When my brother and I were little, we saw a commercial about IHOP. We begged our parents to take us to this amazing new land flowing with pancakes and syrup. We knew it was a special place. “But mom! It’s the international house of pancakes!”

Since then, I’ve been many a time, never living up to the experience I had once imagined. Until last night. We were hungry after practice, and IHOP was serving all-you-can-eat pancakes.

The evil grin robot. He couldn’t even finish half of a double stack.
He focused too much on sausage.

Taylor had a valiant effort of almost five pancakes.
He hides in his hood out of shame.

He’s crazy! Sara and I were smart enough
to get chicken strips with honey mustard!

Allan takes tips from Matt: roll the pancakes and dip them in water.
Matt was the runner up with five pancakes.

With 13 pancakes, ladies and gentlemen,
I give you the new heavyweight pancake eating champion of Dublin, California: Allan!

Where to begin? LeiOut 2006 was a blast. Our team, Smells Like Polkadots, fought hard on the beach to several much-deserved victories. And for those losses … those were probably just as deserved. But we played against National-caliber players! It was pretty tough having only four women all weekend. I learned a lot, ran a lot and I layed out a lot! (For those non-ultimate players, layout = dive for the frisbee in superman fashion.) It was a blast!

It was great to have the team hang out at my LA house. Many thanks go to Abigail and the rest of my housemates for putting up with us. Here Abigail tries to understand our kind.

Thanks to Christine for taking some pictures of the girls. It doesn’t happen often because we don’t usually get this much play time. Click here for the rest of her pictures. Also, Matt will soon have some sweet pictures from the finals and semi-finals on his photo site.

Outta the way, Asa! I’m grabbing the disc!

Sara, Christine and I are too excited to be on the beach.

My first layout of LeiOut 2006! One of many…

Smells Like Polkadots!

Getting a throw past Jen of SLO.

On D against Jen of SLO.

The Polkadot girls with Jen. What can we say? We love Jen and the SLO girls!

Photo from People.

Story from a MSN Music report.

“The actress, who has two children — Ava, 6, and Deacon, 2 — with husband Ryan Phillippe, tells the magazine that she’s an ‘old-fashioned’ kind of mom, which means no live-in nanny and plenty of rules, including a ban on bikinis.

‘I think you have to let your children be individuals but you have to set boundaries,’ Reese explains. ‘I don’t want my daughter shopping for clothes. That would just send her into a tailspin of wanting. And in my house you’re not allowed to wear two-piece swimsuits. Other little girls come over in them, and that’s fine, but I tell Ava, those are our family’s rules.’

Let’s just hope that Angelina and Brad will be as great of parents as Reese and Ryan.

The normal reaction to the news of parents leaving on a vacation should bring joy to your average, living-at-home twentysomething. Whooo house party everyday! And frantically cleaning stains and recoving tribal fertillity vases from hiding places minutes before the parental return … . My life, however, is not that exciting. Sorry to disappoint.

For me, parent vacay means wearing my pajamas all day without the grief. (Hmmm … I’m sensing a theme here. Please don’t think I’m a slacker slob because I keep writing about how all I wear is pajamas!) Although, I forsee a frantic cleaning in my very near future. Unfortunately dishes just don’t clean themselves.

My parents think that I am in heaven when they’re on vacation. After all, when I do come home during breaks, I’m hardly around. So in they’re minds: 2 + 2 = I hate spending time with my parents. Not true! Coming home to a dark house, not having to be quiet because there are no parents asleep upstairs, makes me sad. Is it too 3 year old of me to say “I want my mommy and my daddy!!!” They’re actually pretty fun, in their cooler-than-most-parents-because-they’re-actually-parents-and-not-wannabe-friends way. Don’t let my dad fool you, because he does say “dude” more than anyone I know. He has a lot of great stories. And he always says the same jokes over, even though there are fewer laughs each time. I love it! My mom has this great, smart sense of humor, perhaps only she and I can truly appreciate. And no one knows the thrill of mother-daughter, deal-hunter shopping.

