The sixth sense

Mark has a sixth sense - he has a really awesome ability to pick a perfect avocado. The ones that are perfectly ripe and one more day and they'd be all brown. There are several times when he's come back from the store, and I feel it and think, "Oooh...this one's going to be gross inside" only to cut into it and it's immaculate. And they always taste amazing - absolutely perfect. Today was no exception. I decided now was the time to blog about his gift. Delicioso! The funny thing is, Mark doesn't eat avocados. The only time he buys them is for me - it's so sad, he doesn't know what he's missing!
We ventured out to Mt Bonnell today because it was the most gorgeous day, and I can't believe I've never been before - it's gorgeous. Ahhh, I love Austin :)

Pizza Hut has been added to "the list"

Yesterday our class went to the Montessori school so we could administer the Peabody test on some of these lovely children. They were all really cute, but there were some very strange kids, too. Anyway, for the most part everything was good, except our teacher asked us to stay an hour later because the kiddos were all napping while we were there so we couldn't test them. Nornally I wouldn't mind, but since I was heading to Austin I was a little irked. And that's pretty much it. Then Jenn and I hopped on the road as fast as we could and headed South to Austin. Unfortunately, the traffic was awful - in fact, the HOV lane (HOV lane of death - it's very narrow with concrete on both sides) was at a standstill because you can't get around! I will never, ever take that HOV lane! Luckily we got to crawl along as we were not in the HOV. By 7 we were getting hungry, so we discussed how good pizza would be - Hey! Pizza Hut buffet? Awesome! So in Temple we stopped - and anyone who has taken exit 301 to get to everything in Temple knows - the roads there suck and make absolutely no sense. So finally, yay pizza hut! and we get inside and it's NOT a buffet. Whatever, we decide to stay. It took almost an hour for a personal pizza (these take 7 min to make - I know this from eating at the Lair nearly everyday in college!). Plus, the restaurant was like 50 degrees. It was warmer outside! So, Pizza Hut, I am adding you to "the list". It'll take a lot to redeem yourself. Jenn and I finally got to Austin at 9, when I realized I had not told Mark about our plans for the evening (Jenn called me the worst wife ever). Luckily Mark is so easygoing it didn't really bother him. So the three of us met up with Mere, Dale, Ben and Andrew on 6th to see Phoenix Down, a band that Ben knows (They were really good, too!). While we were waiting, Jenn and I were approached by some tanked guy from PA (who I thought said VA, as in veteran's affairs) who kept asking us what certain Texas beers tasted like - uh, beer? Anyway, at this bar we got all kinds of free stuff - American Honey (new liquor & I got a tiny tank top!) and free Coors Light, which I have never had before. It tasted like crackers to me. I really loved the fact that the mountains turned blue when it was cold, though. It was a really fun night, as usual! I love these guys :)

Note in the picture the awesome way Meredith is holding 2 drinks in 1 hand

Really? Already? (bonus blog)

I can't believe this has already happened. So soon, too! Less than a month out! I have lost my mojo. The last week's blogs SUCKED! I'm sorry - there was really nothing funny about those - perhaps I should have mentioned things like slyly trying to take a picture of the guy at trivia I have dubbed "sea captain", or how I almost fell down in the parking lot scraping off my car. Or of course there was yesterday when I knocked over a half full glass of tea in the middle of class and started giggling uncontrollably because Anna had knocked 2 things over earlier that lecture. Also, the fact that I am completely incapable of being on time. There was once a time when I had to leave my house at 7:10 - 7:10!!!! - to get to my 7:45 physio class on time - and sometimes I would leave a few minutes early and have time to stop at Starbucks! Anyway...yeah. Sorry - I hope February will be better!

Why I love Austin

If you didn't hear about this, check it out - particularly watch the first video clip!

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/Road_signs_warn_of_zombies

This morning started off with watching 3 hours of videos assessing the functioning level of people from 1988. I can't believe I managed to stay awake for the whole thing. Then I went to an interview at Gold's Gym, and I ended up getting a job offer to work part time in the Kid's Club! I'm hoping I won't be overwhelmed, but I really think having a job will keep me more focused because I'll have to make better use of my time. So anyway, the plan is to work about 10 hours a week, playing with the kiddos while mom and dad work out. Hopefully things will work out!

