Tomorrow is March and I've got to get at least 1 post in for February, so here it is....

I'm going to pretend like it hasn't been over a month since my last post. I'm going to pretend like I've been blogging this whole time, no one has missed me (which, let's face it, is probably the truth), and we will just all go on as usual. Ok? Thanks.

First, an update about my other blog that I told you about in my last post. If you're thinking that it is the reason I haven't been posting here, you're wrong. I've been totally neglecting that blog as well. In fact, I posted on it twice and then just sort of lost steam. See? It's a good thing I didn't tell anyone the address. Now I can just erase it and pretend it never happened. The blog, that is. The weight loss is going great! I'm down about 9 pounds last time I checked, and more importantly, I'm losing inches, so pants that haven't fit me in years are getting a second life! Yippee!!!!

Here is how my February went down.....

My Great Aunt Hazel celebrated her 87th birthday this month, and her children had a party for her up in Dallas. My mom, Betty Nuggs, came down for the festivities, as did several of her siblings. We had a great time eating, laughing, shopping and visiting. Here are some pics from the party.

Me and Nuggs at the party.

Me, mom, aunt, uncle, cousins and Great Aunt Hazel (center). Happy Birthday Aunt Hazel!

I bought some new fabulous cowboy boots while we were in Dallas. Actually, these are my first pair of cowboy boots. Shame on me, I've lived in Texas for nearly 4 years and have never owned a pair. I love these. They are cute and very comfortable.

The Cowboy bought me some beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day. My favorite - calla lilies.

Aggie took up residence in the laundry basket, after we had to throw away her dog bed because she chewed it up. Hopefully the laundry basket lasts a little longer.

My newest knitting creation. It's a scarf made out of a bunch of leftover pieces of yarn from various projects. Thank goodness I hung on to all of them! I tried to make the "theme" of the scarf green, and then threw in some complimenting colors.

Rather than knit this scarf length-wise, as with most scarves, I knit it width-wise. I cast on 180(ish) stitches on size 11 circs and changed yarn every single row. I absolutely love the way this turned out. I have enough odds and ends to make at least one more, possibly two. What will I do with them you ask? Drum roll, please................ I am opening an Etsy store!!! I having been knitting and sewing like crazy lately, (hence no blogging) in an attempt to get a stockpile of things ready to sell in my Etsy store. I am hoping to have everything up and running over spring break - which is 2 weeks away. I will be sure to let you all know when it's open, and post a link. In the meantime, here's a sneak preview. It's my store banner.

Speaking of new exciting things, Lexey Rhea was born this past week!!

Congratulations to proud parents Johnny & Tiff, and big sister Sydney! I can't wait to meet little Lexey.

It snowed in Austin this past week. Like, a lot. Serious accumulation. It's the most snow I've seen down here since I've been here, and I heard it was the most snow that they've seen here since 1985. Here are some pictures, taken from school, where I was stuck all day because they didn't cancel school. Boo.

The kids had a blast, though. We took them outside in the morning and let them run around and play in it. Many of them had never seen actual snow before, so it was fun to watch them. Someone tried to make a snow angel, but there wasn't quite enough snow for that, and it ended up being a dirt angel.

Today, it's sunny and 65. I love this state!!

That's my February in a nutshell. I would promise to try and write more, but we both know I don't mean it. So in case I don't blog again until the end of March, I hope you all have a great month!

Something Old, Something New

No, I'm not getting married. Sorry mom.

Tomorrow here in Central Texas we are supposed to be getting some "winter weather". Oh boy. The high temps are going to be in the mid 30s, and it's supposed to precipitate, so the forecasters are calling for the-possibility-of-a-chance-of-we-could-see-some-snow-flurries-with-some-light accumulation-on-the-grassy-areas-perhaps-between-2-to-3-inches.

You would think WWIII was about to roll through town, the way people are freaking out. I went to the grocery store after work today to pick up some batteries and everyone and their brother was there. I ran into no fewer than 7 kids from my school, and the lines were outrageous. I find it highly amusing, and yet very annoying (especially in the store situations) that the people down here hear the word "snow" and they think they better stock up because "who knows when we'll be able to get out to the store again". Oh for crying out loud. It's snow, people! It's supposed to melt by Saturday morning, and it won't even make the roads slick. Geesh.

