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!

Back in the Saddle

Look! I made artwork again! I actually made this about a month or two ago, but I didn't put it up here until now. I had to let it age a little bit. I call it "Cat in Helvetica." I created the whole thing out of these letters: C A T c a t, and all in the font Helvetica Medium. I got the inspiration from a website that Amber sent around our department in an e-mail. I like it. So I'm kind of back in the saddle with making artwork that's not made of fabric.

I discovered last week when the weather got a little cooler that my lightweight motorcycle jacket wasn't warm enough for 50 degree morning rides to work! So I did what any reasonable motorcyclist would do: on payday I went to Chicago Cycle and stocked up on cold weather gear! I got a nice warm jacket and some pants too. I figured they would come in handy when I go on the Hunt for Red October... in October.

By the way, today is talk like a pirate day! At lunch, Amber and I celebrated by watching a littl Pirates of the Caribbean in my cubicle. I was a pretty nice way to break up the day. And I went around our department saying "shiver me timbers" when I was cold. Arrr, avast ye landlubbers!

The reason I've been so far behind on my blog is because I've been so busy with stuff, and when I haven't been so busy with stuff, I've been busily trying to sew my fancy dress for the Ambitech Booze Cruise (at least, that's what Dan calls it). It's really the 25th anniversary of the company, and thy're taking everyone to the Odyssey boat on Lake Michigan. It should be a blast, and I won't be boozed, either. So I'll post a picture of my dress after the event.

Lizzie's Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Finding Nemo
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Courting Trouble by Deeanne Gist. It really made an impact on the way I think about some things.
Lizzie's Favorite Music: BarlowGirl's new album, How Can We Be Silent.
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: sewing and riding the Blue Streak! Vroom! And did I mention that I really like ATVs? I wish I had room for one, and one to ride on that room.

Go West Young Man!

Let me preface this by saying that the Brad Paisley concert was completely awesome! That said, I can continue to tell you about it. As you can see from the pictures, it was quite a show. I’ve never seen lights like those outside of Disney World! I started out the festivities by holding a BBQ of hot dogs at my house. Amber and her friend came over, and Matt and his friend, and even some non-concert attendees were there. So I grilled hot dogs, and they weren’t really burned, they were just deliciously browned. Hey! It’s the first time I ever grilled anything! I’m glad I didn’t blacken them! Then after that, I cleaned up and grabbed the tickets and my cowboy hat and we were out the door, heading off to Target so that Dan could buy a cowboy hat, and we were listening to a mix of the best Brad Paisley songs that Matt burned to a CD. And we were blasting it, by the way. And singing along with it. I think we got some crazy looks, but hey, how often do you get to go to a country concert?

So we finally arrive at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheater, (after taking a wrong turn and ending up in an area where we stuck out like sore thumbs), and we got to park in the VIP lot, and then we got in line to wait for the gates to open. Dan and I stayed with everyone else until about 15 minutes to opening time, and then we left to go into the VIP line. Almost everybody was dressed up with a bit of a country flair, except for the little Naperville high-schoolers in their Abercrombie and Fitch and American Eagle clothes, with sunglasses bigger that fly’s eyes on the girls, and they were all in couples, wrapped around each other and being all smoochy in line. Tsk tsk, if their parents could see them…

And then it was concert time. Dan and I found our little box; it was pretty close to the stage, and right in front of the sound and lighting booth. This was the biggest concert I had ever been to. First up on the docket was Kellie Pickler, and after her, Jack Ingram, and then Taylor Swift. The crowd went wild for her, and the sad part is, she said “when I was in high school…” Shoot! She should still be in high school! Oh well, some people strike it while they’re young, I guess. Then, the moment I’d been waiting for! It was time for Brad Paisley! You know, I tried to win tickets to this concert back in May while we were camping. There was a sweepstakes with Hersheys, and we made s’mores while we were camping and got a game code, and I tried to win tickets with that, but we couldn’t get it to work. And now look, I got tickets anyway!

