Pistachio Time!

Against the principles of both Dawne and Lucas, we all went to the new Wal-Mart that opened ten minutes from the house. 

Lucas: I'm pretty sure this used be wetlands.

Me: No, there was a K-Mart here before this. 

Lucas: K-MARSH you mean. 

My dad called last week and left a message that said, "Your mother is accusing me of eating a year old dessert and I want it stated for the record that I did NOT eat a year old dessert."  And then he hung up.  When I asked him about it later, he said he made my Tiramasu coffee and my mom knew that they hadn't bought any dessert recently.  I'd defend his honor, but he DID eat 15 year old Matzo bread not too long ago.

I went to meet up with Amy for some pottery painting.  I made a water bowl for Percy that he seriously loved.  (He likes to play with his water, especially if there's a design on the bottom).  We also caught up on some of our TV:

Lucas: We're about to watch the Mindy Project... and you know what that means?  Pistachio commercial!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5hI8q4JECI

Mindy Project Character: I use head and shoulders exclusively.

Lucas: What kind of product placement is that?

Me: Would it be better if they were eating Pistachio's in the shower?

The start of "Intern Season" has begun.  For me, that means that 4-6 interns will be moving into the compound for the summer.  Jati, a new face (originally from Singapore) arrived on Thursday.  He's super interesting and engaging - and excited to be working with my cousin.  I almost wanted to do anything I could to keep the expectations low so that he wasn't inadvertently disappointed.  My attempts were futile as two days later, he had not met Jordan yet and said to me, "I'm really nervous about meeting him." I told him he REALLY shouldn't be - so that should work.  No pressure Jordan! Cassidy was also back for another year and arrived on Saturday night.  I hope she isn't caught up on Game of Thrones because I'm excited to have my GoT buddy back.

Lucas was playing his guitar the other morning (shocking). 

Dawne: What happened (pointing to a dent in his acoustic guitar).

Lucas: Life happened, mama.

Dawne: Do you remember the exact life that happened?

Lucas: If you spend your time remembering, you don't have time to LIVE!

Me: I need your help for 5 minutes to carry up my new box spring.

Zach: Okay, I need your help writing this paper.

(After 3 hours working on the paper, finishing it just before it was due at 11PM)

Zach: Thanks! Enjoy that box spring!

Me: I feel like I got the short end of these deal. 

Zach: Totally.  But you knew that before we started.

Saturday, morning was kinda lazy.  We drank coffee and watch The Lion King.  While Zach and Lucas taunted me with how incredible the 3D version of the movie was.

Lucas: The 3D version was so awesome, actually. Orgasmic.

Zach:  For some reason I don't think they are going to use that for any magazine quotes.

It was also gorgeous out.  I got to have the top down on Stella as we went with the pups to Norm's for Lunch.  Then I brushed off my eBay account to unload some items in preparation for moving.  Diana and Jason stopped by for a nice visit and a jump in the pool.  Mr. Splish-Splash discovered that the pool has a step and jump in and out of the pool playing in the water:

Then we grabbed some dinner and met Marc and Lynn for an evening of The Great Gatsby. 

Marc: Ugh.  I hate the "First Looks."

Me: What would you rather have?

Marc: ANYTHING.  They are torturing a captive audience.

Me: I kinda like them.  I miss commercials sometimes. 

(Five Minutes Late)

Me: Alright, that was a little much.  They just showed us a "Making of" video on a commercial for a Window's phone.

Lucas: Yeah, and the basic message is if you don't have an iPhone, you aren't getting invited to the party. 

After the movie, over coffee:

Dawne: That one thing with the dome, that sounded really interesting.

Jordan: OH! You mean the television show.

Me (looking at Marc): That was shown during the "First Look."

Before I forget, Lucas walked out of the movie enraged over what they did to the book.  He was re-enacting a similar tirade that I had when I walked out of the Romeo and Juliet movie.  It's nice to see that Baz Luhrmann's still got it!

