Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

This year it was just Andrew and I for Thanksginving and I cooked all of the fixings for us. A feast for two. I gave my folks a call to wish them a Happy Turkey day and my dad placed his cell phone on speaker phone. I talked to my cousin, brother, dad, and mom all at once, it was a little hard to hear everyone at the same time. I miss them all so much. They were all up at my aunt and uncles home having a feast. We tried calling his folks but left a voice mail, they were out and we didn't get a hold of them.
When I was in the kitchen cooking everything, our dog, Duke, was so curious with everything I was doing and if I would feed him any scraps. He was wagging his tail the whole time, Andrew had to keep him occupied in the living room for most of the time so that he wouldn't get under foot. It took me about an hour and 45 minutes to cook everything. The turkey was so easy, it was an all white meat "turkey" which came in a box with an orange glaze to drizzle over the turkey. It was so delicious. I also made my yams in little orange bowls and some cranberry sauce from scratch and mashed potatoes.

My specialty yams served in little orange bowls.I usually top the yams off with mini marshmallows, but I forgot to buy some. Our turkey from a box...turned out delicious.

I was dishing up our plates, and Duke was so patient and cute like he wanted some of our feast also. I grabbed a small plate to serve some turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes to give to Duke. (photo below) He was such a happy dog, and ate the whole plate.

This weekend I have off of work, which is a good time to get christmas decorations up everywhere in the house. I am so excited, having a home to decorate this year. I have a fire place mantle for the stockings, stair case for garland and a big corner to put up a tree. HomeDepot has a good selection on faux trees, ones that are already pre-lit. K-Mart always has a nice selection of ornaments and trim there, thanks to Martha S. so I might stop there too.

Happy Holidays everyone! Leave a comment on here letting me know how you are all doing and what your plans are for the season.

Learning to be a home owner.

Andrew and I are still learning through trial and error about being home owners. We killed our lawn but the crab grass is all gone now! HaHa. We raked leaves the other day, in the back yard and only got half the yard done. My bright idea was to rake it all up in 2 piles, then Andrew could bag it up…

Andrew, "what do I use to pick up the piles???"
Martiel, "Here, use the snow shovel!?"
Andrew, "OK..."

The snow shovel worked perfectly! A nice big shovel came in handy for more than just using it for snow…which we have not even used it yet for snow, because we bought the house last spring and have not had any snow to deal with yet. We have the shovel though…and we are prepared to use it! I am just glad we have a two car garage now! No more scraping the ice/frost off the windows in the morning while we are running late to get to work. YEAH!

Fall Weather

Right at this very moment, the weather report shows the same temps for back home, in California, and here in St louis, MO. My moms house is at 55 degrees, my inlaws house is at 59 degrees, and here at home in MO is 54 degrees. I thought to check the weather report because people around here are starting to say it is getting cold...I am not quite cold yet. Since the weather will only get colder here with snow added on top of the temperature, it could only get colder!

This 50 or so degrees does not seem all too cold for my yet, and my coworker said, "you're not cold? and you are from sunny california?" I said, "No, because this is the same type of weather we have back home! I am use to this cool weather." I checked yahoo.com for the weather temps, and sure enough in all three towns the temps were actually the same for once.

Funny Conversations

Every now and then I get caught up in silly conversations, where it is so ridiculous it sounds like we are talking right out of a sitcom comedy.

Last year when I was working at a retail shop I was unpacking a box of new arrivals with a coworker. My coworker pulls out some new throw pillows, in an orange design.
...unpacking new shipment and placing the product on the shelf with a coworker...

Coworker: " these pillows have cute the patterns but they are all in Orange."
Martiel: "What is wrong with the orange?"
Coworker: "I don't like orange, but I like these pillows."
Martiel: "Do you like Blue?"
Coworker: "I love Blues! I have some blue in my decor at home."
Martiel: "well the color orange is blue's complementary color..."
Martiel: "therefor you should like orange as an accent color to use in your home like this pillow"
....Hitting her on her shoulder with the orange throw pillow....

