I haven't watched TV since Wednesday night, so I am glad things kind of sucked. Makes catching up much easier.

My shiny new car:

[link]

I promise to stop mentioning it now, or at least try to. It's just that I've never had a new car before. (And may not ever again.) And it has so many neat features.

I parked it next to a Ford Expedition, which is a hulking brute of an SUV, and now I don't feel at all too bad at the size of my new car. Which is rated for 30 MPG on the highway, so I'm going to work hard on the fallacy that it's just an extra-tall station wagon.

Thank you, Nilly!!

I saw Laura! And Laura's entire family! Which was totally fun. And awesome.

My cruise was interesting, often incredibly cheesy and gay, which was awesome, and other times incredibly boring and slightly irritating. Unless you like Bingo, need to learn how to work your digital camera (every hour on the hour), or are a cigar aficionado, there are just hours and hours where there is nothing for you to do, except watch Herbie: Fully Loaded in any language but English in your stateroom. I watched it in Swedish, which was fun. Also, even though we went to the Bahamas, Cococay, and Key West, at no point were we able to go into the ocean, it rained every single day, and the pools were icky since there were so many people in such small little things, that there were tons of gross things floating - like band-aids, hair clumps, and dead bugs. Just icky. So, some fun stuff, like going to Atlantis, watching gay guys pretend to be into girls in cheesy stage shows like "The Beat Goes On," watching Kareoke, and watching adults go crazy to win a scavenger hunt where the prize was a bunch of key chains-- that was all good. The minimal sun, complete lack of swimming, forced early wake ups, and frequent lack of things to do-- much less fun.

Yesterday ended up being intensely busy, though. I woke up in my stateroom, which we had to vacate by 8 am at the latest, then we went to breakfast, got off the ship, claimed our luggage, went through customs, waited around the port for our ride, then we went to the beach, FINALLY PLAYED IN THE OCEAN (totally fun), rinsed off on the beach, ran to Publix to buy cupcakes (which are pink and pretty and totally totally fresh), ran to the airport, did a little shopping after going through security (where I was once again a selectee, but it was fun this time: they highlighted the SSSS in pink, then hole-punched hearts into my ticket, and the first guy asked me how old I was, and I was like, "Twenty-three today, actually," so they all wished me a happy birthday, and were very sweet), flew back to NY and watched Dirty Dancing (my favorite movie), claimed our luggage, waited for our ride again, got back home (for only ten minutes-- but it was very cool and my semi-adopted brother had put up decorations and got a cake, which was the sweetest), took a few things out of my backpack and got a ride to a bachelorette party-- did my makeup in the car, and ignored the fact that I was STILL in my swim suit, went to the bachelorette party, and then went to see "Serenity." And then I went home and passed out. So busy. But fun.

Ick! I don't blame you on the not-swimming!

HAPPY DAY AFTER YOUR BURTHDAY, ALIBELLE!

happy alibelle day

Thanks, Theo. It was really hot, but yeah. I just couldn't do it. And that was despite the fact that they drained the pools every night. I can't even imagine what they'd look like if they just left them.

Thanks, Perkins!

ETA: Thanks, beth!

Throw Rocks at Boys

Dude. This is SUPER fun.

Web Sudoku

And this is super addictive.

In other Emmett news he's (a) quoting Doc Holiday from Tombstone

Emmett: Still My Hero.

Happy Birthday, Alibelle! And welcome back.

Forced early wakeups on vacation? Blech.

Theo, have you settled on a name for the new wheels? If you go with "Serenity" you need to get some green neon around the rear windows for the Firefly effect. And a custom plate: SRNITY or FIREFLY?

Rio, I can't even imagine the boredom. But cat-stacking should help. Unless that's how you hurt your hip in the first place. (What? It could happen!) Imagine the LEGASUS in the days before the interbunny...gah.