Bored Stiff, But Vacation was Fun

I'm bored stiff right now. I'm just recovering from a really nasty sickness, and I'm tired of watching movies and want to be out running around, but I'm not strong enough to be out running around. So I'm bored silly. And I'm sooooooo ready for spring to be here. I'm sick of all this cold and stuff. I long for the warmth, the color, the smells and sounds and activities of summer. Motorcycling, camping, no more coats, no more mittens, no more heaters, sunroofs, and birds chirping. When will it come? I wonder if I have spring fever...

My vacation was great. I went on a cruise with my family in the Caribbean. It was a blast! I visited islands I didn't even know existed before. We went to Puerto Rico, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, Tortola, and St. Thomas. The ship was fun and huge, and it was an experience I'll never forget. I'm very thankful that I didn't get sick while I was on the cruise. That would've have been a bummer with a capital B. I went snorkeling, scootering, adventuring, kayaking, boating, sailing, and swimming amoung other things. It was a grand time. I'll definitely hope to go on another cruise before I die. It was just so relaxing and great. The picture is of me on St. Thomas with an iguana. They were just sitting there on the rocks for us to see and take pictures of. The lizards didn't care too much. They were just soaking up the sun. It was all in all a very memorable vacation.

Lizzie's Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Taming Rafe
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: 101 Dalmations (although I've watched about 10 in the past few days)
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: Cruise vacationing.

A Quarter of a Century!

Happy birthday to me! I have reached that landmark age of 25! I am excited to be able to tell you that I can rent a car now. Whoopie! It's that last hurrah of stuff you get once you turn a certain age. Next up, senior citizen at 65. Unless I decide to run in politics. I know there's age limits to be reached in those ranks as well.

My birthday was very nice. I went out to eat with my family at Famous Dave's. Mmmmm! I got BBQ ribs. Surprised? You shouldn't be. You know I love ribs! Then, we came home, and some of us played Scatterbrains (also known as Scattergories), which Jon and Josh got me for my birthday. Then, I watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was pretty cool. I had a hankering to see one of the older action/adventure films where everything wasn't all CGI. CGI is cool and everything, but after awhile, you long to see actual sets, props, and dangerous stunts. You want to be able to think "wow, how'd they do that?" instead of "yeah, that was CGI."

I had Turtle Tracks ice cream (mmm mm!) while I watched the movie, and then I went upstairs to end my birthday. On a side not, I started my birthday out at 12:00, midnight, on January 14th. I couldn't really sleep, so I prayed and read Skppyjon Jones to myself. I had a party on the Saturday before, and that was fun as well.

So that's the breakdown of my birthday! On to a new year of growth and adventures!

Lizzie's Favorites:
Lizzie's Favorite Movies: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and the PBS broadcast of Persuasion.
Lizzie's Favorite Books: Troublesome Creek and Willow Springs by Jan Watson. Except that Willow Springs was sad at the end!
Lizzie's Favorite Music: my new iPod! But it's not really a song :)

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Merry Christmas everyone! I don't have anything spectacular to write about, bypassing the events of this last week which I'm not entirely sure I'd like to post on the web for the entire world to have access to. However, I am glad that it is Friday, and I don't have to go back to work until next Wednesday. I'm going to spend my holiday break sewing things for me, fixing my car, putting Stabil in my motorcycle, and having a merry Christmas hanging out with the family. And hanging out with friends too. Seeing how I said that I was going to be sewing, I think I'll get started on that very soon. Momentarily actually.

But first, I shall leave you with a very Christmas-y thought: Take a minute or two to just stop and marvel at God's love; that He cared so much about us that He became man to come and redeem us. Jesus is our remedy to all the world's problems. God has given us the ultimate gift, forgiveness and love. Merry Christmas!

Lizzie's Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Skippyjon Jones
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Alex & Emma and the Bourne Ultimatum
Lizzie's Favorite Music: Christmas Offerings by Third Day
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: Sewing

...And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Florida & Feeding Alligators

A couple of weeks ago I went to Florida for a little vacation. Boy, was it nice to experience a little bit of warmer weather! I saw motorcyclists all over. Something that you don't see here too much anymore. I went there with my brother Dan and our friend Rob. Oh yeah, and I was sick too. I think I was pretty much on medicine the whole time. But that was okay, medicine lets me still enjoy myself.