Brad Paisley was great. He sang a lot of new songs off his new CD, but also a lot of the oldies but goodies. Let’s see, he sang Online, Ticks, the Fishin’ song (one of my favorites), Celebrity, Mr. Policeman, Whiskey Lullaby with a recorded video of Alison Kraus singing along, Mud on the Tires, and many more. I had a blast. My one wish is that we could go back and see it again. I suppose I’ll have to wait until next time though… Maybe next time, I’ll have a pair of cowboy boots to wear along with my hat. I bet some of you didn’t know that I wouldn’t mind living out in the big west where I could ride a horse over my land with nothing but the open space around me, did you? Yeah, I discovered that when we went to South Dakota last year. Ever since then I’ve been becoming more and more countrified, (although I was a bit before too) and now I’m just waiting for that handsome cowboy to mosey into my life ☺

Lizzie’s Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie’s Favorite Music: 5th Gear, the new CD out from Brad Paisley (now why could that be?)
Lizzie’s Favorite Movie: Definitely NOT High School Musical 2 (or one for that matter). I was feeling a bit ill last week and I laid on the floor in the living room while the boys were watching it, and I think I got sicker after that. Barf!!!
Lizzie’s Favorite Book: Reclaiming Nick by Susan May Warren. Excellent read!
Lizzie’s Favorite Hobby: riding my little Blue Streak through cornfield-lined roads.

Adios Amigos!

VIP Tickets!!!

Guess what?!?!? I got two VIP tickets to the Brad Paisley concert on August 26th! I'm so excited! I also can't wait to tell my brother, but he's still in Osaka, so I can't until tomorrow. Dad forwarded an e-mail to me last week about some VIP tickets from his work, and he wanted to know if I was interested. YES!!! I replied. So today after work, my family met up at a deli for dinner, and I see this long white envelope sticking up out of my dad's shirt pocket, and I saw "Brad Paisley" written on the front in black pen. Oh boy! Tickets! Plus, it was hilarious, because today at lunch Amber and I found out that we could go to the Jiffy Lube right down the street from Tyndale and US 99 was giving away tickets every three minutes. As it should turn out, Amber got four free tickets, and Priya got free tickets, and someone else from Tyndae got free tickets! Wow. So I am of a very tickety mindset today, but that's okay. It'll be really fun to go to my first country concert. Yee-haw! I'm gonna have a knee-slappin' good time, and I'm gonna drink 'sweate teay'. Mmmm, I can't wait...

This weekend I went on my fly/roadtrip with Elaine. I flew out on Saturday, and I'm sure most of my readers have heard the story, but I missed my connecting flight to Theif River Falls. But God worked things out and I got a flight to Grand Forks instead, the same city where Elaine and her roommate were at school in. So it worked out. Then we got in the car and started driving. It was a blast. I got to see Elaine again after two months of her living in North Dakota, and I got to know her roommate too, which was very nice. Now, where can we go for our next roadtrip? Oh! I know, Kansas!

Lizzie's Favorites:
Lizzie's Favorite Music: I have to say it; Brad Paisley.
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Still "An Echo in the Darkness"
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: Seeing the great lands on America.
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Pride and Prejudice, and I liked Hairspray too.

'Cat Sick'

For those of you wondering what on earth I’m talking about with my title of “cat sick,” yes, I’m weird. Actually, (although this doesn’t excuse me from being weird) I picked up the phrase in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a couple of weeks ago when I was reading it in preparation for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I got to a paragraph that mentioned that Draco Malfoy had looked like he had just stepped in ‘cat sick’. I couldn’t help myself. I just started laughing! The idea of calling cat barf ‘cat sick’ just tickled my brain. So now I call cat barf cat sick. I know it’s a lovely subject to name my blog about, but in the past couple of days, I’ve been able to use the words ‘cat sick’ quite a lot, so it’s on my mind. Yesterday, Amber was updating a cover file for one of our One Year books, and on the back cover, there’s a drawing of a cat laughing on it’s back with what is supposed to be peanut butter next to it on the floor. You’re not fooling me though—peanut butter? Yeah, right. That’s cat sick! (You can tell by looking at the front cover illustration that it is peanut butter, but on the back cover, when the cat is isolated by himself, it’s definitely cat sick. No doubt about it. I hope you enjoyed that little tangent. As you can probably tell from my picture on this post, it's a day of randomness.

This week is VBS at church, and guess what? I actually get to help! They decided to have it in the evening this year for various reasons, and so, I can help! I just go home from work, inhale some dinner, and fly to church to help out in my special area—crafts. Sadly, I haven’t been able to “fly to church” on my excellent motorbike, thanks to our good friends Rain. Grrr.

