Labor Day Par-tay

Piles and piles of work this week (can you spot some bunhead action in the back?) | A little IZZE for an afternoon pick-me-up
We're FINALLY going to paint the living room | Bella cat has seen something terrible. It was probably the woodchuck in the backyard
Heyoooo! It's Labor Day Weekend friendlies! Which also coincides with the start of the football season. In the Bungalow, we are not normal Nebraskans. Meaning we are NOT Husker fans. Not in any way, shape, or form. 'Round these parts we support Notre Dame, who is playing their first game against the Navy in Dublin at 8 AM (central) on Saturday. Which means I have to be up before 8 AM. On a Saturday. Andy said, "You can get up whatever time you want, but at 7:40 the bus is leaving". I am assuming this means I need to be awake before 7:40. GAH. I'll let you know how it works out on Monday.
Also, here is a hilarious quote from Andy last night: "I'm going to start calling everyone my LT. I'm going golfing tomorrow with my LT Ben and my LT Nick. Bella is my LT and I give her head scratches. Do you know who is not my LT? Abby. Abby is my LN. Life nemesis."
That Mandrew of mine...

1. This is adorable. 2. This is true. 3. This is how I feel I look right now, minus the cute.
I can't even put this into words. I just can't.
I need to buy a shower curtain for the main bath before Jestina comes in October. I really like this one.
I'm obsessed with design style one of this stationary. Cheap and customizeable! 
Um. Old school JT + pizza = this.

What do you have planned for this weekend? A friend of ours is coming in town for the weekend, another friend is having her birthday party tonight, the game Saturday, family dinner Sunday, and Boz's (my little brother) 16th birthday on Monday. It's a busy weekend!

The Wrap Up

Alright. I'm sure you've had enough of OMG PORTLAND posts. But I wanted to wrap this 'ish up with some seriousness.

I was bombarded constantly before I left with questions about my trip. "What do you MEAN you've never met her in real life?" "You met her on the internet? Like a dating site?" "Won't that be SO weird?" "What if you don't get along?" "Are you nervous?" All I could do was shake my head. I knew it wouldn't be weird. But I still had butterflies in my stomach upon touchdown in Portland, not because I was nervous, it was because I was so. freaking. excited. Yes, that needed to be in bold.

Not one second of my trip to see Jestina was weird. WE were weird (I mean, we are two grown adults, but that didn't stop us from playing with hand puppets every time we saw them), but the trip wasn't weird. Andy and Chris (our man/dino-friends) became fast friends as well.

Being friends with Jestina is like being friends with someone since birth. I feel like I've known her forever. I don't remember what my life was like pre-LT (what we call the time before we started talking). She knows me better than I know myself. She is the person I turn to when I need advice, when I find something funny, or just want to vent. She was all of this BEFORE we met in person. So now that we have met in person, it's all of that times a thousandmillion.

The night before we left Portland I had a meltdown. I cried and I cried. I'm not a crier. I cry when I get really mad, but I very rarely cry from sadness. I was so sad to leave my best friend. As I stood in the mirror applying my makeup before we left for the airport last Tuesday morning, I thought, "maybe I shouldn't put eye makeup on, I might cry". I decided, "nahh, there's no way I'll cry again". WRONG. As soon as I laid eyes on the security line, I could feel the tears well up. I hugged Jestina forever, but it felt like half a second. We both made whimpering noises. And then she was gone. And then I cried on and off for the next hour. The whole time I was like, "WHO AM I? And what have I done with Shannon?!". Andy patted my back and gave me the side eyes. He didn't know who I was either.

Don't worry. I eventually stopped crying. But the lesson here kids is that the internet is a magical place. A place where you can Google the lyrics to Rock the Casbah (rock the catbox? rock the cash bar?), play a never ending saga of Bejeweled, read about KStew and RPatz's breakup (that bitch...), post your feelings on a blog to share with the world, or even meet your best friend.

Posting that vlog of us yesterday made me a bit teary. Teary because I miss her, and teary because I am so lucky to have found such an amazing best friend.

Enough of the sappy stuff. Behold: our true height difference.

Gigglepants: A Vlog

So Amy and Shay sent Jestina and I a box when I was in Portland. This is what happened.

I can't watch this vlog without getting the gigglepants and also teary because I miss her. 
Thanks Amy and Shay for the box of nonsense!

Portlandia - Day 4

Title: Portlandia - Bunhead Edition

Episode: Day Four - The Finale - Being Touristy

Cast: Jestina Mayo, Shanbird, Andywhore, Chrisdemon, Sharkweasel

Supporting Cast: Natalie from Adventures as Mrs. Janney and Tegan from En Love With Life

Thanks for sticking around for all my recap posts. I think I'm enjoying it way more than all of you. I read each post again probably 6 times a day. I just miss that bunhead best friend of mine. Like a lot.

