Long enough hike?

On Saturday, my family was here and we all went for a hike up to Squaw Peak. My mom and dad didn't want to go all the way up, because it's a 3 mile hike literally straight up a mountain. By far the steepest hike I've ever been on in my life. It was really hard, but we all - Andy, Paul, Will, David, Mary and I - made it. It was Mary's 12th birthday, and she said she wanted an "invigorating hike". I think it met her request. The red dot on the picture is approximately where we started from. So no, we didn't cheat and drive halfway up. It was definitely a legit hike.


We were almost at the top, so I got excited and started frolicking in the flowers!! Yay!!! I'm surprised I had enough energy at that point to jump so many times to get a good picture...

Attacking the mannequin

I decided to make it a man. :) Here I am giving it stubble with a pencil.

Not whiffle balls :/

Yesterday evening, I went to Trafalga, a place with mini-golfing, go-karts and such. This was apparently supposed to be my date to try new things, since I haven't ever been go-karting except around the yard in one that my brother made, I've never had Dippin' Dots, I haven't been mini-golfing since I was 15, and I've never hit a baseball or softball with a bat. I used to hit whiffle balls and bouncy balls around the yard, but that's about all. I was a little nervous because that is an AWFUL lot to do in one evening, when you're a chicken like me and afraid to do anything if anyone is watching, but I couldn't think of a single good excuse to get out of it, so I went.


The go-karts were fun, I liked them. They were pretty fast, I think they were about 0-10 in a minute or so.


The Dippin' Dots were good, of course.


The batting cage...well, I was scared, I admit. And for good reason. Apparently I don't know how to hold a bat right, and I ended up hurting my hand pretty badly. I think it's just bruised, but it's kind of getting annoying, Most of the time it's just a constant dull ache, but if I try to text or open door knobs it hurts really bad. It's still a little swelled up but I think it's going down. I can't decide if not knowing how to hold a bat proves that I'm a nerd or a girly girl. And the fact that I didn't do my hair for school for the third day in a row makes me think it might be the first one.

The mini golfing was relatively safe, except that part of the course was flooded and I accidentally stepped into the water and then I jumped because it startled me and I got even more wet. But all in all, despite the few little problems I had, it was fun.

Nerdish Tendencies?

So Will and I were talking last week, and I said something about being kind of a nerd. He disagreed, saying that there was no way I was a nerd. I didn't look like it, act like it, and I went to beauty school. I told him I was anyway, and he wouldn't believe me. A few days later, we were talking about what we used to do when we were kids. I mentioned playing Commander Keen, and he stared at me and was like "You played what?" I told him I used to play Commander Keen all the time when I was younger. He was silent for a few seconds and then said "You ARE a nerd." He said he never really played it because it was too hard. Then I got all excited and wanted to play it again. It doesn't run on Vista, so of course it was difficult to get it to run correctly on my computer. We had to get Dosbox and run it through that, which involved way more than I knew how to do. He figured it out for me and I played it right through without stopping (if I stopped I lost my game), and beat it in a few hours. Then today, I decided that I wanted to play number 5 too, now that I'd finished 4. I talked to someone who is a major computer and video game nerd, who also loved playing Commander Keen, and I said I wanted to play 5. He said "Oh, that one is really hard..." So after searching online for a while I finally found a version I could download, but by the time I found it, Will had to leave because it was midnight and he is a stickler for the rules, to put it lightly. So I was very disappointed and ALMOST cried because I wanted to play it so bad. Okay, maybe that's exaggerating a little bit. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and try talking to the computer myself. It took a little while, but I managed to get it to work, amazingly enough. Not only that, but then I beat it in two hours. No cheating. :)

Ward Glare

It used to be ward prayer, then it was ward stare, now we call it ward glare. That's not the point of this blog though. We have a "dessert club" every Sunday after ward prayer, and this week it was in our apartment. I took charge, of course, because I love making dessert and really, none of my other roommates can cook. One of them can't even make jello...no joke, but that's another story. I decided I wanted some variety for my ward, so I made German Chocolate bars, Special K bars and Snicker Doodles. Of course everything was a huge hit and those dumb guys that said I didn't know how to use an oven got totally proven wrong and they admitted it. So it was a good day. I spent a lot of my Saturday baking, and my friend Will helped me out. Or perhaps "helped" would be a better way to say it. Here he is making an elephant cookie.

Permed Eyelashes?

Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen. Last week in school, we tinted eyelashes and eyebrows to make them darker. And this week, we permed eyelashes. The instructor asked me if I would be the model for the perming, I guess because my lashes are really long and she liked that, or something. I let her do it, but I was very scared, honestly, I think I would look a little goofy if all my eyelashes fell out or something...luckily they turned out fine and I still have eyelashes.

Inked

I got a tattoo!! The grayish marks are left over from the guide the tattoo artist used, I just need to wash it a few more times and they'll fade.