Sunday, I got up early with Percy, cleaned the kitchen and called my mom while sitting outside enjoying a cup of coffee.  The other pup's let Dawne sleep in, but when she did get up I was ready and waiting to make everyone eggs and pancakes.  The rest of the day included Laser Tag and Laser Quest in Federal Way, a Starbucks lunch, painting pottery,  dinner at MOD pizza, then to Half-Price books to pick up a copy of Aladdin (Lucas and I are trying to get our Disney on in preparation for Disneyland.  We're looking to watch The Little Princess this week if anyone has a copy we could borrow) and then home to watch Aladdin while Lucas and Dawne made cookies for a math project. 

Lucas was testing out Siri in the car on the way to Laser Tag:

Lucas: What is the square root of fi?

Lucas: What is the Fibonacci sequence?

And when Siri couldn't help with either of these questions

Lucas: I wish you were better at math siri.

Me: Why don't you ask Siri that question the girl asked in class?

Lucas: Why do we feel earthquakes on an island?

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderfully amazing mother's out there.  Happy Belated Birthday to Frita who celebrated -- years yesterday! And a very Happy Birthday to Debina, Mo, and Kyle today!

Also, if you haven't already, it would be amazing if you could support my cousin's kickstarter: 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/781219801/roll-for-it

Breakfast At Tiffany's

I did Yoga once in college, and afterwards, my friend told me to never ever do it again.  Ten years later, I decided to jump right into Hot Yoga, not just beginner's Hot Yoga, but POWER Yoga, with a really difficult instructor.  The office has been on a health kick, and I though, hey, I can handle one hour during lunch.  I probably should have hydrated beforehand, because I didn't sweat all that much, and I felt a little dizzy and nauseous.  The good news is I stayed the whole time, and did at least 30% of the workout.  There were some sweaty folks around me which reminded me of this:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/2597736393.html

My friend bought her fiancé a book on sex positions as a gift for their wedding night. Sort of funny but also possibly informative! On Wednesday morning, as she was taking it out of her purse and rushing out the door to work, she set it on her dining table & thought, "Good thing my mom isn't coming over because she doesn't need so see that her sweet daughter has a book called the bible of sex positions."  Fast forward.... Her mom calls and wants to know if she can let herself into my friend's house to drop off her new version of her will and leave it on the dining table for my friend (never mind the fact that they were going to dinner together!) She said sure and then when she got home she saw this:

Still giggling and dying of embarrassment, my friend calls her mom and explains the book.  Her mother responded with, "Oh! I just saw the word bible and thought it was cool that you were reading it!"

I asked some friends if they had an old Razor phone (from AT&T) for my uncle.  These are the helpful responses that I received:

Laina: I don't.  I was never razor cool.  I was kickin' it with a blackberry.

Rach: My dad is still using it for his primary means of communication.

Laina: Wasn't it RAZR?

Shana: I have a pink Verizon one.  Soooo sad that it's not AT&T, since the image of Ray with a pink phone pleases me.

Shane: I had a Nokia and taped a Gillette razor to it... it wasn't as slick but I would have every time I answered the phone.

Jen: And keeping it in your front pocket kept you thoroughly man-scaped.

Shana: I would leave it on vibrate with for that... It's the same way we circumcised Fynn.

Jen: Oh man I miss you Shane.  And the way you leap over that line. 

Shana: Pole vault more like it! (With style and grace.)

This quickly led to making plans for a monthly brunch and Jen volunteering me to host the first occasion.  And Laina warning us that She and Mo might not be able to make it because he was just getting back form training. 

Jen:  Laina, when does Mo come home?  Do you plan on having trouble walking that day?

Laina:

25 minutes later

Jen: Really? Infant circumcision by cellphone razor and *this* is what clears the room?  For shame.

Laina: Sorry Jen - we've all been on a new thread talking about a parenting intervention with Shane & Cathy.  I'll add you now.  But to bring you up to speed, it'll happen at one of our brunches. 

Meanwhile, I was doing a practice SAT essay with Lucas, and not feeling any better about my essay writing skills. 

Later I received this text from Dr. Rach:

This just happened:

Rach: Ok, I'm officially putting it on my calendar for Sunday... Brunch at Tiff's

Anders:  Don't you mean Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Oddly enough, I did think about writing "Brunch at Tiffany's" but then remembered that was a pornographic film that was available at Video Source where I worked in high school.  Still, clearly a missed opportunity. 

