Try Not to Bug Out...

My intention isn't to make my blog full of pictures of bugs, but when Chase & I came home from watching The Illusionist, we found this praying mantis on our deck. So, we took some pictures of it. There was this tiny red bug that kept crawling on her and bothering her. We were hoping she would eat it or something, but she didn't. Also, her abdomen was moving a lot, so we thought maybe she'd give birth or lay eggs or whatever mantises do. But she didn't. So we just took some cool and some silly pictures with her.

When we went to see The Illusionist, we mistook it for The Prestige. Both are movies about magicians and are set in approximately the same time period. During the half-hour of commercials/previews, we saw a preview for The Prestige and were like, "Why are they showing a preview for the movie we're seeing?" But then at the end of the preview, I saw that it was a different move that hasn't come out yet. So, while it wasn't the movie we wanted to see, The Illusionist is pretty good. We both liked it.

And now for some silly pictures with the praying mantis:

Choppy!

Apparently I'm Choppy!

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Ah, Gatlinburg...

Ah, Gatlinburg (and Pigeon Forge)! You can get an old-timey photo on any corner! Unfortunately, we did not do that. But we did go to Ripley's Believe It or Not! And here is a picture of me trying to decide whether or not to believe "It":

I do believe that $12-something is too much to charge for admission to this "museum." I had fun, though. And here is a picture of me with Paige on a giant chair inside Ripley's:

I'll post some more about the trip later, but I'll leave you with this: even though we did not see any bears, we made sure the hot tub's cover was "teathered" so that no bears got in the hot tub.

The Most Amazing Drug Ever

I would have to say that Advil Cold & Sinus is the most amazing drug ever. It has allowed me to go from barely functional, hardly being able to breathe through my snot-filled nose with a killer sore throat and sinus headache and stopped up ears, to slightly annoyed at my sore throat and ears being a little stopped up and having a barely running nose. Most of my aches are gone, too! Plus, it doesn't give me that groggy feeling that many cold & sinus medicines do. The liqui-gels work faster, but you get more of the (delicious candy-like) coated ones in a box. The generic brands work just as well, too. Advil Cold & Sinus, how I love thee!