San Diego Trip

J told me about a Wordpress conference he wanted to go to in San Diego. He said I could come along and have a nice little vacation. But what was I supposed to do while he was at his nerd conference?

My two youngest sisters Breezy and Steph tagged along.

I ended up working an early shift Thursday, so we drove out to CA Thursday night.

When we stopped for dinner, Breezy commented, “This is refreshing weather.” To which Joseph replied, “You’re refreshing weather.” Breezy’s comeback was, “Well, I am Breezy.”

J forgot his glasses, so he wore his prescription sunglasses...at night.

We got to the hotel around 11 at night. I didn’t realize Breezy had a rolling bag, and my view was obstructed by the stuff I carried in my arms. I was trying to run in front of a car, tripped over Breezy’s bag, and almost face planted. Then I laughed so hard I almost peed.

Friday we all went to Knott’s Berry Farm. 

There was a twisty, circling ride that looked pretty tame. It was one of those where the bigger person needed to sit on the outside because you ended up squishing over to the outside (you can see it in the above picture, and we're sitting in the ride in the two lower pictures). It didn’t look too bad, so I said we should try that ride. I sat next to Steph, so Breezy and Joseph were across from us. It ended up being scarier than I thought, and Breezy and Joseph couldn’t breath because they were laughing at my face. Stephanie kept yelling that my hair was in her face but I couldn’t move it because my hands were clutching the safety bar. I may have been crying a little. There is no photographic evidence so one really can’t be too sure.

It was a ton of fun. I’m actually pretty scared of roller coasters but I suck it up and go anyway. And then change my mind at the very beginning, when we’re getting ready to plunge down the first crest. But it’s too late.

That night we ordered pizza. I informed J, “I’m going to need something to drink.” I heard him say, “What?” So I repeated myself, “I’m going to need something to drink.” I heard him say, “I’m sorry, I still didn’t hear you.” Breezy almost yelled, “She’s going to need something – “ but then turned around and realized J was on the phone ordering the pizza and wasn’t talking to me. Which caused us to laugh, which did not help J hear the pizza person at all. He apologized, explaining that there were “crazy people in the room.”

Saturday J had his conference. Breezy went with me to drop him off in the morning. His brakes made very disturbing squeaking noises. We had recently had the brakes replaced, and he has his car maintenanced frequently, so we didn’t think the brakes were having a problem, but why were they making noise? I came back to the hotel, we got ready for the day, and us three girls went to the San Diego Zoo…driving with squeaky brakes.

Pointing picture for HP.

This one is just in case the first one wasn't point-y enough. Because, you know, the elephant shrub is kind of easy to miss.

Did you know that hippos kill more people than lions, elephants, leopards, buffalos, and rhinos combined? Have a little respect.

This panda was really enjoying scratching his butt on that tree.

Our tickets came with free bus rides, and we also got to ride that sky ride you can see in this picture. 

This was taken from the bus. That kangaroo is just hanging out..."Well hello there."

I asked Keeley if she'd be able to make the trip with me, but alas, NC is too far. So here is a cameo.

From the sky ride. It was awesome.

This is an aviary place where they kept birds. Breezy and I did not like going in there, because the probability of being pooped on was pretty good. Plus Steph kept humming the Jurassic Park song and then it got stuck in my head (you know, the second or third one with the pterodactyls).

What is this rather phallic looking picture you ask? On the way out we stopped at a large gift shop. I’ve been wanting a large giraffe statue every since J’s brother’s wife had one that looked fabulous at her house. I did find a different leather giraffe that I got for a good deal at the thrift store, but I still went over to the wooden giraffes just to look. They were different prices depending on size; one was $40, another was $50. Then I spotted a price tag that said, $5.95.” I got closer and examined the tag more closely. I did not read it incorrectly, it was a $6 giraffe. I was about to walk away, thinking it was mis-priced, when I thought, eh, what the heck. I picked up the giraffe and took it to the counter. I was upfront and said it was only priced for $6 and could I buy it for that much? The cashier said sure. Woot!! She bubble wrapped it for a safe journey home. I was very excited. Then started thinking, what if it wasn’t mispriced – what if it was damaged and discounted? It was now bubbled wrapped and I couldn’t examine it. Crap. Well, I’ll wait until I go home.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed after walking all over the place. I went out to the car to pick up J when he texted me. And the car wouldn’t start. What. The. Heck.

Hate that stupid car.

J found out that it’s the theft protection device that needed a new battery. We had to go to Target and get a small screwdriver and new battery. When J took it apart, he asked me, “Did you get this wet?” My response was, “What? No. Wait. Ohhhhhh.”

A water bottle had spilled all over in my purse and a lot of stuff got wet. Oops.

Sunday we were late waking up and caught breakfast at the tail end, but there wasn’t much left over. J had his last day of conference, so I told the girls a donut sounded nice. On the walk over there, a man said, “Looking nice today ladies.” It was slightly nice and slightly creepy. We got our food, came back to the hotel, then headed to the beach.

