Tycoon Series

Most anyone who games has come across the Tycoon series, Zoo Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon... etc. Basically you get to design said "Zoo/Roller Coaster" any way you like and your goal is to make it successful. Enough food, employee's, bathrooms, exhibits... the list is really long. I can't believe this one exists... and there are actually 4 of them. They don't make these unless there is a demand for them, I don't even think Roller Coaster Tycoon got past 3...

Cri-kee...

Hanging Out

Tuesday night we got to hang out with the Courtney at her little house. I like going over there, I love her dogs. As I am of course partial to Goonie because she reminds me so much of Zoey. I do enjoy Mako. He really is turning into a cool dog.

We sat around eating Jack in the box and if you ever want to see 2 dogs act their bestest, give them curly fries... they turn into freakin' angels :) Watching the puppy antics and just sitting around chatting with Courtney reminds me of how lucky I am to be where I am in life.

I miss sitting around with the Framily but I'll take any moments I can with them together or apart.

DisneyLand!

My parents gave me a cool present this year... a trip for Lex and I to go to Disneyland. The small problem was she got sick around my birthday then I got sick, then she got sick again. :| So we got an I.O.U. and as soon as she had a day off and I had some down time at work, we were going to do it. So last Friday was the day!

I hauled it down there in 1hr and 45 minutes! woohoo Yay for the flow of traffic. I was so excited that I forgot to stop beforehand and buy us lunch... oops. Lex had oodles of luck and we decided she would make the decisions for the day. While we were in line a lady bug landed on her shoulder, we got through the ticket line fast and headed right over to Space Mountain. We walked almost all the way up to the top, moved a little, moved a little... stopped. Talking talking talking... still hadn't moved. DudeDisney comes out... says it's "broke down" but should be running in 15-20 minutes. *hold up buttercup* You want me to get on a ride that broke down? Lex then made the decision to move on... so we hopped out of line and headed to the next fierce ride: Alice in Wonderland :) About 5 minutes in we here "oh my God Lesbians!" Turn around and 2 gays were standing next to us. I giggled and said "yay family." One of them proceeded to show us his matching belt and wallet. He got them from Spencers, I'd like the wallet, it was cool. So we kept running into them in line and then saw them again next on Mr. Toads wild ride... then they gave us fast passes to space mountain but we opted to grab some food. Pizza and a hot dog later and we were off to Indiana Jones. I love this ride. At one point, I look over at Lex and she has the biggest kid smile on her face ever. We started to walk off and she said, "that is my favorite ride!" It was so cute, she really liked it and wanted to get on it again. We then trucked over the the Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Snow Whites scary adventure. I'm gonna pause here.

Snow White's Scary adventure is dumb. I'm sorry if you like it but WTH? I had never been on it and on our way back to the storybook cruise it had like zero line so we decided to go for it. It's all here's Snow White, here's the dwarfs, here's the queen... then gets creepier and scarier and then the witch is trying to give me a poison apple *chants* doom and gloom - doom and gloom... then the door open... and a big story book is in front of you and says "and they lived happily ever after." WHAT? A witch tries to give me a poison apple and then they live happlily ever after... did I miss a turn or two on the cart? Fix it Disney, fix it now.

Alright, *sits up straight* so then it gets fuzzy but we got a shit ton of rides; Storybook Cruise, Small World, Star Tours, Buzz Light Year (I highly recommend this one - I want all the framily to go and we have a contest for high scores), back to Pirates (while grabbing a fast pass to Indiana Jones), to Haunted Mansion, finishing with Indiana Jones and then shopping :)

I got some cool pins and we had lots of fun. I might have missed some rides? So we got in the park around noon and left at Midnight! My foot was killing me but it was so worth it.

Polly had my arm pinned down, so I was forced to lay there and play animal crossing a little longer. :)

WOOHOO!

For chu!

This is my new frog friend. He's keeping me company at work. Oh yeah. I'm that tired. *pops a skittle in my mouth*

Earth's Sense of Humor

Happy Earth Day.

"Take it and make it your own."

