I visited my brother's sister and her kids in Sacramento. We took a plane from Phoenix to San Diego then another to Sacramento. The second plane was a puddlehopper and my dad is a big, tall guy and even when he hunched over his shoulders touched the ceiling. We got a Minivan with leather interior and drove to our rather fancy hotel near my Aunt's place.

My cousin Roxanne is moving out from her mom's and in with her husband. My Aunt got so depressed that her landlord let her get a dog to cheer her up. The dog comes from the same parents as the one that my cousin got her dog, so my Aunt's dog and Cousin's dog are sisters.

The dog is a four week old weiner dog and is adorable. She's black and brown and still struggles to walk. When we sat on the ground and she was set down to walk, she would always seek out the nearest lap, climb in, and go to sleep.

We debated on a name. My cousin Joshua wanted a Greek name but no names offered were good enough. I suggested Chibi which is Japanese for "little" and that was popular. Roxanne asked for "bear" which is Kuma since the puppy has large paws like a bear. So now, the puppy is Kuma-chan, though Joshua insists to call her Chibi. This will make problems for Kuma as her "parents" are my cousins Jeremy and Joshua who are identical twins. Joshua calls her Chibi and everyone else calls her Kuma, so that's going to confuse Kuma-chan.

Cali, the older sister, got jealous and snipped at Kuma but she's harmless and didn't like Mike, my cousin's husband, paying attention to Kuma.

My Aunt told me how Jeremy thought how much I changed, became more open and expressive, which is nice. Jeremy is the more determined and reasonable one of the twins whereas Joshua argues about EVERYTHING and isn't very concerned with much. But they're both in love with Kuma and dote her. I'm just worried they might crush her as they're both tall and fit enough to qualify for basketball, football, and track. Lucky them, and they're A students.

I witnessed "The Closer" and fell in love with it. Best cop drama (or whatever) ever.

Sacramento was as hot as Phoenix if possible which sucked since we hoped to escape the heat. Also, drivers are kinda crazy there. It's common to make U-Turns despite the signs saying no. Sure, this can happen anywhere, but we watched as car after car made illegal U-Turns.

We ate at Joe's Crab Shack which was superb. They had sea novelty toys hanging from the cieling: a plastic shark and a toy jeep for kids. The waiters and waitresses had to dance every once in a while which was pretty cool. It reminded me of Ed Debevic's.

I bought the book finished by J.R.R. Tolkein's son for my dad and my mom and aunt bought LOTR board games for him for Father's Day.

I got to buy a book criticizing George W. Bush. I was amazed with his speech in the books which was... childish.

I wasn't very happy on the trip since the trip cost me getting my BRACES REMOVED! Meaning I must now wait another month to get my braces off.

But we visited them since my Aunt Sue and her family always drive from Sacramento to Phoenix to visit us, so we owed her. And it was still fun.