Memorial Day

Well, it's Memorial Day. A day off of work or school....and also a day we should take a minute to pause and remember the men and women who've died for our country. I'm not the sentimental type, but we were at the Tim Mcgraw concert this weekend, and he sang, "If You're Reading This," it's pretty fitting for Memorial Day.

BTW - Faith Hill is one lucky woman (and Tim Mcgraw is pretty lucky himself). The concert was great! It's always surprising to realize just how many songs you know.

What's going on here?

We went to innoventions in Disneyland. It's a cool place where they showcase all the cool new technologies coming out.

We met a cast member talking to some kids about this fancy table with touch screens blah blah blah - but it was cool.

Then he started talking to Kelly and I.

Next thing we know, he's basically hitting on Kelly. In reality, he was actually very interested in the company Kelly works for, Media Matters.

She gave him her contact info on her sketch of Mickey - remember yesterdays post? Kelly made one too and gave it to our friend in lieu of a business card.

It was comical.

Mickey

In Disney's California Adventure, you can take a free class where you learn to draw a Disney character. They start everyday with Mickey and we got there in time to learn! We also got a preview of Toy Story 3 - which I am super pumped for.

Anyways, here is my finished Mickey. I think it looks pretty darn good. And it was fun! Make sure you try it when you go!

Are pardoned turkeys juicy?

Did you know that every year the President pardons a Turkey? Then, the turkey is flown to Disneyland aboard United Turkey-1 where he/she is the honorary grand marshall of the Thanks for Giving parade.

That's cute, right? There is a little pen in Frontierland where they have a nice plaque that tells us about the pardoned turkey and houses the turkey.....but the turkey wasn't there....

Earlier that day, Kelly was caught eating a delicious and juicy turkey leg.

Coincidence? I think not!

Please

So I was super pumped about my post from yesterday. It was well timed with the Lady Gaga episode....only to find out....at 8PM....that no one could actually view the video.

I'm an engineer but computer-ly challenged.

So....blog readers....if you don't mind, let me know when I've made a major technical gafa :-)

Disneyland

I've been to Disneyland quite often....but never with Zach, Kelly and the rest of the Ronans! Zach, Kelly and I were RAs at UW!

To try something new, we took the Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour where we got to go inside the lobby of the ultra exclusive Club 33 - the only place in Disneyland that serves alcohol. It also has fewer than 500 members and there is currently a 14 year wait....from the minimal digging I could do online.

Zach likes Star Wars. We saw people wearing these weird back packs that looked like Yoda. So we found one and Zach tried it on. It looks like Yoda is about to take a bite out of Zach's neck.

Here we are on some rides. The weather was great, the lines were pretty short and a good time was had by all!

I heart Artie

On Saturday I went to see GLEE Live! Yep, they turned the TV show into a concert and I was there. The concert was in LA, so naturally I also had to hit up D'land. But this time, Mickey took a back seat to the kids of William McKinley High School.

The show was opened by The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. Since I also love dance, I thoroughly enjoyed the performances - including a solo by GLEEs token asian, Harry Shum (or Mike Chang) :-)

Then we waited....for close to half an hour before the cast came on. During the intermission the Cheerios came out and passed out Barf Bags - we later learned that they were provided by Coach Sylvester because she thought we'd need them. Cute. But it created a crazy stampede of young girls and over zealous mothers. Good people watching at the least.

Coach Sylvester and Mr. Schu came on to give us an intro and they started right in with Don't Stop Believing!

Before the show started we got to see some of the famous quotes from the show. Here were a few of my favorites.

The show was great! They did almost all of the popular, big numbers - even Like a Prayer and the number with the mattresses! They also included this little gem - a prelude for tonight's episode!

Shogun slept in my bed

Sleeping with shogun and my little pink bear.

Bows in the hair

I love this picture. Why? Because I had clipped a pink barrette into my grandma's hair. And I'm eating. And Sho is looking on from behind. This was my childhood.

Before there was Mochi...

There was Shogun - or Sho Sho.

He was my mom's dog before I was born. We got along well when I was little....but he got a little grumpy as he got older. But he was my first dog, and he'll always be my little Sho.
































































Haha, this one looks like I'm about to lick the dog.

Red headphones, duh

My dad had these bright red headphones. I used them all the time. Bad ass.

Grandpa

I loved my grandpa. He was a tough guy, a body builder type in his youth. He trained soldiers to fight in WWII. He passed away when I was in 3rd grade.

For as tough as he was, he was a pretty good grandpa. He kept a comb - a 6" black one - in his pocket, and when I'd wake up from naps - my head all sweaty - he'd comb my hair into place.