Also, the school was all a-buzz today with talk of cancellations and snow days and inclement weather and buses and what would we do if? like questions. Bunch of ninnies. I'm not saying it's not been chilly down here - for Texas this weather is unusual, especially this time of year, and it

hasn't taken long for my blood to thin out and for me to become acclimated to the weather. However, snow isn't anything to freak out about. Do you hear me people of Central Texas? I declare,

"SNOW ISN'T ANYTHING TO FREAK OUT ABOUT - ESPECIALLY NOT 2-3 FARKING INCHES!!!!!!!"

Moving on...

That wasn't what I wanted to blog about today. I realized that I haven't posted since my trip up to Michigan for Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd better remedy that. I'm not going to post a bunch of boring pictures of my family and I on Thanksgiving (that doesn't mean I didn't take a bunch, just that I'm not going to post them you see) or bore you to death with the details of my trip. I'll just say that it was fabulous and everything I'd hoped it would be. The food was great, I got to see some friends and hang out with my cousins and aunts and mom. In fact, my mom and I went yarn shopping and I picked up some new sock yarn and some Noro. But those are boring details that I promised to spare you.

Christmas came a little early for me this year while I was up north. My grandmother gave me a wonderful gift!

My Gram and I on Thanksgiving (Ok, so I posted one boring picture of me and my family)

Here's the back story. When I was a little girl, I loved my Grandmother's house at Christmas time. It was filled with familiar faces, food, smells and decorations. My favorite decoration of all was this ceramic music box that I believe on of my aunts had painted and given to my Gram. It

depicted Santa snoozing in his chair, near the fire, and had a Christmas tree with 2 elves on either side that rotated around, which was how you wound up the music box. It played The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire....), and it amused me for hours. I would wind those elves up and happily watch it turn. I don't know why I loved it so, but I always have.

My Grandmother gave it to me this year.

It's probably my favorite Christmas decoration that I have now. And I have a lot. It looks like Christmas threw up in our house. But I love it that way.

The Cowboy and I are scaling back our Christmas gifts to each other this year, for various reasons. One of the things I had asked for, before we decided to keep it simple, was brand new bedding. The whole shebang. Bed skirt, comforter, pillows, sheets, etc. Our dogs, I love them, but they tear shit up. And to be fair, I'd had my old quilt on the bed for a few years now, and it was time for something nicer and newer. Grown up bedding. Well, The Cowboy surprised me yesterday with an early Christmas present!

This isn't the best picture, and it's still a little wrinkly from being in the package, but here's our new bedding! We set it all up, I took a quick picture, and then we had to cover it all up with the "dog blanket", which is our old quilt, which we are keeping on top of the new stuff, so the dogs don't tear it up. I wish we could see the bedding all the time, but it makes me happy just knowing it's there, and I love sleeping in new sheets.

Well, I'm off to watch the weather report and laugh at some fools. I hope it does snow, though. That would be pretty neat to see. But I'm not gonna lose my cool over it or anything.

The Holiday Hairies

When I was little, on the day of a big holiday (Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas), you stayed the hell out of my Grandmother's way. My Grandma is the nicest lady ever, but if you got in her path and she was trying to cook a turkey or set a table or smoke a cigarette, WATCH OUT. She had, what we in my family affectionately (but quite seriously) referred to as: The Holiday Hairies. She got "hairy" right around the holidays - stressing out and fussing over everything and everybody. She would bark orders at anyone who dared enter a room with her, and you were required to carry out those instructions to the T, or risk being further yelled at. We all learned early on to just stay outside/down the hall/in the bathroom and out of her way.

I myself have had a touch of the Holiday Hairies the past 2 or 3 days trying to get all my clothes washed, presents wrapped, songs uploaded into my iPod, and stuff in general ready to go to Michigan. Ang and I leave tomorrow morning (from Dallas), so I either have to drive up there tonight or at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow so we can be on the road around 9. It should be about 2 full days worth of driving, since I'm certain neither Ang nor myself intends on driving straight through - a la Cowboy.

