Mexico trip - Day 4

Day 4 -

We ventured into downtown Pto. Vallarta for the first time.

Check out the hill we had to climb each time we took the bus from our house. *pant*

After getting off the bus too early(with no help from the bus driver), we had a long walk before we got to Puerto Vallarta's Malecón, which is what they call the long boardwalk area along the ocean, where all the cool statues are. We also walked past one of those human statue dudes(always awesome. I remember seeing quite a few of them in San Francisco), and some amazing sand sculptures.

Bubba Gump!! I so would have wanted to go there if it wasn't all shrimp.

The trees in the little square were filled with pigeons. Pretty cool lookin.

See the guy with the guitar? He hopped aboard a bus we were on, and started playing and singing(quite loudly), to the americans on the bus. It was all in spanish of course, so I didn't understand most of it. It was so hot that day too, and the bus was packed, so as amusing as it was, we were glad when we reached the bus stop.

After all that excitement, we had an early dinner at the house, and went to Sandrina's for dessert. And guess what? We were sung to AGAIN! but this time it was nicer, it was by two guys, and we got to choose between a "love song" and a "happy song", hehehe. ^_^

We chose a "happy song."

Mexico trip - Day 3

DAY 3 -

Day three was taken up by a grand adventure to Walmart.(whoopee)
Walmart sucks.

The buses are exciting though! I'll never again be thrilled by roller coasters.

Sophie got a picture of the huge cruise ship that was in the marina that day.

Mexico trip - Day 2

DAY TWO:

We went to the beach(which was just a block away from our casa), to go swimming - in the OCEAN, ZOMG!

Then we went home and went swimming in our pool, lol.
Mom, Dad, and Jack had their cervezas. I did a watercolor of the front gate.


This is just one of the little gatos that spent time in our yard. This one was really cute and shy. We fed it cheese, and I think it liked us a bit more after that.

We walked to a restaurant in a hotel one block over, called Karen's Place. It was really absolutely perfect. The sunset, the umbrellas on the beach, and there was even a guy playing guitar. Sophie and I didn't like our food too much, but it's hard to find vegetarian, so we had to take what we could find. I had my first margarita though! I didn't want my own, so I just drank from Mom's. I don't think I'm much of a tequila person. I had a better margarita at a place in Pto. Vallarta later in the week though.

Welcome to dreary Oregon

Well, we are back from Mexico. We got home Thursday night, and I don't want to be here!! =(
Oregon is so depressing compared to Bucerias.

I'm going to slowly try to log our trip, day by day. Sorry if it's terribly long and boring.

DAY ONE:

We had to leave the house at 5:30am(augh), check out the sunrise:

I brought along my little Jack Sparrow as our travel buddy. He had a great time. =) Here he is in the Portland airport -

Dad took this picture of us on the plane. Sophie and I were reading The Shoebox Project on my laptop. Hehehe. =)

And here's Jack over Utah, I believe.

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta in the early afternoon, and after making it past all the crazy time-share people, we got a taxi to our house in Bucerias. "Casa Andrea' was the name of it, and here's a shot I took in the back on the first night. You can see the pool, and the little casita on the right.

lavender buns

MMMMmmmmm!!

I've been a little obsessed with lavender lately, and I plan to try putting it in everything. Today I added lavender to a vegan cinnamon roll recipe. They turned out really well, but the lavender wasn't quite strong enough. I'll try adding more next time, but I think I also need to find some better lavender buds.
The icing has fresh orange juice and more lavender in it. The lavender taste seemed stronger when I heated it up.

♥♥♥♥♥

10 things you should know about John McCain

10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."


5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.


6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."


8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."


10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.

Irritating McGoogles

I posted this in my deviantART journal a few days ago, but I think I'll post it here as well, because it was a lot of fun to do. =D

Stolen from RohanElf

RULES:
1. It has to be a favourite character.
2. Tag three more people after.
3. Has to be ten irritating facts.
4. Listing the rules upon commenting the dare is a must.
5. Lastly, list the name of the person who Dared you.

10 ways to irritate the crap out of Minerva McGonagall

1. Refer to her only as McGoogles, Minnie, or Miss Tabby.
2. Leave love notes on her desk signed with Crookshank's paw print.
3. Discreetly slip a plant of catnip into her office, then ask to see her privately and inform her that you think she may have an addiction. Hand her a card for AA: Animagus Anonymous.
4. Steal all of her hairpins. Replace them with cocktail umbrellas.
5. Hum "Green-Eyed Lady" ALL THE TIME.
6. Start rumors that she has a crush on Trelawney.
7. Replace all of her liquor supply with fruity drinks, such as watermelon schnapps.
8. Charm her broach/jewelry to jingle when she walks. Don't give her the counterspell until she does the hand jive while wearing a cat in the hat hat.
9. Follow her around the castle. Make woofing noises whenever you catch her with her back turned.
10. Wish her a VERY MERRY UNBIRTHDAY 364 days of the year.

friday fill-in (kinda forgot about these, but they're so fun!)

1. Tonight I saw Chocolat.
2. The music from it makes me wanna dance!
3. Splitting a few appetizers between friends ...is a sentence I would never say.
4. Anybody fun, artistic and adventurous is someone I'd like to get to know better.
5. The smell of rain and fruit tree blossoms reminds me so much of springtime!
6. It was rainy and windy out today, but on the walk home from painting the sun came out and that made it all better.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching Conan and reading, tomorrow my plans include baking with lavender and Sunday, I want to go to sunday folkdance, but I might not be able to because I have a tap performance at OSU!

If you've never taken any of the VisualDNA quizes, you should. I just took the Love quiz, and I'm a "Wistful Soul". You can take the quiz here: http://youniverse.com/love
This is my VisualDNA:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

18!!!

BIRTHDAY WEEK! (also Spring Break)

DAY ONE: My actual birthday.
After finding out that the tattoo artist wouldn't be coming in that day after all, I grabbed a slice of pizza at american dream, and was joined by Jaylynn, Ana, Neebin and Patrick. We wandered downtown, and decided to head to the courthouse so I could get registered.

Here's a fuzzy camera-phone picture of me filling out the form.

We toured around the courthouse for a while. This was out of an open window on the highest floor we were able to get to.

Then after meeting up with Sophie and Bekka, we decided to do my plan B - Hand out helium-filled balloons to little kids. So we went to Special Occasions and got 11 balloons blown up. Then we took them downtown(which was tricky, with every seat in the car filled up already), and started our search for cute children, hehe. It was incredibly fun, the kids were all really excited to get a balloon. =D

After all the balloons were gone, Sophie, Ana, Bekka and I went to Woodstock's to join my family for my birthday dinner. We played with the toy claw machine, but nobody got anything.

DAY TWO: TATTOO!

All of my awesome presents from the day of my birthday:

DAY THREE and FOUR: ....nothing special.

DAY FIVE through SEVEN: Coast Trip with Ana and Charlotte.

It hailed like crazy AND snowed on the way over. Then it rained and hailed on and off for the first two days, but on Sunday it was sunny, and we spent a lot of time on the beach. =D