Incidents and accidents

John and I are headed to ARIZONA! John’s dad is sending us for a week in early May so I can slobber all over 13 species of hummingbirds (and photograph them) while John laughs at me. Here’s the sketchy pre-planning phase schedule:

Day 1: Leave Atlanta, arrive in Phoenix. rent car, drive to tucson. Check in to hotel, spend the rest of the day messing about in tucson getting coupons and transit schedules.
Day 2: Arizona Sonora Desert Museum has a hummingbird aviary among some other really awesome stuff.
Day 3: ASDM again, since it’s reccomended to take 2 days to go through.
Day 4: Drive down to Sierra Vista for Ash Canyon, Beatty’s Guest Ranch, and Ramsey Canyon.
Day 5: Ash, Beatty’s and Ramsey some more. Or if done head to SABO’s banding station. Perhaps drive over to Paton’s Feeders or Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve.
Day 6: Another day for the canyons or drive back to Tucson for Colossal cave Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens or Reid Park Zoo.
Day 7: Zoo, Cave, or Botanical Gardens again.
Day 8: Drive back to Phoenix, drop off car. Get on plane, return to ATL.

Here’s a map! We may change the entire Sierra Vista bit with the first two days in Tucson, just so we can have the entire tucson stay at once, rather than in two seperate bits. It’s just hard to say how long we (meaning I) will want to stay in the canyons. I will have to get some more memory cards for my camera, or borrow a laptop to download pics to. I will certainly have to get some more batteries. Let me know if you have any borrowable/sellable Compact Flash cards.

Saturday, August 13, 2005 10:00am-4:00pm at Gaither’’s Plantation near Mansfield. I had only two complaints about this entire event. First, it was in a really out-in-the-boonies place. We had to drive on a gravel road for about a mile. Suck. Second, it was really really hot. Georgia in August isn”t the most appealing of times. Both, however, I can understand. Hummingbirds are begining to mirgrate south from Canada now, so you”ll see more of them in August and September. Also, in order to get big numbers of birds, you have to be out-in-the-boonies. The Georgia Hummer Study Group put the festival on, so Presdident Rusty Trump was there banding. Rusty is one of only two licensed hummingbird banders in the state. I”d been e-mailing him back and forth about what I thought to be a black-chinned female at one of my feeders (turned out to be a ruby-throat). He”d banded about 19 birds when we got there at 11:00. We wandered around the festival for a while before finally finding the garden they were trapping the birds in. There were literaly hundreds of hummingbirds in that garden. Next to the garden, they had a table set up for banding. Rusty was just finishing up an immature female. I hurried and wrote my name on two slips of paer for the releaser drawings, then grabbed my camera and got a few photos of her back. Cheryl drew my name out of the jar for that very release, so I was thrilled. There were people crowded all around me, watcing with mouths hanging open. It was awesome. He just set the bird in my hand, and she just sat there for about 30 seconds before flying off. There was a collective “Ahh!” from the people crowded around, then he went back for another bird to band. The next one was an adult male with a much darker emerald green back. Each bird he banded, Rusty would show to the audience up close before releasing. He had to rush a few to release because he had several waiting in bags. He”d get one out, measure it’’s tail, wings, bill and body, check for fat stores, then weigh it wrapped in a footie, give it a drink, show it to the audience, answer questions, then let someone release it. The birds were all in captivity for less than 10 minutes, even when they had to wait in bags. The whole day was great. They took a break from banding for a while, so John and I got somehting to eat. We hung around until my name was called again. I was hoping to get a female and a male, and this one was a male! He measured it, weighed it, and showed it to the audience. The bird was actually a recapture from the previous year, and he was done with being handled. He stayed in my hand for less than a second, too fast for any photos without Rusty’’s hand around him. After that, we left. I”d been working on a migrane for half the day, and John was working on a sunburn. Whee for hummingbirds! I even told Rusty who I was (from e-mailing him), and he asked “Are you from Athens?” I told him yes, and he remembered me. Forgive a little geekery here. For all of the photos, go Here

