Volunteering at CALM for "Holiday Lights"

So our friend Lynn works for PG&E. They sponsored 2 nights and needed volunteers to herd people in the right directions and keep chilren from running-a-muck. Alix and I were lucky enough to be stationed near a bridge together, most people had to work alone. So we were joking around, having a good time. I even made a hot chocolate, DS, extra sweater, blanket car run. Then about an 1.5 in, they called us on our talkie walkies and we had to split up :( As soon as I got situated in my new spot, I txt her how lonely I was. We ended up having fun txting. I put one iPod bud in my ear which was great. Then she got called to move to higher activity station and she really had to pay attention and tell people where to go.

So we had some highlights, of course, who wouldn't with people watching at Holiday lights.

1) A little girl, high-fived Alix *okay cute*
2) We got to see lots of tiny babies bundled up with bunny ear hats *aww super cute*
3) I got to see how clowns are back in style. So there were of course high school couples *everyone say "awww"* Anyway, these dang boys with those skinny jeans... I might be into it if they put more thought into the rest of the outfit then just sliding their ass into a pair of tight pants but to match your 6ft tall, lanky ass frame with your size 11 Converse to make you look like you have clown feet? Not a fan but thanks for the laughs.
4) People remarking on how cold it is. Really? It's night time... in the winter... *blinks* Moving on.
5) There was a new Pelican that came in about 2 weeks ago, her name is Betty and her wing is broken, so she is here for rehab. *waves* HI BETTY THE PELICAN
6) Fun questions: Do you know how many lights there are? *looks at Alix, looks at people* No but I can probably find out if you want... "no, I'm sure there is well over a million though" walks off. Okay then.
Next one: Do you know where the light show is? "Yes right over there among the trees." Do you know how often... "hmm, no but one second" *pushes talkie walkie button* "How often is the light show? ' every 20 minutes' "thanks... it's every 20 minutes" Do you know when the last one was? "I think about 5 minutes ago" Oh dang, okay thanks... that one was fun cause we got to use the talkie walkies!
When I got put a alone a boy asked me if the skunk button still worked. I couldn't do anything but blink and say no, sorry. I had no idea what he was talking about but I didn't want the whole park to hear me ask that.
7) Listening to the talkie walkies cut out and people say "Whaaat?"
8) Hearing a mom tell her son it should be called a Flutterby because they Flutter by you and that butter does not fly. He argued her point in favor of still calling it a Butterfly.
9) Hearing grown-ups ask for potty breaks over the talkie walkies.

I think there were more but that's all I can remember right now :)

It was pretty refreshing sitting out there, I actually had layers on. I liked it. I even had a beanie cap on :)

Volunteering at CALM, fun with photos.

Blank

I really have to wonder these days what the fuck is wrong with people. I like to think I surround myself with friends who feel free enough to talk to me if they have problems, not just in life but even with me. I like to think I’m a very good listener. I like to think I can hold my tongue when someone doesn’t necessary need advice, just needs a good rant now and again. I’ve been tossing the idea of approaching someone whom I thought I was close with but am now very much rethinking. I hear things. I hear things that make me feel like crap. That make my families genuine gestures of welcoming you in for the holidays seem like they meant absolutely nothing to you. I don’t introduce just anyone to my family for the very reason that they take you in as their own and they mean it. I don’t want that abused or abandoned like it means nothing. I don’t like the way the words, “I don’t feel like I’m welcome anywhere for the holidays” sound. I wish people would talk to me.

I’m mad.

When I get hurt, I get pissed and when I get pissed, I’ll say things, mean things and I’ll make you feel them till you feel like I do. Isn’t very nice is it? Sucks to be called out doesn’t it? The truth fucking hurts… so what you do with it, is up to you. Another pitty party perhaps? This time you’ll have one less set of ears to listen not that you talk to me anyway, just around me and at the end of the day you can blame that on yourself. You can point your finger all you want but if you look down, you’ll have 3 fingers pointing back at you. Good luck with that.

I’ll deal with this, I’ll talk to friends and they’ll help me through it, they’ll help me understand but I have to wonder what’s next…???

Courtney is in trouble... again...

I loved watching her eyes sparkle as she looked at the tree for her first time :)

Here is our Christmas Tree and Alix's 1st tree ever while being out on her own. As I have mentioned in previous posts in the city, they have all these rules and since their "aparments" are mainly 3 & 4 story houses where you only rent a room with old floor heaters or furnaces, live trees are a big fire hazard and no no. I never saw one apartment complex while in Boston, it really is a whole other world over there.


Sidenote: No I did not Photoshop the sparkles of the lights, I have filters for my cameras that do cool effects, remember I'm old school and prefer film over digital. I "fix" my pics by my own hand and not a button on the computer :)

32 years later, the aftermath

So today is my parents 32nd anniversary. WOW. With the way the breeders go through divorce now-a-days that is impressive, well in my eyes anyway. I've watched my parents for a long time and the one thing I've noticed when it comes down to it at the end of the day, they just make it work. Yeah they get under one anothers skin but who doesn't?