My brother is in the Philippines right now. He left on Saturday morning and flew for a really long time to get to Hong Kong. And then from there he went on to Manilla. I hope he’s having a good time, and being stretched a lot too. I know he’ll come back with a gazillion stories to tell, but for now we have to be content to wait for him to come back to tell us those stories. And I’m flying out to Thief River Falls this Saturday! I’m going to have a great little road trip with Elaine and her roommate back here to the good ole’ hometown. So be looking for a post about that when I get back. It’s going to be a blast!

Saturday I also went on a motorcycle ride with my parents and their CMA (Christain Motorcycle Association) group. It was fun. I rode in a formation of one of those giant (but not too giant) groups of motorcycles that you see sometimes on the road, and we went about a hundred miles. We ended the ride at a little ice cream place in Aurora, and they gave out free slushies with every order. I got a medium chocolate cone, and it was about eight inches tall! And then I ordered a basket of fried okra. Mmm, mmm, good! I love fried okra. I want some now…

Lizzie’s Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie’s Favorite Music: Redemption Songs by Jars of Clay. They have I’ll fly away on that CD!
Lizzie’s Favorite Movie: The Bourne Ultimatum, Sahara, and parts of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Mostly, the parts I liked the best were the parts with the motorcycle in them. There were some unnecessary parts in there though…
Lizzie’s Favorite Book: An Echo In the Darkness by Francine Rivers.
Lizzie’s Favorite Hobby: Sewing! What a surprise! (and motorcycle riding!)

A Faire Day

Hear ye, hear ye! This last weekend I went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. I must say, it was most delightful. My second year there, and still so mush to see—jousting matches, falconry, girls who think they’re historically accurate wearing chain mail bras (aren’t they aware that bras weren’t invented until the early 1900s?), glass-blowers and sculptors, etc, etc. I dressed up in my peasant’s outfit again, with a few revisions. I didn’t wear my peasant’s shoes though. They were very dusty and grimy, and not the most comfortable, so I wore flip-flops. I know that looked very historically accurate, complete with Legally-Blond-pink toenails. But it was way more comfortable for me.

We car-pooled up there, and in the morning, it looked ominous because of the heavy gray clouds hanging in the sky. Thankfully, it cleared up, and was sunny and bright for the majority of the day. I had a great time looking into all the little shops and seeing the artisans at work, and being there with my friends. I think the coolest things that I saw were the falconry falcons with their hoods on, the acrobats with knives and fire, the glass-sculptor, and the delicious strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone that I had right when I felt in desperate need of it. I liked that nobody looked at me like I was weird in my Medieval get-up either. Some of the costumes they had there were exquisite (not the chain-mail bras though). I was inspired to sew another costume. We’ll see how that turns out. For lunch I partied up with Joanna and Aubrie and we got a plate full of fried vegetables! Mmmmmmmm, greasy goodness. There were fried broccoli, zucchini, potatoes, onions and carrots. And we each got a turkey leg. See? We were covered; we had our meat and vegetables!

After a full day of fun-ness, the Faire closed, and we were forced to leave. We had dinner at an Oasis over the highway, and I was disappointed to see that Subway had no Dr. Pepper, and their Sprite (which isn’t my favorite anyway) was yellowy. So I made a new discovery—raspberry iced tea (sweetened) mixed with a third of lemonade is really very good. You can hardly taste the tea at all! So I have a new delicious drink in my mental menu.

My readers might remember that I had a goldfish at work named Jangles. He was the killer of a few of his tankmates, but I could never actually get rid of him, though I threatened it. Well, a couple of days ago, Dan’s giant guorami died, and his 20-gallon tank was empty. So, I took Jangle home to give him more swimming space (he was getting too big for the 2-gallon tank at my office). He likes it very much. Anyway, I needed new fish for my 2-gallon, so I went to PetCo at lunch on Monday, and I got four new little fish. They are black neon tetras, and I named them very appropriately: Kawasaki, Suzuki, Harley, and Honda. I think the need a fifth friend to be completely happy, and I shall name him Ducati (the rich man’s motorcycle) and of course, I need an algae eater; Vespa (the scooter).

And now for Lizzie’s Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie’s Favorite Music: the Daughtry CD, and Alison Kraus’s Lonely Runs Both Ways.
Lizzie’s Favorite Movie: the Importance of Being Earnest, even though I haven’t seen it in awhile.
Lizzie’s Favorite Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Lizzie’s Favorite Hobby: Riding my motorcycle!

Hasta la vista. . .

