MY HOLIDAY REVIEW: Lions and Tigers and Frogs OH MY! PART 1

Yes, I am finally going to write (or at least post pictures) of my holidays. Part of the reason I haven't is because there is just a lot and I have been busy. Part of the reason is I haven't been so good and I haven't really wanted to talk to anyone, even my blog. Yeah. Having a bit of an "episode" you might say. Which is really hard to say because I really want to go home and I can't right now until I am doing better.

ANYWAY, I am going to attempt to ignore that and tell you about Vegas! Wild Animals! Spiritual Stuff! Irish Neighbors! And Helicopters! And other things that deserve exclamation points!!!!

First of all, about a week or so before Christmas we went to Vegas to visit my Uncle and Aunt J... dad's FAVORITE big brother. Padre is, like, OBSESSED with anything J does. It's like "Oh, you are into model trains now? OH, so am I!" Like he is 4. ANYWAY, so apparently there was some model train/plane/etc. thing that he wanted to go with John to and so we were all going under the Guise of Christmas, PLUS, of course Rinny and Dad wanted to see BYU play in the Vegas Bowl again like last year.

Only THIS time they decided the trip basically would BE the gifts... we were going to do a couple BIG SPLURGEY shows (we just didn't actually KNOW this, it was a surprise)... plus Rinny got the Vegas Bowl... so *I* could go back to the Secret Garden to see the tigers and dolphins and such (alone since nobody else much cared enough to make tickets worth it, but dang, I would LIVE there if I could!).

So, first we had to drive there. Listening to Talk Radio... and listening to my dad talk BACK to the talk radio... makes for a VERY VERY long trip. And for some reason, we didn't actually remember to BRING things to do. Or walkmans. But we had cameras. So, literally, we took pictures of ourselves the whole way.

SEE SLIDE-SHOW-O-RAMA!!! (you really should)

The scary thing is... WE DELETED THE MAJORITY of them. That's right. THESE are the GOOD ones.

Also, the trip was made much longer by the fact that 1. we were caught in a full-on white out blizzard in some mountain pass. 2. It was the worst (first?) snow storm in like 20 years in St. George (we actually stopped there for a bit to rest at the condo because the cars going off the road and we wanted to go to the temple in the morning!) and apparently in 30 years in Vegas. The snow in down south in St. George and Vegas was certainly not, like OUR bad weather, but for people not used to it... YEAH it was pretty big! And the flakes WERE enormous. Not flakes... like snow CLUMPS. It was hilarious.

When we finally got to The Orleans, we brought our picture frenzy into the gift shop...

and then the arcade, where I found this horrible and yet very fun game called Flamin Finger. It's awful! We just KEPT PLAYING! At least it gave us pretty good tickets.

We with our tickets bought some fuzzy dice to hang on our tree (hee hee!) and a yo-yo with Pacman on it. Then we split up. Nobody else wanted to spend the money to see the Secret Garden but as Dad was taking Rinny to the Las Vegas Bowl, *I* could go alone. They... actually, I am not sure what they did. I think my mom and went to the room with Rinny who took a nap and Dad gambled or went golfing. I could care less. I went to the Mirage. I took a few pics in front of the Beatles Lounge and then spent hours with dolphins, tigers, and lions.




Only problem? MY CAMERA DIED. Yeah, and it is one of those you charge in a charger, not the kind you can buy and replace batteries at the gift shop. I DID buy 2 highly-over-priced disposable cameras for more pics of the cubs, but you don't get to see those (yet.) So everything after that had to wait till I could borrow Rinny's camera. SIGH.

The secret garden was awesome (however, the info I gave about the litter of cubs isn't right. The Golden might be in Florida now, but there is only one golden and he IS male and his name is Svenghali and the other female was white with stripes. But they aren't with the mama. Anyway, I got it mixed up. But they are beautiful. As were the dolphin babies. SIGH! I could just LIVE there.

After a few hours there we went to dinner and because it was part of the super good deal with the hotel (that *I* found us online, thank you very much go me.) we got drinks. In our family it is always "just waters, thanks." but these were actual DRINK drinks. Like I ordered a REEEEALLY good Virgin Pina Colada. SO YUMMY. And Rinny had her VERY FIRST EVER MOCKTAIL! No, really. FIRST EVER. She is pretty firm on that "avoiding the appearance of evil" thing and she wasn't going to order one! She said they all sounded "yucky." I told her to go with a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri and that it was "basically a Zuka juice." She took a lot of coercing, but finally drank some. She didn't like it (and honestly, it wasn't the best mocktail ever... my Pina Colada was heaven but Rinn hates coconut!)

