Perky, Billy Bob and Sparkle's Guide to Making Wonton

"Always make sure you have the right mixture of meat, shrimp, and mushrooms!" -Perky

"Hopefully you bought the wonton skins at the supermarket. Sparkle forgot them once and decided that we could go on. Let's just say it was meatball night," -Billy Bob
"It was a legitimate mistake!" -Sparkle

"Make sure your folder is big/small enough for your wonton skins. Preferably, you'd want one that was bigger than me!" -Sparkle

"Now, put a scoop of meat in the middle of the wonton skin. Make sure it's not too big, or else you won't be able to fold it!" -Billy Bob

"Eat as you go! You're going to get really hungry if you make everything and THEN eat it!" -Perky

"So here's one of our best ones...There were some really weirdly shaped ones. I think one looked like Don Don," -Sparkle

"Put your uncooked wontons on a plate. That way, you know what to eat, and what NOT to eat! And it saves you toilet time. Trust me!" -Bily Bob

"Don't forget to enjoy your work with others! There are other people who are hungry, too! Especially Billy Bob apparently, after he's covered in egg yolk," -Perky

"And you can't forget the MARSHMALLOWS! What? You can? But they're so good! Well, Sparkle says you don't HAVE to roast marshmallows after wonton. But it's fun to! Isn't it?" -Billy Bob

A Mysterious Hunk of Purple Dough

Sparkle brought home this giant purple ball of dough recently, and it's...big, to say the least. And purple. But there's so many things that we can do with it! Like talk to it! Billy Bob decided to do that, though. I didn't feel like talking to a lump of dough. Even though it was purple, to say the least. 

"Uh...hi, purple ball of...dough!" 

Sparkle decided to bury himself in it. Or at least make it into a good chair. Did we mention that the dough was really stretchy? Did we mention it was purple????

"Guys...my head won't fit! And I think I'm stuck!"

Let's just say it took a large plunger to get Sparkle out of the dough. I'm not sure he was so generous with it after he had to get pulled out with something that we usually clean our toilets with. (Don't worry. We used a clean plunger. But the idea still scarred Sparkle.) Perky decided to give it a go, though, and stuck his head in it. Sparkle didn't mind standing on it. He just didn't want to stand in it. 

"Hi! I'm Perky! And I'm a giant ball of purple dough!"

Billy Bob, even though Sparkle warned him numerous times, wanted to stand in his own dough bowl. So we made him one. He didn't stick, much to Sparkle's disappointment. I think it's because Billy Bob's skinnier. And the fact that he has two feet, not four. Just don't tell Sparkle that I think Billy Bob's skinnier. The last time I did that, all of our waffles went missing, and there was a trail of syrup leading to Sparkle's door. 

"I don't recall you saying that you were going to stand in the dough on. Your. Head!!!" -Sparkle

Trust Billy Bob to make things more complicated when he can. When he does that, things get a lot more complicated for the rest of us. He ended up breathing in some dough, choking on it, leaving me to do the Heimlich maneuver while Sparkle could only look on, torn in between horror and laughter. I'm sure he was thinking something along the lines of Billy Bob getting served. Although I'm not sure Sparkle knows what that means...We decided to see, as a large chunk of dough, if it would float. I'd read somewhere that dough usually floats. I mean, how else did they have that giant floating piece of bread in "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"?

"Are you guys totally sure about this?" -Billy Bob

Long story short: that dough boat doesn't float. I'm sure Billy Bob could tell you the same thing, only he'd add details about how his nose got soaked and Sparkle was screaming in his ear the entire time about how the boat was going to sink. To take his mind off of things, we decided that we'd play basketball with the lump of dough. Originally all three of us had been on the edge, but thanks to the dough, I had been the only one left. 

"Ya know, the bottom of this can smells pretty good..." -Sparkle

Getting the two of them out of the can was another story. There were a lot of poles involved, some duct tape, and Sparkle's dreaded fear of the plunger. We used it on Billy Bob this time, though, because we knew that Sparkle would freak out. To appease the both of them, I allowed them to go bowling with the dough. Unfortunately, that didn't go so well, as the doughball ended up rolling off of the lane and onto the carpet.