The part that newer generations have decided to evolve is that it is easier to give up then to communicate and work it out. Now I'm not talking about those who really aren't matched or one gives and gives while one only takes and never gives back. Some people are wicked selfish and well, they are so self involved that I hope you really like yourself because at the end of the day it's just you and you. The interesting match is when 2 of these identical signs match up, sit back grab some popcorn and enjoy the show, it's gonna get ugly kids. I know 2 signs specifically that should be cautious of their own dimise. Interesting indeed.


Anywhoodle, Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad. Dad enjoy your medium rare steak and mom leave him alone, it's one night *winks*

Twitter... or as I've been using for the past year anyway-Group Txting

Someone said, oh just try it, it's really cool. It took me a week or so to get there then the site took too long to load so I didn't sign up till the next day. The best I can figure out, it's a way to txt anyone following you and a simple way to send MM (mass messages, term from gaming).

Okay lame.

First anyone I would want to MM I have in my phone already and I have group settings set up in my phone for this very thing. AND I don't have to convince anyone to "sign up" and try to handle yet another social network that isn't all that useful. Anyone I care to know about, I'll personally txt or look at their myspace/facebook status. That's good enough for me.

Twitter can flitter away... I'm de-twitting in T-Minus NOW

***I apologize to anyone who signed up for this per my invite. Lesson learned: I'll check things out before I go send invites out all willy nilly***

Here is Willow in front of her beach house at night :)

Virtual Me- Willow caught a fish almost as big as herself... myself... you get the idea.

The Blog Recap of all Recaps

Okay, so I slipped off the Blogwagon, so what? Everyone falls once in awhile, give a girl a break, sheesh. In getting emails, texts and what-nots of "Hey, what's up with your blog?" "You alive" etc. etc. I have all these blogs in my head but unfortunately they got stuck there. I'm going to categorize and highlight the past monthish. Bare with me here. It may run out of order... I'm not the biggest fan of order :)

*Via Arte
*Pumpkin Carving with Family & Framily
*Halloween Night
*Gratuitous Polly Blog
*YAY she got a job! Oh wait...
*Run for the Hills
*Courtney & Patty say Merry Christmas: Animal Crossing Style
*Gobble Gobble Wobble Wobble
*I stayed up for 24 hours and all I got was this T-Shirt... thumb drive, measuring cups, mini mp3 players, iPod alarm clock, wrapping paper, cat carrier... oh *hahaha*
*AJ can paint which is like Yan can cook but not really even a little bit.

So that whole, grab a blanket, some popcorn and a big drink with a bendy straw, yeah, go do that.

Via Arte

So each year at the Marketplace, companies & people sponsor artists to create in the parking lot, Chalks of Art. They really are amazing. A few of my friends had their squares.

HB aka Jenn

Above, see the ghosties? Alix colored those :)

Darla aka DisneyChica

Trish aka LeFty

A mere wonder what some people can do with some chalk. There were a lot of really neat pieces out and maybe one year, I'll get out here and do one too. For now, I'll stay on this side of the lens.



Pumpkin Carving with Family & Framily

Check my blogs from previous years and there is some mention of pumpkin carving the night before Halloween and moms homemade chili beans and cornbread. For those of you that are new, I'm not really sure when it started but I know I look forward to it just as much as Halloween night itself. This year I decided it was time everyone got together and my mom was a little excited at the idea of meeting all of my friends. So out went the invites... mom says, "okay, what's the count?" My response... 5 chilren, 18 adults *SMILES* She said, okay, 2 crock pots it is. I told her Alix and I would take care of desserts. The Patty even brought over some homemade potato cheese soup...mmm.

Since the weather was touch and go, we set up tables in the garage. It was great. It made me so happy to see everyone laughing and carving and just overall having a great time. *sigh* YAY

Here were the invites :)

Here are a few of our masterpieces :)

All Hallows Night

So I took 2.5 days off this year for Halloween. I hosted Halloween bunco Wednesday the 29th, Pumpkin Carving was the 30th and Halloween... well duh. I hate rushing rushing all the time so this was great! I did alot of cooking and baking and I loved it. So we headed over to mom and dad's around noon and with all 4 of us working we were done by 3:30 and had plenty of time to go find bubbles for the bubble fogger machine. Oh yeah, you read that right, it blows little bubbles with fog in them and when they pop they literally go "poof" and you get to watch the fog dissipate... oooooohhhhh preeeeettty. This actually turned out to be the hit of the night, from 2 yr olds to dads being called away trying to swat the bubbles, hilarious indeed.

