tatted

nicky and i went to get tatted up yesterday. i've wanted mine since i was a freshman at HIU and i finally mustered up the guts to get it done - i suppose nicky's persistence helped a little too. i designed my tattoo and drew it myself... it is zoe (pronounced zoey) written in greek with a fishy on my ankle - it means life. in the new testament the word is used in John's gospel as eternal life. nick got "isaac" (his last name, which means laughter) written in hebrew on his wrist - i think it's pretty sweet. we went to 7star deuce on hwy 99 in fedway. it was a clean parlor, surprisingly inviting and the interior design was impressive. 

the collision

Okay, so I previously posted that I would blog about the truck accident - i mean collision (sorry Paps, I understand that they aren't called accidents anymore). On 21st in the right lane just before the Albertson's entrance a car stops abruptly to make the turn and I - who is doing something besides watching the road at the moment (I think it was the cell phone, actually) - smacked the car behind it who had come to a complete stop. I don't beleive that I saw the car in time to put on the breaks, infact I remember hitting the breaks extra hard after I had hit the car in front of me. I hit her at about 40 mph - the airbag deployed, I was an emotional wreck and the lady in the car that I hit was holding her neck (we were both fine, though). You know those sleepmarks you get from your pillow or sheets when you wake up? - well I had some of those BIG TIME from the airbag. The truck suffered severe damage to the front and it's verdict: totalled. When the Police Officer came I didn't have my wallet, so I had to call my friend to come bring it for me. The officer was totally chill and even told my mom when she came to not say anything negative to me. By the way, I was on the way to my first day of work at Papa John's pizza to be a delivery driver... that's why I was an insider instead.

the homefront

Today I say goodbye to mi casa - and probably this time for good =(..... No longer will Mom and Paps have to deal with the lights being left on, the garage door left open, the backdoor unlocked, clothes all over the loft, books and papers all over the dining room table and, really, ME. I hope they enjoy =). Love you guys - amy and roxie too!

Summer Final

Yesterday was my last day of Algebra class AND this morning was my final. All done =) !Ferencko told me I could get as low as an 85% on my Final to maintain an A in the class - sweet deal. I think that's probably why I didn't go to class for - ohhhhhh let's say - the last couple weeks. Now I'm on my way back to HIU where our grades suffer immensely due to absences and tardy's (some classes you can fail if you have over 5).

Officially moine!

The Prelude is officially moine!! Yes, it's moine. Paps took me to the Car Registration place today and $25.50 later I left with title in hand - and, ofcourse, with my name on the car Registration papers. Paps' parting words of wisdom went something like so: "well she's yours now, whatever happens to it is your responsibility *~cracked a smile~*... take care of it, check the oil, drive safe...."

THANKS PAPS!!

Yesterday he bought me a Club for the steering wheel... It's bright red so all you car theives can see it from several feet away and know NOT TO MESS because I MEAN BUSINESS. ha.... he also put a bin in my trunk filled with a bottle of oil, a funnel and some wet wipes. I suppose he expects me to check the oil... hmmm interesting.

Getting the car also means getting my own car insurance. Yay - not. So I am insured with Progressive as of today for the next 6 months.

Mom also just got me AAA road assistance for the year. They come to my aid wherever I am, no matter if I'm in my car or someone else's. They will tow me away, send a locksmith, get me gas, etc. So really I think I'm set.

fauxhawk or nohawk?

dismissing those who hate fauxhawks or who think they are so last year (meaning, used to be popular at sometime in our recent history =)....
I think Nicky would look extra hot with one.
Not the ones where guys will just brush part of the left and part of the right side of their hair to form a hill in the middle... buuuut actually a cut where the sides are shorter and the top is longer. A couple of years ago I saw a sweet one on a guy playing the love interest of shedaisy in their music video for passenger seat and have been a sucker for them ever since. I couldn't find a picture of him, but just know it was hot. It even had a shy purple color that accented his dark brown hair perfectly. Anyhew, here's a picture of David Beckham's fauxhawk... and then an example of one I don't really like of Ty - even though he's still hot.