Then I was going to drive Anna to Lovefield, but we were going to have dinner first. I kept going on Lover's, and somehow ended up waaay far away from the airport. We made it back way before her flight, but we didn't end up eating dinner. Oops!

we ended up getting 2nd at trivia - it was finals (although Dallas finals are kind of screwy) so the grand prize was a Superbowl party, which none of us were too excited about. So we got 2nd - which is the same prize as 1st normally is ($50). Pretty good! The picture above is a good ol' typo. Help me find a manger, quick!

The inner dome of heaven has fallen!

Today was the real ice day - everything was covered! I left for school around 12:45 and spent about 20 minutes scraping my car - particularly the back windshield. It didn't feel that cold, though, because the sun was shining. And luckily the roads weren't too bad by the time I got out. The picture entitled stairs of death are the stairs I walk down everytime I need to leave my apartment. I call the one of my side mirror Katie should not be driving. Because, well, look at my mirror!

That's all, folks - I'm going to bed! I have to wake up extra early to get the car scraped and going...booooooo.

How are you this evening, Mrs. Darcy?

So I woke up this morning to find that classes had been cancelled due to the weather, so I pretty much did nothing today. In fact, I barely (if it counts) got dressed. The only time I left the apartment was around 8AM to go to the store before it started icing. You'd think I would have used this time to get caught up (or even ahead!) in school, but not so much. I did cook some stuff though: 1) I made a pizza for lunch with extra extra bell peppers (yummy) 2) Amish friendship...muffins? I have 2 small loaf pans and forgot that my sister hasn't returned them yet, so I used what I had - muffin tins! and 3) Spaghetti with zucchini. So, that's it - a rather dull ice day. The world should be melted tomorrow, so it will be back to school for me!

It's beginning to look a lot like last year!

I'm starting to think that when the Grad I's next year ask, "Which semester was worse, first or second?" It's sort of going to be like asking someone "Which is worse: Projectile vomiting or diarrhea?" Well, I dunno - they're both pretty awful. You don't want either of them. So far I've managed to stay on top of things (except that I read next week's chapters for Peds instead of this week's), but I can already see how this is going to become a problem. The good news is, they have given us guidelines for the majority of our projects for the semester. The bad news is that, once again, they all kind of land on top of each other in a pile of dead trees, b.s., random OT words and hair (pulled from the frustrated students, of course). Also, they've decided to play musical chairs with our schedule, so I never really know when I have class and when we're supposed to be somewhere else. Fridays I'm supposed to be off, but I know at least 7 Friday's I have stuff for school already. It's getting confusing - and I've only been in school for a week.

Gebhart fondue is a...do!

Mark and I decided to try the coq au vin recipe in my Melting Pot cookbook tonight - it turned out really well, actually! It would have probably been $100 at MP, but here it was about $12 and a good excuse to break out the fondue pot. We had potatoes, zucchini and chicken, along with a bottle of Shiraz. I even made the green goddess dip I love so much. A healthy and fun dinner for the two of us!

Caturday

Yesterday Mark helped me with an assignment for school, and then my parents took us to Blue Goose for dinner. Then Mark, Lindsey and I split a bottle of wine at Wine Therapist and chatted for a bit. We called it an early night and headed to bed. My hand is still recovering!

burn baby burn

The big story today is that I burned my hand - pretty badly, actually. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I was heating up some tea. I used my favorite moose mug (et tu, brute?), but I guess it was in too long because I grabbed the handle and it was searingly hot. Luckily I didn't drop the mug, but my hand immediately started blistering. I put it in a bowl of cool water for an hour or so like my mom told me, but when I took it out it was still excruciating. I've gotten burned before, but never like this. Apparently 2nd degree burns are very painful. Luckily I had nurse Mark here to bandage me up. Hopefully tomorrow it will be better - I can't use my right hand at all!

If I shoot dat cat in da hed, he ded.