Mom, Dad, come home soon! (With fabulous souvineers!)

Yesterday I did a bad thing. I was doing my typical break routine - honey nut Cheerios, laptop and Style Network - all in my pajamas at 1 p.m, when the doorbell rang.

My non-showered, pajama-clad self was definitely not ready for her adoring public. So I opened the tiny metal door to see Matt Jones. He’s a real estate agent with a communication problem. I used to live in this area. Neat. Yep, now I do real estate. So I see. How are you doing today? Fine. Isn’t it cool that I can talk for 15 minutes straight and manage to not say anything? Must be a gift.

I closed the squeeky metal door and went back to my morning routine. Sometimes it’s good to be mean.

Where else but a blog can you really confess? Well, I have something to admit. I believe things I get in the mail. The Who’s Who. The Poetry book publishers. The National Dean’s List?

But the National Dean’s List thing was different. Its perforated edges opened like a paycheck. I was disappointed there was no money in it. But I was glad that it didn’t ask me for money in the second paragraph, or any paragraph thereafter. Which is good, because after the holidays and those GAP jeans, I have no money. It did say I was part of the top one percent of the nation’s college students. Well, I always thought that, but this letter says that lots of people agree!

Alas, I know someone is lying to me. But again, I confess, I like to believe those letters are real.

I’ve tried to find out who sells my info. Enter my alias: Raquida Jackson. When they’re addressed to her, I don’t even bother opening those ones. Instead, they go straight to the cross shredder.

But the ones addressed to me, I always show them to my mom. Even though I don’t believe it, I tell her the facts and ask her if it’s true.

“I don’t know with those things, Emily.”

“But did you see the perforated edges? It says they’re sending me a kit and they don’t ask for money!”

“Well, maybe. Have your Dad take a look at it.”

She always says that. I never show him, though. I don’t want him thinking his daughter is stupid, when really she’s in the top one percent of all college students.

Megan and I took our cousins to the zoo for a belated Christmas present. It was a blast! I had never seen the new children’s zoo. We also got the primo tour from Papa. He helped in the structural engineering of the project, and several others. Papa told us several insider stories. Like when the alligator climbed the wall of a pool and was found chillin on the walkway. Or the time the woman was letting her kids crawl around the wall of said landscape, only to be reprimanded by zoo officials. Her defense? It’s not like they’re real!

I took pictures with my new phone, the Treo 600. I think they turned out pretty well.

The whole gang

Jessica as a tortise

Alexandra and Joshua going down a slide

Click here for more pictures! (Sorry they’re out of order!)

* I have nothing against mentally handicapped people, unlike Lindsay Lohan. It’s just a quote from one of the Rockys.

2006 must be the year of the bad blogger. Not only do I not have anything to write, I haven’t had the desire to blog. I guess real life keeps getting in the way. I’ve been so off kilter that I’ve totally forgotten to change my Dog-a-Day calendar! I’ve had this thing since October and I’ve been anxiously awaiting the daily ripping.

What I’ve discovered is that breaks are bogus. I do sleep more, but I am not productive nor am I less stressed. Assignments and a job help me forget real life. Ya know, emotions and junk.

So adoring readers, and stalking, google-search weirdos, never fear. I am alive and kicking! Just not in the blogging mood. Any blog post suggestions are welcomed!

I made a few resolutions last year. I only remember two. One was to floss. Needless to say, that’s going to be a repeat this year. One was to get more sleep. I was successful. Although, I slept in instead of going to bed much earlier.

So this year, my blog can keep me accountable of what I resolve to do.

1. Read my Bible more.
2. Floss. No more cavities!
3. Get organized. Personal living space and finances.
4. Become a better ultimate player. Join a team? Weekly practice after I graduate.
5. Wake up to my alarm the first time, every time.
6. Learn more about web design.
7. Stop being a people pleaser.
8. Eat more corn.

Things I’m looking forward to in 2006
* Living in The Unit
* Visiting Vegas and New York
* Graduating
* Getting a job
* Figuring life out!
* Learning and growing