The Last Rendezvous

Originally the Last Rendezvous was planned for last Thursday - see Planning the Last Rendezvous - buuut due to work constraints Nick requested to move the planned events to Sunday. Moving the date, consequently, created a new condensed version of the original one: watching the blue angels perform, dining at Costas Opa - Greek cuisine at Fremont, catching a flic at the Neptune, strolling around pike place, shopping on 4th, and dipping our toes in at Alki were all nixed.

Comedy Club Closed. Also, due to a family event on Sunday, the date started late... Nick and I drove to Giggles Comedy Club in the U-District for Open Mic Night. This is where amateur comedians try out their stand-up material for a couple minutes each. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the last comedian of the night was performing so we were unable to get in.




Half-Baked at Highland. No worries, though - we hopped in the 'lude, jumped across the Fremont Bridge to Queen Anne Hill, made a Ben & Jerry's stop at the Metro Mart and polished it off - almost - while taking in the captivating view from Kerry Park of Downtown Seattle lighting up the night sky.

Beginners in Boats. Monday afternoon we rented a Kayak at Agua Verde - mexican food/boat rental joint on Brooklyn near UW - and paddled the waters of Lake Union (or is it Washington??) from the University District to Gas Works Park. After acquanting ourselves with the local tugboats, houseboats, sailboats and yachts, Nick and I headed back to shore and eventually home.

I never realized how much I'm going to miss the Seattle area until lately. Sure, I'll have the coast and the Southern California beaches, but there's something about the Puget Sound and how it rests against hills saturated with evergreen trees that makes me feel incredibly soothed and content.

Tuesday is Nick's turn to plan our official last day together before he leaves for vacation, I leave for traning camp, and we both leave for school.

officially sick of painting

Paps and I finally finished painting the entire west side of the casa while Nicky has been painting the inside stairwell of his uncle's house. This weekend after painting for Paps during the morning and afternoon I went and helped Nick's painting project in the evening by taping the rails and trim. Nick's aunt is an interior designer and their house seems to evolve somewhat according to popular trend - All of the rooms, including ceilings, are painted with different colors of brilliant shades and are completed nicely with white trim (sound to you like any houses you've seen in any home magazines in the past few years or so?). The living and dining rooms are adjacent and are both painted a shade of green while the stairwell and upstairs hall is a shade of yellow - kind of orange-ish, I really like it (the picture doesn't do it justice). Buuuuut the Aunt and Uncle are supposedly sick of the color and Nick's job is to cover it with the green shade. I would have to say that it's a little tooooo much green for mwa, but that's ok because it's not my house that Nick is painting =). Anyway, I think I've had a summer's worth of painting and, hopefully, I won't have to do any more before the next one.

a definite buy

Saw this one with Mom and Paps recently. It has it's corny-to-dumb parts buuuut - being a sucker for romantic comedies - I absolutely enjoyed it. John Cusack is getting older while Diane Lane is getting more beautiful. Romantic Comedy films are like easy-read books: they are entertaining to watch over and over again. It's not like a thriller, action, drama, etc., where you have to prepare your brain to do a little work. Annnd they don't leave you terrified, confused, or depressed - when you're all done you feel happy. So Must Love Dogs is a definite buy, like: Serendipity, What Women Want, Sleepless in Seattle, How to lose a guy in 10 days, 13 going on 30, Alex and Emma, Jersey Girl, You've Got Mail and Return to Me.

Oh yeah, also a definite rental (that is, if you don't trust me enough to buy) - don't waste your time in the theatre.

Cell Phone COMPANIES are the DEVIL!

errrrrrrrrr... so the end of the "cell phone bill-month" is creeping up on mom and I. We are just a couple minutes shy of our 500 shared minutes with free IN-calling, free nation-wide, and free nights/weekends. As you probably know from prior personal experience with cell phones yourself... this is a huge inconvenience for the both of us, but especially me because I rely solely upon my cell phone as a means of contact.

