MY BIRTHDAY - by andre

Is it Labor Day weekend already? Then I guess it's time for a road trip. And what better way is there to start a trip than the proper way, with In-N-Out!!!

Yup, cheeseburgers animal style, pink lemonade, chocolate milkshake, and fries. This would be the fuel for the 4 1/2 hours ride to the city of sin. (take that Google maps, beat ya by an hour!)

When we finally got there we went to the mecca of chocolate. It was DELICIOUS!!!!! If you ever get a chance to find yourself in such far flung locals as Vegas, Philly, or NYC in the States, or you find yourself in South East Asia in the Philippines or Singapore, a little further south in Australia, or in Israel (all the places you would expect a chocolate based restaurant would set up shop) you should stop in for the best peanut butter shake of your life.

(thanks to Jaala for the photographic evidence and sharing her Mexican Hot Chocolate)

So that was all nice and good, but THEN we went to... THE PINBALL HALL OF FAME!!!!

It was pretty sick (good sick, not bad sick).

so far, so good.

LESS THAN 10 DAYS!!!

time flies, and it's all the more evident by how we made a goal to post once a week and didn't post for the entire month of july. oh well.

anyway, we have less than 10 days until the wedding and only earlier today figured out our cake situation for the reception. it must be all that last minute, deadline adrenaline that is helping us get things done. hopefully before the reception starts we'll figure out the music situation.

but on a fun note, today was Andrea's last day at work for a while, so the party has finally begun. tomorrow we're going to be all kinds of productive and run a million and a half errands. HOORAY FOR SPENDING MONEY!!!! :) !!!! it's a good thing we love each other, otherwise this would all be some kind of ridiculous.

it has just been decided that we'll actually be going to the movies in the morning before we get anything done, that's what i'm talking about.

speaking of movies, who keeps thinking hiring will ferrell is a good idea?

Philadelphia: part 1

We now join our heroes in Pennsylvania.

After making their way through the dense wilderness, Andre and Andrea finally stumbled upon the ruins of the great civilization known to the locals that now live in the region as Philly. But getting to this mysterious land was only the beginning of the adventure.

Curls, the local on loan to our two adventurers as a guide, must have known how treacherous the trail was that lay ahead because she bolstered their souls up by singing them a traditional tune about the excitement of being alive. But could she have really known what lay in store?

The next leg of their journey would take them to the edge of the known world: NORTH-eastern Pennsylvania. Susquehanna, PA to be exact, at least a days ride from indoor plumbing or an air conditioning unit, even further than the frontier town of Scranton (What? the electric city!).

But out here one could really "get in touch with nature" or at the very least take some pretty pictures.

However, while taking in the scenic beauty of the local river, Curls was ambushed by an overly well dressed mountain dweller that Andrea had to fight to the death.

Sadly for the mysterious man, Andrea had been perfecting her mighty right-left-right combo punch since she was a child prodigy boxer in underground fight club in the little village of older-sisterhood. Not only did she demolish this poor sap, but her final blow knocked the stranger into a tree which knocked the tree down as well!

Now aware that there were others out here with them, Andre began to keep an eye out for anyone that was looking for a fight. The more he looked the more he had an uneasy feeling about being in these woods, but since he couldn't see anything he just said that they should all look for higher ground so they could set up camp for the night. It was a little early for setting up camp, and most of the group was hungry and wanted to do a little hunting so they could eat one of the tasty beasts that lurks in the area.

But after a lively debate over which homeland had the best cooking a fight ensued that managed to get everything the group was carrying strewn all across the clearing along the rivers edge.

After everyone was too tired to beat on anyone else, the hungry group got back to the matter at hand, finding the next piece of the puzzle to discover the treasure. It wasn't more than half an hour later that they had gathered all their equipment and were on their way to find the House of Dragons when Andre saw what was giving him his uneasy feeling, one of the evil prince's sorcerers.

"How did you find us?" Andre inquired, as if he didn't know that local guides are just about always used by Prince Vince to lure his enemies into traps. But the sorcerer didn't say a single word, we just banished Andrea to the Land Behind the Shattered Glass.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Curly knocked Andre unconscious so she and the magician could report back to Prince Vince that his plan was underway.

When Andre finally awoke it was the middle of the night and he had no idea where he was, making him only slightly better off than Andrea. After the prince's minions in the Glass world found Andrea, they took her to their compound and chained her to a wall.

However, news travels quickly in this realm and she only had to endure 6 hours of interrogation before the G2 (Gang of Two) came to her rescue.The G2 came at once when they heard Andrea was taken captive and devised a plan to break her out. It was simple, but would be more dangerous than anything they'd ever tried before. The plan basically consisted of creeping into the compound in the middle of the night with only a slice of bacon to keep the guard dogs busy and acting like statues if they were seen.

99% crazy, 99.9% luck, but somehow they managed to pull it off.

After their amazing escape the G2 and Andrea made their way to the boundary between our world and the Glass World. It took almost a week, but they finally made it. They'd walked all day and night with only 3 minutes of sleep, which they did in rotation so as to never be left with their guard down. As one can imagine, they were exhausted when they finally got to the Wall and just collapsed (why no one chose the chair is beyond me).

All the while, back in our world Andre had managed to make it all the way back to civilization. After searching high and low for a crazy one-eyed witch doctor that could bring Andrea and her posse back, he finally found one and had JUST enough tokens to pay for her services.

They celebrated yet another run in with the prince's stooges by stopping by the royal dessert shoppe where they planned their next step...