i think i need a drink.

My blogging has been subpar lately. Or maybe ever since I started. It just seems like I have been so boring lately. Let's hope that has come to an end. Today has been what I like to call a "doozy".

Jesse took today off of work so we could get ready for Vegas. This morning we headed out to run some errands. We started out at a mall in Roseville in search of Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers in a fun color, such as electric blue or red. We tried several stores in the mall and a couple stores not in the mall. One of the stores we stopped at had a very young and very pregnant woman working by herself. At least we think she worked there. She talked on a cordless phone the entire time we were there and Jesse had to interrupt her conversation to ask if they had any other colors of sneakers. Nope. She went back to her phone conversation. Just so you know, if you want colorful Chuck Taylor sneakers, don't go to Roseville. You should probably just not go to Roseville for anything.

We ended up stopping at one of those Things Remembered stores because we wanted to pick up a couple small gifts for our parents. We didn't buy anything but learned that sales associates at Things Remembered are not bound by confidentiality laws. The dude working there was calling other employees telling them he was filling in the schedule because Marissa went into treatment. That's right, she got sent away because of a drug problem. Not only was he making these phone calls from the cash register, he had a really booming voice and was practically yelling into the phone. We heard him call two people and he probably had a couple more calls to make. And to make it even better, Jesse and I weren't the only customers in the store! There were a couple other people who also heard about poor Marissa.

After our fun at the mall, we left to pick up kitty litter. We are bad, bad parents and are leaving our cats for 5 days without having anyone come to scoop poop. Since that is the case, we figured we better leave them with brand new litter. We stopped at a Petco store and since they didn't have the litter Willie Horton and Barbaro Garbey use we decided to look at the little animals. Don't worry, we aren't going to be adding any small rodents to our family ever again. Oh, poor Charlie Hodge! While looking through the glass at some little white mice, I noticed some mouse legs sticking out from under the big white ceramic food dish, kind of like the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz (although the mouse legs were sans ruby slippers). It didn't look good. Jesse called over a Petco sales associate and she opened the case and lifted up the big white ceramic food dish to find a very dead, very flat mouse. Oh my GOD it had been flattened by its own food dish!! It was very disturbing but I couldn't stop laughing. It was all so surreal! We went to pay for our items and the same woman that retrieved the murdered mouse checked us out. She told us that sometimes the mice burrow under objects to get bedding and that is probably what happened to that particular mouse. Are you kidding me? I am no forensic scientist and I am not an animal expert but I am pretty sure that mouse was murdered by some lazy ass employee that just dropped the food dish in there without making sure they all got out of the way!! I know mice are stupid but can they be that stupid? If they are indeed stupid enough to be killed by their own food dishes, why are they still around? Was this evolution at work? I don't think so. I think it was murder. You would not believe how flat that mouse was.

So now we are home and pretty much done packing everything. We just need to clean up around the house a little (nobody likes to come home to a dirty house!) and chill. Our flight doesn't leave until noon tomorrow so we won't have to rush in the morning. Hopefully I'll be able to get up early enough to jog on the treadmill. I was planning on taking my running shoes with me to Vegas but decided not to when I saw that Mandalay Bay charges a fee to use their work out facilities. Screw that! I thought it would be a good thing to do on Saturday morning to work off any jitters I might have but I think a giant bloody mary will do the trick.

The lady across the street agreed to come over and water my tomato plants that are potted. I hope she doesn't forget and I don't come home to dead plants! The zinnias are doing really well too!!

Joel and Amanda should be on a plane on their way to Vegas. Let's hope they don't get drunk and get arrested before we get there. My cousin has already agreed to help us with any criminal matters while we are there. She has connections. Not only does she know a public defender in Nevada, she won a case at the Supreme Court. 9-0, baby!!

I think we're good to go...

crazy.

We're getting married on Saturday. Yikes! It came up so quickly!!

Last weekend Jesse and I went to visit my sister-in-law so she could help me figure out how I want my hair for the wedding. I believe the technical term is, "updo." I don't know much about hair stuff so I was really grateful she was able to help me out! We had fun hanging out at their house and had a good time with my niece and nephew.

Here is a photo of me with fabulous hair and my niece with her fabulous finger up her nose.

She's so cute!!

I think we are pretty much ready to go to Vegas. Just need to put everything in a suitcase and get on the plane. I'm sure today and tomorrow will be insane. Thanks to the a.d.d., it takes me forever to pack. Maybe I'll take some extra Ritalin just to get it all done.

