Awkward Family Photos

I have discovered the most fabulous website.  It is called AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.  It is hil-ar-i-ous!  I have clocked many hours scrolling through the pictures and the comments.  The readers of AFP.com are some pretty witty people.  To accompany this post I would love to post some of my own awkward family photos, but I am still in Texas, so those will have to come later.  Take a moment to stroll over to the site and see a few funny pics.  They'll make you laugh.

Below, is an example picture from the site.  This one is kind of bitter-sweet...poor girl.  Although, I love that the frog legs are straight up in the air.  They get even better.

Maybe a McWorld would be better than I thought...

On our recent trip out to Houston, Wes and I drove through some of the ugliest and most boring parts of our country.  One of the worst was Southern Wyoming...okay THE worst was southern Wyoming.  That is some dry and ugly and brown land.  I'm sorry to any Wyomingites who are reading this.  There really are some pretty parts, just not where Interstate 80 runs through.  Denver had never looked so beautiful to me.  Anyway, I am straying from my point...McDonalds.  While we were in the dusty state of Wyoming, we came across the coolest McDonalds I have ever seen.  Allow me to demonstrate.

This is the first thing we noticed upon walking in.  I don't know if you can tell but this is a rock waterfall.  This McDonalds had 5 installed in their dining area.

They also had 5 flat screen TVs around their dining area...as well as somewhere else...

They did NOT have flat screen TVs in the women's restroom, I checked.

Not only did the kid's play area have these adorable miniature "saddle seats" that are apparently equally fun for kids and 29 year old men alike.  They also had...wait for it...4 stations of X-boxes.

This was the definite high point of our drive through Wyoming.  Oh, and last but not least, the lovely little fireplace and sofas in the McDonalds.

Texas pictures coming soon...  

O Broadband, Broadband! Wherefore Art Thou Broadband?

I didn't have internet yesterday. It was horrible. It was like I lost an appendage or something. In one day these were my problems, I couldn't:

• See my wife's IM on Skype
• Listen to Pandora Radio
• Check my e-mail
• Set-up an appointment with my thesis advisor
• Distract myself with the online Halo community via Xbox Live
• Watch a movie on Netflix
• Check to see if X-men was coming to the I-Max this weekend
• Set-up my cable installation appointment in Houston (online only discounts)
• Look up some equations I needed for my thesis
• Find a good creative writing book using Amazon's rating system
• Download a writing program I needed
• Check out blogs

Like I said it was awful. I was reduced to being productive, working on my thesis all day (minus the equations I needed), with the bright spot to my workday being a Wendy's run and an episode of the animated Batman(on a disc) for lunch.

Today

I am happily connected to the internet and used it to:

• Chat with Rodolfo from India to schedule my internet/cable installation in Houston taking advantage of online only coupons
• Check my e-mail (Hey Babe, thanks for that Crate & Barrel spam)
• Cancel my unsolicited subscription from Crate & Barrel
• Use my online only bank to cut a check to Comcast
• Send an e-mail to my future apt. manager to make sure I'm sending everybody to the right address
• Not do thesis (don't worry I will)
• I just got a response, I did send the right address
• And OF COURSE, chat with my sweetheart on Skype
• and the day is still young...

I know you would all be devastated without the internet because you wouldn't be able to read this non-whiney, non-materialistic post.

My Shlumpadinka Spring Break!

Well, this was my first week back to school after a most fabulously relaxing Spring Break. I have decided to share the details with you because it's been a while since my last post.  Now normally my mom comes to visit for Spring Break, but this year we settled for talking every day instead (I'll take what I can get).

 Weekend before Spring Break - Read Gregor the Overlander (320 pgs.) as well as Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (309 pgs.)

 Day 1 Monday - Read Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods (358 pgs.) and literally did nothing else.  It was awesome.

Day 2 Tuesday - Read the penultimate Gregor and the Marks of Secret (343 pgs.), went to Barnes and Noble, bought Gregor and the Code of Claw, went home, read Gregor and the Code of Claw (412 pgs.) until 2:00 a.m.  (Because the next day Wes was going to be able to hang out!  So, I basically HAD to finish it that night!)

Day 3 Wednesday - Hung out with Wes.  Cleaned out kitchen cabinets and hallway closet, which felt very nice.  We threw away 7 bags of trash and sent 4 bags to the DI (which is like a Goodwill for our non-Utah readers).  How is this possible?  I do not know.

Day 4 Thursday - Hung out with Wes.  Cleaned the bathroom, watched some movies, and shopped.

Day 5 Friday - Hung out with Wes, went to Best Buy and bought Lego Batman. (an amazingly addicting XBOX game)

Day 6 Saturday - Played the aforementioned amazingly addicting Lego Batman for the majority of the day while Wes worked on amazingly "un-addicting" finals.  I finished up my Spring Break with a nice dinner and a movie...Wingers and The Knowing.

By the way, those Gregor books by Suzanne Collins, I definitely recommend.

Mmmm! Fondue!

Photo by Courtney Spears

Dipping delicious goodies in chocolate, brilliant!!!

Photo by Courtney Spears

It turns out fondue is a fun way to party with our friends Kurt and Courtney Spears. We ate apples and focaccia bread with cheese as well, which was also good. Who needs the Melting Pot?