Mom and I are IN... ya know, the Verizon deal where it doesn't use any of my peak minutes to talk to Mom or anyone else who is IN. Be aware that not all Verizon users are IN - that's a catch and a half. Anyway, I checked our minute status online to find that - without her or I using the phone for the last day - our minutes magically crept up to 503 from 492. Hmmmm, interesting. So I call mom - which is free - who doesn't answer... I leave a message telling her to QUIT USING THE PHONE (this is because I assumed it was her since I knew that I wasn't). A little after I made the call to mom I checked our minutes online another time and AGAIN they had magically crept to 509. At this point I figured it wasn't magic, but I still didn't understand.

So there was a couple new voicemails just lingering on my cell for the last couple days just teasing me. Finally I thought of the genius idea to use the land phone line at home to call my cell phone, wait for my voice message to start and key in my 4 digit pin number to access my voicemails and such. Genius idea worked. After reviewing all my voicemails, fooling around with settings, and updating my extended absence greeting over several made calls that added up to around 40-some minutes, I was haunted with the thought that maybe it wasn't a genius idea afterall. So I check the online minute status once more for fun - I really was just trying to scare myself into thinking that it might affect our bill. But to my complete and utter furious surprise I found that it had shot up to 554 minutes!

THE CATCH. So clearly we can conclude that I was being charged minutes to access my voicemail when I wasn't even using my cell phone but instead my home phone. Did anybody else know this or should I just be humbled by my complete ignorance? What's worse is my theory about the first couple magical minutes that put mom and I just over the top... and I came to the assumption that I must have been charged for leaving mom a voicemail - what else could it be, really? My theory is that leaving voicemails is separated from free IN-calling and written in fine print somewhere on our contract above our signed names.

Why would cell phone companies go to such an obvious extent to do this? Well the answer is simple, really: the almight buck. So numerous are the catches in a cell phone contract, but so enslaved we are to the use of a cell phone that the endless charges seem a mere sacrifice in comparison. Cell phone companies say things like "Verizon: we never stop working for you" and "Can you hear me know? Good!" and "Sprint PCS built the only all digital all PCS nation-wide network. So your calls are clear" and "Cingular: raising the bar"..... I think you get the point. That is, Cell Phone Companies are more concerned with the quality of their product than the quality of their service. They have what we want, they pretend to have good deals but keep us in the dark, and all the while we are paying them up the you-know-exactly-what.

Mom suggested I should call Verizon and plead my ignorance to see if they will show me grace this one time. I say I'd rather pay an extra 40 cents a minute than to deal with the Devil.

Comedy Night

Saturday Nick told me to pick him up from work at 9:00 pm and have something planned - just know there's something more behind that statement, but we won't get into it. While planning the last rendezvous (confused?, see Planning The Last Rendezvous) I thought about adding a Comedy Show to the list of events - Nick enjoys comedy central, blue-collar comedy and, like everybody else, Dane Cook.

A year or two ago Nick took me to Rock-Bottom for dinner and then to Jet City Improv for a little entertainment. After the show he was incredibly dissapointed because he had expected a stand-up show and instead it happened to be "twisted flicks" night- this is where they take a really old poorly written horror film and dub it with improvisations (even the music and sound effects are done on the spot). Being a fan of Mystery Science Theatre 2000, I happened to enjoy the night immensely.

So our last rendezvous is supposed to be this Thursday night which happened to be the premier of "The Beauty Pageant" at Jet City Improv. I debated whether Nick would want to see something titled "The Beauty Pageant" for a couple seconds and decided to nix the idea from the last Rendezvous itinerary. Before I even began the "pick me up from work and have something planned" brainstorming, I recalled that JCI might have scheduled one of their regular Improv shows that night - Saturday. Indeed, they did: 10:30 pm. How perfect! Nick's off at 9, grab something to eat, head out by 9:30 and have plenty of time to get to the Theatre - it's located in the U-District (North Seattle).

