TV trivia for everyone

Ginger just elbowed me because I was harrassing her and this was our conversation:

me: How rude.
Ginger: Cut it out (hand actions included)
me: You got it, dude (with my best over the top, thumbs up)
Ginger: Have mercy (with the worst Elvis impersonation ever)

That's right, we just had a fully functioning conversation using catch phrases from a beloved television series classic. I know, we have problems. But before you mock us, just remember, you know exactly what show I'm talking about, so look in the mirror before you judge. And if by some small chance you don't know what I'm talking about, may I suggest you get to know the Tanners, you'll thank me for it.

Never-ending Pasta Bowl! Never again!!

I have always been an Olive Garden lover. I just love the chicken alfredo there. As some of you may know, Olive Garden often has the "never-ending pasta bowl" promotion. Every time I get the fettuccine alfredo during this promotion, the sauce is kind of watered down and is very bland to me. If I am going to have 5 million calories anyway, then I want the good stuff! Silly me decided to give it another chance while we are out here, hoping the sauce would have its full flavor and goodness. Yep, you guessed it, we had the same experience. This was the end of the road for us!! We were not going to let them push us around and be taken advantage of! Sam wrote them a wonderful email telling them pretty much that we know they change the sauce during "never-ending pasta bowl." We felt bad because when we sent the complaint, we had to say which location we were at. It is not this specific restaurant's fault, it is the big guys at Olive Garden! They apologized for our bad experience and the manager even called me to apologize. They handled it very nicely. They even sent us a $30 gift card. We will for sure be using it but just never during "Never-ending Pasta Bowl"!

Tales from the subway

Ginger wants me to share my embarrassing subway story, so I guess I'll let everyone in on it. The other day I was coming home and it was rush hour and pretty crowded. At one of the stops this black guy (and I only mention that he's black because it's some what relevant to the story) and his friend get on, and since it's so crowded they are standing really close to me. The guy is facing me and his friend is standing between us with her back towards me. When they get on she's laughing really hard but trying to hold it in like you would at church or something and she's laughing so hard that she's tearing up. It was really funny and I started to smile and laugh a little myself.

So he looks at me and points and says something about her being embarrassing and how even I'm laughing at her. I look at them and say something back and we had our little moment of fun together and it was all very ha ha and funny. I thought that was the end of it, when I notice out of the corner of my eye that he reaches around her and puts his hand up in the air and at first I didn't think anything of it, but then he's just holding it there, so I'm thinking, "Oh no, he wants to give me some kind of dap or something."

The thing is I really don't want to high five or whatever. I'm just not the type to pretend that I'm even remotely cool enough to do that in public to a complete stranger and so I'm just kind of ignoring it, but his hand is still just hanging there so I'm thinking maybe I'll do it just to get it over with. All of a sudden his hand starts coming down towards me and now I'm thinking I have to meet him on this or I'm just going to leave him hanging, so I bring my hand up to do one of those homie, man handshakes and I completely whiffed... because... he was holding his hand up and reaching around his friend to let her know that he was going to give her a HUG before he left.

That's right, stupid me thought I was getting some love from my new best friend and reached up and swung for a big hand of air as he leaned in for... a hug. As soon as I realized what happened I was so mortified that I just started laughing and he looks at me and says, "Nah, man, I'll give you a tap." By this time though, I was so flustered I just kind of slapped his hand while he tried to grab it and it was just this awkward flailing of arms and hands on my part and I just continued to look ridiculous. So now you know.

Ninja Cat

Games, Games, Games Games, Games (pause) Games!!

Yes, that was my little tribute to the wonderful New Kids on the Block. I have stayed a faithful fan and am glad they are back. I never questioned whether I loved them even through the times when my sister, Crystal and my cousin, Kurt hung all of my New kids stuff from the ceiling. They even tied my Joey McIntyre barbie up. I know what you are thinking, "what a rude older sister," that is exactly what I am thinking!! I have to admit it, I am still loving them with their new album. Sam makes fun of me, but I love my boy bands for some odd reason. My friend, Adrian is going to their concert and I am a bit jealous.

Anyway...back to the reason for my post.

Everyone that knows me well, knows that I love to play games, especially card and board games. My family always plays some card games everytime we get together.  On Sundays when we go up to visit Kelly and fam, we manage to fit in a game or 2.  I have recently purchased the game Snorta.  I was introduced to this game by my friend, Amanda.  It is the perfect game to plays when there are kids around and even when they aren't.  You each have an animal sound and you have to remember everyone else's through out the game.  It gets pretty hilarious and crazy. 

