Friday, July 20, 2007

Random Thoughts For The Day

I wonder how many of my friends will make fun of me for rushing out and buying the new Harry Potter book on Saturday?

Why the hell are glue pens such a pain in the ass? I'm going back to my good old-fashioned Elmer's school glue.

It's amazing how far behind you can get on a message board when you don't read it for over a week.

What in the world is this about? My first instinct was Godzilla, but I guess that can't be right. (you can learn a bit more here)

I love Reeses Pieces.

I hope I'm able to find nail aprons at Wal-Mart in the morning.

Seriously, who would live in a pineapple under the sea? That's absurd.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

The White Stripes - Icky Thump

This is my newest song obsession. Jack White is a musical genius in my opinion. This song somehow sounds new and fresh and raw while at the same time reminding me of the acid rock sound made famous by such artists as Pink Floyd and The Doors.

Check it out, you may like it. You may not. Either way, it never hurts you to try something new.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

How I Spent My Vacation, pt. 1

Yay, I'm finally back from vacation! Did ya guys miss me? I missed the internet, my own bed, and a few things like that - but I'd really rather just be on a permanent vacation. However, I am so far behind reading all of the blogs I am addicted to that I don't know how I'll ever catch up.

But, who cares about any of that? Let's get to the good stuff. Now, some of you already know that the Disney World vacation was cancelled because with rising gas prices and other stuff going on, it just wasn't the smartest thing to do financially. So, my vacation was spent bumming around and doing whatever struck my fancy at the time. For example, my first day of vacation was Saturday, July 7 and I spent it with family and friends celebrating my cousin Sabrina's 30th birthday. She's a local celebrity in our small hometown because she was the only baby born (in that town) on 7/7/77 and she weighed 7 pounds and some odd ounces, there are 7 letters in her first name, blah, blah, blah. I could go on, but we all just get so sick of hearing about the wonderful Sabrina. Actually, I'm just joking - we all love Sabrina and she truly is wonderful. She's my favorite cousin, except for all of my other cousins who read this blog in which case they should know that they are actually my favorite.

Anywho, for Sabrina's b-day a huge group of us went to Hinode in Springfield and had an outrageously wonderful dinner. If you are not aware of it yet, Hinode is my absolute #1 favorite place to eat ever! I highly recommend you smother all of your food with their "shrimp sauce" because there is nothing better in this world. And the chefs are highly entertaining. Because there were so many of us, we had two table/grill combinations reserved and therefore we ended up with two chefs. One of their favorite tricks is to try and flip a piece of shrimp into a customers mouth. I've seen it done a million times and it's usually about 50/50 on whether the person actually catches the shrimp or just barely misses it. So, of course we all died laughing when Travis agreed to try and catch a piece and then didn't realize the chef had flipped it yet so that while he sat there with his mouth wide open the shrimp bounced off of his forehead before he ever even moved. After we all finished, we went back to Sabrina's house to have a little party in her honor.

On Monday, July 9th, I convinced my mother to call in to work with personal business and go on an adventure with me. I had been wanting to check out Grand Falls in Joplin for several months now. Somehow I have managed to live in this area my entire life and had only recently learned that this place even existed. But I didn't want to spend an hour drive time for that 1 activity, so I took the opportunity to show my niece and nephew, Jessica and Charlie, just how big Big Brutus really is. I had been there a few years ago, but I really enjoyed it and I knew the kids would too. It is located in Kansas, but not really very far from Joplin. Now I had an excuse to stop by and see the falls.

Plus, I knew that on my way to Big Brutus, I could easily swing through Webb City to see the Praying Hands statue that I had never managed to drive over and see. And to top it off, I have recently started becoming obsessed with Route 66 and I knew we would be close enough to Carthage that I could swing through town on the old highway and try to find the old bridge that I've heard so much about. We did not find the bridge (apparently there's more than one alignment of Route 66 through Carthage?), but Jessica idolizes me and consequently loves everything I love so she was excited to get to stop and eat at a joint on Route 66. Overall, we had a pretty awesome day. Below are quite a few pictures of everything, sorry if you are on dial-up.

Praying Hands - Webb City, Missouri.



Big Brutus - West Mineral, Kansas. Doesn't look so big, does it?


Jessica and Charlie in front of the left, front "crawler" (wheel).


The kids standing inside the bucket scoop.


Going up and inside the belly of the beast.


Boys love to play with big toys.


One last look from a distance.


Grand Falls in Joplin was beautiful.






Dead snake!


Playing in the water.


The falls trickle down through the surrounding rocks.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Just A Reminder

I just wanted to remind everyone that I am currently on my 11 day vacation and that is why there has been no activity here. The Disney World trip fell through and I decided to use my time for much cheaper activities, so once I get back to my own computer I will be posting several posts to catch you guys up with what I've been doing. Wednesday night I should be able to start blogging again, so be prepared for several long posts at the end of this coming week.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Playing Tag

A few days ago I was tagged with the latest internet meme that required me to share 8 things about myself that others may not know. Now that I have completed that obligation, I am passing the fun along to others. I am now officially tagging Scott at The Blarg and Lola from Life As Lola. Sorry guys, but I had to pick on the two of you. Have fun.

I would also like to tag Amy from GentleWhisper.com but I know she is currently on an adventure, and her life is crazy busy anyway. So, I will let it slide if she's too busy.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

I've Been Tagged

Louis, from Relevant To Me, has tagged me in a blog-tag game where I am supposed to reveal 8 things about myself you may not know.
So, here goes:

1. I am employeed by the hospital I was born in
2. In high school I was voted "most intelligent"
3. My middle name (Rose-Ann) is hyphenated because it is my mothers maiden name, followed by her first name
4. I have been interviewed on both radio and tv as a child; I have also been interviewed on both radio and tv as an adult
5. As a child, I fell and broke both bones in my left arm in two seperate places at the same time
6. I love to color and still occasionally buy coloring books for myself
7. I only wear silver jewelry, no gold
8. I love to drive, no matter where I am going

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Happy 4th of July

Here are a few firework pictures I took on Monday night at the Seligman celebration. Even though it's such a small, trashy little town they put on a really good fireworks display. This year my sister Wendy and her kids, my brother Chuck and his kids, my cousin Sabrina and her kids and my friend Bobbie and her kids all attended the event and we had a great time. The kids were in awe and I got to play with the "fireworks" setting on my Nikon Coolpix L1 digital camera. If only it were an SLR.




Sunday, July 01, 2007

Happy Birthday !

Today is my sister Wendy's birthday and I wanted to show you guys the cake I got for her. Last September, on this very blog, I posted a few pictures of the birthday cake that my friends Charlie and Rachael brought to me at work on my birthday. It was a cake that the multi-talented Rachael had made and decorated herself and it was AMAZING!

As Wendy's b-day approached, I decided to ask Rachael if she would be interested in making a cake that I could take to Wendy. She immediately said yes and since my family is all gathering at grandma's house tomorrow, I asked Rachael if she could deliver it to me on Saturday night. So, she just dropped it off with me at work (cake deliveries after midnight, awesome) and I had to take a picture of it. This cake is the bomb. It is absolutely adorable. When I first asked Rachael if she had time to make one for me, she asked me what I wanted it to look like. I told her I didn't really have any specific ideas in mind, but I told her my sister loves frogs.
So, she promised me she would find a design that everyone would love. And she did.

Behold the magic of the frog cake: