FRA...NKE....NMUTH!

That title should be sung to the tune of The Frankenmuth Polka, which you can hear here. Watch out though, you hear it once and you immediately love it...if by love it you mean hate it/get it stuck in your head.

This weekend was a study in family interaction (between the sister, mom and I). We crack each other up, we bicker, we encourage bad behaviors (altogether we purchased 33 donuts this weekend) and we love Christmas.



Case in point. Christmas on my head (Mom cut out of picture to preserve her anonymity on the internets).

Little Bavaria Michigan is fun to visit for a day (or really less than a day) but not so much fun to sleep in (I got very little sleep). Bronner's (the CHRISTmas superstore) can make the grinchiest grinch feel Christmas spirit (and the non-religious feel a little ill at all of the preachiness...lest we not remember that" It's HIS Birthday, It's HIS way"). But we had fun, we laughed an awful lot and we ate Chicken and donuts.

Now if only it were Christmastime and I could utilize my newly purchased goods...

Things I learned in Utah...

I was in Salt Lake City for the first time this weekend...and here for your enjoyment is a list of things I learned throughout the weekend (note: I was attending a family wedding.....No. They are not mormons. List presented in no logical order)

1. No matter how drunk I get at Katy's wedding, I will NOT kick off my shoes. Near head injury.
2. No matter how drunk I get I will NOT jump up and down in my dress. Um. Yeah. Insert mental picture of a strapless dress, a girl with large breasts line dancing. Not. Good.
   
3. Sitting next to your Grandpa while listening to My Humps is awkward. Very, very awkward.
4. Utah is probably much more interesting in the winter.
5. However, seeing the Olympic ski jumps and luge/bobsled track was pretty interesting.
6. I am thinking about learning to ski this winter. Anyone interested in a quick trip to the nearest bunny hill?
7. Not to offend any mormons out there, but "Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" sounds like a swear. Say it like you're angry or like you just hurt yourself. Works, doesn't it?
8. My ability to do homework while on vacation is...low. Very low.
9. My grandparents are very mortal...what I mean is, they seem to be aging heavily, by the second...
10. Buying a skirt right now is easy for a short person - for the first time ever, shopping for clothes is easy for me! Because the trend is short...skirts fit me like they are a normal length!

Inspired by Utah but not directly related:

1. I bought the cutest shoes...although they do have some gold on them which is very unusual for me.

Totally unrelated:

1. My quest to be eco-friendly now includes laundry detergent. It smells delightful and I notice no difference in its cleaning power. It is a huge, heavy container though (compared to my All Small & Mighty) and that's no fun.
2. I have added a bunch of the stuff from my Amazon wishlist to my kaboodle wishlist - I may just add everything there and sort of shut down the amazon wishlist. It sort of sucks for you all to have to go to 2 different places. I know the bonus of the Amazon list is that you don't have to know my address or whatever. But how many people actually would buy me a present who don't know my address? And...it's probably better if you don't ship it to me anyway...the package thief may still strike.
3. That midterm that I bitched about and hated so much (I still feel a bit angry when thinking about it)? Well, I aced that thing with flying colors. I do believe that the professor has stopped grading in an evil, unkind way. Maybe everyone was doing so poorly that he became a softy?
4. While I was away over the weekend one of my groups failed to turn in an assignment that was due. Yes. They just didn't turn it in. 3 people. No one turned it in. I emailed my professor about how much my group just SUCKS and that I haven't spoken up because up to this point I've managed to keep it all from falling apart. But I leave and it all comes crashing down. Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I hate those people (see? It works! I wonder if I'll get mormon death threats now....)
   

San Diego in a few words...

Since I've been on vacation for a few days I feel like I should say something about it, so here are some thoughts about San Diego:

• The main reason I picked San Diego was because of the zoo. I mean, obviously there are other things to do there, but I wanted to go to the famous zoo (and the Wild Animal Park). And I thought it was pretty cool. Seeing Pandas and Koalas up close and personal was pretty great. I could list all the zoo babies we saw too, but I probably don't remember them all. The best was the elephant (the one frolicking around was a few months old. There was a 13 day old elephant which happened to be sleeping during our entire viewing. Imagine a 13 day old elephant!). I also was quite impressed with the petting zoo at the Wild Animal park which was full of deer from all different countries (gazelle! and loads of others). No goats, no sheep, just weird, large deer. Really enjoyed the zoos.
• I feel like we might have needed more time. While we did see a lot (Gas Lamp, Old Town, La Jolla, Zoos, Sea World, Coronado, Flower Fields) we also didn't spend a load of time in San Diego itself and there were other things we might have liked to do (Go on the Aircraft Carrier/war museum, drive around and look at houses, spend more time at some of the places above etc).
• It sort of figures that the weather in Chicago this weekend was a record high and about 15 degrees warmer than San Diego.
• Why don't we have In N Out burger here? I understand that stupid fresh produce thing...and that sucks.
• My cats were bonkers last night. They ran around like crazy all night and morning playing. A celebration of my return? Annoying. Kept waking me up....and now Mona is on my lap for a marathon amount of time, she never sits on the lap for longer than an hour. It's been probably 2 hours now.
  
• I am a bad traveler. I just can't help but feel nervous that I'll miss the plane and if I make it, that the plane will plummet out of the sky. Probably not gonna happen and I know that logically, but I get stressed and tense. The trip then takes it out of me, I get exhausted (probably from the tension). And San Diego threw a curve ball at me and the Mom in the form of a flat tire. Right as we were leaving for the airport. Bad. Luck. But, it worked out OK and a valet and a really nice man changed it for us. We made it to the airport on time (even a little early)...so all was OK in the end. But the amount of stress I felt for that hour of finding the flat, changing the tire, turning in the car...it was high.
• The Lodge at Torrey Pines was a beautiful hotel. Everything was nice, plush, beautiful. They had a real fire going at all times in their lobby and it smelled great. My first stay at a 5 star hotel. Didn't disappoint. Also, the spa....awesome.
• The Torrey Pine...endangered tree....it's really sort of Dr. Seussy.

Today I already have to go back to the grind. School starts tonight. I don't feel ready to learn. I'm glad I decided to take no class over the summer...