"That's gutter ball...number three..." -Billy Bob

Before I knew it, Sparkle and Billy Bob had swept up the ball and had climbed up onto the TV, waiting to drop it. Why would they even do that? I know Sparkle's still smarting over the whole plunger thing, but did he really need to put the dough ball in danger? I'd come to love the thing! I could only stare up at them and hope that they didn't reduce the dough ball to a flat pancake...

"Is this really necessary?" -me
"Completely!!!" -Sparkle

Well, the dough ball is now a dough pancake...with a lot of carpet fluff on it. Billy Bob says it'll be okay though. "A little soap and water, and it'll be good as new!" he told me. But it didn't have the same smiley face it did before. It was still purple. It just didn't smile....Note to self: surround Sparkle with plungers while he's sleeping....

Love, Perky :D

The SECOND Annual Game Night!

DonDon's competitive streak sorta kicked in on New Year's Eve, and he insisted that we have another game night before the New Year kicked in..I guess it's sort of a yearly thing now? Well, anyways, the four of us gathered together with another set of new games to see who would be the best! We started off by teaming up against each other in a game of Dog-opoly. Billy Bob and I were together, while Sparkle and DonDon felt that they were going to go it alone.

"That's $300 you owe me, Sparkle!" -DonDon

Sparkle ended up going bankrupt, so he took a lap around the board in frustration while the rest of us sort of just sat there in confusion. How did DonDon have so many $500 bills? There's no way he was able to make that much money! Turns out he robbed the bank while we weren't looking, so we had to chase him around his house to make him give them back. We were sick of the game anyways, so we cleaned up for the next one. Billy Bob and I had the most money, so Billy Bob: 1, Perky: 1, DonDon: 0, Sparkle, 0. We teamed up again for a game of Monopoly Deal. 

"THREE SETS! HA! TAKE THAT, BILLY BOB!" 

DonDon and I ended up winning that, with a lot of shouts of "NO WAY" and "RENNNNT"! Of course, that prompted me to start singing from the musical, "Rent", which lead to Billy Bob hiding in a corner from my singing. It's not the best. In order to shut me up, Sparkle dragged out the Mancala set. I played DonDon, Billy Bob made sure no one cheated, and Sparkle...I think Sparkle decided to become a Mancala stone. 

"You know I can't pick you up, right, Sparkle?" -DonDon

DonDon ended up winning by about ten stones. Billy Bob was pretty sure he didn't even cheat. But of course, DonDon is a regular cheater, so of course we played a rematch just to be sure. He won again. We still chased him around to make sure he wasn't hoarding stones. After a couple of times, it was ascertained that he didn't hold any. To make up for the chasing, we let him pick the next game, which was Apples to Apples.

"I'm fairly sure that "beautiful" doesn't describe a car crash!" 

We didn't really have a limit on how many green cards you could get, so we pretty much ended up playing until we got bored. There were some really interesting ones, too. Billy Bob thought that a shark was gentle, Sparkle thought that cake was dense, and DonDon thought that dead fish was pleasant. I'm not so sure he had other cards in his deck to describe it anyhow. We then had a debate on Sparkle's choice of card. Cake is obviously supposed to be light and fluffy. Not dense and heavy. I have no idea what type of cake Sparkle's been eating. Billy Bob decided to prove the idea of a light and fluffy cake to Sparkle, and out of nowhere produced a box full of pastries.

"All of those cakes look really dense!" -Sparkle

We ended up having a little bit of all of them to prove that they were light and fluffy. Except for that cheese tart. That was most definitely some density in that tart. I came away with a mouthful of tart that almost didn't allow me to have the chocolate cake. If that had happened, Sparkle probably would have eaten all of it and would have bounced around DonDon's house for an hour or two. We solved that problem instead by bringing out the BuckyBalls. 

"Billy Bob, why are you wearing the box top on your head?" -Sparkle

I came close to almost eating one of the small BuckyBalls. I get why they don't sell them anymore.  I guess there are too many little pigs that the balls. Can you imagine how many of them became bacon? Billy Bob almost ate one, too. But I don't think that there are a lot of hippos that ate one. To take our minds off of eating the balls, DonDon suggested that we try to make crystals.

