What Kind of Ride Is This?

Update 5/13 – 5/19 – I know, but life happened. 

As you know, my dog loves water, and even more when he can redistribute it onto the hardwood floors.  I tried to put down a new mat for when Percy boy splashes in his water bowl... but he seemed to believe that it was a new toy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eToZiMMhBqM&feature=youtu.be

And the Jay taught me that I don’t know to video things.  Sorry Jay. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

So last week Lucas and I watched The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Mulan and Pocahontas.  At the a point in Pocahantas in which John Smith invites her to take his a hand and follow him Lucas yells out, "Careful.  You're gonna get raped!"  *SPOILER ALERT* Then, at the end, when John looks like he's on deaths door and Pocahontas waves good bye to him Lucas commented, "I bet that ending was popular with the wee ones."

We brought Percy and Nala to be groomed on Wednesday. 

Groomer: I put a bow in his hair because, well you know...

Me: because he's a girl?!

I guess Lucas is right, all Yorkies are girls.

On Thursday evening, we went to iPic for Becktoria's birthday to see the MIDNIGHT showing of Star Trek because we just adore Becky.  I didn't not adore her AS much when I had to get up after only 3 hours of sleep of course...

Me: I let Percy out this morning and he chased down the pool guy and wouldn't stop barking.

Lucas: If he was a girl, his name would be behavin'.

On Friday, Becky, Jared, Kelly, Lucas, Zach, Dawne and I all went to DISNEYLAND!   Zach had told me that he wanted to do ab workouts in the morning so that every step he took during the day would increase his workout throughout the day.  Since I'm such a natural giver, I told Zach that I would help him out by "letting" him run to get our fast passes.  In fact, I would go one step further, and throw our tickets on the ground so that he had to bend down to pick them up - gotta work those abs!  

Also, in preparation for Disney, Lucas and I printed out maps of both parks so that we could careful plan our strategy in order see both parks in 48 hours.  At one point, Kelly referred to me as the “Disney Nazi” to which Lucas said, “You know, Walt Disney was an anti-Semite, so technically he was the original “Disney Nazi.” Something I didn’t need to know.  By the way, this is where we went for breakfast:

While Becky and Jared made a beeline for bed, the rest of us headed toward Downtown Disney for dinner.  We saw a sign that had “Disney” and “Downtown Disney” with changeable arrows. 

Lucas: Do you think they ever change the direction in which downtown Disney is? Or is it like the labyrinth where it is designed to be a “gotchya!”?  The only thing missing is David Bowies moose knuckle but that isn’t a necessary plot element.

Due to our good planning and our personal Speedy Gonzales, we were able to go on 9 rides and lunch all before 12:30.  One of these rides was Splash Mountain.  Lucas was concerned about getting his shoes wet so I suggested that he sit up front, turns out that was poor advice because he was the most soaked of all of us. (Lucas: I didn’t even want to go on this ride.) Whoopsidaisy.  When we were on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride…

Kelly: Do you think those are real bones?

Me: I don’t think so, they look plastic.

Kelly: I wonder why they don’t.  People die all the time.

After hitting up the last of the major rides, we headed over to the California Adventures.  We got through the Cars line in 30 min, and got right on California Soaring with the Fast Passes that Zach acquired.  Lucas: These pictures are all of planes!  They should change the sign from Legends of Flight to Legends of Falling because that's what we're going to do in this ride.

We were going to go on the Tower of Terror, but the line was too long, so we ran over to California Screamin’ where the wait was only ten minutes.  Before we got on the ride…

Kelly: What kind of ride is this?

Puzzled since we were standing next to the roller coaster of epic proportions, Me: A roller coaster.

When we got off the ride, Kelly: I didn't know it was THAT roller coaster.  I’m terrified of roller coasters.

We brought it down a notch after that with the Little Mermaid ride, followed by the Aladdin show.  When we were walking out of the show, Lucas said, "Mrs. Doubtfire was sooo much better in Aladdin (than that guy)." Over all, we decided that the elephant was the best actor.   Before the show, Jared bought some sourdough and a bottle of water, that’s when Becky realized in that moment, the bread and water was Jared’s favorite part of the trip.

