one quart peroxide, half a cup of baking soda, and a teaspoon dish soap..

A week ago yesterday we had our first out of town visitors. It was so exciting. Shane's friend, Jenny, and her dad stopped for the night in Blacksburg. They had traveled across the US and were heading north to New Jersey. We took them on a short cruise through the town, gave them a campus tour of V-tech, then we went out to dinner. It was really nice. (I had coffee before they arrived, which turned me into a complete chatterbox. Boy, I can really talk a lot while under the influence!) Well, needless to say, we really enjoyed having them here. I hope more of our friends and family will make the treck over here. Hint, hint...

In that same weekend, on Saturday, we went on a long hike (7 miles roundtrip!), to Mcaffee's Knob. Afterwards, we went to our neighbor's block party. He recently purchasd a (bbq?) smoker, so he wanted to try it out on all the neighbors in the nearby vicinity. It was a pot luck kind of thing, where he provided all the bbq chicken, pork ribs and pulled pork. It was really fun because we got to meet the other neighbors. It turns out that many of them are vet students at Vtech. One of them was wearing a t-shirt that said "B is for Brewski".

This weekend:
Friday, we went out to dinner at "Vincent's". It's funny, every time we drive passed that restaurant I hear in my head Mrs. Mia Wallace (from Pulp Fiction) introduce her dance partner in the Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest. "Vincent, thank you." I don't know why... (Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite movies ever. Up there with Silence of the Lambs and The Shining. And some parts of Scarface.)

Saturday, Vtech had a home game. The town gets crowded with fans and a bunch of tailgaters so we left town. We went to the mall in Roanoke. We drove around a lot that day. We couln't quite find the mall! We could see it from the freeway, but the exit took us around where we couldn't quite get to it. We finally found it, and Shane now has three new pairs of pants- he looks quite the hottie in his 501s! heehee! We then went looking for some cowboy boots that I want. (Okay, if you don't already know, I am originally from Texas. I moved to CA when I was ten. I have always liked cowboy boots. I used to wear them when I was at Cal State LA... people looked at me all weird. But they weren't your typical kickers, they were lace-up ropers. Which do look quite interesting... Anyhow, they won't be so strange to wear around here. I don't think.) Well, we didn't find the boots I wanted. This calls for a trip out to good Old El Paso to the boot stores, Tony Lama and Cowtown.

In the evening we drove into town to walk around. We didn't feel like the long walk there (a whole mile), so we parked then walked around. We had ice-cream at Ben N Jerry's. There were a lot of people walking around. Those college students... all in their Vtech gear. There is a lot of Hokie pride!

Sunday, was a day of church, some leisure shopping at Target, leftover's, reading, napping, and star gazing. Shane took out his telescope. He spotted a galaxy. I am amazed at the wonder of our skies... the heavens. My grandma, grandpa and now my cousin are up there.

Yeah, my cousin, Sonia, passed away last week. She was killed by a car late at night, in Texas. Her and a friend got plowed down and thrown 150 feet away. It was a sad week thinking about the situation. She was only 29 years old and she left three little boys. Although I have not seen my cousin for at least 12 years, it was sad to hear she's gone. Especially because I hurt for my aunt's sorrow. It was her youngest child. So, now she's joined my Abuelita Kika, Abuelito Inez, and my cousin, Indio, too.(Background: When I was a kid my grandpa, Inez, told me that when my Abuelita Kika died she went to heaven and became a star. And that she was looking over me every night. Although I don't really believe it I do like to think about them when I look up at the skies.)

Okay, so you are pro'bly wondering what is up with peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap... well, if you've ever had the misfortune of running over a skunk, you know what that is. It is the formula/recipe for getting rid of the stench! Yup, I ran over a skunk last week. (Ironically, the morning after I learned about my cousin's death.) It was raining and the little skunk came running out of nowhere and before I could slow down it went thudump, under my right tire. As I started to feel sad - BAM! the smell hit me. The smell... ooh that smell... it was with me whereever I went. It penetrated my nostrils! Ugh! I thought I could taste it, it was so bad! Thankfully, I found this recipe, which helped a lot. It is just a matter of spraying it on all the places where the skunk sprayed/splattered.... I haven't figured out where it all is, but I got a significant amount removed (the smell is not so bad anymore). It's funny, cause you can smell it as you walk up to the car. It's kinda like bad breath, it makes you wonder if people can smell ya!