I'm taking a break to write this blog, and I think I've got most stuff packed and ready to go anyway. I got to thinking about the Holiday Hairies, and my Gram, and I am getting excited to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I am thankful this year to have a job that lets me have a week off at Thanksgiving, 2 at Christmas, and 10 in the summer. It really helps when you've got family (and friends!) long distance.

The following 2 things are from 2 other blogs that I read and love and are hilarious. I just thought they were great, so I am sharing them.

This picture is from Fail Blog and I literally EL OH ELLED when I saw it.

And from another favorite website of mine, Awkward Family Photos, comes this Thanksgiving Letter. (Click on the link to read it). I saw it last year around this time, and I love it! I thought my aunt was All About Business when it came to Thanksgiving dinner, but clearly, I've never met Marney.

I'll be off for a week, and I'm sure not blogging. I hope everyone out there has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Double D

This blog is not about breasts. If you've seen the title and have come here looking for information or pictures pertaining to hooters, fun bags, jugs, golden bozos, or any of the like, I am sorry to disappoint you, but you've come to the wrong blog. AND the wrong lady.

Rather, this blog is about my trips this past week to the 2 D's. Dallas and Detroit. First let me just say that moving away from where you were born, raised and lived for 27 years and then going back and trying to cram in 27 years of friends, family and former co-worker visits in 4 and a half days is exhausting. I never got so little sleep in my life and if there's one thing we know about me, it's that I need my sleep. So if I didn't get to see you while I was there, or if I did see you, but not enough, I am sorry.

I have compiled a series of highlights, lowlights, and observations pertaining to my trips.

Lowlight
Started the vacation off my locking my keys in my car upon my arrival in Dallas. Along with my luggage. All. Locked. In. After using a few choice expletives, and Benny trying his hardest to break into my car with a coat hanger (I'm sure his neighbors loved that), I decided to sleep on it and call a Locksmith in the morning. The Locksmith comes, does the exact same thing I'd seen Benny doing the night before (only with an official looking un-bent coat hanger thingy) and within 60 seconds - POP. $50 later and I have my things and my keys. Great way to begin the vacation.

Highlight
Got to see the Detroit Tigers kick the Texas Rangers' asses at Ranger Stadium with the cousins. 13-5 and it wasn't even that exciting. I like a little more action in my baseball games, but this at least somewhat made up for the Tigers losing so badly to the Astros when The Cowboy and I went down to Houston.


































Me, Matthew and Ang.

Observation
Dallas is just about as hot as Austin. And the baseball game was outside. Hi, I'm Sweaty.















Highlight
Ann Arbor is even more beautiful in the summer than I remember. Sadly, I don't have a picture to show you. But everything is even more green and wonderful than my memories showed. Austin is a pretty green area of Texas, but I truly had forgotten how verdant (big word alert) everything looks up there this time of year. Not to mention that it was barely 80 degrees every day and actually pleasant to be outdoors.

Lowlight
It got cold at night. Friday night we sat outside on my friend Lisa's patio and drank and laughed (and laughed, and laughed....oh, and laughed) and it got down into the 60's. I was ccccccccold. I could see my breath. It hasn't taken me long to acclimate to Texas weather.















Apparently, when I'm cold, I look like a thug.

Observation
At first I had trouble remembering what radio stations I used to listen to, so I did a scan and found a country station. Country stations up in Detroit are WAY different than the ones down here. They play almost completely different music. I heard a few songs that I may have heard down here, but on the whole, it was different stuff. Weird.

Highlight




















Got to eat at The Heidelberg, one of my favorite Ann Arbor restaurants, with some of my favorite people.















Me, Marcie, Lisa and Charlene (more blogs to come on these clowns SOON)

Lowlight
Lisa (and I, maybe) couldn't stop laughing and they almost kicked us out.





























































Oh wait, that wasn't a lowlight. It was another highlight. And they didn't really almost kick us out. We were the only people in there. We always are the only people in there. I don't know how that place stays open. I also don't know how they make such delicious pork chops.

