08.26.07

How I spent my Summer Vacation….

Posted in Main, Mind Wanderings, outings at 5:20 am by carrie

and spring one, too…
Since I’m so behind, I’m going to post 5 months worth of pictures… here.

My Mom’s Birthday in Las Vegas. The birthday girl, along with Pam, made US cupcakes for the ride out through the desert, I guess that would make it dessert in the desert. (I never said I was hilarious… or did I?) This one is for ME! See, a “C”!
I don’t know why I thought this was so amusing… a bunch of guys and a TON of beer… being wheeled in on a nice bellhop’s cart. Neat. (Identities have been carefully altered to protect the innocent.)
THIS is what we came to see!!!
We stayed at the Mirage. The entry has a wonderful tropical garden theme going on. Your hard-earned gambling dollars at work.

More lush gardens… “oooh… ahhhhh”. Uh-huh. Where’s Siegfried?

Mirage’s lovely pool. We read that they have the best pool on the strip…

The back side of water!!! You can walk underneath the waterfall (which is quite deafening, btw) to the other side of the pool!


The view from our room


Our little dining companion


Very cool entry…


Okay… just need to say this… I LOVE Cirque Du Soleil. O is amazing, Ka… anything in a tent in Santa Monica, I love it. I guess… growing up with the Beatles and naming stuffed animals after their song characters put a very definite image in my head of each song. Combine that with emotions and love for the boys and bam, you have a recipe for disaster a la king. I expected the performances to be the little stories and animations in my head come to life. Somehow, I figured that everyone saw the same thing that I did and related to their music in the same way. It’s like… take the most magical music, stick the most whimsical sets in as a backdrop, throw in some acrobatics and put them together. You think… out of body experience, right? But… alas… we came to the conclusion that this was more interpretive dance than true Cirque. Moments of beauty, moments of cliche and moments of… “what the…?!?!” If you go in with an open mind, you will love it. I, on the other hand, am a brat. I won’t talk specifics but… all I have to say… lucy was in the sky, and indeed, there were diamonds.

Next…

This is a normal Sunday (when Nathan is not on call) around here. We stop being lazy at about 3:30 then get reaaallly bored. “Hey… what do you want to do?” “I dunno, what do YOU want to do?”
We do that for about another 30 minutes then leash the hound and head out on the open road. This particular Sunday we ended up at Sequoia National Forest. I’ve never been… and with 80 full minutes of sunlight to see the magnificent trees, it made our adventure even… more… errr… abbreviated, yet memorable.

Oh, the picture… cherries on the side of the road on the way up.
The hike down to see General Sherman. It’s not kidding.

I didn’t know trees came in XXXXXL.
And here is the main attraction… the General. Top Half.

Bottom Half.
Moss!


Okay, I thought these only existed at California Adventure. (p.s… I think we should do the gnome-around-the-world gag with our dog)

I didn’t believe the postcards… That’s a truck nestled between those trees.
And an attractive porcelain deer… although, this one is real.

And on to our next adventure in July… LA to Florida to NC via 3 other states…

Our first adventure on this trip was us nearly missing our flight… We had a stop-over for what should have been 45 minutes. I’m not going to say anything, you can just look at the pictures…

Can anyone take a wild guess? But we were up in “vegas” for the second time… ever.

We stayed at the Yacht Club while in Walt Disney World… only my favorite place in the whole wide world. The Yacht Club hasn’t been my favorite resort destination on their property… but I’m glad we got to try it out.
A very lovely shot that Nathan took at the Yacht Club Dock to get into Epcot.
Ahh… Epcot… how we love you so. But, alas… on this trip, we almost had a date with disaster (I’m thinking in the tone of E!’s true Hollywood story narrator).
It was here at the World Showcase Mexican restaurant that the horrifying event occured… (although, this place looks awesome!)
THIS rock was in Nathan’s refried black beans. Holy Frijoles! (there I go again) In the darkness, he thought he had broken his front tooth. It was horrible. We got this mystery solid out into the light and we couldn’t believe it… a rock. This ruined our day. I contacted customer care and got a call back from a guy who… well… thinks mole-hills are still big. “Where I come from, finding a rock in your food tells you that it’s FRESH! So, you know that we use fresh food… although, this was an outside vendor and… **lame excuse here**” I love Disney. I mean… love them. This phone call… well… Disney thinks I’m an idiot. They think Nathan’s teeth aren’t important. This guy must not have any teeth because he comes from the land of quarry-a gratin. My Disney Love… down a few notches. That’s all. And I hope they read this, and that mouse, too.

