Labor Day, Seattle Style

This post is either going to be one really long one or a few shorter ones.  I'm not sure yet.  We'll just have to see how long my concentration (and interest) lasts. :)

Last Thursday Night
Around 7:00: I am planning to go to Thatcher for the weekend with my family.  You know, see the cousins and Grandma, pick some apples, normal Labor Day weekend stuff.  My sister is planning to go to Seattle to visit a friend.  Everyone is excited for their respective vacations.

Around 9:30: my sister's plan quickly changes and visiting her friend is no longer an option.  But, she has already checked in to her flight online and has a hotel room booked for the next 3 nights.  When another friend in Portland is also unavailable, it looks like she can either be out $500+ or go to Seattle (where she's never been) all by herself...or I can go with her.  Really, there's only one feasible option.  So, my parents buy me a last-minute plane ticket (they are amazing--thanks Mom and Dad!) and I frantically start packing.  And trying not to freak out...

Friday
For the first time in probably ever, I cannot finish my cereal for breakfast--my stomach will not allow it.  Stinkin' nerves.  (This probably seems like a minor detail, but I LOVE cereal.  Just thought it needed to be known.)  We get to the airport on time and our flight leaves at 10:40-ish.  About halfway through the flight I can finally eat again.  Huzzah!  Sarah and I find each other in the corridor off the plane, find our baggage, and head off to the car rental desks.  The lines are long and we have no idea of which one to go to.  After a few phone calls for advice, we decided on Dollar Car rental.  When that takes too long (and the guy at the desk is crabby), we slide over to Enterprise.  Make the reservation, get on the shuttle, look blankly at most of the questions the rental guy asks us ("Do you have full coverage on your car insurance?  Does it cover rental cars?" How would we know?!), and finally get our rental car.

Meet George.

Even with navigation on Sarah's phone, we can't find our hotel.  After driving around the neighborhood for 20 minutes, we finally figure it out and are very excited to rest in our hotel room.  Get checked in, walk in, take a deep breath...gag.  We have been assigned a particularly nasty smoking room.  We talk to the manager and head off to Walmart while they air out the room.  At Walmart, we discover that we've forgotten a few things:

Thank you, Walmart.  Now I won't repulse random Seattleans on the street with my horrible breath.

When the airing-out does squat, we talk with the manager again, call the company Sarah bought her travel package with, call our parents, and eventually get a non-smoking room...for the night.  We order a pizza (realizing that we are starving) and decide that we've had enough adventure for one day.  Ignoring the fact that we don't know where we'll be sleeping tomorrow night, we look for a movie to watch.  Luckily this is premiering on TV tonight:

Good thing we watched the first one a few weeks ago...

Thanks for the picture Amazon!

Saturday
After checking out of our lovely hotel room and pleading with the manager to save us a non-smoking room if it becomes available, we head here:

a.k.a. the coolest place EVER!

See, don't I look happy?

 Here are a few more pictures, just to make you jealous.

Love.

Some of the biggest koi I've ever seen

View from the back of the park/garden.

Blogger is now being retarded, so I guess this is going to be a multi-post thing.  It was getting pretty long, anyways.

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1.02.28

Teaser

So, this weekend was a bit more of an adventure than originally planned.  Don't worry, I'm going to do a big post about it soon.  Hopefully.  Once I can work myself up to uploading pictures and doing all that stuff.  In the meantime, here's a picture to whet your palate:

Oh yeah.

Ok, maybe Cox and I CAN be friends

I discovered something wonderful last night.  Along with having some awesome Disney channel original movies (don't judge me) and current TV shows (like Psych and Covert Affairs--a new favorite) on the Freezone, Cox On Demand also has...exercise videos!  Ok, that may sound really lame, but I am so excited.  You can only do the same nasty workout with Jillian Michaels so many times before you just want to shoot the TV.  (Trust me on that one.)  My mom and I tried a new video/routine out this morning and it was actually kind-of fun.  Never thought I'd be saying that about exercise, but it's true.  Holly Perkins (I think) is a good trainer-person.  Even though it is slightly maddening that she can talk through the entire workout and not sound short of breath while I pant and wheeze for minutes after, she's nice.  And there's a timer going the whole time.  Ah--it's lovely to know that you only have 10 minutes left before you can collapse into a hea--I mean end your workout.  :)

Next up: yoga.  Oh yeah, I am going to take full advantage of the Freezone and get in touch with my flexible side.  