Observation
Labatt's Blue Light and Bell's Oberon Ale both taste just as wonderful and delicious as I remember them tasting. I wasn't sure of that after the first one. Or the second. I needed to make absolute certain of it, so I drank quite a few.








































Yep, still tasty.

Lowlight




















I didn't absolutely love the Harry Potter movie*. I didn't hate it. It was ok. And I think if I watched it again I would enjoy it more the second time. But the problem is that I am a HP purist. And I'd just re-read the book, which is clearly a mistake and setting myself up for failure. I know they can't possibly include everything from the books in the movies, but I feel (since you asked) there are certain vital pieces of information which were just barely touched on or left out all together. There are going to be a lot of holes to fill in the beginning of the next movie. I'll shut up now, I'm even annoying myself with all this HP movie talk. Let's just say I was disappointed.

*(For those of you who don't know the story.....my friend from high school Sarah and I have seen every HP movie together since they came out. She flew down to Texas 2 years ago to see Order of the Phoenix, so it was my turn to fly up for Half Blood Prince. The movie came out 3 weeks ago, but Sarah and I waited not so patiently so we could see it together. A lot of hype. A lot of buildup.)

Highlight
I got to spend lots of quality time with Sarah and her girls.




















This is Cate. She will be 4 in a few weeks.




















She had been practicing her "rope tricks" for weeks and was very excited to show me. I'm not sure what Sarah and her husband have told Cate about Texas, but I do know it involves rope tricks, horses and cowboys. Is this how all northerners (read: Yankees) see us?




















Cate is very stylish.




















This is Ellie, Cate's sister. We call her Elbow. She was 1 in April. I've seen some cute kids. I've featured them on my blog.




















This kid? Takes the cute cake.





















I can barely form sentences about how much I love her.





















Sarah is a good mommy.

Observation




















The apron I made for Sarah is my best work yet. Sarah loved it. She's requested one for Cate.

Lowlight
Lisa's precious and wonderful children, Maddie




















and Abby (whose bed I slept in)




















had head lice, unbeknownst to us at the time of my overnight visit. So Lisa had to call me and tell me and apologize for my potential exposure to the little bugs.

Highlight
I don't think I actually got the lices, but just to be safe, Heather and I bought a kit and treated my hair anyway.




















If you've never had to treat lice in your hair or someone else's - be thankful. It's a pain in the arse, and I didn't even have any bugs or eggs in my hair. If I had, I imagine it would have been worse. Heather and I made the most out of it, though, with some more help from Oberon and some good old fashioned trashy reality teevee.

Observation
Gavin is Heather's kid 100%. (or maybe 50%, I never was any good at maths and reproduction)





















His buckets contained, at various points throughout the evening: blueberries, popcorn, chicken, fries and lettuce. I think we have a future "Monster" in the making.















And when those snacks weren't enough, he improvised.




















Gavin's fashion sense leaves a lot to be desired, but at least he's comfortable.


Highlight
Had lunch at Zingerman's, and I can't recall the last time I ate there. It had been years.


















Lowlight
Needed to take out a small loan to afford my sandwich, and remembered why I didn't eat there very often even when I lived in Ann Arbor.














Observation
The #54, Wayne's Inheritance (not pictured), was just as delicious as it used to be, and (grudgingly) worth the $12.00.


Highlight
I got to see most of my family while there.

Lowlight
I don't have any pictures of them.

Observation




















I took this picture for My Lady, who would kill me if she knew that I didn't actually eat there, just stopped by long enough to get a picture. So the official story (if she ever asks) is that I ate there and it was delicious and the proprietor (who we call Lai Lai) is alive and well.

Lowlight
On the plane ride back to Dallas, the kid (11 or 12 years old) sitting directly behind me sneezed no fewer than 30 times. Loudly. And I'm not sure he covered his mouth once. He could have, I suppose. I wasn't about to turn around and look at him and risk getting sneezed on in the face. But every time I'd lean my head against the window and try to doze off.....AHHHHCHOOOOOO. And all I could think about was airborn germs and SARS and bacteria and getting sick. No rest for the weary on the plane.

