Burning down the house

30 November 2005
My stove caught on fire!!! and my apartment could have burned down!!! That is the second near death experience I have had in three days.

So I was baking a birthday cake and boiling a pot of water for my noodles that I was going to have for dinner, when all of a sudden I look and my stove is on fire. Appartently there was some stuff in the burner that caught on fire. Luckily acting quickly I turned off the burner, grabbed the fire extinguisher but turning off the burner put out the fire. My fire alarm began going off shortly after the fire went out, but luckily I found the button to stop it and not harm was done. But it could have been bad if I didn't act quick.

Oh, I got my noodles cooked and made an awesome chocolate mousse cake!!!

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Thanksgiving Gaylord style

Well I had my first (I think) and last Thanksgiving in our Dallas house. Meagan Kelleher came up from the LC to feast with the Flanzers and my Uncle Cliff surprised us on Thursday when he showed up with my grandparents. Before the dinner my dad, grandmother, Meagan and I went to the Gaylord Texan (a huge hotel/convention center) where took silly picture and established Gaylord as a new adjective. I post the pics and you can see the numerous Christmas card moments we had. We feasted on ham and turkey, a new recipe for sausage stuffing, cranbery sauce, potatoes and a squash vegetable thing, oh and the crossiants. Plus who could forget the chocolate pecan pie. I was sick (the worst day of my cold in fact) on Thanksgiving and well it sucked cause the food didn't taste the same, ugh. Meagan was subjected to game night with my family and I slept off the pounding headache. Of course my brother insisted he won everything and what I heard in between waking up sounded like they were having fun. Friday was a lazy day, watching football. Then we went to Forth Worth to go to a mexican restaurant, Joe T Garcias. Great place, took me back to Spain, as we sat outside (yes in Nov.) and ate okay fajitas and drank margaritas. Oh right, this happened after getting stuck in a parade light traffic and my dad being lost (cause men never want to print out directions). Apples to Apples and ice cream, mall shopping on Saturday and KU's overtime victory against Iowa State, bowl eligibility and ribs. More Apples to Apples, cookies and hot tubs and pools. That about sums up the holiday. GAYLORD

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Chapter 1: The small bladder

14 November 2005
Back from the road trip to Austin and I will start off by saying it did not dissapoint. Lots of driving, bathroom breaks, Texas touchdowns, Natalie mistakes and can't forget the alcohol. Now I am sure that short discrition intrigued you, so lets jump right into this first chapter.(There are five chapters total so don't forget to keep scrolling.)

Luckily our journey on Thursday was just to Dallas and waiting there was my mother and brother and chocolate pecan pie. We had the trip essentials: Bubblicious, sunglasses and some good tunes, so we were set to leave Lawrence and head down I-35. Adam and I (we drove down together in Adam's CRV) had to stop in Topeka so that Adam could fill out some paperwork at his new tv gig, but then we were on the road, only about 15 minutes later than I had originally thought we would be leaving Topeka. It was an ever interesting drive down. We stopped about every hour, so that Adam could use the bathroom and then get another drink to ensure we would have to stop the next hour. It was great weather for our drive which made things pleasant. Adam and I played the favorites game, chewed our Bubblicious, which Adam had a hard time keeping in his mouth (he hasn't had many years of expereience with blowing bubbles), and I played DJ (a very good one in fact-oldies, newbies and goodies). Despite the extended length of the drive it wasn't bad. When we arrived in Dallas I took a round about way getting to my parents house (but you gotta know that I didn't get us lost, we just could have gotten off at a quicker exit!) My mom made us dinner, we played darts and Labarith and grilled my brother about his upcoming new living situation. I spent time with my mommy which was good, but unfortunately had no time to go into the hot tub. =(

After sleeping in, waffles with chocolate chips and some parents moving to Phoenix stuff, we got ready to go. Oh, funny thing, so my mom was having a garage sale on Saturday, and when I walked outside she had already put Adam to work (I guess you could say it was his room and board). On our trip to Austin, we stopped in Waco and saw the new bear pit on campus. (For those of you who don't know, they have two live female bears on there campus. Fun in Waco, brought back some memories of the two months I spent there for debate camp. (NERD). AND of course we can't foreget the bathroom break-"Hey it is not my fault I have a small bladder." ...........

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Chapter 2: Austin City Limits

We arrived: only 4.5 hours after leaving Dallas, but we got there. Adam and I went to Jaime's apartment, a friend of Adam's from the New York summer. We had a nice welcome to Austin, cause minutes after going upstairs, and Adam using the bathroom, we came back down to go to dinner and a tow truck was about to tow Adam's car away. Luckily we showed him the visitor pass we were bringing down to put on the dashboard and after a twenty-five dollar offer from the tow guy-which we did not pay- we were on the way to the restaurant. Trudy's, famous for the Mexican martini. Mexican and maragrita martinis made me a happy girl! The food there was good too and the Mexican martini was a nice compliment (i looked up the recipe, so whenever you coming into town or coming over let me know and I can make sure I have the ingrdients on hand). After dinner, we decided we should hit up the liquor store and got there right as it was closing. Liquor stores in Texas close at 9pm-by the way. The guy made fun of me for buying beer at his liquor store cause you can get that at the gas station (note: bought some rum too so there mister liquor store owner). Also, this particular liquor store required you have a Texas license, so good thing my parents decided to stop in Dallas for a year on their nomadic journey to live in all 50 states. - I digress - Then, we returned back to Jaime's apt. for some pre-drinking, got ready and headed down to 6th street!!!!!

