Monday, October 31, 2011

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Friday, October 14, 2011

Agreed


Agreed, originally uploaded by dumpstar_drummer.

Now if only I could find that good one...

Monday, October 10, 2011

FNASBPOTD


FNASBPOTD, originally uploaded by dumpstar_drummer.

Final New Apt Spare Bedroom Photo of the Day

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Monday, October 3, 2011

August

Okay, it's time to stop kidding myself.

I'm never going to find the time to give my birthday and my Tahoe posts the attention they deserve, so let's go old school and just throw all the pictures up on the www and if words come out to accompany them, YAY! And if not, you're getting a hodgepodge of August events.

(And for reals, this is hardly proofread AT ALL and probably isn't all that interesting so please forgive me for being so lazy but it's past my bedtime and I have a busy day at work tomorrow and this is all I can offer you right now, Internet. Plus, by posting these pictures I'm officially all caught up and I can get back to not feeling like a crappy and out of date blogger.)

Up first, TAHOE!

One of our favorite places for lakeside salad-bar-and-Irish-nacho'ing is a place called Jason's:



More Jason's:



Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Tahoe Biltmore...we love you (but your $2.99 buffet SUCKS).



Preparing to contribute to the Biltmore's profit for the evening:



I can't find the photos from the olden days, but we've had photo shoots in this room at the CalNeva casino more than once. The CalNeva used to be one of our favorite haunts but the casino is gone so now it's just a really quiet, really empty hotel lobby. It sits right on the state line, so that particular room is half California and half Nevada (and we know from previous experience that they don't really like you to WHIZ over the state line in rolling chairs).



My heart belongs on the Golden State side:



My right foot was happier than my left, I can guarantee it:



We went mini-golfing another night.

Mini golf ambiance:



Christa and Jeff making the mini golf ambiance more romantic:



I have no idea what our photographer had in mind here, but Carrie and I followed her instructions and now we know what we look like sitting in front of a giant fiberglass tree:



Re-enacting a photo from 2005:



The 2005 version:



I don't know...we weren't even drinking:



Glamorous photo shoots aside, Carrie takes her mini golfing very seriously now that her boyfriend is a full-size golf fiend:



The damn blowy parts wouldn't come off the damn blowy thing!!



I cropped the rest of us out of this picture (mainly because it forced me to make a mental note to throw out the swim cover up that is three sizes too big), but Miss M here was the best part anyway:



We had dinner again...this time at a place called Gar Woods, a place known for a cocktail called a Wet Woody. They're very potent and I MAY have had a few that night.



And finally, Carrie chops onions in style:



AND NOW FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!

I was flattered that so many of my people came out to Stockton on a 100 degree day to watch the sprint car races:



My darling nephew got to ride one of the racers' kid's "Rusty" (Lightening McQueen to everyone else):



Lesley got to strike a pose in one of the cars!



Those of you on my Christmas card list know that my 2008 and 2009 Christmas cards were pictures of me on tractors, so IMAGINE MY GLEE when I realized that the race track had its own tractor!! And because my brother's neighbors are the ones who own this track, the tractor guy got called over and I got myself a little tractor photo shoot! This isn't the shot I'll be using for my Christmas card so it's safe for me to show you that I celebrated my 35th birthday by mounting a tractor in a flowy top in 100 degree heat:



I'll also note that trying to use the exhaust pipe as leverage for climbing up on the tractor is not advised, particularly when the tractor has been running because HELLS BELLS, that exhaust pipe is hot.

Live and learn.

There was cake and nachos and a tractor and mud flying in my hair and 100 degree heat and I'm pleased to report that I had a great birthday.

So anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! (Six weeks ago)

This part is from September and not August, but OH WELL:

My SILs and brothers and my miracle niece and my darling nephew and I went to Carmel to see our Aunt Suzy in a production of Annie.



I don't know what this look is about:



My miracle niece enjoyed the performance:



I love this picture. One day that tiny boy is going to be taller than his dad:



Carmel is usually less than 90 minutes away but GOOD GOD the traffic sucked and it took us two and a half hours to get there. I wont blah blah blah about the trials and tribulations of a journey that took so much longer than planned and about how we didn't have time to stop to pick up lunch because we were afraid of missing the whole thing and about how I was the only one who brought lunch (even though we'd agreed in advance that we'd BYO lunch) and about how my SILs are not ladies who handle being hungry really well and about how the snack bar had EXTREMELY limited offerings and about how my SIL Who Does Not Wear John Deere Pajamas, and who is also a vegetarian, was thiiiiiiiiiiiis close to taking me up on my offer of half my chicken salad sandwich, but I will tell you that when Annie was over, our crowd was HUNGRY.

And then there was the whole Sarah-standing-outside-the-car-and-putting-my-miracle-niece's-seat-in-the-car-and-our-car-door-getting-clipped-by-an-old-person-in-a-gold-Seabring-and-scaring-the-crap-out-of-all-of-us situation.

And then the whole finding-a-regular-restaurant-in-downtown-Carmel thing.

But we did eventually settle into an oyster bar and crammed everyone plus a car seat around a table for four and had cocktails and fish and a good time together. I believe I even commented that there was no place I'd rather be at that moment, than crammed around that little table with that exact group of people.

I was less in love with the moment on the drive home because it featured:

1) More awful traffic
2) One screaming baby

But for reals, I like my family a lot.

Blog Archive