This was Alix's 1st Halloween in CA. When asked when is the last time you carved a pumpkin, she honestly couldn't remember which made me a little sad. I mean I love me some Halloween but it's so different in the city, they can't have Christmas trees in most of their apartments. Yes you heard me right, don't get me started on that one. She carved her some major pumpkins. I did 4 this year and wanted to do more but I couldn't find anymore. I was so pumpkin drunk LMAO I'm finally getting faster and more efficient. I hollowed out 2, carved, then rinsed and reapplied... no wait. You know what I mean.
What I've learned so far about this year is it's all so much easier... Happy 1st (of many) Halloween's Lex.

Gratuitous Polly Blog

This little kitten is funny. I've never had a female kitten and they are definitely a lot different than males. She is very princess like. Her full name could easily be: Princess Polly Poofy Tail. We thought she was going to be a long hair but just her tail, it's pretty cute the way she flaunts it around and curls it around her when she's cold. She looks like a squirrel.
She also prefers bags as much as I like them; our recyclable grocery bags, my messenger bag, my lappy bag and especially my gym bag as displayed below. I think her plan was to hide to attack our feet as we walked by but then she got cozy sleepy.

YAY! She got a new job... Oh wait.

So we got to rest easy for a few days because Alix got a new job courtesy of framily. The thing is the only real leads we've had have been through framily only and we are quite thankful for that. Through some major impressive insecurities and basically one big jerk, they had to retract the job offer. So for 24 hours we got to relax about things and feel some ease. That was really nice within itself and even though it didn't work out, it isn't nixed completely, just for now. So keep good thoughts for us.

I struggled the rest of the week. I just liked seeing her so happy. It had been awhile and although near all other parts of our lives are so great this was the last thing we needed. So Thursday night my mom called me to check in and asked if I wanted to help my dad out in the mountains on Saturday, I was still so "bleah" I said sure without even asking what for. Come to find out, it was to chop and load wood. Uh... yikes.

Run for the Hills


So in further findings, there are 4 of us and 3 trucks to fill. *blinks* The boys used the chainsaws for obvious reasons that I am a big klutz and handling something that can cut my leg off in one swoop. I chose to chuck the wood closer to the trucks. We drove and drove and drove and 5000ft above sea level later, we made our first stop. Lots of pine, dries quickly, cuts easily but also burns kinda fast. So we didn't want too much of it. 1 hr and 25 minutes later we had 1 truck full. Moving on down the road...driving... trees pine cones trees... ooh LOOK mini Christmas trees. Pull up *inhale big sniff, mmm Christmas*, walk into a not so clear clearing cut some more pine, load it and move on. Note: There is a super huge fine AND jail time for cutting or even hurting the Christmas trees hence the reason I don't have a Charlie Brown little Christmas tree in my living room right now.

It was cold up there and I was sweating and it felt good. I detoxed all the negative crap that I had been feeling from the week. Something about hauling your ass up and down hills with less oxygen makes you see things a little different. Well that and to watch yourself because poison ivy sneaks up on you. And Damn it all to hell if every furry big ass stripey jumping spider didn't come out to welcome us... oh and the termites. Yummy. *smug face* The maggots of trees.


So we ate cold burritos, chips and had lots of electrolytes. The boys met guys about horses or something like that and I held it the entire time, we're talking like 8 hours. It was fun. I got to wear gloves that were about 3 sizes too big so once in awhile when I was tossing logs my glove would go flying off or if George went to grab a piece from me when we were passing in lines, he would pull it half way off. It was funny. I got to see a lot of leaves fall, some of the season of itself giving way to winter and once again, I was truly feeling like "it just wasn't meant to be for now."

The Indians have a lot of land near the sequoias and have since developed since last I had visited. They even had a gas station/store/subway setup as you go in/come out of the hills. I vowed we would stop on the way back. My dad happily stopped and I got to PEE! I got a sandywich from subway and it was super yummy. I always forget, no tax, so the price is the price. I got a little bit of headache on the way home but the food seemed to fix that problem.

I never got as sore as I thought I would. Thankfully, that coulda jacked me up! The boys found some serious oak at the last stop and I couldn't move those pieces, hell it took 2 of them to lift one piece if that says anything. I just ran through the road killing spiders, those damn things are speedy and I think on crack. Overall, I woke up the next day feeling a lot better. Yay for some good hard work.

Courtney & Patty say Merry (early) Christmas: Animal Crossing Style!


Meet Willow in the Town of Crayola!

I think these girls like me or something. I'm thoroughly enjoying this game, it's so cute. I like shaking the trees and finding bells. I also like picking weeds, these ones don't make me itchy. THANKS AGAIN GIRLS!

Gobble Gobble Wobble Wobble

I still have trouble grasping that the year is almost over. Thanksgiving is here and as I look around I'm thankful for everyone that I have been blessed to surround myself with. Lucky in love and life and it's filled with laughter.

This also marks, Alix's first Turkey Day away from home. As much as her "MA" drives her nuts, I knew this would still be tough. We got up late, started the pies a little late and had some "discrepancies" about foil lmao (always funny a week later). All for not of course because they came out fine and were eaten heartily.