We also would read the comics together. And he let me sit in the front seat of the car and change the radio stations.

When I picked my nose he'd say "Bryner, whatcha doin? Pickin' a winner?"

He hated strawberries because he didn't like the seeds getting into his teeth. So I told him I'd invent a machine that picked the seeds out of strawberries.....oops.....never really got on that one.






















He even shared his food with me!

What?!

I don't remember being all that attached to my pacifier...Mom says I pretty much didn't care for it. But I did use it to make my face look funny.

What can I say? I like boxes.

While looking through the albums, I realized there were A LOT of pictures of me inside of boxes. Honestly, boxes are more fun than toys. We moved when I was 3.5ish and had refrigerator boxes, washer/dryer boxes, dishwasher boxes. Basically, box heaven. Stacey even slept in a makeshift crib out of - you guessed it - a BOX! But just for one night. She was a baby.

Hair - from an early age

Currently in Seattle for work. Headed back to CA on Wednesday night. While at home, I thumbed through my baby albums and thought I'd use a few of the funny ones for blogs this week. A bit self indulgent? Yes. But hey, it's not called "Bryn-ashley" for nothing!

I look like I'm in a little bit of pain....but I'm not even 2 and blow drying my hair. Probably just confused. I wonder how long I was allowed to hold the dryer? Probably just long enough for the picture.

Domino's Pizza

Domino's is trying to revamp their image. In an effort to support this lofty endeavor, a group of us ordered Domino's takeout the other night.

Feast your eyes on 4 glorious pies!

Their big thing is the crust - so of course we had to try a few different varieties. We had the hand-tossed garlic seasoned crust with a "rich, buttery taste." And the crunchy thin for the "optimum crispy to crunchy ratio."

Verdict? Success! The pizza was tasty and the crust was delicious. At the same time, I really can't remember the last time I had Domino's. So I have very little to compare it to.

#5 That moment on 24 when Jack called the only person he could trust

If you don't watch 24, you wont understand. Jack and Audrey were stuck, no more bullets and at a dead end. It seemed like their fate was sealed. Then Jack called "the only person I can trust." Chloe? What? NO! Tony comes racing around the corner and the room of people watching let out a resounding YES!

#4 Selling stuff on Craigslist

It's the stuff that you want to get rid of, but it's just a little too good for the Goodwill...sorry Goodwill.

You list it, with a picture (because only idiots list anything without a picture) and hope for an email or call.

If you're selling moving boxes, you've hit Craigslist gold and should receive a call/email within 1 minutes of your post. No joke.

If you're selling furniture, it could be days. But when the call comes, you'll be ready.

There's just something about finding a new home for your old things (and getting some $$$ in return) that makes Craigslist so Awesome!

#3 Finding money in the pocket of your ski jacket

When ski season comes around, you pull out the clothes stored away since last year. I almost always find a couple bucks or a granola bar stashed away in one of the pockets. It's like Christmas morning!

Some of the things I've found in my pockets over the years:

1. Maps....lots of them

2. Tissues....kinda gross but still a surprise

3. Money....the most I've found was $20, I thought I had won the lottery

4. Chapstick

5. Wax...to wax my skis, duh

6. Granola bars!

#2 Junk Food

We ran 5 miles Sunday...so of course that makes it ok to eat:

Movie theater popcorn

Skittles

Mambas

A frosty (that Nick brought home after a softball victory)

A chocolate chip cookie

A dove dark chocolate with almonds

But it was AWESOME! The stomach ache I will develop is not awesome, but for now I will bask in the sugar high glory :-)

#1 When the walking signal changes just as you arrive at the crosswalk

I take walking signals very seriously. As a young college student, while "jay walking" across a deserted street, I was warned by a police officer that what I had done was illegal and that a stiff fine could be applied.

He, being the nice guy that he was, gave me a warning instead. I think he was on a power trip, but either way, I've never looked at a walking signal the same since that faithful night in Seattle.

That's why I think it is supremely awesome when you approach a cross walk and the signal changes just as you are about ready to put on the brakes or press the "I'm-here-and-ready-to-cross-the-street" button.

It's especially awesome when it's a long light. You know the one. The one with the large intersection, multiple turning lanes etc.

It happened to us the other day while walking home from Starbucks. Over 3 years, it's the FIRST time it has ever happened on our Sunday Starbucks walks. I thought it was awesome.

1000 Awesome Things

The Webby awards came out last week and I found a "new" website that kept me entertained for a solid half hour - until I forced myself to try and be slightly more productive.