It's finally happened! A real live acknowledged rivalry! So my Austin peeps - I love them - have themselves a new arch-nemesis. Back in the Plucker's days, we had a trivia team that we called our rivals - Blair Warner's Pussy Galore, aka BWPG or Blair Warner. Well, to be fair, BWPG was everyone's rival - they didn't even have to change their name each week b/c they were so "good" at trivia. Meh. Anyway, BWPG is mostly out of the picture now (must not be TRUE Duffy fans), so we, in a way, are the new Blair Warner. Except with darn funny names that always win. But now there's a new group of people, and they're also fiercely competitive. They don't have a set name, so we just refer to them as GTYO. A few weeks ago after a glorious victory, Duffy gave us the trophy to add our touch - so we (they) did, complete with Hannah Montana guitar (pictured). Two weeks later, GTYO won, so they took the trophy. They attached some sorty of creepy talking gnome (CTG), which I haven't seen yet. Last week we won again, and CTG was yakking away in either Mary's or Meredith's trunk (maybe they've both had it?), so last week while decorating, they decided to put screws in CTG's head. I said that made it even creepier, which they agreed. However, it still TALKS. So the trophy was brought back, GTYO got pissed that the gnome was massacred, and swore retaliation. Plus they think Raven Simone on a segway is really funny for some reason. It's not!

Plagiarism, Selfishness, and Overreacting

Let's first address the overreacting: I get it, classmates. You want to do well. This is grad school. *BUT* when you the teacher is giving you an overview of the semester and briefly describes her still-tweaking-with-new-midterm, DON'T FREAK OUT. Don't ask questions like what happens if someone else checks out all the books from the library, or what happens if nobody completes the required number of questions. It's going to be OK, I promise. If you can't answer the question within 2 minutes, you probably need to move on to the next one anyway. Also, today is the first day - no reason to panic now. Geez!

Second, Plagiarism because it's quick. At trivia, one team thought they were the poo because their name was "What's the big deal? It's just another black family moving into Government Housing." - However, we found hard evidence that this name was stolen from the interwebz.

Luckily, the less tacky (??) name of "Ted Kennedy knows how to Celebrate" won the 5 bonus points.

Third - SELFISHNESS!! For whatever reason Pluckers was packed tonight. We requested a table for 11 (which we needed like 15-oops) but they evoked the half-your-party-needs-to-be-here rule, so we grabbed the tables when we had 5 (enough to seat 11). But as more people came, we realized we needed more chairs. They ran out of folding chairs, so we were 3 short. The people behind us were hoarding 2 folding chairs for an hour and no butts were in them, so finally I asked (after sharing a chair for awhile) if we could use it until their party came. "They'll be here soon," they insisted, but a few min later donated a chair to our cause. So they're cool. Next these girls behind us saved 2! chairs - which nobody ever sat in! I even asked politely about them and she said, "No, we have more people coming." as I continued to STAND through trivia. Pictured is their table with said chairs. Note the girl is eating while I took the pic- AWESOME! Their friends got there around round 5. Luckily some other people left, so by then we had gotten the extra table we had requested.

We ended up in a 3-way tie for 2nd, which led to a wing-off. Steve put up a great effort (especially since no one else would step up to the plate!), but unfortunately we didn't end up winning. Some sauce splashed in his eye on wing #1 so that put a damper on things. Still, way to go Steve! I like to think this picture captures the essence of the wing off.

Welcome Home Obama-lama-ding-dong!

I am officially one day closer to my Master's! When people ask me if I'm going to stay on and get a PhD I seriously want to laugh in their faces. Why the hell would I want to do that? If the world of OT is really as a certain prof described it (which I highly doubt) I should have just gone for the associate's and been a COTA. But anyway, the point is, one more first day of school down. Today I only had 2 classes: fieldwork and movement something. Fieldwork should be fine - I am excited to get my placement (hopefully NICU) in a few weeks, but I was also glad to find out we only need the same number of hours as last semester, because I was expecting that to double or something. *Whew*. As for Movement, I was less than excited about the curriculum (kinesiology and range of motion? *yawn* and WTF), but my professor is so crazy and bouncy that I think it won't be so bad. I'm sure I'll end up eating my words later as I am almost always WRONG about these kinds of things, but I did feel a little like we were kindred spirits with all her crazy. I could feel some of my classmates giving her The Look that they give me all the time, so...yeah. HOPEFULLY I'll get some decent sleep tonight; last night wasn't so great. Now I'm off to watch the news...I heard something like a new president took over...maybe I didn't hear it correctly, so I need to watch. ;)