"Guys, get out of the buckets! I have to put hot water in!" -DonDon

The crystals turned out to be kind of a fluke anyways, so we didn't have anything to take home. To compensate for the lack of crystals, and mostly to have something colorful to look at before the New Year's ball dropped, Billy Bob brought out his special light cube. We turned all of the lights off in order to prep for counting down and sort of just stared at the cube to pass the time.

"Is anyone actually counting down till the new year?" -Billy Bob

It was at that point where DonDon began shouting the countdown: "FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!"

"HAPPPPY NEW YEAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Love, Perky :D

Christmas Eve!

CHRISTMAS IS ONE DAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excuse all of the exclamation points. I'm really really really really really excited for Christmas. And what would Christmas be without the preparation? Of course, Sparkle and Billy Bob decided to jump in with the prep, too. DonDon chose to prep with his own family. I don't know what they do, but I've heard it involves a lot of gravy and food fights. We began our own prep work by first decorating our Christmas tree.

"Heh. I remember making this tree! There was a looot of messy hot glue!"

"S for Sparkle!"

"Why is Santa on a cupcake?!"

Next, we put out the cookies and milk. Sparkle insisted that we put out chocolate chip cookies, because we put them out every year and he didn't want to change things up for Santa. He also insisted on lactose-free milk. "What if Santa suddenly became allergic to milk?"

"How many cookies should we put out?" -Billy Bob

After considering Santa's reindeer, Billy Bob suggested we put out reindeer food. Sparkle claimed that the reindeer food had been his idea last year, but no one had listened. "What about the reindeer? It's not fair that we give Santa cookies but nothing for his reindeer!"

"There are so many things that I could be doing with this oatmeal..." -me

While pouring the glitter in, Billy Bob ended up spilling the whole tube out onto the floor, meaning that we had to stop and get the vacuum cleaner to clean it up. He insisted on trying to save as much glitter as possible, though, and just ended up spilling more glitter in the process. I left them to it--I needed a bathroom break. When I got back, Billy Bob and Sparkle were examining their parcels under the tree, so I told them we could all open one present.

"One, two....THREE!" -Sparkle

Billy Bob had gotten a tube of fur conditioner, I'd gotten a picture frame that had a photo of the four of us, and Sparkle had gotten headphones. He immediately ran to put them into his mp3 player, while I set the frame up in my room. Billy Bob decided to wait--he'd take a shower later. He wanted to take a picture with a Santa that was on a rocking chair.

"Well, I'm not picky about what I get for Christmas..."

Sparkle followed, and I wanted one too, of course, so we all ended up taking a picture with Santa.

"Wow, Santa...your beard is so soft..." -me
"You know that isn't the real Santa, right? He's on a sleigh somewhere!" -Billy Bob

"Do you guys think you could get me a suit like this?" 

I finally decided to put up the last Christmas countdown. It had been out since December 1st, but now it was in the last square! We only had one day left...well. A number of hours really. :)

"I think we should move Sparkle--I mean, the marker--over to the one!" -Billy Bob

Merry Chistmas! 
Love, Perky :D

Our last day on the Norwegian Dawn! **cue the Billy Bob sobs**

Somehow, it had occurred to Sparkle in his sleep that we'd never been to Venetian for breakfast. It must have gone in the same train of thought as "I've never eaten buffalo wings from Blue Lagoon," The weird thing about it was, though, that Billy Bob had thought of it. Nevertheless, Sparkle roused us all on our last day to go to breakfast at Venetian. I had a bit of a shock when I woke up--I was looking at the Boston pier instead of the sea! This truly meant that I was home, and I had to sob a little bit. DonDon caught me crying, and then he started bawling, leaving the rest of us to cry for a good ten minutes. We then picked ourselves up, got ready for the day, and headed down to breakfast.

"I am determined to stay healthy!" -Billy Bob

For some reason, we all had the same craving for pancakes. Or maybe it was DonDon's insistence that he go eat at the Garden Cafe. I think it was the latter. We wanted to rub it in that we had PANCAKES. Not buffet food. I can't imagine eating buffet food for breakfast.

"Mmmmm....I can already taste the sausage...."

