Amazing nature

I have been nurturing my little cocoons for about a week now.  Every day  I come home from work and see if any progress has been made.  Every day there was no movement, no indication that my little cocoons were hard at work.  But they were!!!

They were not very pretty! 

But today when I was at work, Jeff sent me a text message that they were starting to hatch.  I was so excited!!!  But I felt like a working mother who was missing a big day in their child’s life.  I felt so bad that I wasn’t home to watch it happen.  By the time I got home, 8 butterflies had hatched.

(Thankfully the instructions said that there might be some red liquid that comes out.  There is red liquid all over one side of the habitat.  At first I thought there was a little Butterfly Fight Club action going on.  First rule of Fight Club……don’t talk about Fight Club!!!)

I think they look like monarchs, but the booklet only refers to them as Painted Ladies.  I’m not sure if that’s a generic term for butterflies or a type of butterfly. 

I also had to save one of my butterflies already.  The booklet says that you can put cut watermelon, bananas and oranges in the habitat and the butterflies will drink the juice.  Apparently the first butterfly to hatch landed on a banana slice.  The juice must have been really good because he looked a little drunk and fell off the banana.  The bad part was that his wing landed on the wet banana and he wasn’t strong enough yet to lift himself off of it. 

I told Jeff that I just had to save him!  He said I should just let him deal with it, but he was stuggling so much.  I reached in and let him grab onto my finger and lifted him off the banana.  He stayed on my hand for a minute before I gently set him back down.  I like to think that he was thanking me for helping him, but really he was probably just thinking “What the heck was THAT thing??  And why was I stuck to it?”  They’ve been thru a big change today, so now they’ll just rest tonight. 

I still have 4 cocoons yet to hatch so maybe I’ll have a few more yet.  My plan is to watch them for a few days and then release them outside.  I’m hoping that they will lay their eggs outside and we’ll see more butterflies around our house.

The Butterfly Effect

My latest project has me staring into little jars and looking at small creatures.  I had live animals shipped to my office and they arrived today.  What am I doing, you ask???

I’m raising butterflies!!!!  They look kinda gross now, but soon they will be beautiful butterflies.  All the brown stuff in the container is food.

A co-worker of mine told me about something she did for her sister’s wedding.  They ordered all these caterpillars and put them in individual boxes.  She had to keep them in a dark room and give them a little shake every day.  They took all the boxes to the wedding and handed them out to the guests.  At the right moment, the guests were to all open their boxes.  They were not told what was in the box.  Imagine their surprise when all 200 guests opened their boxes at the same time and had a ton of butterflies flying around.  How cool is that!!!

Seeing as I am obsessed with butterflies, I thought I’d give it a try.  I think my obsession is for small, winged creatures.  I love angels, hummingbirds, Tinkerbell, and butterflies.  There’s just something about these small creatures that I love to look at.  Jeff pointed out that it’s probably also the colors because I don’t feel the same affection for flies.  Good point!

So my little caterpillars are in the process of spinning their cocoons.  They will stay in their cocoons for about 10 days, and then they will hatch into butterflies.  The company also sent me a little habitat to observe the butterflies in.  The butterflies will live for about 2-4 weeks.  At any point during their butterfly stage, I can release them into the wild.  If I do it soon enough, they will lay eggs on nearby plants and I’ll have even more butterflies to enjoy.  I’m so excited!!  I’ll post more pictures once they start to make their change.

More grog!!!

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of taking my two nieces and nephew to Medieval Times for the first time.  I have been many times, but none of them had been.  I couldn’t believe it!!!  Julianna had been saying that she wanted to go, so Jeff and I found a good deal and took the kids.

It was so much fun!!!

Here they are at the entrance:

The kids were pretty excited to get to wear crowns.

(Oh yeah, and I had to take them to the bar to booze them up before the show.  Don’t worry, Melissa, they are all virgin drinks!!!  We did get extra cherries for Jackson’s Shirley Temple.  I think that’s why he’s grinning!!!)