OH! We went on the Monsters, Inc. ride and it broke down so we got to walk out of the ride!  We totally took a bunch of pictures before we were told that wasn’t allowed.  Dawne and Zach have the good ones, but here’s the one I took:

You might remember that last year, I went to Disney with Kelly and Rach, and when we were there, I made the comment that “You gotta really want the Dumbo ride.”  Well, Kelly told me before we left that she “REALLY” wanted the Dumbo ride and the Carousel.  In fact, she wore pant the entire day just so that she wouldn’t have to ride side saddle.  We asked Dawne to ride in front of us so that she could take a picture.  Dawne, always the perfectionist, adjusted her Dumbo so that she could get the perfect picture for Kelly to send to her mom.    

I received a couple of text updates from Cathy:

Shane’s Got this

Percy is finally feeling at home

Did you see Nala? She was at Disneyland too today.  She doesn’t look like it, but she had a really great time.

We did the storybook ride, which I had never done before, and did a little shopping before having dinner at the blue bayou.  As we were waiting for our table, all of us pretty sleepy, I tried to tempt Jared with the amazing Beignets.  The problem with this enticement was that a) I didn’t really know how to describe beignets without comparing them to donuts and b) they only have these on their lunch menu. 

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel.  As I got into bed I wished that the 8 hours of sleep I was about to enjoy would make all of the aches and pains in my body disappear.  I should have prayed instead of wished, because I was not at 100% when I got up.  When we did meet for a quick breakfast, Zach said to me, “So, I guess I'll run and do a fast pass while you guys waddle on over to the Toy Story ride?” I should be insulted, only, I wasn’t because that’s exactly what we did.  When we found out Buzz was closed, we got some ponchos so that we could go on the Grizzly river ride.  Lucas had a big plan to remove his shoes and shirt after he got on the ride to prevent himself getting wet.  This plan was going pretty well until just before the ride got intense we heard, “SIR, PUT YOUR SHIRT ON.  PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON SIR.”   Then we went on the Tower of Terror.  We told Becky what had happened.

Becky: I can see you trying to take your shirt off at on all the rides, like this one.

Me: They would be yelling, “SIR, PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!”

Lucas: But I don’t want to get wet!

Becky: At Ariel’s Grotto, “SIR, JASMINE DOES NOT WANT TO SEE THAT.”

We had lunch reservations at Ariel’s Grotto with the princesses.  We ended up having to wait an hour despite our reservations.   We ran over to see the Fantasy Faire exhibit, watched a video, saw some blue prints. 

Me: I think we walked through this last night.  Remember when I said, “What IS this?”

Dawne: What did it look like?

Me: It was purple and it … well (pointing to the miniature replica ten feet from us) looked like that.

None of the princesses wanted to hang out with us, telling us that they had “to find flounder” and “I guess we could take one picture.”  The restaurant was a sea food restaurant (ironic, that they would serve all of Ariel’s friends.”  That with the wait, I announced, “I'm really glad we did this because I never want to do it again.”

 

Sunday, without a plan, having accomplished everything on Saturday, left us a bit scattered. Based on Jared’s pedometer, I would guess that we walked about 15 miles on Saturday, and possibly another 15 on Sunday simply because we were so inefficient.    We did get to go on the Roger Rabbit ride though (which I had never done) and the It’s a Small World, where Dawne told us that that is how she taught her kids about geography.  I told Shane and Cathy it was so nice of them to watch the pups so that we could visit their homeland.

Ride: The time is now!

Lucas: When is the time not now?

Dawne said she had never been on the Alice in Wonderland.  We tried going on it a couple times but the wait was too long or it was broken down.  Finally, Dawne decided she was getting on the line.  Kelly, Becky & Jared decided that they were going to go sit down and rest.  I wanted to do the same, but could see that this was important to Dawne.  After 40 minutes of waiting for the Alice ride, it broke down. After hearing Dawne say, "I think this ride might break me," we all sat down in the line to wait. No ride shall break our Disney Princess.  It took a little over an hour, but we finally rode the Alice ride.  Half way through I heard Dawne say, “You know.  I think I have been on this ride.”

I really did intend for that to be my last ride, but suddenly I was waiting for the Pinocchio ride. 

Lucas: Why would you listen to those guys -- look how sketch sketch they are. I mean look how innocent he looks.  That's what Adolfo Hitler looked like before he tried marijuana.