The yam/sweet potato thingies were different, it wasn't near as formal from what I can tell but overall it went well and she will be home for Christmas even though my mom wasn't very happy to hear that lol

So we ate, turkey, ham, mashed taters, corn, gravy, stuffing and rolls, there was also cranberry "sauce" and those orange things but I opted out of those :) We also had a grueling game of Ticket to Ride Marklin and by round 3 Alix had declared she quits because supposedly we made it impossible for her to complete her routes but ended up almost lapping us. *RIIGGHHTT*

I stayed up for 24 hours and all I got was this T-Shirt... thumb drive, measuring cups, mini mp3 players, iPod alarm clock, wrapping paper, cat carrier... oh *hahaha*

So I enjoy the Tulare Outlets, it's a nice little drive north. I heard on the radio they were opening midnight Thanksgiving night! Assuming I didn't HAVE to have something from Best Buy that might be an option. Can't tell till we get the ads and see what everyone else wanted to do. Since Qrt was working, Patty was going to ride with us so they wouldn't have 2 cars out and Darla wanted to go because she had never been out for Black Friday before and neither had Alix. No one could set where and when we were going, we just knew at some point we were going to meet up. Alix and I tried to go home to get some sleep but we ended up tickling and laughing in bed so we got up, got dressed, sent some txts out and headed to Tulare. Our plan was to be back around 3:am when Qrt got off work. Turns out time flies when you're shopping in the middle of the night. Next thing we know we're heading back to Bako and it's already 2:30am. We meet Qrt at Patty's house, then decide to go to Best Buy and sit in the cars until everyone goes in and not even bother standing in line. We played "would you rather" through our car windows and next thing we know, it's time to head in. Best Buy is so good at gettin' their shit organized vs. some other stores that let people get trampled to death.
We were in and out by 6:15 and headed to Target, got a few things wandered aimlessly, got in line and then headed to Michael's to do the same. Courtney & Patty caught up with us then, Darla called Nessa to see if she wanted to meet us for breakfast around 9:am. Grumpily she agreed :)

As we were waiting for our table and Nessa, some guy walked up and shook hands with Alix and said hi to Darla. Turns out, it was Vanessas' bosses lol So we joked with them for awhile, they got seated... then we got seated some what next to them, go figure. We were fairly quiet, ate our food and then I was ready for bed. Next thing we know, the waitress is telling us our breakfast has been paid for... awww Nice Vanessa bosses :)

So we headed home, lugged our stuff upstairs, changed into comfy pj's and crashed out. That was the night we didn't go to sleep and shopped it all away.

AJ can paint which is like Yan can cook but not really even a little bit.

So there are various galleries around town, most of them in the district of 19th street. This one is a little further out and is in the Chain Younger Building. They wanted artists to paint ornaments, 1 large or 4 small with a 40% comission. Sure I'm game, sign me up. So here is what I came up with.

Here are some sketches of what they will kinda look like.

Here is the work area, POM glasses worked really well to hold them in place for drying and painting.

This is the "Blank Canvas"

Here is the snow drying, it took a lot longer than I thought. Oops.

Here are all 4 finished and ready to go :)

The lead of the Christmas 4x4's -- Santa

The Penguin

The Turtle

And the Reindeer

So I was pretty happy with them. You always "wish" for more time but the girls at the gallery seemed to really like them, so YAY.

Back Blog - Should be dated 11-4-08

Time to Put my Homework Answers to Good Use

I happily woke up early voting morning. I was there about 5 till 7 and wasn’t too surprised by the line but I was hoping I would make it to work on time. It moved fairly fast and I was inside by 7:10 am and done by 7:25am even as snail moving as the people were. I know they are volunteers but good grief people.

Anyway, I opted for the paper ballot so I could speedily fill in my bubbles and get my hard earned sticker… and maybe even a free starbucks later. Color Me Mine is also allowing you to paint for free if you have your sticker.

A few noticeable items worth mentioning while standing in line. I was “reading” the news on TV the previous night while I was at the gym and the election officials were saying how no election propaganda is allowed within 100ft of polling area. This includes signs, bumper stickers and clothing. Really? Bumper stickers? You’re going to have your volunteers who don’t know a P from a B go check the parking lot… whatever. It is “asked” you abide by these rules. So item 1 that is mentionable: as I walk up and see all the cars in the parking lot I see McCain, Yes on 8 stickers on about 8 cars… leave it to the Republicans to break this rule. I mean after all, they do litter their signs everywhere. I say litter because you’re suppose to have permission to place your signs… out on a corner of a dirt field isn’t convincing me you know the land owner or around the parks.

