Always be prepared

We're squeezing in a 22 hour road trip this weekend.

Daunting? Perhaps.

I've got my necessities all prepared...Diet Pepsi and loads of Glee music to keep me awake.

Pretty sure this music is going to drive Rob crazy, but only at first. I'm betting that by hour seven I can have him singing along. What do you think? ☺

Thrifty must hate me

I've been meaning to post about our UT trip we took after Christmas, but I've just been too lazy busy to get around to it. I will however tell you that it didn't start out on the best of notes.

That bad note being this goober of a car, also known as the Chevy HHR. They were sold out of all the cooler, more appropriate cars, so this silver nerd was mine for the week.

It was dubbed the Loser Mobile by a loved one. At the time I thought it was funny, but now I realize that since I was the driver, maybe they were talking about me. No, that can't be right!

She (yes, I decided it's a girlie) does NOT handle well in the snow. But thanks to my mad snow driving skills, we all made it through unscathed...well mostly. ☺

Portland and back

On a whim, Friday afternoon my Robster and I packed our bags...and Jackson's 'diaper bag' (Rob's words, not mine), dropped our pup off at the sitter's house and made our way down to Portland for the weekend.

It was a couple days full of doing what we do best...going to the movies, staying up late, eating out, shopping and sleeping in. Oh, and our version of car karaoke.

It was such a great time! Rob went and saw The September Issue without so much as a groan. He also followed me around shopping all Saturday (and half of Sunday!), even carrying my bags. Have I got a winner or what!?!

Our movie night was actually a double. After the first show we decided to stick with the documentary theme and stay around (and out of the cold) to see Capitalism: A Love Story. Great movie, but definitely a different feel from the world of Vogue we'd just visited.

There was a Halloween convention-like thing going on in the hotel during our stay. This big scary guy (I thought was a statue!) caught me off guard and I nearly lost it when he lunged for me. Halloween is weird. ☺

After a great Chinese lunch in the Pearl District and then a few hours and few hundred dollars later at Powell's City of Books we were on our way back to good ol' Washington State. We ♥ us some Portland!

We're Melting

It is hot up here.

Like 100* hot.

I know this doesn't sound that bad to a lot of you, but up here in the Pacific Northwest central air or even air conditioning isn't standard for most residences. So yes, it is stinking HOT!!

Last night as Rob and I laid on the floor downstairs with three fans blowing on us we realized we'd be much better off to

a.) be sitting in a cool movie theater

b.) drive around in the car with the air on high

c.) be anywhere but where we were

Since we've seen nearly every movie in the theaters we decided it best to put on our shorts and tanks and head over to Alki Beach.

It was SO much cooler by the water! We took a nice stroll and then had an amazing dinner at Cactus. It used to be a grocery store that was recently transformed into this funky Tex Mex restaurant.

We had a great table *bonus point* that gave us a perfect view of the beach *another bonus point*. Since it was our first time there they gave us some yummy appetizers on the house *that deserves two more bonus points* and the dinner was delish *yep, another bonus point*, so all in all, looks like Cactus has made it was into our regular rotation of restaurants.

We decided to head back home around 9:30, certain that our place would have cooled down to a much more tolerable temperature by then. We walked in the door and felt like we were hit by a heatwave. Ugh!

I've already decided that I will be putting in some time at the mall and then catching a movie after work today so that I don't have to endure any more time that necessary at our residence, which appears to have relocated to the Sun.

Over the Fourth

Day one of our adventure was pretty adventure-less. We browsed the Lloyd Center Mall, got our pictures taken in the photo booth a la Jr. High style and saw Transformers 2. Total waste of two hours if you ask me. The first one was pretty good, but the second one was just plain stupid. It was just a bunch of running around, blowing up and machines zooming all over the place. Not good.



A yummy Standford's dinner after made up for the lack of cinema excitement and then back to the hotel for some shut eye. I am not a big sleeper, but Rob had to drag me out of bed the next morning because this hotel has the most comfortable beds I have EVER slept in. Seriously. That is why we always stay here in Portland. Not for the amazing location, great nightlife or the charming shops. It's the beds.

Next up was the St. Paul Fair and Rodeo. It wasn't much of a fair, but it sure was a good rodeo! As we parked at the city cemetery and walked into 'town', we passed this chalk art and it made me laugh. Had to take a picture!

Rob thought it would be $10 well spent for me to get a palm reading. I went for it and the whole time she was doing her thing I was thinking 'what a bunch of garbage', but she was SO serious, it was almost funny. Apparently I will be on the receiving end of a promotion within the next 3-4 months, I have a long life line (isn't this the lamest line in the palm reading book!?!), will be married within a year, will have three children (two boys and a girl) and will be financially successful for the rest of my days. OK, so I liked that last part.

At the rodeo the bucking bronco was right up there near the top of the list, followed closely by the bull riding, but my favorite part was when the rodeo clown reenacted every dance step of Beyonce's entire Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) video. It was SO funny!!