We started day four off at Besaw's where I got a lot of pepper stuck in my teeth and everyone thought it was SO FUNNY. It wasn't. Trust me. Then we set off to visit a few breweries. Including one that was closed, a fact that Jestina overlooked because she got so excited when she saw cheese platters on their menu. But it was okay. We were happy anyways.

Then we went on a crazy gondola thing that took us high above the city. It offered some pretty spectacular views.

Then we moseyed on back to Lake Oswego to have coffee and fattening delicious things.

Gluten-free and dairy free Hot Chocolate Cupcake with a side of not gluten or dairy free chocolate croissant because I am OBSESSED

I set off to bother some ducks which caused Andy to yell at me to stop bothering the ducks while they were "relaxing". So I took this picture instead.

Then we went to a fancy little toy store called Frog Pond Toys to get gifts for the nephews (which included DIY metallic temporary tattoos and a bamboo racecar) and also to annoy the living crap out of Andy by making him take pictures of us with ferret hand puppets. We HAD too. We just did.

We went to meet Natalie for some happy hour action and I am kicking myself over and over for not getting a picture with her. She was rocking the bold red lipstick that I cannot pull off for the life of me. And she was the sweetest ever. Seriously.

Then round two of blogger meetups was with Tegan (aka. fashion blogger extraordinaire) at another bar down the street (at this point all the names are blurring together). We DID manage to get a picture here.

But not before Andy took this gem:

Lessons Learned:

There is no such thing as "too many chocolate croissants"

Don't bother the ducks. Don't go in the water. Don't even go NEAR the water.

Bloggers are amazing, especially in real life.

Blue cheese fondue really gave Chris some demons.

Once again, Portland is BE-YOO-TIFUL.

Portlandia - Day 3

Title: Portlandia - Bunhead Edition

Episode: Day Three - We Didn't Die Underground

Cast: Jestina Shanghai, Shannon Giant, Dinoconspirers

Day three. The big day. The day of the Shanghai Tunnel Tour.

We started the day off at the Portland Saturday Market (even though it was Sunday and that's confusing) and I saw a man and a woman singing folk songs, while the woman held some sort of strange cat in her arms. It was amazing. Then we then hit up the BrunchBox food truck for some lunch.

And then liquid courage at the Bridgeport Brewery.

And more liquid courage at Hobo's before the tour.

The bartender then went on to freak the crap out of us telling all sorts of ghost stories. Then we started the tour.

Scardypants in the red light.

Orb or dust speck? We will never know.

But, we made it out alive. And really, not all that scared. Horray for us. We headed back out into Chinatown.

Then we stumbled upon the Church of Elvis on our way out of Chinatown.

Those are Barbies riding exercise bikes in the far right picture.

It was very, very strange.

Then. THEN. There was the Clyde Common. AKA Best Food Ever. 

Sour cream, onion, and parmsesan popcorn | Steak with heirloom tomatoes atop buffalo mozzarella and ciabatta

Lessons Learned on Day Three:

I am not as scared of being underground as I thought I was.

Portland has an effed up history.

I like sassy gay bartenders.

I was more scared of the spiderwebs Jestina kept shining her flashlight on than of ghosts.

I can no longer fit in my jeans.

Portlandia - Day 2

Title: Portlandia - Bunhead Edition

Episode: Day Two - We Go to Lake Oswego

Cast: Jestina Donutmaster, Shanstuffsherface, The Mantwins, Sharkdawg Cutiepants

On day two, we made the short trek over to Lake Oswego, where Jestina and Chris live, to go to the Farmer's Market. In which I ate the following things: chicken gyro, mushroom pizza, peach and bacon pizza, breakfast burrito, tamale, horchata ice cream, AND THE BEST DONUTS EVER AND EVER. Seriously. That good. So good, that it was worthless to go to Voodoo (which I also did not want to wait in an hour and a half long line for either).

Half cinnamon, half maple donut. I keep having dreams about it.

Then we meandered over to the actual lake. Which you can't swim in. Because it's private. But you can look at it. Which is just rude.

That Mandrew of mine and me. And my food baby. I look three months pregnant.

The lake, and the multimillion dollar houses around it | Me getting my Titanic on
We left the lake and went to do something REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT. That looked like this:

I met the Sharks! If you can even believe it, he was way cuter in real life. I know, you're thinking that it's not even possible, but it is. It really is.
We went on a mini road trip to the Pittock Mansion, which was beautiful. And this happened:

  And outside the mansion, I felt like I was in Twilight.