It was a funny moment, something straight out of a sitcom.

...Turning my car in to the auto body shop...

Martiel: "hello, I am here to get my car fixed."
Shop guy: "ok, I will just jot down some information about your vehicle."
Martiel: " I am driving the Mazda parked out side."
Shop Guy: "What color is your car?"
Martiel: "Mocha"
Shop Guy: "Excuse me? Brown?"
Martiel: "no, not brown, more like tan or Mocha"
Shop Guy: "Ok, beige"... and starts to write in beige on his form.
Martiel: "It is not beige, it is tan, oh what ever I don't think it matters."

I am a lady with knowlage of colors, and I have noticed that guys usually do not know colors by shades and just know the basic color pallet. It was so funny, when he asked me the color of my car, because I just said what the actual color was from when I bought it. I am pretty sure when I picked the car color, the color chip was named Mocha! Just like my other car before this one was called "Sand" Which in color terms for guys is Beige!

Working at the hotel....I see Johnie the bellman as I stop in to pick up a paycheck.

Johnie: "Hi Martiel, saying it in a "rude way"
Martiel: "Hello to you to Johnie"
(not realizing he was being rude)
Johnie: "I'm sorry, don't mean to be rude"
Martiel:"You are not rude. "
Jonnie: "Yes I was..."
Martiel: "You can only be rude if the person you are being rude to believes that you are rude to them...I didn't think you were rude to me...therefor you are not rude."
Jonnie: "Come agian?"
We just started laughing. My logic some how makes sence to me, but once I started my explanation, it just came out all complicated and funny.

Andrew and I were saying something about the future when we get around to having kids.

Martiel: ".......Kids"
Andrew: "Singular, not plural!"
Martiel: "what?"
Andrew: "you said the word KIDS with an S, we are only planning on having a kid - singular, not kids with an S, so far..."

I am constantly coming across funny moments with people like these situations. Funny times like straight out of sitcom, it makes life fun and filled with laughter, and giggles.

Our 1st Halloween in a house!

This was our first Halloween living in a home, and in a nieghborhood with kids. In the past few years...9 to be exact we have lived in apartments. Kids do not really trick or treat in apartment complexes, so we usually do not have any trick or treaters on Halloween night; and yet I still buy the bags of candy hoping for some costumed cuties to knock on our door and say, "Trick or Treat."

This year we are no longer living in apartments and actually had trick or treaters visit!!! I am not talking about 3 or 5 or even 10 at the most, we had 47 kids knock on our door! I am glad I bought just the right amount of candy, by the end of the night we were down to one Musketeer, and two Worthers originals in our candy bowl.

I was so excited to get trick or treaters this year that I jotted down the different costumes and kept a running tally of how many people came to our door.

Totals:
Girls: 30 Boys: 16 Trick or Treated

Costumes:
Coolest costume was a toss up between the "Garden gnome" and the Woopie Cushion! HAHA!

Witch: 2
Ninja Turtle: 3
Cowboys: 3
Fairy: 2
Go Go Dancer: 1
Geesha girls: 5
Vampire: 2
Hannah Montana: 1
(surprisingly, I thought there would be more girls dressed up as her this year, from the popularity of the High School Musical Movie, and Disney tv show)

Pirate: 2
Belle: 2
Princess Leah 1
Snow White 1
Black Spiderman 1
Sports guy 1
Black Ninja 1
Skeleton 1
Bride 1

Don't Fall Back YET!

Growing up I was use to the daylight savings time to "fall back" an hour on the Saturday night before Halloween. This was always an easy way to remember the date to when we are suppose to go around the house changing all of the clock times. THIS YEAR, 2007 starts the first year time change will be occuring the Saturday AFTER Halloween!


This is confusing, what is the reason to changing this traditional time change from one weekend to the next? I heard one reason for this change is to some how save energy. How is one weekend going to save enough energy to throw a curve ball in peoples plans to fall back an hour?

My computer automatically switched back an hour following the traditional time change date. I guess I will be off by an hour all week until we officially change over.