We skipped out before the fireworks to avoid the crowd when leaving. Little did we know, this sneaky maneuver led us to hit downtown Portland just as their fireworks were getting out, so we didn't get back to our hotel until 12:30. Genius, we know. We still caught some fireworks along the way.

The next day we grabbed lunch and did some shopping downtown.

Rob fell in serious like with an extendable scrubber at Sur La Table and insisted on carrying it around all day. Next stop, Puma. They had the funniest signs! Here's the Hot Stuff sign with my Hot Stuff underneath it posing with his new friend. This last sign was my favorite...it was in the mirror in the dressing room area.

Good trip. We had lots more planned, but ran out of time. It'll all have to go on our list of things to do on our next trip down.

Away we go

Tonight we are going to endure the drive down to Portland, yet again.

Well, Rob will endure the drive...I will be the amusing passenger and instigator of The Name Game.

We plan to have three days full of sleeping in, golfing, a baseball game, fireworks, a blues festival, shopping and perhaps a rodeo or two.

We are quite looking forward to the time away because after all, Portland is the Paris of North America. Fun, I know, but don't be jealous. We'll take some pictures and share it all upon our return. Have a fun and save 4th!!

Rabbits

My car is in need of a new alternator (my bank account says 'Boo!'), so I was given a loaner car to drive around while my darlin' is out of commission. The dealership gave me a VW Rabbit. Cute car. As I pulled away in it I was reminded of another VW Rabbit. One my G & G Pickup had when I was younger.

I remember thinking that it was the coolest little car and that I want to drive it. And from that thought, my mind wandered to all of the other memories I have of my Grandparent's place.

The remainder of my drive home I played a little slide show in my head of all the great memories I had of visiting my Grandparents on their farm in California. And let me tell ya...it was a really nice drive home.

My car has a mind of it's own

Yesterday I couldn't get my sunroof to close. No matter what I tried it would not stay closed! So knowing that the sun could turn to rain in a matter of minutes I knew I had to get it taken care of ASAP unless I wanted rain soaked interior. I left work and drove the 30 miles down to the dealership, all the while still trying to get the stupid sunroof to shut. Eventually I just gave up!

(Not actually my car, but you get the point...)

As I pulled up to the service department I automatically went through my normal getting out routine: turned in my mirrors, put my iPod in glove box, grabbed my purse and closed the sunroof. And what do you know...the stupid thing shut!!!

I was in disbelief so I opened it up and closed it again. Yep, it worked just fine! I felt pretty stupid going inside and telling them that my urgent appointment was no longer required. Turns out my breaks needed replacing and I was due for an oil change anyways, so my trip wasn't a total waste. Plus, I got to skip out from work a few hours early. Maybe that was the Sun God's way of giving me a few hours off?? Hey, I'll take it!!

Movies, movies and more movies

We took advantage of the long weekend and took a mini vacay down to Portland to attend the Portland International Film Festival. It was really fun!!

And as if that wasn't enough we also saw two non-festival movies: Friday the 13th (not my choice!!) and The International. I tried to drag Rob to Confessions of Shopaholic, but had no luck!

I kept my eyes closed for most of Friday the 13th because it was too gory for me. My eyes were also closed for half of The International, but that was because I was so tired. I am too old to go to the 10:40PM showing...it's WAY past my bedtime! And, it wasn't really THAT great of a movie anyway.

We managed to fit in some shopping, sleeping in and a lot of eating...apparently one HAS to have popcorn in every single movie! We didn't get to see all the films we wanted to, but now we know how to plan better for next time.

So I guess I think I'm British

Bit of strange news. Looks like I am the ambivalent host of an alter-ego. It appears that deep down some part of me thinks that I am British. Well, part British at least. It stems from my recent fancy of Sophie Kinsella books. She is a best-selling British chick-lit author and I love her! Well, more her work than her. I mentioned awhile back that I have taken to listening to books on CD as a means to make my lengthy commute seem somewhat tolerable. Over the past few months I have listened to six (!) of her books and am just starting another one.

If I were to have simply read her books, I don't think that my I would have developed this quirk; it's the fact that the person reading the book has a British accent that gets to me. Now I often think my thoughts in a British accent, I use words that are British in my everyday conversations and emails and I have been converting prices in US dollars to British pounds (the Shopaholic books talk A LOT about the cost of things!). It's getting to be a little too much! :) I think that this is a sign that I need to start reading/listening to some different material. Next on my list is Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time.

Taking advantage of my LONG commute

Although I love to gripe to Rob about the long commute I have to work now that we have moved, there is an upside to it. I have a lot of time in the car and I have been using it to listen to books on tape/cd. While I love to read, I just really don't have much time to do it. I have just finished a book called 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult (one of my favorite authors!) and am starting another book called Joy School by Elizabeth Berg. The voice of the woman that reads it bothers me, so I think that I might have to switch to another book for now. The next one that I have in line is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. He is known for his lenghtly novels. I have always wanted to read this book, but the thickness of it has put me off. Now that I have nothing better to do, I figure I ought to give it a listen.