Happy Birthday

You know what Brett said? He said that he was past celebrating his birthday. He said something along the lines of being too old to count or care. Lame.

Birthdays are supposed to be fun, involve chocolate, and from now on they must have a piñata present. 

Rules to piñata parties.

Whoever is the center of attention for the day picks out the  piñata.

The piñata must have good candy in it. 

Do not use a blind fold.

Dizzy instructions. Find a spot on the ground for spinning. Place one end of the bat on that spot. The bat cannot leave that spot until spinning is complete. Place forehead on the opposite end of the bat. Girls spin ten times around bat boys spin fifteen times. Remember the bat has to stay in the same place, only you move.

Everyone gets to hit at least once.

Don’t hit anyone.

So, now that you know how birthdays will be celebrated from now on you can join in on the tradition.

For Brett’s birthday we went to his parents house and had Rice Krispie Treats. Followed by piñata hitting. Brett picked out a bull from the mexican store. And we ended in presents. Clothes, movies, candy, and games. Happy 22nd birthday!

Adventures are Wonderful

I was deprived. I was deprived of the childhood memories of eight feet tall Disney characters and bobsled rides on Matterhorn. And, I didn't entirely understand the meaning of Disneyland's commercial, The Happiest Place on Earth. Shocking, I know.

Plans hardly work. Brett and I had planned our spring break vacation as a relaxing time at home. We’d watch a few movies, hike Camelback Mountain, and catch some spring sun by the pool. Saturday afternoon, we woke up and home suddenly did not fit into that equation. An hour later we were checking out prices for a spontaneous adventure to California. After much convincing between going and not going, we took the irresponsible route and were on the road by four o’clock.

California is a dream. When was the last time you saw the ocean? It is a bit breathtaking when you get a glimpse of it. Maybe wonderment is a better word. The ocean is just so big. We chose a beach from a pile of brochures at our hotel front desk: Huntington Beach. It was so nice. Being at the beach in March is a bit cold. So we went to the beach with our swim suits under our clothes just in case we wanted to get in. If your stick your hand in the water you say there is no way you’re getting in. But after watching people play on the sand and surf waves, you realize there is no way to go to the beach and not get in. Cold.

Disneyland is happiness. I was kinda taken back when I first saw Pluto the dog. These characters are huge. Oh, and detail that goes into everything is amazing. The castle is small: my only disappointment. But everything else was awesome. I wish I would have been there as a kid. I had so much fun. Brett and I rode all the major rides multiple times and like most people I talk to, Space Mountain is the favorite. I screamed on Indiana Jones when the snake jumps out to eat you. And I did eat two and half churros.

Rubber isn’t perfect. Did you catch the part at the beginning? The part where this little vacation wasn’t planned. The part where we just got up and left. Well, usually before you leave for a trip you check your car out to make sure you are going to get there and back. The truck is running great, but the tires were a little worn, a lot worn. We were seriously ten maybe fifteen minutes from home and we blew one of them. Neither of us were the least bit mad. It could have been in the middle of the desert, or worse. We both kinda knew that was going to happen. Anyways, I have triple A and they came to change our tire for us. What a perfect ending. 2:30 AM, back to bed.

Smokin' Deal

I'm sure that a lot of us are impulse buyers. I mean you're walking aisles at Costco and totally came for toilet paper and cereal, but end up leaving with brownie mix and a large bag of candy. It looked good when you took your first glance, understandable. But can you please point out the idiot who goes to a parking lot and points to a car and says, "Gimme that one Mr. Sales person who will surely rip me off." This type of person had to exist because those sales guys though Brett and I were just like that.


I was kinda excited when this adventure started. In the last month or so we have been to about five different dealerships trying to find a car to replace our gas hog Red Dragon. Test driving cars is fun, right. Right. The guys seem rather nice. You pick a car, they tell you some random facts, then get your license information to make sure you aren’t wanted for anything. They grab a set of keys, and you are off making tons of right turns in a car you don’t own yet, with a complete stranger in the back seat. Weird, right. Brett and I even have a planned question to throw off the awkward atmosphere. Mr. Sales Guy, What’s the craziest test drive you’ve taken someone on? They laugh as they share their story, then suddenly we are best friends with this stranger. We even got sodas out of one guy.

Well, this adventure took a retarded turn on Saturday: ABC Nissan. Mistake to go there for a test drive. The kid who showed us cars was pretty cool, but his supervisor, was a major DB. And the supervisors boss, the midget on stilts, just as much of a DB.

Have you gone car shopping lately? If so, you understand how retarded this gets. We tell DB number one that we are going to put down a decent down payment and he tells us we are going to get a smokin’ deal. Out of curiosity and car salesman’s pressure we look at some numbers.

He asks us what kind of numbers we want but doesn’t leave much room for us to answer. Then tells us that we should put a bigger down payment, say 20k. The car we were looking at was 28k. Then we would have a 48 month lease with like 367 some odd dollars a month for a payment, assuming we have average credit says the salesman. Those were his numbers. Too much. Something is wrong with that huh. We question it and he starts lowering prices.

How about I take this down a hundred dollars? It is the end of the month, I’ll do what ever. What do I have to do to sell you a car today?

By then we were done with curiosity and had to go to a Suns game. They keep throwing us their pitch, but apparently there is some part of no that they do not understand, DB number two walks in. It was kinda hard to look at him and take him seriously. Think of the movie Elf, when the midget writer comes in. Now give him stilts and pull his pants up to his arm pits. Perfect. Well needless to say he couldn’t sell us a car either. We got the nice kids card and left, but DB number one was totally starring us down as we left. Oh no, we aren’t buying a car! Emergency!

Later that night we got home and did the math. He offered us a 26% interest rate! Average? Yeah right! Last year the average rate on a financed car was 7%. These dudes wanted to rip us off with their version of a smokin’ deal. Well we aren’t dumb enough to buy a car the second we walk in, and we aren’t going to let you rip us off like that either. Next time we are bringing a calculator with us.