Let's see, what did we do? Well, we played several round of mini-golf, I feed hot dogs to baby alligators, we went to Disney for a day, and we went deep sea fishing. I caught two King Mackerals and a shark or two. I felt sorry for the fish, because once I pulled them out of the ocean, they never went back again. Those poor fish. I really only like to catch them and then let them go. I'm still slightly bothered about pulling in fish to die, and I never planned on eating them. I don't like fish. Oh well. I did let the sharks go. I would have been very sad if they were kept and killed. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a fisher person. Oh, wait, I knew that already!

Disney was fun. I was coerced to go on the Rockin' Rollercoaster. Now I can name all the Aerosmith songs that I heard while waiting in line to get on the ride. I really liked the Rockin' Rollercoaster; except for the three loop-de-loops. I did not like them! I tried to curl up in the fetal position when we went into those. I don't know, I think it's some lingering bad memories form that one carnival ride that I went on in high school. Speaking of high school, there were High School Musical stuff all over the place. Ugh! We saw the Indiana Jones Stunt thing, a really cool Lights, Motors, Action show, that had cars, burning rubber tires, fire, motorcycles, and stunts! It was awesome! I could go see that one again, definitely.

We ate at some fancy-ish restaurants, but my personal favorite was the German Biergarden in Epcot. A buffet that was scrumptously filled with meat, sausage, pretzel bread, pudding with chocolate shavings on it, and delicious carrots and potatoes. Mmmm, mm. And there were yodelers there who played all kinds of German instrumants and folk songs. Very fun! I needed a vacation. It was about time for one.

Lizzie's Favorites:
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Lizzie's Favorite Music: Third Day's Offerings
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Ocean's 13 and Mission Impossible III

FOID

Guess what! I put in my application to get my FOID card. That means I could own a gun, and shoot one in some places. Sweet. I forgot to put my height in on the application though. I hope they don't completely reject me for that. The photo you see here was one of my outtakes for the FOID photo. Somehow, I didn't think that the state police would look kindly on someone who looks like this. So I sent a better one. One that looks more sane. The police might like that one better.

So let's see, what have I been up to recently... I went on Saturday to Anderson's book store and met the author/illustrator of the Skippyjon Jones books and got a book signed by her. That was fun. I went with Meredith and her roommate from school Kendra. Then I had to race home, throw on my wedding clothes, and hop in the car to go to my cousin's wedding. My family was saying that I was going to make them all late, but please note that I was the first one outside waiting to get into the car. The wedding was very nice and a lot of fun. I made my feet hurt really bad by dancing away a lot of hours on the dance floor in my high heels. Well, more like medium heels. But my feet still hurt today. I hope they're better by tomorrow.

So, that about sums up what I;ve done recently. Oh, except for this: On Halloween, I dressed up in my 1770s dress and me and Dan and several of our friends went out to TGI Friday's dressed up in costume. You know, you just have to take advantage of the one day in the year where you can dress up in a costume and no one looks at you funny. And then we went to someone's house and watched Ghostbusters. That's about as scary as I want to get in my movies.

Lizzie's Favorites:
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Skippyjon Jones. "Holy Guacamole!"
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: I could say Everything in Illuminated, but I fell asleep and missed a lot, so I'll say the Office, even though it's technically not a "movie".
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: Trying to find time to do things other than being a social butterfly. I find I have developed a very active social life every weekend...

Oh, I'm going to Florida in less than two weeks. That should be a lot of fun.

The Hunt!

