Good Luck Charms

I never win anything--ever. Allright, once, in junior high. It was a tape of The Cure's Mixed Up, but my parents wouldn't drive me down to the radio station to pick up my free booty, so it was all in vain. Lame.

***But my luck just changed***

I was driving home today, and I hear that Movin 99.7 has a contest. You win free Warped tickets:You qualify to win front row seats at NKOTB:

AND you get qualified to win a free trip to Hawaii for two:

Since I love Hawaii and the Vans Warped Tour (and have a slightly unhealthy obsession with the KIDS, in case you hadn't heard) I started texting my little heart out like a tween gone wild.

A minute later, I get a call from the DJ. I won the tickets to the Warped Tour, and qualified for the NKOTB tickets and the Hawaii trip! I should know if the last two pan out in the next week or so. The DJ kind of goaded me into saying I "wanted to be a front row ho" and played it back on the radio for all to hear. Anything to lay on a white sand beach, right? I hope I never have to run for political office. For shame. If I win the Kids tickets in lieu of the Hawaii trip I think Lance may kill me.

I'm hoping that my luck continues. If you heard me the radio today at 4, you're lucky as well since you got to hear me scream with excitement.

Send good vibes my way!

Simple Math

What do you get when you add:

Piggie

Cow

Costco

And this baby

Here is your answer!!

Then, you take that product and add

and this

and you will get this

See? Math can be fun. I just proved it--you don't even have to be a Mathlete. I'm glad to know that I have roast, steak, chops, ribs, and tri-tip at my beck and call. I have a feeling this will be the summer we spend every single night in our backyard, hanging with Dobbie, and eating some tasty Q.

Ode to Aunt Heidi

My favorite Aunt Heidi came out to visit. She is mother to my fave cousin, Brucie. He goes by Bruce now, but he will always be Brucie to me.


Many of my favorite childhood memories were because of her. My mother's Nazi-esque ban on sugar, refined wheat (aka white bread), fast food and fun were completely undone in a weeks visit. She would let us load up on crap food, crap cereal, crap toys, crap movies, and enforced no curfew. Better yet, she let us run around town in the middle of the night. Granted their town was so small it was technically a village--it still is, actually. It has about 1000 people. Most nights, we played hide and seek in the local graveyard. One of the headstones was for "Fred E. Krueger." I swear. This was terrifying to a child of the 80's.


We made up this obnoxious routine with Bruce. When we saw each other, we would jump into a huddle and all say our full names. This was followed by "Ancient Chinese Secret, huh???" and then a bunch of karate moves where we kicked each other while yelling "hi-yahh!!" We still do this when we get together. This is a tradition I totally plan on passing down to our kids.

I would stay up all night with Bruce watching scary movies and eating Hardees. I always got shipped off ahead of my no-good sister Eriika. During this time, Bruce and I would plan out all sorts of rotten deeds and tricks. Once, we waited until Eriika was asleep, and then did the old "toothpaste on the hand/tickle face with feather" trick. Worked like a charm. Eriika got toothpaste all over her face and hair, and we convinced her that a team of local thugs broke in and perpetrated the crime. For some reason, she believed this. Heidi knew what was up, but she didn't bust us.

Another time, we took the molting from Bruce's tarantula Harry and put it on her face while she was sleeping. She WIGGED OUT. The next morning, Harry really went missing, and we had no idea where he was. Eriika went to get Bruce's boombox (no doubt to play Poison and Def Leppard tapes) and she found Harry in the battery box. She thought it was the molting again, but Harry started crawling out and made her cry. Harry obviously knew Eriika was rotten to the core, too.

Heidi always drove us 20 minutes away to the movie theatre, mall, Hardees, and DQ. As we loaded up into the old Suburban, she would always say "let's go gang!" I always fantasized that we were like Scooby and the gang, clamoring into the Mystery Machine, ready to fight crime and bust Old Man Johnson. You know, he would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for us meddling kids in the crime-fighting gang!

They also had this gully where we would go sledding for hours and hours at a time. We made ramps and jumps, and did countless runs in our plastic red sleds with the yellow handles. We played with Brucie's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man dolls, and Star Wars figurines. Luke Skywalker always killed my Strawberry Shortcake, but that was fine by me. We put on shows, and created more lame dance routines than I care to admit, usually to the aforementioned Poison and Def Leppard. There were forts in the living room, jump piles made from the stripped sofa cushions, and endless nights of truth or dare.