We purchased an upgrade to get better seats, and ended up getting the front row of the Red Knight’s section. 

(Medieval Times + ponytail = a crooked crown!)

I was trying to get the girls to cheer when our knight came by with flowers in hopes that they would get one.

Madisyn got one better!  Our knight got many flowers to throw to our section, which he threw to the rows behind us.  But he only got one “favor”.  The princess ties a ribbon to the end of his lance and he had to pick one lucky lady to receive it.  Madisyn was his pick!!  She was so excited!!

A photographer came over and took her picture, but because I’m too cheap (read: I had already spent WAY too much money), I tried to just take a picture of the photo.  She’s the Queen of Love and Beauty.

They also put our knight’s picture on the other side (who reminded me of Anthony’s friend, Dan Hammrick.  Funny!!)

When I showed her this picture with our knight, she promptly stuck out her tongue and made a face, which I took to mean that she thinks he was cute.  Hey, that’s what MY reaction would have been at that age!!! 

The kids had a blast!  I think we were the only ones who smuggled in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Jackson to eat.  During dinner, I looked over and saw a sight that was unique to our group:

With all the food and drink they give you there, Jackson was drinking a Capri Sun!  Go figure! 

But he loved it too!!  He kept asking when the fighting was going to start, and he was so into it.  Everytime they would do a battle, he would start telling us all what they were doing: “Look, he hit him with the sword!” “He threw his shield!”  It was really cute!!

Everyone had a great time, and since I’m the auntie who spoils, we were probably the only group leaving the castle who had to go thru a drive-thru for kids meals, since the younger two didn’t really eat anything.  It was ok though.  We had a blast!!

Lions and tigers and bears……OH MY!!!

Our trip to San Diego was so much fun!!  We had a blast.  My vacation week started out with a few days around the town.  I got to go out to dinner with Mrs. Kitty and our friend Val.  I also got a chance to pick up my favorite nieces from school and take them out to spoil them.  It was Madisyn’s birthday, so I had an excuse!!  We got a few things at Claires, some DS games, and manicure/pedicures.  It was quite fun!  Madisyn was pretty excited to get flowers on her toes and fingers.

On Wednesday Jeff and I drove down to San Diego.  We started our trip in Seaport Village.  We took the Seal Tour, which was a boat on wheels that drove around the harbor, and then it drove right into the water and we took a tour of the harbor.  It was really cool.  We got to see wild sea lions and a navy ship that had just been christened. 

We also walked around the little village and had dinner overlooking the harbor.  Very romantic!

Thursday we went to the Wild Animal Kingdom Park.  I was so excited to see the Butterfly Jungle!!

The cool thing about this park is with over 3,000 animals, they have a baby born everyday.  We got to see quite a few of them.

Baby Chetah

We headed straight for the Butterfly Jungle.  We heard that this was a great week for us to be there since we missed all the kids on Spring Break.  The week before, the wait for the butterfly exhibit was an hour and a half.  We didn’t even have to wait 5 minutes!!  Plus, we missed the 100 degree weather!

I'm a beautiful butterfly! And from way up here, you all look like little ants!!

 

We also went by the elephant area.  I thought this was the baby elephant everyone was talking about……

….until I saw this little guy!!!

Sooooo cute!!!

Then we went on a 3 hour safari tour.  This was a totally awesome experience!!  We went into several different areas where the animals all roamed freely together.  So cool!!

This ostrich was coming over to check us out. "Hey, what are you looking at??"

The best part of the safari was getting the chance to feed the animals.  Giraffes are my new favorite animal!!!  They had 3 baby giraffes that were just brought out of the nursery the day before we got there.

"Hey, where's my leaves???"

"Oh here they are!!"

They have this long blackberry tongue that curls around your hand to take the leaf. 

Coming over to see if we have more food for them

 

Two of the new babies. You can see the imbilical cord still on the one standing.

We also got to feed apples to the rhinos.