We still had fun, despite the rock… on the people mover… which is being retired (rumor has it).


We always see the strangest things on or near Tom Sawyer’s Island. Last time, a gator (I need to dig up that picture and share!), this year… a very evil crane! Hard to see him, he’s on top of the wagon o’ beverages staring RIGHT at you in an evil-ish sort of way.

Okay… so we left WDW with all of our marbles and ran to the airport to go to NC. Delta had a pilot, but not a first captain. Then they had a first captain but no pilot. We ended up not having a crew so the flight was cancelled. They weren’t going to guarantee us a flight… only say… “errrr, maybe you’ll get there tomorrow??” So, we took matters into our own hands and rented a car!

“You’ll drive the first half and I’ll drive the second!” I said.
I slept through all of Georgia. I was way too tired to drive, Nathan was chivalrous enough to finish the 8 hour drive. We got to Durham, talked to our friends for 15 minutes then passed out. The day was a blur. And I had pictures from that day but they are lost in camera-land. Boo.

We did, however… have some pictures of our visit with Martha Stewart…. her homes, that is! In conjunction with KB homes, Ms. Stewart designed (or whatever) some lovely homes in the Raleigh area. Do you think she had anything to do with this besides point to that color green she always picks? I’m skeptical, but I loved the houses.

We didn’t get any pictures of the outsides for some reason… but we did get some interior shots…



First of all, this is my Cousin’s little girl, Kate… she should be a little spokesperson for KB because, let’s face it… babies sell. (isn’t she pretty darn adorable?)

I have to admit, the homes were nicely decorated but I hope that’s not why people were buying them. The interiors and floorplans were okay, one was bad (bedroom directly off the front entry). They all had a craftsman-feel inside. And I really only saw three exterior designs: Craftsman, farmhouse and one beachy/cottage-farmhouse. Again… some impressive details but… the planes flying loudly overhead, would have detoured me quickly.
My cousin Allison in one of the model kitchens.
Allison’s 2 youngest… Riley and Kate!
Back in Cary, NC, Mojo the french bulldog was dreaming about… treats and cooler weather.
The Q Shack. How I miss thee. I had some hush puppies, a chicken sandwich and Cheer Wine. Some good stuff. A bit o’ trivia… in the south and south-ish, you have to ask for your iced tea “unsweetened” if you don’t want a sugar syrup in it. By default, your tea will come loaded with sugar. Now you know.
Armadillos are funny. Even funnier when they are right under the menu holding a beer and… stuffed.
Nathan snapped this and said I should post it in the store!



This is how I will remember North Carolina… being lost. Even with our little GPS we couldn’t find anything… but a waffle house (dang it, they are everywhere!). We had a great time seeing everyone and are really looking forward to our second trip out this next week (yes, we missed them that much). We’re staying at the beach for a few days, should be a lot of fun :)

Jiminy Crickets! It’s 5:30 am!!! See, this is why I don’t blog… I get carried away ;) Have a great rest of the weekend everyone! :)

07.21.07

our trip, day five

Posted in Main, outings at 11:34 pm by carrie

we crashed on scott and alicia’s couch for 4 hours,had our first meal in 24 hours then checked into our awesome hotel at duke university’s golf course. we got to wander around durham’s historical downtown and have coffee and eclairs at the mad hatter bakery. we returned our rental car (one-way rate) for a new one then got totally lost. turns out our gps unit is not updated with the area’s new roads, and there is construction everywhere. so a 1 hr trip took 3. with little sleep and a low tolerance for more time in the car, i sort of turned evil. but we just had room service and i’m in my jammies,so this monster is subdued, for now ;)

our trip, day four

Posted in Main, outings at 11:25 pm by carrie

started the day with a trip to epcot. stopped in mexico at the world showcase to have lunch. we had a deep conversation about how mexican food is so much better in california and CRUNCH! nathan bit down on a ROCK embedded in his refried beans. we discussed this with the manager, who was nice but not very concerned. we were relieved no teeth were broken, but it sure was scary!