Mom, Dave, John, me, Jared and his wife Meghan all went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival yesterday. It was more fun than I’ve had there in a long time. Probably because I haven’t been in the past few years. The temperature was perfect, there was more shade there than a few years ago, and lots more games and artists. We watched the jousting in the main ring, saw a glass-blowing demonstration, did a round of archery, and even did one of those bungee-trampoline things. Jared did great flips, but when my turn came, it was a LOT harder than it looked. I only managed a few flips. Poor Meghan doesn’t like rides like that, so she went up and down once of twice, then asked to be let off. It was actually pretty scary at first. I didn’t figure myself to be the type to be, but free-falling made me a bit queasy the first two times. After that, it was fun, but really painful. I kept coming down wrong and the strap across my middle would catch me. I am so sore today. Had some Aleve with breakfast again this morning. I bought a cheap katana (good from afar, but far from good) and a hair coil. It’s like a coil of silver around a lock of hair, with little dangley jewels hanging from it. Quite pretty. I got to visit my very favorite shop, Dragonfolk Studios. I have been a fan of Carrie Rutherford since I was about 15, when Mom and I went to the renfest for the first time. We both bought one of her dragon incense holders, which I still treasure to this day. I go back as often as I can to see what new things she’s doing, but I still like my design best. Mine has translucent plastic wings instead of the rice paper ones she’s using now. Mom got to visit her favorite shop, A Midsummer Knight’s Dream. I think she’s the person responsible for keeping them in the black for years. She goes and buys something there each year she makes it. I can’t afford to shop there. John even found a new favorite shop, Merlin’s Magical Cinnamon Almonds. I never knew he liked cinnamon almonds so much. I can’t stand almonds, but hey.. I’ll have to remember these guys for Christmas or birthday for him.

Just a quick list of places I’ve always wanted to go or return to.

Japan (Kyoto Geishas)
Stonehenge
Venice
Las Vegas
Grand Canyon
Alaska (Northern Lights)
Yellowstone Park
Everglades
Scotland
Ireland
Costa Rica/Equador (hummingbirds)
Arizona/New Mexico (hummingbirds)
Maine
Australia
Egypt
Prague - Mucha Museum
San Diego – Return
Mammoth Cave – Return
Pittsburgh - Return

Anything to add to the list?