Twin baby lambs

 We had to go back to the butterflies.  Since I didn’t get any of them to land on me the first time, I wanted to try again.

This one wanted to come see Jeff!

 

We also went to feed the lorakeets.  I made a few friends!!

We had a great time!!  And took a TON of pictures!!  We took too many pictures to post them all.  If you want to see more, click here.

One day post tax-day

So I have officially survived my first tax day at an accounting firm.  Phew!!  It was quite crazy!  Especially with Betty’s help.  She definitely added an element of drama and insanity.

Now I am counting the days until my vacation.  I’m getting so antsy now!!!  I have one more day of work, and then I’m free for a week.  YIPPEE!!!!  Jeff and I are taking a trip down to San Diego to go to the Wild Animal Kingdom Park.  They have a butterfly jungle exhibit that I’m dying to see.  We’re also going to take a 3 hour safari trip in the park and feed girraffes and rhinos.  I’m so excited about it!!!  And, my honey being as awesome as he is, found an On The Border restaurant down there that we’re going to see.  Unfortunately the one near us closed down January 1st, so I haven’t been able to satisfy my crack-cheese addiction.  He’s has Map Quested directions to the closest one in San Diego, so I will get to enjoy my chicken flautas and cheese.  Yum!!!  That’s just one of the things I’m really looking forward to!!! 

I’ll have lots of pictures when we come back!!  Stay tuned!!

Pain!

One of Jeff and my favorite video games is a game called Pain.  It’s this crazy game where you use the character and slingshot them around town, trying to hit and damage as many things as possible.  The more damage, the more points you get.  It’s really sick and twisted, yet oddly satisfying.  They have a new feature where you can edit the shot and change camera angles.  Jeff is now having too much fun editing his game clips.  It’s the film maker in him coming out!

For your viewing pleasure….

Click here and here.  Enjoy the pain!!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

I hope you all had a great St Patrick’s Day!  My day was filled with all things green.

I started out the day like Dr Seuss….

Here I am enjoying my green eggs and ham!

The whole time, Jeff and I kept saying how disgusting it looked, but we ate it.  Jeff said if he closed his eyes, it tasted just like regular scrambled eggs.  I have been forbidden from posting the picture that I took of him because he had just gotten out of bed (party pooper!!!).

Then we had a mid-morning snack at work…..

(That’s my nice, organized desk!!!)  Hahahahahaha!!!!

Then after dinner, it was over to McDonalds for a classic.

Let me give you a little insider tip.  My co-worker brought in the Girl Scout cookies today that I had ordered.  Try taking a bite of a Thin Mint and taking a sip of the Shamrock Shake.  Oh lordy!!!  It’s mint overload……and FABULOUS!!!!

All good things must come to an end

All good things must come to an end.  Such was the case with my birthday festivities.  And now that I have awoken from my food coma, I can now blog about it. 

We had a great time.  We celebrated for about 2 weeks, which was awesome.  By Sunday night (the night before my birthday), Jeff said this was the longest birthday celebration ever!!!  As it should be!!! 

On Friday, my managers celebrated my birthday at work.  They decked out my desk with a huge balloon, a cake, cards, and a bunch of candy.  Then they took me out to lunch and took me to get a manicure and pedicure.  I asked since they celebrated on Friday, did I really have to show up on Monday, my actual birthday?  They said no, so I gladly took the day off!!

Over my actual birthday weekend, we had a gaming event on Saturday.  As always, it was super fun.  We won the game (which is always a nice bonus) but just barely!!  I made a really yummy spinach and artichoke dip for everyone to enjoy.  Secretly, I think that is why they tolerate me because I bring good snacks.

On Sunday, I slept in until 11am.  Well, it really only felt like 10am because of the time change.  None the less, it was nice to just sleep in.  After a day lounging around the house, we headed out to Fogo de Chao.  I was ready for my meat galore.  And what a feast it was!!!

We entered the restaurant and directly in front of us was this huge wine rack.