After dinner we saw Rinny's Dancing Waters some more (well, I had a migraine, so I actually just sat in the building being sick while Rinn did that) and we got ready for the night's big Splurge! Actually, I went back to the hotel and went into a little migraine coma until they woke me up and said "we are going now." Because I felt so super sick. Which was NOT awesome. But the SHOW was. TO BE CONTINUED.... AFTER you SEE all you can of what I just said! HA!

Which pretty much is all the explanation of AAAAAAAALL of these:

ENJOY! (and you can turn the music off up top of the little screen.)

Snowman Decoration... OF DEATH!!!!! (In case you were at a loss of what to get me for Christmas)

I haven't felt like writing lately.

On the bright side, none of my Christmas decorations have started anything on fire.

Jumbo snow globes + sunlight = consumer hazard

Tue Dec 23, 2008 1:33pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 7,000 jumbo-sized snow globes were recalled by Hallmark Cards Inc. because the holiday decorations can act as a magnifying glass when exposed to sunlight and ignite nearby combustible materials, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Tuesday.

The snowman-shaped snow globes were sold in October and November at Hallmark Gold Crown stores nationwide for about $100 each.

The consumer agency said Hallmark has received two reports of the snow globes igniting nearby materials but no injuries have been reported.

Consumers who bought the snow globes, which measure 11 by 12 by 17 inches (28 by 30 by 43cm), should immediately remove them from exposure to sunlight and return to a Hallmark Gold Crown store for a full refund.

Details about the recall were posted at the government agency's web site at: here

(Reporting by Julie Vorman; Editing by Bill Trott)

SOURCE HERE

I'd want a refund now if I bought one and I COULDN'T get a decent fire started.

Eventually I really WILL write about our trip to Vegas, seeing the tigers and dolphins, KA, Blue Man Group, and getting my new frog. But for now, just be glad that snowman isn't after you.

Feast with the Beasts (AND with the BEST[cousins]!)

Indeed.

This was a GREAT Thanksgiving. Thanks to the awesomeness of my Cousins, Animals, and the letter Y. Okay, not the letter Y.

For the past week I haven't even known for sure WHERE we were having Thanksgiving. It's been all "Oh, in Vegas with [Uncle J and Aunt J]" (Padre's favorite brother) one day then "We'll stay here and invite [Ostlparkwells] over here"(meaning Mom's favorite sister, Aunt Clare & Uncle Lynn/T-La & Les and their 3 adorable boys, Gabe, Caleb, and Elijah/Megs & Jakey/and probably Uncle-who's-not-really-our-Uncle Pat). So even though I kept pressing for REAL PLANS I got none, So I had to plan for either... like trying to get together a hotel workable travel cage for the suggies. And Nani was sick and on twice daily meds. Only weather seemed to be a major factor with Vegas. BUT having just moved to the new house, that seemed a stressful thing if we stayed. I just kept trying to get firm plans so I could KNOW where we were. And I kept trying to get a promise of if we are in Vegas, to go to the Secret Garden again to see the tigers and lions and dolphins and such. And if we DIDN'T go to Vegas to take everyone to the ZOO! Because I have been mounting a campaign to go to the zoo for a WHILE and zoos are more fun with people. Especially little people. But I really didn't know the plans for SURE till the day before and the AWESOME Ostleparkwells had us over THERE and PLUS ALSO I didn't know that it was a SPECIAL zoo day... Feast with the Beasts!

I am sorry to say, we missed some of it (Like the cool stuff on this video :O( )because of my stupidness in waking up. I really hate that about me A LOT. BUT we still got to see a lot of fun things. We saw the elephants squishing little (meaning NORMAL sized) pumpkins and eating them, black bears eating veggies out of turkey pinatas, the tiger completely snubbing a meat-filled pumpkin in true cattitude, etc. It was awesome! And the little boys had LOTS of cute comments. Because, well, they are cute.

We arrived at Hogle Zoo and picked up the schedule of the feeding. We started rushing down to the Black Bears which were being fed right then BUT got distracted by the fact that the elephants were smooshing pumpkins and eating them! It was so cute!

(Meggy and I later decided that Pumpkin would be a really great name FOR an elephant. We didn't know they liked them so much! But they seemed to really think they were delicious!)

Anyway, when we got to the Black Bears we realized a few things. First of all, that the "featured" animal being fed meant it was REALLY hard to get close and so it was hard for the kiddlets to see them and second of all, that the bears were NOT being fed turkey. Instead, they were being fed veggies and stuff in a Turkey-shaped pinata! The first part was disappointing, but the second part was funny. (The second part was disappointing to PADRE who kept saying they should feed the carnivores LIVE turkeys. Umm, yeah, like THAT wouldn't traumatize the children for life! YIKES!!! Besides, I think the bears (omnivores) seemed plenty impressed with their carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.)The whole time Caleb kept saying he wanted to see the "crocodiles and alligators." He told me they were his favorite animal. We THOUGHT they were in a certain exhibit that we kept passing so we were very glad to see a couple lazy little crocodiles in the reptile house. However, for all his excitement, apparently, Caleb was really SCARED of them. He kept asking us about the glass and touching it to be sure it was still THERE (thank you, Harry Potter.) He stared at them very bravely, though, for a LONG time. He also whispered, very seriously to me, "I think THAT crocodile is LOOKING AT ME."
"Are you sure, Caleb?"
He nodded, looking a little terrified.
"well, would you like to leave?"
"NO."
"Okay. We can keep watching them."
THEN, one of the crocs (the one NOT looking at him) actually moved. Caleb leaped back towards Megan pretty quickly. He DID go back up though... after checking the glass again since "that one came over closer to us!"

I think he was pretty proud of his bravery. So was I, and well, it was pretty dang cute.

One of our favorite animals was the Tiger. Part of the reason Megs and *I* loved it so much was because of how sad the old "cat house" used to make us when the Tiger would just pace around inside looking miserable and how much happier he looks now. Also he is just a BEAUTIFUL animal. I love that cat!!!!

We was just so... chill. Like, oh, no problem that you are all watching me... I think I will just siddle up to the glass and take a nice COOOOOOL bath. Ahhh.





Awesome awesome awesome.

Aaaand... Rinny randomly started dancing by the carousel while the boys had a potty break. And so did Padre. Scary.


ANYWAY, moving on...

The Ape House was hilarious. The little boys AND the apes were both adorable. There was a Gorilla, I think it was, and he had a blanket over it's head like it was sulking or something. Little Eli goes, "I think he's saying 'I'm in time out.'" We cracked up, but so did random strangers who passed the quote around and just cooed over his cuteness.

And then we watched Acara the UBER DARLING baby orangutan show off like crazy. She stood on a bucket, put hay IN a bucket, did somersaults, made faces... everything RIGHT in front of us, like LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME! I AM SOOOO CUTE! (She is right. She IS.)

*sigh* I SOOO love apes.

I also loved when the drinking fountain didn't work, but still got THIS expectant face.

And when we rode the Zoofari Express and Gabe wore a conductor hat.

And when Eli thought he was Hercules pushing that ball in the water.
The zoo was just a really fun time all around. I already want to go back. BUT by this time we were all really ready for T-La's EXTRORDINARY sweet potatoes. (and, for some reason, Mac&Cheese?) so we left and played the funniest game of "Eye Spy" I have ever heard in my LIFE. Adults included.

"..do YOU know what it is anymore, Caleb?" "Umm... I'll go again."

"..something Goldenrod..."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!

Vanishing Introspection/Tirade

So, apparently a post I wrote which was sort of even spiritual has disappeared. So I am annoyed. Because I really don't feel like rewriting it thank you very much. Long story short, it was about BoyKid's bestfriend JT coming home from a Mission, his little bro leaving on one and how a friend© I looked up to because of her high levels of quality funny has left the Church over Prop 8. (I am pretty sure there is much more to it than that, but that is the very very sad gist)

I am just not up to re-writing. Sorry. BUT, I so love little kids. And my baby bro. THE END. *sigh*

Pieces of Eight

Pilfered from T-La

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch
1. The Office
2. Heroes
3. Chuck
4. NCIS
5. Perry Mason
6. Gilmore Girls
7. It's Me or the Dog
8. Bones


8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. Went to the Doctor *sigh*
2. Texted back and forth with a "Koda Bear" who has been doing so off and on, like, a year, and he asked me OUT. I said maybe sometime. But I probably won't. Because he is kinda weird. I've never met him. It is WEIRDER, somehow, than online. Texting some stanger out of the blue. SERIOUSLY. Who does that?!
3. Went to the pool and swam a bit
4. Watched Chuck and Heroes.
5. Felt like CRAP.
6. Started drinking the barium "smoothie" (vile stuff!) for today's CT scan of my stomach.
7. Tried very hard not to throw up said "smoothie."
8. Prayed a lot for a lot of people. <:O( See Wishlist, I guess.