Which brings me to a tangent. When you place these signs and take your child to a park and they ask, “Mommy what is that yellow sign with people on it for?” You just granted your child their first lesson in Hate. *thumbs up* good job moron. Whether you put the sign up for Yes on 8 or are opposed (thank you for seeing that all humans should be treated equally) now the person who is opposed also has to teach their child that people are mean and dislike what they do not understand… way to take a little piece of their childhood away. Way to make this world even uglier by saying “your God” doesn’t approve of this and if “your God” teaches you to hate then you can keep him.

Mentioning #2: Complaining people. My only comment to you is, you can’t complain if you aren’t willing to get off your fat ass and do it yourself. Try volunteering, I dare you. I’ve done plenty of it and not just to say I’ve done it but because I want a better understanding of my fellow humans. I’ve worked in churches (shut up it didn’t burn down), with animals, coaching girls, served homeless people, wrapped presents to raise money for charities, worked at special Olympics… and so on. But I get the lady who bitches that the site managers name isn’t written on the paper out front or she doesn’t have access to the restroom or I’m sorry as she said, “the baffrooom.” *blinks* Moving on… #3 don’t let one person tell me I can fill out my ballot anywhere over there and then a guy tell me that isn’t allowed. Then when I stand line, I hear another lady (different from the one who told me) you can fill it out anywhere. *shakes head* Silly people.

So that was my voting experience, not complaining so much as mentioning some things that made me laugh a little bit. I wonder what else is going on out there in voting land.

Oh and one more thing, on the radio they were saying this town in New Hampshire only had 21 people in it and they were all done voting by 7:15am. Obama won, 16 to 5 :)

The Pumpkin People Have Spoken

In my adventures online searching for pumpkin patterns, I came across this really cool site. They even had presidential patterns, huh, who knew? Anyway, I can completely stamp my approval of this site as Democratic Friendly :)

It's worth the $5 (or whatever you choose to donate),

Check it out: http://www.zombiepumpkins.com

I like to think good ideas spawn from other good ideas. You take something you like and make it your own. You don’t copy it but make it something good, something you love, something that is… well… you.

Songs inspire me a lot, movies do as well but sometimes it’s a leaf in the wind or a smile from a passing stranger or the way rain might land on my hand while I’m walking into a store.

Today’s bloggie inspiration comes from Ladybugs. As children, more so, little girls tend to spend their time daydreaming of this and that and what better way to be whisked off to the land of faeries then to play in the garden. I always enjoyed being outside when I was young. My mom always has kept a beautiful landscape and it’s fun to get lost in the flowers. I’m not sure what the little flowers were in the corner but I always looked for ladybugs. I wanted a collection of them since I believed they brought me good luck. I would spend hours and hours looking for them but when it came down to it they seemed to disappear. I would also exhaust myself to a pointwhere I would fall a sleep in the grass in the shade of the trees. When I would wake up…ladybugs. A few on my shirt, my feet and enjoying the flowers just as I had.

This is, of course, a life lesson. Sometimes people search and search for their one true love or their ideal house or insert biggest desire here --> <--. What the lady bugs teach us is: Good things will come to you when you are at your most peaceful state of mind.

Surprise #2

The return of Spin. So he asked me about a month ago if it would be a good idea to surprise Lex. Hells YEAH! So I gave him some weekends and about a week later he gave me an iteniery. I should have planned it so he was at the surprise party but oh well, this was just as good. I left work early and met him at the airport.

I had some serious nostagia building as I sat there in anticipation of his arrival. It had been since February since I was last there... wow how time flies and I'm even more grateful that we don't have to do that anymore. The idea of being away from her makes my eyes water and my heart ache.

We pulled up to the apartment and she wasn't home yet. So I had to park on the other side in hopes she wouldn't see my car. I txt her as if I were still at work wondering why she hadn't come online yet. She txt back that she had wrote the time down wrong and would be home soon. We sat there waiting and about 15 minutes Polly ran toward the door to let us known she was home. She walked in with her head down and Spin said, "it's about time you got home." She jumped again (poor girl), looked from him to me and said "fu**ers" but I guess we deserved that. :)

She was glad to have her bestest friend here. I'm not sure there is too much she misses from the East coast in the way of company she kept but I know she misses her Spin :)

We had a great 5 days but it sure did go fast and luckily we're already talking about "next time."

The lists of what Polly likes and doesn't like.


Likes:
Mashed Potatoes
Cheetos
Pickles
Chicken
Tuna
Cereal Milk
Corn
Green Beans
Ranch Dip
Cooked Carrots
Caramel Bugles
Pretzels
Ice Cream (any flavor)
Dr. Pepper
Limeade
Shredded Cheese
French Fries
Hamburger Meat
Hot Dogs
Dino Chicken Nuggets
Cake
Cheesecake
Olives
Doritos
Chicken Noodle Soup
Pasta

Dislikes:
Ruffles Chips


I know I'm missing some stuff but this cat will try anything! We don't feed her this crap regularly, most of the time we'll look down and she's eating bits off our plates or we drop something on the ground and she beats us to it when we try to pick it up. Some of the real oddity stuff I tried to give her as a detourant so she'd stop wanting what was on our plates, turns out, kittens like pickles. *shrugs* who knew?