This rack was so big that it works on a system similar to a dry cleaners.  They flip a switch and they all start rotating around until they get to the bottle that they want.  Very cool!!!

Then came the wonderful salad bar.  I tried so hard not to eat too much salad because I wanted to taste all the different meats.  Here we are at our table:

All the gauchos were walking around with such yummy looking meat.  I had to try them all!!!  My plate would be full, but they’d still come by and ask me if I wanted to try something.  Of course I had to say yes!!!

The filet mingon was my personal favorite.  It was so delicious and just melted in your mouth.  And the bacon-wrapped chicken.  Yum!!!  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!!!

After all the meat we could possibly eat, Jeff was ready to call it a night.

We went home and were both ready for a nap!!

It was a great birthday treat, one that I won’t soon forget.  Thanks honey!! 

Let the birthday festivities commence!

I have decided to try to milk my upcoming birthday for as long as I possibly can.  This weekend we started the first weekend of the festivities.  I told Jeff that I shall require much cake and birthday well-wishes so let’s get started.  I love my birthday.  He said that once I hit 30, I won’t enjoy it as much but I don’t think that’s possible.  I was reminiscing a bit the other night.  It seems so strange to be turning 28.  I still feel like I’m 21, or 22, playing “adult” like a child would play dress up.  How long do you feel that way?  Until you have kids?

Jeff took me on my annual trip to Benihana’s on Sunday.  I’ve been going there for my birthday for the past 5 or 6 years.  I love that place!!  I especially love when they take the rings of the onion and stack them on top of each other.  Then they pour water (because open flames have been banned) into the volcano shaped onion and it starts to steam out.  I don’t know why, but that really amuses me.  I guess it’s the little things in life that I appreciate.  We also had our picture taken there, which I have in a little frame.  I’ve been trying to get on there website to download it but it’s not working.  I guess I’ll just have to add it later.

On Wednesday I’m going out to dinner with Mrs. Kitty.  I can’t wait for that.  I just have to make sure I wear comfy pants.  Not only so we can eat a ton of junk, but because I always end up laughing my ass off and my stomach ends up hurting from laughing so hard.  Good times!!!

Saturday we’re planning a gaming event.  I love getting together and letting my inner geek come out.  Although according to my brother, it’s not so much an inner geek as much as just a geek.  I was trying to explain the board game that we play and I was using small words but he still seemed a bit confused.  Maybe it is more complicated than we think!!  It’s just second nature to us now.

On Sunday, I’m finally going to get to go to Fogo de Chao.  I really thought we were going on Valentine’s Day, but a birthday dinner there would be just as good.  I’ve been told it’s a food coma, which made me start thinking that I’ll be going on a diet on Tuesday.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on my actual birthday, other than work.  I was going to try to take the day off and go to Disneyland but I’m not sure who to go with.  Most people have to work that day.  Either way it should be a great day!! 

My Bloody Valentine

No it’s not what you think.  I realize that title is a little misleading, especially considering it is following a post entitled “Are you Ovulating?”  No, I haven’t taken to blogging about my monthly cycles (but maybe I should……or not!!!)  HAHAH!!!

For Valentine’s Day, my honey decided that he was going to take me out to dinner and a movie.  How sweet!!  I love when he has his romantic moments.    He’s not always the romantic type and he likes to do things that are outside the norm, but I just love it when his romantic streak comes out. 

Like how he sent me 2 dozen roses to my office a few days before Valentine’s Day.  They were pink, magenta, yellow and peach colored (because red roses would be too normal, he said).  They were so beautiful and I was the envy of every woman in the office.  For days.  I asked the receptionist on Friday if anyone else had received flowers and she said no.  I replied that I just must be loved the most.  She tried to hold back her gag.

So my honey was planning on taking me out on Saturday.  I had scheduled my 6 week hair appointment for that day, which was awesome because then I didn’t have my trailer-trash dark roots showing for our big night out.  Yes, I do realize that some women LIKE the dark roots to be showing.  I’m one of those chicks that like a week after getting my hair done starts to see the smallest amount of re-growth and starts to hate it.  Yes, I realize that I’m retarded.  Don’t hate me because my roots are always dyed blonde!!

