Paree

Sigh. Is the new Jules Verne restaurant not amazing?


I could settle for Vegas ...

Barbie

Look! Barbie shoes!


OK, now I really need to clean out the closet.

{edit: OK, now that I've confessed to buying these, I can post the funny story. I bought these after a failed Victoria's Secret shopping trip at the mall today with one of my coworkers. She kind of tried to talk me out of them - the heels are a little high (but not as high as the ones I was already wearing), where would I wear them, etc. After watching me shuffle up and down the aisle (they were attached with elastic), she said, "Well, are you going to buy them?" I tried really hard to find fault. They're not Xhilaration (remember the 80s/90s perfume?), so they don't immediately hurt. And now that they're sitting on my desk, they might just be too cute to wear.}

Bibuhlz

The Bible according to LOLCats.

I'm still laughing. Thank you, internet, for making getting dumber fun.

2008

Happy new year!! I can't believe it's 2008. As I'm nursing a ... ahem ... "headache," and the painful loss of my team at the Rose Bowl, here's 2007:

• Finished the first year of MBA school at USC. Ouch.
  
• Visited Alaska and Canada on my very first cruise.
  
• Andy's graduation (our third together!).
• Our parents meeting (and getting along wonderfully).
• One-year engagement anniversary and seeing Wicked at the Pantages.
• My grandmother's 80th birthday.
• A whole year as a cost accountant.

While most people are making their new year's resolutions, I'm pretty much figuring out what I have to do - not what I aspire to do! So instead of resolutions, I say go ahead and make your new year's action plan. My dad asked me today what my 5 year plan entails. I guess my 5 year plan is squished down in to about a year and a half, starting with 2008:

• Finish my MBA in December. Actually, I think that's a goal for everyone in my family!
  
• Really, finally, and for truly get my rear in gear for the wedding. That means a lot of things. But, I have my new Martha Stewart Wedding Planner loaded and ready to go (thank you Dan!!!). This means getting some save-the-date cards designed (because I'm just not quite happy with the existing options).
  
• Mexico for Thanksgiving. Sounds like a weird goal, but I can't think of a better way to spend those few days than laying on the beach and relaxing.
• Taking better care of myself, which is a multi-point action:
• Exercising. I get achy when I don't do yoga enough, and it's been almost 2 weeks now. I also want to beat a 30 minute 5k, and this year may as well be the year.
• Taking better care of my general appearance. I don't want to be super-skinny, I'd much rather look like the models in Fitness magazine.
  
• Also, using good products and putting some effort into my makeup. Wearing properly-sized heels instead of lazy flats. And purging my closet of old, cheap, icky, or not-flattering clothes while trying to get a couple of pennies out of them from Buffalo Exchange.
  

I'm feeling a little lethargic tonight, so I'll update with my current to-do list another day.

Potato

I have to admit, we spent plenty of time being couch potatoes. In total, we watched 9 movies, which should have us caught up from my past 5 months of isolation.

Start the Revolution Without Me: Eh. It had some funny-ish parts, but I fell asleep for about 20 minutes and when I woke up, it didn't seem like I missed anything.

300: Not bad, but not as funny as I expected. Basically way too gory, not enough really good parts, and the end was a bummer.

Waitress: Andy didn't want to watch this. I didn't want to watch this. But, I'm really glad I did. Sure it was really sad, and the whole movie was a predictable downer, but it's worth it, I think.

National Treasure: Saw it for the second time, and it was still just as good. I always like watching the previous movie before seeing the sequel.

Silver Streak: Everyone liked it but me. I thought the story was slow, and Gene Wilder is funny, not an action hero. Read the wiki and then just watch the last 45 minutes or so.

Superbad: Aptly named. Worse than expected. And worst of all, made me feel old because it's probably the next generation's American Pie. If so ... we are in a sad state of affairs, my friend.

National Treasure 2: Just as good as the first. Exciting and funny, though I could have done without the "waah, we broke up!" storyline.

The Fountain: Apparently a love-it or hate-it sort of thing. Beautiful to watch, but hard to get the storyline out. Too artsy-fartsy for me.

The Notebook: I'm not a fan of teenage girl romantic movies. I'm sure this one spawned hundreds of prom themes. I thought it was just an updated twist on the same tired story (and Andy agrees), but everyone else liked it. Which made my mom call me cynical. I prefer realistic.

Home

Yay, we're home again! We had a lovely little Christmas all over the midwest. I was very happy to throw out almost all of my gift receipts when we unpacked, and there's nothing I want to return. But more than anything I was happy to spend time with the biggest and best family ever!

We've spent the past week eating, drinking, shopping, and watching movies. A quick little rundown of the week:

Saturday: I got up around 4 a.m. for my shuttle to Ontario for my 9 a.m. flight. I was at the airport forever and my plane was even a little late. People were way too angry and cranky for that early in the morning. No issues except it was really, really cold when I got to Omaha. I got to see my future-in-laws beautiful new house, and my future-brother-in-law had some friends over that night.

Sunday: Crazy though it may be, we spent most of the day shopping for a few gifts. It was certainly an extensive Omaha tour. That night we wrapped gifts, had a fantastic dinner with some family friends, and I clobbered everyone in Scene It. Who would have thought? I haven't seen a movie in ages.

Monday: Andy's family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve, so this was our big day. Everyone came over and we had a big dinner together and opened gifts.

Tuesday: Christmas day we spent mostly relaxing around the house. We dropped Dan off at the airport, went to see some trains that welcome drivers in to Omaha, and Andy copied some cassette tapes to MP3 from when he and his brother were little. It was such a cute idea! They must have been adorable little kids.

Wednesday: Another early morning to the airport for St. Louis. And also pretty uneventful at the airport, since we were the first flight of the day and it was also a direct flight. Once we landed we had breakfast and I wrapped gifts - rather unfruitfully, because we turned right around and opened them. Since it was the day after Christmas we could go out to dinner also, then rented a stack of movies and relaxed at home.

Thursday: Shopped for new shoes almost all day. Andy bought a pair of walking shoes and I ended up with new boots to replace my broken heels. We went out for dinner and also went to see the lights at Tilles Park!

Friday: It took Andy days to fix my parents' computer and their incredible virus, but he did it. After we went out to the movies, we were supposed to take my parents out for dinner, but the wait was pretty long so instead we had spaghetti and meatballs at home.

Saturday: Went shopping with my mom to return a shirt and shopped around for shoes. Probably not the most productive shopping trip, but it was fun to get out. Afterward, we took my dad to the Lone Elk park, and Andy took a bunch of incredible pictures. We even saw a little buffalo family complete with baby buffalo! Then we made up for yesterday and had a nice dinner.

Sunday: Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6 a.m., and we got up early for the airport. Admittedly, we should have gotten there earlier. With all the construction, I'm never really sure how long it takes to get to the airport any more. But, Frontier was really the issue. They had only two people checking bags for a number of super-early flights, and they didn't realize they had about 30 people still waiting to get to Denver until 5:30. Even then, the security lines were the longest I've ever seen (I'm partial to a certain security line that has always been short before) and thankfully they let us on even though they had shut the jetway door. And, luckily, even though our plane was late for our super short layover, it was the same plane going to Orange County. After an hour long shuttle ride home and a complete tour of the Anaheim hotels surrounding Disneyland, we got home.