The beach was lovely. I just love the sound of the waves, the feel of the sand. The back of my legs got horribly burned. It hurts to walk. After wandering around, walking the beach and checking out the shops, we came back to the hotel. Breezy and Steph were on their own for dinner; we went out to dinner with Cody (the guy who gives J a lot of his jobs), Cody's wife Raquelle, and another nerd man and his wife from the conference. It was actually uncanny how similar the other guy (his name was Mike) was to Joseph. I wasn’t going to say anything, but Cody brought it up. Then later we found out J had been in MI about the same time Mike had, and their birthdays were days apart, so the jokes about twins separated at birth continued. After dinner we went to Ghirardelli’s on the GasLamp district, and that was fun. I made Breezy text me the whole time where they were going and when they got back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel, I found out that Steph and Breezy had an interesting conversation. It started when Steph noticed the smoke detector was missing and brought this to Breezy's attention. Breezy said, "Oh well, we can sue them if we die or get seriously injured." That kid cracks me up, you never know what's going to come out of her mouth.

We were supposed to go home Monday morning. J scored some free tickets to Sea World, but they don't expire for awhile and everyone was exhausted/sunburned, so we decided to stick to the original plan. I had a lot of fun but I was ready to go home. So we left Monday morning and got home about 2:30. I took a nap and then cleaned my bathrooms in preparation for my bathroom remodel that would start the next day.

I also unpacked and found that my $6 giraffe is perfectly healthy.

I should have taken an extra day off work to recover. My sunburn still hurts and I'm trying to get through a mountain of laundry, and I'm tired after working a full day. But my bathrooms are partially torn apart and I had a wonderful vacation. I couldn't stop smiling today.

Bad Juju

My friend HP has had a string of bad luck.

Ridiculously bad luck.

There was a situation with pigeons roosting underneath the solar panels on their roof. And you can't just let pigeons poop on your roof. It's toxic. It seriously eats away the roofing material. So they had to get rid of the pigeons and have a barrier built....not cheap.

Her husband Justin's truck needed some expensive work done.

Her brand new car was hit in a parking lot and the driver didn't leave a note.

And then there is Sweetums.

This is Sweetums. A bulldog. Did you know that bulldogs aren't natural animals? They have to be artificially inseminated and then delivered by c-section. So they are not cheap dogs. But they have health problems - like bad hips - and are pretty dumb dogs. As HP has learned. Sweetums eats anything and everything, to include rocks. She needed an emergency vet visit a few months ago. Just recently, this is the text conversation I had with HP:

If you were having a bad day, does this make you feel better?

Baby Shower Gifts

My friend Nicki is having a baby girl.

I'm not doing any more baby blankets. Those things take months. Plus I don't think anyone uses them.

So I found some other little items to make her.

My sister Megan sent me the link for this bonnet. It was easy to whip up so I made another one to send to her, since she's a photographer.

J was a rather unwilling model. But doesn't he just look fetching?

This is a baby cocoon. If you have seen any baby pictures recently, you know that this is pretty popular. Nicki is in love with pink.

A baby elf hat. Another photo prop.

The only thing that isn't a photo prop. Some little bows. The one on the left is a lady bug. The one on the right is a butterfly.

I am cheap, so I re-use bags. I felt like this particular bag was appropriate. If you think about it, I think you will agree.

I also chipped in on a baby high chair, so I feel like I have done my duty as a friend.

I am so excited to have found a free pattern for a mermaid tail. It's for a six month old baby, so I haven't really gotten around to trying that pattern out....yet.

Surprise!

Finally! Someone is not getting turned into chicken noodle soup.

Yet.

I took this picture as a joke and texted it to HP and Deni (the people, not the chickens). The pointing is for HP, because that's what she does in photos, and like the good friend I am, I give her crap for it. I feel like this is a creepy picture with too intense pointing. But I also think you can feel my excitement.

I'm a little disappointed it's not green or blue. But I'll take it.

(Here is the story of the chickens and how they were named).

Palo Verde Family Day

My Dad works at the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant.

I'd tell you what he does there, but it's complicated. He tried to explain it to me once. Too many big words.

Their family day picnics are a-MAZE-ing!! They get the big grassy field at Glendale Community College and set up all sorts of fun things.

A padded fighting ring. As you can tell, my 15 year old nephew Matt had the advantage over my poor husband. He spent most of his time on the ground.

If you can see those large balls, you get in those and roll around. I didn't realize I was dizzy until I got out of the ball and staggered around a bit.

When I got to the top of that slide and it was time to go down, there was a little hesitation. It's a lot higher and scarier when you're actually up there!

Delicious, free treats. 

Delicious, free food. That came with a cookie.

More delicious, free treats. I definitely had a sugar crash later.

The jumping thing. I told Joseph I could do a backflip. He made me prove it. I am out of shape; I could only jump for about two minutes and then I had to get off.

Dano and Andrew. His two little kids had a great time.

He started out wearing a red shirt, but it was pretty warm outside.

Kristi and me.

Quite a few people went on this ride. It sounded like it started out fun, but the longer the people stayed on, the more they started moaning a bit. It spun you every which way, and you usually ended upside down.

Austin on the rock climbing wall.

There was a ton of other stuff. Little carnival games, bouncy houses, a rat race bouncy thing, a bull riding game, and other stuff. The lines weren't too bad, so you didn't have to wait forever, and we did a lot of stuff. It was a fun day.

I posted these pictures to Facebook and realized I didn't get one picture of my Dad. We were split up at times, but I'm still a little bummed. Maybe next time.