1000 Awesome Things is a blog by Neil Pasricha where he writes about 1 Awesome thing each weekday. It began in 2008 and he recently published a book. He's very funny and the posts are relatable....which is why (I think) he's been so popular.

http://1000awesomethings.com/

It's very entertaining! This week I'm going to try and come up with 5 Awesome Things. We'll see how I do.

For now, here were a few of my favorites.

Fat Baseball Players

Finally getting a piece of popcorn that's been stuck in your teeth all day out

Squeezing through a door as its shutting without touching it

Thinking its Thursday when its Friday

The final seconds of untangling a really big knot

Google Streetview?

While Nick was sweeping the deck he saw this odd car drive up the street. He thought it was google streetview so I ran outside to see what it might be.

It was an old SUV with a video camera system on top. It was called cityview or something like that....but it wasn't google. We'll have to see if Nick or I show up on this website whenever it goes live....kinda creepy.

Lady Gaga.....err....Timmy

I saw this video the other day. I normally feel bad for these kids because their parents have done this to them. But this kid is incredible and he totally wants to be a youtube star. He really starts to get down around the 3:20 mark. And the kid can snap!

Spam

Sometimes I get random comments from people who come across my blog. Some are friends of friends, but most find my blog through google alerts they setup for keywords. This happened when I posted about P90X and yesterday when I posted about tee-shirts. I received this comment:

"It is happened some time when we cannot able to decide what we have to do even sometime we lost our good thing and keep those things that are not too good i think this is same happened to you."

Doesn't this remind you of DOL in middle school? Where you get the grammatically incorrect sentence and change it around to make it grammatically correct. So, here is what I think he meant to say:

"It happens sometimes, that we cannot decide what we have to do. Sometimes we lose our good things and keep those things that are not very good. I think this is what happened to you."

I don't even think I did that 100% correct....but I was trying to stay true to the original voice. So here are some things to point out.

1. Even though he/she spammed me, he read my blog and made a (sincere?) comment about what was going on.

2. He spammed me twice, because the first time, he forgot the whole reason for spamming...adding a link to your own page.

3. Ironically, his site sells t-shirts but the blog was about getting rid of t-shirts. Maybe he thought I would need to replenish the dwindling stock.

In any case, I don't get many comments....so even the spammers get to go up! And they provide entertaining fodder for future blogs.

T-Shirts

I cleaned the closets this weekend. I have a problem....I can't throw away t-shirts. And I've collected a lot of them. Everything in college has a t-shirt.

Here are 2 that were finally thrown out.....from my days as an RA.

Superhero for day

Some of you may have seen this in the Seattle times. But it's worth a repeat.

A little kid with cancer gets his wish to be a superhero for a day.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011740342_electronboy30m.html

37th Place

For a brief second, I was ranked 37th out of 653. Saturday morning marked the start of the Nike Women's Marathon challenge. The top 100 people who run the most during May can purchase an entry. Run your but off for a month and nike will let you give them $$$. It's genius.

We'll see what happens!

How to paint your nails

I thoroughly enjoy painting my nails and I tend to think I'm pretty good at it (if I do say so myself). I'm actually quite particular and have spent a great deal of time perfecting the art. For those of you that want a salon manicure at home, here's what you need.

1. OPI nail envy. I've gone through 2 bottles of this stuff. It's a fantastic basecoat and helps the polish stay on for a long time.

2. Next, you need a high quality nail polish. OPI is a good brand and the names are awesome. I tend to prefer the non-shimmery/sparkly colors these days. But anything goes.

3. Finish with "Super fast drying topcoat" by Poshe. This stuff dries in about a minute, hard in about 5 minutes. It also goes on nice and thick so you get a super glossy finish.

Technically these are all sort of expensive - however, when you figure a manicure costs $20, you've paid for the top coat, polish and basecoat after 2 manicures. And, you can always get it on sale, especially if you live near an ULTA.

Perrita

Perro = Spanish for "Dog"

-ita = Diminutive feminine suffix

Perrita = a little female dog

Perrita = what the Hispanic workers called Mochi

Poor guy. Always getting mistaken for a girl.

Nike Women's Marathon - FAIL

Last year I grudgingly signed up for the Nike Women's Marathon lottery. I figured that I wouldn't get in.....and then I got in. I ended up having a lot of fun running 13.1 miles and was looking forward to doing it again this year.

Unfortunately, I didn't get into the race. My luck ran out (along with about half a dozen of my friends...but whatever, Nike).

In an effort to "win" a race entry - and by "win" I mean "nike will let you purchase one" - I'm going to be trying to log as many runs as possible during the month of May. We'll see how long this lasts.

Day 1 starts today.