And Back by Popular Demand……..ME!

Hello.

Where did the time go? Between plays, working out, rehearsing, studying, and just trying to have fun the blog apparently took a month-long sabbatical. It has been quite the month though and there are plenty of new things to catch you up on.

Most recently I got the opportunity to fire a starter pistol. (I was unaware that in my current production of The Purse Thief I would actually be shooting a gun off stage). So it was quite a surprise to me when they handed it to me at our last rehearsal. I was terrified…….OH MAN…… I had no idea how loud it was when you were actually holding the thing that was doing the firing. My ears were ringing and my lungs did not appreciate the smell….  so if you want to see the last person you ever thought would be handling a pistol come check out my show……. at the Renton Civic Theatre……Tonight…….and tomorrow and next week.

On Thursday we had to say goodbye to some awesome friends as they start their next awesome journey of their life!

 
And although inherited most of Rena’s clothes and board games  it doesn’t take away the fact that I still miss them! (Although electronic monopoly does help, more on that below!)

At Rena’s goodbye party I was reunited (and it feels so good) with some coworkers and I got to see this beautiful baby for the first time.

  Beautiful Happy Kaylynn and her Mama Kristine who encouraged me to blog yet again.

ELECTRONIC MONOPOLY

Was a fun adventure. It makes life a little easier, although pay millions for properties instead of $500 takes some time to get used to. You can choose to be a cell phone, race car, jet plane, cheese burger, roller blade or a skate board.   The properties have sky rocketed, the pawns are technology, food, and money based AND it is very easy to lose track of how much you actually have spent on your “credit card”. I think this version of monopoly really shows how times have changed. But all in all I still had fun.

We have also watched some great movies including:

 This movie had me laughing, crying and even had some twists that caught JARYL off guard!

 Matt Damon and Brad Pitt as Krill???? Hilarious. ” I am going to go eat something with a face!!!” Hank Azaria does a stand up job as well.

 Nice to see some actors get out of their regular roles.

MARIO PARTY 9

 

Jaryl and I were unaware that this was even coming out. So when we found out last-minute we rushed down to game stop and traded in some unwanted games for it.  This is the first Mario Party where they tried to do something new. And I see why they might want to do that but it sort of failed. Not only did they take away the awesome way of rolling the dice by lifting the wii remote up, they completely changed the goal of the game and they way you get around the board. Now everybody is in the same “car” and moves towards the end at the same time. There are mini stars and negative “ztars”.  Mini games are not played after everyone has had a turn, but only if someone lands on the space. Save your fifty bucks and get a classic Mario Party.

WE finally got to see our long-lost friend Robert! The silly boy bought plane tickets for this month instead of last month and so it landed him here in the MIDDLE of the week. Which made for an exhausting week! But we did get to go to the AWESOME Hot dog stand Dog in the Park at the Bellevue Mall. Not 1……not 2…but FIVE different kinds of veggie dogs. SO delicious (for veggies and meat eaters alike). This is a must go! And then we discovered a NEW self-serve frozen yogurt place in Juanita. (my favorite kind of dessert) It’s calledChilly Wave Yogurtand they are PENGUIN themed! (Which is Jaryl’s Favorite).

So there it is. A brief overview of some of the activities we have partaken in…..OH and I ran down the up escalator. That is all.

Fallen off the face of the Earth!

It may seem to most of you that Jaryl and I have either fallen off the face of the Earth OR like most people by March have thrown our new years resolutions out the window. Well BOTH of these are wrong. For the past couple weeks I have been fighting an awful sickness. Some thought it was mono, others Strep, pneumonia, the flu……and after an expensive trip to the doctor (this was an unfortunate first for us because I am not insured.) We found out….. NOTHING. As per usual. Doctors are rarely helpful. But I am finally coming out of it and ready to catch you up on the month.

We have tried these things….. (In addition to the first time going to the doctor un-insured)

AN AMAZING GAME called DICECAPADES!

Brandy and Jaryl took me into Uncle’s Games on one of my sick days so I could pick out a game! This happened to be the first thing I saw when I walked in the door! It had 133 dice (Pictures, numbers, colors,  all shapes and sizes). I cannot even begin to describe how awesome it is. 2-6 players OR teams! It includes drawing, trivia, races, sit-ups, dice stacking and other crazy contests. Pretty much blows Cranium out of the water!