8 Favorite Places to Eat
1. China Bowl (BEST. Egg Drop Soup. Ever. Even if she is the Soup Nazi of Chinese Restaurants. "Yeah, can we get Lemon Chicken Dinner to go?" "NO. You had that too many time. You have something different today. You have Coconut Shrimp. You like." "Oh thanks, that sounds good, but..." " NO LEMON CHICKEN. You Have Shrimp! You like! Very good!")
2. Macaroni Grill (Shrimp and Pine Nut Portofino, hold the mushrooms, please!.... mmmmm.... and the BREAD.)
3. Betos
4. Skipper's (too bad it's GONE!)
5. that Brazilian place on State Street that has the cheese rolls sold seperatley. Mmmm... I want some NOW.
6. Cafe Rio (Pork Salad!)
7. Target (Yes, THAT Target. They have Sushi.)
8. Cold stone. I like to eat at coldstone. Does having ice cream for dinner count? <---YES. It Counts, because ME TOO!!!


8 Things I Am Looking Forward To
1. The 2nd Coming
2. being healthy and DONE with all doctors, tests and meds.
3. the Holidays
4. Ooh, one of those cookies my mom is making for someone else. Hmmm...
5. taking a bath
6. The next Heroes (yes, I AM that big of a geek)
7. My Baby Bro Spencer coming home from his mission
8. Thanksgiving Dinner (with the Ostleparkwells... or some Tigers. If we are home we are definitely having it with T-La and Megs and their Fam. But we MAY be in Vegas. If that is the case I am pushing to go back to the Secret Garden. I swear, am packing a lunch and staying the WHOLE DAY in there. I love those cats.)


8 Things on My Wish List
1. For an online friend of mine who once was looking into the LDS Church to do so again and feel the truth of the gospel and mostly how it could HELP his life.
2. That those who are so full of HATRED about Proposition 8 in California could just... CHILL and have softer hearts. Disagreeing is one thing. For me it was hard to stand behind Prop 8 100% because I have friends and FAMILY who I love dearly that struggle with SSA. I knew this would hurt them. BUT I know that the leaders of the church SPEAK FOR THE LORD. And for whatever reason, they have asked us to take a stand on this cause. And, honestly, if it's causing THIS MUCH of a fight... mobs attacking temples and stuff, then, it must be super important.
But I just wish the contention would STOP. Why is it ANGER and screaming and picketing? I just think of sadness...
3. My home was clean and organized...
4. And that I was LIVING there. :OP
5. I wish could get healthy. Get a healthy weight so my dumb diabetes under control. Especially now, because, oh, my doctor thinks I may SORT OF have TYPE ONE Diabetes as well as Type 2. Like little kid Diabetes. Just not really bad. How crazy is that? Anyway, losing 100 lbs would be REALLY great.
6. a Ferret. He is adorable and I love him. He is silver and white, and follows me around the cage in Petco, and snuggles with me. But I can't have him. But this is a WISH list dang it all!
7. Hey, while I am wishing for things I can't have, how about a funny, cute boy that likes me and DOESN'T live far away, etc.?
8. Money. Or at least a job that I like that gives me more of it. *sigh*


8 People I Tag
Umm... you... eight.

Super Friends and Wandering in the Desert

Friday was pretty awesome as as a fairly last minute thing I got to go up and play with CC in honor of her birthday. YAY! It included CC, Mali, Kami, Scooter, Zach (one of the DesignBoys), and 2 Roomies that I can't remember names for, and Me going for garlic burgers at Cotton Bottoms (it's a bar, but ALL of us just had Cokes. Well, all in our party. Not all in the bar. But that would be a bit much to ask.)

Then we went to Fat Cats and after deciding not to bowl we played in the arcade. Mali was, of course, DDR queen. I played Scooter in air hockey at least 5 times. And yeah, he creamed me mostly. CC and Kami mostly did ski-ball and won Superman tattoos with their tickets. They were just plotting to stick them on their boobs when they let me in on their secret society, too. So I went and got ME some super cool tats as well. ;) YAY FOR SUPER BOOBS! I have such awesome (and awesomely dorky) friends.