Tagged

If my fellow readers may remember, back in May my blog was tagged and I said that I would get around to it on another post.

Well, I forgot about it until the tagger reminded the taggee that they (*cough* me) never did “get around to it”. . . Until now.

(Disclaimer: I won’t mention all the people I am going to tag, because maybe I don’t know seven other bloggers. Disclaimer #2: I might tag-back, but the tagged back can probably ignore it so that they don’t end up in a vicious circle. Disclaimer #3: I’m following the unofficial rules.)

Here are the official rules... Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Random Fact #1: I hate wearing dress slacks. They’re the most cold and uncomfortable pants imaginable. It’s jeans or skirts for me.

Random Fact #2: I like to ride my motorcycle with my helmet visor up; even after bugs hit me in the face, it’s hard to persuade me to ride with it closed.

Random Fact #3: Each night, before I go to bed, I have to put my favorite stuffed cat (I’ve had it since I was seven) on the left of my pillow, and my pink frog prince and lion with the lamb stuffed animals on the right of my pillow. Then I can go to sleep.

Random Fact #4: I really wish it would be acceptable to wear historical outfits for everyday wear in today’s society. They’re so much more interesting than a lot of current outfits. (See example in photo).

Random Fact #5: In my opinion, no outfit is complete without a little bit of cat hair on it.

Random Fact #6: Every work day at 3:00 pm, I have teatime. There’s no tea, only 3 peanut M&Ms, 3 peanut butter M&Ms, and 10 plain M&Ms.

Random Fact #7: I never go anywhere without my Burt’s Bees chapstick. If I forget it, I feel lost!

Now be warned! I’m going to tag all the other people I know who have blogs that aren’t devoted to one topic. Avast! The tag pirate is on the loose!

But, before I go and tag everyone I know, I’ll put down Lizzie’s Favorites.

Lizzie’s Favorite Movie: Ratatollie? (a.k.a. the Rat Movie). The girl in the movie rode a sports bike! (a.k.a. crotch rocket!). How cool is that? And the little rat was so cute. . .
Lizzie’s Favorite Book: A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers. Very moving.
Lizzie’s Favorite Music: Lately (when I haven’t been on the motorcycle) it’s been Another Journal Entry by BarlowGirl.
Lizzie’s Favorite Hobby: Motorcycling! And sewing when I’ve had time.

Lizzie’s quote of the post:
“I’m the fun nazi! Nobody can have fun at lunch!
—me

As Promised. . .

Okay, so I promised my cousin I'd update this today. Count that promise fulfilled! Here I am, typing away so that she has something to read inbetween studying tonight. I also said I'd come up with something cool to write about, but I haven't really thought of anything cool. So instead, I'll just post updates about my life. It might be interesting, it could be boring. That will be up to the reader to decide.

Last week I went to one of my many cousin's wedding. It was very nice. I even got off work early to go to it. That was a nice bonus. The wedding was very nice and classy, I had a lot of fun. The next day, I worked my first Saturday at Tyndale. There was this catalog that nneded to get done, and it came to me behind schedule, so I had to burn a little after hours oil to get it up to speed. I rode the Blue Streak to work that day, because on a Saturday, there's not as much traffic.

I burned more after hours oil all week long too. Except for Monday, when I followed Kelly home to pick up a bike for my garage sale. I still got home later that day though. And every day, I came home from work and did garage sale stuff. That was pretty much my week in a nutshell. It felt like it lasted a lot longer than a week though. Friday I took off to man my garage sale post. All of the money I raised I am going to donate for emergency relief in Darfur. It was really interesting on how that fell into my lap. I'm pretty sure it was straight from God. Tuesday afternoon I was staying at work late, so I turned my phone on so that if anyone tried to reach me, I would be there. Well, about five minutes after I turned it on, I got a call from a number I didn't know. I picked it up, and who should it be but World Vision! They were calling to ask for donations to their Darfur emergency relief fund! I told the lady that I had been planning on going home that night and looking for a cause to give my garage sale proceeds to, and then here she is, calling me before I got a chance to! I took it as a message from God telling me that were the money should go. I thought that was really awesome.

So my garage sale was Friday and Saturday, and I raised a little over $400! I was very pleased, and now I get to go deposit it and make the donation. Today I have a chance to breathe after that busy week. Later, I'm going on a motorcycle ride with Dan and maybe my mom and dad.