I buy a pair of tickets online and head out the door - a little on the tardy side - to pick up Nicky from Target. He happened to to be ready no earlier than me showing up at the front doors - sweet deal. We stopped to get him take-out at a Teriyaki joint and then headed North on the 5. When Nick asked what we were doing I just replied, "I really don't know" (just to get a rise out of him) and then, ofcourse, I added "ha, just kidding, you'll find out."

During the trip we discussed my recent -the day before- car accident and I talked about my consequences and such. Nick chimed in something to the effect, "yeah, it's kind of weird that your parents are letting you drive tonight - and on the I-5 at that." It's like he had it planned or something because just pass the bend at southcenter there was another tail gate party on the freeway. This was more frustrating because the show was at 10:30 and we were in a jam at 10:00 pm only just beyond the mall in Tukwila.

So we're cruising at about 20 mph until the first seattle exit only to find a car or two on the side of the road accompanied by a little debris- this is what Nick told me (why I can't give you a detailed description is because I WASN'T LOOKING AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD but instead I WAS LOOKING AT THE ROAD AHEAD). It's amazing how a little debris on the side of the road could potentially ruin someone's night - I guess I would have been less annoyed if I hadn't bought the tickets ahead of time.

Anyway, enough over-dramatizing the traffic situation... I tell Nick that we are on our way to JCI and this time NOT to see a twisted flick. I take my exit, we park, walk to the Theatre and are seated with 10 minutes to spare. Everything's gravy until on screen they show a clip about twisted flicks and Nick turns to me giving me that "I think it's another movie night" look and then I'm kicking myself thinking "how could I have missed that... what an idiot." ( even though a little bit of me was thinking "why would they advertise for twisted flick night on twisted flick night, it just doesn't seem to fit). Well after worrying over NOTHING for a couple minutes the Host gets on stage to welcome us to game and skit night. Whew.

The show most definately met my expectations. They promised that it had never been seen before and would never be seen again =). I recommend checking it out if you're ever in the Seattle area on a weekend. www.jetcityimprov.com

Cape Cod Gray

Yesterday Paps and I started painting the house. Really, just the side of the house. Painting the ENTIRE house is considered too big of a project so Paps paints one side a year. But actually this is the first time that we've painted on this particular house... that is because we've only lived here for - ohhhh - going on two years, I guess. I've never aided Paps with the house painting. The last time Paps recruited me for a paint job was at our previous house when he wanted the fence re-done.

I thought painting would be really fun. And actually painting IS really fun... but what's NOT fun about painting is the set up. That is, taping the windows and covering everything you don't want paint on with something. I figured out right away why Paps had me help him this time... it was to climb to the tip top of the latter to paint the banister and the siding higher up. I was scared out of my mind up there - not gonna lie. Covering the window up there yesterday was pushing it enough, but today when I got to painting my right calf decided to spaz out and twitch like crazy. If it would have started to cramp I think my head would have become one with the cement driveway. *~shivers~* just thinking about it.

So the guy who built the house painted all of the boards previous to siding the house. And, lucky us, he chose and incredibly expensive paint. Actually, it wasn't paint but it was a stain - this is so that the texture of the wood stands out, kind of giving a rustic look (fitting for our cabin-like home). It's called Cape Cod gray. So instead of thick, goopy paint I smeared this expensive oil-like substance over the wood. After I had been painting for awhile I looked up and noticed that the stain was just being absorbed into the wood, leaving it look like I hadn't touched it yet. Some of the time it got to the point where I couldn't remember if I had done the a particular board or not. When I finished the top section I climbed down to find that I was, indeed, making progress.

We finished painting the whole garage side today and I think it turned out really nice. We will continue to the front this coming weekend ANNNNNND Paps even decided to finish up the rest of the casa by the Fall.

Red Ball Mystery

So if you've ever been over to mi casa you've probably met my lil' bugga. She's the cutest thing ever. If you read my blog here and there you might have already met Roxie, my miniature schnauzer - or more frequently our new dishwasher. Anyway, Roxie is addicted to playing fetch with her little rubber ball - she can do it for hours on end, it's amazing. She's really talented too. Throw it as hard or as high as you can and she's right on it... she'll leap into the air and catch it - sometimes without a bounce.