Extra Virgin Olive Oil for YOUR FACE??

That’s right. One of Jaryl’s coworkers was talking about her new beauty secret to her clear and glowing skin…… Extra Virgin Olive Oil on her face…. She said it cleared her acne up like that.  I had to mull it over for a few days. I mean  how could I put oil on my face and expect it to clear my acne?? So finally I got brave enough to do it (after watching several instructional videos on YouTube with teenagers. Really funny stuff.). I have been applying it nightly before I go to bed and when I wake up my skin is smooth and it is definitely clearer!  Best part of all is no chemicals! Jaryl is trying it next.

Pintrest

I finally got on Pintrest……but I have no idea what I am doing. So I have not logged on since.

Facebook Timeline.

I got home a couple days ago and Jaryl excitedly told me that he switched his facebook to the new Timeline. I was so mad! We were a team! How could he go to the dark side without consulting me first?? I just get so annoyed everytime facebook changes it’s format. I can’t even count how many times I have had to re teach myself where everything is. (Remember when there was no stalker feed?). So the point is if Jaryl jumps I jump. So I have timeline now too…..but I don’t have to like it.

Chick Chick Boom!

Battle royale! Two teams of chicks (play with a friend or a computer!) use venus fly traps, bombs, weights, pianos, lightning and other things to destroy eachother! The last chick standing wins. Use defense tactics, power ups or if you prefer just yell at the television! Chick Chick Boom is available on the Wii shop channel. It’s a grand old-time.

Some other things we have tried are Pink lemonade Emergen-C, Pour over Coffee, Chipotle, and Jaryl hand-washed our car!

We are still working hard at writing some new plays and trying to start our own theatre group!

338 Pages!

It’s been a great week filled with new foods, activities and goals! I started off the week by deciding to only have a sugary treat on Saturdays. And I made it! Week two here I come.

The second biggest thing to happen was that my copy of Something Blue by Emily Giffin finally came in at the library. It is the second book to Something Borrowed which was a book that I flew through in one week. Well the big news is that I read all 338 pages of Something Blue in ONE day. Not only that but I worked two jobs that day! I think that’s pretty amazing. ALSO if you have not read these books I think they are pretty amazing and addicting. The movie Something Borrowed with Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin was good…but check out the book first.

Jaryl also took some big steps this week in new life goals. He had been studying like crazy for his personal training certification and plans to take the test next month. Besides that he is pursuing new careers and making plans for our future theatre.

Here are some of the foods we tried this week!
 These have 6 grains, including Quinoa! Delicious!

An energy drink filled with green tea and no added sugars. It did the trick when I had to be up at 4AM! Plus I love anything peach! This was my first ever energy drink.

A delicious substitute to a sugary fudgsicle. (Although we try to avoid artificial sweeteners like splenda) These ones taste like chocolate stars!

Today we saw The Secret World of Arrietty. Jaryl will be telling you all about it later tonight! ALSO stay tuned next week for some crazy adventures with….. THIS GUY!

Friends, Food and Rainbow Road.

Thank you to those of you who have stuck with me through my crappy blogging month of February! Who knew that the hard part of this New Years Resolution would not be actually doing a new thing everyday, but writing about it! Lucky for me I never said in my resolution that I had to blog every day! So needless to say Jaryl and I are having a good year trying new foods, inventing new games, and learning a lot. I am excited for the summer months to come so we can do more outdoor activities!

Tonight we got a rare opportunity to have dinner with our friends Chris and Rena. Sadly this was the first time we have entertained all year. (Unless you count our best friend Brandy sleeping on our floor! Which is…..not really entertaining, just our life Hi Brandy!). Firstly we were very excited to get to use the 4 person pasta serving set that we got as a wedding present almost 3 (wow!) years ago. It seems we always have more than 4 people over. Not only that but in this particular circle of friends we have someone allergic to dairy, fruit and of course me! (a strict vegetarian.) So we had delicious spaghetti and I even sprung for some dairy free mozzarella. 

• Trans Fat free
• Dairy free
• Free of all animal products (Vegan)
• Free of common allergens including: Dairy (casein and lactose), soy, gluten, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts (excluding coconut)
• Free of Artificial Ingredients
• Free of Preservatives
• Free of Hormones & Antibiotics
• Kosher

So you may be wondering could something like that actually taste good?? The answer is yes. Although it had an oily feel due to the coconut oil, it has great flavor and texture!