The funny thing was she wouldn't eat the ruffle chip... weird but at least we got something on the dislike list now. LOL

Surprise!

So a few weeks back I thought it would be fun to throw a surprise party for Alix. A part II if you will, to her "Happy 1st Birthday in California" Birthday. So I started asking the framily when a good night would work out and the 3rd seemed like a good consensus and she wouldn't expect it being almost a week after her birthday :)

The story was this, Patty & Courtney were going out of town to "get away" from the problems of life for a night but Jake the dog needed his Valley Fever pills around 7:30pm. I spent previous evenings at Patty's dropping stuff off and even took an extended lunch to make a Pokeball cake. Yay to Patty for finishing it off :)

Friday after work, I was going to Patty's to get "instructions" for Jake and then I would be home. I actually ran to the bank, grabbed some balloons and decorations and headed to Patty's to frost the cake.

This was awesome, I got home and coaxed the girl up with dinner and a possible movie. As we were leaving, Patty even sent a txt saying the key was under the mat. So I walked up and got the key and opened the 1st door, had to fake that I forgot the other key and walk past Alix like I was going back to the car. She tried the door and said, oh it's open, walked in, said: Ohh it smells like Patty, turned the light on and everyone jumped out and yelled surprise and she jumped too! Oops :)

We had a great evening just hanging with the framily and eating taco salads. Thanks girls, it meant mucho mucho to her and Happy 1st CA Birthday babe, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did planning it.

The Pokeball Cake

Karma-logical



I was suppose to blog about this last week but well, I got busy people. I had a surprise party to throw (that's another blog). Alix and I were riding in the car and she was commenting on wanting to ask for some extra money as a cushion from her parents but she didn't do it because she was afraid of my Karmalogical thinking. *blinks* I have a "way" of thinking. heehee This word made me laugh pretty hard.



If you think about it, Karma works a lot like that scientific theory "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." It's like the hippies way of science or something. She said she didn't want to ask for it because she was afraid of what would happen.


Karma is logical, whether you believe in it or not, it's real. If you do something bad it is only fair that something bad be done to you. The interesting thing, it may not be done directly to you but to someone you care about. So in a roundy way, it does affect you because now you have to watch someone you love and care for, suffer or go through whatever the universe sees fit.

So someone took my picture to hang on a wall, maybe that part of their house catches on fire... you never know really. Do not mess with which you can not reason.

Karmalogical: The events that lead up in order to a reaction caused by an earlier good or bad action.

Should I be Mad or Honored?

So I went to pick up some pieces from the Bakersfield Musuem of Art today and some photos from the Kern County Fair. No problems at the BMoA and then I get to the fair. The woman tells me they are in the boxes under the counter in Alphabetical order. So I get into the last box and see 1...2...3... &... Where is my Red Sox pic? The one I got a 2nd place for... So I start over from the beginning and go through the whole box. Nothing. I go to the 1st box, nothing, 2nd box, nothing. I ask the lady if there is a separate box for B&W's or if they were anywhere else... no. She proceeds to check them herself, confirm what I had found, nothing. She walks back behind her counter and says, this is why you can't wait so long to pick up your photos, they just boxed up what was left and brought them over here.

*blinks* So hold up, did she just blame me for not coming to get my photos and them getting lost? Did she just state that 1 week is "so long?" Because they just released them last week. A few years ago I left them there (by accident) for like 3 months and those people had no problem pulling them out for me. She was rattling on about something else and I just walked out.

I was the saddest little kid ever. That was my favorite pic, the only one that placed. The one that won Viewer's favorite at the America the Beautiful show at the Gallery... and now it's gone. Yeah I know I can have it reprinted but that's not the point. That bitch didn't care even enough to lie to me and say "maybe someone grabbed it by accident or I'll take your name down and maybe it will turn up and I'm really sorry." But no, I get the lady who is a jerk.

On the other hand, did someone like my pic so much they just had to steal it? *giggles* now that part is kinda funny.

*shrugs* Well anyway, I hope it was worth it for whomever took it, Karmalogical Justice is naughty naughty. *big smiles*

I broke my money maker.


I would like to file this under: Things that really Fuckin’ HURT!

I was doing my normal, unscrew the cap, attach the sample to the machine run of mill kind of thing this AM when all of the sudden I felt the worst pinching throbbing pain in my thumb! I looked down to see blood dripping off my thumb. Apparently, on one of the bombs (stainless steel cylinders) as I was screwing the attachment piece on, there was some metal that had been sheered and was sticking up like a metal splinter basically, so as I turned my thumb, it sliced right across it.

So then I sit down to type after I Nurse Betty my thumb (Pokemon reference) and realize that thumb is the “zero button” thumb on the 10 key that is about 93% of my job… oh great.