Silliness.

Happy Fall

Now that I live in a state that has actual seasons, I love this time of year! Fall time! Growing up in California was a year round weather with little bursts of change here and there. Mostly the weather was cool, and foggy in the morning. NO rain, NO snow, NO seasonal differences. Now we live in Missouri and we had: Blooming spring with bunnies hopping in our back yard, humid summers sipping on a tall glass of lemonade, colorful fall leaves and crisp air and soon back to Wintry white snow fall and pretty ice-trees. Each season is distinctive and beautiful in each way. I love the seasonal changes.

This will be how ever our first snow falls with a drive way to deal with this year. The past 2 winters were spent in apartments and some one else shoveled the drive ways and sidewalks. Our house doesn't come with a grounds keeper, so this will be a new challenge for us to learn how to do each morning that there will be snow. A plus side is we have a 2 car garage and can save 10-15 minutes by not having to scrape the frost and snow off of the cars. Staying parked in the garage will be a big benefit to having a house this winter.

Back to Fall time. I love the trees changing colors right before my very eyes. Each time I drive down the street and see the same batch of trees I see different shades popping up. One day the trees were all green, and then little bits of yellow were spread around leaf to leaf. Now the trees are all different with some in full colors of Maroon, orange, yellow, and some still green. It is sooooo beautiful and breathtaking to drive to work now. I keep thinking that I want to pull over and take some photos of the tree changing process, but when I am in the car I am usually on my way some where and I do not have time to stop and photograph all of nature’s beauty.
The photos I am posing on here today are some of LAST YEARS photos taken around here during the fall time. I have Sunday off of work, I think I will grab Andrew and we will go for a drive taking fall photos.

Holiday Crime FYI

The holiday criminals are starting early this holiday season. I work at a hotel and already we are being warned to look out for people paying with counterfit. There is something about the holiday hussle and bussle of the busy season that bad guys find ways to rip off retail and companies, people in general. So beware, and hold onto the strap of your purse and check your pockets often for pick pocketers...


I was working on Friday night, and a lady paid with a $500 travelors check. It stood out as a red light just for being a high dollar amount, then it looked a little fake. I showed it to my superviser then she showed it to the bellman, we all were not too sure about the quality if it was real or not...so I took it as payment but did not give her change for the difference in total. I told her she would have to collect her change at check out. A second bad guy checks in the following day trying to pay with another $500 travelors check... SIRONS AND RED LIGHTS are flashing and going off in my head. DO NOT take this... it is FAKE!!! It looked even worse than the other conterfit travelors check. This was too couinsedental for it to be a legit travelors check. Security caught up with the bad guys, called the police and they were arrested!

Bad guys never win. So don't even try. Bad charma will follow you and you will eventually get caught. Let's keep the holidays cheerful and out of trouble.

This will probably worsen over time as we get closer to the holiday rush. For those who work in retail, hospitality, or even restaraunts keep an extra eye out for those bad guys. They will try to pay using counterfit bills and travelors checks.

We are back from Montreal!

PHOTO to post soon...The view from our Hotel room, Down town Montreal, Canada.

Andrew and I had a wonderful time on our trip to Montreal. We celebrated our five year wedding anniversary, eating belgian waffles and walking the streets of Montreal.

It was beautiful everywhere we went. We went to the St. Josephs Cathedral, Notre Dame, Hard Rock Cafe, and old montreal. The locals are all bilingual, speaking both French and English. The signs are mostly in french, such as the Stop sign pictured below. "Arre`t"

The entrance to St. Josephs has three levels of stairs to walk up to get to the Cathedral. The locals call the stairs "miracle steps." Some people kneel on each step praying on their way up the stairs. For those who want to by pass the kneelers can walk up the steps to the side of them and head sttraight up to the top. Once we got inside the cathedral there were hundreds of walking canes and crutches hanging in the alcoves of the walls from people who did not need thier canes any longer after walking up the "miracle stairs."


I made it to the top of the miracle stairs!