Before we knew it, we were on our way to the airport.  Our taxi driver dropping us off at the airport: I normally ask people if they had a good time, but after driving you guys I realize that's a stupid question there probably wasn't a dull moment

I brought Disney Apples to Apples to play at the airport.  Zach saw these choices and said: these are all really exciting. Except for dads. I don't know who put that. (Note: Hall of Presidents won).

I hope you also had a wonderful week, two weeks ago.  I’m going to watch some of the TV then jump back in for round two of updates. 

Pistachio Time!

Against the principles of both Dawne and Lucas, we all went to the new Wal-Mart that opened ten minutes from the house. 

Lucas: I'm pretty sure this used be wetlands.

Me: No, there was a K-Mart here before this. 

Lucas: K-MARSH you mean. 

My dad called last week and left a message that said, "Your mother is accusing me of eating a year old dessert and I want it stated for the record that I did NOT eat a year old dessert."  And then he hung up.  When I asked him about it later, he said he made my Tiramasu coffee and my mom knew that they hadn't bought any dessert recently.  I'd defend his honor, but he DID eat 15 year old Matzo bread not too long ago.

I went to meet up with Amy for some pottery painting.  I made a water bowl for Percy that he seriously loved.  (He likes to play with his water, especially if there's a design on the bottom).  We also caught up on some of our TV:

Lucas: We're about to watch the Mindy Project... and you know what that means?  Pistachio commercial!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5hI8q4JECI

Mindy Project Character: I use head and shoulders exclusively.

Lucas: What kind of product placement is that?

Me: Would it be better if they were eating Pistachio's in the shower?

The start of "Intern Season" has begun.  For me, that means that 4-6 interns will be moving into the compound for the summer.  Jati, a new face (originally from Singapore) arrived on Thursday.  He's super interesting and engaging - and excited to be working with my cousin.  I almost wanted to do anything I could to keep the expectations low so that he wasn't inadvertently disappointed.  My attempts were futile as two days later, he had not met Jordan yet and said to me, "I'm really nervous about meeting him." I told him he REALLY shouldn't be - so that should work.  No pressure Jordan! Cassidy was also back for another year and arrived on Saturday night.  I hope she isn't caught up on Game of Thrones because I'm excited to have my GoT buddy back.

Lucas was playing his guitar the other morning (shocking). 

Dawne: What happened (pointing to a dent in his acoustic guitar).

Lucas: Life happened, mama.

Dawne: Do you remember the exact life that happened?

Lucas: If you spend your time remembering, you don't have time to LIVE!

Me: I need your help for 5 minutes to carry up my new box spring.

Zach: Okay, I need your help writing this paper.

(After 3 hours working on the paper, finishing it just before it was due at 11PM)

Zach: Thanks! Enjoy that box spring!

Me: I feel like I got the short end of these deal. 

Zach: Totally.  But you knew that before we started.

Saturday, morning was kinda lazy.  We drank coffee and watch The Lion King.  While Zach and Lucas taunted me with how incredible the 3D version of the movie was.

Lucas: The 3D version was so awesome, actually. Orgasmic.

Zach:  For some reason I don't think they are going to use that for any magazine quotes.

It was also gorgeous out.  I got to have the top down on Stella as we went with the pups to Norm's for Lunch.  Then I brushed off my eBay account to unload some items in preparation for moving.  Diana and Jason stopped by for a nice visit and a jump in the pool.  Mr. Splish-Splash discovered that the pool has a step and jump in and out of the pool playing in the water:

Then we grabbed some dinner and met Marc and Lynn for an evening of The Great Gatsby. 

Marc: Ugh.  I hate the "First Looks."

Me: What would you rather have?

Marc: ANYTHING.  They are torturing a captive audience.

Me: I kinda like them.  I miss commercials sometimes. 

(Five Minutes Late)

Me: Alright, that was a little much.  They just showed us a "Making of" video on a commercial for a Window's phone.

Lucas: Yeah, and the basic message is if you don't have an iPhone, you aren't getting invited to the party. 

After the movie, over coffee:

Dawne: That one thing with the dome, that sounded really interesting.

Jordan: OH! You mean the television show.

Me (looking at Marc): That was shown during the "First Look."

Before I forget, Lucas walked out of the movie enraged over what they did to the book.  He was re-enacting a similar tirade that I had when I walked out of the Romeo and Juliet movie.  It's nice to see that Baz Luhrmann's still got it!