We loved seeing our friends and their beautiful baby. It was long over due.

We ended the night by playing Mario Kart on the Wii and Jaryl placed first on Rainbow Road for the first time ever!!

Thanks for a fun night!

 

Water, Chocolate, Books and more!

So let us play catch up on the world of Madison and Jaryl.

Saturday February  25th
Saturday I had a call back for Renton Civic Theatre. (Nailed it by the way! And you will be hearing about The Purse Thief in April). Then we headed  up to my Uncle’s and Cousin’s Birthday party. THEN we had to head back down to Jaryl’s show. Needless to say time to try something new was slim.

So around 11PM when life started winding down we decided to try some new demos on The Wii shop channel. We tried a game called Fluidity. Which was a physics based water game where you are a pile of water. You tilt the wii remote different directions to get through the various mazes, gears, and even jump over holes and enemies while collecting more water.  The music is calming and the game itself is quite charming. Just be careful not to lose all your water! We both recommend you check it out on your Wii or right here
http://www.nintendo.com/gamesites/wii/fluidity/

Jaryl says “It’s AWESOME! I want to get the full game!”

After that we tried a not so awesome game called 3D Pixel Racing. Which at first sight is a cute racing game that is made out of knock-off legos. But that is as far as it goes. if you veer off the track even slightly it flashes in  a glitchy sort of way that Excite Bike for the NES used to do and puts you back a few seconds on the track. LAME. I think we can leave the world of Legos to…..LEGO.

Sunday February 26th

Today was also packed full of work, work, and a performance. However when looking at the ads I did find a coupon for a new interesting product. Philadelphia Indulgence. A new line of chocolate cream cheeses. Now I must find I was slightly intrigued, however I knew  it was just a ploy to get people to think they were eating something more healthy. Regardless, later that day I came around the corner at the grocery store and there it was….. They were sampling out the chocolate cream cheese! Was it good? It was just eh. A dulled down version of frosting. If I am going to have chocolate I am going to have it all the way! I would rather dip my fruit or cookies in ACTUAL frosting!

Monday February 27th

Today Jaryl took me to one of my teaching jobs on Mercer Island. On the way we decided to stop some where we always wanted to, Island Books. It was a great size, a nice feel and a big selection. (Not a used book store though, which is our favorite.) The children’s section was awesome and filled with cool instruments and toys. But the most important part of this story is the most beautiful stainless steel water bottle I have ever found! (The picture does not give it justice.) The colors were vibrant and called out to me. “I am going to make Jaryl buy me this water bottle”  I thought. UNTIL we turned it over to look at the price…..

That’s right. 42.50. Eww. NO WAY Island books! No way.

Who’s Walking Over My Bridge??

Today I decided it was time to take Jaryl to the Fremont Troll. So we trekked down to Fremont and explored! we used the Fremont Center of The Universe sign to find our way around.

 We found many amazing places including Ophelia’s Books! A great used book store with a beautiful spiral staircase and plenty of scripts and monologue books. (We each picked out a new book).

 On our way to find the Fremont Troll we were in search of “Rapunzel”. I read in a Washington Tourist book that she was on the Fremont bridge. But I was disappointed to find that she was just a neon light.

 

After This……

That’s right a RECORD store.

And This…

And This…

We  finally were on our way …..To the Troll.

Unfortunately there was this……

We tried to go past it…… but we could not.

 No Troll for Jaryl….Thanks alot construction. The worst part is I had just told some tourist to go see the troll…. SORRY random guy at the Northgate Mall. I had no idea.
Another Day…..Another Day..

Rock Out!

Today Jaryl had a big audition at the Seattle Center House…… Auditions can be stressful, nerve-wracking and you need to find a good way to keep your focus and warm up your body. So today I took Jaryl to the EMP and we went into a vocal room. What a great idea!! I never thought of going there to warm up before but most of our auditions take place in the center house which is right next to the EMP. (Some of you may know Jaryl is a super sci-fi nerd and because the EMP also has the sci-fi museum he has an annual membership).

So we spent about a half an hour in the vocal room. (You are technically limited to 10 minutes but on a thursday afternoon it is not too busy). We did our usually vocal warm-ups, tongue twisters and then we sang some songs from the few choices on the computer screen. We even messed with our voices using some sweet effects. (The one that make my voice super low is my favorite.) After we rocked out Jaryl did his audition pieces for me one last time and off we went!  (not before stopping at the Battlestar Galactica Exhibit and the Avatar Exhibit….AGAIN.)