I am always forcing Sam to play games with me.  Sometimes he wants to play too so I am not always forcing him.  My most recent obsession is Cribbage.  Sam taught me how to play a couple of weeks ago and I have made him play every night ever since, I am not exaggerating.  I think Sam may be regretting teaching me to play.  Hey, it is not my fault that he knows how to play so many card games.  I have always thought of Cribbage as an old person's game but it is so much fun.  It kind of reminds me of Pinochle which is another great game.

My favorite board games are Ticket to Ride and Aggravation.  These are 2 games I could play over and over again.  I have to say when our friends Marley and Carlos taught us to play Ticket to Ride, we really did play it through the night.  I think we played it at least 7 or 8 times and each game takes about an hour.  

I could play cards all day long.  I never get sick of them.  So if anyone ever wants to play some cards, I can make myself available.  I better get going, Cribbage awaits me!!

Happy (boring) Birthday to Sam!!

Yesterday was Sam's wonderful birthday. He had a long day at school. The whole thing on his birthday is that I have agreed to go to any hole in the wall he wants to go to for dinner. I am usually a chain restaurant gal and rarely branch out especially if there is only one of that restaurant in existence. He has been preparing me for these crazy buffets or some weird Chinese place that looks like a very old hotel. Well when Sam got home from school, he was very tired and fell asleep while I was finishing work. He then decided that we should go out to eat a different night since he didn't feel like it. Boring!! We ended up having chicken salad sandwiches for dinner (which he does love at least) and then after his nap, I did convince him to come to Walmart with me. That was about the extent of the evening. We did end the night with a cheesecake that I got for him. It was so yummy. So over all it was pretty boring for me but he loved to just sit and have a relaxing evening doing nothing at all!! I guess it was just good enough for him to be together!! (I love adding in the cheesiness every once in a while!)

Oh and this is the picture of him blowing them out except for the camera didn't take until after he was finished.I am getting him a gps for his birthday. He made me promise that I wouldn't get anything else since that was so expensive. (It is part of our Christmas too) I stuck to my promise, even though usually I would just buy him more presents anyway. We decided we couldn't live without the gps any longer especially after the other night when our friends came into town so Sam made a map of Boston! That is the last time for that. 4 pages taped together!!

We ordered our Garmin today!! I will be so excited not to have to print out directions to every little place we go out here.

I Will Never Hear the End of This

Okay here is what happened. I was volunteering at the temple this morning 8-12. Our ward has a shift we fill every Tuesday and I like to feel like I am contributing. I got to the temple and was running a little late because of traffic. I had my purse in my hand and then a bag with my comfortable shoes in it (I either work in the kitchen or the laundry and we are on our feet the whole time so they suggested to bring better shoes). I decided there was no reason to bring in my purse into the temple (except that everything I needed was in there) so I put it into the trunk not thinking that my recommend, cell phone and keys were all in there. Who knows what is wrong with me!! Right when I closed the trunk, I knew I was in trouble. The first thing I thought is that Sam was never going to let me forget this moment for the rest of our lives! If you know me well, I am one that never loses or misplaces things. I always know where almost everything is and there is a place for every little thing. Sam is the one that loses EVERYTHING!! Oh, and I make sure to tell him every time he does!

Anyway back to my story... so I go into the temple feeling like the dumbest person alive. I told them I locked my recommend and keys in the car. They were really nice and able to look up my recommend so that was all covered and I was able to help in the kitchen still. As for getting a hold of Sam to break the news to him was the hard part. I called his cell a billion times. Sam didn't have school until this afternoon luckily so he was still at home. He always has his phone on vibrate because he can't have it on at school so it was in his backpack or somewhere he wouldn't be able to hear it. It didn't help that he was still asleep either. I then tried calling my work phone to try to wake him up but I had made it so my phone would forward to the office while I was at the temple. Genius idea, I know!! I finally got ahold of him at about 10:00 and he took the news pretty well. Our temple is about 15-20 minutes away from us so Sam called our fabulous friend, Jen and she was able to bring Sam to the temple. Thank you, thank you for doing that!! Everything worked out! I finished volunteering and the second I went outside Sam was waiting with a big grin on his face. He so loves it that this happened to me!

A funny thing too is that I was afraid to tell people in the temple that I had locked my keys in the car but it turned out that almost every lady I told said they had locked their keys in the car at least a few times. Who knew this was such a common thing! I am sure this story is going to be resurfacing forever!