Ketchup Part III: Blood, Sweat, and Beers

How's that for a random blog post title?

Earlier this month I went to see Eric Church in concert for his Blood, Sweat, and Beers tour with the BFF Charlene, Sarah, and their friend Shauna. I almost went with them last year when Mr. Church came to Arizona, but I had an interview for an internship the next morning (which I totally got, by the way) so I chickened out.

But this year I said, no way Jose. 

I said, "let there be Eric Church"...and there was.

And lemme tell ya, it was impressive.

I just would like to say that Eric Church, per his latest album, is in fact, the Chief.

Don't get me wrong or anything, George Strait is still, and always will be the King.

But that Eric Church, he's definitely the Chief.

In fact, he had just won the CMA for Album of the Year for Chief the night before the concert, so he promised to play us every song off the album.

And he did.

And he wore his aviators the entire night while doing it.

...Which, normally really bugs me when people wear their sunglasses indoors, but I feel like when you're the Chief, it totally works for you.

He pulled out all the stops during his show including big loud bangs that made us think we were being shot at, lots of fist pumps, pyrotechnics, and of course...smoke.

As in, "drank a lil' drank, smoke a lil' smoke."

And we did. 

Figuratively, that is.

I'm not sure you can tell by the video, but when he sings These Boots, everyone holds up one of the boots they're wearing and sings along...and its kinda cool. Sarah and Charlene hopped on that train, but since my boots weren't really cowboy boots, and had a zipper in the back, and are really hard to get on and off cause I think my calves are getting fat, my boots stayed put. Right on my feet. And I video'd instead.

I'll make note for next time.

Eric Church for Entertainer of the Year 2013!

Ketchup Part II

It's a little embarrassing that we just finished Thanksgiving, and Halloween is just now making it onto the blog. 

Coulda woulda shoulda been a better blogger.

Anyway...the thing I like the most about Halloween is not picking out a costume for myself...but rather, for my dogs. And the thing I like the most about dog costumes is that you can't really make a dog costume into a slutty version of whatever that costume is. Cause it annoys me enough when humans do that, I certainly would never let my dogs out of the house in a slutty Halloween costume.

Just sayin'.

I've always questioned weather it makes me a bad furmom if I like to get a laugh at the expense of my dogs...I've decided no, it doesn't.

And that's that.

Check out Maycee and Gunny's costumes from last year here. 

This year Gunther was the sheriff

And Maycee was a little piggy

...except Maycee's costume was too small so it didn't fit the right way and I was a little disappointed.

But I guess maybe there's some irony in that...little piggy, costume doesn't fit...

Just sayin'.

And as always, they were thrilled to be wearing costumes for the night.

But don't let Gunther's stink-eye fool you, he was totally pumped to be the Sheriff. He didn't even try to chew off the costume. He walked around with his fake gun in his fake holster and was like 

"sup dogs, I'm the sheriff 'round these here parts."

In fact, since my sister-in-law and her dog Shelton joined us for the night, and Shelton was dressed as a prisoner, I had to reign in Gunther's Sheriff ego for the night.

Sheriff, prisoner...you know how that goes.

Now there's a stink-eye if I ever saw one...

All in all, I think the dogs enjoyed barking at all the trick-or-treaters, scaring them away with said barking, seeing how close they could get to the candy dish without getting yelled at, and last but not least, shredding their costumes at the end of the night.

Per the usual, Halloween the dogs made for a pretty entertaining night.

  

Ketchup I

The following series of posts are my attempt to catch up with blogging.

See what I did there? Ketchup, catch up...

Cause if you look at my last post, I'm pretty sure it was like, from the 14th or something.

Whoops.

Don't judge me if I go all the way back to Halloween K?

I'll start with a few randoms.

Girls night with my dear friends Stephanie and Sarahita 

We got together for a night filled with Pita Jungle, Moscato, chit-chat, and as Stephanie calls, "the best worst movie ever," Howard the Duck.
It was indeed one of the best worst movies I've seen.
If you decide to watch it...don't say I didn't warn you.

