Surprise!!

Last night we held a surprise 30th birthday party for our good friend. She's always giving to others, so it was great to finally give back. Amazingly enough, all of her friends were able to keep the secret. I think we pulled it off because when she walked in (crochet bag in hand, ready for a quiet evening) and everyone shouted suprise, she started backing out the door in shock. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pix.

Montezuma's Revenge

Here are a few pix from our trip to Cozumel. We had a good time while on the island, but out stomachs have been feeling the effects ever since. We are both on a very bland diet, coupled with antibiotics and pepto tablets daily. We can't wait to begin eating real foods again...in the meantime, back to my ricecakes....ugh!

Hasta luego! Albondigas en la casa del Mexico!

We are heading off to Mexico tomorrow morning, but before we do, I want to share a story with you about our last trip to Georgia --- hopefully this won't happen again.

As you may or may not know we bought a new car this past month and one of the true pleasures of buying a new car is the new car smell. About a week before we drove down to Georgia, however, the Versa lost its new car smell to an odd, rotten kind of scent. I asked P, since she drives it most often, whether something smelt amuck. "Nope," she said "smells like new car to me." So I let it go thinking I was maybe smelling the garbage or something.

As we started driving down to Georgia, around Indiana, I started to smell the rotten scent again. I asked our friend M who was travelling with us, "do you smell that?" She replied, "kinda, what do you think it is?" I didn't know so I asked P again. . ."new car smell!"

Then, we get down to Georgia (in the Southern heat, mind you) and the smell grows into a serious problem. So we stop at a local outlet mall and grab some car freshener: Lily of the Valley to be exact. And for a day, the smell started to improve. It didn't kill the smell, it masked it...

So then we get to Indianapolis and the smell has kicked Lily of the Valley's @$$. By this time our friend M is rolling down the back window, applying and reapplying scented lotion. Meanwhile P's nose finally gets the newsflash and she says "oh, is that the smell you were talking about?"

Two and a half hours later, I am determined to find what is going on in our new car. So we unpack, and I start smelling: everywhere! I make it to the back seat, and under the front side passenger seat is an empty bottle of Pepsi. So I pick it up to throw it away, and a little purple box is smiling at me. My eyes get huge, and I pick it up. Opening it, I find a carton full of *black rotten noodles* that had been sitting in the car (through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and back) since P had eaten there for her birthday lunch...I snatch them up, and run them into the house to ask P why she had left them in there for so long. She gives me a sheepish grin, "oops, forgot about those!" Seriously?

Keep in mind, had I done this, I would have been slaughtered. I would have not only been "irresponsible" and "disgusting," but "clearly less hygenic" than my counterpart and "committed to keeping a dirty car." She gets off the hook though because it "only happened this once." When have I ever left rotten noodles in the car, I ask?

Still waiting on the answer...

The smoke detector conspiracy

Following last night's--or rather this wee hour morning's--shenanigans, I am beginning to think that there is a smoke detector conspiracy. A conspiracy, K? Really? Yep, I am serious.

Here's what happens: our smoke detectors have *always* run out of batteries at 3am or earlier in *every* house we have ever lived in; as a result of having low batteries, the fire alarm chirps (incessantly), knowing full well that we do not have the kind that will stop the chirping; I, in turn, stumble out of bed and wander through the house trying to find the low batteried smoke detector; once I find it, I try to pull it down without tools (which never works); then I go and get tools and nearly break the thing (which wouldn't stop it from chirping anyway); I always forget that disconnecting the smoke detector will not make it stop chirping, and since I do not have the right batteries, I subsequently wrap it up into about four quilts and hide it somewhere (the freezer) until morning; I roll back into bed and end up thinking about my work for the next two hours (until the birds start chirping); then, once I finally get back to sleep the alarm goes off...

So, here's my relatively simple question: why can't the batteries run out in the daytime? They never have in our house, and I am beginning to think they never will. Hence, smoke detector conspiracy...

Impressive logic, I know, but seriously, what is happening here? Does this happen other places as well?

For further proof that this could, in fact, be a conspiracy -- see the Friends episode where Phoebe experiences a similar scenario. Yes, of course I am implying that Friends represents reality...