Day 4- Got up early and went to the zoo. We got some great 3-for-1 park tickets. $98 for unlimited visit to the Zoo, Sea World, and the Wild Animal park. The tickets for the zoo are $25 each, and Sea World is $50 eash. Two trips to the zoo and one to Sea World would more than pay for itself. Happily ticketed, we went to the kid’s zoo and the hummingbird aviary first. I spent a good deal of time in the hummingbird aviary taking pictures, but I was disappointed. They only had one hummingbird in the actual aviary, and it didn’t fly from the branch it was on for the entire time I was there. There are lots of other colorful birds, but it was a hummingbird exhibit. I don’t know if there are more there in the summer (since hummers migrate), but it was a letdown. I kept seeing hummingbirds everywhere, but none low enough to the ground for a photo. There were a bunch of naked mole rats in the kids zoo. They were the most active thing in the park, crawling all over each other the whole time. I ran out of space on my 512MB memory stick, so I changed to my 1GB stick and kept going. We caught a sea lion show, then we saw some huge orange monkeys John loves. They were having fun playing with some boxes. We went through an aviary with lots of rainbow birds, then we saw more monkeys and a big hippo. Those things are HUGE! They even had a great birds of prey exhibit, with Harpy Eagles. Harpy Eagles are the biggest eagles in the world, and tied with Snowy Owls for my very favorite raptors. We saw a polar bear and a lot of giraffes too. Our feet started killing us, so we caught a quick bus tour and left for the day. Before we left the park though, I got my name painted in a very pretty letter art style by some Chinese lady named Pia. We’d planned another day at the zoo, but I felt like we’d seen enough, so we changed plans and went to Sea World the next day.
Day 5- Sea World San Diego is almost identical to Sea World Orlando, which John and I visited in 2003. We just wandered around for all day. There were a few differences, mostly in the food. It was that way with the zoo too. Out here, if you want food, you get overpriced hamburgers and hotdogs. In San Diego, if you want food, you get real food. They actually served good pasta at Sea World, and rice bowls at the zoo. It’s odd. Anyway, the first thing we saw that was different at Sea World was the ‘Shamu Close-Up’ pool. It’s a viewing pool that Shamu swims around in. He had to be about 15ft away from us. I got a few shots, then we moved on to the dolphin cove. They actually have underwater viewing here, which was new. I got so excited that I stepped over a guardrail without ever noticing. One of the dolphins cam right up and said hi… by spraying water all over me. I got quite soaked, but I managed to shield the poor camera from most of it. After that, I gave it to John while I played with the dolphin some more. He seemed to think it was quite funny. We saw the sea lions and the seals, then went through the shark tube. It was too dark in there for decent photos though. We stopped by the sea lions again so John could throw some stinky fish at them, then we caught the Shamu Show. I got some great pictures of Shamu heaving his 5 tons of whale self out of the water. He sure creates a huge splash! Saw some more hummingbirds here too, again none low enough for pictures. We pet a few slimy stingrays, then moved on to the Clydesdale hamlet. I swear, I almost peed myself in glee. I LOVE huge horses. To me, a horse should be big boned, heavy, and tall. I even got to pet one named Roy while the stable hands weren’t looking. Roy likes to have his nose scratched, and seemed disappointed when I left. We headed on to the arctic exhibits. They have a few belugas, a walrus, a polar bear and a bunch of penguins and puffins. This is about the point where I noticed that I’d drained both of my extra camera batteries and I only had 13 minutes left on my current one. We caught a fun dolphin show, but I ran out of batteries before it was over. There were a few animals we’d missed that day, so we decided to come back the day after. On the way back to the hotel that night, I stopped in to RiteAid to put some photos on a CD, because I was running out of space on the 1GB memory stick as well. They took forever, but it was $5 for 120 photos safe on a CD. I had 175 on that (the 512MB) stick, so there were 55 left that I needed to keep.
Day 6- I got so excited about going back to Sea World that I woke up way too early. To kill some time, I decided to delete the pictures I’d put on the CD the day before. Evidently I was more sleep-foggy then I thought, because sure enough.. I deleted 45 of the 55 I needed to keep. Nerg. They were all the ones from the zoo, in the hummingbird aviary and the kids section. Stupid, stupid! I spent time really beating myself up before I realized that we had that great 3-for-1 pass. I could go back to the zoo and get more photos on the day after! Whew! We went back to Sea World, and had another grand day. I finally got two photos of one of the many hummingbirds around San Diego. The bird turns out to be a female Anna’s Hummingbird, a species that stays all year round in San Diego. I was elated. John and I went to go see the manatees and take some more pictures. One of them had a huge white scarred chunk in it’s tail. I’ll bet that hurt, poor thing. They were having fun with the lettuce. Another trip to the shark tube was fun, but the second time around with the belugas was even better for me. I like whales much better. Especially ones that swim upside-down and smile at me. We searched the entire park for the darn sea turtles, then caught another dolphin show since my batteries had died in the middle of the last one. I got a bit sun-burned sitting there, but not badly. Another visit to Roy the Clydesdale made me happy. Feet hurting again, we called it a day. We spent the rest of the night in the hotel room, watching CSI on Spike and planning what to get for people as gifts.
Day 7- Back to the zoo for the second set of hummingbird and naked mole rat photos. I only got one good one of the lone hummingbird, but I got a few more good ones of the other birds in the aviary. I have no idea what most of them were, but I know one was a tanger. I meant to take a photo of the species plaque, but I forgot. I don’t even know what the hummingbird was, even though I had to have looked at the sign 3 times at least. We walked around a bit more so that the souvenir shop would be open. The otter was awake that day, so I got a bunch of pictures of him. He was swimming upside-down too. We saw the naked mole rats again, as active as the last time. They are SO ugly. About noon, the shop was open and we bought a few items, then left. We caught the trolley down to Tijuana, Mexico, about a 30 minute ride. The line ends right at the border and you have to take a foot bridge over. Two pairs of metal gates later, I was out of the United States for the first time in my life. And boy.. was it scary. Right our of the gates is a whole two blocks of nothing but pharmacies and dental clinics. I’m serious. The dentists are actually standing around in the road, yelling at you to come in and get your teeth taken care of. I’ve never been to an open-air market before, and having people yell at you in the middle of the street was scary. I’d imagined Mexico as some sort of happy, brightly colored tourist trap, not the pharmacy riddled blocks I saw. I got pretty scared, wondering how on earth we’d get to the real tourist stuff. We were finally nabbed by one of the nicest taxi drivers there, who told us he’d take us to the shopping strip for $4 each. Extortion by U.S. standards, but John and I were happy to leave the yelling dentists behind. It was also my very first ride in a taxi. He dropped us off and told us to look for guys in yellow shirts when we needed a taxi ride back to the border. We thanked him and began shopping for cheap Mexican chintzy stuff. There were still people yelling here too. Buy this necklace, only $1.. come into my shop for knives and hats.. etc. We went into a shop filled with brightly painted clay animals. Cats, turtles, fish, frogs, elephants.. etc. The guy there didn’t quite get the meaning of the American ‘just looking’ thing, because he just kept talking to me. He’d pick up stuff and ask “Maybe this?” over and over.. After spending a crazy amount (by U.S. standards) for clay items, we left that shop and continued walking. I wanted a colorful Mexican shirt like Larken has, but when I held one up to me, it looked retarded. I looked at a nice brown one in a store, but the guy wanted too much for it. He went from $25 to $14, but I still didn’t want it for that much, so we left again. After about an hour of having people scream at me from their shops (”Hey, pretty lady! Redheads get 75% off today!!”), I was really beginning to panic. I’m SO not used to having people get up in my face when they want me to buy stuff from them. We got a taxi ride back to the border, where I almost panicked again, because it didn’t look like the same place we’d come across. It turned out to be, but I was still scared. After going through the check-in line (”Are you Americans?” “Yes.” “Right then, off you go.”), we were finally back where people don’t yell at you in the roads. I sighed audibly and was still shaking nervously by the time we got back into downtown 30 minutes later. I don’t think I ever want to go back to Mexico again. John says what I experienced is called ‘acculturation’. I just call it fucking scary. So I’m a small-town girl. Bah. Got some dinner and crashed in the hotel. CSI was so much nicer (read: more familiar) than Mexico.
Day 8- We kept the last day free to shop, and that’s what we did. We bought fun gifts for eighteen people! I still have to send most of them out, but some have already been given to their recipients. Trinny got some Indian tea and a plushie bat from the zoo. Larken got a turtle jewel box from Mexico. Munchie got some stretchy stingrays from Sea World. Blixem and a few other people got tee-shirts, because they’re men and don’t want anything else. Atari got a ‘surf or die’ skeleton. Gonzo and Ross got some books about pirates from the bay area. I bought myself and Meggie semi-matching Chinese blouses. mine is lavender with dark purple bamboo patterns, her is dark purple with a golden bamboo pattern. both of the blouses have the same design and cut though. I couldn’t decide which one I liked best (and wanted to keep for myself) though, until I got back to the hotel room and tried them on. One was a size smaller than the other, and since Meggie has less broad shoulders than me, she got the smaller one. I couldn’t even get into the thing. She looks better in darker colors anyway. We bought my Dad, my Mom, my brother, John’s brother, John’s Dad, Larry, Hannah, Mrs Dean, and Brian Snyder gifts as well, but they haven’t been given out yet, so I will refrain from spoiling the surprise here.
Day 9- By the time the final day rolled around, we were happy to leave. The hotel room was horrid. Well, more accurately, it was the hotel room’s shower that was horrid. It had a nasty habit of going from about 30F to about 130F in the span of about 5 seconds. Getting frozen and scalded isn’t my idea of a fun shower. On top of the noise the first night, the inattentive staff and the 20×20 room size, I wouldn’t spend another visit there if they paid ME! We snagged breakfast at the airport and got on the plane. It was one of the ones with two rows of seats on each side and three in the middle of the plane. The most comfy plane I’ve ever been in. The ride back was 3.5 hours instead of the 5 hours it took us to get out there, so it was nice all around. I even got to hear Paul Simon’s ‘Call me Al’ song near the end of the flight. Makes me so happy, I named my website after it. Heh, and Meggie did too, which is even cooler. Jared even made a never-updated page on AOL and named it ‘trips and follies’. Not from the song, but in the spirit, no less. I feel like I started something here.. I called Larken when we got back on the ground. She said she hadn’t seem my Stumpy kitty since Wednesday, so I got really worried. I called around for here and even checked the Humane Society’s website for her, but she showed up about 3 hours after we got back. I was so happy to see her. I missed my kitty .
See the photo albums:

