Festivus weekend!!!!!!!!!!

It has been one hellish day around here. I haven't got anything accomplished that I wanted to. Mostly because other things demanded my attention.

I was so angry at one point I couldn't speak to other people without biting their heads off, so I avoided society for a while today.

So this post is coming about eight hours later than I had planned and after a cocktail (or two) to take the edge off. Please forgive any typo's that are sure to occur. There is a good possibility that I'll edit this tomorrow.

This past weekend was positively filled with the holiday spirit. Just bursting with it!

It has become a tradition of mine to spend a weekend early in December with my bestie Julie. It gives us the opportunity to spread the collective cheer and not just say hi and bye on Christmas day when we are trying to spend time with our families and everyone in between.

So I went to Raleigh this weekend. Spent some time with Julie, Frank and Mina and also got to see some of my "creepy internet friends" from The Nest. If you don't know what The Nest is you should totally check it out. I would link to it, but like I said, I've had a cocktail (or three) and I just don't have the patience for that right now. Google is your friend.

Here are some photos from my fun filled weekend.

First, thing first
Julie needed to shop for some "in between" jeans
So Mina and I had some fun with
the camera in the dressing room

Decked out for the Tacky Sweater party
People don't sell tacky sweaters anymore
Did you know that?
Some Nesties
More nestiesMere with Harrison Even more Nesties
Julie takes a moment to feed Mina
She was a trouper
(I'm talking about Mina)
Alethea's Hanukkah socks
Food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Booze!!!!!!!!!!!!
And cake
Pami strikes a pose
Most of the group
"The world's ugliest house"
Found on the way to the party
Side building (I'm guessing garage)
Attached to "The world's ugliest house"
The pictures don't do it justice
It really needed to be experienced in person
Going to Church
Mina is impersonating Cindi Lauper
"Stupid paparazzi!"

Ok, that's all folks. I've got some great posts planned for this week, so stay tunned!

Now I'm going to go enjoy a cocktail (or four). Ok, not really. I'm 5'2 and weight... oh, who am I kidding? A lady never tells how much she weighs! Let's just say that if I had four cocktails I'd be in a coma.

I'm pretty impressed with myself for still being whitty after a few cocktails though.

Photogenic Friday: The weary traveler is home

Here are some more pictures of Andy's trip to Tahoe. He got home last night, just in time for the alarm to go off at the ski shop. We met the police there after we got all his stuff off the truck.

We live in a sleepy little town and the local police force doesn't have a lot to do so when we got to the shop there were three police cars and at least two more pulled in after us.

Anyway, turns out a mouse tripped the alarm and one of the policemen freaked out when he saw it. I hope he handles criminals with a little more gusto.

We finally got in bed by 2:30.

I'm so glad he's home!

The village below their house

They had giant chess and checker boards
Riding the chair lift
One of the racers going under themView of Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe in the fall
Driving into Reno
They stayed with Robert's parents one night.
This is the view from their house.
I think Andy said those were the Ruby Mountains
They drove through a lot of inclement weather.
This is in Colorado.
Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Photogenic Friday on Sunday

Finally we have an update from the weary traveler.

I don't believe I have actually told you why Andy has gone all the way across the country.

Our friend Robert is the assistant cycling coach at our alma mater. The cycling team is pretty awesome. Mountain Bike Nationals are being held in Tahoe this year and the team is currently there racing.

While they were planning the trip it was clearly more economical for someone to drive the team's equipment across the country rather than try to ship it there. So Robert asked Andy if he'd like to come along and help with the driving.

Andy said, "Yes, please!" to a free trip to California.

So here are some of the pictures Andy has posted of his adventures. Please forgive the shots taken through the truck window. They were trying to make the trip as quickly as possible and couldn't be bothered to stop and take proper scenic photos.

Edit: The translation from facebook to blogger didn't work very well. Click on the photos to see full images.

Loading the truck

All smiles to start

St. Louis, just passin' through
Wyoming. Apparently Andy didn't care for the drive here
The Great Salt Lake
The rental house
Andy sleeps in a closet
First day at the races
Scenery, etc.

Photogenic Friday: Andy stole my camera

This post was supposed to contain several photos of Andy's cross country trip to date.

He left on Monday morning, took my camera and the laptop, and has yet to post a single picture.

Oh, excuse me. He has posted four, very fuzzy, camera phone photos on facebook that serve to prove my theory that cell phones should not have camera features. Or that people should not document cross country trips on their cell phones and try to convince their wives that they really did needed to take the good camera and laptop.

So I have no photo to share with you today.

If he manages to get something posted tonight I'll be sure to share it. Until then I'm going to go be annoyed with him.

Happy Friday!

What I did on my blog-cation...

Hosted a grilled pizza party and didn't take a single picture. I did, however, drink a lot of margaritas. And ate my weight in lemon cupcakes.

Had a picnic with my man.

Experimented with a carrot cake recipe. The cupcakes turned out pretty well.


Got my first speeding ticket.

Added some pizzaz to our plain black bookshelf

before

After

Nearly watched every episode of Gilmore Girls.

Started the countdown to get my braces off. October 21st here I come!

Took a 7th grade field trip.

Cleaned out my bedroom at my parents' house. My mother took it harder than I did.

Held my best friend's head while she gave birth. It was amazing.


As soon as I said I was taking a blog break I had blog material coming out of my ears. I'm back!

Photogenic Friday: Octopus

I love visiting aquariums. As in, I love it so much that Andy told me to calm down. Multiple times.

I think he wanted to pretend like he didn't know me, but he didn't, bless him.

The ocean is totally terrifying to me. And the things that live in it are even more so. That's what makes the aquarium so great. It scares me to death and I love it.

All the little sea creatures are so creepy.

This guy was no exception.


The way he moved around in that water made me glad there were thick walls of glass separating us.