Sunday, I got up early with Percy, cleaned the kitchen and called my mom while sitting outside enjoying a cup of coffee.  The other pup's let Dawne sleep in, but when she did get up I was ready and waiting to make everyone eggs and pancakes.  The rest of the day included Laser Tag and Laser Quest in Federal Way, a Starbucks lunch, painting pottery,  dinner at MOD pizza, then to Half-Price books to pick up a copy of Aladdin (Lucas and I are trying to get our Disney on in preparation for Disneyland.  We're looking to watch The Little Princess this week if anyone has a copy we could borrow) and then home to watch Aladdin while Lucas and Dawne made cookies for a math project. 

Lucas was testing out Siri in the car on the way to Laser Tag:

Lucas: What is the square root of fi?

Lucas: What is the Fibonacci sequence?

And when Siri couldn't help with either of these questions

Lucas: I wish you were better at math siri.

Me: Why don't you ask Siri that question the girl asked in class?

Lucas: Why do we feel earthquakes on an island?

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderfully amazing mother's out there.  Happy Belated Birthday to Frita who celebrated -- years yesterday! And a very Happy Birthday to Debina, Mo, and Kyle today!

Also, if you haven't already, it would be amazing if you could support my cousin's kickstarter: 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/781219801/roll-for-it

Breakfast At Tiffany's

I did Yoga once in college, and afterwards, my friend told me to never ever do it again.  Ten years later, I decided to jump right into Hot Yoga, not just beginner's Hot Yoga, but POWER Yoga, with a really difficult instructor.  The office has been on a health kick, and I though, hey, I can handle one hour during lunch.  I probably should have hydrated beforehand, because I didn't sweat all that much, and I felt a little dizzy and nauseous.  The good news is I stayed the whole time, and did at least 30% of the workout.  There were some sweaty folks around me which reminded me of this:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/2597736393.html

My friend bought her fiancé a book on sex positions as a gift for their wedding night. Sort of funny but also possibly informative! On Wednesday morning, as she was taking it out of her purse and rushing out the door to work, she set it on her dining table & thought, "Good thing my mom isn't coming over because she doesn't need so see that her sweet daughter has a book called the bible of sex positions."  Fast forward.... Her mom calls and wants to know if she can let herself into my friend's house to drop off her new version of her will and leave it on the dining table for my friend (never mind the fact that they were going to dinner together!) She said sure and then when she got home she saw this:

Still giggling and dying of embarrassment, my friend calls her mom and explains the book.  Her mother responded with, "Oh! I just saw the word bible and thought it was cool that you were reading it!"

I asked some friends if they had an old Razor phone (from AT&T) for my uncle.  These are the helpful responses that I received:

Laina: I don't.  I was never razor cool.  I was kickin' it with a blackberry.

Rach: My dad is still using it for his primary means of communication.

Laina: Wasn't it RAZR?

Shana: I have a pink Verizon one.  Soooo sad that it's not AT&T, since the image of Ray with a pink phone pleases me.

Shane: I had a Nokia and taped a Gillette razor to it... it wasn't as slick but I would have every time I answered the phone.

Jen: And keeping it in your front pocket kept you thoroughly man-scaped.

Shana: I would leave it on vibrate with for that... It's the same way we circumcised Fynn.

Jen: Oh man I miss you Shane.  And the way you leap over that line. 

Shana: Pole vault more like it! (With style and grace.)

This quickly led to making plans for a monthly brunch and Jen volunteering me to host the first occasion.  And Laina warning us that She and Mo might not be able to make it because he was just getting back form training. 

Jen:  Laina, when does Mo come home?  Do you plan on having trouble walking that day?

Laina:

25 minutes later

Jen: Really? Infant circumcision by cellphone razor and *this* is what clears the room?  For shame.

Laina: Sorry Jen - we've all been on a new thread talking about a parenting intervention with Shane & Cathy.  I'll add you now.  But to bring you up to speed, it'll happen at one of our brunches. 

Meanwhile, I was doing a practice SAT essay with Lucas, and not feeling any better about my essay writing skills. 

Later I received this text from Dr. Rach:

This just happened:

Rach: Ok, I'm officially putting it on my calendar for Sunday... Brunch at Tiff's

Anders:  Don't you mean Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Oddly enough, I did think about writing "Brunch at Tiffany's" but then remembered that was a pornographic film that was available at Video Source where I worked in high school.  Still, clearly a missed opportunity. 