I don't see Bruce or Heidi enough these days, and writing this makes me so nostalgic. Time to pay them a visit, methinks. And I don't even have to hide my fast food wrappers from my mom this time. BTW--Bruce, whose mom let him eat **whatever** he wanted, whenever he wanted, is now a lanky vegan. And we all know how I turned out. Lesson in moderation moms. Chew on that.

But What I Really Want is a Pony

Things have been a little crazy-head crazy for the last few weeks. Work, life, play...it's all been a little overwhelming. As Blog Man pointed out..."don't think we haven't noticed that your blog has been lacking posts." I know, I know. Here's what we've been up to in the last month.

A little eating and dancing in SF with the girls

@ Medjool

I think we partied with Heidi from the Hills. See?? I was too afraid to actually look at her face. And, according to Perez, she is recovering in a hospital after being "tortured" in Costa Rica. Like we would ever be so lucky.

Caught up with the "kids" I used to nanny for. Nathan, Hillary, and Miranda. Better known as Newtie, Boobie, and Mirsy. But I would never share such an embarrassing thing on my blog.

Worked endlessly on the finishing touches for the yard. We bought 5 new pigmy date palms for the bakyard.

Checked out our tasty peas a'growin in the garden. Dobbie has given up chicken, and now favors the peas. We have to watch him like a hawk.

Our lil' garden, by the Party Shed. I love lettuce on demand.

The Shed showing off the sweet cowbell we got in Germany, along with the vintage Deutsche Post sign from the 30's. We picked this up at a flea market on the river on our last trip. We both knew when we saw it that it was perfect, and meant for our little Euro-inspired shed.

LOVE the sign

What Euro shed is complete without a planter box with flowers? We saw them all over Switzerland, and I knew that I wanted to add one. I finally got some free time and got to it.

The finished product--ta-da!

Made some lamb meatballs with a pomegranate reduction and homemade yogurt sauce. Recipe here. Make this now. You won't regret it.

Added 3 hanging ferns to the back patio

Planted tomatoes and strawberries in hanging baskets. I wanted the Topsy Turvey, but the ol' Ball and Chain said they were too ugly, and would be a blight on his nice looking yard and garden. So, we did these instead.



Planted some new plants along the back wall. This is where our tomato plants were last year, but they were all psycho, and ate our landscaping light. Once they started in after the sidewalk, we had to pull them out. They were demonic.

Planted a new tree in the front yard. Our old one died, and we finally picked out a new one.

Dogface helped out, of course. He's a huge help. And by huge help, I mean huge hidderance. But he sure is cute.

Spent Memorial Day at the beach in HMB and in Pescadero with Tinger. This included a BBQ in our backyard where Lancer apparently thought it was appropriate to wear socks and sandals with mesh shorts and a Pizza My Heart t-shirt. Can someone please remind him that he's not German? Thanks.

Memorial Day snug with Dobbie in bed

I was so excited about the Pony Rides. Apparently, they are only for kids!! What the hizz-ell kind of racket is that? I wanted to go all Veruca Salt on the people, but decided on a pouty face instead.

I was telling Lancer and Tinger how Pescadero is known for their olalliberries. They made fun of me and my imaginary fruit. Imagine my delight when I spied this little number. Take that, suckas!

This photo has no good explanation. Lance decided that he doesn't pull enough stupid faces in photos, so he spent the day making up for it. I wanted to cheers his milk, he wanted to pull a stupid face, and this is the end result. Aren't we a handsome pair?

I love this sign

The beautiful view--gotta love overcast CA days at the beach

This is great. Look closely--see that red dot? That's a stupid kid. See the dumb dad down below? He was telling his kid to climb up on the cliff. On the endangered vegetation. Many feet above the ground. We contemplated calling 911 and/or CPS, but let it go. I don't think he fell off the cliff, because there were no ambulances when we left. What was that dad thinking??

Love at the beachie

We ate brunch at Hobees, home to world famous coffee cake. See the stupid face? Someone's on a roll!

Lj's "red-white-and blue" breakfast. I had the usual eggs and bacon.

The Ladies

The gents. That face sure never gets old--not.

More planting....

Summer is off to a good start. I have 3 fun activites planned for church (ice-cream social, Pioneer Day picnic, luau) and plenty of my own parties on tap. I am already planning my New Moon party--that should be killer. And I also have NKOTB tix for July 9th--yay! Plus, my 15 year reunion in good old Cedar Falls, Iowa. I'm excited to spend a week with my family and old-school friends. I love summer. I'm so glad she's here.