We decided to go find DonDon after that in the Garden Cafe, and there he was, chomping down on cereal and waffles. Obviously, pancakes are better than waffles. I like pancakes better. Plus, what's the fun of having a waffle if you didn't make it yourself? Billy Bob decided to make a couple of challenges out of the salt, pepper and sugar holder. He also took out this cylindrical thing that made bubbles whenever you turned it over, and we were focused on the bubbles for a little while until DonDon fell off of the top. We then challenged each other to see who could balance the longest.

"I don't get why DonDon gets to go again! He already fell off once!" -Billy Bob

DonDon challenged Billy Bob to drink some coffee, if he was being so stubborn about DonDon getting two turns to balance on the bubble thingy. I didn't see the point. Sparkle had won anyways...

"First one to go crazy from caffeine loses," -DonDon 

If Billy Bob is bigger than DonDon, then shouldn't he win against him? No such thing, apparently. Billy Bob had drunken two sips before he was off in the fitness center running endlessly on the treadmill while DonDon sat back and watched with a newfound croissant. Once he had calmed down, we returned to the cafe, where we were awaiting the call to get off of the ship. There, Billy Bob challenged DonDon to a game of balancing on ketchup and mustard. I didn't know what the point was in that. I guess Billy Bob just wanted to prove a point.

"You tell me the point in this?" -DonDon

Sparkle then decided he'd enough of the bad contests. "I say we figure out who's the skinniest by trying to get through the placecard holder!" Well, there was the problem for Billy Bob right there--his nose was bigger than DonDon and Sparkle put together! He still agreed to try, though. I had a problem too. It's not that my nose is big. I'm just big in general!

"I'm halfway there!" 

"Guess whose nose isn't even fitting?"

"I think my tail's stuck.."

"You think your nose is big, Billy Bob?"

DonDon, at that point, had made his way through the hoop and had landed on Sparkle. 

"Hey! That hurt!"

Someone came onto the PA at that point, and announced that we could get off of the ship now. I don't know who started crying, it was either DonDon or Billy Bob, but for some reason, we were all sobbing. We took the elevator down, and slowly disembarked the ship back to civilization. Billy Bob, Sparkle, and I said good-bye to DonDon and headed home. 

And so ends my cruise...

Love, Perky :D

"

Cruising: Day 5

It was our last full day on the boat, so we decided that we'd try to make the most of it. We started the day off in DonDon's room trying to do various acrobatic exercises that mostly involved standing on our heads. Poor Billy Bob didn't really have two extra limbs to balance on, and DonDon teased him that he would end up falling over most of the time while the rest of us tried to see who could balance the longest.

"What are you talking about, guys? I can stand on my nose perfectly!"

Billy Bob's nose turned out to be the most effective way for him to balance, and ended up winning the balance contest while the rest of us succumbed to gravity. That being said, he ended up going to the Garden Cafe and getting a large plate of food.

"THIS IS THE PERFECT BREAKFAST," -Billy Bob

We had a bit of an issue when DonDon tried to take some of the smoked salmon from Billy Bob, which lead to DonDon being dunked into the pool. We moved away from the food after that and we went to go play board games instead. Scrabble was the first on our large list, and let me tell you, there is no way I was expecting any of us to know so many words. My vocabulary isn't that good. I'm only a year old! I need time!

"Well, we have...'guess'...for maybe ten points? Wait! Double word score!" -Billy Bob

"WOOHOO!!! I have 'guitar'! On a triple word score! 21 points!"

"I play....'defense'! Thirty points! Woohoo!" -DonDon

In the end, it was DonDon who soundly beat us all, putting in the word 'xylophone' on a triple word score. We wanted to play 'Clue' after that, but there weren't enough pieces for all of us to play, and plus, we didn't really get how to play it. It was a special kind of 'Clue'. We played 'Pictionary' for a while, but since Billy Bob couldn't really gesture with his arms, there wasn't actually a point...it was almost lunch time, so we went to the sushi bar. A la carte time! 

"I could eat this stuff endlessly!" 

When we said that we were big fans of seaweed salad, we weren't kidding. We managed to eat a meal on that stuff alone, so much that there were plates stacked everywhere once we were done. That would not look good on the bill...Well, I mean, Billy Bob said he would pay...DonDon chose to lighten the moment by joking that his name was on a pair of chopsticks.