On Thursday, I went to Happy Hour with some folks from work with surprise guests, Dr. Rach and Becky.  When we went to pay our bills, I just grabbed Rach's check as well so that I could use my card.  In turn, Dr. Rach fished some change out of her wallet and handed it to me.  I dropped one of the penny's on the floor and it landed heads down.  I then said, far too loudly, "I'll just put this bad luck penny in Tip Jar."  This was promptly followed by adding good luck money to make up for it. 

After Happy Hour, Becky and I went to The Moth in the basement of the Fremont Abby.  We both thought the MC reminded us of a mutual friend and started talking about the last time we had seen her. 

Me: Yeah, that was the time I went to their house and ended up hanging out with the little kids the whole time. 

Becky: You were probably happier.

Me: That's true.  They get me. 

Becky went to this book club event with some co-workers in which you walk around carrying a book, and then go up to strangers and talk to them about the book you read.  The first time she went to the event, she brought a book with a cat on the cover.  She had such a good time that she decided she would bring a Bible to the following meeting.  She could carry it proudly saying, "Have you ever heard of this one?  It's a real best seller.  You might have heard of some of the characters.  Moses? Jesus?  Seriously, you're going to love it." 

If you have never heard of The Moth, it's an event where people go up on stage and tell a story on a particular subject.  On Thursday, the subject was Envy.  It was pretty funny. 

My favorite story was about a guy who grew up dirt poor and didn't have any friends.  His parents made some shady trades and he ended up with a trombone that he played until he was awesome.  Then, in 9th grade, for the very first time, he was invited to hang out at a friend's house.  Ben played the guitar so they were going to jam together.  When he arrived, Ben told him that he could go into the pantry and get a snack.  He had never had a pantry, never mind an abundance of snacks to choose from.  When he went into the closet and saw a giant box of chewy granola bars with the delicious chocolate chips he thought to himself, "F-- Ben and his box of granola bars!" and proceeded to eat an entire Costco sized box of chewy bars.   Was never invited back after that.

Saturday the weather continued to be gorgeous so Dr. Rach and I went on a hike.  We brought Zach, his two friends, and the three dogs.  Given that I am extremely out of shape, I was very happy to have the dogs as an excuse to why I was going so slowly.  I still felt bad that I was hold everyone up, but was also feeling a little nauseous, so I didn't speed up either.  I wonder if Dr. Rach will ask me to go on a hike again?  :P  We were pretty sleep when we got back (not having lunch might have also contributed to our fatigue.)  I gathered my last bits of energy to go to the grocery store but could not, would not, go to Costco like I had planned.  By 8PM, I climbed into bed and fell asleep until 5 the next morning when Percy was ready to get up and play again. 

Oh! Percy lost another tooth.  Here it is hanging out to its side before Percy would eventually just swallow it. 

 

I missed Kyle's First Holy Communion, and I was feeling terrible about it.  I called him to see how the party was going and I heard a lot of "Why don't you love Kyle as much as your other nieces and nephews!?"  Way to make me feel terrible guys!  Here's a picture of the handsome guy:

Sunday, the previously mentioned brunch commenced.  I only freaked out once, after everything was completely ready and didn't know how to proceed after that.  I think, all in all, it went well.  After everyone filled up, we headed down to the pool and then the boat because it was that lovely out.  I commented on how coordinated Jen and her two daughters were in their purple bathing suits and purple outfits. 

Me: Do you just always buy purple for everyone so that you always match?

Jen: This was completely a coincidence.

Lucas: I always buy red, white and blue. I love America. Yes, I realize it is also the colors of lesser nations like Great Britain and France.  

Lucas also told the people in the pool his desire to name his children Clifford and Pashmina Shaw (Cliff and Pasha for short.)

Dawne: I like how your wife has no say in this.

Lucas: No, she'll come to me and say "I want children named Clifford and Pashmina Shaw."

Michelle: And that's how he'll know that she's the one.

Dawne: I'm surprised that Ashley said she doesn't want her own kids, she just wants to take care of someone else's.

Ashley: I just don't want to have the baby.

Lucas: You can only truly appreciate through the pain.

Michelle: Spoken from someone with experience.

