Apparently, I'm a Genius

But of course I already knew that. Thank you blog-readability-tester-thingy for showing everybody what I'm made of.

Eat that Rachel.

Time for a little History!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! I love Thanksgiving! You get to sit around and eat hearty-fatty food until you're about to burst, and then it's time for pie. I am thankful for mashed potatoes.

The first Thanksgiving that we all celebrate was held in 1621 by the Mayflower pilgrims in Massachusetts. Really, there was another Thanksgiving held 2 years earlier in 1619 in Viriginia-- just ask the folks at Historic Williamsburg, they'll tell you. So we've got 2 Thanksgivings to be thankful for. Right after independence from Britain was when the concept of a day set aside for thanks really took off. Something like 6 different presidents made proclamations about Thanksgiving: what it meant, when it should be held, etc, and it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who finally set the date as the 4th Thursday of Novemeber in 1939. Here are some words that our first president, George Washington, had to say about Thanksgiving:

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country..."

I'm thankful for you! Happy Thanksgiving!

This is how much I love Geography...

One time Rachel, Ian and I made pancakes in the shape of all the continents except Asia. That's where I come in. And check out Australia and South America! Spot on!

"Firebaugh, You Might Just Get Stuck Here!"

Alright, here's an adventure story for everbody! If you have read Rachel's Blog recently you will have read a little bit about the "Santa Barbara" trip that occurred this past weekend. I put that in quotations because we made it as far as Firebaugh (or just south of a truck stop losely related to Firebaugh proper) and ended up on the side of the road for a few hours and over night in the lovely Best Western, Apricot Inn sharing a king bed. The next day we had ourselves a tour of 2 out of the 4 gas stations, the park, the market, the cotton fields and the historic van before being picked up by Heather's dad and grandpa. Come to find out (via the visitors' binder in our hotel room that looked like it had been written by a 6th grader) Firebaugh has a history of things getting stuck there, like us, the historical van, and a river boat in the early 20th century. No adventure is complete without photo documentation so here are some of the best moments from our weekend on the outskirts of hell.

Here's Rachel with the bleeding van.

Just one example of how we entertained ourselves.

You've heard of picture in picture, well here is broken down van in broken down van.

Just look at our sweet ride!

Here's to Maps!

I have very very very exciting news! This week... you'll never guess!... this week is Geography Awareness Week 2007!!! Now, I love Geography. I love it so much! Here is a little known fact about me: in Jr. High I participated in the National Geography Bee at my school. I scored high enough in my class to compete with students from other classes. When I was in 7th grade I won 3rd place, which was very exciting, but then 8th grade-- oh the glories of 8th grade-- I actually won 1st place! Of course, what I'm not telling you is that my school had about 400 people total. But still!! I was so proud of myself and I still think I have a great memory for geographical fact. If you love Geography too, take a National Geographic trivia quiz! Or check out other games and trivia here!

Take Two

A cheery good morning! I have good news for all of you-- the millions of you-- who were disappointed they weren't able to go to the Monday night showing of The LOVE Documentary! There is another one tomorrow night! I know what you're thinking, "But Alison went on Monday and I really just wanted to go so I could sit next to her." Well, you're in luck! I never made it to the Monday night show! But I am going with a small group of friends tomorrow (at 7:30), so if you want to fight over the two seats next to me you're welcome to come. I'm sure it will be good times for all.

In other news, last night Rachel and I watched a Finnish movie!


It's called "Mother of Mine" or "Aideista parhain" and is set during World War II, first in Finland and then in Sweden. So apparently during WWII tens of thousands of Finnish children were sent to Sweden to avoid the conflict, and this particular story follows a 9 year old boy who, like any other kid, has trouble adjusting to the changes that are forced on him. Finland was in a particularly bad spot because they were allied with the Germans but share a border with Russia, an enemy of the Germans. In the story the main character, Eero, finds himself with two mothers, one who he feels abandoned him, and the other who is a complete stranger. Anyway, the film won 3 Finnish Oscars, a bunch of film festival awards and it made me cry so I thought it was great. Plus, it's always great to learn something new about Scandinavia!

Crazy Little Thing Called...

The LOVE Documentary will be showing Monday and Thursday nights at 7:30! I'm getting really excited! If you don't know how to get to the Crest here's how. It's a 90 minute documentary all done locally! Tickets are $10 for general admission. Come and meet me there!

Shameless Promotion

Hello once again my faithful friends and readers! Today I'd like to tell you about an exiting and unique event coming up in the Sacramento area. Some lovely folks I know have put together a documentary... The LOVE Documentary to be precise, and they are showing it at the Crest Theater this upcoming Monday and Thursday. I think it will be tons of fun and I'm probably going on Monday so hopefully I'll see you there! Here's a little sneak-peek! I'll post the show times a little bit later...

"It's not a toomah"

So if you've spent any amount of time with me you might know that I get headaches. Like a lot. A least one a day pretty much. They usually last for 10-15 minutes making me slightly incapacitated and definitely more grumpy, but then they go away. Lately it seems like they've been getting a little bit worse-- of course, it could be that I'm a big baby. Either way, it's now and it feels bad. But the point that I really wanted to make was that I'm not sure what causes these headaches. I have some ideas though, and here they are:

1. I spend too much time hunched over at a computer.
2. It's residual pain from whiplash.
3. I have plugged up sinus issues.

Upon further thought I came to some conclusions as to what I might do to remedy the situation:

1. Give all of my computers away to the poor.
2. Go back in time and prevent the accident that caused the whiplash.
3. Cut off my head.

But please, don't pity me for my sorry state, it's really not as bad as I might make it sound. I should probably just drink more water.