I [finally] found the path!

I am now the proud owner of a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder. After much stress, deliberation, and anxiety, I decided upon and bought a vehicle for the bargain price of my first born child. And possible the second as well. Cars are amazingly expensive these days. Who needs kids anyways?

I realize this car was not on the first list I posted, but sometimes I like to change my mind. It gives life a little flavor.

So NEXT year when we go camping, I can fit all KINDS of people and equipment, and no one will have to crawl over any seats (well except the lucky occupants of the THIRD ROW - holy crap I'm a soccer mom with no kids and a hangover!) to get in the back.

And it's about time too, because today I took the 2 pregnant women in the office (7 months and 8months) to lunch in my car, and there is nothing sadder that seeing a woman with bulging-baby-in-stomach trying to wrestle herself into the back of a 2-door SUV.

Ducky Theme vs. Froggy Theme?

Whenever I am seriously in need of the warm & fuzzies, I read dooce. Entertainment for hours, I'm telling you! Ever bored and work? Read about getting fired for blogging!

Another thing that gives me tingling happy feelings is decorated cupcakes ( I believe I've mentioned this here before). I was watching Food Network the other night (religion for Andrew) and there was some kind of elaborate cupcake decorating contest going on, complete with themes, timers, and live audiences. It inspired me, and being that I was put in charge of an office baby shower next week I thought, "What a great idea! I'll make individual cupcakes with baby-themed decorations for the office!" Today I was informed there will be between 80-100 people there. Apparently, baby-showers (translation: opportunities to scavenge free sugar after lunch) are popular events in the office, and not only my department, but several other departments will be attending. Yeah, so I don't have the time or the money to individually frost 100 cupcakes. There's not enough liquor in my house to talk the best of friends into THAT kind of slave labor. The problem with both enjoying party-throwing and being [mildly] OCD, is that I want to create this amazing baby-shower. The baby shower to trump all baby showers with it's modern themes and and miniature favors that are both deliciously cute and practical in use.

I have no idea why I bring this upon myself. I blame my mother. Isn't that what therapists do?

And apparently, I need therapy.

And a cupcake.

Vroom Vroom

On the road again, going places I have never been.

This place is car shopping.

Yes ladies & gents, the dark hour has come. My faithful and lovely (if not bumpy ride) Big Red is now ailing to the point where it doesn't make sense for me to put any more money into her. And so she will have to be replaced.

I am so sorry to break this news.

Really, I'm more sorry for my bank account which will be acquiring a car note for which I was not quite prepared just yet.

So long beach vacation I was looking forward to. So close, yet now so far.

Now, I am in the market for a small to mid-size SUV in an affordable range. (affordable = <25g's)

So far the contenders are the Honda Pilot, the Toyota RAV 4, the Toyota Highlander, the Mazda CX-7, the Nissan Xterra, and the Ford Freestyle (I threw that one in because GOOD GOD my Dad will not get off my butt about how great Ford is).

I test drove the new FJ Cruiser from Toyota which was way coool, but the fully-loaded version (which seems to be the only version available anywhere due to waiting lists) is a wee bit out of my price range. I liked the feeling that I was so high I could run over large children with out even so much as a ripple in my beverage, however the left hand blindspot made it rather hard to navigate between lanes. You must learn to trust your mirrors I think. I have trust issues with mirrors.

This is not THE list, this is just the first list, so feel free to comment and make suggestions.

On a side note: You can make a drinking game out of the number of times I wrote "so" in this entry.

Happy Easter darnit.

Why is it that no matter how much you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one, least of all yourself? Splitting time between families at holidays is stressful. Next year, I'm staying in bed with a bag of chocolate malt-ball eggs.

But on a brighter note, I uploaded a few pictures from camping last weekend.

this is SO me.

If only I could be let loose...

Courtesy of mimi smartypants:

'The Container Store is now on my list of things I feel slightly religious about (along with particle physics, certain musical intervals, and Google). I get so excited in the Container Store---look at all those things! Meant to contain other things! I want to gather a large group of obsessive neat-freaks, feed them a mild stimulant, and then let them loose in the Container Store with the directive: "Clean up this mess." '

She Forgot The Brownies, But We'll Forgive Her

This weekend we went on our annual girls' camping trip. This has over the years become a reunion of sorts and an excuse for girlie-time. Amazingly, I have remained close friends with this group of girls since junior high school. I marvel at how rare that is. How lucky am I to have such long friendships? I mean, these girls have seen me with mile-high bangs and tortoise shell glasses and some how we all still get along, even though we're all very different people now. Well I should clarify, there were probably about 10 girls in the "group" in high school, but those who have stayed friends has whittled down to about 6 or so, give or take. In my opinion, that is still pretty amazing. Together we all went through a stage in 7th grade where we actually found it not only cool, but socially-acceptable, maybe even a bit sexy to where men's underwear of matching patterns in public places as CLOTHING. Obviously this was before we realized that dressing alike was definitely NOT cool, and maybe they're called underwear because they're supposed to be worn UNDER something. But I digress...

The weather this weekend was beautiful, and with all the wildflowers of Texas in bloom, it was quite a pleasant drive, even if we did get lost briefly and end up near College Station for some reason. We camped at Inks Lake near Marble Falls, which is known for its granite hills. A lot of nice hiking around the stream that ran through the park, even if all the church groups walking around were noisey and annoying. Maybe it's just us, but when you are visiting nature, you would think some sort of decibel level, oh, say below that of Wall Street during trading hour, would be understood. Apparently I was mistaken.

Favorite Quotes of the Weekend:

Amy: "YOU'RE DISTURBING THE WILDLIFE." (To a herd of middle-aged church group people - or maybe they were from eharmony or something. Equally disturbing.)

Marigold: "Can I have another mallow?" (after about 50 s'mores or so)

Janet: "We're not really lost, we're near College Station." (Oh brother. You put the 2 of us in a car together and we are guaranteed to turn from semi-educated independent women, to half-brained directionless morons.)

Overall, a very relaxing and happy weekend. If I can say one thing, it is that I think in the future on camping trips, we will be taking an air mattress, and double-checking to make sure we have taken brownies (a staple) with us. You can never forget the brownies that sustain our diet the entire weekend, and turns out we're getting too old to sleep on the ground. Lesson learned: The ground is hard, and inevitably, wherever you put down the tent, a stone will place itself right in the middle of your left boob while you're trying to sleep. Excellent.

I would like to thank Andrew for putting up with my sorry ass last night when I was exhausted and about as fun as the IRS (seemed fitting considering it's tax season).

Happy Anniversary Hunny :) You rock my face off.