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Every year (ok for the past 4 years now at least) a group of us travel to the Ardenwood Historic Farm and find our way through The Maize. This year our trip took place Halloween weekend. Whooboy. What a difference! The past few years we have either gone a few weekends before Halloween or the weekend after. Either way, there was hardly anyone in the maze and that allowed us to meander through the corn at our own pace. Sometimes, we’d run off, ignoring the trivia posts that help you with directions.

Saturday night, Adam and I picked up Maya and drove out to meet Shanta, Marc, Amy, and Jen at the Maze. As we drove up we noticed a mass of car lights. Then the mass of people. Then.. the LINE. THERE WAS A LINE. There had never been a line! We shared frustrations (”It’s like Disneyland!” “Why can’t there be an age limit? Take the children away!”) and went over to the pumpkin patch behind the maze. Maya, Adam and I played around on the mountain of hay, the mini-hay maze (Adam got lost.) and with the cutout photo areas.

A few minutes later we met up with the rest of the group and headed on over to the line for the maze.

At the end of the line we found the Corn Cops.

Yes. Corn Cops. They had matching hoodies on and everything. They told us that the line was closed. At this point it was 8pm and the Maze Officials will only allow people in up until 9pm (everyone had to be OUT of the Maze by 10pm). So we grumbled a bit and the lady said “well if you want to risk it, and stand in line for an hour, maybe they’ll let you in.” OK!

So while in line we came up with various ways to sway other people in line to LEAVE the line. Rats in the maze.. etc. Nothing worked. There was a plot at one point to dive into the side of the maze and fight our way in. We figured the Corn Cops would be all over us – “We’ve got a CODE POPCORN! I repeat, CODE POPCORN!”

We made it into the maze – and so did the other 20 or so people who managed to get in line behind us. “The line is closed.” pshaw, right.

Now, one thing I didn’t mention yet — the night we went, was a “haunted” maze. I figured, haha this is going to be cheesy mccheese and we’ll lauuuugh and laugh. Ok we laughed… but we were scared! What was the first creepy/scary costumed person we came across? Oh .. just some guy DRESSED UP LIKE A CLOWN. He had his mask tilted too. From that point on I latched on to whoever was standing next to me. Which happened to be Marc. Sorry if I stretched out your sleeve, Marc!

I didn’t get scared much after that because I was never in the lead (haha!) however I was afraid that someone would jump out of the corn or sneak up on me from behind.

Then of course we ran into some stupid children who thought they’d be funny and scare the adults.

We should have fed them to the clown.

Yet another empowering, pro-change message out there..

Eminem’s Mosh

Even if you don’t like Eminem – watch this video.

Snagged from Stuff and Stuff.

Just a random post with some sites that I check out a lot.. figured I’d post them… I’m updating my links page too.

Freeway Blogger

Check out the images of various posters, banners, and signs that sprinkled America’s freeways on October 13th. They are also incouraging signs and such to be posted on November 2nd reminding people to vote.

Air America Radio

Thanks to my mom, I’ve been hooked a bit on some of the radio programs on this site; namely The Al Franken Show and The Majority Report. There is always something interesting to listen to.

Along the same lines…

I love listening to the reports/stories on NPR. It is not heavily political – the stories span all topics and beliefs. Give ‘em a listen!

Finally – blogger is up and running again. Thanks to www.bloggerforum.com, I was able to keep my sanity and find out what was going on. I wasn’t even about to check status.blogger.com during the downtime.

Meanwhile…

I saw a hit-and-run today. Well, I saw the “and-run” part. I heard a crash sound that really seemed more like the door of a delivery truck slamming shut. I looked out the window to see a little blue-green car with a very damaged hood (crunched) sitting behind a small pickup truck, that was behind two other stopped cars. The little green car put it in reverse and drove around the pickup it just hit, zoomed around the corner, screeching the entire time. The people in the stopped cars had, meanwhile, gotten out of their vehicles to do the standard swap of information. The first car (there are 4 cars involved in this crash) seemed empty. I noticed a woman sitting on the sidewalk holding her neck in pain. Maybe that’s what the guy driving the green car saw and got scared an zoomed off. BAD MOVE Mister Green Car!

So cops and firefighters (!) came and we watched them move the cars to a safer location. We- myself & two co-workers, were standing in the full-length door/window (i have a balcony to my office) watching the event. As two firefighters talked with a cop, one of the firemen looked up and saw us girls. So he waved. Teehee. I was the only one who saw this so I waved back – the guy smiled and laughed a little. Then the cops left (to go down the street and deal with the people who had just moved their cars) and the two firemen hopped back into the truck. As they drove off, the one guy must have mentioned how us girls were standing in the doorway and he waved again and so did another guy sitting in the back seat of the firetruck. This time the three of us waved back. heehee

Fresh off of one vacation and I’m ready for another.

There is a lovely deal at jetBlue, “Friends Fly Free” – trips from San Jo to New Yawk are cheaps and I’m itching to take advantage of the deal.

So why New York? I’m not even going to answer that – that’s a silly question. What would I do? Welllllllll. I dunno. Walk around, take photos, see some sights… I would like to visit Ground Zero.. Statue of Liberty… and a millionotherthings. But there will always be trips to New York. If I did everything in one trip – what would be left? I’d just like to see the city. Take photos. Observe.

You have to order the tickets and fly before December 15th (logical – anything after that equals buttloads of cash for Holiday season traveling.) Another kicker is that flights are already swept up for extended-weekend-fun. This means traveling during the actual week (gasp).

Now here’s my theory – to be nice to my work, I may ignore the pile of vacation hours that I still have (go Jen and her smart thinking of Thurs/Friday day-offs) for the month of November (minus the few hours I will need for a dentist appointment). That way, early December, I can take off for a week to lovely, snow-covered New York.

