The Sunshine Award

 I have been nominated by Elly from this blog and her other blog, The Spilled Inkwell, to answer a few questions for the Sunshine Award (don't ask, just go with it). Here we go!

Question #1: If you could choose one liquid to spurt out your fingertips for the rest of your life (at all times!), what would it be?

Liquid gold. I mean I could single-handedly bring world peace! I could fix our nation's economy and not to mention I'd be super rich :) I could save the world!

Question #2: Who is your favorite superhero and why?

Thor because he's particularly warm blooded :) Also, yes he's kind of a jerk at the beginning of Thor 1, but he turns into such a gentleman. Plus he says the awesomest things! 

Question #3: What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?

Weirdest would have to be cow tongue in Mexico. The worst part was that they didn't tell us it was a cow's tongue until after we ate it. Then my sister claimed she saw taste buds on her meat. It actually didn't taste that bad... but the thought of eating a cow's tongue was... yeah, not pleasant. 

Question #4: What episode of your favorite TV show always makes you cry (or want to cry)?

I don't actually watch any drama sort of TV shows. Elly actually recently got me hooked on BBC's Sherlock so I'll pull an episode from that :) The episode that made me want to cry the most... oh that's a hard one... it's a tie between The Great Game and The Reichenbach Fall. Those two were pretty intense, I'm not gonna lie.

*Sniff* Conceal don't feel! *bawls*

Question #5: You're stranded on a desert island. A box washes onto shore. What's in the box?

They never specified how big said box was! So in that case, a yacht with instructions on how to drive it, six months worth of food, tools, gas (do boats run on gas?), and a radio. Some crew members would be nice too, but I don't think they'd be in the box with the yacht.

Question #6: Most boring book you've ever had to read?

Even when a book is pretty boring, I usually finish it. There's a small list of books I've actually had to stop reading because I couldn't handle it. The worst was the book The Red Badge of Courage. I had to read it in middle school and I basically begged my mom to let me off the hook. I could not stand how boring it was. No offense to anyone out there who likes that book, I hated it.

It's just... not good...

Question #7: Favorite grade of school you've gone through? 

Hmmm... one of my high school years I just have to decide which one. Probably sophomore year of high school. I don't know why, but I always remembered sophomore year as being particularly fun for some reason. Maybe because I felt like truly grown up or something. I don't know :)

Question #8: If you had to have one fictional character by your side at all times for the rest of your life, who would it be?

So basically, I'd probably want to marry said fictional character since I have to be with them forever. So... oh dear there's a few fictional guys who are mighty fine :) Probably Leo Valdez from the Heroes of Olympus series. He's my age, we're pretty similar, and I think he'd make a pretty cool sidekick. Plus he's a demigod so that'd be pretty cool, too. He'd also be able to fix, like, anything! That'd be nice. If I didn't have to spend every waking moment with them, I think that Sherlock would be pretty interesting and fun to hang around :)

Question #9: Would you rather live in a decrepit, spooky mansion by yourself or in a smelly shack with thirteen people?

Probably the spooky mansion. It'd get me over a lot of my fears, plus I could make a wicked haunted house during Halloween and make a fortune! I could always freak out my friends, too. Just living with 13 smelly people sounds rather unpleasant.

Question #10: Would you eat a pound of raw squid for a million bucks? 

NASTY!

I hate seafood (except for fried shrimp... I can handle that). I am also a texture eater and slimy squid does not sound appetizing. Can your stomach even hold a pound of squid? Anyways, I would try to eat it, but I'd probably puke my guts out before I succeeded. 

Okay! I'm now done. I don't really know anyone with blogs, so I'm not going to bother nominating anybody. That was fun though, Elly! Awesome questions :)

Just for you, Elly :)

The Magical Land of ABQ

A few weeks ago, The Tieg Dog (I shall refer to him as T) and I (Liz) got the wonderful opportunity to travel down south to see our very very VERY good friends, the Gards! Elly, Matty, and Mr. and Mrs. Gard are what maketh up the Gard family :)

When we arrived, there were mustaches and a big sign waiting for us. I nearly ran down the escalator and jumped into the arms of my best friend. We hadn't seen each other in over a year and frankly, it felt like we had just seen each other the day before.