Day 1- Drove down to Atlanta early, had lunch with John’s dad before we flew out. Flew out at 5:30pm. I love flying, but the 5 hours we were stuck in our seats was a killer. Whee for books. I had to get up and use the airline toilet, something I’ve never done before. It’s bizarre peeing into something that moves/vibrates. We got into San Diego at 7:10pm, but it was 10:10 our time. We were zonked. Called for the hotel shuttle and got checked in. Ate some nasty Chinese (the only place that would deliver) since it was pouring outside, then went to bed. Woke up a scant 3 hours later to Michael Jackon’s ‘Beat It’ being played 15 feet from our room at what seemed to be 400 decibels. Turns out it’s a nightclub! As the rock and techno keeps going, we call the lobby to complain, who call the police to come get the music turned down. I was all set to go beat some ass, but there was no repeat. Back to sleep. The roof does have a stunning view though, especially at night.
Day 2- Got up a bit grumpy from the music the night before, got dressed and went out on the town. A breakfast at Starbucks later, we were off wandering the downtown area. We looked in a few stores (there’s an awesome Asian place), then wandered over towards the bay/harbor. They have tons of neat ships there you can tour, mostly old-time ones. The ship used in Master and Commander is even moored there. After some fun lunch at the famous Anthony’s on the Waterfront, we decided to go on a whale watching tour. This was a very new experience for me because the only boat I’ve ever been on was the Disneyland Ferry! The real ocean was MUCH different. I can understand why people get seasick now. The boat rolled and heaved under us like some drunken horse. The ship goes up a swell, then down into the trough behind it. If there’s a big swell, the boat actually drops straight down! I makes the strangest feeling in the pit of your stomach. I somehow managed not to fall over or down the stairs, but just barely. We didn’t see much of the whales while were out there, but we did see a pod of wild dolphins. They came right up to the ship, about 2 feet away. I was so excited that my hands were shaking, and I only got one good photo of them. After coming back from the tour, we got a ride back to the hotel in a pedi-cab. The poor bike guy had a rough time hauling our lard-asses about. Good thing there aren’t many hills here. We got some postcards to mail out and some food, then sat around in the hotel for the rest of the night, watching HBO. I went up on the roof to get some night shots of the city. While I was up there, some guy actually proposed to his girl there. Heh.
Day 3- Got up today and got breakfast the Starbucks again. Yummy. Filled out the postcards and mailed them. Hopefully they will get home to people before we do. I even got to see two wild hummingbirds here! I have no idea what they were though. Not familiar with the species on this side of the US. We walked down toward the harbor/bay again, to tour the USS Midway, an out of commission aircraft carrier. It was fun, until we got to the foot wide 60% angle ladders up to the bridge. That sucked, but I managed not to fall down any of them. Still have NO idea how. After that, we went to an open-air mall for lunch. It was awesome. Wish we had those back home! Too bad it’d be boiling in the summer, freezing in the winter, and wet all spring. That’s what we get for living in Georgia. After a long lunch, we contemplated going to Mexico for half-a-day, but decided our feet needed to be saved for tomorrow and Tuesday. Our trip to the San Diego Zoo! I found a place for internet and uploaded a few shots, and that’s it so far!! Since I’m on a slow-ass connection, there are only 10 photos in the San Diego album.