On top of all that, I found out that my super-good friend, the Lady Fair (a.k.a. Aubrie) is going to Kansas for school in the fall. It was a happy/sad sort of situation: happy for her, sad for me. And then the doctors told my dad that he has a little thing-a-magummy in him that could be cancer or scar tissue. So we have to wait for more tests and results to see what that is, and depending on what it turns out to be, we may or may not be taking our vacation to Colorado in a couple weeks. And suddenly I find myself plagued by headaches and a tingly right arm. Hmmm, I think it's stress.

Boy oh boy, it seems like God is trying to teach me to trust in Him more. It's a lesson that I think I must need right now, otherwise, I wouldn't be getting it. So I'm working on trying to trust that God knows exactly what He's doing and that He is trying to grow me closer to Him. I keep telling myself; God will not leave me out in the cold. The problem is making the head to heart connection. I'll keep working on that.

Well, until next time, this is Lizzie, signing out.

Lizzie's Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie's Favorive Book: A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers. It was very compelling.
Lizzie's Favorite Music: The six-hour long Pride and Prejudice soundtrack. Ahh, the memories...
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Ocean's 13. I saw it last night.
Lizzie's Favorite Hooby: I haven't had time for one! Oh, how my fingers are itching to sew!

Cash Fridays

Happy Friday! I didn't have any new pictures to post, so I put one of the coolest cartoon cats in history on instead: Puss In Boots! He's just such a cute cat. . . But I'm not biased or anything, just because I like cats.

Today was the second official Cash Friday, although it was really the fourth one. An art director at work who's office is right across from my cube has a nice speaker set that hooks up to iPods, I think it's a Bose. Anyway, I got introduced to all the fine points of Johnny Cash through that speaker (when one is in a cubicle, there are no doors to shut). I got hooked on Jonny Cash, and eventually I told Joe that we should have a Cash Friday, where we would listen to Johnny Cash tunes on Fridays. Last week we made it official for the whole department, and about 9:30, 10:00, we plug in an iPod (either his or mine as we have different songs on them) and then we play some Cash music, and people seem to stop by to listen. We've created a hot spot. The girl in the cube next to me enjoys Cash Fridays as much as I do, and the temp who was sharing my cube until today enjoyed them too. However, when I told my cubemate who's coming back from maternity leave next week about Cash Fridays, she said she waould have to make sure that she had her iPod freshly charged and her earphones at the ready. I guess everyone's not a Cash fan, huh? And there's a bonus: every other week is Double Cash Friday — payday!

My motorcycle will be more road ready as soon as I get the new carbs I won off e-Bay installed. That should solve the high idle problem. I'm excited! Gas savings are around the corner for me! And I'll be zipping to and from work on the Blue Streak soon; it's very exciting. Well, I think I'll get going, I've got some things to do still. But as always, my line-up of Lizzie's Favorites!

Lizzie's Favorite Music: Alison Krauss's "A Hundred Miles or More" album. It's so melodic, albeit a bit meloncholy.
Lizzie's Favorite Book: "A Voice in the Wind" by Francine Rivers. I'm not done yet, but I've read it before so I can verify it's goodness.
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: NOT "Pirates of the Caribbean 3!" I give it two enthusiastic thumbs down! To purify my perfect memories of "Pirates of the Caribbean," I have now disavowed both sequels. Only the first one exists in my mind. In fact, I put my copy of the second one in my garage sale pile.

Lizzie's Quote of the Post:
"Buzzzzzz Buzzzzzzzzz Buzzzzzzz crackle crackle Buzzzzzzzzz"
—Cicada in my backyard

Go Cicadas! Bring on the adventure!

Maiden Voyage of the Blue Streak

The day has finally come! I took the Blue Streak motorcycle out for it's maiden voyage! It was sweet! Aside from little things that need a bit of tweaking like a high idle speed and the engine getting super-hot, I'd say it runs pretty good. Dad took it out for a ride first, and then Dan, and then me! I rode it around the block a bit, putting into practice all the skills I learned at my Motorcycle Safety Training class I took this weekend. It was fun. After all the months of work, a ride on my very own bike! I even got my motorcycle license today; it's got a little "M" on it for motorcycle. So I'm pretty thrilled.

After riding around the block, Dad and Dan and I went to the gas station to fill up my tank. We sure looked like our own little motorcycle gang! I only had to pay $8.42 to fill up the tank with Premium. Nice. And I can get like 45 mile to the gallon on that little bike. Tonight's been a blast and a half.