We ate some lunch at Hopworks Urban Brewery, allotted some time for naps, and then we arcaded it up at Ground Kontrol.
Asians and Irish alike are bad at Frogger, and also bad at Dance Dance Revolution
After that, we sipped on fruity drinks on the patio of Henry's Tavern, where these twinkly lights were strung above it.

Lessons Learned on Day Two: Andy and Chris have become Mantwins. The Mantwins are good at video games and Jestina and I are VERY bad. Donuts at the Lake Oswego Farmer's Market are made of rainbows and dreams. Sharks is one of the cutest dogs in all of history. I didn't find Edward in the forest jumping around like a spider monkey.

Portlandia - Day 1

Title: Portlandia - Bunhead Edition

Episode: Day One - In Which Andy Tries to Lose Us on Purpose

Cast: Jesdashian Wuhanna, Shanacid, Le Mandrew, Dinochris

We left Omaha early. Like 6 AM early. So, we flew off into the sunrise, which was pretty cool.

Sunrise | Some glassesfaces waiting to board our plane in Denver
Upon arrival, I resisted the urge to swing Jestina around like a small child. There was hugging and some "eeeeeeee!" noises. Then we needed food. Obviously. We went to a little place called the Bijou Cafe and slammed down some french toast. I didn't even take any pictures because Jestina and I were too busy switching between cinnamon bread and brioche bread pieces.
Then we saw a jalapeno outside Whole Foods downtown and needed to take a picture inside of it. Obviously.

  We went to Powell's City of Books and quickly found the children's section that was full of hand and finger puppets, weird toys, and some cheese grater thing shaped like an alligator that said "Alligator Rape" on it. After having a massive attack of the giggles over alligator rape, we donned finger puppets and put on a show. This is when Andy lost us on purpose. But, never fear! We chased him down and found him upstairs looking at actual books. Which was conveniently located next to the sign language section.

Jestina is doing "research"
Andy then proclaimed "I NEED BEER". It had only been a few hours, and he was already frustrated with our craycrayness. So we got him some beer at Henry's Tavern.

Portland Brewery Sampler
Then we checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Ace Hotel Portland, a boutique hotel in all it's glory. I didn't take many pictures of the room, because once my suitcase opened, it exploded all over the room. 
Each room has a different mural on the wall, this was ours | Our view, The Pearl District

The hallways looked like they were straight out of "The Shining" | Note next to the sink about towels, "Want a new towel? Leave it in the tub. No tub? Leave it in the shower. No shower? Leave it in the sink. No sink? Leave."

Then we met up with the loverly Christopher Dinopants and went to Deschutes for dinner and drinks (I ate my beer mac and cheese with fennel sausage much too fast to take pictures), then to Rogue for more drinks, and then we called it a night because we had been up for 22 hours. Which is why I didn't take very many pictures. If you want to see more pictures, go here.
Lessons Learned on Day 1:  Jestina and I are a handful when we're together. Andy will threaten to leave you and call you "giant children" if you wear a hedgehog puppet on one hand and a three headed dragon one on the other. Portland is BE-YOO-TIFUL. 22 hours is a long time to stay awake. Meeting your best friend in real life is way better than I could have ever imagined.

The Overview

Title: Portlandia - Bunhead Edition

Episode: The Overview

The Cast: Jestina Wuhanna, Chris Dinoface, Sharkdog Extraordinaire, Shandashian, Andy Gigglepants

I'm going to give you the quick and dirty overview with some of the details I know you have been just DYING to know.

Q: Was it weird flying across the country to meet someone you met on the internet? 

A: Completely. She was so weird and we spent the entire trip trying to avoid each other.

Not.

It wasn't weird in the least. It was like we just fell into step with each other and had known each other for years and years. Bunheads and LTs just fit together like that.

Q: Did you eat all the things?

A: Yes. Andy said he was surprised his body didn't shut down while we were there. I can't remember the last time I had that much good food.

Q: Did you love Oregon?

A: YES. And yes. And some more yes. I'm trying to get Andy to move there. It's not going well.

Q: Did you drive Andy and Chris (the Dinos) crazy?

A: Most definitely. Andy tried to purposefully lose us in Powell's Books after we had only been in Portland for an hour. This was when Jestina and I were in the children's section playing with finger puppets and I was shouting "LOOK! IT'S THE PRINCESS AND THE BEAVER!". We found him and fortunately he was in near the sign language section, which caused more hilarity to ensue.

Q: Did you laugh so hard you cried?

A: Many, MANY times.

Q: Did you cry at the airport?

A: And the night before we left. For a long, long time. Which is very strange for me because I NEVER cry. I'm just not a very emotional person. But that Jestina best friend of mine, she brings out the emoshoshanna in me. I miss her too much already.