Randomly you will hear roxie having a barking fit - which is unusual - and it's either because her ball is stuck somewhere that she is physically unable to get OR she had dropped it right in front of the back door slider on the deck. The barking fit would originally benefit Roxie because we'd be so curious as to why she is making so much noise that we would rush to her aid and, ultimately, play fetch. It didn't take me too long to realize Roxie was crying wolf so I discontinued to drop what I was doing to throw a lowsy ball to my annoying dog. Now it doesn't matter where I'm at - the kitchen table, the living room couch, upstairs in my bedroom, in the bathroom, the garage, the laundry room, even outside on the driveway - Roxie will search me out and find me and drop that rubber ball at my feet. And this happens from the moment I walk into the door to the moment I step out.

Mysteriously Roxie's rubber ball had disappeared... along with her back up one. There were occasions when Paps or I threw the ball too hard and it managed to clear the fence into the neighbors yard... but even after we performed a search and rescue mission it wasn't to be found. Over the next couple days I noticed that Roxie just wasn't herself. She would try to play fetch with a tennis ball and then a stuffed mini basketball - but it just wasn't the same. After a few fetches she left them out in the yard and came back into the house, head hung low. Soon she wasn't playing fetch at all - she would just spend her whole day sprawled out on the couch or on the smalles little spot where sun was managing to hit the back yard deck.

So we splurged and bought Roxie another rubber ball. But this time, instead of red, it was yellow. She got all excited like before, grabbed the ball and placed it at my feet. I threw it across the back yard and noticed that Roxie stalled when it hit the ground and started bouncing. The stall was quick, though, and she retreived the ball like before. She brought it back to me, I threw it again, she stalled again - but regained her composure and returned it to me. After a few more she gave up. She was done. I was confused.

This was the exact same ball she used to have so much fun with - the only difference was it's color: yellow. I heard somewhere that Dog's see in black and white... so I wondered if this caused her to have trouble seeing the color yellow. Really, I have no clue but after a couple days of seeing Roxie all depressed again I couldn't take it. Neither could the padres... so Paps went and bought her the same red rubber ball.

I think we've got our good ol' Roxie back. Yesterday she went crazy with the Red. She was even chipper this morning as she jumped up to my bed to wake me - along with her red ball.

Our new dishwashers...

... how cute!

Planning the last Rendezvous

Since I'm leaving soon I went ahead and started planning a little date for me and Nick - kind of our last rendezvous. He's been incredibly busy working ALL THE TIME doing his landscaping all morning-afternoon and even during the evenings that he's got work off at Target. For the date, I guess my objective is to do as many things as possible for as little as possible - and I think I proved pretty successful yesterday. You will be updated about such things next weekend.

The last rendezvous will take place in Seattle. It wasn't originally, but just know there was a factor that brought it there. So instead of just relying on the internet I decided to drive and check out all the places - ya know, this way I could become familiar so then there will be no bad surprises. I'm up for good surprises.

Anyway I was finishing up the second part of the date and realized that Bridget and Beau were back from Europe. So I gave Bridget a ring, stopped by her place on queen anne, and we walked around fremont enjoying italian ice cream and each other's company. Fremont is a queer little place - they have tagged themselves as "the center of the universe" and recommend that you "turn your watch back 5 minutes." After my stroll with Bridget I had a few more places to check out and then my next stop was Home.

On my way out of Seattle I was starting to get a killer headache and I was feeling a little drowsy. It was about 2:30, so I made the decision to fight traffic instead of kick it in the big city for 4 or 5 more hours. The 5 was smooth sailing until, ofcourse, Southcenter Mall hit. What's it really called now? I don't even know - like Westfield?? Regardless, it was gridlock all the way home.