Are you ready for some fun?......?.......?.......?

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Chapter 3: Good times; Great Oldies

6th Street is like Mass St. on steroids, so you can only imagine what the possibilities were for the night's festivities. Starting off at Maggie Mae's, which had an open area downstairs and a rooftop bar area with a huge screen television. At the top the roof you can look at all of 6th Street at the people filling the streets looking for the next bar to go to. (Very neat place.) Later we then took to the streets to find a new bar. Another bar, another couple of drinks, which continued for the rest of the night. A one bar there was this huge martini glass filled with alcohol and called an El Dorado (no the bar was not called the El Dorado). Throughout the night we met up with various people we knew from Lawrence. It was good times, and some other stuff I can't explain on the Internet. Oh right forgot that Adam fell off the curb and hurt his ankle while we were waiting for a taxi. Funnny!!! Yeah for night one in Austin!...!....

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Chapter 4: Saturday, Saturday da da da

Dreaming sweet dreams causing me to sleep a little later than I should have, we eventually made it to eat breakfast at Kirby's Diner. Then we headed to the game. THE GAME 52-0 at half really explains it all. After a while I was participating in the eyes of Texas cheers and enjoying the atmosphere of a real college football atmosphere. At least we won the third quarter!!! The game really was just the warm up for the last night in Austin. And believe you me, I think I made the best of it. Shots, beers, drinks and good friends sums it up without sharing all the details.

When the bars closed at 2:00am that was really just the beginning of the evening. Back to the La Quinta (which is Spanish for High Speed Internet) and Jimmy and the rest of the suburban crew joined us for some beers. Adam had gone back to his friend Jaime's house and retired to rest up for the drive home. So we made a friend with a nice security guard and some Hurricane Katrina victims. Around 3:00pm or so, Rylan and I realized that he was locked out of his room and my purse was locked in, so what to do. The security guard couldn't help us cause Ryan Coliani (Rylan's hotel roommate) had deadbolted the door, so we were stuck.

So Rylan and I made the best of the evening, by going to tour the captial of Texas and all the fun stuff that surrounds the building. We took pictures with the statues and monument things. After we completed that tour we made our way to campus cause really what else were we supposed to do. To campus, seeing the bell tower thing, the stadium and wading in the fountain, we had seen UT campus. It was nearing 6:00am and we had walked and seen a lot of Austin. I remembered that Kirby's restuarant was 24 hours and close to where Jaimie's apartment was, near where we were on campus. We figured that we could get some food and then hopefully Adam would return my phone call. Not so and we ended up walking back to the hotel as the sun was coming up. (Ah sounds so romantic, right, if were weren't completely exhausted). Still no answer when we banged on the hotel door, so we sat and tried to rest/sleep cause we were exhausted and not drunk anymore. A little while later around 8:00am Ryan opened the door to the hotel room and we went directly to lay down and sleep. A couple hours later Adam called, we arranged to get picked up after Rylan sent some pics to the Kansan. With our heads on a pillow the evening had finally ended. Oh, you should see the pics.

The worst part was we had to drive home that day..........

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Chapter 5: The long and winding road

The roads aren't exactly winding, but I was on a role with the songs for chapter titles.

Got on the road finally around 1p.m. - a bit later than I thought we would. We had picked up a new passenger on the way (Rylan rode home with us). Took us four hours to get to Dallas where my mom had made us dinner - yeah for home cooking. After stopping for about an hour and a half (Adam had to write and e-mail a volleyball story) we got on the road back to Lawrence. I drove from Dallas to about 100 miles south of Wichita. By the end of the drive I was so tired that my leg could push the pedal and I was going 60 mph and hallucinating seeing things. Luckily 30 minutes ahead there was an exit (that is what you get in Oklahoma - nothing for miles) so I put on the cruise control and we trudged forward. By this point I was delirious-no sleep and a car ride don't make for a good combo, so I was acting crazy, but I guess keeping everyone entertained. Glad I could entertain you with my stupid idiocy. Attempting to sleep but being bothered to keep Adam awake - silly boy you actually got sleep Saturday night. I believe that we stopped at every middle gas stop thing on the Kansas Turnpike before pulling into Lawrence and arriving at 1326 Mass. After unloading my stuff and giving Trey his present, I was on my way home to bed, but only six hours of sleep Sunday night cause the reality of being back in Lawrence means working.

So that was the trip, lots of fun, but game roadtrips usually don't dissapoint. Til the next one......

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Right...

09 November 2005
Yeah for Thursday coming. I have been working so hard to get things done so I can take a trip. I am looking forward to seeing my mother tom. and also going to the KU-Texas game (even if we are going to lose.) I need to get my chin up, so to say, cause the next two months are going to be filled with good desserts, presents and trips. Even though it will be a lot of work too. Maybe I can look at the work as a bonus for the other stuff. Right...

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Milton, RIP

05 November 2005
Today, Milton passed away. He has been under the weather, feeling ill for the past couple of days. Changing the water, an extra pellet of food, nothing seemed to help. This morning when I woke up, he was dead. We had a nice ceremony for him and said a prayer as he whirled around the toilet bowl. He lived a good life and will be missed. Maybe he was sacrificing himself for a KU victory over Nebraska, he was red after all. Fear not though, Milton Jr. is on the way and will put the life back into the fish bowl soon.

All donations can be made to the Lawrence Humane Society in his honor.

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