Walk like an Egyptian...

This Saturday we decided to prep ourselves for the upcoming Tutankhamun exhibit at the De Young Museum by visiting the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. I visited the museum in middle school and thought it was pretty cool. This place is neato for many reasons.

1. They have a tomb replica...

The mummy king returns! Oh wait, that's Danny.

Where's the mummy?

2. It's like little Cairo

3. The Museum was founded and is run by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis.

What is the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis you might ask? Well it's all very interesting.

*AMORC was founded by Harvey Spencer Lewis in 1915 to re-establish the Rosicrucian Order to the Americas. The term Rosicrucian describes a secret society of mystics, allegedly formed in late medieval Germany, holding a doctrine "built on esoteric truths of the ancient past", which, "concealed from the average man, provide insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm." The association traces its origin to Ancient Egyptian mystery schools that they claim studied a wide variety of mystical subjects. The oral accounts they provide holds that these schools were founded during the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tuthmosis III and included among their most esteemed pupils Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Throughout history Rosicrucianism claims...

*To have come to the Americas in the 1690's but died out due to persecution (perhaps witch hunts??)
*Been known as the illuminati
*To have been key players in the French Revolution...Napoleon Bonaparte was a believer
*To have Ron L Hubbard (Scientology founder), Walt Disney, and Corporate America as advocates.
* On June 22, 1916 Lewis turned zinc into gold through "transmutation" in front of an audience. Although, "while the necessary materials weren't hard to obtain, transmutation wasn't cost-effective; buying elemental gold was more sensible."

The museum was founded after Lewis' tour of Egypt where he collected various artifacts with mystical symbolism. It now has the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in the western US.

Where do I sign up??

After our day of learning we went back to the hotel to hang by the pool. Yes...we had to vacate our apartment due to the construction. Might as well take advantage of the mini vaca.


*wikipedia

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Since I am currently spending so much time at home and still getting paid I find myself doing more shopping. Usually when I go to the store I don't buy things because I don't feel it is worth the blood, sweat, and tears I put into making the amount of money to buy the item. I went from Jan - May without buying a single piece of clothing or accessory! Now....I just don't feel I have any reason not to buy everything!! It's very dangerous! Especially since I bought a lot of stuff at Target today with the intention to return half the items (I needed to see stuff in full outfits before I could make my final decisions) and when asking Danny which he prefers between two items he says, "Just keep them both. You'll need them both anyways." (sigh) He's a dream. You're absolutely right Danny. I NEED them both.

Favorite Finds

$8 @ Target. My all-time favorite shirt. I wear one almost everyday. It's long and covers the gross muffin top caused by g's. It also has longer sleeves because let's face it, not many people over 12 look good in cap sleeves. And I know what your thinking, "Liz, this shirt looks kind of low. Aren't you flashing people when you wear it?" Probably....there's not much to see anyways. J/k . I wear a tank top underneath..............most of th e time.

$6 on sale!!! Yes they are kid shoes but a size 5 fits my 7.5 size feet. Yippee!!

On another note...I have abandoned P-90x. After 6 weeks I don't look much different. At least not enough to make it worth it to revolve my life around doing the stupid videos. Any other ideas?

I wish I was an expert in everything!!!!

I'm a perfectionist. I don't like doing things I don't know how to do because it won't be perfect. Today I wanted to be a lawyer, car mechanic, business etiquette expert, and a Spanish speaker.

1. Our landlord is remodeling the exterior wall to our apartment starting Thursday and we will be without a wall (which runs through our whole apartment...bedroom, living, etc) for 3 weeks. We are not getting a rent reduction or alternate accommodation and we will be having construction workers in and out of our apartment everyday from 8am til...whenever...for 3 weeks! This is totally illegal and I'm totally freaking out about it. A lawyer friend of ours advised us to write a letter to our landlord noting our concerns, listing all our possessions and their values, and send it registered mail. Well I spent all day researching landlord tenant law so that my letter wouldn't sound ridiculous but I know my landlord will get it and probably laugh. Wish I was a lawyer!!

2. I took my car to get an oil change today (during my lunch break from my letter writing) and while there the mechanic broke something on my car but I don't know what. They have monitors were I could watch what the mechanic under my car was doing and something broke and he got all worried. The mechanics on the ground floor stopped what they were doing and spoke to the manager (all in Spanish of course! grrrr!) Then the manager said, "Just replace it. Give her a new one." Wish I knew Spanish or was a mechanic and could tell what happened! I would have asked but I had already paid and was in my car (it's a 9 minute oil change and you stay in your car else fall in the pit).

3. My work right now is kind of strange. I'm grateful for this down time but also confused which makes me a little stressed out. I wish I knew what the proper business etiquette is for my situation. It is awkward.

Visiting Teaching Dessert Party

For visiting teaching last month my companion and I decided to have a little dessert party. I hosted it and decided it would be nice to enjoy our balcony. I used my ramekins to bake brownies (for brownie sundaes!) and peach cobbler. Both turned out super yummy but took way longer to cook than expected (an hour!). I was really excited to use my new lantern lights and visit with my favorite girls! It was an excellent night. Unfortunately no pictures of actual people.



I'm sad I won't be able to use our balcony for a month...especially since I just got super cute table linens to match my laterns :(...more on that to come...

Our miniature garden is growing miniature veggies and fruit

Danny gently cradling our first tomato

Our cantaloupe

Our peppers. They rotted before we picked them. We hadn't figured out yet that all our veggies are miniature and won't grow anymore.

Yellow Pear Tomatoes. Notice they are the size of Danny's thumbnail. Miniature indeed!