After the flood all the colours came out...

It was a beautiful day. Don't let it get away.

You know the irony of drought is that every time you hear about it, it rains. So is calling a drought the modern version of a rain dance? Does this make meteorologists no better than some crack-pot shaman? or ode sit make them superior because they can actually get it to rain? Either way I'm sick of the rain.
Yup in the last month we've had 3+ inches of rain. YIKES! The beauty of the rain is how clear it is after. Starting Monday it cleared up, now we have 75 and sunny. The ocean looks so gorgeous. I think in some ways it's worse because now I have to fight the urge to not work and instead play outside or ride or go surfing. Oh well, I guess you win some and you lose some.

On an unrelated note-

Thanks Shane for my new favorite BuzzBite Ya picture. This trumps anything you could ever take during the ride.

The Star of India (& other fun things)

Okay, so this summer Chris and I are going on the infamous pioneer trek. Yeah, yeah, pretty much everybody did that when they were 15 or whatever. But what's cool is that we get to go as a Ma and Pa. And since it is such an ordeal to go to Wyoming from San Diego, our Stake is making the most of it. So we get to experience 'just what the handcart pioneers did'. Starting from the time they left England.

Last Saturday we got to go visit the Star of India, a sailing ship kind of similar to that which the pioneers sailed on. This is us with the Star of India in the background.

To see the Star of India, you buy a ticket to the San Diego Maritime Museum which includes several boats including the HMS Surprise, which was used in the filming of the movie "Master and Commander."

This is Chris steering the ship into battle.
This is me actually steering the ship from below deck.

Below is Chris's favorite part of the museum, the Russian sub.

So this is one of the coolest symbols I think I've ever seen. Don't get too close or lightning will come out of your head and hand (who knew?).

The Happiest (?) place on Earth

Ahh yes Disneyland. I know it was a week ago we went but I finally decided- cause I guess Lish won't- to talk about all the joys and entertainment that can be had. For those of you who may not know Alicia and I are Disneyland Addicts. The Rides? Yup. The Freaks? Yup. The Costumed Characters? Yup. Parades? Yup. Mickey pretzels (esp the jalapeno cheese filled ones- the cream cheese aren't bad either)? Yup. Hot Chocolate in a mug to end it all? Yup. We could live there if they'd let us. So anyway back to the case at hand. It was 11:00 AM the park and only been open for a couple hours when we stumble across this:


WOW!?!? Really- it's only 11:00 AM. And this guy was OUT! I walked up nice and close to snap this. There were people all around, food being served 10 yards from this guy, heck this is outside a store and across from 3 rides, and a huge children's attraction. So my only 2 questions are this?

1) HOW? How do you stay asleep like that?

2) WHY? What on Earth has led you to this point?

Exclusive! INSIDER PICTURES: Blue Steel- Exposed!

Here are some pictures of the interior...

A/C, MP3 jack, CD/MP3 Player

Love me some stick shifts, safety belts, and bucket seats

Plenty of room in the backseat...

Notice on the steering wheel are Chris's favorite options (cruise control and audio controls for his 6-speaker sound system) We also enjoy pushing the big red button (hazard lights)

and the craziest feature of all (so crazy it took us 3 days to notice it...) the sweet sunglass holder!

The FINALLY posted pictures of the "New-new car"

Here it is!!! Blue Steel!We definitely like the color...

and the 15" alloy rims...

fog lamps to boot...

and, no, no plates does not indicate stolen...

and we like the look of the rear spoiler too!

POST FLOOD!

The management of this web log wishes to inform you of the following:
This is just a heads up- there have been a few recent posts on our blog - some of them out of order (yeah that's me) so you may want to take a look-see at the older sections- cause you may have just missed the best post yet, or not.

Back for more

So this was once on the blog- I think I lost it when I was trying out new backgrounds. I'm just gonna link to the other blog that has posted:

Do's and Don'ts with the newborn

I highly recommend the whole book.
Man what more can I say.
BTW- I prefer "introducing the child to pets" myself.