I've got to go so I can do my Bible study homework, but I just wanted to put this update on it. And Amber, I didn't forget that I've been tagged. I'll get to it. :)

Lizzie's Favorites:
Lizzie's favorite music: Johnny Cash because that's what I'm listening to now.
Lizzie's favorite movie: Shrek the Third. There was so much screen time for Puss In Boots!
Lizzie's favorite book: Sanditon by Jane Austen and Another Lady. It's good.

God Has Got a Plan, Understanding Isn't My Place

17 days and counting until the Motorcycle Safety Training Course! I'm getting very excited, but on the same hand, I don't want May to completely fly by so fast that I don't know what happened to it. So, I'll have to be content with the normal pace of days. My goal is to get my motorcycle running by the time I take the class so that as soon as I get my license, I can go riding around with my dad and brother. We're getting close! There's no picture of it this time, because it hasn't changed too much. Although, it has an exhaust system now! And the weather is getting nicer—definitely good motorcycle weather.

In other news, my mom got a new knee put in, and according to all the doctors and therapists, she's doing better than average at this stage. Praise God! She's been back home for awhile, and gets better every day.

I've been in a growing point recently I believe. A series of revelations of things I need to change are the main things really. But I've decided to do something about them, not just say, "Oh well, it's who I am." That would not be good. Plus, I've realized that I'm pretty busy right now, but I'm doing pretty good about not stressing out about it. That's an indication of growth in the right direction. I've been spending a little more time recently reflecting on how I can change, namely, having a stronger faith. Not the little "I'm right on the edge of faith in some places, and in the middle of faith in all the rest." I want to be fully faithful.

Well, I'm going to wrap it up for now, but don't forget Lizzie's favorites!

Lizzie's Favorite Book: Sanditon, by Jane Austen and another lady, but I'm not done yet. I like it so far though!
Lizzie's Favorite Music: A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection by Alison Krauss. My favorite songs from there would be Simple Love, Sawin' on Strings, and Scarlet Tide. My Ain True Love is hauntingly beautiful too.
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Shrek and Shrek 2. Puss in Boots is definitely the best animated character I have ever met. Of course, I'm not biased just because he's a cat.
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: Being out on a gorgeous day soaking up the sunlight and taking in God's beautiful creation as it comes back to life for the summer.

Lizzie's Quote of the Post: (I've got two)
"Fear me... If you dare!"
—Puss in Boots

"I've got a ways to go from here, and vision doesn't seem so clear; but praise! God has got a plan, understanding isn't my place."
—Sanctus Real, from their song After Today

I Am Motorcycle, Hear Me Roar!

That’s right! Motorcycle will be roaring soon! (I hope). The engine is mounted in the frame, and the exhaust system is being installed. I’ve taken my first real lesson, and though it was a bit hairy at times, Dad said I did pretty good. I got all panicky at the end when we were driving through some neighbor hood streets. It all started when a cop was following me and then I got nervous and stalled the engine at a stop light. From then on it was mostly downhill as far as my performance goes. But never fear! I have more time to practice. Now you know what I’ll be doing on the nice weekends between now and May 18th! We hope to have the bike running by the time I have my Motorcycle Safety Training Course.

Something that you won’t be hear roaring is my iPod mini. It’s a sad iPod. The poor little guy just can’t hold a charge anymore. I figure in a few more months I might invest in a new iPod nano, brilliant blue of course, and I’ll gift poor little iPod mini to my two younger brothers. I’m not sure what they would do with a micro charged iPod though. Perhaps I should trade it in to Apple. Would they give me a discount off of a new one? I should investigate! Wouldn’t that be great? I’m just getting a little tired of wanting to listen to music at work, and then turning on my iPod only to have it tell me that it’s out of batteries. But as my brother reminded my, an iPod is a luxury, not a necessity. Therefore, if I have to gimp along for awhile on my unreliable old one, I will. It’s not the most pressing need in the world.

I was at the farm last Saturday, and the theme for April is Spring cleaning. I read over the script for the house tour, and I was inspired to “spring clean” my own room. It hasn’t been cleaned from top to bottom since we moved into this house. That’s been about five years I believe. So I’m going to scrape away at the grime over the next week or so, including washing my curtains, cleaning my walls a bit, vacuuming out under my bed and dressers, and cleaning all my nick-knacks and doo-dads and closet (shudder to think of that one!) It should be very nice when I finish.