Elly was just as awesome, Matty got taller (he is now taller than me), and Mrs. Gard... she stayed the same :)

Day 1

Day one consisted of driving 5 hours to the airport and flying for another 2 hours before actually getting to ABQ. For dinner, we went to Chick-fil-a. It was my first time eating there and it was delicious! We then proceeded to the Gard residence, got the grand tour, and were completely wired! I don't think we went to bed until around 1am that night :)

(Sorry, the picture quality isn't the greatest) The Gard's with
their sign and mustaches!

Day 2

Creepiest. Museum. EVER! Period.

The Tinkertown Museum has everything from miniature wood people, to Disney princess figurines, to swords, to boats, to dolls, to automatons, to fortune-telling 25-cent machines. Our imaginations were running wild in that place and Elly and I have concocted a short story idea from it muahahaha. 

Then a supposed 1-mile hike turned into a 4-mile hike up the Sandias (know to the Gards as the Watermelon). Mrs. Gard convinced us (basically forced us) to do this easy (not so easy) 1-mile (4-mile) hike on the Watermelon. There was a burger place at the top and it's haunting aroma nearly made us all die. But, I'll admit, it was fun and now we have lots of stories to tell about it. So thank you, Mrs. Gard for making us go on that "1-mile hike". 

During this time, I introduced the group to the game 'What are the odds?' which we ended playing almost everywhere we went. I had to kiss the ground once. It wasn't pleasant.

On that fateful night, I was introduced to BBC's Sherlock. My life will never be the same. I got hooked and now I am a Sherlockian. We watched all 9 (*sobs) episodes during the course of the week. Yep, I'm addicted. 

Day 3   

*Grabs camera to see what they did next*

All the days got jumbled in my head, so I am using my camera as a reference for when we did what.

Clears throat Alright, day 3 started off with a Nerf war during which me and Elly almost died. We were feeling very lazy and tired. I think Mrs. Gard finally got tired of our whining, and gave in to our request of Starbucks. 

After Starbucks, we went to this place called... Goodman's I believe it was. There, I convinced Elly to buy a Giraffe, Girard Tobias XI, that she had her eye on for six months and I bought Tartar Sauce a.k.a. Grumpy Cat.

...I am talking about stuffed animals, of course.

Ah yes! I caught a fish! His name is Franklin the fish. Basically from day one I was out at the Gard's pond trying to catch a fish. When I caught Franklin, I nearly fell over I was so excited! 

The rest of the day we spent chilling out and making epic t-shirts.

Day 4

(This is going to be the longest blog post in the history of blog posts)

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE DOTS WAS BORN! We refer to our little quartet (Elly, Matty, T, and I) as The Fellowship of the Dots.

We started the day not really knowing what to do. Then (I think it was Elly) had the brilliant idea to make Lord of the Rings skits. We made a few (as you saw on the previous blog post) that are hilarious. From that moment on, I was Samwise and Elly was Frodo. 

We referred to each other as 'Sam' and 'Frodo' for the rest of the trip. We are nuts :)

The zoo! Oh how I loved the zoo! That's where our name, The Fellowship of the Dots, came from. We were eating Dippin' Dots and someone somehow came up with that name and it stuck.

We ran around the zoo like wild pansies acting out Lord of the Rings, tripping in the dark, freaking each other out, eating Dippin' Dots, and taking thousands of pictures of all of the animals. It was great.





Day 5

*Wiggles cramping fingers*

SANTA FE! Oh I cannot tell you how much I loved Santa Fe. We wandered around the State Capitol Building (and probably went places we weren't supposed to go), saw the oldest church in America, saw the spiral staircase, saw (and attended mass at) this beautiful church with relics (I LOVE saint relics), went shopping, ate delicious food, saw really cool art galleries (we saw the Chuck Jones gallery which was so cool!), rode the Rail Runner (a train), and just spent the day goofing off, laughing, and having a good time as friends. 