Highlight
I saw Eddie Montgomery, from the country duo Montgomery Gentry, at the airport. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was on my flight. But I for sure stood near him durring baggage claim, and also while we were waiting for our rides. My ride came in the form of Ang and Benny, his in the form of his monstrous tour bus with a sign that said "Eddie Montgomery" on the front, and "Montgomery Gentry" on the back.




















He did not have on his big black hat or trench coat. In fact, he was dressed like a regular dude. He had on a backwards baseball cap, shorts and a t-shirt. He was just standing there with another guy (not Gentry) chatting and waiting for his bag. No bodyguards or entourage or anything. I guess he's not that high profile, and can still travel without being recognized.

Confession
I did not recognize him at first. It wasn't until I saw him get on the tour bus that I actually looked at him and thought it might be him, and not until I looked him up on the interwebs that I realized that it was, in fact, Eddie Montgomery. Otherwise you know I would have gotten my camera out and taken a picture. I have no shame.

In Summary...
It was a great trip, if a little short and rushed. Thanks to everyone who put me up, paid for a meal, drove me to or from the airport, and combed my hair for bugs.

The Cowboy and I are off on another vacation next week, this time to Palo Duro Canyon. It's my last week of summer vacation, and then it's back to work for me.

Sniffle.

Nuggs

If you know me IRL, then you know about Nuggs. You've probably even met her.

Nuggs is the name I call my mother. Sure, I call her mom too, sometimes. But mostly Nuggs. And everyone else calls her Nuggs too. Well, maybe not her co-workers. And come to think of it, probably not her friends or family. Ok, so really just my friends call her Nuggs. But she loves it.

Here's how the name came about. When my brother and I were little, we were playing at the lake we used to go to every summer (shout out, Hillman, Michigan!), and my brother was calling her Mommy Knockers. Anyone else a Stephen King fan? Tommy Knockers? My brother just substituted Tommy for Mommy. See what he did there? Because they rhyme.

So anyway, I started calling her Mommy Knockers too. Because I did everything my brother told (forced) me to do. Including climb into a suitcase head first and allow him to throw me down a flight of stairs. But that is a story for another time.

So here we are, playing on the beach, and we're pretty young, I'm going to guess maybe 6 (me) and 9 (bro), and Nuggs is sitting there reading, or sunbathing or whatever, and we're calling out to her every other minute "Mommy Knockers! Look what we made!" or "Mommy Knockers come help!" or "Mommy Knockers! Dale hit me!" (a frequently heard refrain)

Now imagine if you will, that you are at the beach and there are some kids calling their mom Mommy Knockers. Or, imagine that your own children call YOU that. Are you imagining it? I don't have kids, see, and I still think it's funny so I can't really understand the full situation. But I guess my mom didn't really appreciate being called anything with the word "Knockers" in it. And she came over and told her we had to stop calling her that.

"Why, Mommy Knockers, why?" (and here I like to pretend that we are wee little English urchin children with cockney accents....it makes the story more fun)

"Because, children, "knockers" is another word for women's breasts. Boobies. And mommy doesn't think it's funny when you call me that."

"But we LIKE calling you that, Mommy Knockers. We like it a whole, whole lot."

"Mommy is sorry, but you cannot call me that any longer. You can call me Mom, or you can find another silly nick name for me, but no more Mommy Knockers."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease Mommy Knockers, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease."

"No."

I could carry on this dialogue for awhile, but you get the picture. She put an end to our innocent fun. So we had to come up with a new nickname for her. Here are some of the ones we tossed around:

Mommy Funbags
Mommy Melons
Mommy Hooters
Mommy Milkjugs

But in the end, we settled on Mommy Nuggs. I don't know where it came from, but I'm sure it was from my brother, since anything I would have suggested would have been vetoed. And eventually, we dropped the Mommy part and just started calling her Nuggs.

It caught on, and has transformed over time to bigger and better nicknames such as:

Nugget
Nuggle
Nugger
Nugglet
Nuggsalot
Nuggsamillion

And so on, and so forth.