On Thursday, I went to Happy Hour with some folks from work with surprise guests, Dr. Rach and Becky.  When we went to pay our bills, I just grabbed Rach's check as well so that I could use my card.  In turn, Dr. Rach fished some change out of her wallet and handed it to me.  I dropped one of the penny's on the floor and it landed heads down.  I then said, far too loudly, "I'll just put this bad luck penny in Tip Jar."  This was promptly followed by adding good luck money to make up for it. 

After Happy Hour, Becky and I went to The Moth in the basement of the Fremont Abby.  We both thought the MC reminded us of a mutual friend and started talking about the last time we had seen her. 

Me: Yeah, that was the time I went to their house and ended up hanging out with the little kids the whole time. 

Becky: You were probably happier.

Me: That's true.  They get me. 

Becky went to this book club event with some co-workers in which you walk around carrying a book, and then go up to strangers and talk to them about the book you read.  The first time she went to the event, she brought a book with a cat on the cover.  She had such a good time that she decided she would bring a Bible to the following meeting.  She could carry it proudly saying, "Have you ever heard of this one?  It's a real best seller.  You might have heard of some of the characters.  Moses? Jesus?  Seriously, you're going to love it." 

If you have never heard of The Moth, it's an event where people go up on stage and tell a story on a particular subject.  On Thursday, the subject was Envy.  It was pretty funny. 

My favorite story was about a guy who grew up dirt poor and didn't have any friends.  His parents made some shady trades and he ended up with a trombone that he played until he was awesome.  Then, in 9th grade, for the very first time, he was invited to hang out at a friend's house.  Ben played the guitar so they were going to jam together.  When he arrived, Ben told him that he could go into the pantry and get a snack.  He had never had a pantry, never mind an abundance of snacks to choose from.  When he went into the closet and saw a giant box of chewy granola bars with the delicious chocolate chips he thought to himself, "F-- Ben and his box of granola bars!" and proceeded to eat an entire Costco sized box of chewy bars.   Was never invited back after that.

Saturday the weather continued to be gorgeous so Dr. Rach and I went on a hike.  We brought Zach, his two friends, and the three dogs.  Given that I am extremely out of shape, I was very happy to have the dogs as an excuse to why I was going so slowly.  I still felt bad that I was hold everyone up, but was also feeling a little nauseous, so I didn't speed up either.  I wonder if Dr. Rach will ask me to go on a hike again?  :P  We were pretty sleep when we got back (not having lunch might have also contributed to our fatigue.)  I gathered my last bits of energy to go to the grocery store but could not, would not, go to Costco like I had planned.  By 8PM, I climbed into bed and fell asleep until 5 the next morning when Percy was ready to get up and play again. 

Oh! Percy lost another tooth.  Here it is hanging out to its side before Percy would eventually just swallow it. 

 

I missed Kyle's First Holy Communion, and I was feeling terrible about it.  I called him to see how the party was going and I heard a lot of "Why don't you love Kyle as much as your other nieces and nephews!?"  Way to make me feel terrible guys!  Here's a picture of the handsome guy:

Sunday, the previously mentioned brunch commenced.  I only freaked out once, after everything was completely ready and didn't know how to proceed after that.  I think, all in all, it went well.  After everyone filled up, we headed down to the pool and then the boat because it was that lovely out.  I commented on how coordinated Jen and her two daughters were in their purple bathing suits and purple outfits. 

Me: Do you just always buy purple for everyone so that you always match?

Jen: This was completely a coincidence.

Lucas: I always buy red, white and blue. I love America. Yes, I realize it is also the colors of lesser nations like Great Britain and France.  

Lucas also told the people in the pool his desire to name his children Clifford and Pashmina Shaw (Cliff and Pasha for short.)

Dawne: I like how your wife has no say in this.

Lucas: No, she'll come to me and say "I want children named Clifford and Pashmina Shaw."

Michelle: And that's how he'll know that she's the one.

Dawne: I'm surprised that Ashley said she doesn't want her own kids, she just wants to take care of someone else's.