‘Trip countdown: 8 days! Leave March 4th, 5:29pm. Arrive in San Diego 7:11PM Return March 12, 11:35am. Arrive Atlanta 6:38pm. Flight Duration: 4 hours, 41 minutes. No photos for the flight out, it’ll be dark the whole time. I hope to get some pictures of the Rocky mountains as we’re heading back, but I think we may be seated over the wings. We’re planning on spending two days at the Zoo. It even has a free-flying walk-in Hummingbird aviary. I can get TONS of great photos! Wayne Owen took most of his photos there. We’re planning on spending a day in Sea World as well. I plan on taking my camera, but I think I’ll try putting it in a Ziplock baggie. Plastic is my friend. A trip to the Wild Animal Park will round out my animal seeing needs. After that, we’re planning on seeing the sights in downtown San Diego. The Gas Lamp Quarter is actually where we are staying. Right in the middle of downtown. Our hotel looks awesome. Yippie for queen size beds! There’s even a look-out place on the roof for photos. Just to say I’ve finally been out of the country, we’re hopping a trolley over to Tijuana for half a day or so. We may also go on a Whale Watching tour, but it’s not a MUST do thing. At $50 for 3.5 hours, it’s a bit steep. We’re also planning on going to the beach at some point. John says I have to see what the world looks like from the edge of the world’s largest ocean. I plan on sending postcards from San Diego, plus buying everyone bizarre stuff from Mexico. I can’t wait!!