Since traffic just isn't bad enough by itself, I decided to add a little more stress to my life at the Kent-Des Moines Exit. Yep, I ran into the SUV in front of me - going as fast as an automatic goes when you lift your foot off the break peddle - mom finds humor in that for some reason.... kind of bugs me, not gonna lie. So it was a fender bender... but no fender was really bent. The SUV suffered miniscule paint scratches on it's rear bumper, but my mom's Accord (yep, my 'lude was in the shop) lost it's "H" emblem and the grill was slightly pushed in - although you wouldn't be able to tell unless you were told that something had happened to it and where to look. **

The annoying part of this collision is that the guy and his wife were from out of state and had rented the SUV just previous to being on the road - he has to claim it. The rental company is not going to take the SUV off the line JUST to fix a little paint scratch, but the guy is probably going to get charged for SOMETHING when he claims the damage while returning the car, which is just gravy for me. We exchanged information - and I get to look forward to waiting to see what happens. Paps gave me a tiff about how if I don't fill out an accident report then by WA state law it is possible that my license could be revoked. THANKS paps, really didn't know that, how about instead of assuming that I was going to try to undermine the law maybe you could just let me know what it is I need to do.

So were you wondering how I did it? Yeah, so did both sets of my Grandparents last night. What is it that you really want to know? Is it wrong the question urks me? You know that I was on I-5 and that I hit the car in front of me going almost nothing.... what else do you need to know? Am I supposed to confirm for you that I'm an idiot, that I was unaware that at that instant my lane had come to a complete stop - even though we were at a hault several times before. Do you want me to admit that the collision could have been prevented if I would have just concentrated for the entire 2 hours of going an avg of 5 mph. Well there you have it: I messed up.

This puts me in the position where I can't wait to be independent from my parents. I wouldn't have to deal with the guilt that comes with the accident. With the accident comes financial consequence, which is the ONLY detriment I have when I am independent from mis padres. The guilt trip factor is eliminated. Sorry to sound ungrateful - I understand that I am given the privilege to drive a car without paying for it or my insurance. To thank my parents for their generosity I do things like total my dads truck* and wreck my mom's accord.

After apologizing after - which is so insincere and overrated (only because an apology doesn't even begin to describe how crappy you feel about what you did) - both incidences I received a "These things happen, but there will be some consequences." How annoying is that statement!?!? What it really means is Mom and Paps are going to talk about different ways they can inconvience my life so that I can suffer for what I did. THIS IS WHAT I GET TO AVOID WHEN I'M DONE LIVING UNDER THIS HOUSE. How about instead of deciding tit-for-tat and how my punishment is subjectively related to the damage I caused - why don't we be real about it. Being real: how much money is it going to set you back to fix the accord - and if my insurance goes up how much money is that. Add it all up, bill me, and if I don't have ALL of it right now give me the chance to earn it. Mom and Paps are not my insurance company - THEY ARE MY PARENTS.

What's even better is that the trip could have been in vain. Nick doesn't work Thursday, but he's not sure if he can take Friday off for landscaping. So the planning for the last rendezvous could be just that: a plan - never executed. So much for planning as many events for as little moolah as possible. It looks like this date has cost me more than I was prepared for =).


*I'll blog about the truck sometime

Daniel Wenzel

I still can remember when Daniel Wenzel was 2 ft nothing. I was 7 and he was 3 and and I would call him curly sue. The Wenzels are family friends - Anita and Mom were both in Choir together at Christ's church before I was born. It's been a handful of years since I've seen them, but I've ran into Micah - Daniel's older brother - here and there at soccer events. Micah is going to be a senior at Bellarmine Prep this coming up year and is the Captain of the Men's Soccer team there. I would also hear about them from Mom when I was down at school - crazy things - both Daniel's and Micah's soccer accomplishments with their ODP (olympic development program) teams and such.

