Trick or Treat!

Here we are at Bob & Nora's party...as Drew Carey & Mimi Bobeck! There were several doctors/surgeons at the party, and many police officers (literally). Nothing like getting a bunch of law enforcement-types together with copious amounts of alcohol. Kudos to John for being a method actor. Bye-bye beard, hello flat-top, all in the name of "What Would Drew Do?". And try as I might, I could not treat him quite as rattily as Mimi does Drew.

Tonight: Ghostwalk!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Ha!

It was a super fantastic weekend in the glorious desert! We had our own private airshow. The girls rode a 50cc quad all by themselves, and they got pretty masterful at it! Ivy in particular was very confident and aggressive on it. No one got (seriously) injured. We had roaring campfire, and entertaining conversation. My mom made a yummy apple crumble and we all shared it around the campfire Saturday night. The sky was so clear and the moon didn't come out until 10pm, so we had a great view of the stars, and the Milky Way. I got to hang out with my grandpa. He turned 80 this year, so I'm always happy for the time we get together, even if it's just sitting in the desert, watching the Stealth fly by for the umpteenth time.

There were problems, of course. "Someone" (okay, it was my job), forgot to perform inventory in the motorhome prior to leaving. So we didn't have forks. We didn't have mugs. We didn't have a big pot to heat up the traditional Sunday morning menudo breakfast. But those little inconveniences were hardly noticeable. My mom had extra forks, and two extra mugs, and the menudo fit perfectly in my huge skillet. I think it even warmed up faster.

Oh, yeah, and one other thing. Uh, the bearings on our trailer axel went kaput, so we basically had to disassemble the whole thing and load it up into the motorhome. John is bummed...but I refuse to let it ruin the weekend. Someday, we'll talk about it and laugh.

And, I must admit, it was so damned nice to walk in to the kitchen, tired and cranky with a bunch of unloading yet to do, and see the nice clean sink and countertops. Tonight, I will catch up on the laundry!

"all in all we're just another brick in the wall"

I had to come home and clean my house tonight. Because I want to go camping this weekend. And you can't go camping if your house is dirty. How could you go camping with a dirty house? It's a rule, and a damned good one!

I am such a juvenile sometimes. Thank gawd for my level-headed, responsible husband. Who, by the way, has completely bowled me over by foregoing OT on Sunday (cha-ching!) to spend the weekend with us out in the beautiful desert! I think he really likes his quad! Or maybe he really likes my camping cooking?

I checked the weather forecast, and it's going to be awesome! 80 degrees - - woo hoo! I have lists to make and stuff to pack. I really want to be sure we don't leave the cooler of food home like we did last time! We rolled into Mojave and it suddenly dawned on me..."did you pack the red ice chest that was in front of the refrigerator?"; "uh, no"..."uh-oh, that was our food!". So we were able to clean out the cupboards in the motorhome of food that needed to be rotated anyway; pasta, spaghetti sauce, pancake mix, canned corn. No one went hungry that weekend, we just missed all the special little camping snacks I usually bring (brie, salami, Absolut Citron...) . We won't let that happen again. Mmmm, maybe we'll make mojitos!

I am really looking forward to the rest of this month. Zack comes back from camp on Friday, then we go camping (thanks to Lua and Fred for covering box office for me!),
I go see Davíd on Thursday, school carnival on Friday, Halloween party on Saturday, Ghostwalk on Sunday, then Halloween and Jury Duty! And whoosh, it'll be November, which means our anniversary, Veteran's Day (I get the day off), Watkins Family Hour, Thanksgiving, and my birthday! Can you believe it is nearly 2006?!?!?

Mull that over for a while! I've better start my Christmas shopping!

~Lisa

Thoughts on Halloween parties for adults

So, just what is the general consensus out there regarding Halloween parties for adults? Even when I was single and unfettered (childless), I wasn't really a Halloween party type of person. Now, I love dressing up (we usually have a potluck at work), and I love passing out candy, and I love taking my kids trick-or-treating, but the whole party-thing was never my thing. I did go out to a bar once, but my family's band was playing, so it was like a family party.