1. I have a new fish. He’s a very pretty blue betta fish. I got him from Atari. He was taking pictures of fish in a glass. The guppies bit it, so I took in the poor used betta. He is happy now.
2. My car battery has been dead for a week. Jared used to experiment on my car, and messed up the electrical system. Every 3 years or so, my battery drains as if I left the lights on.
3. FINALLY found the link to the new DR. Pepper ‘Mahnamana’ commercial. I have been looking for two weeks to find this link. Muppets original: here. Dr. Pepper: here. This is the funniest crap I have seen in a while. GO SEE.
4. V-day was fun for John and I. We did our gift exchange on Sunday instead of Monday. I got him a book he wanted, a book light, and some 3D fold-up D&D houses. He got me the entire box set of Indiana Jones DVD’s. I think I got the better deal…
5. The trip to San Diego is coming up soon! I’m SOOO excited. We’re visiting the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, and Sea World San Diego. I’ve got my new 1GB memory stick and my 2x telephoto extender, so I can get good photos.
6. Hoping to get Gallery on my art page with Larry’s help. Well, since I don’t know a thing about it, he’ll be the one doing it all, really. Finally, I can update the page without having to make a separate thumb and html page for each picture.
7. Here’s a joke I love:
A blonde walks into a pharmacy and asks the assistant for some rectum deodorant.
The pharmacist, a little bemused, explains to the woman they don’t sell rectum deodorant, and never have.
Unfazed, the blonde assures the pharmacist that she has been buying the stuff from this store on a regular basis and would like some more.
“I’m sorry,” says the pharmacist, “we don’t have any.”
“But, I always buy it here,” says the blonde.
“Do you have the container that it came in?” asks the pharmacist.
“Yes,” said the blonde, “I’ll go home and get it.”
She returns with the container and hands it to the pharmacist who looks at it and says to her, “This is just a normal stick of underarm deodorant”
Annoyed, the blonde snatches the container back and reads out loud from the container.
…….. “TO APPLY, PUSH UP BOTTOM.”

‘I haven’t had a net connection for a bit, so this is Christmas and New Year updates.
Christmas was great, even if John and I did have to drive all over the southern USA. John’s dad’s place on the 23rd, his Mom’s on the 24th, then my mom’s on the 25-27th. Despite the driving everywhere, it was a lot of fun. I don’t think I’ve ever been as close to getting all of what I really wanted as I was this year. Mom and I also got to go out shopping together, which is always fun. I bought some shiny things, as did she.

From Mom and Dave: Sewing Machine, Metal Detector, and some cool souvenirs from her travels.
From Dad and Asunta: Cash for my quest for more camera gear.
From John’s mom: Sewing Kit (like a picnic basket) and $ for some fabric.
From John’s Dad: Swivel Tripod, Remote Camera Cord, and a week in San Diego.
From Christine and Bruce: 2.5 Gallon fish tank for guppies.
From Atari: A huge book of old 50’s Pin-Up paintings
From Brian: Flight of the Navigator on DVD
From Joshua: Extended Return of the King on DVD

A few other family members sent me money that I’m saving for that 8x lens I want. I need to buy it before we head to San Diego because we’re ging to visit the San Diego Zoo and the Wildlife Park while we’re there. I need and extra memory stick at some point too. Trin and Tang are ordering something for me at some point, but I have no clue what it is. Meggie said she sent me something, but I haven’t gotten it yet. Larry and I are doing the gift exchange thing on the 8th. Mrs Dean and Hannah have been very patient with me, so I have a few things for them as well.

Tang’s birthday was on the 29th, and Trinny and Larken and John and I got together to throw him a surprise birthday party. There was much cake and much booze. John got cuddly-drunk and i drove his poor butt home. I was followed (but not pulled over) by two police cars on the way home. Christine and I were the lookout guard upstairs. We were looking out the window, watching for Trin and Tang to arrive. They drove up and we jumped away from the window so fast that we scared the poor cats in the room. So, here we are running towards the basement shouting “They’re here!” and the two cats are running the hell away. I stepped on one’s tail and kicked the other, but managed not to fall on them both. They run screaming into the kitchen and proceed to run headlong into the trash can, knocking it over and across the room. Christine and I are like “Oh no! We have to put the trash can back up! They’ll notice!” We almost did too, but then I was like “There’s no time!”, so we ran downstairs and turned the lights off and laughed our butts off at those poor kitties.