When I was picking up my last paycheck from PJ's the other night I ran into Tom and Anita - the padres - and they updated me about Daniel who just was invited to Residency. Yep, he's leaving his house at 15 years old - what a sweet oppurtunity at that age. This is a program built for guys soccer where Daniel's living is paid in full in Florida while he plays soccer for the national team and goes to school. I guess there's a trip in there soon to Japan as well. It sounds like Daniel and Micah have been all over the world playing this game where all you need is a few people, an open space and a ball. To check out more on Daniel: http://www.washingtonpremiersoccer.com/DAN.html
http://www.fedwaymirror.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=91&cat=40&id=465018&more=

Arrivederci, Papa John's

I picked up my last paycheck from PJ's yesterday. I am officially done as of last Sunday AND I am officially sick of answering phones, taking orders, folding boxes, gluing coupons on boxes, labeling boxes, slapping dough, topping pizzas, putting pies in the oven, cutting them, putting them into boxes, and completing pick-up orders as of a month ago. Mom was waiting for the day that I would say I was sick of working.... only because I enjoyed it all of last summer. Really all that was accomplished by working there was a little over a grand and then me getting sick of pizza, especially PJ's pizza - which used to be my flavorite ~*tear*~.

Hanging with the Little ones

I baby sat this morning after class. Yes, I know, kind of out of character BUT it was actually fun. In junior high and high school I would baby sit here and there but HATED it most of the time. Most kids just annoy me, especially when they know that I'm "in charge" for the time being. I like kids when someone else is taking care of them and then I can just entertain them. The thing is when you are "the baby-sitter" it becomes this game with the kids where "ooohh let's be bad and make the baby sitter mad." Yeah that game is annoying. You also have to deal with the kids fighting over your attention, the kids beating on each other, the kids beating on other objects, the kids screaming, crying and throwing tantrums JUST FOR KICKS - nothing legitimate ever really happens to allow for such obnoxious behavior.

Last summer and the one before I would Nanny for a sister and brother, Conor and Megan, but it was the coolest ever because they were older - like 7 and 11. It was sweet because I got paid to take them to swimming, play games like basketball, baseball and soccer and help them with their mathematics, have them read, play video games, watch movies, watch the Discover Channel - my favorite. They were incredibly well behaved and mature for their age.

Well today's experience wasn't too shabby. The women's team had a meeting at church and I got to hang out with Tommy and Kalley. Notice how I say "hang out" not "babysit." They were so cute and fun to play with. I guess Kalley is just like how I was when I was younger - my mom told me this - I reminded her, though, that I really didn't know how I was when I was little. But I do know that, from pictures, Kalley and I looked a whole lot alike. The best part was playing hide and seek in the new auditorium - ofcourse I made the sound booth and stage - and other areas - off limits (for those of you who are freaking out about the expensive equipment). I loved the contrast in expression of how sad Kalley would be when she couldn't find where Tommy and I were hiding and how it turned immediately to extreme excitement when she would find us laying across the pews or crouching under tables. Well after playing farmer, cook, "baby-protector," constructor, artist, eating snacks and having a stuffed animal fight, the Mom's were done. Tommy and Kalley parted with their drawings saying "thank you tentical" -which could be translated to tent-nical, tent-nicole. and nicole. - I also got tagged "pizza girl"... I suppose their mother told them she saw me at Papa John's when she came to pick up her order.

Tour de Lance

Lance Armstrong won his 7th consecutive Tour de France today! He claims this is his last Tour, but some think he might pull an MJ (well really I just heard Nick come up with that incredibly ignorant idea). When mom picked me up from the train station she said, "Nicole! Do you know who Lance Armstrong looks like?"... who mom.... "He looks like Nick!" The funny thing is that I've always thought my honey looks like Lance Armstrong but I just never told anyone that I thought it. Personally, I think Lance is incredibly good looking... but I think my Nicky is even more handsome.

Car Wash!

Mom and I washed our cars this evening. Actually, I was just on spray patrol. She washed - I hosed. Worked out pretty sweet for me. I even walked behind her to spray after she washed each one of my wheels. Really I wanted to go through one of those drivethrough carwashes at a gas station or like the Pink Elephant BUUUUUT mom wasn't down with that - should have left to do it before she got home from work. I haven't washed my car since last summer, but It's okay because the next time it gets washed I'll be in California - and it won't be done by mwa.