"See? Look! Don...Don! Get it?"

There was a belly flop contest going on on the twelfth deck, and we went up to see it. There was a good spot near the hot tub...but it meant climbing some stairs in order to get a decent view. The competition was worth it, though. So many people did belly flops! I'm sure they had to have hurt. The cruise director, Matt, ended up counting the votes for the best belly flop by naming each number out loud, and it sounded like this: "One-one-one-two-two-two-three-four-four-four-four-five?! What's that five for?" Some guy from New York ended up winning, and we went right off to catch the Tim Kaminski comedy matinee show. We were supposed to get there early, but we'd stayed to watch the end of the belly flop contest, and the placed was packed when we got there. We ended up camping out on the stairs! The show was sidesplitting, though. We all almost fell down the stairs from laughter at least once.

I mentioned that there had been an arcade that we'd never been to, and three sets of ears perked up. Excuse the pun. Sparkle demanded immediately that we go there.

"Okay, Billy Bob, you get the pedals! I'll drive!" -me
"Wait! But I want to drive!" -Billy Bob
"BUT I WANNA DO SOMETHING!!!!" -Sparkle

"I'll take the red through yellow, you take blue and orange," -me
"And who slams the whammy pedal?" -DonDon

"PUUUUUUUSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!"

"NO DEAL DONDON! SAY NO DEAL AND I GET TO PUSH THE BUTTON!!!" -Billy Bob
"TAKE THE DEAL! I WANNA PUSH THE BUTTON!!!" -Sparkle
"Well I'd say you should put some money in first..." -me

"Left...left...a little more to the left, DonDon..." -Sparkle

Someone had left some tickets lying around in a machine, so we picked those up and combined it with our winnings from the arcade, and we managed to get a bunch of....junk. Stickers, erasers....well, at least the Domo eraser was cool! Sadly, it was then time for our last dinner at Venetian. We changed with sadness. No more free food. Who wouldn't cry at that? I wanted to make the last dinner seafood-worthy, so I had the clam chowder.

"What are those green things?"

DonDon was determined to stuff himself with carbohydrates until he fell asleep, so he had some pasta. 

"Oh. Great. Just what we need, DonDon eating all of this pasta. He won't be up late enough to eat buffalo wings with us!" -Billy Bob

Billy Bob was really looking forward to eating buffalo wings later at Blue Lagoon--he'd heard that they were amazing, and hadn't really had the chance to try any. So he kept it light and had another spring roll. I don't know why. I think he just has a liking to them. 

"I can't believe you're eating another spring roll," -me
"But this one's fried! And I read on the menu that it was different!" -Billy Bob

Sparkle went for the risotto. It looked really good, but in between mouthfuls, I discerned that it was really too buttery or too salty. I'm not exactly sure which.

"**chokes on butter**" -Sparkle

During our meal, one of the waiters asked us to wave our towels in the air for the cooks and the waiters, since it was our last night. Billy Bob did that--except his towel went flying somewhere across the dining room. The rest of us were enthusiastic...but not that enthusiastic. We ordered dessert instead.

"CREAM PUFFS! HALLELUJAH!" -Sparkle

"CHOCOLATE CAKEEEEEE!!!!" -Billy Bob and DonDon

"That souffle is mine!" 

The last show that the crew was putting on for us was Bollywood, and it was crazy crazy CRAZY music and dancing and lots of acrobatics! At the end, all of the stewards and stewardesses and waiters and all of the crew came onstage while we got to cheer for them! Not to mention the people we saw at breakfast every morning--there were two ladies that went "Washy washy! Happy happy!" DonDon still giggles every time one of us says that.

"I have to say, I grew fond of them," -Billy Bob

We went to eat our buffalo wings after that, and ended up wandering the ship for a good couple of hours...or at least I think it was a good bit of time...Sparkle, it turns out, can't really take the buffalo wings, and he had to drink a half glass of water every time he had a buffalo wing. Not to mention that DonDon kept ordering plate...after plate....after plate of wings, so that we had three plates stacked up on top of each other with DonDon calling for more. We dragged him out, finally, and put him to bed. 

My last day is tomorrow. :(

Love, Perky :D