I took a photo of this Monk who was walking so peacfully down the stairs. He is holding some roseary beads in his hand.

The next day we went to the Imax theater, down by the water. We watched a 3D film about the dinosours. 3D has come a long way from the Back to the Future days. Instead of wearing the blue and red lenses the 3D glasses are clear lens and the 3D effect comes right up in your face and I found myself reaching out to touch the dinosours tail, and caught Andrew doing it a few times too. The show was very realistic.

Andrew and I spent the day on Thursday at a park which resembled a park similar to New Yorks Central Park. There was a beautiful lake for people to paddle boat in and also feed the ducks and coy fish. Much to my surprise there were seagulls there also. The Seagulls reminded me of Morro Bay.

We were walking down town Old Montreal, and I had to take a photo of the Salon across the street. It is called, SNOB Salon. I guess in English translation this salon is for snobby people to get thier hair styled at??? Funny. Next door the cafe should be renamed as Brat Cafe, to set a theme.

The night life of Montreal is down town on Crecent street with pubs and restaraunts to hang out. Andrew enjoyed a Sam Adams and I had my Appletini. Next door to the bar was a Hard Rock Cafe where I collect my sovenier pin.

I was taken away by the beauty and intricate arcetectural detail of the Notre Dame. The Notre Dame is a replica of the one built in Paris only 2 feet shorter. See photos posted. The cathedral looked like a castle both inside and out. Photo of the streets in old Montreal on the corner where Notre Dame is. The Notre Dame is a replica of the Notre Dame in Paris, except it is 2 feet shorter. This the inside view of Notre Dame, so magnifisant and looks like a castle.

photo of the side of the Notre Dame, magnifisant stone figures. Here is a close up of one of the statues.

We are in Montreal Canada!

Andrew and I are celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary. We traveled to Montreal Canada and are having a lovely time.

We made it to Montreal safetly. It is a very nice Marriott and next door is a Hilton which we will end up staying for free starting Tuesday using Andrews Diamond Member Points and we are staying the 1st two nights free using my Marriott gift card which I got from work. Our cell phones are roaming so it will cost too much to use our cells here. So we are communicating through emails instead.

I ordered Partridge (bird) for dinner tonight, it was delicious. Andrew ordered a lobster with chant rel mushrooms pasta, which was also good, and we shared a caramel flan with fresh fruits for dessert.

We will be checking out the old Montreal, St. Joeseph Oratory, and Notre Dame to name a few places.

There was a snag in our travel arrangements that we are squeezing by on. My maiden name is KING typed on my Passport and I go by HAY (married name) on the plain tickets!!! We have been sliding through by bringing along our marriage license. UGH! So far so good. If I can't get back into the USA on Saturday, we will have to become Illegal Aliens! Just Kidding, no worries, it will some how work out.

I emailed this to my dad in-law and he replied back saying he will take care of our new car for us if we get stuck in Canada and can't get back to the states...joking back I replied saying that he could just arrange for our new car to be shipped to us. Oh and can he also ship our dog Duke out to us? That would be greatly appreciated...HAHAHA. No worries though the marriage license is working and getting me past check points with my maiden name not matching up with my current name on the plane tickets. We will (should) be back to the states on Saturday as planned. Then it will back to work for the both of us as usual. LOL.

I will post photos later at the end of the trip.

50 Random Questions

1. You have $5 and need to buy snacks at a gas station. What do you buy?
-- Ranch Corn-nuts, Juicy fruit and a Sobe drink

2. If you were reincarnated as a sea creature, what would you want to be?
-- Seahorse! Make the males be pregnant! HA!

3. Favorite redhead?
-- Lucial Ball

4. What do you order when you're at IHOP?
-- Belgian Waffle with strawberries and whip cream

5. Last book you read?
-- The Secret

6. Favorite Holiday?
-- 4th of July

7. Describe the last time you were injured:
-- Winter 2007 I slipped on the ice after it snowed, hurt my knee. I grew up in Cali, I have to get use to walking in snow!