Charlie Hodge

Charlie Hodge, 2 years old, passed away sometime last night. Charlie was born in a dwarf hamster farm somewhere on this planet. When he was very young he was ripped away from his mother and sent to live at a Pet Supplies Plus store in Southeast Michigan. A young, pimply sales associate placed a "Sale! $4.99" sign on his cage and soon he went to live with Jen and Jesse at their small apartment in Ann Arbor. A couple months later his entire cage was relocated to Detroit and that is where he lived out the rest of his days. Charlie enjoyed running on his exercise wheel and the multiple Habitrail tubes Jesse had set up for him. He also spent lots of time gnawing on the plastic walls of the giant maze portion of his home. Charlie is survived by no hamster family, but by his adopted parents, Jen and Jesse, and his adopted cat siblings, Willie Horton and Barbaro Garbey. There will be no funeral services and he has already been buried. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to your local humane society. We will miss you Charlie!!

one week.

A week from today we will be in Las Vegas! I am getting really excited. I think we are pretty much set to go.

Today I went to what I thought would be my last appointment with my lovely hair stylist, Dwight. He raised his prices and since we are a one-income family now, we really can't afford for me to pay that much to get my hair done every 7 weeks. I tried to break up with him but I just love him so much. I might go back one more time. But I might not. I made the appointment. But I might cancel it. He was really surprised that I told him I won't be coming back. He said most people just disappear and leave him to think he did something wrong. I could never do that to Dwight! *sigh* If only he wasn't so good at what he does and didn't get to charge so much.

Vegas just may be the last time I have good hair. Or at least what I think is good hair.

good news bad news.

Good news:
The allergy forecast for Vegas shows "low" in all categories.

Bad News:
High of 109 today. Low of 88. I thought "dry heat" meant it got cooler at night? Bunch of bullshit. That's what I say.

junk.

I feel like wedding shit is taking over my life. I am super grateful we aren't having a big traditional wedding. Apparently making 3 phone calls to arrange my own wedding and reception is too difficult because I put it off until waaaaay late. But I think we finally have a plan. Looks like we'll be dining all together at the MGM Grand Buffet. They better have lots of meat.

It is 109 degrees in Las Vegas right now. I don't want to hear about "dry heat". 109 degrees is really hot. Ugh.

baseballs.

Much of this weekend was spent at Gibraltar Trade Center obtaining autographs from Tigers related players/coaches. Saturday we saw Dick Tracewski and Gates Brown. Today we saw Sparky Anderson and Roger Craig. Sparky Anderson was especially exciting since he is a hall-of-famer. I got Polaroids taken with all of them and they all signed them too! I wasn't sure Sparky would do it because he was charging a lot of money for autographs and I didn't want to pay to have him sign the Polaroid. He did it for free! When I get off my ass and clean off my desk well enough to hook my computer up to the scanner I'll post the Polaroids. They are pretty funny. I mean cool.

OH! How could I forget?? I also got an autograph from Virgil. And a Polaroid. It was amazing. He also made Joel and Jesse get Polaroids taken with him. I can't believe I almost forgot to mention it. Geez!

Jesse bought a box of 1990 Upper Deck baseball cards for us to open while we were waiting in line. It was really fun to open each package to see what cards we got. Joel opened the one with Sammy Sosa's rookie card. We were very excited to see it but now that I have looked online it doesn't look like it is really worth anything. Bummer. Maybe someday when we are old it will be cool to have. Maybe?

overheard in my bed this morning.

"Well of course you think Transformers are cool because they ARE."

new cell phone

We just added my parents to our family plan and we all have shiny new cell phones. And now I find out that Verizon and WalMart are doing business together. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Is it overreacting to switch cell phone companies? I need to think about this one.

because i don't have enough going on in my life...

I decided to arrange a pre-family reunion baseball game the weekend after we get married. We did this last year and had so much fun that when I saw the Tigers would be playing at Comerica the night before the family reunion this year I decided to see if anyone would be interested. I sent out an email this afternoon and already have 13 people to buy tickets for. Jesse and I already have tickets. I am very excited because there are people coming this year that didn't make it last year. So we'll have a house full of drunk relatives that we just saw the weekend before in Vegas and I can't wait!!

In other news...