Bunnies Down a Hole and Commissions

So I have some FANTASTIC COOKBOOKS, more dessert than not. I wanted to take on the Easter dessert, enter Bunnies Down a Hole. These were wicked fun and simple.

Plain Cupcakes, the dark ones have whipped chocolate frosting and then rolled in oreos.

Close up of the grass, 2 tone green grass :)

Finished product. Eggs in the grass and the bunnies going down the rabbit holes.

Close up of each type of cupcake. Pretty nifty.

So after posting these, a friend asked if I would do her daughters 1st birthday cake... whoa! How exciting, we're still discussing and it's not definite but just to be asked is pretty cool in my head.
Then, while playing with some new AC friends in NH, also big Red Sox Fans, they want to pay for a copy of my b&w brick wall photo I took at Fenway Park. He also wants to pay me to design a tattoo... um OKAY! I had a pretty rockin' day yesterday to say the least :)

Sometimes friends roll over...

So in a previous blog you might remember reading about Courtney's mid-life crisis? Her super cool jeep that we got to liberate bouncy balls in... yeah that one. Well jokingly her girlfriend, the Patty, had a new saying "I have a roll bar and I know how to use it." I now believe that Courtney took this too literally.

Poor friend... but as you look at these pics, just know that she is fine. Sore as all hell and a cut on her wrist but okay thankfully.

Looking toward the new East...


When I used to look toward the East I thought of Las Vegas. It's hard not to. I've been there so many times... for so many things. A lot of major life events for me have occurred in Vegas. *scratches head* in fact the more I think about it, the MORE that place holds some serious memories. Now when I look that way my mind wanders as fast as my eyes blink to the East coast and the waters that touch Boston, Mass. I don't know why but I have a longing for that place. No it's not just for Fenway Park. Something about that place feels like I have this uncontrollable pull. Alix is here now so I really can't pinpoint it... yet. I'll get there, I always do. I'm just slower some days then others.

Polly nuzzles in my blanket... she's a little chilly.

*waves* Here I am...

Alright, so I took 2 months off the blog. Why you ask? My answer: I have no idea. I've had SOOO many things to write about. There was make your own pizza and Repo! night, Valentines day, Alix got sick, my birthday, then I got sick, rugrat softball, big kid softball, a lot of video gaming, work is slowed down, upcoming artsy stuff, Courtney gets a Mid Life Crisis er... I mean Jeep, Bouncy Ball Liberation, Alix is sick again and a whole lot of other stuff. So here we go.

Well I'm sitting here at work with nothing to do, day 7. Oh yeah, you read that right, I've had no work for 7 days. I know people like these low gas prices but truth be told, that's my job. I'm not saying I want it at $3.65. Not even a little, all I ask is $2.49 that's enough to keep steady work and not so hard on the consumer. I'll also be the first to say that oil companies are doing fine, the problem there is they aren't skyrocketing like they got adjusted to. So instead of $3.5 billion in excess, they may only pull in $1.7 million. Oh damn, how ever will they make it?

I can ramble oil for awhile but that's not what I really want to talk about. I've been in a weird kind of funk too. I guess I didn't want to sit at this screen and write because I was afraid of what I'd write or how it would come out. I don't want a pitty party but this is MY way of getting things out and I don't necessarily need a "fix" per say just somewhere to get my feelings out. So I decided to keep them in and that hasn't gone so well. Not at all. So I'm back.

We're getting more creative with food. I'm in the process of making it a little more healthy. This may take some time, as I do know a good amount of dishes that are well rounded, I really need to expand my selection. We do enjoy making pizza's with whole wheat dough. Although the night Courtney came to hang out we used store bought, ready made crusts. That was a fun night, we watched Repo! The Genetic Opera. LOVE IT! It's weird, it's different, it's a lot of singing and it makes you want to sing instead of talk. Definitely not one for the kiddies, it's crass, very bloody but still funny. You'd have to watch it to know what I'm talking about.