Ashley: I just don't want to have the baby.

Lucas: You can only truly appreciate through the pain.

Michelle: Spoken from someone with experience.

I'm not going to lie, I could have fallen asleep at 8 again on Sunday, but instead, we went to see Iron Man 3.  Maybe my expectations are low, but I thought it was a delight.  On our way in, we were talking about a song from the 20's that was about a wonderful world etc, and Lucas said, "Little did they know a year later the stock market would crash."  That's when I felt like he jinxed us all, and I wanted to make a note of it for posterity. 

Jolly Rancher Teeth

Laina, Dr. Rach and I went to see Jersey Boys on Tuesday evening.  It’s the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.  When I told a co-worker that fact the next day he said, “who?” Naturally, I started singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Late December (back in 63)” but he still didn’t know what I was talking about.  And I’m still flabbergasted about this exchange. 

At work, they are doing a “biggest loser” challenge.  On day one, someone brought in 5 dozen bagels to sabotage the other contestants.  I thought this was funny, but even funnier was the outrage on the part of everyone participating.  The following day he brought in ‘Mea Culpa Cupcakes’ and ‘Oops! I Fudged up brownies’ as an “apology” for the bagels.  I don’t know who this guy is, but I like the cut of his jib.  J

Lucas: I was wondering when you came to pick me up if you could bring a pair of pants and a shirt for me. 

Me: WHAT!?

Lucas: I was wonder...

Me: No, I heard you I was just being a jerk.  Do you care which clothes I bring?

Lucas: Preferably from the bin of clean clothes not something dirty off the floor. 

Me: Okay, fine. 

Co-worker: I’m slowly accruing a nice emergency kit over here at my desk.

Me: In an emergency, you’re going to need a cup full of Jolly Ranchers?

Co-worker: Oh those aren’t for me – those are for Ryan.  That’s actually why he had to go to the dentist today. 

On Wednesday, Percy peed on my bed first thing in the morning.  After I ran the dogs outside, I grabbed all of my sheets and bedding and put them in the wash.  Then I brushed my teeth and went to grab my phone only to realize I had thrown it into the wash with my bedding.  I ran over to stop the washing machine (it had been running for 4 minutes) and found in the center of my comforter my phone… and I wiped off some suds and…  IT STILL TURNED ON!! Yay!

Thursday night I discovered the awesomeness that is the Mindy Project and continued to enjoy this delightful show for the rest of the weekend.  Here are some of the reasons why:

Danny: I can't believe you're tattling. She's tattling.

Mindy: Uh, tattling is when a little girl does it. When a hot woman does it, it's called "whistle-blowing."

Mindy: It's like if Hermione liked Voldemort.
Shauna: I don't know those words.

Danny: You're the lady that says she'll have what she's having.
Mindy: I'm Rob Reiner's mother?

 On Friday, Lucas, Jordan, Zach and I went to see the Quest: Fantasy Exhibit opening at the EMP.  Lucas did NOT like that when we were walking up to the EMP and I saw a huge line, I said, “Wow! I did not expect a line to get in.”  Nor did he enjoy when we got into the museum that I said, “This is like geek central!”  I’d feel bad, but both statements were true.  I got my free Magic pack on my way in before seeing a demonstration of how to fight with a sword while wearing full chainmail armor.  Then you could take a picture on the Game of Thrones throne before going into the exhibit itself.  Bonus coolness, Dawne had suggested they build a tunnel feature (because Dawne is cool enough to have museums like the EMP ask for her advice on design) and they totally took her advice!  I was also very excited that after we left the EMP, it was still nice out and were able to eat outside at 8:30PM.  Then Dawne and Aunt Pat came back from their cruise!  Happy faces all around!  

On Saturday, (after I changed my oil even though my uncle said I didn’t need to) we took a trip down to the south center mall.   I don’t know what it about going to a new mall/restaurant that makes me feel like I’m on vacation, but it’s awesome.  Later that night we all went over to Uncle’s Games to support Zach’s new position by playing a game called “Mystery of the Abby” that was kind of a cross between Clue and Guess Who.  I didn’t win, and I still like it, so that’s saying something.  J

Sunday, despite the rain, we took the dogs to the park and then gave them all bathes.  Lucas and I did three practice SAT essays.

