Well that was fun

I can finally blog about this. It's been chewing at me since summer!

Cat & I decided to surprise our little far-away friend, Dani, for her 30th birthday. She's in grad-school as a writer in Washington. She misses us. We miss her. We thought we'd rectify the situation & bought plane tix after clearing it with her folks.

Here's the nitty-gritty of the weekend:

We arrived just before noon on Friday. The flight was nasty. We had the worst turbulance that anyone one the plane (including the flight crew) had ever experienced. The flight attendant & 2 others puked. That's how bad it was. The flight attendant people!! Anyway after getting off of the plane we had on our bright pink wigs (apparently now a birthday tradition for us) & survived the odd looks of the security. Dani was expecting one pink wig but not two (her mom had to leak that Cat was showing up but I was still a surprise). After hugs & smiles & meeting mom, Neva & Dad, Roy we stopped by a new little bakery/coffee house for a little lunch. Delicious. We headed to their house, got settled, played a game of "Scene It" & then headed out to dinner & then to a play. We saw "Souvenirs". A great little play. The costumes, however, left much more than a lot to be desired. At one point Cat & I actually cringed back in our seats, making the stinky diaper face before looking at each other in disbelief. Wow! But like I said. I great play. I'd see it again.

We woke up Saturday to fresh baked apples with craisins & cinnamon for breakfast. After leisurely getting ready we headed out into the frigidness that is known as Liberty Lake, Washington (have I mentioned it was rarely about 32 degrees the whole time we were there?) We drove by the beautiful lake, through beautiful country & headed to downtown Coeur de Laine, Idaho. Yep, crossed the state line. We shopped & lunched in the cute little downtown area after seeing the lake & stopping to take some photos. Got a couple stocking stuffers there so the Christmas shopping has officially begun. We ended the day with Dani's birthday extravaganza by heading out to some of her favorite haunts & she showed us off to her local friends. Tea at the coffee house, pizza at the Catacombs, dessert at Ella's with a side of jazz, a game of Sorry & 5 games of pool at the bar. Dani & her friend Heather won 4 games but Cat & I finally snatched a victory on the 5th game.

Dani made us crepes for breakfast on Sunday. We then headed to downtown Spokane to checkout a new store chalk full of vintage jewelry & clothes. We then headed to the historic Davenport & checked out the candy shoppe, ballrooms, Christmas tree raffles & had a little bite in the peacock room. I can't even wrap my head around a life style that would include such a place. After a stop at the neat-o book store & game shop we headed home for dinner.

We slept in on Monday, had homemade pecan pie for breakfast & were treated to hot stone massages by our dear little masseuse, Dani before heading to the airport. Pie for breakfast, the company of great friends & a free massage. Could it get better? I think not!

Thank you my friends for a great weekend. Dani, we miss you already. Cat, you're amazing. I love you both.

Late-Night Literature

As promised, here's our masterpieces from Saturday night's Food On A Stick Night:

#1 Trotting ponies are cute & fiery and flames ruin stables. Ponies can't barf so they poop alot over grass covered lands. Riders guide many ponies through flaming fields of smoke. Hopefully the jockeys purchase ambulance insurance so they will survive eternally. Falling asteroids fall. Impact can often frighten riders' ponies. Now that the stables blaze brightly on their hellfire & tigers. Happenstance dictates the ponies exponential growth of mermaids. Oceanic tsunamis cause massive pony trauma. Veterinarians often chat with damaged ponies because therapy sometimes helps. However, usually the ponies bite seahorses. in the end, mermaids die without veterinary love.

#2 When children scream viciously to my mirror I retreat swiftly. Diagrammatically speaking, children posses an uncanny likeness of pigeons. Therefore we should all burrow vigorously under the bomb factory. Someday poop boy will relieve himself while skipping. Subsequently, holes from the droppings of elephants levitate. Until magical birds sprinkle seeps upon elves, raptors swim swiftly toward huge buoys. Furthermore, walruses' tusks tear open flesh. Somehow squires save the bananas extinction. Today, yesterday, and tomorrow bananas will triumph over evil.

and our favorite:

#3 Why does the rain fall so beautifully? I have never seen the dew form so quickly on the man. Therefore, hypothetically, when I sing gaily I look very gay. I sew blankets of wool for sheep. These animals are worthy of my efforts. So I continue my sewing endeavor at my leisure. Occasionally naked sheeplings run coldly through rivers of man dew. Consequently the water from farmers flows like on the asphalt. Once this group is over sheering they die.