I'm not going to lie, I could have fallen asleep at 8 again on Sunday, but instead, we went to see Iron Man 3.  Maybe my expectations are low, but I thought it was a delight.  On our way in, we were talking about a song from the 20's that was about a wonderful world etc, and Lucas said, "Little did they know a year later the stock market would crash."  That's when I felt like he jinxed us all, and I wanted to make a note of it for posterity. 

Jolly Rancher Teeth

Laina, Dr. Rach and I went to see Jersey Boys on Tuesday evening.  It’s the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.  When I told a co-worker that fact the next day he said, “who?” Naturally, I started singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Late December (back in 63)” but he still didn’t know what I was talking about.  And I’m still flabbergasted about this exchange. 

At work, they are doing a “biggest loser” challenge.  On day one, someone brought in 5 dozen bagels to sabotage the other contestants.  I thought this was funny, but even funnier was the outrage on the part of everyone participating.  The following day he brought in ‘Mea Culpa Cupcakes’ and ‘Oops! I Fudged up brownies’ as an “apology” for the bagels.  I don’t know who this guy is, but I like the cut of his jib.  J

Lucas: I was wondering when you came to pick me up if you could bring a pair of pants and a shirt for me. 

Me: WHAT!?

Lucas: I was wonder...

Me: No, I heard you I was just being a jerk.  Do you care which clothes I bring?

Lucas: Preferably from the bin of clean clothes not something dirty off the floor. 

Me: Okay, fine. 

Co-worker: I’m slowly accruing a nice emergency kit over here at my desk.

Me: In an emergency, you’re going to need a cup full of Jolly Ranchers?

Co-worker: Oh those aren’t for me – those are for Ryan.  That’s actually why he had to go to the dentist today. 

On Wednesday, Percy peed on my bed first thing in the morning.  After I ran the dogs outside, I grabbed all of my sheets and bedding and put them in the wash.  Then I brushed my teeth and went to grab my phone only to realize I had thrown it into the wash with my bedding.  I ran over to stop the washing machine (it had been running for 4 minutes) and found in the center of my comforter my phone… and I wiped off some suds and…  IT STILL TURNED ON!! Yay!

Thursday night I discovered the awesomeness that is the Mindy Project and continued to enjoy this delightful show for the rest of the weekend.  Here are some of the reasons why:

Danny: I can't believe you're tattling. She's tattling.

Mindy: Uh, tattling is when a little girl does it. When a hot woman does it, it's called "whistle-blowing."

Mindy: It's like if Hermione liked Voldemort.
Shauna: I don't know those words.

Danny: You're the lady that says she'll have what she's having.
Mindy: I'm Rob Reiner's mother?

 On Friday, Lucas, Jordan, Zach and I went to see the Quest: Fantasy Exhibit opening at the EMP.  Lucas did NOT like that when we were walking up to the EMP and I saw a huge line, I said, “Wow! I did not expect a line to get in.”  Nor did he enjoy when we got into the museum that I said, “This is like geek central!”  I’d feel bad, but both statements were true.  I got my free Magic pack on my way in before seeing a demonstration of how to fight with a sword while wearing full chainmail armor.  Then you could take a picture on the Game of Thrones throne before going into the exhibit itself.  Bonus coolness, Dawne had suggested they build a tunnel feature (because Dawne is cool enough to have museums like the EMP ask for her advice on design) and they totally took her advice!  I was also very excited that after we left the EMP, it was still nice out and were able to eat outside at 8:30PM.  Then Dawne and Aunt Pat came back from their cruise!  Happy faces all around!  

On Saturday, (after I changed my oil even though my uncle said I didn’t need to) we took a trip down to the south center mall.   I don’t know what it about going to a new mall/restaurant that makes me feel like I’m on vacation, but it’s awesome.  Later that night we all went over to Uncle’s Games to support Zach’s new position by playing a game called “Mystery of the Abby” that was kind of a cross between Clue and Guess Who.  I didn’t win, and I still like it, so that’s saying something.  J

Sunday, despite the rain, we took the dogs to the park and then gave them all bathes.  Lucas and I did three practice SAT essays.

Me: I used to ROCK at those essays, but now not so much.  It was 15 years ago, though.   

Lucas: Yeah, that’s only two less than I’ve been alive, so it’s okay that you are a little out of practice. 

I also did some work, watched more Mindy Project and convinced Jordan that we needed to get Little Caesar’s Pizza for dinner because Luke and I had never had it.  (Those Hulu commercials DO work!)