Me: I used to ROCK at those essays, but now not so much.  It was 15 years ago, though.   

Lucas: Yeah, that’s only two less than I’ve been alive, so it’s okay that you are a little out of practice. 

I also did some work, watched more Mindy Project and convinced Jordan that we needed to get Little Caesar’s Pizza for dinner because Luke and I had never had it.  (Those Hulu commercials DO work!)

Gnar Gnar

Last week was still pretty gross, but on Thursday, I met up with Becky for lunch and things finally started looking better, then I had  set back when I was forced to give Casper another bath Thursday night (YUCKS), but then finally on Friday everyone started feeling better and it was a lovely weekend.  So YAY!

I thought "Gnarly" was a good thing in the way that "Sick" and "BA" are good things.  So imagine my confusion when Lucas came home, pointed at a hole in his pants and said, "Check out my Gnar Gnar!"

Me: Did you already have a hole in those pants?

Lucas: Those were different.  This is new.  Look inside! It's a huge gnar gnar. 

Me: As in Gnarly? I thought that was a good thing.

Lucas: No, I mean yes, I can be, but this is Gnarly in the gross you just scraped yourself up in a skateboarding accident. 

Me: Oh man! Don't let Percy lick it!

Lucas:  It's okay.  That's his natural instinct, to clean the wound. 

On a different day:

Me: Was your phone "blowing up."

Lucas: What does THAT mean?

Me: You know what your phone is constantly ringing or getting text messages from someone?

Lucas: I've never heard that before. 

Me: Really? I think that's a pretty recent term - does this mean I'm still culturally "with it" even if I didn't know what gnar gnar meant?

Becky posted this picture of her cat with the note: It's unfortunate how adorable he is when he sleeps, because then I want to just rub my face in his belly and apparently he does not appreciate being woken that way...

Which goes perfectly with my picture of Percy saying, Aw ma! No pictures this early in the morning!

Me: I took a nap today and dreamt that I woke up to 2 feet of snow and the doors had opened and my room was completely covered in snow too.  I looked it up and this either means that I am burying my emotions or a clean slate.  I hope it's the clean slate.

Lucas: You're never burying your emotions. You're actually quite vocal.

On Saturday night we were "tearin' it up at crossroads mall" which to anyone who isn't familiar is more like a food court with some stores around it.   Jordan, Lucas, Becky, Jared and I went to game night at Uncle's Games now that Zach is the new event coordinator.  We played a couple of games, one of which I did not care for at all, but not enough that I'll publically slam it.  :) When we were finished playing and putting games together...

Me: Wait! If I leave this hear, won't Zach have to clean it up?

Zach: What?

Me: Nothing, I cleaned up the game.

Lucas: Don't worry.  I hid one piece where you'll never find it.

Me: And he's not telling you which game it was from.

Sunday night we got pizza at Guido's (not Uncle Ray though because he doesn't know WHO would order Italian style pizza. Um? Well, WE would Uncle Ray.  We are, actually.)  Then we took a little walk before going to see 42.  I am such a sucker for a sport related movies!

Lucas: Jackie Robinson wasn't very controversial.

Jordan: What? The whole story was him breaking social rules of baseball!

Lucas: Oh no sure, but you know how Babe Ruth was drinking and all over the place.

Me: So what you're saying is he was a wonderfully civilized gentleman and that made him...

Lucas: ... a little boring.  Yes. 

:)

Retro-update (AKA if you don't have anything nice to say....)

The only “News” I have for this week I guess is that Percy got neutered, Shorty (the ten pound Dachshund) has returned with my Uncle Ray and I watched a lot of the Office.

Percy with the cone of shame. Actually, it’s more like a deluxe pillow, because nothing but the best for my pup (I don’t think he appreciate it though.)

The vet told me I had to keep Percy calm with no activity.   Then they brought him out and he did his normal spazz out happy craze while I tried to hold him. 

Vet:  Whoa.  We’ve never seen a dog get that excited.

Me: What did you say about calm again?