8. Of all your friends, who would you want to be stuck in a well with?
-- HUH? This isn't an old B/W show with a dog in it named Lassie....

9. Rock concert or symphony?
-- Rock N Roll is good for your soul!

10. What is the wallpaper of your mobile phone?
-- a martini glass

11. Fizzy drink?
-- Fresca

12. Left or Right?
-- Left, and I hate when people have to point out that I am a "South Paw" or Lefty.
Recently I have responded back, "yep, all my life!" I am going to start pointing out to people that they are right handed and say, "I see you're a North Paw"

13. If you could only use one form of transportation for the rest of your life what would it be?
-- flying car (Jetson style)

14. Most recent movie you've watched at the cinema?
-- Cant remember, I think it was Fantastic Four.

15. How much was gas today?
-- $2.64

16. What's your favorite kind of cake?
-- Cheese cake

17. What did you have for dinner last night?
-- Garlic bread and Bertolli’s pasta with sausage

18. Look to your left, what do you see?
-- the window looking out to the front yard and driveway

19. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
-- No, I step on each heel OR I flop them off if the shoes are flip-flops!

20. Favorite toy as a child?
-- Micro-minis or Hot Wheels

21. Do you buy your own food?
-- No, I steal little girl’s lollypops and eat off of other people’s plates in restaurants.

22. Do you think people talk about you behind your back?
-- Yeah, it’s called “office drama”

23. When's the last time you had a sour gummy worm?
-- When I was at the restaurant stealing the girls’ lollypop, I took her brothers sour gummy worms!

24. What's your favorite fruit?
-- Do you count Apples if it is a flavor of a Martini? ;)

25. Do you have a picture of yourself doing a cartwheel?
-- Hold on…let me go get my camera!

26. Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
-- I have friends that are girls and friends that are boys…so yes.

27. Have you ever eaten snow?
-- Yes, but stay away from the yellow snow!

28. What color are your bed sheets?
-- Striped

29. What's your mom's favorite flower?
-- Lavender

30. Have you ever done ballet?
-- Yes, but I quit after I my teacher came to Ballet class with a broken leg one day and I thought I would get a broken leg too if I kept up the Ballet. (No joke! I was in 1st or 2nd grade)

31. Do you listen to classical music?
-- Sure

33. Do you watch Spongebob?
-- NO, but I meet him at City Walk once.

34. Last food you ate?
-- Top Raman

35. Do people consider you intelligent?
-- The stupid people do.

36. What time is it?
-- 3:49 in MO, 1:49 in CA, and 5:49 the next day in Korea…

37. Is your away message on?
-- yes

38. Have you ever tried gluing your fingers together?
-- many times

39. What curse word do you use the most?
-- Cr*p

40. What should you be doing right now besides answering these questions?
-- sleeping, it is past my beddy by time.

41. What time is your alarm clock set for?
--730 am

42. What CD is currently in your CD player?
- Beach Boys (Thanks Gen)

43. What movie do you know every line to?
-- BIG

44. What is your favorite salad dressing?
-- Ranch, it is the multipurpose dressing! Good with veggies, pizza, chicken wings, and salad.

45. Would you ever date someone covered in tattoos?
-- yeah, but can’t I am married.

46. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
-- 29

47. Do you enjoy giving hugs?
-- ****hugs****

48. Last time you had butterflies in your stomach?
-- My job interview. Got the job (6 months and loving it)

49. What's the way people most often mispronounce any part of your name?
-- Mary-L or Mar-teal UGH!

50. If you were to become famous, would you drop your last name?
-- no, because people might get me confused with the other Martiels who are famous.

I Found a Local Speed Trap!

I was driving home the other night after work and found a speed trap. I was even rewarded with my very own speeding ticket. My very first (and hopefully the last) speeding ticket in the 12+ years that I have been driving! UGH!