delta, oh boy, have you made 40 people very unhappy with you. first, disney scheduled us for the wrong time to depart on the airport shuttle, twice then our shuttle was delayed 30 minutes… everyone was nervous and irritated as we made our was to the orlando int’l airport. then we got 3 different emails from delta that our 5:50pm flight to North Carolina would be delayed, ultimately until 10:45 pm. after lots of waiting, our flight was cancelled. our entertainment for the evening was a highly entoxicated female executive who would slur her explitives at the front desk staff. as the story was told, the pilot finally showed up but then the first officer could not be found so we didn’t have a crew, yet it took them almost 4hours to figure this out. very unorganized. there were only 40 or so angry passengers, so nathan and i decided to wait to be last. we listened to each passenger argue their way into the hotel of their own choice…mostly the nicer hyatt hotel in the airport. when it was our turn we were offered the quality inn on the highway and the possibility to get on a plane bound for raleigh/durham at 11:45 am, but no guarantee. we discussed our options, other flights (they wouldn’t put us on a non-delta plane) and their “absolutely no guarantee” approach and decided we would leave our marbles in orlando and rent a car. we started driving and just over 9 hours later, we landed at scott and alicia’s. needless to say, delta will be getting a call and letter from us the second we get back. again, another over 24 hour day on this trip. ugh. quite the adventure though, 4 states in one night :)

our trip, day three

Posted in Main, outings at 10:54 pm by carrie

very busy going on assorted rides at the magic kingdom and epcot. we had a wonderful dinner at Ohana at the polynesian resort then run back to epcot to go on test track. so much fun! collectively, we have about 15 blisters, but that’s the small price to pay for fun in florida. lightning and rain storms don’t phase any of the park goers… wow.

07.18.07

our trip, day two

Posted in Main, outings at 3:06 pm by carrie

What a day! Going into 2 now… We have been up for 30 hours now, and as much as i would like to stay up and explore our hotel some more, we just are too exhausted! I learned 2 things, no, make that 3, over the last 12 hours:
1. Having a layover at the las vegas airport is good and bad. While we were up $140 on video poker, our listening ears shut off and we were just a few minutes from missing our flight. I happened to ask, knowing the plane was running late (but just not how late). They had to call and hold the plane for us. When we got inside everyone was seated and the overhead compartments were all closed! Eeek! How embarrasing!

2. I am no longer 15 or a single digit dress size. Plane seats are sooo uncomfy and we both could not sleep on the red eye as I had envisioned. Grumpy and achey, we got to our hotel at 7 am. Room wouldn’t be ready until 3. We reluctantly guzzled some coffee and hit epcot and animal kingdom.

3. Remember how i said i wasn’t 15 anymore? Well, it became even more apparent when we ran over to partake in their latest ride “Expedition Everest”. The buzz is, this ride is classic Disney; imaginative, lots of details and surprises. I had no idea. Starts out okay, everyone is “woo”ing and yelling. We go up, down, around and up… And wait. Mr. Confident single rider is putting his arms up in front of us, i look at his watch… Then we plunge backwards into the dark, in some sort of death spiral. I start hyper-ventilating and try to concentrate on breathing, eyes closed tight, feeling faintish. Anyone else out there forget to breathe on roller coasters or is it just me? The coolest part was the 15 foot realistic yeti, just how it looks in the wild ;)

Okay, time to pass out…can’t wait to share our pics and more stories!!

07.17.07

Our trip, day one

Posted in Main, outings at 9:19 pm by carrie

First stop, vegas. We’re currently sitting in the mccarren airport, using their wifi and waiting for our connecting flight. I haven’t been in this airport in ages! Slot machines, neon… It’s pretty nifty! Next stop, orlando!!! Our park and ride at lax was quite the experience. Projectile windshield wiper fluid as defense… I’ll explain later. We couldn’t stop laughing though. It’s one of those awesome moments where we were laughing so hard, that nathan and i couldn’t look at each other or we’d burst into wild giggling again. Oh 5th grade, how i’ve missed you so! Typing from my phone is proving itself awkward, and our food is getting cold. Another report from the field to come soon!

