Last weekend I went to the Grand Canyon with my biology class.

Even though I’ve been there many times before, this was the most interesting time because I knew what I was looking at.

The condor’s were neat, but it’s really hard to see how big they are. Before I left, I measured a string and cut it at 9 feet long. The string helped for visualization purposes. Adult condors have a wingspan of 9 feet. This condor in the picture is not an adult (he has a black head, adults have pink heads). The Northeren Arizona Museum in Flagstaff has a stuffed condor hanging from a ceiling, but it is not an adult either.

 See more of my photos on flickr.

The other day I went to Cave Creek Regional Park up in Cave Creek, Arizona. My family was meeting with other adoptive families for a day of fun.

We went horseback riding (English is so much better than Western!).

My horse’s name was Spirit. He had a mustache.

I took some photos manually…

And I also tested out full-auto mode (while on horseback).

Then we roasted marshmellows and little ground squirrels. And babies.

“Leah, will you go fill up this bucket with dog food from the garage?”

“You have to pay me twooo dollars.”

“I don’t have twoooo dollars.  I’m poor.  I only have twoooo cents.”

“Well, you have to pay me one cent then.”

“Okay.”

So I was eating at TGI Friday’s for the first time since age 8, and for the second time in my life.  The first time I ate there was in Alabama.

So I sat down with my family, and at the table next to us was a party of 17.  At one table.  The waiter said that our service might be a little slow, because this party of 17 just came from the airport and didn’t have a reservation.  Consequently, the restaurant was understaffed.

Usually when I go out to eat I don’t do a whole lot of talking.  I people watch.  I gathered this party was one family: Uncle Dad, Aunt Mom, and their 15 Cousin-Kids.  They flew in for the Nascar race this week.  I figured the Nascar part out because they were all wearing Nascar hats and  Nascar shirts (sponsored by Home Depot).

Everyone (except for little Billy-Joe) was drinking Budweiser at 11am.  But, as the sayin’ goes, “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.”

So I slurped away at my French Onion Soup and waited for their food to arrive.  They all ordered hamburgers.  All. Hamburgers.  (except for little Billy-Joe who got chicken fingers).  My family is pretty hickish as it is, but the beer and the hamburgers?

It gets better (or maybe worse):

“Remember that time when Bobby dun got his Dee Ewe Eye?”

“That time when he tried to run away from tha cops?”

[Laughter ensues]

It made for good people watching, at least.

So the other day the Talking Heads on the news were talking about the dangers of 4/20.

My parents wondered aloud about just what is it that makes April 20th so dangerous.

“It’s Bob Marley’s birthday,” I helpfully pointed out.

“How do you know that?” demanded my mom.

“Who is Bob Marley?” asked my dad.

“You know, Bob Marley, the reggae singer,” said mom.

“Everyone celebrates Bob Marley’s birthday,” said I.

“Why do they celebrate it?” wondered my dad.

“HOW do they celebrate it is the better question,” corrected my mom.

“I suppose they celebrate it with certain celebrating-type things,” I said as I wandered away.

“Well, I’ve never heard of such a thing in my life!” finished my mom.

Today after Spanish class I raced over to the salon and got my hair done nice an’ pretty for piture day.  Then I grabbed Bella (my Boston Terrier) and headed off to Walmart for a photo shoot.  Yes, to Walmart.  Yes, I am a hick, in Hicksville, Arizona.  And right next door to Walmart is a cow farm.

I found a tree to park under (there were only two, so I was lucky), and grabbed Bella’s crate.  I stepped inside Walmart and was bombarded by five “Greeters.”

“Only service dogs are allowed  in Walmart.  There’s food in here.”  I looked over my shoulder.  Farmer Ray was leading Bessie in on a rope, mubling to himself about drinking sour milk.

“But I’m going to have my picture taken and I would like my dog to be in the picture too,” I whined.

“It’s not allowed.”

So I took Bella back outside.  Then I went and had so many pictures taken.  I think that everyone I know will be able to have 5 wallet-sized pictures, and a framed picture for each room in their house.

I made the switch from Blogger to Wordpress. I did it. It was quick, relatively easy, and about as painful as a light shower in Seattle.

I had been looking around at hosting plans for a while; trying out themes; reading other bloggers’ cross-over stories. I would go to sign up, and then I’d pull back out.

Tonight I decided that I don’t have any hobby right now. I quit World of Warcrack, I don’t collect stamps anymore, I don’t really buy clothes (I’ve spent a total of $45 on them this year)… It just made sense to me that it might be okay if I spent some money on what I like doing. So I did.

Things about Blogger were just getting under my skin.
1.  This new “Blogger Beta (oh we’re just kidding, we’re not in beta any more but now we’re going to make web design a royal pain in the rear for anyone who likes to code in html)” didn’t work with me. Originally I made the switch, then I switched back to Old Blogger, then I switched to the new Blogger, and then I found out that some bugs were still there but I couldn’t go back to Old Blogger any more. It was frustrating and confusing.

2.  Blogger has served me decently well since 2004. In 2004 I tried lots of different platforms (livejournal, xanga, even geocites to name a few), and found that I like Blogger best. I wasn’t interested in paying for anything. I didn’t know what CSS was. All I knew was that Blogger looked the best and acted the best. But now I do know how to use CSS. And I do know more about MySQL, Apache, etc., and I think that I would like to further my education. The best way to do that is by hands on playing around. You can’t learn html out of a book. Basically, I was feeling Blogger’s limitations.

3. I was constantly aware of the fact that Blogger owned my site and not me. Stupid Blogger logos are plastered everywhere. There’s the infamous navbar uptop. The credits in the footer. The .png on the sidebar. It was like a bad disease.

4. I wanted to take the next step and use a website as more than just a blog. In the future I would like to put my website on a business card. Or perhaps develop a photo page. Or post a resume. Or anything, really. But Blogger just wasn’t giving me that (plus, .blogspot.com looks tacky on a business card).

We’ll see how this Wordpress thing goes, but I’m keeping my eye on the Habari Project.

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Today I made a Myspace layout that looks like the standard Twitter profile. I felt quite accomplished.

To compare:
Myspace.com/alisarae
Twitter.com/alisa

F.A.Q.’s (okay, so they’re just normal Q’s)

Q. How did you integrate the twitter updates into your myspace page?
A. I didn’t. Myspace is anti-javascript, and I don’t like the standard Twitter flash badges, so I decided that I can manually update the status as needed. Too bad it won’t be as up-to-date as my twitter page.

Q. Are those Flickr images I see? I thought you said that mysapce is anti-javascript?
A. You’re right! I did say that! But, lucky for me, someone has made some javascript-free flickr badges. Visit http://flickrbadge.theducky.com/ for more info.

Q. Did you get permission to steal those Twitter images?
A. No… I hope they don’t mind. I linked back to their site, and I’m a big promoter, so…..

Q. Can I have your code?
A. Right now, no. I haven’t decided if I’m going to release it or not. But I probably will. So keep checking back.