The officer was staked at the intersection after my usual exit, at the base of a hill. Normally I am exiting the freeway before his stake out location, and I am already slowing down to make my exit. But the other night was different, instead of my usual slowing down for my regular exit, I wanted to take the following exit (down the hill) to get to the grocery store. I continued on past up my exit...not slowing down plus there was the added down hill speed, and the cop caught me in a speed trap! Just at the top of the hill is the speed limit changing from 50 mph to 45 mph then the exit, the hill, and the cop. Apparently I was "clocked" at driving 61 mph in the 45mph zone.

glitter-graphics.com

The frustrating part to all of this is that I SAW the cop parked off to the side waiting for people to zoom by. When I saw him, I was already past the first exit and down the hill and had slowed down to 45 mph. I though to myself as I saw the cop pull out of his nook and started to drive on the same high way, "cool he caught somebody speeding" He turned on his lights, I moved into the next lane over to let him by...only to figure out he was moving over to my lane behind ME! He was PULLING ME OVER!??? I did not see that coming! As he handed me the ticket, I wrapped it up with a, "Thank you, no wait, NO Thank you..." The cop replied, "I understand, have a good night."

Get Simpsonized!

With all of the hype of the new Simpson movie coming out to theaters, there is a Simpson website. I went to the website to create my personalized Simpson character. She is named Martiel. You can also go to the site.

http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html?cid=us&deeplink=avatar&deeplink2=undefined

Create your very own Simpson character and place the cartoon version of your self in a background of Springfield. See the avitar below (Martiel is walking down town Springfield) She is trying to find Moes Bar.

Here's The 411, To Get It Straight

I just found out about straight irons, and what a wonder it can do for straight hair! I know about curling irons for curling hair and straight irons for straightening curly hair, but I never thought to use a straight iron for straight hair. I love this "new hair tip." I was at the mall earlier this week and went to Regis Hair Salon to add some red low lights to my hair. The stylist finished my hair up with a straight iron and it made my hair shiny and smooth! All just by using this straight iron. I went to the store the very next day and bought a Straight iron. I plan on straighting my hair daily now to get that shinny, smooth look to my regularly frizzed out, straight hair.

Don't laugh now, this may be an old hair trick to some of my blog readers, but I just wanted to share with all of you about straight irons. It never occured to me to use a straight iron on straight hair. I am sharing the 411 to get it straight! (pun intended)

4th of July...

I better talk about our 4th of July festivities before it becomes AUGUST!

Our Fourth of July was a blast from the past! Our friends from Ohio drove out to St. Louis to visit us for the Fourth and see the firework show down by the Arch. We used my hotel discount to stay downtown and walked down to the Arch from there.

Starting around 3:30 we all decided to buy tickets to ride to the top of the Arch, which was a first for all of us, and was too cool! The St. Louis Arch is 630 feet tall as it is also 630 wide. The Arch is the “Gateway to promised lands” St. Louis was a breaking point or pit-stop before moving on closer to the West coast and making it to California to search for gold and fortune. People were migrating from the East coast in wagons and on horses to the West coast. Missouri marks the Midwest, and the Gateway Arch is like a giant doorway welcoming people across to the other side of the Mississippi River.

We all rode up to the top of the arch in these little, egg-shaped, pods with 5 seats in each. The egg-shaped pods reminded me of the Mork and Mindy TV Show, where Robin Williams’s character lands in a similar egg-shaped pod. We got to the top of the Arch; there are little, rectangular viewing windows to look out on the cities horizon and to the river side sky line. The views were beautiful. We even watched the helicopter rides land on the small concrete landing spot down by the river. I also took a photo of the Ariel view of the Bush Stadium, for the Cardinals.



After we explored the Arch we headed over to the festivities and bought some hot dogs with horse radish and a coke, totaling $6. Over priced vendor foods! Later we each had a $2 Snow cone, I wanted to get 3 flavors but it would cost an additional dollar!!! So I stuck to 2 flavors…Lime and Orange. Everyone else ate the solid red or solid blue flavors! The red and blue are what I call the “safe flavors” and not wanting to venture out.