I admit, I am not nearly as good as making friends as I am at TAKING them... borrowing my friend's friends. But I love my friends' friends.






Not remotely related, but moving onward and... DOWNWARD... I am totally sick today. I have had a cold the past little while and I went to the doctor this morning fearing a sinus infection. Well, yeah, I was right, but the doctor was worried about some other things, like me being really tired, and weak and flushed and stuff, and he did a blood test and the infection had shot my sugar up high and once I was home he called me rather quick with my results.
Ketoacidosis. He told me if I didn't want to go to ER I had to stay in bed, drink a LOT, and use the fast acting insulin to get regulated and FAST. Basically I feel like crap because my stupid body seems to think I am lost, wandering in the desert. Therefore I am weak, dizzy, dehydrated and burning up my muscles instead of carbs or fat. My muscles are cramping up from lack of electrolytes and all that. Yes, my body is STUPID.


And yes, that Superman is TOTALLY singing Karaoke.

Friday's Fave Five... Can one week HOLD this much hilarity?!

The following things totally made me smile this week.

1. I was watching this show and yes, I am embarrassed to admit it because it is really stupid. It is called something like Get Paris a BFF and consists of various contests to eliminate people from being Paris Hilton's Best Friend. WHY these people would want to be her friend I do not know because, seriously, every time she TALKS it reconfirms to me that that chick has NO SOUL!!! I can only assume they are just after her money and she gives them things through out the contest... and I don't even feel BAD for her that these people want her for her fame and fortune because again, I do not think she has a soul. I think she is empty inside. I think if you got to know her, really know the real her deep down... THERE WOULD BE NOTHING. It is creepy. ANYWAY, that is not what made me smile. In the midst of this, one of the things I guess they decided to send them home for was being too fake (okay that DID make me smile. Because Paris is so real and down to earth... but anyway...) and so they were having PEREZ Hilton, this very queeny gay reporter guy grill them about things in an interview.

So he starts going after this chick saying that everyone thinks she is stupid, is she really stupid and her answer, totally unscripted was, " Well, umm, I don't know, I mean, I know I'm not like a rocket surgeon, but..."

And yes, Perez (and it sounded like some camera guy) cracked up. I am sure clip show people were running around screaming "COMEDY GOLD!" because *I* about died. A ROCKET SURGEON?! THAT IS AWESOME!!!! A brilliantly retarded blend of "it's not rocket science" and "he's no brain surgeon" that just made me smile for hours.

2. Rinny has 2 boyfriends, and she can't decide between them. They are SkaterHot and The 12 Year Old. She thinks she truly likes them both equally. She MIGHT like SkaterHot more were it not for the fact that he does NOT dance and 12 Year Old DOES. And they dance weekly. So she goes out with SkaterHot, like 3 times a week, but dances with 12 Year Old every week as well. Does NOT make for smooth sailing in Boyville. BUT it did spark a need to look up Safety Dance on YouTube so we could hear it. And then realize we had never seen the video. And then proceed to laugh and laugh for several hours and watch it 8 times and dance to the video and have my mother wonder what her daughters had taken. OH MY HEART.
Have you SEEN the video?!


3. THEN we needed to watch our favorite bad video 10 times, copy it and laugh till I almost threw up and remember how much BoyKid loves it! Another true TRUE gem.


4. Chatting with the boy I have a slight crush on despite a few issues, BrazilianVampire. He's not uber active, but he is trying to do better. He's a little too desperate/fast for me (like really wants to fly me down for New Years). BUT he is also funny, smart, super cute, hard working, and generally just a very good guy. His dad was a mission president in Brazil (Campinas mission 92-95), and he has family both there in Brazil and in Utah. (and yes, he is legit. I mean I don't KNOW him, like really, but I do know he is a real LDS guy with a Mission president dad and a less active mom who is a SAHM and all that... who is not a scammer) Anyway, Chatting with him has been really fun. I have missed... well... being liked back. I don't know that anything will come of it. Probably not. I mean that's a long LONG distance relationship. But STILL... maybe?

Maybe. I do VERY like him.

5. I have happy friends. It is almost CC's birthday and therefore you should totally buy a subscription to the magazine Wasatch Women! Because... ummm... it's probably not boring if you are into that sort of thing! And CC designs it! W00t!