Christmas crafting with Charlene and Sarah

We crafted for a good a good 9 hours, ate some pizza, introduced my labs Maycee and Gunther to Charlene's golden doodle Henry, and Sarah's lab Joey, and then crafted some more.
It was glorious.

ASU beat UofA in this years Territorial Cup rivalry game
Go Devils!

And that's all I'll say about that since nobody likes a gloater.

I learned how to shoot a bow

Now I'm that much closer to being as cool as my husband.
I sort of sucked my first time out, but with any luck, if I get good enough, I can hunt with a bow instead of a rifle on our javelina hunt in February.
Then my cool factor might almost be on the same level as Nate's.

More Christmas crafting with the BFF Charlene

What we didn't finish during our first round (see above), we finished the following weekend. Which is awesome for two reasons:
1.) More Christmas crafts to decorate with
2.) I got to see Charlene TWO weekends in a row.
That's what I call a win-win.

And last but not least (big sigh)...
I got a Twitter

I'm still on the fence about this one.
I feel a little bit like a sell-out since I was always so anti-Twitter. I feel like, who am I to think that people would be interested in what I have to say? Not that I have a lot to say, but I wanted to get one in order to promote the blog a little more. ...which actually might make me more of a sell-out now that I think about it...but whatever.
I can't guarantee it will be riveting, but you should totally follow me
@MissRiss0409

Remaining Ketchup: Eric Church, Halloween dog costumes and awesome Thanksgiving family photos
Get ready, they're a doozy.

The New AZ

I'm sure most of you have heard by now, all the states petitioning to secede from the United States after the election earlier this month.

Crazy talk, I tell you.

Arizona is one of the states with a petition going around (which, I hate to say, doesn't surprise me), and I was thinking this morning, seceding from the U.S. is something I could totally be jiggy with.

After AZ becomes it's own country (or whatever they turn into after seceding) I've got some big plans for this place.

First and foremost, I (naturally) would become the president of this newly formed country. And if you read this post, you'd know that since I'm almost done with grad school, I'm totally qualified to run my own country.

Since we would no longer be part of the United States, Arizona would from there-on-out become

Rissa's Territorial Republic of the People's Kingdom of the Democratic States of Arizona 

It's a doozy, I know.

Yes, that eagle is the symbol of the House of Ravenclaw. But I was personally sorted, by the sorting hat, into Ravenclaw in my virtual Pottermore world.

I gotta pay homage.

Our new National Anthem would be something to the likes of England's "All hail the Queen Rissa"

Actually scratch that. 

Too vain.

Maybe something more like "Call me Vote for me Maybe"

Actually scratch that.

No one's voting for me.

I'm totally self-appointed. 

Maybe I'll figure out the National Anthem later...

Our National Animal would be Maycee:

And our other National Animal would be Gunther:

They say your first 100 days in office are the most critical, and the most effective.

As such, in my first 100 days as the new President of Rissa's Territorial Republic of the People's Kingdom of the Democratic States of Arizona, I would:

-Legalize unexcused absences from class

-Criminalize socks with flip flops

-Bail out my student loans

-Make it a crime to waste a left turn arrow

-Declare cheerleading a sport

-Raise taxes on canines making more than $250,000 a year

-Educate my constituents on the harmful effects of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo"

-Sign the Affordable Care Wardrobe Act, ensuring women of all ages have access to the fabulous fashion they need at a low cost, with prices never ever rising.

Ever.

Including accessories. 

-Mandate husbands across the Nation to quit snoring

-Amend the constitution to explicitly state that Harry Potter will forever, and always, be better than Twilight

-And lastly, excommunicate all things Kardashian

Since I would be president, that makes Nate the First Dude, and my cabinet would be a plethora of people I bet you wish you had in your cabinet: 

Taylor Swift would be my secretary of awesome music;

Chuck Norris would be secretary of defense (duh);

Bill Gates, my treasury secretary (cause I'm pretty sure he's loaded);

Attorney General would go to Judge Judy (duh);

And lastly, my Chief of Staff, naturally, would be Eric Church, since, well...he is the Chief

...which by the way, won Album of the Year at the CMAs. So I got a good feeling he's right in there for Chief of Staff of the Year.