Bye Bye Bushy

I'm pretty sure the government is watching me because I am FASCINATING, so that's all I'll say! This is not a political forum - this is me wasting your time while spreading absolutely no knowledge. I spent most of the day migrating back and forth from the computer to the couch and back. I read (a lot), watched TV (also a lot) and spent time on the internet. While for some this might be considered a productive day, to me it is most certainly not! Tomorrow it's back to the 8th circle of hell - no, I kid, it's much more like the first circle. (Bonus points if you know why I picked those 2). I thought the break might make me more optimistic, but not so much. Maybe it was the emails flooding in the last week with various assignments and readings, or maybe it's the fact that I don't feel any more rested now than I did in November. It also could be that I just really loved spending time with Mark (I was so spoiled! 6 weeks!) and my friends and family. Whatever - booooo I don't want to go back. Can't you just give me my Master's already? It's been like 4 months! I'm ready!

By the way, this picture has no connection to anything above. Really, I just stole this randomly from someone on facebook's photo album who happened to be on the same cruise as us, but they had the best caption ever:

"Hmmm...I wonder what I should wear to Mexico today? Oh, I know! My American Flag bald-eagle polo, with denim cargo shorts, of course."

Back to reality...almost

I made the journey from Austin back to Dallas for the last time before school starts. The drive was pretty uneventful, although I had to stop twice because I had had a cup of coffee and a bunch o water before I left - I should know better! Lindsey, Miranda and I are now watching Lars and the Real Girl with some pizza and wine. I got really confused, because when I ordered the pizza online it had a delivery charge of $1.90, so I called the store and asked if that was a built in tip, or if you're supposed to tip more. The guy didn't seem to know his ass from him elbow, so he just kind of said, "um...yeah....it goes to the driver I guess." Really reassuring. I ended up giving an extra dollar just be safe. Then the pizza guy got here like 30 minutes later than said time, but I felt so bad because the guy was really old and could barely make it up the stairs and I started think this might have been a result of the economy - that previously he might have been more dignfied. Of course, I could be overthinking it and he could actually enjoy delivering pizzas (it's an occupation, I suppose!). Anyway, Miranda dug up another dollar, because as it turns out the delivery fee is split between him and the ingredient truck guy. Bleh. What the heck - why do I have to pay for the truck guy?

Whatever!

I bet if you made chocolate chip cookies in your dryer, your clothes would smell really good

Last night we had a housewarming/wine party. Although, to be fair, Amy didn't know she was having a housewarming party. It turns out she suggested to Mere that we have a game night, and the next thing she knew she had a facebook invite to a wine/housewarming party at her house. It was super-cute, though! It was built in the 20's and had hardwood floors and cool fixtures. Anyway, we ended up with 5 bottles of wine between 6 people. With that ratio, you can guess what happened... but to be fair, the wines were really tasty! We had a really good time. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! It was a great way to spend my last night in Austin on break. I'm heading back to Dallas later today to get ready to start next semester!

I freaking love my friends!

Last night we decided to copy the Alamo Drafthouse (they were sold out, anyway!) and have our own make-shift Anchorman quote-a-long. It was great - there was popcorn, ice cream, and, of course, alcohol (not excessively, though!). We only knew some of the BIG lines, but that movie is awesome - it cracks me up everytime! Unfortunately for Mere and Dale, I dropped 3 of their ice cream sandwiches (there were 6 in the package!), one of which landed in the dog's water. ewwww. So I threw 2 of them away (depressing) and ate the one that landed on the counter. I'm so sorry!! And this is reason #2 they shouldn't allow people into their apartment.
Anyway, this morning I met up with some of my old co-workers for lunch. It was so nice to see them and hear their stories! Venus just had a beautiful baby girl, and it was fun hearing all about her new adventures in motherhood. I'm so proud of her - she's handling everything like a pro! It sounds like while things change, they pretty much stay the same, too - new names at work, same problems.
Afterwards, I finally used the rest of this gift certificate I got from work over a year ago and got a manicure. It's not usually my thing, but I guess it was nice. I love the color I picked though - it's a very dark plum color. Although, to be honest, she didn't do a great job and missed some spots on the edges. oh well - it was "free".
I also heard from one of my friends at school that he will not be returning in the spring. While I'm sad to hear this, I'm not exactly surprised for several reasons I won't go into. But he will definitely be missed! My allies are dwindling!
Yesterday I went to BodyJam for the first time in months. It was really great, actually - a minute after I got there I was already sweating and my heart was pounding, but it's one of the few ways to workout that I actually look forward to. I started going in Dallas, but I got really impatient because the instructors did the same routine the entire time between launches, which is about 3 months. Usually in Austin they'll switch it up every few weeks by going back to older routines and so forth, so your bodies don't plateau and so nobody gets bored. Anyway, once school started my patience wore really thin and I pretty much quit Flow and Jam altogether. So back to yesterday - I didn't exactly get emotional, but I realized how much I had been missing this. I'll probably give Dallas another try, just to see if anything has changed, but I definitely want to start going back to the gym - I just feel better about myself when I go, and my body is happier!
Tomorrow is wine party - yay!!!