New-New Car

It's really hard for me to get the title right. It needs to be read with a pause after the first new. Not two fast news, that just sounds ridiculous. So anyway...We bought a new car...see a couple posts ago. When we bought it, the assistant manager and sales manager that sold it to us apparently knew nothing about the product they were selling. So, as a result, they promised us a lot of things (air conditioning, cruise control, stereo w/audio jack, and new rims and tires). These features were not on the car when we bought it but we were assured that they could be added without difficulty. WRONG!!!!! Apparently the model we bought accepts none of said features, at least not without great difficulty. But they promised!!! (Besides the fact that we had already paid for said features...) So at this point we had 3 options...1)They would just reverse the whole transaction and give us our old car back...hmmmm nope, that isn't going to work, one of the main reasons we bought the car was because you took our old one... 2) They could find a way to get most of the said features put on the car (with great cost to them)--which isn't perfect but hey, most is better than none right? or- 3) They could find another car at another dealership and try and trade it so we could switch. That definitely sounded like a winning option.
So they tried. And tried. And tried. Or so we thought. Apparently through this whole process it was very important for us to be standing in front of them. We saw absolutely no progress-none- unless we were at the dealership in their faces. GRRRRRR! So they finally found some acceptable cars (with all said features, from the factory) We told them the priority order and the next day (IT'S A MIRACLE...) we heard that our #1 choice was good to go and that someone was going to go get it. (it'll be ready tonight or tomorrow for sure...)This is Friday morning. We don't hear anything else the rest of the day. We try to call--he's busy, he's not here, he's cutting a deal, he's too busy. WHAT!?!?!?! Just because you already sold me a car does not mean I'm not important! TALK TO ME!!! But no. So we again have to make an appearance at the dealership. And the guy is REALLY annoyed that we did. The car just got here, he tells us, and will be ready tomorrow afternoon for sure. No problem. We tell him we'll call around 2:30 the next afternoon he says great it will definitely be ready. So we called the next day at 4. He's busy. He's cutting a deal. REALLY? So, when he doesn't call us back...we show up again. Oh, uh, ummm...the guy didn't come in today that takes care of it. Sorry. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? At this point, it's me (nice, calm, Alicia) that's mad. REALLY mad. So when he tells me that it will be ready tomorrow I find it really difficult to believe him. So I look him in the eye and ask...And what if it's not? What do I do if it's not? He's starting to feel a little guilty now, and replies, I'm not going to answer that question because it will be. So I look at him again as my eyes fill with tears and say, What if it's not? and walk out. Apparently, I should have yelled and cried 3 weeks earlier. Maybe it would have been resolved that much sooner. Because, as I have noticed on several occasions, crying works. The next day my car was finally ready. Finally. And yes it includes all said features, including being a manual transmission, plus a spoiler and fog lamps. (Wahoo!) But it is the same kind of car, in a steeley blue color and it's official name is Blue Steel... But I love it...and I'll probably never ever ever ever ever in my whole life buy a brand new car ever ever ever again.

Pretty sure I had more posts than this....

I could have sworn that in the last two weeks I'd posted. Well in my mind I did. So I'm not gonna talk about the whole car situation, I figure Alicia would/could cover that. I'll talk about the non-exciting, like friendly get-togethers. So the long story-short is when we lived in Logan we never knew a quiet weekend because we always invited everyone over. It was great- nothing better than me (Chris) ruining the solemn evening of Sunday by scoring crazy points in Quiddler spelling Sex Toys. Hey it's not my fault that every time I get the same three letters in my hand. So fast-forwarding to present- it's been a long time since we've had so many things going on with people that we don't get "down time." In fact, I can't remember the last time we got together with people so frequently. Now this sounds weird like a pity party, or some sort of heartfelt post of times past, or neat intervention now- it's not. It is a post of me observing that hey I remember how it was, and now it's kinda happening again. That's all. We've been to Brian and Erin's a couple times, Jeff and Kate's, became jealous of the Foster's place, finally got to see the Cook's house, had a slightly over-done RockBand party- who knew that 14 was too many for our apartment? It's been great. Now, however is the downside- I'm tired, and my house is a mess again. Oh well, it's worth it. Now if you're reading this in UT or ID: think back on any Sunday night you randomly showed up at the Townhouse and just start laughing, cause you know something funny will come to mind. If you're reading this is San Diego: think of the fact that Brady absolutely wanted to play, "Don't Fear the Reaper." Wow I never would have pegged Brady as a BOC fan- just goes to show you they're everywhere. On second thought maybe Brady just had a fever and every knows the only cure is, "More Cowbell."