Vet: Yeah, good luck with that.

Then I brought him home and the Fed Ex guy came to the door.  Percy, who has never done this ever, ran after the fed ex guy, wouldn’t listen to me, all the way up onto the main parkway.  I had to run in the middle of the road and stop a civic so that I could catch Percy and bring him back in.  I was not having “good luck with that.” 

On Sunday:

Me: Great. It’s raining and it’s sunny so we’re going to get a rainbow and even that won’t cheer me up.

Lucas: Look!  The rainbow!

Me: Ooooh it is beautiful.  Nope, I’m still miserable. 

I don’t have ANYTHING good to say this week because the reality is for the last 6 days I have been cleaning up dog vomit and diarrhea from Percy, Casper and Nala - all while having an ear infection myself.  As I assume no one wants me to go into the details of that, I have decided to go back into my way back machine and re-send some pre-blog stories.  

Originally Sent: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 09:55:39 -0800
Subject: Iron Chef Competition

So. here is your weekly dose of Tiffany.  J This is better than a blog!  Last weekend we decided to have an "Iron Chef" party for Jordan.  It was very last minute, and instead of food, we settled for a birthday cake making contest.  There were 3 teams of 4 which were selected using the soccer team selection method.  I had last pick-and thus I choose Dawne for her artistic ability, Heinz for his engineering skills-and well, Johnny was last pick.  We did a round robin selection of supplies-and after I loaded up with 10 cake mixes and as much frosting as possible-we headed down to our selected kitchen.  I gave my team a pep talk after shouting "START COOKING EVERYTHING!"  I discussed that I had chosen my team for a cake that looked amazing-that none of us could cook, let's just admit defeat in that particular category.  But could we make an amazing looking cake? YES! And by God were we going to do it!   I started throwing out Ideas of the statue of liberty (but as we failed in getting the pickles off the table that was going to be difficult) and got ideas back of volcanoes and pyramids-but I thought those weren't challenging enough.  I had ten boxes of cake mix and a bag of powdered sugar… the world was at our fingertips!   Finally Dawne suggested a naked woman would surely make the birthday boys (Jordan and Zach) happy.  But I didn't want it lying down---I wanted up right.  Sweet, sweet, Dawne, who is always trying to help me out, ran and got her mannequin that she used for shows-and I suggested we build a skirt cake, and decorate the mannequin with peach colored frosting and we could use strawberries for nipples. Oh it was going to be LOVELY!  While it took the other teams only a half an hour to bake their cakes, it took us over an hour (even with two ovens).  The other teams were peering into the house looking for clues of our cake but we didn't give anything away.  When we reconvened at the main house to play Pictionary and let the cakes cool-I was prepared for at least an hour and 15 minutes to decorate. but ALAS!  We would only have 30 minutes.  Dawne and I sprinted out the door and down the stairs.  She started throwing brownie at me as I tried to even out the bottom of the dish where the block of wood connected to a metal pole, and then finally would attach to the mannequin.  I thought this evening was key, but as the engineering and well… Johnny department had abandoned us. I lost focus on what seemed less important (a flat surface) and focused on making more icing.  (Erika had told me that icing=glue and what can't glue fix?)  Dawne proceeded to add layers until it came to the bunt cake, the key to it all.  Johnny had forgotten to flour the pan!  Dawne didn't know how to take out a bunt cake.  I wasn't paying attention.  Whatever the reason, it started to fall apart.  I didn't panic.  I grabbed a candy necklace, wrapped it around the bunt cake to secure it.  I refused to lose hope.  Even after the cake started drooping to one side (damn the block of wood) I refused to give up.  I quickly shoved a wooden spoon up against the side to hold it up (we could always cover it all with frosting.)  At this point Dawne and I are on the floor (well so was the cake in order to shield it from wandering eyes) covered in icing, laughing so hard we almost peed ourselves as I kept trying hopelessly to remedy the situation.  I had a whip cream and pudding concoction that I was positive could cover up everything and as I started to drizzle it with a spoon. Dawne went to go get a bag. "Cover the whole thing with a plastic bag!" she said.  A plastic bag?? This from the queen of artistic perfection??? A PLASTIC BAG!!  I couldn't do it. I kept trying to decorate with whip cream, pleading "I have to finish!" so Dawne helped by grabbing a heap of whip cream in her hand and slathering it upon the cake.  The rest of the project was finished like this until finally we placed the bag over the cake to hide our shame.  We covered the top with icing-but the strawberry nipples were too heavy and we had to settle for two small star shaped sprinkles.  We dragged the 30 lbs of cake (it really was heavy!) up to the main house to find our competition had completed the sweetest bunt cake I had ever seen and a gorgeous rendition of the Empire State building.  In the end, we had to show everyone our disgrace, and for your viewing pleasure I deliver to you, literally on a platter, my failure in the Iron Chef Birthday cake competition.

