two dolla

bon voyage for a while

I’m packed, and am just finishing one load of laundry so I can have clothes to wear when I get back to work on Monday.

I’m still trying to decide between a couple of fonts for ye ol’ tattoo appointment that’s coming on the Tuesday I get back. That could be interesting.

I dropped Riley off at the babysitter this afternoon and found out his best friend is named Eddie. He’s there with about five other dogs and he had no idea I was even leaving when I left. I know, I know, that’s a good thing. But c’mon.

While I’m gone, you can see where my ship is by clicking here and the ship even has webcams in the front and back that can be seen here. The links look best in Internet Explorer, and you know, you might see me swimming behind the ship tomorrow if there are any issues with our layover in Philadelphia.

Be good!

two things or maybe more

1.) 2:50 a.m. is not an early bedtime. I don’t know why I always try to convince myself that I’ll go to bed early when I know I won’t! Unless we’re on like Chinese time or something. Then it’s gotta be early, right?

2.) I have a super big uncontrollable crush on this bartender at the 90′s. And it’d always been anonymous until now. Sometimes when you learn someone’s name, it kinda ruins it all, and you wish it’d been better left anonymous, but not really, because know you can talk about the bartender on a more personal level and yeah. Vodka Red Bull, please.
3.) In approximately 10 hours, I will be dropping off my puppy for a long, long time. Seriously. Like 10 days or something. I don’t pick him up until after work on April 2nd. He better remember me!

4.) Tomorrow’s Bon Voyage get-together is now being called SLUPPER. Because it’s like at 2:00 and what else would you call it?

5.) Umm. Never mind.

bar trivia round 1

We made $915 last night from Bar Trivia at Hubert’s. Un-freaking-believable. Thank you so much to all of those who attended. We’re quick on the learning curve when it comes to fundraisers, so we know exactly what to change for our next scheduled bar trivia.  Yep, mark your calendars! May 1st at 7 p.m. at Hooters in Block E. Online signups may not be available until the first week in April, so get your teams together now.
This is seriously like a sponsorship-dream come true for me and for us to finally land it, I was more excited than any sales deal I’ve ever landed at work. I’m not sure that’s a good thing! After almost a year of badgering, the owners of this particular Hooters are more than excited to set up a few events for us throughout the year. THAT is exciting.

Jenni’s working on a wrap up and I still have to post some photos, so you’ll be hearing more about last night soon, I’m sure!

Thank you again!

where i start to panic a bit

I have successfully packed the following: flip flops, swimsuit, board shirts, tripod, six pair of socks, a waterproof camera bag, my Nintendo DS and its corresponding charger (I may unpack this), one book, a long sleeve shirt, five pair of shorts, four pair of skivvies, a pair of khaki pants, sharpies, my cruise tickets, shampoo, deodorant, a lint roller, chapstick, gum, soap, playing cards, one formal-ish shirt, seven t-shirts, my insurance card, and my passport.

I still have the following to go: camera, memory cards (5 GB better be enough!), extra battery, charger, phone charger, cash, more underpants, addresses for postcards, case for glasses, ipod and charger, my apartment keys, a pair of fancy pants for formal night, some fancy shoes for formal night, various bras, a notebook, pens, toothbrush, toothpaste, sunscreen, mousse, the anti-inflammatory prescription for my back, and tequila to wash it down.

Not too bad for being 4.5 days before we leave, and I’m really not in too bad of shape considering my bag’s only about half full right now.

Things I still have to do before Sunday morning at 3:30 a.m., which is when I’ll probably be getting up for our 5:30 a.m. flight: pick a font for my tattoo (I could probably use help for this!), make some truffles (as soon as I get almond bark. I can’t believe I forgot it!), find some photos to display at Boob Trivia tomorrow night, make various signage for the same trivia event, and have Girls’ Night on Friday (lots of dancing, yay!), a Bon Voyage lunch on Saturday, and watch a lot of important TV.

Also? Try to determine if the sinus infection I’m getting is going to warrant a trip to the doctor. Normally it wouldn’t, but normally I’m not about to spend eight days at sea. (I never get tired of saying that!)

I take Riley to the babysitter Saturday and don’t pick him up until Monday after work. I’m asking the babysitter to email me and let me know how he’s doing, because holy crap, the longest I’ve been away from him in his whole life is five days.

boob trivia tomorrow night!

We’ve had a few openings become available, as well as the permission of Hubert’s to bring in some more people. If you were thinking about participating in Team Boobylicious’ Bar Trivia tomorrow night, now is your chance! You can still sign up or even just show up tomorrow.

If you don’t have a team, don’t worry. You can answer questions by yourself or we can put you with another team. We’re not too picky.

First prize is $100 cash, and there will be plenty of opportunities to win cash and prizes throughout the evening, including gift certificates to various establishments, a gift basket from Hell’s Kitchen, an I ♥ boobs shirt like the one pictured here, and all sorts of other good stuff.

Even if you’re not up for answering trivia questions, you’re still invited to come along and just hang out for a while. There’s no cover to get into Hubert’s and you can have dinner there.

Hope to see some (okay, all!!) of you there!