I doubt that anyone will actually secede from the U.S., but in case they do...I'm totally ready.

Veteran's Day

This weekend we celebrated Veteran's Day.

My husband is a veteran: 

Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom from 2007-08.

A couple weekends ago I went to the Eric Church concert.

I know you're probably thinking "and these two go together, how??" but stay with me...

At the Eric Church concert he sang his song "These Boots," and if you haven't heard it...google it.

But he sings about his pair of boots and all the places they've been, and what they've seen over the years, and it got me to thinking about my husband's boots.

His Army boots.

And all the places they've been and things they've seen.

Those boots were laced up every morning for over a year, to run missions all day that lasted well into the night, often times through the night. 

They carried an extra 100+ pounds of gear, and withstood the heat of the Iraqi summers.

Those boots have been dusted with the sands of Tikrit and the dirt of Mosul.

They've walked along the gravel near the Tigress River.

And they sat crammed next to bunch of other boots on a C-130 for hours to get there.

Those boots stood next to both Iraqi forces, and young locals; 

all in the name of a better Iraq.

Those boots spent Thanksgiving and Christmas, and rang in the new year overseas.

Those boots were there, on the floor of Saddam Hussein's mother's palace, when Nate was planning our engagement.

  

Those boots have seen a lot, heard a lot; most of which, I'll never know.

But those boots came home on the feet of my husband...alive and in one piece.

These days, those boots spend their time in the mountains of Arizona, chasing deer and elk, and anything else that has four legs. 

But they come back home at the end of each day.

Just as they should.

Thank you to all those who have served, and are currently serving our Country over seas.

"Honor the fallen, thank the living"

My favorite soldier

Not Another Election Post

...I know that's what you're thinking...and it kind of is another election post.
 But stay with me on this one cause I think it's gonna be good.

Now that (unfortunately) Romney lost his bid for the Presidency, it's time for all the talking heads to sit back, analyze, and figure out who's fault it is that Romney didn't win. It's Romney's fault, it's the GOP's fault, and of course when all else fails...blame Bush.

BUT, I think I have the answer as to why Romney didn't win on Tuesday.

It's cause he wasn't running with me.

No offense Paul, you're super smart and everything...and word on the street is you're pretty buff...and part of me wants to see you with your shirt off...but I digress.

A Romney-Rissa ticket would've been a sure thing.
Easy- peasy.
Sinchy.
A guaranteed win.

Think about it:
-Romney could keep the same logo since we both have the whole "R" thing going on.
-I almost have a Master's degree and I've interned for a congressman before, which totally qualifies me to be the Vice President.
-I always say please and thank you, pretty convincingly I might add, so when we go to battle ground states like Ohio and Florida, all I would have to do is nicely ask for your vote and people would be like, "Well since you asked so politely..."
-I'm a poor college student, which totally balances out the whole Romney-is-a-freakin'-gazillionaire thing people had a hard time getting over.
-I've been on two cruises that sailed out of Florida. So I've been there twice, and now I totally understand the needs of the voters.
-There's tons of fundraising resources that went un-tapped since I wasn't on the ticket this election. For example: super PAC Women for Puppies and Harry Potter.
They're pretty rich...and magical.
And since Romney's not a woman, and there was that whole thing about a dog on top of his car, if it weren't for me, Romney would've totally missed out on their donations...and magic.
People were concerned about voter fraud...think about what having Harry Potter on your side could do.
Just sayin'.
-I know all the words to "Call Me Maybe" and "Bringin' Sexy Back," which totally ups the cool factor Romney was having a hard time with.
-I feel like it might be hard for foreign dictators to argue with a face like this

So I'm almost positive we would always get what we want.
-We could have a campaign mascot in Gunther or Maycee

-And lastly, I have really good jokes. And I feel like Mitt is the kinda guy that would enjoy a good joke, which would make for travel time in the campaign bus that much better.

I know we've got a while to go until the next election, so Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mitch Daniels, and all you up-and-comers...I'm talkin' to you.
I'm gonna have my Master's degree here shortly and I'm gonna need a job.
Just sayin'.