Before I go, I’ll give a prayer request: my mom is having knee replacement surgery next Tuesday, the 24th of April. Please pray that it goes well and is successful, and that afterwards (when she’s all healed up) she will have no pain in her knee when she does everyday things. Thanks!

Lizzie’s Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie’s Favorite Music: Anything except the little “beep” sound followed by the dead battery icon on my iPod. More specifically on the anything, I would have to say Alison Krauss’ new CD, “A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection.” I just got it yesterday.
Lizzie’s Favorite Book: I’m done with “Silk” by Linda Chaikin, and now I’m going to start “Sanditon”, the last novel that Jane Austen was writing when she died. It was finished up by “Another Lady”. I hear it’s good from VERY reliable sources.
Lizzie’s Favorite Movie: Well, Jon, Josh and I had a very Pirate Easter by watching “Treasure Island” and then “Pirates of the Caribbean”. I also watched “Big Fish” the other night. They were all pretty good.
Lizzie’s Favorite Hobby: motorcycle rebuilding and sewing. What a nice combination…

Lizzie’s Quote of the Post:
Today’s comes from “Big Fish”, in the scene where Edward Bloom is walking next to the little girl Jenny in the forest surrounding the town of Spectre; it’s more like a dialogue quote:
“How old are you?”
“18”
“I’m 8”
“That’s quite a big difference”
“Well, when I’m 18 you’ll be 28, and when I’m 28, you’ll be 38, and that’s not such a big difference”
(The follow-up quote comes from the same movie, only it’s been a bunch of years between the last quote and this one. Edward Bloom has come back to Spectre, and he sees a grown-up Jenny and asks her if she ever married. This is her response:)
“I was 18, he was 28. Turns out it was a big difference.”

An Ode to Bo

This is an ode to Bo, my poor black, buggy-eyed goldfish. I came into work this morning, and he was dead. Poor Bo.

My Ode to Bo:

Here's to my little buggy-eyed goldfish Bo,
Who swam in his tank to and fro.
Bo had a gold tankmate,
a fish named Jangles who ate
all poor Bo's fins off!
But Bo kept his head aloft,
And grew back some fins;
When bored I would watch him spin
circles around the tank.
Now he's gone but I thank
My little fish that entertained.

—The End—

And so Bo has gone off to the big aquarium in the sky...It's pretty clear that I should never be a poet.
Now to throw off the morbid mood, here are my favorites of the post:

Lizzie's Favorite Music: Skillet's CD "Comatose". It's great for rolling down the windows after a long day, playing it pretty loud, and singing at the top of my lungs with. Go Skillet.
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: The Sound of Music. How did I get through so much life without seeing it?
Lizzie's Favorite Book: Still working on finishing "Silk" by Linda Lee Chaikin
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: Sewing... Again.

Lizzie's Quote of the Post:
"I can't get this phone to unlock! Hey, someone's calling it!"
—Josh when he was trying to break into Dan's cell phone.

A Job for a Month

If someone came up to me and said "You have one month to do any job you want. What do you pick?"

A Demolition Worker! It would be so cool to operate one of those big CAT things with the claw and pull down old buildings and just watch stuff crumble! I would just sit in my CAT thing, and use those little knobby-thingys to control the claw, and make it smash through walls and pull all kinds of stuff down. That would be a sweet job for a month.

I've recently thought that would be a fun job to have for a month, although ultimately, I like where I'm at now. I think I caught the demolition-bug last Faebruary when I went on the missions trip with Tyndale to Biloxi. Ever since then I've been interested in demolition. But I'd only like to do it full-time for a month I think. Demoltion in the dead of winter and the heat of summer must not be too fun. Maybe spring and fall demolition? Or maybe I should just stay at Tyndale. It's good year-round.

Lizzie's Favorites of the Post:
Lizzie's Favorite Music: the song "Let Go" by BarlowGirl, and the "Comatose" CD by Skillet.
Lizzie's Favorite Book: This week, it's one I've never read. But, my name is one the copyright page, and I helped design it, so my pick of the post is "Happily Ever After" by Susan May Warren.
Lizzie's Favorite Movie: Haven't watched one, but I was talking about "Wives and Daughters" yesterday with Elaine...
Lizzie's Favorite Hobby: Sewing.

Lizzie's Quote of the Post:
"I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by..."
—Captain Jack Sparrow