On the Happy Heart Day. It was kinda funny, we thought we'd be funny and slick and go for a late lunch instead of trying to fight the masses for dinner. We pulled in around 3:30pm and it was full but we didn't think it was that bad. Basically, our late lunch turned into dinner. We were seated a little before 5:pm. It was super good though. YAY FOR US :) and Olive Garden, mmm breadsticks.

With it being only 2 weeks till my birthday my parents offered to pay for Alix to get into Disneyland, a hotel and such for my birthday present. YAY!!! I've been wanting to go for awhile and Alix has never been to Disney California. Small problem, Alix got sick. Guess it was bound to happen, everyone is sick and she works in retail. If people would just stay home when they were sick, it would really keep the epidemics of colds down to a minimum. So it took her a few weeks and a nasty cough but she got all better.

The nice thing about having all that time off, my body thought it was my turn to get sick. I just got a little head cold for 2 days and took a long weekend to get all better. I stayed on the couch and played a lot of Animal Crossing. Then... as I was better, Alix caught it again... she's still recovering but it's definitely not as bad as the last one. I think someone needs some vitamins.

My birthday was pretty low key. We went out to dinner and our very good friend Patty was able to join us at Outback after dropping off some meds for her job. :) Patty is an amazing and sweet girl. She is the Reapers Right Hand Girl and that may sound dark but she helps put the dying at ease and that takes a remarkable kind of person... this is our Patty.

Another friend of ours has decided to take on the task of coaching. Now my idea of coaching is much different than most. I put my heart and soul in it. I still breath it, there is no denying that. She is taking on a new beast... 8 year olds lol If you've never coached little ones, do it. You'll know really fast if you were truly ever suppose to be a coach or not. Kids keep it real, they keep it simple and above all, they are honest. The best part? They L-I-S-T-E-N. After coaching high school girls, that is a huge deal. I enjoy the rugrats, especially the twins. They don't have a lick of talent but they are learning (getting better) and they give it their all and I love that!

Since Lex has moved here, she has been adjusting slowly and quite well. She dives right in with me with whatever venture I have ahead of me. She talks about how she misses softball and wishes she could play. An opportunity arrose and she got on a team :) I'm glad she likes it so much and for the first time ever, I'm sitting on the sidelines rooting for her. No competition, just good ol' "for the love of the game" softball. It's great :)

Animal Crossing is a HUGE staple in our lives. Who knew one could get so obsessed with such a simple (but not really) game. I can kill 5 hours on that game just rearraning flowers and making patterns alone. We keep meeting more and more cool ass people. On an interesting sidebar: the amount of liberal Animal Crossing people out there is amazing and very comforting. This is more a kid/family type game and "sometimes" people can be... well, not so liberal. 'nuff said.

So I've upped the antie on my art. I got really lazy... about everything, not just art. I grabbed some pieces to recycle into art for a Green Arts Show. I've recruited my HB and we've got a booth at a show called Divine Fusion this weekend and I want to enter some pieces in a "Roots" show in 2 weeks. Alright, that may seem a little ambitious but it's completely doable. I'll actually post pics as I finish pieces and in process shots. Actually I can do that later, I have some befores of the spider web infested table for the green arts show. Yummy.

Courtney. I love her dearly. She is awesome! And apparently is having a Mid-Lesbian Crisis. It's cute really. Her silver jeep. It has the big chuncky tires and is simply great. The Patty even loves it and apparently likes to steal it on occasion :) A couple Fridays okay, my HB asked if we could borrow said Jeep for a little bouncy ball liberation. What is that you ask? WHAT?! You don't know the joy of bouncy ball liberation? Well you get x amount of people (more is better), grab a huge ass bag or two of bouncy balls and head out. Well with an open top jeep or sun roof is best. Drive down the road and launch away. Targets are fun, you have to figure out wind and speed but it all goes with the challenge. I enjoy aiming for hotel pools personally. Or the back of trucks with open beds. Lex & Denise enjoyed patios full of people drinking but everyone has something :) So after about 2 hours of that around midnight, we called it a night. Oddly enough, 2 days later is when Lex got sick again :(

So that's the super condenesed soup version. I know I left out some other cool stuff but you get the idea. I WILL keep up this time. Sorry readers :)