Anyway, the point to all this rambling is to wish Nuggs (and all other mothers out there) a

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!













Nuggs is a frequent visitor to my blog, so if you'd like to leave a comment for her and wish her a Happy Mother's Day, I know she'd enjoy reading all of them.

Happy Mother's Day.

Gift of Life

See the new banner on the right hand side of my blog?

(if you're receiving this blog through an e-mail or feed, please take a minute to go to my actual blog site and notice the banner, thanks)


You can enter to win a really cool quilt if you click on the link and leave a comment. But the quilt isn't what I want to talk about today. The quilt is cool and all, but really, who cares about quilts when 18 people will die today because they were waiting for a life-saving organ transplant that never came.


The quilt give-away is to help a little baby named Mia, who just yesterday underwent a heart transplant. You can enter to win the quilt, or donate money to her family to help pay for her medical expenses. I'm cynical about donating money over the innernets to people you don't really know, too. Believe me, I hear you.

So if you don't want to donate money, that's cool. Maybe instead you can say a little prayer for Mia and her family. And while you're at it, say a prayer for all the other nearly 100,000 people who are waiting for a transplant.

Including my uncle, Maurie.

That's Maurie, or Mo as we call him, there on the left. He is my uncle by marriage, and probably one of the coolest people you've never met. And for those of you who have met him, then you what I'm talking about. Maurie doesn't know I'm blogging about him today, and though I'm not sure how he would feel about me telling his personal story on here (so I will keep that to myself), I know he would want me to get the word out about organ donation.

Maurie received his transplant over 20 years ago, and his donated kidney served him well for just about 20 years. But a few years ago, it gave out, and Maurie is back on dialysis. A machine keeps his blood clean, and keeps him alive, while he waits to see if he'll have another chance at transplantation.

Because of Maurie I feel very strongly about organ donation. I know that it is a personal choice, and not everyone will agree with me, but for those of you who are unsure, and because this is my blog dammit and I'll write what I want, I've put together a few facts about organ donation. For your reading pleasure. Also, I totally stole these facts from the interwebs. Thanks, Al Gore.

Did you know....that organ donation is supported by all major religions here in the US? Well it is!

Did you know....that donating your organs does NOT alter your appearance for funeral purposes at all? Nope, you'll still look like a cadaver. A dead cadaver.

Did you know....that if you are able to donate all your organs and tissues (including eyes, bone, skin, etc.) you could save or help up to 50 lives? Fifty people. Five Oh. Think of the possibilities!!!

You are dead, you don't need your eyes anymore. Why not give someone else the chance to see again? If you were blind or needed a heart or a kidney, wouldn't you want someone to do the same for you?

Please, take a minute and think about this. Consider what you'd feel like if the roles were reversed and the person you loved more than anyone in the whole wide world needed a transplant. Wouldn't you want someone out there to be generous enough to donate the Gift of Life to them? Won't you please do the same?
Take a minute and sign a donor card. But that's not enough. You also must make your wishes known to your family. Discuss with them the fact that you want your organs to be donated. They will have the final say when you are gone.

Click here to receive an organ donor card.

Maurie, Mia and I thank you.

Cousins, Real and Fake

We must go backwards in order to go forwards. (that is a shout out to my friend Marce). This will be a Big Fat Blog, a combination of several blogs that I had planned for this past week, all rolled into one. Lucky you! I shall call it Big Fat Blog Friday (BFBF).

So, way way way back last Thursday (as in not last night, but a week ago last night), back when my eye was normal sized and not infected, my "Fake" cousin Mike came to town with his girlfriend. They live in Illinois. He is my "fake" cousin because our mothers are best friends, and as children we were all told to call them "Aunt" and "Uncle". These people are not my relations. But that doesn't mean they aren't a hoot.

Here we are, me and Mike. My face is red because of the sunburn, and also because I'd had a few cold pops.
Seriously? This kid is my kind of people. I love him. We (Mike, his girlfriend, the Cowboy and I) had dinner and then proceeded to hit up a few bars on 6th street. It was kind of a slow night, so we had to make our own fun. Hilarity ensued. Seriously, my face hurt from laughing so damn hard all night.