Ya' know Dani, not everyone's gotta go to grad school to write brillliance. Maybe you learned a little somethin' somethin'. :-)

"Now there's somethin' you don't see every day"

Nothin' brings a group a friends closer than a marshmallow war. I know. I live to tell the tale.

Last night was The 2nd Annual Food On A Stick Night to celebrate Daryl's 31st Annual Birthday. In a word...Delicious. We had much the same fair as last year. Fruit skewers for as an appetizer & added this year to the course was 'lil smokies on toothpicks (as requested/demanded by Kaisara). Our main course this year was the same. Grilled build-your-own kabobs with shrimp, tri tip, chicken & all the veggies one would need. For dessert was the gooey goodness know as fondue. Daryl requested a caramel fondue so I nixed last year's marshmallow cream recipe & found a caramel one online. Because of the change in fondue I added crisp granny smith apples & rice krispy treats to the dipping menu along with the typical strawberries, bananas, pound cake, oreos, marshmallows...aaaahhh the marshmallows.

After we were finished gorging ourselves and we couldn't find our Apples-to-Apples game, the night took an ugly turn. Dana innocently tossed a mallow at Daryl who innocently volleyed it back to her. This went on for a time or two & then somehow (I have to remain neutral here) there was a wrestling match for the mallow between Katie & Dana on my couch. Before too long there was all out war & mayhem in my living room, dining room, kitchen, entry way, & bathroom. It was awesome! 7 grown adults having a full on marshmallow war. Poor Melanie was sleeping on the floor & was forced to sleep in self imposed exile on the floor of my bedroom.

Our war came to a slow end as eventually all of our ammo got gooey (at which point each mallow was retired) or Zelda snatched them up before we could pick them up to fire them off again. They're the perfect thing to pelt at a loved one. When you get a good, square hit it makes an awesome sound to let you know you hit your target but it doesn't hurt the target (even when it's in the face after being thrown HARD by an avid softball player).

We followed the war with a story telling game (outside on the patio since we were all sweaty). Someone starts with 1 word & then each person around the circle adds only one word to make a sentence & eventually a little story is born. I'll post our literature soon. It was crazy. Of course it was 1am & we were on a sugar high, but at the time our stories seemed hilarious.

We're all looking forward to the tradition of Food On A Stick Night continuing next year. Perhaps a new little tradition was born too!

Now I'll close with a "Ghostbusters" quote that I'm sure came to your mind.

Dr. Peter Venkman: What is it?
Dr Ray Stantz: It CAN'T be!
Dr. Peter Venkman: What did you DO, Ray?
Winston Zeddemore: Oh, shit!
Dr Ray Stantz: [somberly] It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Well, there's something you don't see every day.

Back in the Saddle, Again

So after a pitiful mileage tally for October, (life just got a little nuts there), I'm back on the bike. I rode from Kaisara's new work to my work twice last week (it's 1/2 mile further than his old work) and rode to church this morning (4.35 miles with several hills). I just did a little adding & came up with just over 500 miles for my so far annual total. Yeah me! I did it! I've even got 1 1/2 months to go.

Due to Tuesday's beloved Sewing Circle I can't ride that morning but I'm hoping to do the comute ride at least thrice this week. I eventually want my bike's saddle bags to not actually be my very own.

I Need A Nap!

Mom & Dad asked Kaisara & me to dog/house sit for them while they went to Vegas to visit Daddy's cousin who was there for a conference. We said "sure". Then the scheming began of something we've wanted to do for them for a while now. We called up the sis' & we got started. We re-did their bedroom. For weeks before we've been buying paint, new bed clothes, fabric for curtains, crown molding, base boards, a couple new pictures for the walls, hinges & knobs for their cupboards. We knew we'd only have 4 nights to pull it off so we prepped as much as we could before hand.

Jen doesn't work Mondays & Greg took of Monday so they could do all of the moving out. Kaisara worked 1/2 day on Wednesday & had all of Thursday off. It's a good thing. We'd never have made it! After working all day then re-doing bedroom all evening 'til 12:30am-ish. I'm beat. We're all beat. Daryl even came over to help a couple nights.

The room's finished & the parental unit is home. They love it. It's so nice to be able to do something for the people who've done so much for me.

Here's a before pic. with a couple afters.