 








I love Santa Fe so so much!! :) (The pictures are being stubborn. That's as good as it's gonna get)


Day 6

(Almooost there I promise)

We swam in the Rio Grande. Like, legit swam in it. We waded across it, made a mud castle on a small island in the middle of the river, and crossed to the other side and found trampoline mud! We proceeded to use said trampoline mud as ammo and had a mud fight. It's very rejuvenating for the skin :)

We went back to the Gard residence and caught Samwise the frog. He was fat and had yellow feet. We also got a tour of the Gard's Grandparent's new house! It's a pretty awesome house with a shower that Grandpa Gard said, "You could have a dance party in!"

Day 7

I think Mrs. Gard was getting tired of our loudness and obnoxiousness (is that a word?), so she dropped us off at this cool cafe called The Flying Star. We drank milkshakes, played board games, and laughed our brains out for a few hours before getting whisked away in the Gard van. 

Hi, I'm Liz and I have a gambling problem.

It's not just me, though, it's me and my Wonder Twin, Matty. We went to the movie theater and saw Guardians of the Galaxy (an entertaining movie, not the best, but entertaining). This movie theater had a few arcade games like any movie theater. Matty and I could not pull ourselves away! The sensible ones, Elly and T, told us to stop, but we couldn't. We have a gambling problem. That night we also went to dinner AT A CASINO! We were dying.

After the movies, we went to this store. It's seriously geek heaven. I can't remember what it's called but it has everything you could possibly want! Dr. Who, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Game of Thrones, you name the geek thing, they probably have it's merchandise. 

Day 8

Our last full day :( How depressing.

Elly and I went to the mall! The ABQ mall is HUGE! It was tons of fun but, unlike average teenage girls, we didn't go to the mall to 'shop' per-say. We went to goof off and have fun. We bought Build-A-Bears for crying out loud! (We're 17 and almost 16... you're never too old for a Build-A-Bear). 

 





It was lots of fun :) and I curled Elly's hair! She was being Frodo :) We didn't want that night to end. That's also the night (I'm pretty sure) we played Ghost in the Graveyard.

That game... NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PLAY THAT GAME WITH T! He is flippin scary. Matty and I almost died that night. No joke. 

Day 9

The horriblest day of the trip. The day we had to leave the magical land of ABQ and fly home. We put off saying goodbye for as long as possible, but it was inevitable. 

So it wasn't goodbye, it was "See you later, alligator."

That week was so much fun. I can't thank the Gard's enough for letting us invade their house and letting their lived get turned upside-down for a week :) I miss you guys so much!! 

The Fellowship of the Dots shall be re-united again! 

Thanks for a great time guys :)

Films from the Studio of the Dots

    I'll let Liz ramble on about the fantastic visit, but I wanted to share our videos. With the help of my brother and the Tieg, we made several parodies. 

Our LOTR: Return of the King parody, script courtesy of an OYANer

"Snark Week"

;)

ENJOY

A Sneak Peek of What's To Come...

Alright, my turn.

Prepare to witness....

RAINYSTORMY ALBUQUERQUE AUGUST

*INSERT RIO GRAND PHOTOGRAPH*

THE RIO GRANDE

... AND PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE...

*INSERT ZOO PICTURE*

A ZOO CONCERT

FLYING!

Get ready to meet...

LITTLE FROGS

BIG FROGS

POSSIBLY LIZARDS

And reunite with... 

OVER-DRESSED HOMESCHOOL SIBLINGS
(actually, kidding, but we are rather fond of bowties)

AND NOW, A SMALL TEASER WITH OBSCURE PICTURES OF RANDOM OBJECTS...

AND THIS GUY...

THE TIME OF THE DEPARTURE APPROACHETH

The Day is Nearly Upon Us!

Tomorrow is the day! The day I fly down to ABQ to be with Elly!! 



(That gif was just for you, Elly) :)

If you haven't guessed, we are both very excited to see each other. It's been over a year since she moved away from Dredford, and I've missed her every day since. 

I'm sure there will be a blog post in a week or so telling you all about our adventures in ABQ. 

So excited to see you mate!! 

(Even though, I'll admit, I am a tad bit nervous about flying for the first time) :) I'll be like Gus from The Fault in Our Stars...


"Oh my gosh, we're FLYING!"

I am so excited...AH! I think I might explode!! :D See you tomorrow, Elly :)

...it's so awesome to be able to say that!