(PS  Diana, upon seeing the mannequin she searched high and low for, and paid more for than she wanted to, was appalled that we had done this whole project.  Please let me reassure you that we did cover everything in plastic, and it was clean and untouched when we were done.  Thanks for not killing us on the spot. :)

Originally Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 11:05 AM
Subject: Tiffany the Textile Mule

On Sunday at around 2, I received call from my cousin Dawne who was in Vegas setting up for Pool and Magic (Fashion industry Show’s) for edoc.  She told me that they had not brought product for the show, and would I go pack up 4 of each style shirt and color and ship it to them.  By the time I drove back from Seattle it was 3.  I called every shipping place to confirm that everything was closed on Sunday, and then enlisted the aid of Matty and Rachel to help me pack all of these shirts.  At 4, I had received word that I was going to be on a plane leaving at 7:30 for Vegas to transport these garments to the show.  We searched high and low to find suitcases big enough to carry the cargo (Rachel tried to convince me I didn’t need to bring my own carry on)… at 5, everything was packed and I gave myself 15 minutes to take a shower, grab a toothbrush, clothes, and a Pop Tart.  We got everything in the car (lift with your knees!) and Matty helped me bring the suitcases to check in… and we weighed in at 80 lbs for one bag and 75 lbs for the second.  I didn’t weight my carry on, but it felt like at least 25 pounds.  I got in around 12, we slept at the MGM Grand—oh the memories J  --and then was up at 6:30 again.  I took lots of pictures of my day… the I-HOP for breakfast, Pool, the Wal-mart, the Target, the Radio Shack, Blueberry Hill for lunch (the worst ever… don’t go there…I don’t know how it’s been open since 1966) and I took a few shots of the booth as we were setting up for Magic.  (Random fact: did you know that the Motel 6 on the strip has the highest suicide rate in the country with up to 6 deaths per week? Moral: Don’t get a housekeeping job at Motel 6.)  On a great note, edoc looked fabulous at Pool—and was a “big fish” in a little pond.  They got a lot of sales on the first day, and had a lot of huge buyers interested including the owner of the Zebra Club.)  At Magic, edoc was small, but looking very cool.  They were very close to John Deere—which I thought was a good contrast. J  And then after dinner in Mandalay Place, I got to see the airport again.  I had a 10:30 flight, sitting next to 15 volley-ball national champions… (aaagh!)   And that, my friends, was my 24 hour trip to Vegas. 

Can’t wait to go back in two weeks to set up the booth for WizKids!

Originally Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 2:00 PM
Subject: Forced Pout

So I woke up this morning (at 5:30 am for a three hour meeting before Jordan left for Asia) and my lips were swollen to nearly twice their size.  They are really quite painful.  I imagine that this is what botox would like—full and pouty only instead of feeling numb I have a constant feeling of ache.  This might be the direct result of the lip liner I used yesterday, but as soon as I felt the uncomfortable feeling, I scrubbed my lips clean.  I tried some chap stick that I found out later probably would make them worse than better—oh and I am on my second dose of Benadryl today—Jordan said that it looked like it was helping, but I think he was just trying to make me feel better.  Zach told me this morning not to worry about it that no one was going to be kissing me today.  I think that was just insult to injury though. 

(I’d like to think that after looking back on these emails from 7 years ago that my writing has gotten better.  If you don’t agree… maybe wait until next week to tell me.)

Hope to be chipper next week!