A couple weekend ago I went on the Hunt for Red October. It was very fun. I rode 701 miles on my little Blue Streak. Here you can see a photo of me with Blue. We were up in the Wildcat HIlls when I took this photo. Talk about tricky! I'm wearing layers and layer of clothes under an armored motorcycle jacket, and I'm wearing a helmet, trying to take a picture of myself. That's why it's not so good. Anyway, back to the trip. Friday we (Dad, Mom, and Dan and I) took off for Wisconsin. It was cold that day! We took mostly back roads, passed some teachers on strike, a lot of construction, farms, rich houses, and roadkill. Lots of roadkill. Then we got to a hotel just when I feeling very frozen, and there was a hot tub to warm up in. Mmmm, that was nice. The next morning we set out again, covered more miles, and then got to the meeting place for everyone going on the Hunt. We ate lunch there and then got maps of scenic routes, picked one, and hit the road. We passed some really beautiful farms and curvy roads. And every motorcyclist loves curvy roads! So then there was more riding, and in the evening, we got to this quaint hotel called the Don Q, and we warmed up in the hot tub again, and went to a banquet. The next morning, it was raining. Bummer. But we made the best of it and bundled up and waterproofed ourselves, and loaded our things onto our wet motorbikes, and headed out into the wet journey home. It was quite and experience. We stopped a couple times to warm up and such; one of the places was the original Frugal Muse in Madison. That was a cool place to go! The only bad thing was that I could only buy as much as I could fit into my bags on the motorcycle. But I managed okay. After 2:00 the rain stopped, and we continued home. It was a very memorable trip. Now I want to know, when are we going to South Dakota? Oo, not before I get new foam on my motorcycle seat :/ That got to be a little... ouch. And, on Saturday, we rode past a Corvette parade! It probably wasn't a parade, but it was like a group drive or something. I was drooling. It's a surprise that I didn't drive my bike off the edge of the road. But when I think about it, I think I'd rather have my little Blue Streak over a Corvette, even thought they are nice.

Also, I've got a facebook now. So if any of you (my fellow devoted readers) are on Facebook, all you have to do is look for me. Just don't type in Lizzie Bennett, you won't find anyone then.

Lizzie's Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie's Favorite Music: David Crowder Band's Remedy, and BarlowGirl's How Can We Be Silent.
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Persuasion by Jane Austin. I wonder when she'll come out with some new stuff?
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Past episodes of the Office. It's not really a movie, but you can put a DVD in and watch it on TV, right? So it counts.

Hasta la Vista!

Drool.

Look! It's a Lamborghini! Let me tell you, when I saw that, my eyes practically jumped out of my head! I was riding back to the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago with Dan from his company's 25th Anniversary celebration, and as we pulled up to a stop in front of the hotel, I looked out, and there it was! A Lamborghini Superleggera! Drool. As you can see from the pictures, I wasted no time in going over to examine it, and I checked it out the next morning too. The night shot was right after we got off the bus, and thee I am standing next to it in my dress that I made especially for the Odyssey cruise. That was a fun night. I got to get all dressed up fancy-like, and I actually had somewhere to go! The boat was very nice, and there was a chocolate fountain! I smelled the chocolate shortly after boarding the boat; I swear, I was like a shark that smells a drop of blood in the ocean. I went hunting down that chocolate until I found it. Dan introduced me to all his co-workers, and we danced to some 80s music and had a blast. We even got to go onto the bridge, where the captain was. And then to top it all off, I saw the Lamborghini before the night was over. Great times, great times.

I apologize for not updating any sooner. Work has been... busy, and then I just seem to crash when I come home from work. Today, however, I am feeling energized. And so you get the benefit of it by getting to see my blog updated. Unfortunately, I need to go and make my lunch for tomorrow, so I think I'll put down my favorites and then head off to do that. So long for now!

Lizzie's Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie's Favorite Book: I'm having a brain freeze about what book I just finished reading, so I'll just say that right now, I'm reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. I hear it's good.
Lizzie's Favorite Music: Remedy, the new CD from the David Crowder Band. I love it!!!
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: I just watched Far and Away with Josh. It was some good brother/sister bonding time. He's been a little invalidish with his broken ankle, so I spent an evening watching movies with him.
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: I helped my 5-year-old cousin Olivia sew some pillows. That was fun. And I sewed my fancy dress! (shown above)

Adios amigos! Hasta lluego!