The gym: it's better than lying on the couch all day waiting for bedtime. I think.

Today has been incredibly slow. We got up early to comply with this sleep diet thing and headed back to Austin. Mark took a new way - 45 to 20 to 35, which worked really well actually - no traffic! Beyond that...I pretty much spent the rest of the day lying on the couch waiting for BodyJam at 6. I lead a ridiculously exciting life! It does make me sad, though. I've already gotten emails from professors with assignments and so forth, so my days like today are quickly coming to an end. Booooooo! Something in between would be nice. Anyway, the best thing happened last night: we won trivia both in Dallas and Austin! I *believe* this is the first time in duel-city history that this has happened. So congratulations to both TTOA and TTOA Dallas!

There goes the neighborhood

Today was kind of a slow day, so Mark and I decided to drive by Mr. and Mrs. Bush's new house while we still can. It's about 5 miles from my (Dallas) apartment very near Preston and the DN Tollway. Interestingly, it's very much in the middle of things and a relatively old house. It has charm, of course. The house next door to it is FABULOUS though. It's in a cul-du-sac, so at the end of this week they're going to put up a gate and block it off. Anyway, probably the only post-presidential house I'll ever see! Unless of course your count George Sr. when he moved in across from the Simpson's ;). I can only imagine what kind of crazy traffic this is going to cause for the nearby residents. Although, the odds of a break-in are waaaaay down!

"What are the two books - 'What if' and 'Who Cares?'"

Happy Birthday, daddy!

I went to yoga today in Dallas - no etiqutte fails, but there were only 3 other people in the class. For awhile I thought it was just going to be me, so that kind of weirded me out. But it was still good - it was some stuff I haven't done in a few months so it was a good workout. Abs were killer!

50

Happy Birthday, John Gebhart! My FIL turned 50 today. For some reason that makes me feel old :)

Yoga etiquette

So I went to yoga (ok, BodyFlow) this morning, and at the end of the class there is an optional 6 minute meditation/relaxation. The instructor usually gives everyone who doesn't want to stay a minute to clear out so that they don't disturb those who are staying. However, there's always that 1 (or 2) person that decides halfway through that they can't possibly stay another minute and have to leave in the middle of it. It's 6 minutes - not like an hour or something! Anyway, inevitably, these people squeak and stomp their way across the floor and then open the door - but do they make sure that it doesn't slam? No way! *stomp stomp squeak stomp SLAM*. So relaxing. Anyway, today we had 2 of these. It was so loud, I almost (sooooo close) said, "SERIOUSLY??" It was almost comical how loud (and not even TRYING to be quiet one of them was). Is this a joke? Anyway, people, just think for a second about other people.

I just have a question (so I'm going to go in front of you) - January 10th

Actual conversation:



Woman to me: I just have a question (and then cuts in front of me in line, as if I was planning on having a lenghthy conversation instead)



Woman to purser: What's all this stuff about odd numbers going to the aft and even numbers getting off at midship? We're in [even numbered cabin].



Purser: Yes ma'am, you should disembark the ship at midship, then.



Woman: Well, how do I get there?



Me: (In my head of course) You're already there, dumbass!



Purser: Ma'am if you'll just walk back a few yards you'll be there. The doors are on the 3rd floor.



Woman: *huffs* well, my husband is in a wheelchair.



Purser: Yes, Ma'am, either side of the ship has elevators that will take you down to the deck 3.



Woman: Ok. (Walks off)







God bless the wonderfully patient crew of the Ecstasy! They made our vacation really wonderful. It was really good - I have very few complaints. Roy, Pande and Adi were great!



Also, for those wondering if I accomplished my goal: sort of. I made it to the gym once, but it was really warm and made me quite nauseous because all the equipment faced the water. So I ran on deck for awhile, but it was really windy. So I ran up and down the stairs for a bit. I gave up the second sea day!