We settled down into the crowd on the cement steps below the arch just before the free concert was about to start. Cindy Lauper was the guest singer, FREE! I might add. She sang her usual 80’s hit songs and some new songs as well. I tried taking a clear photo of her on stage, and also video taped her singing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
Cindy has short, lavender, hair and tiny as ever.

Here is a photo of Carly's oldest daughter, Amber and I during the fireworks show. She has pretty, long hair to play with and braid while rocking out to Cindy Lauper. I had a fun time hang out with her and the kids. I can't wait to have kids of our own soon. After the free concert of Cindy Lauper the firework show started up over the river. The fireworks reflected in the water beautifully. Andrew and I were watching the firework show and enjoying every moment of it.

MO Botanical Gardens

Once again, Mother Nature takes my breath away. I went to the Botanical Gardens here in St. Louis, Missouri with my friend Carissa. We took our cameras along and took beautiful photographs of the landscaping through out the Gardens. There is a pound section with sculptures, fountains to make a wish at, rose gardens, a garden maze to walk through, a Japanese garden, and so much more in between filled with beauty. The photos are taken by Martiel Hay, June 2007.

To pause the slide show move the computer mouse over the photo, this will also show a title for the particular photo.

I highly recommend a trip to the St. Louis Botanical Gardens, it is breath taking. Come out here and visit us and we will go together on a flower expedition!

Happy Birthday to You & You & You!

It is Summer Birthday season! Too many to try counting...I may have even forgot some, I am usually good at sending out a birthday card to my friends and family on thier B-days. If I forgot any of you, Happy belated birthday!


Starting with June 1 was Andrew's 29th birthday! We went out to Red Robin for dinner with our friends Marlon and Carissa. This is his last year of being "20 something". Next year with be the dreaded 3-0! I am not sure why so many people dread the big 30, even to an extent that they start fibbing about their age and say that they are 29, 28, 20 something. We will see what happens next year when we both turn 30 and find out what the fuss is all about. I am currious if I will proudly say that I am 30 or if I will join the group of fibbers and hold on to the age of 28/29.

A week later was our friend, Kim's Birthday. She lives out in Cali-for-nia, so we sent her a card with birthday wishes.

Then our friend April's birthday was at the end of June. Three of my coworkers had birthdays all with in one week!


Now it is July and both my dad's birthday and my cousins birthday are on the same day, July 3rd. There is the rest of July and all of August coming up for even more Summer birthdays. Including my own! I will be 29 this August the 19th. My brother ends the summer up with his birthday on September 1st turning 23. I can't believe how many birthdays there are this Summer.

Our Dog Has a Mullett!

It is summer time and the weather is getting hot and humid. Our dog, Duke has black, long, fur. I decided to take Duke over to Pet Smart for a grooming, when the groomer asked me how short I wanted his hair to be, I paused for a moment to think this through...I didn't want it to be too short, and I like his fluffy ears and long tail....I told her to trim down the hair for summer but keep the tail and ears alone. He also had long fur on the back of his legs, which I said to trim off also. In my mind I thought he would look good all trimmed up and he would also be less hot in the summer heat with out the long fur. Andrew picked Duke up from the groomers and I was at work, he text messaged me, "what happened to Duke? He looks so funny! all of his fur is gone." I could not wait to get home to see what he looked like and find out what Andrew was talking about.

With out the long fur on the back of his legs, they now look skinny, and with out the long fur on his body/torso his tail looks super fluffy...like a Mullet. His fur is short and then long, it is out of proportion like a mullet! We were calling him "Mullet Dog".

Here are some before and afters of our poor Duke, the Mullet dog.
BEFORE: With a long neck line, long fur, long tail, and furry legs.Duke has his "cigar" in his mouth. AFTER: No neck line, skinny legs, short fur, with a fluffy tail... Mullet Dog with his baby teddybear out on the deck! BEFORE: Long Neck line of fur. Duke hanging out in the rain.
AFTER: Short fur all over, no more neck line, and now he has the long furry ears remaining and it looks funny. The new Duke all trimmed back, chillin on his window seat in our living room.