New Year’s was great too. I threw together a last-minute Ice Fairy costume (pictures tomorrow). I had a lot of fun trying to keep the damn wings out of everyone’s faces. I made them out of fun foam, so they were nice and soft, but I still kept hitting people with them. Ross’s girlfriend Meghan said that it was the best costume yet, even though I was just wearing jeans. John got some great photos of me in it, so I’m happy. The party was somewhat uneventful, because not a lot of people were there. We all crammed into the basement room for the big ball drop, then crammed into the garage for Dirty Santa. John and I bought a Twister game to give away, which drew a huge applause when unwrapped. We left before i could get sucked into Strip Twister though. Starting off the new year naked (because I’m horrible at Twister) isn’t something I was really in the mood for. I had a nice scare when someone thought that the Lilypie baby bar was for me, and that I was pregnant! I’m having a baby? Sure news to me!

Jared Robb Lickliter married Meghan Julia Vadeboncoeur on November 13, 2004. That’s my 4 years younger baby brother getting married. Wow. Meggie and I had a part in the wedding, so our wedding weekend got off to a wonderful start with the rehearsal and the dinner following. The rehearsal was long, draw-out and elaborate because the wedding co-coordinator took forever to decide in what order she wanted everyone to come down and be seated. Meggie and I, then Dad and Asunta, then the bride’s grandparents, then Mom and Dave, then the bride’s parents, then the groom and party, then the bride’s party, then the bell ringer and ring bearer, then the flower girl, then the bride… Wow. It was a long time before we got out of there and to the food. Poor John was starving to death when we got there, and then the restaurant took 30 minutes to even take our orders. ::sigh:: Food was good though, just slow in arriving. Bride and Groom passed out presents to the wedding party though, (picture frames) and we sat and waited. The rehearsal began at 5pm, and we finally got out at about 9pm from the dinner. Loads of people. Went back to John’s Mom’s place for sleeping. I was tired, but I kept waking up because I was having awful dreams. I never have nightmares, but I had at least 3 that night. No idea why. Got up to have a wonderful breakfast of biscuits and honey (my fave), then Meggie and Tim came and got me so she could do my hair. I’m too much of a tomboy and I never learned how to do my own hair. I’m fine with that unless she’s not here to do my hair for me. She left mine mostly down except for some nice twists in the front, and put hers in curlers. As usual, she ended up looking much cuter and me. We left for the pre-wedding photos at 3pm, got there at 4pm, and waited. There was a fatal fiery tractor-trailer accident on 85 south (the main highway most of the wedding party would be using to get there), so the photographer was held up in traffic for a few hours. The nervous wedding co-coordinator called a replacement photographer who arrived just before the ceremony to take a few pictures while I was in the bridal dressing room getting a few shots of Meghan just in case the photos didn’t turn out or whatever. I think I got some pretty good ones. The real wedding photographer actually arrived mid-ceremony. The actual ceremony began a few minutes late, but considering what had been going on, that’s pretty good. Meggie and I strolled down the aisle very carefully (so I didn’t trip all over myself) to place roses on the bible. We got to sit in the front row. Poor mom was all sniffley. I didn’t tear up until the first dance at the reception. I got some decent photos of the ceremony, and shot three movie files. We all threw Lavender at them as they ran out, then we all came back in for more photos. Finally they were done and we went to the reception hall. Jared and Meghan soon followed for the food. The reception was fun. Got to see a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a long time. Almost all of our family made it there, even from Ohio. After much dancing and cake cutting and toasting, they threw the bouquet and the garter. I caught the bouquet despite carefully placing myself in the very back. Everyone laughed and looked at John, who was standing in another corner. Jared took of the garter and threw it too, but John did not catch it. I think Jared may have aimed it at him though. We left right afterwards, long way to drive back. I was sooo tired and upset over not seeing Meggie again that I cried almost all the way back up to Athens. My sister’s gone again. Anyway, you can see the rest of the wedding photos here.