Dinner at Olive Garden

So one hopes that the family will be accepting of the other half. I'm not just speaking of Gay couples but in any situation. Once again, I've been dropped in to the amazing setting of my life. My parents in great form, offered to take us, some of the extended family and friends out for dinner... on their tab. *smiles* So Alix picked Olive Garden, those never ending pasta bowl comercials really are tempting.

We got the big table in the middle under the fake grapes, it was pretty fun. We ordered drinks, appeitizers, food food and more food. It was so super yummy. Then it was back to the parents house for birthday cake and... presents.

Since we went to the beach last week, we asked to borrow my moms bike for Alix. My parents then got the idea to buy her a bike for her birthday. My dad called and asked me with her sitting right next to me in the car. I did my best to contain my YES THAT'S A GREAT IDEA! It was cute when they wheeled it out, she had the biggest smile on her face :) She got some great gift cards as well to some of her favorite stores.

It's funny how even after my 31 years walking the Earth, my parents continue to teach me so much about them and how loving and wonderful they can be. I mean, I know they are cool. I get it, I appreciate them so very much but it really makes me happy that get just how happy I am and are so welcoming to the newer aspects of my life. Not just in love but my life overall.

Beach Birthday Weekend

So Monday the 29th was the girls 28th Birthday :) Awww. My Aunt & Uncle got a trailer at the beginning of summer and had just so perfectly happened to plan on camping at the beach the weekend of Alix’s birthday. So we asked if we could set up a tent in their campground to which they insisted we stay inside with them since there was plenty of room… um OKAY!

We left after work on Friday and rolled into Morro Bay about 8:30pm. We stopped by Round Table first to get a pizza for a late dinner. MMMM. We watched some TV then headed to sleep with our big flannel blankets since it was so cold. Saturday we woke up about 10:30 (yay for sleeping in), had egg and (super crispy, oops) bacon burritos. Dragged our butts a little, took a shower and headed out about 1:30pm to show the girl around. I took her into SLO. Now as most of us Central Cal kids know, Morro Bay is known for its fog. True to form, it was cooler and foggy but as soon as we got on the freeway the sun was shinning through and it was WARM. We pulled into SLO, dug out some change for the parking meter and I showed her some of my fav shops. We bought some fun stuff and next thing we knew it was 3:40pm and we were suppose to be back at camp by 4:30pm. Oops. So we left to find BevMo and Old Navy. Bought some cool shirts and some alcohol to enjoy for the evening, then headed back and got in about 6:00pm to the smell of Tri-Tip on the grill…mmm. We also had, garlic bread, salad and baked potatoes.

After we stuffed ourselves, we headed outside to enjoy the cool weather and make SMORES! This was fun since we had to use a wire hanger and when you would try to turn the marshmallow it would stay in place. This didn’t slow the yumminess down at all. Earlier in the day we were at Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory and I had bought a caramel marshmallow to make a special smore. I tore it in half to make 2 and have enough to share. So I was trying to be careful because I didn’t want the caramel to drip off, then I turned to pick up the graham cracker and I forgot to break it. So I turned to look at the marshmallow and spin it, it was getting soft fast and I was trying to hurry. I reached back for the cracker and turned back around and I LOST IT! IT SLID OFF IN 1 WHOLE SECOND! *curses* So now I only had one more half to try and get it right but at least this time I had the crackers ready. Perfection, nailed it! I had a piece of chocolate on the top and bottom as well and it was super yummy! We passed it around so everyone could have a bite lol. We played cards for a little bit, then went inside because the fog was getting too wet. We watched Hancock, then some Saturday Night Live and fell a sleep for the night.

Next morning we got up, loaded the GPS’s up, went into Morro Bay so she could see that cute little town. We fed the seal’s and looked at some yucky fishies. Headed to Pismo to meet the family for Pizza at Klondike’s. We walked out on the pier first and found a geocache, it was pretty cool. My aunt and uncle were now hooked, so we walked back in to town and found another one by our favorite ice cream place. Then down the road we found a TB hotel and did a 3 for 3 exchange. Now we were all hungry for pizza. I showed Alix my Ms. Pac Man skills and we had a really good evening. We found one more nano geocache down the road from Klondike’s and then headed back to the campsite. Grabbed some cheesecake on the way, watched some tv and called it a night.

I guess no one is ever really ready to go home from vacation but we were missing Polly a lot. We woke up, packed our stuff up, had some random snacks for breakfast and headed into Pismo one more time to do a little more window shopping and grab some lunch. Decided it was time to hit the open road and rolled into town about 5:30pm.

The neatest part about the weekend was looking at the beaches/towns through fresh eyes. I forget while these places are like my backyard and I know they are always there for me to enjoy, they are very much new to Alix. She is already finding her favoritey places and I love to see her smile when she sees something new. I’m looking forward to many many more new adventures for the both of us.

I hope you had a really special 1st California Birthday luv… Happy Birthday sweetheart.

