Tasty, tasty fudge money

This last Saturday was a fun day. It started with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, had the temple in the middle, and ended with Kyler's work Christmas party.
The party had amazing food, salmon and roast beast and chicken, the best green beans ever, very tasty dessert, and fun entertainment. The best part was probably when they gave every employee a sealed box that contained fudge and an unknown amount of cash, in denominations between $20 and $200. They had the employees pass the fudge money right and left and all around until you didn't know where the box you were originally given is anymore. Once the head honcho people gave the word, everyone opened their box. Kyler found... a crisp Benjamin! Apparently, they gave everyone the same amount of cash, so all the passing was silly and pointless and fun.

I want my work to throw a company party. I want my work to give me a $100 bill. Actually, no. I just want to actually get a raise. Cost of living raise, a raise for having worked here nearly two years, a raise of any kind over my starting wage... I want a raise from my company.

When the dream becomes reality

The other day, I had a dream...

Dream World:
All the details are a bit fuzzy now, but I had seen all my friends and family members, everyone I loved, brutally killed right before me (think Hunger Games), and it was all my fault. They had been killed to show me a lesson or something. So, I'm kneeling on the ground, weeping at the sight of their lifeless bodies. Sobbing and sobbing until I can't even breathe anymore and I start to gasp for breath in between each heave.

Real World:
I wake up terrified, partially because I haven't shaken the feeling of the dream yet, and partially because the reason I woke up is that, like in the dream, I'm gasping for breath. Kyler wakes up, too, and asks if I'm okay. After a few seconds, I calm down enough to kind of mumble something that assures him I'm still breathing. I don't remember this part, but Kyler informed me that not only am I gasping, but tears are also streaming down my face.

Needless to say, it took a while for me to fully break out of that dream and back into reality. And it still kind of freaks me out.

Interestingly, my sobs and gasps also made it into Kyler's dreams before he woke up: he dreamed he was watching a woman die and gasp for breath. How sinister our dreams were that night.

The Wonderful World of...

DISNEY!

So, we went to Disneyland. And, uh, whatever it's called, California-land or something. And, we have proof, in picture form. Lots of proof, but I'm trying to only put ones I like and/or have some emotional value to them.

I was walking down the street, from our hotel to Disneyland one morning, when I looked down and saw this:
Walt Disney's Star! I had to take a picture, because I'm a dork.

We also had to get our picture next to all the classics.Like outside the train station next to the giant floral Mickey.

And, since it's Halloween time...
In front of the giant Mickey Pumpkin.

Kyler graciously allowed me to take a picture with Cap'n Jack Sparrow.Not quite as attractive when two dimensional, let me tell you.

We went on this cool riverboat:Isn't it pretty?

There is also this AWESOME pirate/Tom Sawyer island that doesn't have "rides" or whatever, but you can just run around and climb up tree houses (see below)
Or walk on really cool bridges
Or get a little chummy with a skull or two.Really, did anyone expect me to do any different?
Seriously, the island was so cool. Definitely the place to hang out when your children are tired of waiting in lines for all the rides... which we actually didn't do too much. It was kind of overcast and threatening to rain in the morning of both days, so fewer people at the park! Woohoo!

I got eaten by a whale...


And we saw Darth Vader!
The little kid "Jedis" in the crowd got to fight him with their "lightsabers." Hilarious.

We also, how random is this, ran into Steph, Kyler's former girlfriend, so we hung out with her for part of the afternoon.She got a higher score than Kyler! Good job, Steph!

My favorite thing in Disneyland ended up being Big Thunder Railroad or whatever it's called... but not necessarily for the reasons you think.
It is a really fun ride, but on the second morning, while Kyler and I were riding it.......it suddenly stopped! (These pictures were taken after it stopped. In the first, the nice lady a little in front of us told us to look scared.)Long story short, on a different "train," barely out of the station, someone had stood up, so they stopped the ride. They couldn't just start it back up, though, for whatever (probably legal) reason, so they came out, let us out, and we got to walk around in the ride to get out!It was way cool, and let see what was behind the scenes a little, and let us take pictures that never would have worked before.

Also, Kyler likes Mr. Toad.And his wild ride.


And Dad, this one is for you...
Everytime I see a cannon anywhere, I think of you!

