Okay, it's been far too long since we've had any hijinks around here. So here we go.
Maria and I are here in beautiful (?) Anaheim, waiting for the big day tomorrow. Reminds me of the night before I got married -- sleeping in a hotel room with a girlfriend, trying to sleep, I should say! Too excited to do much of anything zzzzz-related.
It's been an exciting day already... The flight down was uneventful (thank goodness -- who wants an eventful flight???). But before we got on the plane, we did a quick scan of scrapbook stores in the greater Anaheim area, and we discovered that Scrapbook Oasis is within spittin' distance of the airport! So of course we ditched all ideas of heading to the hotel and headed straight to the "O" instead.
Here's where it gets funny (bet you were wondering!). After driving around a pitch-black industrial park for ten minutes, we come upon the correct building... and see "The Goddess Temple."
I kid you not:

There in the strip mall, alongside Joe's Industrial Elevators and PMC Business Wheels (okay, I made those up!), there was this little sign stuck in the lawn saying "The Goddess Temple." We looked at eachother and said, "Sure, this could be the place! Scrapbookers are goddesses, right??"
So we peeked in the window and saw.... a human skull, many velvety-type drapes, and some burning candles and maybe a newt's eye or two. Seriously. The place was WAY out of our comfort zone, and not a Basic Grey or a KI Memory in sight. We crept back to our car slowly so as not to upset the goddesses, and went on to the next building where there was... Scrapbook Oasis!

We parked, popped our heads in, breathed in the smell of cardstock, and sighed with relief. "Do you get a lot of customers who go to the Goddess Temple by mistake?" I asked.
The cute young lady employee looked at me like I was nuts. "Uh, no," she said, moving slightly away from me.
"Oh," I answered foolishly. "You know, there's a Goddess Temple right next door."
"Uh, sure," she said, moving the Heidi Swapp bling out of reach. I cowered off to a corner and began perusing American Crafts patterned paper.
For a second there, I was doubting my own senses... after all, this was an OASIS and all and I thought maybe I was seeing a MIRAGE or something. But no, the pictures show the truth, do they not???
We hung out for a bit, dropped $100 or so (TOTAL, not EACH!!!), and tried to crash the Jenni Bowlin class that was to take place that evening, but I think I'd freaked them out enough with all this talk of goddess temples that there was no way in God's name (or should I say, Goddess' name?) they were going to let us within ten feet of their star instructor. So we headed out before we were asked to leave (I think that when they saw me caressing the monster-sized Prima flowers, they got a little nervous).
Now, after a walk around the convention center, a short workout, and a dinner of Panda Express later, we are here.
More soon -- and a limited edition CHA-type prize to the first person to guess what model rental car we got!