With destinations workshops, getting cheap airline tickets can become hard especially since midwest airlines as well as hawaiian airlines do not sell as much as allegiant airlines.

ai: 11 singers go british

What are you guys going to do next week when I’m aboard a large ship in the Caribbean and you don’t get to read my opinions about these guys? Or better yet, what am I going to do without my weekly Tivo’ed shows for a week? Oh, I know. I’ll lay in a chair poolside while watching the ocean pass by. Maybe I don’t have that much to complain about!

It’s British invasion night, which means maybe Simon will understand the songs. I don’t know if I should be embarrassed or not that I don’t recognize Peter Noone and Lulu.

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happy friend-iversary, sailor!

Jenni reminded me today that it’s our two-year friend-iversary. And just within those two years is when I’ve met everyone else that I hang out with regularly now. What’s really weird? I can’t fathom that I’ve known these people that short amount of time. We joke about how we’re family and how we’re all descendants of Granpappy Awesome, but really,we’re just that close.

In any case and if nothing else, the last two years have at least provided more entertaining blog entries and you can’t deny that. It’s also been two years of doing things that make me slightly uncomfortable, and challenging myself in different ways, and laughing (and maybe drinking) more than I had since moving here. (Her version of the weekend [minus the stuff without me] is a perfect example!) I’ve also perhaps never used the words DUDE and AWESOME more appropriately than the past two years.
We’re about to spend 8 days in a row together and in a small room while at sea the majority of the time. I’d be worried about it if it were someone else, but since she’s only tried to spoon with me once (in a tent during The 3 Day last year), I think it’ll be a-okay.

Also, I found this piece of art commemorating the night we met!

(sorry, sucker, I win for gay!)

dancing with the stars premier

I watched a show tonight I never thought I’d have any interest in at all. Dancing with the Stars: Season 4. I don’t necessarily know if I’ll continue watching it, but I suppose time will tell. I already watch The Riches (awesome!) and I Love New York (I totally wanted White Boy to win), but since the latter of those two is thankfully almost over, I may have room in my regular TV schedule to fit it. As long as they don’t kick Billy Ray Cyrus off next week.

I half-assed watched the episode tonight, but when I found out they weren’t kicking anybody off until next week, I kind of lost interest. Plus, I was doing it at the same time I was packing for the cruise, and I can tell you straight away (I love it when Supernanny says that) that cruise-packing is more important than washed-up celebrity dancing any day of the week.

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the irish birthday weekend

I’m half Irish and I feel sad that this is the first time I’ve really celebrated St. Patrick’s Day like a true Irish lass.

Friday: Hockey. The Gophers had to beat the Wisconsin Badgers in order to make it to the championship game. Matt and I met at The Happy Gnome for our family shot (Jag Bomb, please!), and then carpooled over to Fuji-Ya for some pre-game sushi for everyone else and just parsley for me, thanks. Also? Cake Batter Martinis. After turning everything into a four syllable hockey chant, we finally got our tab and headed towards the Xcel Energy Center to find our five-rows-from-the-ice seats.

The Gophers won and all was right in the world.

Saturday: Hockey started at 2 and after looking for cream-cheese stuffed pretzels, we found our seats before the 2nd period. It was the St. Cloud State and Wisconsin game, so we cheered for St. Cloud. Minnesota pride or something. Wisconsin won in overtime, though, so drinks were needed.

St. Patrick’s Day in St. Paul is celebrated all day long. We found this out everywhere we went, but we ended up going to Matty B’s Supper Club, which was hosted by the largest Leprechaun in the world, Matt Birk (the center from the Minnesota Vikings), who was actually tending bar. We had a drink or two and met some old man who said he was a Scientist of Whiskey. We stopped at the Holiday Inn bar, because everywhere else was super packed. And then it was back for the hockey championship, where the Gophers won in overtime. We finished celebrating the victory and all that is Ireland at Tony Jaro’s, then The Otter, and final stop at Santana’s.

Sunday: I turned 29. I reflected a lot. And I napped a lot. Later, Jenni, Cindi, Matt, Stephanie and I had birthday dinner at Chiang Mai Thai. I got birthday phone calls, emails, or comments of some nature from most of my family and friends. I’m a little furious about one phone call I didn’t receive, but let it easily roll of my shoulders after realizing some people are too wrapped up in themselves anyway.

Also, best birthday wish ever: “Happy Birthday. I love you, Wendy. You have a birthday cake and you have a dog named Riley.” Excuse me while I melt.
There was more sleeping after dinner and enough time playing Sims that I knocked myself up, but couldn’t get child services to come pick up my kid.

29

Despite unofficially ringing in my birthday at 12:01 a.m. while celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at Tony Jaro’s River Garden this morning, it’s now that I’m officially 29, or maybe 29 years and 2 hours. I always forget. Honestly, this birthday doesn’t feel any different than the last four or five birthdays.

On my home last night/this morning, I started composing a post about how the first three hours of my birthday-day were awesome  A trip to Jaro’s, followed by venturing over to The Otter, capped off with cheeseburger and fries at Santana’s? I can’t imagine how else it should have started.

More about my awesome weekend later. I’m still tired. And hungry. And awesome. Not too bad for 29.