is why, this is why, this is why we’re hotttttttttttt.
Go to about the two minute mark to watch IT dunk over MBA. It’s gonna be a fun season.
Save the Date November 13, 2009
The Happiest Place on Earth November 10, 2009
We just got back from a super fun weekend in LA. We went down to see the Huskies play UCLA – which was really just an excuse to go to Cali to visit Kevin’s friends (also Husky alums). Holy smokes, these LA Dawg fans are no joke. We ended up on a school bus (yes, you read me right, I said a school bus. like for kindergarteners.) with 80 other Huskies, confident, happy, drinking our breakfast, crammed three to a seat with paralyzed knees from jamming them into the seat in front and no bathroom. It didn’t matter. We were headed to the Rose Bowl to beat the Weasel! Fast forward three hours later…defeat. A very sad game and long, traffic filled, bus ride home.
Thank goodness for Disneyland! Where all your worries are left behind (nevermind that we went Friday and the game was on Saturday). I haven’t been since the fifth grade and it was as magical as I remember. We were blessed with Disneyland expert guides, free tickets, little to no lines (I guess a 30 minute wait constitutes ”no lines”) and a beautiful day. We hit Space Mountain first, our Disney guides favorite, grabbed a fast pass and waited in the short line. We ended up riding it three times, without cheating, in less than an hour which we are told could quite possibly put us in the Guinness Book of World Records. That set the pace for the rest of the day. Bouncing from ride to ride, park to park (California Adventure didn’t exist my last visit) and meeting our favorite characters. They were slowly starting to put up Christmas decorations, which I LOVED. We rode the “ride this ride last because you’ll crap your pants and nobody wants to walk around all day with crappy pants” ride – and did not crap our pants. And got SOAKED at Splash Mountain. We thought we were so smart by sitting in the middle. The middle happens to have water spill over and soak you. Not splash. Soak. My entire right leg, butt and shoe were soaked for hours…but it was my favorite!
We had such a good time as big kids. I can see why parents get so excited to take their little kids. The kids were sooo happy. They really were on cloud nine. And so much fun for us to watch. I thought often about Alli meeting all the Princesses and how much she would love all the rides. When we go back, it might not be free (oh by the way, tickets are up to $97/day for a park hopper pass. Yeah. HOLY freakin’ CRAP! Plus food and souveniers….enough to go broke.) but we now know to go mid-week in November to get your money’s worth! If I had to wait 110 minutes for a ride, I’m pretty sure I would not be able to smile at the happiest place on earth.
Another magical weekend with awesome friends! We’ll get ‘em next year, Dawgs!
Cake Down October 20, 2009
I’m sure many of you have heard of the Cake Wrecks website. It’s pretty hilarious. And sad. Mostly hilarious.
Here’s my recent cake wreck:
This is what it was supposed to look like.
This is what it looked like. A big pile of poo.
Luckily, it tasted much better than it looked.
One of those days… October 14, 2009
Having one of those days? Or one of those weeks for that matter? Here’s a guaranteed pick me up!
The Drive Home October 11, 2009
I drive to Spokane at least six times a year to see family, probably more. I often get asked, “How do you do that horrible drive all of the time?” My usual response is, “Oh, I guess I’m just used to it. It always goes by really fast.”
Today I realized why it always goes by really fast. Like wam, bam, Mooom, I’m hooome, fast. I usually spend most of the drive on the telephone (on the blue tooth, of course!) catching up with all my besties. Well, this trip, I forgot my phone charger in Seattle so by Sunday, my phone was d.e.a.d. dead.
There are only so many hours one can belt lyrics to Air Supply and Fergie Ferg without going mad. It’s about five.
EVERYTHING’S Bigger In Texas October 4, 2009
You hear that saying all the time. SweartoGod…it’s true. Proof is in the pictures.
Tallest State Capitol
Largest urban bat colony - that we never saw
Largest College Big Screen - at Universtiy of Texas
Giant Stars - it is the Lonestar state afterall
Largest Whole Foods
Monster drinks - the soda's were giant too
The largest arched doorway in Texas is at the Driskill
Supersize Jelly Beans!
San Antonio! October 3, 2009
After a few full days in Austin we felt like we had seen it all. San Antonio is only an hour and a half away…sooo Anj, Kevin and I went there to check it out! Like Austin, I’ve heard a lot of good things about San Antonio so I was really glad to “sneak” a day trip to San Antonio in.
As we headed, we took a little detour (more like a couple hour detour when all was said and done) to Driftwood, Texas where Salt Lick Bar-B-Que is located. Yes, MORE BBQ. My tummy was not thrilled with me by the end of the trip. But this was the best place yet! We totally cheated the system by ordering to go, then eating in their banquet room, skirting the 45 minute wait. Hey! We had a busy day ahead of us, no time to dilly dally! Definitely our favorite BBQ of the trip and worth the detour.