This also leaves me plenty of time to buy another lens for my camera. Telephoto? Fish-eye? Macro? Perhaps in that order.

However it does push back the purchase of an iPod which – omg I’m so glad I’ve waited this long because HELLO, iPod Photo anyone?!

Gadgets can wait. (’cept the lens – that is a necessity) But New York.. in winter..

I’d have to buy a coat.

Wow. First I typed “a coke” then “a cote” — am I spoiled California-weather girl or what? And what the hell is a cote? Ah. Thanks M-W. “a shed or coop for small domestic animals and especially pigeons”

I don’t want one of those.

So…. anyone out there want to donate some cash?

Money was saved using www.swavacations.com to book our flight and hotel. A little over $230 for a roundtrip flight and stay at Westward Ho! Casino. It’s a small po-dunky type place where lots of grandmas and grandpas play various classic-tv-themed slot machines (I couldn’t get the theme to The Munsters out of my head for the life of me!)

Upon check-in they supply you with lunch and drink vouchers and a bit of coupons. We used the lunch vouchers one day and feasted on Cowboy Burgers – which were very awesome considering they were free. Shannon and I had plotted to drain Westward Ho of their free drink vouchers — however after a free margarita (also known as a slushie with one teaspoon of tequila) and a nasty rum & coke — we decided to stick with free water and soda. We’ll get our drinks elsewhere.

Say for example, Ruth’s Chris Steak House. Because neither of us in the group remembered to call for a reservation – we ended up waiting about 45 minutes at the bar for an open table. To kill time, Shannon and I had Amaretto Sours – which were simply fabooo! Just as we were about to order round two, our name was called.

Because it was such yummy food, I’m going to tell you what we ordered. We ordered the stuffed mushrooms (crab & cheese) for an appetizer, cowboy ribeye steak (split in half) and Australian lobster tail (split in half). MMmm. Melt in your mouth steak! The lobster was ok too – but I think I still like crab better. After some creme brulee and chocolate mousse we took a peek at the bill. $232.00 YOWSERS!

The only shows we saw were the outdoor ones at Treasure Island, The Mirage, and the comedy improv troupe – The Second City. Treasure Island — excuse me, TI — SUCKED. It’s all about hoochie “Sirens of TI” taking over the other boat.. blah blah. In their lame song and dance numbers they comment on how the arcade is no longer in the building, a reflection of how the building is changing it’s theme to a more adult-oriented one. Big woop. The Mirage was nifty, flames and volcano. The Second City was awesome and hilarious. Why’d the baby cross the road? Because it was stapled to the chicken!!

Ok well it had us laughing.

Click here to check out photos from the trip!

Friday: Adam, Al, Shannon, Jenny, and myself attended the SJSU vs Long Beach ice hockey game. SJSU won! Although the game seemed to lack umph (at least to us – Lonny claims it was the best game on the ice as of yet) it was still just as exciting as any other game.

Saturday: 3pm to 3am – spent at Matt’s house for his going-away shindig. Burgers and dogs were torched, “bon voyagie” cake was eaten, and champange was considered. While some boys played video games in the house (Lonny used the standard controller and oddly enough, Adam played the game with the TV remote.) the rest of us were outside watching Steven play charades. He went through the majority of a Hoopla set of cards, depicting various scenes from “Kitty Hawk”, “hell”, and other whos-whats-and-wheres that made us roar with laughter. Sunny (who is apparently Amandeep’s cousin – talk about a small world!) disgusted us with an inappropriate Christopher Reeve joke (Sunny, I told you, you’re on a list now – haha.) There was a lot of discussion about “Jewdracula” thanks to fond memories of a Blind Date episode gone wrong. (Hmm. Perhaps that sentence is a bit redundant?) 80s songs were sung, TV themes were fondly remembered and the game of Life was played rather viciously. By 2:30 we were zombies and had to bid our friend a farewell. GOOD LUCK MATT! Remember us when you win awards – don’t let the music run you off stage!

Sunday: After waking up around 12:30, Adam and I zoomed over to Logitech Ice and watched SJSU kick some major patootie against the University of Washington. They won 8-1. SUCH A GREAT GAME. Fast paced, action packed, and with just a dash of fights (!!) Awesome game indeedio. Everytime the team would get close to a goal or perform a great maneuver, or when the other team would mess up and get a penalty — the announce would yell, in a deeeep voice.. “SPARTAN POWER-PLAY!” … hence the title of this post.

Monday: All week I have felt sickish and sluggish yet continued on with having fun and ignoring everything. I ended up completely zonked out on Monday – my body refused to move and participate in life. So I took advantage of my accumulated sick hours and took the day off to sleep. It did wonders!

Today I feel 10x better and I am jazzed up for the rest of the week.

Tonight, scheduled almost last-minute, is a celebratory dinner with a friend who has just gone through various medical tortures procedures – and has come out a winner!

Tomorrow is another workday, dinner with friends, then packing-packing-packing!

Thursday.. Thursday is VEGAS!

This is the house I grew up in.

This is the tree that grew while I grew up in the house.

It grew, and grew… and my god do you see how huge this thing is?

My neighbors and I played on this tree. We climbed it year ’round and played in the sea of leaves it would create on the lawn. Once, my parents had just purchased a new refrigerator. You know what that means – a large box to play in! Christopher, Caitlin and I took turns crawling inside the box while the others covered the entire box with leaves.

Ah memories.

Well the tree decided to become a cranky tree. There is a large root system that has raised nearly two-thirds of our front lawn. The driveway/pathway area has been lifted as well. Who knows what is going on under the foundation of our house.

Suffice to say, it was time for the tree to go.

Oh what the heck! Tear off the old (rotted) shingles and give the ole house a new look.

It’s so strange when everything you’re used to begins to change…