Friturday

Friday and Saturday have merged into Friturday in my mind. Overnight flights can do that to you.

The flight: Huge Boeing 777 and I was dead center in the back. yay...not. the guy on my left was an american businessman who only spoke enlgish but thought the flight attendants only spoke french. the guy on my right was a french businessman who only spoke french but thought the flight attendants only spoke english. they speak both of course so this provided some amusement. I was very cramped, but well entertained. they had these in flight entertainment system things in the back on the headrest in front of you and you could watch movies or tv or listen to music or play games even. I watched charlie and the chocolate factory, pocahontas, and an episode of Les Experts (CSI with french voice overs). did not really sleep though I did try.

Met up with Olesya at the airport and we grabbed a taxi to our hotel. the driver was very nice and showed us everything. cheap too. we split it so it was only 25 each. our room is TINY though. and our bath room is hysterically small. You have to open the door to brush your teeth. and you can't turn around in the shower. oh well.

This brings us to Day 1 in Paris. Went to the Eiffel Tower first of course. Gorgeous but very very very crowded. Lots of pictures. We didn't go up because the lines were worse than an amusement park. Then we went in search of lunch which was hard to find, but delicious. Pizza place. Les Invalides was cool. Didn't bother going in to see the tomb. Apparently we didn't miss much. The we went to the Arc de Triomphe. Very cool. Champs Elysees was also pretty sweet. Oh Champs Elysees...da da de da da...

Anyway, then we went to Notre Dame de Paris (soooooooooo impressive) and Saint Chapelle. Then we went back to the hotel and met up with the group. Duffy took us to Montparnesse and it was so awesome. Seriously great views of all of Paris. Definitely worth doing. After that we went to dinner (crepes). *whew* What a day!

Please feel free to read my next post: Funday.

Night at the Museum 2

Just got back from seeing night at the museum 2. overall pretty good. about on par with the first one. had a lot of clever stuff in it. good for the kids and the history buffs. (I sort of fall into both categories). enjoyable, especially if you've seen the first one. probably less so if you haven't. anyway pretty good. anyway, I'd give it a B. didn't see any good previews...

Some of My Best Ideas Really

So Blog Post Ideas 21-30 contains some of my best really and I just HAD to post my responses.

21: I'm fairly certain that I have always been partial to blues and greens.

22: I don't actually have any rainboots. Rather sad.

23: Ok, I'm sure there are like a gazillion really good pertinent questions you could ask to really super important people, but I can't think of anything that I'm just desperate to know so I'm skipping this one.

24: 2 dogs: an English Springer Spaniel named Coach (short for Coach Bobby Knight) who passed away at the age of 13, and a black lab named Calbert (short for Calbert Cheaney) who will be 8 this July. My dad's a big Indiana University basketball fan.

25: favorite class: Basketball Pep Band. even if our team did play like crap at the end of the season.

26: Calbert could easily have a BA in Supervising. He can follow anyone around and supervise them doing anything. He's especially good at supervising my dad on the weekends and my mom around dinnertime. He's such a good superviser he can do it with his eyes closed, which he does most of the time.

27: I'm probably Violet (the girl who ends up as a blueberry). Not sure why, but she seems to be a little more fitting than the others.

28: Absolutely! I love a good storm. Calbert however does not.

29: I've thought about this and I really think I would be in Slytherin. I know I know it's the evil one, but really not everyone who goes to slytherin ends up evil. Gryffondor is known for bravery; well we can knix that one right now. I'm just not nice enough to be in Hufflepuff; I can only be Suzy Sunshine for small, isolated periods of time. I'm smart enough for Ravenclaw, but I'm not the right kind of smart. I don't like studying, being in libraries, or doing extra class work. I would be bored in Ravenclaw. Slytherin is full of people who know what they want and how to get it. They're the "go-getters". They also have a tendancy to be snobs and have a certain disregard for rules. We have a winner.

30: I once tripped on the sidewalk while wearing roller blades and tore up both my knees. It was awful. I still have the scars.

Blog Post Ideas 21-30

21. What was your favorite color when you were little? Now?

22. What one item is your wardrobe lacking?

23. If you could ask anyone any question (just one), what/who would you ask?

24. How many pets has your family had and what were they?

25. What was your favorite class last semester?

26. If your pet had a major, what would it be? (like a BS in Napology)

27. Which Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character are you most like?

28. Are you a fan of thunderstorms?

29. Realistically, which Hogwarts House would you be in?

30. What is the most embarrasing injury you’ve ever gotten?

Blog Post Ideas 11-20

11. What were some of your favorite childhood board games?

12. What movie (if any) in theaters do you want to see?

13. If you could take any movie and watch it on IMAX, what would it be?

14. What are some of the best/funniest Apples-to-Apples match-ups you’ve had?

15. What is your pet’s name? What’s the story there?

16. Are you a beach or mountain person?

17. Why did you start a blog?

18. What was the last meal you had?

19. When was the last time you had milk and cookies?

20. What is your dream car?

Once again, I'd love to hear your responses, so if you decide to use one, leave me a link!