By the time we reached San Antonio we had little time to see all of the sites before they closed. We brushed up in the car on the “must sees” of San Antonio and did all we could. First we went to the Mission San Jose, the largest mission in San Antonio, known for the Rose window. Then we hustled over to The Alamo, the shrine of Texas liberty, which happens to be right smack in the middle of their downtown. We walked through it and around it until they closed then walked the River Walk to LaVillita and back, in search of something, anything, a la mode. Alamo…a la mode…it was on the mind. Sweet success with a giant brownie served with ice creams!
San Antonio was a really cute city. I wish we had a little more time to explore the intricacies of their downtown. I’m glad we went though, even if just for a quick tour.
Back in Austin we met up with Ambrose for dinner at La Condesa, a yummy Mexican restaurant. Then we went to The Driskill, Austin’s historic and rumored haunted hotel. We sipped drinks and swapped stories from our trip. It was the perfect way to wrap up our mini Texan retreat. Good times with great friends!
Austin City Limits October 2, 2009
Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day music festival in Austin’s Zilker Park. The Festival brings together more than 130 bands on eight stages and attracts a crowd of about 65,000 visitors each day. This is their eigth year.
This is who we saw:
Phoenix - Usually what would happen is we’d be driving and a Phoenix song would come on the iPod and one of us would say “Oh, I like this, who is it?” And it was always Phoenix. The Frenchies put on a solid show.
Raphael Saadiq - Kevin loves Raphael Saadiq (from Tony! Toni! Tone!). This is his favorite song.
K’Naan - I felt really cool because I had heard of K’Naan from Mohamed at work. Somali born rapper, emigrated to Canada. Raps about his life growing up. He really engaged the crowd and was fun to watch.
John Legend – LOVE him.
Them Crooked Vultures - Dave Grohl’s new band with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin).
Kings of Leon - SO GOOD! We’ve wanted to see the Tennessee brothers and cousin for awhile now. Eddie Vedder came out and closed the show with them, singing Slow Night, So Long. AWESOME! *Two very random side notes* Eddie Vedder is wearing the same shirt he wore the Monday before at the Seattle Pearl Jam concert (also an amazing show). Later, we accidently ran into one of the fans that caught a tambourine Eddie threw into the crowd.
Another day on our feet, we were pretty beat but we had heard about this free after party at the abandoned, soon to be demolished, Austin Power Plant. We managed to get wrist bands to get in but quickly found out the party was outside. Only VIPs were allowed inside the power plant. Not wanting to kick it with the all ages crowd we left to close out one of the bars on 5th, dancing the night away.
Messin’ with Texas October 1, 2009
Day 2 in Austin was more wandering around. My legs hate me. Anj had to work so Kevin, Ambrose and I started out at “The Drag” which is UT’s version of “The Ave.” Then we walked through their campus. We were told it’s the largest university in the United States. I believe it. Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? On campus we saw the world’s first photograph, the Gutenberg Bible and UT’s HUGE football stadium. We also noticed that 80% of students (mostly girls) wear running shorts. It’s weird. My guess is because of the heat, but it also seemed to be a “thing.” Who sent out that memo?
For lunch we went to the famed Stubb’s. Kevin was drooling over how good his ribs were our entire lunch – so, I guess they beat Iron Works from yesterday. After lunch, we checked out the Market District, home to the largest Whole Foods (their HQ is in Austin) and Waterloo Records. We knew we had a big night out in SoCo for First Thursday, so we went back to our hotels and enjoyed the free wine and cheese reception (cheese meaning nacho cheese out of a dispenser – d.lish.) and cooled off in the pool.
On our way to First Thursday, we stopped on Congress Bridge to see if the bats would come out and play. We could hear them going crazy and saw a few flying around under the bridge but again, no big 1.5 million gush of bats. Too bad 
First Thursday in SoCo was full of energy. All of the shops stay open late and there are a bunch of mini flea markets up and down the street. They had creepy Halloween creatures out promoting an event, their Rollergirls were rolling around and there was live music everywhere. My favorite part - Hey Cupcake!, the cupcake shop in the airstream. They were good, their schtick was a “Whipper Snapper” where you could choose to get your cupcake injected with whip cream. Clever. I didn’t do it, but Kevin did. We still like Cupcake Royale best!
Anj was able to meet up with us for a late dinner at Guero’s (texmex) then we met some of her co-workers at Malverde. This place was hotttt. If you were to do chic northwest *right* - it would look like this bar. There was a great outdoor patio, hanging plants, a moss wall, wood everywhere – but done up modern. If in Austin, I recommend!