I'm back at work already today. I'm exhausted and I have a million pictures to sort through for you guys. So tomorrow, get ready for more episodes of Portlandia - The Bunhead Edition.

Hello From Portland!

I'm kind of busy having a kick ass time/trying not to think about having to leave tomorrow. So I'm going to go enjoy a little more of this view today, and soaking up every second with my best friend that I can.

True Life: I Met My Best Friend On the Internet

Today's post is a little different than my normal Friday posts. Because something huge is happening today.

As you are reading this, I am high up in the sky on an airplane flying to a faraway land. The land of Portland, OR. Where the dream of the 90's is alive.

You know what else is in Portland? My best friend.

The title of this post is true, I met Jestina on the internet. We became blogging buddies, with me here at the Bungalow, and her over at Two Smuppies. We had some mutual friends through our blogs, and started exchanging tweets and emails daily. Then, to avoid clogging up everyone's Twitter feeds, we exchanged phone numbers so that we could text all of our nonsense. Little by little, we found out that we had so many things in common, that we decided that we were Life Twins (LTs for short, I'm sure you've seen that term around here a few times). LTs minus the fact that she is tiny and Asian, and I am an Irish giant. And she likes sweet tea (ew).

I've struggled with friends over the past few years. I felt like I had a lot of people I enjoyed talking to, but no one really "got" me. Until Jestina. She not only knows all my deepest, darkest, twisty secrets, but she also gets my totally weird sense of humor, because it's the same kind of humor she has too. We have email exchanges that we call "word vomit" because we just spew all of the rants, raves, and crazy in our head into words. We have "ladeez night" when we Skype. Sometimes we Skype for 3 and half hours and our Dinos (boyfriends) get all rawr-y at us. But we can't help it. We're LTs. She doesn't even judge me when I text her that I am singing We Belong Together by Pat Benatar to my cats.

And we have all of this, and more, without ever meeting in person.

But today? Today that changes. Because these two LTs are about to slice up the life of Portland.

I warn you now that if you follow either of us on Instagram or Twitter, we are not accountable for our actions.

You guys, I get to meet my best friend today. The feelings I have cannot even be put into words. So I will leave you with these LT-isms: Meal. Greer. Gnomes. SLICE UP YOUR LIFE.

Happy Bungalow-versary!

One year ago, the Bungalow became ours. We signed our lives away and got a Ziploc bag full of keys.

It has been a whirlwind year full of home repair, yardwork, and fun. Our neighborhood feels like home to me now. We have tons of projects lined up for the next year (including taking that nasty screened in porch out), but we've learned to take our time and enjoy our house. You never get to redo your first house experience. So sometimes, the Bungalow gets a little messy, projects get put off, and the yard gets a little out of control. Sometimes, you blow the circuit breaker for the entire house by running your hairdryer, window air conditioner, radio, and every light in the master bedroom and bathroom at the same time (and sometimes Andy gets really mad at you when you do this three times in 5 minutes). These things happen. And sometimes life gets a little crazy and out of control. That's when you'll find us lounging in the backyard or in the kitchen cooking up something delicious, just enjoying life in our Bungalow.

So happy Bungalow-versary. I hope I never have to clean the floor drain in the basement out ever again.

Animal Kingdom

So it's no secret that I love animals (minus birds, ew).

We have these two laydeez at the Bungalow.

Belly Fat (she's actually lost half a pound! that's a lot for a little critter) | Abby Chat
And this not so little guy is Le Dude. His real name is Beck, but he is partial to being called Le Dude, The Dude, Duder, Duderino, and Perro Estupido.

Le Dude was/is Andy's dog. We found out I was allergic to him last year, so he lives with his brother now. I still risk hives every time I see him because I can't resist petting his giant belly and his rabbit fur soft ears. He also only has three usable legs. One of his elbows doesn't work right, so he hops around on his other three. He is a very special dog. 
Andy's parents also have two pugs, Charlie and Lucy. They are a pug kind of family.
Andy's nephew Tucker with Lucy | Charlie dog is the definition of special
My parents have this critter, Miss Chloe. She is a yorkie/maltese mix and probably the smartest dog I have ever met.

Looking at that picture just makes me want to cuddle her for the rest of the day.
And then, over the past few years, these animal encounters have happened:

I met a giraffe.
We went behind the scenes of the aquarium at the Omaha Zoo and hung out with a sea turtle, some sharks and a stingray, and some jellyfish.

Memphis found a frog and named it "Bill Lang" (Andy's dad's name)
Just your typical Lang family Christmas party.
If I had my way, I would own a zoo full of animals. Andy said I'm not allowed to get any more pets. I can replace ones that I already own, but I'm not allowed to add to the number of furry critters in my house. Like I would replace one of my cats, psh.