Seriously.

What's up with me saying seriously?

Seriously.

Oh. This is Mike's lovely lady, Linda. She has some sweet dance moves.
See what I'm talking about? Man, I wish I could dance like that.

I wish I could post the rest of the pictures that we took, but they are borderline inappropriate, and also, Mike and Linda are teachers, and I'm thinking they don't want said pictures floating around on the interwebs. There is this one though. It's decent, if not a wee bitty bit off center. Perhaps taken towards the end of the evening.

Good times, good times. You may be noticing the absence of any pictures of The Cowboy. He was being his usual uncooperative self that night.

Moving on to real cousins (not that I don't love Mike and everything, but hey blood is thicker than water, but we didn't drink any water that night, I can tell you for damn sure, but I'm getting off subject again)....

My cousin Ashley flew down to Dallas for a visit last weekend. She is 14 going on 30 and I hadn't seen her for nearly 2 years. Which was way too long. All of a sudden, she is a Young Woman. I almost started crying when I saw her at the airport.

She is a way cooler teenager than I ever was at 14. Man, those were awkward times.

We spent Saturday at a water park in Dallas, which is where I suspect I picked up my friend Staph.

Sunday, we went to a really cool place called Fossil Rim. It's a Wildlife Reserve, and we took a guided tour (like a safari) and saw all mess of neat animals. I can't remember all the animal names, so bear with me. If I don't know, I'm just going to fake it.

I'm fairly sure this one was called a Blackbuck. It's native to the Sahara. Check out dem horns! They could really eff your shiz up! (Hey, on the Blackbuck/native talk, did I sound like I knew what I was talking about? Cause I have no idea.)

This is Some Sort Of Deer. It may even be a regular old Deer like you see on the side of the road (they did have some), I don't know. I just thought he was cute. I liked his spots.

Zebras are really cool looking up close, but they are aggresive and mean. We were told not the hand feed the zebras, so what's the first thing Ashley does? Hand feed a zebra. Thankfully that zebra was more interested in eating the Scooby Snacks provided to us by the Ranch, and not Ashley's hands. 14 year olds are stubborn creatures.

This is Another Kind of Deer. Official name, of course. I like this picture because he was in the middle eating a handful of food I gave him.

The Giraffes were probably my favorite animal that we saw there. They were just so serene and beautiful. And we even got to hand feed them. It was a pretty cool experience.

This little guy was hanging around while we were feeding the giraffes. He is A Third Kind of Unidentified Deer, and he had a tag on his ear that said "509". I felt bad for him, because everyone was oohing and aahing over the giraffes, and feeding them all their Scooby Snacks, and poor 509 wasn't getting any attention. So I gave him a handful of treats.

Check out these two idiots.

I have no idea what this is, but it looks like a goat, no? I call him Raymond. I love his little patch of brown hair on his head. It's like a little toupe.

As some of you may or may not be aware, I have a not-so-secret fear of All Things Beaked. It stems from the Canadian Goose (those things are MEAN and will attack you), stretches out to the mighty and beautiful (yet terrifying) peacock, and encompasses even innocent farm animals such as chickens and ducks. If it has a beak, I believe it will not hesitate to peck out my eyes. So you can imagine my fear of this beast. It's a Six Foot Tall Bird With Beak (Ostrich).

We were allowed to feed these guys as well, although we just laid the food out on the side of the bus and then ran screaming like a little baby to the back as they approached. What? That's what everyone on the bus did. Not just me. Man! These things can eat. All they care about is more food (and pecking my eyes out).

Despite my total, all encompassing fear of the ostrich, I actually think that they are kind of cool to look at, especially in these pictures where I know that they are miles away from me and can't get to me or my eyes (my eyes can't take any more abuse, y'all).

The safari was really cool, and we saw lots of other animals (rhinos, cheetahs and wildebeest -oh my!- to name a few), but a lot of my pics didn't turn out because they were taken from so far away.

It was great to see my cousins last weekend!

And I hope everyone has a good weekend!