Lego Woody at the Lego Store


And now, onto California Adventure place!We thought the little kids playing on the letters was a nice touch.


Note: this is not the REAL Golden Gate Bridge. Sorry to anyone who thought it was.


There is a really cool "ride" that has airplane pictures all over the walls of the line area, including this one:Recognize it? It's the Spruce Goose! The airplane ride also reminded me of Cliffy because they showed this huge Navy ship with jets on it... and helicopters! One of them was flying, and I told Kyler, "my brother's flying that one!" Kyler said, "Yes, I'm sure he is." I think he was just humoring me.


Kyler and the Walking Stick.
Quite the resemblance, eh?

Our favorite ride in California was the Grizzly Bear Run or whatever. See the grizzly bear?
It's a ride that takes you through white water rapids. Little man-made ones, but still way fun. Kyler and I got SOAKED. Well, here and at Splash Mountain, too. My bag was literally dripping. Good thing our camera case protected the camera. We did ruin a few maps of the parks and had to get new ones, though.

The last thing we did was go to World of Colors, this water/light (and a little fire!) show.
Very pretty.

That is all.
Well, we did return home, Kyler got sick (from BlizzCon or Disneyland, whichever) and then got me sick.
The end.

Chilvary is not dead!

Jeez, Mom, it's all about the bite-sized chunks! Also, this post covers two days, and this post the next two days, meaning I've written about four days so far, not just one.
Also, I'm sick. Take pity on me.

So, after BlizzCon, we went to the beach and Medieval Times. See? Beach.
We played around in the sand and struck poses for each other. Well, that or we just took pictures while the other one wasn't paying attention.The beach was way fun. We got rather wet, but the weather was beautiful and we didn't mind at all. After taking all the awesome beach pictures, we got a little cheesy and took a picture of our shadows in the water.
Isn't it cute? The shadows are holding hands!
Then we wandered around town a bit and stumbled across a red phone booth! Loradona, this one is for you!
But where is the phone?
We went to lunch in the town at a place called The Greeter's Corner.This is a picture of the greeter. Apparently, this Scandinavian man would stand on the side walk and wave and say hi to everyone that drove by. He did it for, like, 33 years or something. Too bad his statue didn't have a thumb.




Now, Medieval Times... Kyler is rather intimidating. This suit of armor is shaking in his boots.Do you think I could win in an arm-wrestling competition?
While we were there, we got to meet "royalty."This is Kyler and me with the King of the Castle!
For those of you who don't know, they randomly divide the audience at Medieval Times into color groups, based on your crown - we're green! That color is the color of the knight you support... and hope manages to kill everyone else!The green knight and squire. Our knight almost won but, really, he's destined to lose. Go to see it and you'll figure out why. Plus you'll get a lot of tasty food.

Now, patiently wait for the next (and final?) installment of our trip: Disneyland!

Geek-Con 2010!

This is the second post about our trip... post #1 is here.This is the reason primary reason we went to California. So that Kyler could revel in all that is geeky. BlizzCon 2010.
Of course, Kyler wasn't the only geek there:
What a huge crowd of people, all waiting to enter the Anaheim Convention Center. Some of them were dressed up, because there was a costume contest.
This girl actually got proposed to on stage at the costume contest! Cool, eh?



I'm bored waiting to get in, so I made Kyler take my picture.
It's me with my name tag and schedule of events. Sweet action, eh?



Once we got inside, we posed for pictures with all the cool statues.
Villains and heroes alike, we didn't discriminate when it came to picture-taking. And there was a photo booth, so we decided to take advantage of it.
Too bad the lady didn't tell us we were off-center. Thanks, lady.



We stood in line to play a game that isn't publicly available yet. Look at the bank of computer they had!
We look way cool when our pictures get taken without our knowledge, don't we?



Lest you think we were anti-social, Kyler met some people he'd been playing with. They are real people after all!
L-R: iHealer (Matt), Lucedordai (Rich), and Kyler (Gloredhel). A whole group of geeks!



At the end of BlizzCon, there was a concert. Anyone want to guess who performed?
Someone inappropriate...Tenacious D! And, yes, they are dirty.

There were lots of game developers and people talking about the games and things, but that would be boring to rehash, so just know that they were there. And Kyler loved it!