05.21.07

I can blog from anywhere now!

Posted in Main, Mind Wanderings, outings at 9:47 pm by carrie

This could be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it… i got a new phone, bogo (nathan got one for work and mine was freeeee), and it is smarter than my first computer! so now I can bring you all with me everywhere i go! hehe!!

05.09.07

Re-Leash the Hound!

Posted in Fun Stuff, Main, Mind Wanderings, Sharing the Handmade Love, outings at 12:10 am by carrie

Okay, so… it’s another pun, but it makes me giggle more than it should. You see, we like to take our dog everywhere with us and the other night we were in and out of the car quite frequently and I coined the phrase “Re-leash the hound” to get ready for our next mini adventure etc and so on… Use it in a sentence tomorrow, I dare ya!

I’ve been doing the jewelry thing again… thought I would share a few pictures :)


That’s my workspace… anywhere there’s an a/c and cable tv ;)


Here’s a bracelet with Cathi’s beads and tons of dangling crystals… oh, and a loose heart pendant


Just one of my many bead boxes… this one is filled with glass cupcakes, little glass birds and other assorted goodies

A couple pairs of dangle earrings… need to make about 20 more pairs… well, that’s my goal by this Saturday at least ;)
Have I mentioned I have a thing for greens, blues and other ocean colors?

Our water heater is broken and I adore cold showers as much as the next person but… dang it! At least it’s been 90 out lately to counteract the temperature difference of my skin. I loathe hot weather, glad I live in the middle of a desert with a/c boxes that cool a 3 foot semi-circle. Sorry, grumpy… didn’t have my latte today ;)

We did, however, consume the best gelato this side of… errr… Italy. Melt Gelato in Montrose. I thought it was a “mom-and-pop”, but it isn’t! They are tucked in a little 2 story mini mall, hidden among the small businesses. Is this the wave of the future? (I’m slow) Large businesses and franchises disguised as small businesses? No, it’s been around, but I like to create long sentences about it. The gelato was amazing, they also serve crepes and we are definately going back, if not only to take pictures of their gelato sculptures! Pinguino is obsessed with pink berry frozen yogurt… that’s next on the “80 frozen treats in 80 days tour”. I should write a complete essay about frozen dessert movements. Who can forget Heidi’s Frogen Yozurt, Penguin’s Frozen Yogurt, dippin’ dots… and TCBY at the airports (Some of these are still around). Now there is Cold Stone, marble slab, 21 choices and Maggie Moo’s. Funny how the trends move all around. Why do I find this extremely interesting??

So much to do before the weekend… we are offering fresh flowers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday… I’ll post our hours in an official announcement post… aaannnnddd… need to get more Mother’s Day cards printed and jewelry made! Nothing like last minute to keep you going! :)

Important Programming Note!

Oh, and I had a few visitors from BlogLand this weekend! Sandy from Sam I am Creations (and she totally bought a bird that looks just like the one on her header) and her friend Iva (who needs to shoot me an email so I can check out her blog). Okay, I’m so horribly bad about being surprised (although, she did mention that she was coming out… talk about scattered… how do I dress myself?) because my brain just doesn’t work that way. I need to know what’s going on or coming my way every moment or I will make a bit of an ass of myself :) (This includes phone calls from someone who may have *just* left my store!) Sandy introduced herself and mentioned something about receiving a package from me and I thought…. from the giveaway? I JUST sent it, wow! the USPS sure is speedy (it was actually an ebay win from eeeearrrlly that week)! And I totally thought she was someone else and thought of a different blog in my head. Bra-ill-yiant. Me. Thank you. *Bow*.
So, if you come up and introduce yourself… give me approximately 90 seconds to run to the computer, do my “ooooohhhh, that’s YOU!” bobbing, nodding head thing… then re-introduce yourself. It may just sink in after that. I never said I was smart.
(*I’m good with puns though*)


Lastly…


Here’s Meg telling me we should hit the road again… it’s too hot in the house and she’s wishing the entire house was made out of ceramic tile! :)

Have a good Wednesday everyone! :)

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