Anyway, cruise was awesome - I am already looking forward to the next one!

QUESTION - is it necessary to preface every question with the word 'question'? - January 9th

Quick summary:

Last trivia fail - the person never showed up

saw a bunch of flying fish

towel animal folding class

debarkation talk - stupid questions that have been asked before:

"Does the crew sleep on the boat?"

"Is this ship run by a generator?"

"How are we supposed to push those elevator buttons way up there (looking at the floor markers)?"

Person calls Purser and is "locked in their room" - one door is the bathroom and the other says privacy please

In the middle of the ocean: "What do you suppose the elevation is here?"

Ice sculpture carving demo

Mixology 101 class - TERRIBLE and really disapointing, especially because the one on RCCL was so awesome!

Mini-golf

wine, champagne and pizza for dinner!

"I'm not drunk dialing you but I need you to come see my zoo." - followed by the towel animal zoo tour

Late night dirty comedy show

Where's mah dinnah? - January 8th

Ah, Cozumel! Not too much to say except we did a little shopping (rather walking around), hopped into a taxi van (they offered a little car, and said, "Do you want to try?" and Mere said, "No, not even a little.") and headed toward Playa Mia. Based on the price, I decided to just pay the entrance fee and not the get included all you can drink, which turned out to be just fine for me. The rest of the group opted to get the plan. I planned on drink when we got back on the ship, but everyone was...um...drinked out, I suppose. Hot sun + tequila shots = baddish idea. We still had a great time, although I have to say the seas of Playa Mia are not nice. I got stung at least 5 times by either teeny tiny jelly fish, detached tentacles, or other tiny stinging things. My hands and legs were pretty sore and then itchy for awhile afterwards, but nothing at all serious. And Mark and I went sailing, which was pretty fun when the wind blew.

Back on the boat, Ben finally got his escargot, although he wasn't really feeling it. Then at sssssssshhhhhowtime! we danced to Hey Baby, which was way fun!

You gotta smoova I could use? - January 7th

We got up super early today - we had to be off the ship by 7 AM! Luckily, we were able to nap on the bus (most of us, anyway!). The tour was really neat - the best part was the Pyramid of the Magician (pictured) - it was huge (TWSS). Also, if you clapped facing straight on, it would talk back - the voice of Chaak (video), the rain god. We also got to see the Nun's Quadrangle, Turtle house, and governor's palace. Afterwards, wewandered back to the ship. The past guest party was that night, and

there was, of course, free drinks! I totally want to go on another cruise right now! Anyway, we decided that before dinner (post drinking) it would be a good idea to sing Karaoke! So we bravely went up on stage and sang Margaritaville. We were awful, but it was fun! I think some people might have been offended that we didn't take it seriously. It's karaoke! whatever. Everyone really enjoyed the fact that Mark said "pop tart" instead of "poptop". After that, we were leaving and Mark thought Ben was in front of him, and put his hand on his shoulder, until he realized it was, in fact, not Ben. It was someone who had sang before us, Wes. Oops. I don't think he minded though.

Typically, I don't like monkeys - January 6th

Day 1: first "fun" day at sea

Trivia team of awesome competes for coveted plastic ship: unfortunately, we were 1 question shy of tying for first. Damn you U.S. history!

Wine tasting = awesome! Well, I didn't much like any of the wines at first, but the expert explained that food makes a big difference. To prove his point, he had us bite into a lime, then taste this Riesling - OMG, what a difference! It was really good. Then we sugared our lime and tried the savignon blanc - I could tell a difference, but it wasn't as pronounced. We also paired some reds with cheese. Overall, totally worth the $10. And for the record, we brought our own bottles on (you can!) to have at dinner, and the bottle of white I picked out (Thanks to Chelsea!) actually ended up being the Matre 'D's recommended wine on the last night. WOO!! I also found out that extra dry champagne = less fruity, brut (aka dry) = more fruity. And because we're awesome, we went to lunch in the dining room at 12 before our tasting at 12:30. They tried to trick us out of it, but we won - except dessert.
To prove we can be classy, Meredith and I went to tea, despite the fact that it was served in the very tacky "neon bar". With the tea they had cool foods like scones, cucumber sandwiches and strawberries and cream (yum!). Later that evening was the captain's party - while the captain could not join us, we did drink his free drinks in his honor. Amature cruisers might just go to the one that corresponds with his/her dinner time, like you're "supposed to", but we knew better - so we doubled up. I think by the end of the first one we were all pretty...tipsy. Mark and I ended up dancing on the big stage by ourselves. They wanted people to dance, but we were the only ones who actually did. We all took a nap between the first and second captain's party. It was formal night for dinner, and even on day 2 I was starting to feel like "mah dress don fiht." Luckily, those seams held out for the night! We ended up in bed pretty early that night as we had a very early day in Progreso the next day!