Bwahahahaha, yeah right.  But you know what I mean.

And...done.

End time: 5:50 pm yesterday (give or take a few minutes)

I don't really want to say much about it in case any of you haven't finished it yet (or haven't started but intend to some day in the future).  I'm also not quite sure what I feel about it.  I think, though, there's a good possibility that I didn't like it a whole lot.  But, there are lots of reasons behind that.  Moving on...

I realized a week ago or so that I only have one pair of summer pajamas.  And the pants are kind-of hot (temperature, not fashion-wise--although I still think they're cute).  So, being the extremely crafty person I am (haha), I decided to make my own shorts.  I guess the fact that every pair of pajama shorts I've seen in stores lately hits mid-to-upper thigh helped just a bit.  And here they are!

Yeah, definitely didn't make the shirt.  Thank goodness Target has cheap sleep shirts.

 

Now, making these should have been easy.  Ha, you forget who's doing this project.  I cut out the pattern wrong, put the first buttonhole in the wrong place, and completely missed the second buttonhole until both legs were already sewn together.  Oh, and then there's that lovely Viking--I shall call him Sven.  That sewing machine and I just don't see eye-to-eye.  Ever.  (He likes my mom, not me.)  I keep telling myself, "Hey, I should go sew something to get better at it.  It'll be fun!"  But, after the first five minutes, I'm usually yelling at something: the pattern, the fabric, Sven, you name it.  I'm not a very patient sewer.  Maybe in time...

Anyways, um...yeah, that's about it. 

So it begins...or ends. Whatever.

It's finally here!  (I would have put a picture up...but it takes too long.)  Just for the record, I am hoping to get something else done today rather than just reading this.  Let's be serious, though, I've been waiting for over a year for this stinkin' book.  So, let's do a fun little experiment called: How long will it take for Jenny to finish?


Start time: 3:30 p.m. (approximately)


Updates to follow...

Need...structure...

This is the first year since kindergarten that I won't be starting a new school year/semester in August.  

It's really weird.  

I almost miss it--almost being the operative word there.

Really, I'm just a bit miffed that my nice summer schedule is now going to be all thrown off because everyone else is going to school.  My mom and I can't just sit and watch movies in the afternoon or go shopping.  (That last one is probably a good thing for my bank account, though...)   


Dang.  

Oh well.

In other news, my house is being invaded by crickets.  If the door opens for 30 seconds at night at least 2 of them hop on in and proceed to crawl all over me.  No joke, I've had at least two crickets in the past few days crawl down my arm/various body parts while I've been sitting on the couch minding my own business.  Why get all worked up about that, do you ask?  Well, my friend, in order for a cricket to crawl down my arm, he had to start somewhere above my arm.  Crickets in my hair is not a pleasant mental picture....*shudder*


Eww.  I'm getting grossed out now.  


Just thought you'd all like to know.  :)

My Birthday, in Pictures

In case any of you were wondering what I did on my birthday, this post is for you.  And, since I'm feeling a bit lazy and have a lot of pictures, I'm just going to put them up and tell you the story of my day that way.  Enjoy!

These were on my door when I woke up.  (I heard Sarah putting it up when I was only semi-awake and thought "Who's rubbing my door and why on earth are they doing it?  Is Dad trying to wake me up nicely or something?")

The present I got early to wear around Arizona Mills while my mom and I wandered around.  Ah, Crocs, I do believe I am addicted.

Ok, so this picture isn't the greatest, but this sweater is seriously the cutest thing ever.  I broke down and bought it for myself even though it wasn't on sale (and it's the middle of summer in Arizona...don't mock me).  Seriously, how could I resist?  It's my favorite color and everything!

This is a cheater picture (a.k.a. from last year), but I still took it myself.  My mom and I went here for (my) free lunch.  Mmm....

In the fine tradition of watching movies that I know are going to be horrible but that I secretly want to see anyways for my birthday, Sarah and I went to this.  We were definitely the only ones in the theater.  Yesssss.......

Birthday Krispy Kremes.  {The extreme close-up picture with us wearing the hats and eating the doughnuts is now a birthday tradition.  Only usually Zachy is in the picture with us. :'( }

Umm...my hair looked good.  What can I say, I'm a bit vain.

Part 1 of my birthday haul.  I think I made out pretty well.

Part 2.  I love having crafty sisters.  (Yes, my sister made that herself.)  And hey, it matches my new sweater!

Here's to being one year older...and hopefully wiser, too. ;)