We still don't know where we will be dining after the wedding. I'm thinking we will go for the full Vegas experience and just have dinner at a buffet. Now we just have to figure out which buffet. Should we go convenient but maybe not the best buffet food and do Mandalay Bay, where Jesse and I are staying? Should we go with really good food and ambience but no private dining rooms at the Mirage? Should we go with yummy food and a little more expensive where nobody is staying and book the Bellagio? These are the things we better figure out soon! Who has time for this when I have to plan a baseball weekend with the fam??

This morning I went to a fancy-shmancy luggage store and picked out a lovely garment bag. I had no idea that fancy-shmancy luggage was so expensive. Now I know I have a bag-buying addiction but those are more purses and briefcase type bags. Not luggage. Anyway, Jesse's friend helped me pick out a bag that folds into carry-on size so we will have our wedding outfits and all that stuff with us and won't have to check it with the rest of our luggage. Yay!! Jesse's friend did tell me some bad news. Apparently Tumi was bought out by another company 6 months ago and in that short time the quality of their products has plummeted. Ouch! I love Tumi and was planning on getting a kick ass computer bag for school. Damn damn damn. But I'm glad I know because I would be PISSED if I spent my hard saved money on a piece of shit with a used-to-be good name.

Time to make dinner.

little man.

Today I found out that the cat across the street was hit by a car a couple weeks ago and was killed. His name was Little Man and he was super cute. Sometimes Jesse and I would come home and he would be sleeping on our porch at our front door. Apparently the kids were playing with him on the porch and he darted across the street and a car hit him. The car didn't even stop. I talked to the mom and she said her 9-year-old son saw the whole thing. So sad.

Little Man, you are already missed!

the search is over. i think.

I found a dress! And we bought it. And then I tried it on and had Jesse take a picture so I could email it to my mom. And I look like a fat cow in the photo. So I'm not emailing it to my mom. But I think I'll probably keep it because I like it and Jesse likes it and hopefully it was just a bad photo. Or the fact that I wasn't wearing a bra and my boobs weren't where they were supposed to be in the dress. Now I have to find shoes and a handbag (OOOO! purse shopping!) and appropriate undergarments and then I think I'll be ready to get married. Oh shit. I still have to write my vows.

the final countdown.

Yesterday Jesse and I went shopping for wedding attire. I haven't been feeling very stressed about the situation (the situation being, I still don't have a wedding dress) until Jesse was trying on a suit and the salesman said, "when is your wedding?" and Jesse said, "three weeks from today." and all of a sudden it hit me. We are getting married in 3 weeks and I still don't have a dress and we still don't know where we will all have dinner after the wedding and I still don't have shoes to match the dress I don't have and we don't even have a garment bag to transport said clothing pieces that haven't yet been acquired. But it will be okay because if I don't find a dress, the wedding chapel has costumes to rent. I'm thinking of the pirate one. Jesse did find a suit and it looks really nice. I'm not used to seeing him all dressed up and fancy. It kind of makes me laugh that his outfit will most likely end up costing more than mine.

Last night we went to the Electric Six show with Joel, Amanda, Julie and Kristin. We had so much fun hanging out with them! Speaking of Julie, I added a link to her Diner Project blog but just in case you missed it, you should really check it out!

Today Jesse and I head back to the mall to finish our registry. Yes, we know it is 3 weeks before the wedding and we should have finished this a long time ago. But we also know that we will be having two more receptions sometime in the future so maybe people won't notice that we are procrastinators. Maybe?

michigan and trumbull.

This is the entrance I used to always use since I had no money and always bought bleacher seats.


I love Comerica but I really miss Tiger Stadium.

happy 5th of july!

Did you all have a lovely 4th of July? I did! I love it when Jesse gets to stay home during the week. The only problem is he gets to witness first hand what a lazy bum I am. Oh well. We went to see Superman Returns at the IMAX theater. I really enjoyed it! It was deliciously cheesy in all the right places. There were some pretty heavy handed pro-Christian and anti-smoking moments but I didn't feel they were so obnoxious as to make me dislike the movie. Perhaps it wsa because they were so obvious that you would have to be retarded to miss them.