Did anyone lose a key to their luggage?

Clearly someone did. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a key on the ground, would there?

The journey began on Monday - we hit the road around 8:30 and had fun all the way there. Once we arrived at the port, we realized that there might be quite a bit of low brow people on the trip. Within 10 minutes of arriving at the terminal, we had already made an arch enemy - Tech Man. Tech man decided to DISRESPECT UT. Who won their bowl game? Also, cheerleader girls. Ugh. Luckily, they did not ruin our cruise, though they tried to with their shrill laughter and drunken screeches. Anyway, we got on the ship ("I see the boat!"), ate some food, and decided to look around the ship. That evening we had a super nice dinner (all at the same table after sweet talking the Maitre 'D to move Ben from the other "Fuller" table) and enjoyed some liquor tasting...mmmmm! Also, watched the Fiesta Bowl (ole!) and drank some goodness. After that - who knows what we did?

Bon Voyage!

interj.
Used to express farewell and good wishes to a departing traveler.
[French : bon, good + voyage, journey.]

Tomorrow we depart for our cruise! 8 AM - right, guys? I am so excited - 5 days of eating, drinking and lounging by the pool! Cruise goal: I would like to visit the gym at least twice - we'll see if this happens! Certainly not to burn calories though. Here's my theory: you eat, wait an hour or so, hit the gym, then you've burned enough calories for you to be hungry, so you eat again. repeat. This will ensure you get your money's worth. ;)

Anyway, we stop in Progreso and Conzumel. I'm just excited to have a vacation before I have to head back to school.

So, on a sad note, I won't be writing for a few days. BUT I will write one entry for each day I'm gone. That way I can still fulfill my resolution.

¡Adios, Amigos! ¡Hablaré con ti cuando vuelvo!

glass or plastic?

Hmm... when I started this blog, I guess I didn't really think it through. I sort of forgot there would be days like today, where the highlight was finding a small bottle of rum (pictured) in a plastic container. I also managed to find swimsuits, although these were like $80. Ri-dic-u-lous! So, as of now, I have old swimsuits to wear on the cruise. They should be fine...although on Day 5 I promise nothing :)

dogs and children alike

I was going to write about how difficult it is searching for a swimsuit when a) it's not swimsuit season and b) when the $3 clearance suits are the wrong size/style/color, but instead I'll tell about my afternoon adventure.


I was turning onto 7th from MoPac when this tan lab mix dog ran in front of me. I pulled over to see if he would come to me. He wagged his tail, but wouldn't come near me. I could tell he didn't have a collar on, so I called 311 to see if animal control would come. The idea was that they could pick him up, and I would put fliers up around the area to see if someone claimed him. Anyway, some neighbors came out, but nobody recognized the dog, but they had seen him wandering around earlier. Basically, Animal Control said my option was to wait up to 24 hours for them to come (which is a viable option because as we know, animals typically like to stay in one place for several hours at a time), or to take the doggie to the shelter myself. So I decided I would try to get him (it was definitely a him) in the car and take him to the shelter, but after much luring with treats (kindly provided by a neighbor across the street!), he would come close to me, but refused to get in or near the car. Then a woman came out of her apartment (she wasn't familiar with this k-9, either) and went for a run, and he ran next to her. So, in short, dog. rescue. fail. This whole thing went on for about 20 minutes. Hopefully he will return to his irresponsible owners before he gets run over, and hopefully his irresponsible owners will learn their lesson and get him some tags!

All baby cows are lost

Happy New Year! We started the new year off with some friends - Camden had a party at his apartment. It was lots of fun!

From the party, I said: Seriously, did you hear that?! 'You might have to take it out and blow on it and put it back in!' Really?! Did anybody else hear that? THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!