Jackie's Garden

Today my mom and I went to lowe's to get flowers for this one flowerbed in our backyard.

I have a thing about flowers. I don't like plants that are just green. I want things that have big fabulous flowers all over the place. I also like semi-unusual looking flowers, which tend to be annuals (one year only), whereas my mom only wants perennials (the kind that come back every year) for obvious reasons. So everytime I go to lowe's to help pick flowers, I end up going "ooh, look at that one! Let's get one of those!" or "hey those are cool! let's get them!" and the answer is always "but those are annuals". Phooey! BUT...I managed to find the only cool looking ones so those are what we got. So we're calling the flowerbed mine even though it's not my flowerbed, and I didn't buy the flowers. But I'm not complaining. So here's Jackie's Garden:

Back row: Foxy (a Foxglove), Yellow Yarrow, Apricot Yarrow, Herman (Heliot Coreopsis), Vince (the verbena) Middle Row: Chilean Avens, unidentified herb, Jenny (the Queen Victoria Lobelia) Bottom Row: the mini-rose, Flora (a flower we lost the tab for), John (a blanket flower), Betty (giant pink daisy), Joe (another blanket flower), and the daylily.

I just had to name some of them. I mean, who really wants to be called a Queen Victoria Lobelia?

Foxy is my favorite:

But I really like the pink daisy too:

When I go to the Zoo

You remember my blog-post-ideas blog post? Well I've decided to go ahead and write one of them out. Namely the "When you go to the zoo, what animals do you absolutely have to see?" (#7) idea. Grab your safari hats because here we go!

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I have not been to the zoo in a long time, but I have been to a lot of nice zoos. Among my favorites are the Indianapolis Zoo, which has a lovely polar bear exhibit (or at least it did the last time I was there), the St. Louis Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta, which has a very nice panda exhibit. Overall, the zoo is not among my absolute favorite places to go. It tends to be overcrowded, with lots of completely uncontrolled small screaming children, overpriced, and it smells bad. However, I love seeing the animals. They make it all worth it. Especially if you are at your leisure to see them as you please, and not hurried along by a teacher with a field trip schedule to stick to.

Tigers (and big cats in general) are a must-see for me. I love their powerful grace and austere beauty. Feeding time is optimal. Basically, they're my favs.

Elephants are the bomb too. You gotta respect the ears.

Pandas are just great. Zoo Atlanta is pretty special in that it has pandas at all, and we were super ridiculously lucky when last year one of the females had a baby. Very rare. The baby is called Mei Lan. Isn't she cute?

I have a strange fascination with the platypus, so if a zoo has them, I will go see them.

So that's what I would go see at the zoo. What are your must-see animals?

Blog Post Ideas: 1-10

So I was brainstorming random blog ideas (my posts can only be classified as random) and I came up with a whole bunch. So now I'm sharing them with you! Enjoy and please leave me a link if you decide to use one; I'd love to read your responses ;).

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1. Provide a running commentary on the sports event you are currently watching

2. What your dog/cat/fish is probably thinking about right now

3. If someone ran up to you and told you if you could answer a riddle correctly you’d get $100, but if you got it wrong you’d get punched three times, would you try to answer it or just walk away?

4. What you wore today and why (this is only good if there’s an intense inner monologue to go along with your outfit)

5. If you were going to die your hair a completely different color, what would it be?

6. What major cities in the US have you seen? Which ones would you go back to?

7. When you go to the zoo, what animals do you absolutely have to see before leaving?

8. What song are you listening to right now? Why do you like it?

9. What color are the walls of the room you are currently sitting in? How do they make you feel?

10. If you had to play hide and seek right now, where would you hide?

No topic

I haven't posted in FOREVER. terribly sorry about that, but I've been busy. Finals and all that jazz. But now I'm home! yay! so now what? I'm home until the 29th (chillin mostly) and then on the 29th I fly out. where to, you innocently ask?

FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yay! *does happy dance* Don't worry blog buddies I'll still be updating as often as I can (with pictures!) so you'll be able to keep up with all my adventures. feel free to do your own happy dance at this time.

...and now you're done. after that I'll be returning home for the remainder of the summer. so that's my summer plans. hope you guys had a fun cinco de mayo. (I didn't do anything; I had to study organic).

Cute Card From My Mom

Almost done with year 1!