Speaking of retarded, I was pretty sure I was stuck sitting next to a retarded kid when I asked him if he was saving the seat next to him for anyone and received a blank stare in return. Perhaps he was trying to figure out how the Asian chick spoke English without an accent. Perhaps he was deaf and I am an asshole for not knowing American Sign Language. Or perhaps, as Jesse suggested, he thought I was retarded and didn't feel like talking to me. Whatever the case was, I sat next to him and didn't appear to take anyone's seat. A half hour into the movie I wished someone would come and take my seat. The kid and his friend talked through much of the movie. It is possible the kid never saw any of the Superman movies because his little friend explained everything to him. Every once in a while the adult they were with would "shhh" them but it didn't work very well. I was pretty annoyed but then felt really bad when the possibly retarded kid sitting next to me kept getting scared at the loud parts of the movies. Which I guess means he probably wasn't deaf. I "shhh"ed them a couple times but they didn't feel like listening to the retarded Korean lady and kept talking. Perhaps they thought I was "shhh"ing in a different language?

If you get a chance, go see the movie. If you get a chance to see it at the IMAX I recommend it. There are some 3D parts that are pretty cool. They were so cool that I got really sick even though I was wearing my little motion sickness magic bracelet. Yeah. Not a fun ride home or rest of the evening. Jesse asked if it was time to give up on the IMAX movies. Hell no! I love the IMAX movies. One of these days I'll figure out a way to enjoy them without feeling like puking. I think if I take Dramamine I will stay awake long enough to watch the movie and will just not plan any awake activities for the rest of the day (even the non-drowsy Dramamine makes me really really really sleepy). Or perhaps I will try one of those patches. Either way, I refuse to give up on the IMAX!!!

henry ford museum

If you haven't ever been to the Henry Ford Museum you should really go right away. Or at least before September 5 when the Baseball As America exhibit leaves.

Some highlights from our trip...

This is the actual vehicle that JFK was riding in when he was assassinated. It has undergone a makeover or two but it was still cool to see.


This is the bus Rosa Park was riding on when she refused to give up her seat. It too has undergone a makeover. Still cool to see it in person, especially after getting the amazing opportunity to pay my respects to Mrs. Parks back in October.


Unfortunately cameras weren't allowed in the actual Baseball As America exhibit so I just took this photo outside the exhibit.


I love the wienermobile.

love is in the air.

I completely forgot to tell you that my maid of honor, Joel, and his girlfriend, Amanda, are engaged to be married! I found out a few days before I left for camp. I'm so excited for them!!

back to reality.

Recovering from vacation is exhausting! I got home a week ago but damn, I haven't done anything since then! I have slept a lot. Ate a lot. Watched tv a lot. Went to a baseball game alone just once. Went to Tastefest just once. Went to the Baseball As America exhibit just once. Maybe I've been a little bit busy. But mostly recovering and trying to ease back into life. I love being at camp because of the peacefulness. There is no tv to watch, no internet to read, and no phone to answer. The first few days are hard because I miss tv, internet and the phone. But after that initial culture shock it is nice. I slow down and breathe and just feel at peace. Then toward the end of camp I look forward to getting back to reading the news and following baseball and all the other stupid shit I do. But it always takes me a while to get back into it. This time was especially strange because I didn't have to report to a job. It was nice, but strange.

I haven't posted stuff about camp yet because I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want to say. I had a great time and the staff and kids were awesome. Unfortunately, there were also some pretty big disappointments and I'm trying to sort out my feelings about it all. It isn't anything super terrible and I guess I just want to make sure I post something that isn't super negative and all blown out of proportion. I tend to get a wee bit dramatic when I'm pissed. So when I figure it all out I'll be sure to post some stuff that happened. It really was fun and I loved being there with Erica!

So now it is 1:30AM and I'm not sleeping. I'm not sure why but I think part of the problem is the at least 400% humidity in my house. It is cool but the stickiness is making me crazy. I don't feel like turning on the a/c because it isn't hot enough. Ugh.

All-Star lineups were announced today. I think that Ozzie Guillen might be smokin' some of the wacky. How could he not pick Schilling?? I don't quite get it.

I kind of lied about going to the game alone. Well, I went to the game alone but my brother-in-law's brother ended up coming to join me for a couple innings. He was downtown for jury duty and ended up finishing early. He heard that the Tigs were playing an afternoon game and figured I was there so gave me a call. He only stayed a couple innings because he had to get back to work. It was nice to have someone to talk to for a little while though! And I hadn't seen him in a long time so it was just nice to catch up a little bit.

I'm going to sneak upstairs and get my book out of the bedroom. I'm reading Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. It's amazing! I bought it for Jesse a long time ago and am just now getting around to reading it myself. Who knew history could be such fun?