I have a nice Boss

So I'm sitting here working and my tumbly decided it was time to be grumbly. So I went to heat up some food that my girl packed for my lunch. I was in the middle of eating when my boss walked up and asked if I wanted anything from the Mexican food place we go to often. I pointed at my food and said no thanks I'm good. He persisted with, are you sure you don't want anything for later? I decided to be good and again say no thanks, I have soup for later. He then said, well I'll be in and out tomorrow but remind me that I owe you lunch.

*smiles* It's just nice sometimes. I think I already know what I'm going to have :)

The Days that just Finished and the Week Ahead.

*phew* Alright, so I spent the last 5 days overhauling the house. Now everything has a place, is organized and feels much much better. Who knew 2 people could have so much stuff :) Everything seems so much more open now, it's weird. I've been hanging more of my stuff up and that's kinda fun to see everywhere, it's like a shrine to myself but not as egotisical as it might sound. *giggles*

We had 2 days in a row of Framily time and it was great but it never seems long enough. We all find the funniest conversations to have, some of us seem to find the fastest ways to *insert both feet* into our own mouths and somehow or another new nicknames, words or sayings are invented.

The Girls' birthday is in 7 whole days! Woohoo. In 4 days we leave for the beach but I'm very much ahead of myself. Today I finish the laundry and put a few things away in the hope chest. Then I'm going to work on Geocaching stuff for the beach. Tomorrow we are off to the Great Kern County Fair with the family :) I'm excited to show Alix our hokey little fair. Wednesday I will start laundry and packing for said beach trip. Thursday we finish up any last minute packing/geocaching. I have to do some shopping in there at some point. Then Friday after work, it's off to the Beach for 3 nights... YAY!!!

For now, I'm hustling and bustling at work so I don't leave a mess to come back to a mess, cause that just sucks. So now that I'm done with lunch, BACK TO WORK! *cracks whip* (No ideas Patty *heehee*)

I'm enjoying my day just wearing a little happiness on my sleeve. :)

Positively Positive List o' Things to Do This Week

So it's been awhile since I've blogged. Well for me anyway. I'm keeping a positive outlook hour by hour, day by day, week by week and so on and so forth. I figure I can't control it all the time but if I'm making a vallant effort then the happpy fairy is bound to surround me and I'm okay with that. I have a lot on my mind. Not in a bad way but of things I'd like to accomplish in the next couple weeks. So I thought to keep you all posted on what's going on with me(us) that I'd make the list. And it will allow me to look it over on my time without it burdening my dreams. My own pensive if you will.

*Rearrange the Dining Room for easier gaming access.
*Set the extra room to be a workable space.
*Get more pics up on the walls
*Rearrange the IKEA shelves in the kitchen
*Get the laundry put away
*Re-evaluate the bedroom
*Think Birthday presents
*Make Halloween Aprons
*Geocaching Beach Weekend
*Work on Halloween Invitations
*Decide what to make for the "Look what I can do" potluck.

That's what I have for now... Good Night!

The Busy Season



So begins the process of cooling down... weather wise, not me. :) September always brings a lot of cake. Many birthdays, events and such. This Saturday is the kickoff, so to speak. Saturday we head up to Berkeley to see Dave Mattews Band at the Greek theatre on campus, it's an outdoor venue, they allow blankets on the grass (where we'll be) and snacks, so YAY for that. We'll do a little geocaching of course and then Monday night starts the Lesbian football league. So I will be there with some kind of yummy side dish and dessert :)

Next Saturday is Kurt's BirthdayCon which includes a full day of gaming, friends and food. 3 very vital things to livng a happy well rounded life. I'm hoping to play Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence and Settlers. I love those games. To kick off that morning though, we have a CITO event for Geocaching. So we get to pick up trash from the messy people at the park, plant (and find some new caches) and just enjoy some geeky company. That is also the drop for the fair at Southside camera... yay for the fair being right around the corner.

The 20th we hang at the 'rents for the "Look What I Can do Potluck/Swimmie/Wii game night." This is based on the fact that we are basically at Color Me Mine every Saturday night in our PJ's to paint because it's free and we can all afford that. So we're going to bring dishes, desserts, drinks on things we've made at color me mine.

The last weekend of the month finds us at the beach with my aunt and uncle for 3 or 4 days. Celebrating Alix's birthday at one of our favoritey places. A year ago, we were at our other favorite spot, Fenway Park!

So those are some highlights for the month and THEN... It's October! and that dear kiddies means Halloween month woohoo!

Sometimes things are just hard


If I could sing so magnificently you could forget that pain even existed in the world, I would;
If I could hug you in the most perfect way to relieve your grief, I would;
If I could look so deep into your eyes that your tears filled my eyes, I would;
If I could touch you so the rush of relief was such pure joy; I would;
If I can help you in any way, even it’s just to make you smile; I always will… this is my promise to you as your friend.