One Liners from Mom

I'm not sure what happened or maybe I do know but my mom is evolving in her age. Evolving how you ask? She is getting a sense of humor. Well a better one anyway. My dad called and invited us to lunch with them and my cousin. Alix and I won't turn down free food and it's more time to play "get to know Alix" for them. So we went to Olive Garden on Saturday afternoon for a late lunch.

We were all discussing what we were getting and even discussed appitizers. I mentioned getting the Fonduta to which my mom said, "that sounds like a fungus or a disease, I'll stick with the articoke dip." Okay for my mom that's funny.

So then a bit later she looks at my cousin and asks him what he had ordered within his sampler platter and he said chicken strips, fried ravoli's... to which she cut him off and very seriously looked at him and said, "who comes to an Italian resturant and orders chicken strips?" *cracks up* His reply was, "they're Italian chickens." Okay this is great stuff.

As we're eating salad the discussion once again comes up about my mom being in labor for 43 hours. Alright, I'm stubborn, it was warm I didn't want out, give me a break. We were talking about how old my parents were and Alix mentioned her dad was 70 which totally took my mom aback and then came up the discussion of Alix being adopted and how her parents were really her true mom and dad since she had been with them since she was 4 months old. My mom's reply to this, "ehh, that's alright being in the womb is overrated." *falls down laughing*

Nice mom... good stuff.

Coat 1 of the entire platter is now done... next coat 2, then some sponging then carving out the bricks... and then and then and then... u get the idea

Finishing up the trip and Updates of sorts



Well we landed at Stateline (Primm, NV) around 1:30am Wednesday night/well Thursday morning on March 12th/13th. We checked into our room and I had to do a little happy dance. It was an awesome drive over Hoover Dam at night, they are doing some major construction on it and it was neat to coast through there. We got to see Vegas from the other side and it was as beautiful as ever. It was a $150 cheaper to stay at stateline so we decided the extra 40 minutes was worth it and we could always drive back in if we wanted to. We woke up the next morning, grabbed some lunch and headed to Old Navy to do some shopping. We also decided to stay another night, neither one of us wanted to be back in the car even though it was only 4.5 hours till home. We deserved a break and it was only $24 to stay there a night. We shopped for about 3 hours in the mall, went back to the room and laid around the rest of the night. It was perfect. The next day we got up and packed, grabbed some breakfast, hit a couple of caches and hit the road. I don't think that drive has ever seemed so short to me. I barely felt like we were even in the car. 4.5 hours vs. 16 hours is huge. I was so happy to make that last trek down the Tehachapis and bring that girl home. We walked into our apartment and unloaded the car... we were finally home. *huge sigh*



The next couple of days were of us laying around, napping and getting groceries. Saturday I was hell bent on getting her a kitten, it's all she's talked about for months so we went out to the animal shelter, 2 Petsmarts, the SPCA and then to Petco where we found the little tiny grey kitten. Alix instantly fell in love with her so we adopted the kittenbaby. We shopped around the store and then picked her up when we were finished to take her home. She was very shy and scared. It took a few days and a lot of attention but now we can't keep her off of us and she is a spoiled baby. Her name is Ash... she is a petite smokey grey kitten. She fetches really well and has a pretty funny personality.

So Monday came too quickly and back to work I went. Not as bad as I thought but work is work and I'm lucky to have the job I have. Unfortunately, on Wednesday I got sick. I couldn't take any time off and just had to work through it. It just kept getting worse and worse... finally the pain was too much and no sore throat gets worse and worse unless something is wrong. I went to the doctor the following Monday to find I have strep throat. The doctor was surprised I could breath since my tonsils were basically touching, ewww. I had to get a shot and it sucked. Now 3 days later, I'm finally starting to feel a little better.

Last Saturday consisted of us going to Color Me Mine with friends so Alix could finish our rainbow mugs and work on our toothbrush holder. I worked on my platter a little more which is finally coming along. I'll take a pic of it soon to update it. Sunday we spent a nice Easter at my mom and dads. I was surprised that my parents came and sat outside with us and joined in on the conversation, it was really nice. I can tell my mom wants to get to know Alix better and that makes me happy. We're going to start having bowling nights again so we can hang out, I'm looking forward to it. My mom really wants to be apart of my life and I do too, its nice that she really does only care about my happiness :)

Alix seems to be settling into CA pretty well and her flip flops have probably never seen so much of the outside this consistantly. Usually the weather back East is still pretty cold and rainy, so she's enjoying all of the sun and being in shorts all of the time. I couldn't be any happier that she's here. Everything is fitting so nicely and that just makes my heart smile all the time.

Almost to Nevada... we welcome this eve :)

Just a whole lot of open road and beautiful skies. I'm saying New Mexico is where this was.

You could tell we had been on the road a long time... Alix's hat would get higher or shift from left to right. You know its bad when your hat gets restless. We were in Arkansas for this one.

That little bridge we crossed from Memphis, TN into Arkansas. It was pretty cool.

So a big part of this trip was also about trying new foods. I'm in areas I'll probably never be in again. These are fried pickle chips which I happily dipped in ranch. HOLY HELL THEY ROCKED! mmm They had a bit of spicy seasoning in them too. I would love to know how Miss Polly made these.

mmm... chicken and waffles with a side of mac n cheese. Damn those people in the south can cook.

Miss Polly's Soul Cafe - Love, Peace and Chicken Grease.

Welcome to Beale St. in Memphis, TN.

Had to stop by here briefly, didn't have time to take the tour but it was still pretty cool.

Okay this was offically the weirdest thing we saw in one of our millions of stops along the 40. It self heats... WTF???

Just after the sun set a little further down the road. Oh so pretty.

This is a Tenn. sunset... this pic doesn't do it justice...

This was a park in North Carolina that we decided to stretch our legs and find Alix's 1st cache. Dropped off some travel bugs and picked one up. It was fun :)

This is us driving down the i85 s in Virginia toward Durham. I decided this was a good time to unload the couple pics I had and blog from the road. Now I'm going to get back to Donkey Jungle, I have some bananas to grab and pegs to climb!

Here is a great view of Alix's childhood home. We got to spend 2 comfy nights here. Strong winds and sideways rain like we'd never have in CA. It was a wonderful sunny crisp day that said goodbye to Alix...

Just gotta love the shadows from all the trees, it really was a wonderful place to stay.

This is the view from Alix's old bedroom. Basically, she grew up in the woods. Its so very pretty and relaxing... the previous 2 pics are of the outside of the house.

This is the worlds largest dairy store. It's in CT where Alix grew up in Wilton. Its the cutest place ever with some of the most amazing foods. It's called Stew Leonards. This was the band that was playing above some of the dairy stuff. They have many acts but this was my favorite.

Getting ready to leave Phoenix... next stop, BOSTON, MA. :) Now I'm supposed to get some sleep HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

And the trip begins, here is my view outside of Bob Hope Burbank Airport. We board in about 40 minutes... here we goooooo :)