I would recommend rocking out at the EMP for anyone who loves music, fun and needs something to do.

 

Tax Time.

This year I decided it was time that I finally learn how to do taxes. I never needed to do them until I met Jaryl and it might seem as though I married him just to make him do them . But it is time for me to hold my own.

But boy did I pick a year to do them! I have not one, not two….but NINE that’s right nine W-2 forms this year. Oh and Jaryl’s one. However with the help of our friend Turbo Tax (he visits us every year), I had a pretty simple time of it.

So can I file taxes?  The answer is yes!

Watch out world. This year I will also attempt to change a tire, climb a rock wall AND make a you tube video. Woah.

Audition Time!

This is the story of 2 new things. An audition and how I got the courage to do it!

Tonight I auditioned for Renton Civic Theatre’s The Purse Thief. I had a very long work day and so I was not feeling very energetic. I was drained…I was in need of…..super power! So in order to prep for my audition I tried this natural energy Drink called….. Hi Ball. 10 calories. No Carbs. No Sugars. No preservatives. No Artificial sweeteners. PLUS filled with natural caffeine and vitamins.  (They also have a juice version, but that’s too many calories for me!) The only reason it has taken me so long to try it is the price. 2.40 for a small bottle! But this was a special occasion.

So I tried orange! Did it do the trick? It sure did! Jaryl looked at me and said ” how bad is it?” I knew he did not like carbonated water so I told him to imagine the worst as he took a swig.

“It was the worst! It was the worst!!!! Guess I will be the only one with energy tonight.

So we headed down to the Renton Civic Theatre, got a little lost. (Not to unusual for us). When we did arrive I was a little skeptical of the theatre. We were in downtown Renton which I am unfamiliar with and the theatre was right next to a convenience store with posters of beer everywhere. But this is a true story of not judging a book by its cover. We were both delighted with the theatre. The inside is so cute. There are pictures everywhere of past productions (I think more theatre should do that). And two stair cases on either side of the doors that enter the theatre. (Where they go? I guess  that is for another time) But the point is I really enjoyed the nostalgia feel of the theatre. The stage itself was great. Not too big, not too little. The Audition went well and maybe just maybe, it was my orange Hiball. Next time I will have to try grapefruit or vanilla.

Thank you HiBall for helping me get a call back!

Owen Wilson rocks!

We’ve all wished at one time or another that we lived in another time.  I wish I could live in the distant future.  Sailing around the universe in the space ship “seeking out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where…”

anyway.   

The time…the…afternoon sometime.  Madison and I wanted to see either the Vow or Studio Ghibli’s new move, the Secret of Arrietty, based on the story of The Borrowers.   We have had 4 free passes since christmas, so we were ready and willing to sit in a dark room for a couple of hours while munching down on salty buttery corn that has been “popped”.  But when we looked at the theaters we had free passes to, the movies we wanted were not playing.  So…we went home.  We stopped off at Fred Meyer and got some french bread for spaghetti.  As we left we looked in the Redbox.  ”Do you see anything?” “What about Midnight in Paris, we’ve been wanting to see that”.  “Okay whats it about?”  ”Owen Wilson in Paris at Midnight”.  When we got home we put in the movie and…a couple hours later…MY MIND WAS BLOWN!!!  It was great.  Kind of Sci Fi which is right up our alley. 

The story revolves around Gil, a Hollywood screenwriter portrayed by Owen Wilson.  He is engaged to be married to Inez, played by Rachel McAdams.  We know by the way that she treats him they shouldn’t be together.  One night she goes dancing with her friends and Gil decides to go for a walk. He gets a little drunk and they sits down on some steps outside.  The clock strikes midnight and along comes a car from the 1920′s.  A bunch of people open the door and ask Gil to come with.  So…he does.  They drive and he is transported to the 1920′s, what he says is the golden age.  There he meets Cole Porter, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and many others.  Every night he goes back to the 1920′s.  He soon realizes that the people in the 1920′s believe that the 1890′s are the golden age.  What happens to Gil?  What happens in the 1920′s?  What happens to his marriage?

Watch the movie.  Its wonderful, probably one of my favorite screenplays lately.  

We give this move a 10/10. 

Seriously, if you haven’t watched it…rent it now.