Birthday: the next day

surprisingly, after six drinks the night before, I woke up fine and dandy on saturday! yay!

saturday was Brian's birthday day with me. he baked his first cake for me. a german chocolate cake at my request. and darn it if he can't decorate as well as me too!


notice my birthday earrings from him?! cute eh!


Brian surprised me throughout the day with gifts, from another watch with interchangeable bands, to a trainer bag and borders gift card, and the most meaningful - a CD of songs he has listened to throughout our relationship that make him think of me.

that boy is a real keeper!

we went to Four Peaks, a local brewery, for dinner, and we ordered the beer sampler (4oz of 8 different beers) and totally felt like connisseurs. plus all weekend long I got to pull out my ID have bouncers look at me and my picture, back and forth and back and forth. and then, in the most unexcited, monotonous tone say: happy birthday. it happened several times. at least I didnt have to pay the cover charge. hee

later we went back to his apartment and watched a movie. then we went down to a liquour store so I could buy my first alcohol! woot.
I got a mix and some vodka and a free shot of pucker for my birthday.




at the store brian got some champagne. he surprised me with my last gift which were a couple of wine/champagne/drink glasses. so we got to toast my birthday!


It was a wonderful birthday! safe and fun!

On to the drinks!

it isnt a party unless someone ends up with their panties on their head!!

haha, just kidding. kim and I stayed classy throughout the night, and started with drinks at the bar at the Bamboo Club, we each got a free drink called an illusion



and then we each got a different kind of martini. I had a lemon drop, and kim had a jade martini


and then we went to a super chic lounge on Mill called Suite 301. Kim got a manhattan and I got a Cosmopolitan - dont I look super chic!!




after the lounge, Kim and I split up to be with our respective boyfriends. as you can see, mine was eager to wish me a happy birthday! Brian and I had a SoCo and lime at the lounge, and then went down to The Big Bang for some drinks. we ended up only getting a corona, because I had had a busy evening.

its my birthday!!

Ok, this post is nowhere near complete because, well my birthday is barely half over, but I wanted to show you the fun so far!

these are the flowers brian got me for my birthday:



later in the day, kim and I got all dressed up for our night on the town!



We went to the Bamboo Club and had dinner and wine! yummy! we got a free appetizer for it being our first time at the restaurant, a free entre with a coupon and I got a free dessert for my birthday! berries flambe~

posting gets away from you

ok, yeah, so turns out, I have a life, and it is just to busy to fill up these posts. or perhaps not busy enough.

point is, it is almost Thanksgiving - my favorite holiday of the year - and I am so ready for it!

I havent seen my parents in forever, and my cousins and aunts and uncles, and grandma, and cousins once removed in longer.

the canasta cards are coming out, and if you can't handle an ass-whooping, then stay out of the room

(this is the big talk of an over confident person, intent on winning, but mostly likely breaking even)

anywho, I figure you all have lost track of me so lets update.

this is the most recent pic of me. so as you can see, I am healthy and happy and ready for turkey!

More Futon Madness!

we finally had a futon party!! woo woo!

at one point we had five girls on our futon. we are awesome!




notice that the futon now has a cover, compliments of Kim's grandma, and we have hung up my flags behind it!

of course, other covers for the futon are always welcome.

we have named the futon: Futoshi. we name all of our big pieces of furniture. the fridge is stella, the microwave is frank, and kim's coffee maker is simon.

we have Futon!!

classes are moving right along, the work load somehow is no longer overbearing, and the jobs are running smoothly.

the big news this week is that Kim and I got a futon!!! woo woo!

we have named it Futoshi Futon (since it is a japanese word), for those of you that don't know how my roommate and I operate, we have a refigerator named Stella, and a coffee maker named Simon. it makes us feel like a big ole family.

here are the pictures of our new bundle of joy!

school days

well, classes back in Phoenix aren't nearly as cool as classes in England, but...I will survive.

this is definitely going to be the semester of keeping up. keeping up with work, with brian, oh, and with classes. yeah, seems most of my classes have pretty regular work...like daily work. blah.

also, my new sign lang teacher is great! she is very energetic and happy. however, she is a bad speller. I didnt know you could be deaf and a bad speller. so much is fingerspelled in the language. it will be interesting.

my history of food class is looking interesting as well, no real food eating until the end. but we will learn all about the change from hunter gatherer to agriculture. it is a class I think my dad would enjoy.

my management class is taking itself way too seriously for being for nonmajors, but overall I think it will be helpful.

my social psych class is with my old psych 101 prof, whom I really enjoy, and I think that will be a fascinating class.

eng 301 is internet, and just going to be a constant pain. my midterm is to write a 13 sentence essay using all the types of sentences in a specific order. for instance: declarative, then conjunctive, then parenthetical, then semicolon, then colon. and our choice for topics range from being on a secret spy mission to being on an elevator with a pregnant lady in labor. there is the chance for creativity for sure, but it is still ridiculously structured.

we had a freak rain storm yesterday evening, and it poured! but woe alas, grandma is in cottonwood, so I couldn't call her during the storm. what good will it be when she is permanently in a different weather pattern? it seems my parents are the only hold outs from the cottonwood magnetic field.

I only had one class today, but it is noon, and I am off to go work at both my jobs today for the next 11 hours! woot.

huh...

now that I am home, and have no new places to explore...I seem to be much too busy to blog much.

that is my fault. sorry.

more scotland pictures have yet to be blogged.

I am camping this weekend. maybe the next saga of tripto will begin, and there will be new pics of a new adventure.

or not. I have learned to make no promises.

so far this summer has been very exciting! (by summer I mean the time since I got back from england)

I have moved up to phoenix, I am working like crazy at the honors college. I am being all grown up with my roomie barbara, and finally getting some quality time with brian. (definitely caught up on my movie watching)

I also got to go up to cottonwood for the weekend. I love doing that! I love my family. I got to see all the babies, and play some wicked canasta with the cousins. we played with some cards that I found at windsor palace. and they were supercool! gilded edges and everything. way fun.

I also discovered the shuttle that goes from phoenix to cottonwood! why had I not thought of this before!?!? it is such a convenient way to get my canasta fix! there is bound to be some utilization of that.

Finally!

ok, some Ireland pictures!

this is where I lived. University College in Dublin




and a real skeleton key to lock my room!!



did a hop on hop off tour of dublin and saw Christchurch, the Guinness factory, and St. Patrick's Cathedral





Dublin city view, Irish countryside, and Bunratty Castle (aka tourist trap)






Cliffs of Moher! along the western coast of Ireland











the Burren, it is a barren land of limestone that was exposed after a glacier melted, and through the years, the water has made the rock very porous.







Irish Sea from Dublin Bay




Day trip to Glendalough. there is a church, a graveyard, and an Irish round tower at Glendalough and is one of the earliest sites of christianity









this post is sufficiently long