Exhibit A

Since we can’t just GO OUT without some sort of competition, we decided to make a bet on the Valentine’s Day dinner.  He wouldn’t tell me where he was taking me, so if I could guess the restaurant then I would get to pick the post-dinner movie we went to. 

I was stoked at this assignment!!!  There are a plethora of chick-flicks that I would love to drag him to see.  I really want to see “He’s Just Not That Into You” or “Confessions of a Shopaholic”, since I read all the books.  It looks really cute.  My only clue was that this was a restaurant that I have never been to and I needed to be hungry.  I was fairly certain that he was taking me to Fogo de Chao, since every time he has mentioned this place, he has said how I need to be really hungry to eat there since they just keep bringing out skewers of meat.  He keeps raving about the bacon-wrapped fillet Mignon.  Bacon-wrapped ANYTHING is a-ok in my book!!!  Bring on the bacon!!!  I started checking out showtimes for my movies (but wasn’t sure which movie theater would be closest since the restaurant is in the 90210).

On Friday night, he said that he had to change the restaurant because of the weather issues (it’s been raining cats and dogs here.  Literally.  I think I just stepped in a poodle…….yes, I realize that was lame.  Whatever!!!).  I thought, that’s strange because I don’t think there is any problem getting to Beverly Hills.  Then he said that the new restaurant is a place that I have been to before.  ‘Cause that only narrows it down to, oh, I don’t know, maybe 200 restaurants!!  Thanks honey!!

I had to make my guess in writing before we left the driveway.  I took a wild stab in the dark (goodbye bacon-wrapped goodness) and off we went.  We ended up going to P.F. Chang’s in Burbank.  Now I personally love P.F. Chang’s.  I would commit a crime of passion for their wonton soup.  Seriously, it’s that good. 

However it has taken me over a year to go back there after a very unpleasant experience with some bad scallions and a whole night of throwing up and running to the bathroom that ended with me in the ER because I thought I had appendicitis.  I never thought I would re-visit my mixture of rice, scallions and red wine in the middle of the night.  Thankfully this visit was a bit less eventful.

Since I didn’t guess the restaurant, Jeff got to pick the movie.  And guess what romantic movie he decided to take me to???  Yep, “My Bloody Valentine”.  In 3-D, no less. 

A deal is a deal, so I grudgingly followed him over to the theater and we took our seats.  The theater started to fill up, which is always good when you see a scary movie.  Half the fun is listening to the audience’s reaction and hearing other people scream. 

As the previews started playing, it seemed a big odd.  All of the previews they were showing were for Disney movies.  Usually they show all the previews for the new scary movies coming out.  Oh well, less scariness for me!!!

As the movie started, it was all a cartoon.  I thought “This is a strange way to start a horror movie, but whatever”.  As the opening credits started to roll, it turned out that we were watching “Coroline”.  Imagine the surprise of a bunch of 20-somethings who came out on a Saturday night to be scared and Coroline starts playing.  People in the theater started yelling and getting out of their seats.  Jeff and I were just sitting there laughing in our ridiculous 3-D glasses, wondering what would happen next. 

I’ve never been to the theater where they show you the wrong movie.  Then we started wondering if there was a theater full of kids expecting to see Coroline who were being subjected to a bunch of horror movie trailers.  Yikes!!!

The staff came in and fixed the movie.  They apologized for the mix-up and said they would skip the previews and get right to the movie.  Which bummed Jeff out a little bit because he likes to see what new horror movies he can try to drag me to see.

In the end, the movie was semi-predictable with a twist at the end.  I won’t spoil it in case you are planning to see it.  As we were leaving, the staff gave us all a free pass for our next visit, which was pretty nice. 

I think this means that Mrs. Kitty and I will have to see “Shopaholic” ourselves!!!