Anyway, we are actually considering going to a friend's party this year. I started spitting out couple costume ideas to John the other day, and his idea was to go to the office supply store and purchase a "Hello my name is..." sticker, and write the word GOD on it and slap it on his shirt. Nice try! I told him if we are going to commit to going to this party, then we have to go over the top, costume-wise. We're not doing it half-assed. I'm surprised he went for it, because we have never been the type of couple who coordinates clothing! We actually make fun of couples who wear matching outfits...or sit on the same side of a booth.

So, I'm not going to tell you about our most likely costume choice. But I will tell you what we nixed:
Barney and Betty Rubble (I guess he doesn't want to have to remember to shake his shoulders up and down while he laughs, and it is too cold for bare feet)
Homer and Marge Simpson (D'oh!)
Esmeralda and Quasimodo (he says it's "too difficult"!?!)
Steve and Terry Irwin (crocodile hunters!)
Tourists (it's been done to death)
Broom and Feather Duster (no inanimate objects - his rule)
Salt & Pepper shakers (again, no inanimate objects)

Okay, I was brainstorming! Still, I think I had some pretty good ideas, and I didn't even tap into all the literary personalities!

Remember the year I was a bag of jelly beans? Now THAT was a great costume! (okay, I've attached a picture for your viewing pleasure! I made this costume all by myself!)

Boo for now!

~Lisa

Happy Birthday Honey Bunny!

Now let's go eat some BBQ!

(I think you're gonna like your presents!)

xoxo!

~Lisa

October is freakin' awesome!

What a great day for a Monday! I am just riding some really wappy vibe lately. Not that there aren't any of the usual nutsy things going on, like having to ride Zack's ass about turning in his homework (what's new?!?)...but there are some pretty cool things going on just below the surface which make things really interesting.

I'd forgotten just how busy October can be! I'm all wrapped up at the theater center, we're in the middle of a huge "building restoration fund" drive, we have ghostwalk coming up, a new season to announce, and it looks like Zack just might have a role in the upcoming holiday production. John might, too, but we're still in negotiations. We have school carnival, homecoming, Halloween (yay!), we just had the girls' birthday, and we have John's birthday coming up in just two days! This is when I usually start to hyperventilate because all this means is that CHRISTMAS will be here much sooner than I am ready for. But this year, I am so ready! BRING IT ON!

And my job has morphed into this totally new, challenging, rewarding, mm-mm-good place to be.

Oh, and I started taking a daily vitamin! Maybe that's why the world is so rosy! I am just loving my life right now. I made an awesome dinner two nights in a row! Yesterday I made a yummy angel hair pasta with lemon shrimp and some home made foccacia bread with carmelized onions and mozzarella on top. Tonight, I made a Largo salad because I can't wait to get there at the end of this month (Davíd Garza is back for two performances!). I haven't quite perfected the dressing yet, but it's pretty damned good!

Yeah, I think that multivitamin is really working...

When seconds count...

I witnessed a terrific car accident this evening. I'm always amazed how I immediately jump into "take control" mode - - I pulled over, called 911, began assessing injuries, and performing traffic control within seconds. It is such a unique sensation when you witness something like that, and it all goes into a series of freeze frames - - click - - click - - click, like slo-mo. I saw the small car waiting for me to pass so it could turn left in front of me, I saw the blue truck approaching it, I realized he wasn't slowing down, I saw him swerve at the last second, and then I saw it ram the small car from behind, erupting the rear windshield into a million crystals and thrusting it 180 degrees into my lane. The driver of the small car was unconcious when I got there, and luckily, some of the residents who live on that stretch of road were already there too. I saw red splatters all over the interior of the car, but they turned out (thankfully) to be Kool-Aid. The guy in the blue truck had a little boy, about 4 years old, who just wanted a band-aid and to go home (his head was bleeding) because he was afraid the ambulance people were going to give him a shot. It wasn't until afterwards that I realized if I had left Walmart just two seconds earlier, I would've been in the midst of it.

I got new tires today, and I feel very safe. Well, safer.

Our babies aren't babies any more...

We had a super dooper weekend! The girls turned 6 on Sunday, so we took them to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on Saturday. It was a marvelous time! We beat the crowds and were able to touch and see so many sea creatures. Grandma Nancy joined us for the day. For lunch, we went to Bubba Gump's.

Amazing how such a joyous occasion can cause little twinges of sadness. I look at my kids and realize I don't have babies any more. They're almost "real" people. And while that is wonderful in its own way, it kind of tugs at my heart, too. I am just awed by the whole process.