That's Spelled Like Wyoming Only With Different Letters, Right?

Last Thursday, Jason & I left in the wee hours of the morning to drive to Orwigsburg, PA for the Killian's reception. Google maps said it would take 10 hours and 40 minutes, but it really took 12 hours both ways.

So 12 hours, 7 interstates, and two drives by Mr K's house, we finally made it. In a funny coincidence, the Jasons were both wearing red t-shirts and black shorts, and Meli & I were wearing yellow t-shirts and dark pants. We meant to take pictures, but once we started working, we forgot. Plus there was some bad juju that briefly marred the day, followed by the worst mojitos known to mankind (now know as badjitos).

I'll admit it. Jason was not running a slave labor camp. But all of us did work hard everyday. And partied hard every night! I helped a lot with food prep, cutting all kinds of fruit. I had the lemons, limes, and strawberries under control. Thanks to Kate I now know how to cut up the different kinds of melons, too.

Friday, the Jasons, Meli & I went on a tour of the Yuengling Brewery. It was very interesting, hot, and smelly. I highly recommend the tour. Can't recommend the tasting though. I guess I really don't like beer.

By Saturday, I reached my breaking point. From the time that we got there Thursday until my break, I hadn't been by myself at all except to use the loo. That doesn't work for me. I need some, okay, a lot of alone time. I can handle all the closeness for a day or two, but I ignore that fact sometimes and get myself into a cranky pickle. So after many hours of togetherness, physical labor, little sleep, hot & humid weather, the bad juju from Thursday, and a visit from Aunt Flo.......Jason had to take me for a little drive to get away for an hour or so. I had a little cry. I ate some salty fries from McDonalds and slurped down an ice-cold diet Coke. I still wasn't feeling better, though. When we got back, Barb was there, and my mood lifted. For some reason, having a little cry in the arms of a mom is the most comforting thing in the world. Then it was time for swimming. By the time the party started, I was almost back to my usual chipper self.

Getting to hang out with my other college roommate whom I hadn't seen in eight years, that made me happy again. I got to meet her new husband; he's hilarious! Then the jello shots came out......

After dark, there was more swimming and a really difficult game of keep-away in the dark. I'm surprised nobody was injured! I wish there were some swimming pics, but there are none. I still haven't taken my pics off my camera, but you can check Meli's out at her Kodak site. I'll let you know when I put mine on.

Well, this wasn't the blog I had hope to write, and it's way shorter than the wedding blog, but I think this hasn't been too bad since I've got a bad case of writer's block. Grr.

Oh yeah. Thanks to the badjitos, there were many discussions about where to get the best mojitos or how to make the best mojitos. I swear the best mojito is the first one I ever had. On the roof of the hotel where Hemingway use to go in Havana. So here's the pic of me happy after drinking it....(It's okay; you can hate me for a minute. Ha ha!)

Re-Blog...

Oh my goodness! What a long, crazy, fun, work-filled weekend! I promise to blog about it Wednesday. Monday I tried recovering by eating salt & vinegar chips and Killian fruit salad and catching up on all the TV I missed since last Wednesday. Then we headed over to Mom & Dad's for fried chicken with our friend Blip. I was supposed to go back to work today, but I guess all of the work this past weekend, plus the long car trip, plus the storms yesterday all worked together to give me a migraine this morning. I finally felt better at about 4.....I wish it had been earlier so I could have gotten in at least half a day. Oh well.



So while you wait for a blog about the PA slave labor camp, here are the two blogs I did on Myspace after Jason & Meli's wedding in January. Enjoy!



Thursday, January 31, 2008
Domino the Deer Fawn, part 1, take 2


Jason & I went to California Jan 16-22 for Jason K & Meli's wedding. We had a great time! It definitely ranks as one of our best trips ever.

Life Lessons Learned:
1. Don't drink 3 bottles of wine on your own.
2. Don't eat Mexican and then drink 3 bottles of wine on your own.
3. Dodge Caliber = Death Car
4. Avoid the Travelodge @ LAX.
5. Check for panty lines as soon as you get dressed.

The trip out was easy, friendly & on time. Well, the security agent at Louisville wasn't too friendly about that teeny-tiny tin of cuticle cream that I forgot to put in my clear, quart-size bag, but I smiled, apologized & moved on with life. We flew on Frontier. I don't which animal picture was on the 1st flight, but on the 2nd flight, it was Domino the Deer Fawn. The stewardess talked about Domino as if he/she were a real-life crew member. "On behalf of Todd, Lisa, & Domino the Deer Fawn, I'd like to thank you for flying Frontier Airlines." Love that!

We left at 8 pm and were supposed to land in LA at 2am/11pm. I had visions of getting our luggage, catching the shuttle, checking into our hotel & falling asleep by 2:30am/11:30pm. I was looking forward to a good 6 or 7 hours of sleep before getting the rental car Thursday morning, meeting Meli & Gang for breakfast in Oxnard, and helping set up the pergola at Clairmont Farm.

Here's what actually happened…..We landed. I had to make water, but I passed up the bathroom at the gate in order to use the theoretically less busy bathroom at baggage claim. Too bad there wasn't any bathroom at baggage claim. 40 minutes later, we had collected the bags and caught the shuttle to the hotel. It had to stop at another hotel first to drop of another passenger. At this point, I'd been awake for almost 21 hours. And I really, really had to pee. I just wanted to use the potty and crawl into bed for a mere 5 hrs of sleep.

The LAPD had others ideas.

The shuttle driver- lets call him Donald- helped that one guy off with his luggage. After 5 minutes of doing the pee-pee dance in my seat, Donald still wasn't back on the shuttle. I stood up to see out the window, and Donald was at the back of the shuttle getting chewed out by a cop for something to do with the bumper. Well, I think that's what the cop doing. Donald finally returned and explained to another passenger about the delay. En Español. No habla Español. Ditto for Jason.

We finally reached the Holiday Inn, checked in, used the bathroom (yay!), and went to sleep by 3:30am/12:30am.

Thursday we woke up 90 minutes later than planned. We could see the Hollywood sign from our room. It was this big. Jason took a good picture of it, but I got button happy after all the wine tasting Saturday and deleted it. Oops. We had to catch the shuttle back to the airport so we could get on a second shuttle that would take us to the car rental place. Why pay for a cab when you can ride the shuttles for free? Three hours later than planned, we picked up our rental car with GPS. Thank God for the GPS b/c someone reading this blog gives questionable driving directions. I drove so Jason could play with his new temporary toy. Also, I am a horrible, horrible backseat driver, and I wasn't sure our marriage could survive the mid-morning traffic soup if Jason were driving.

We stopped in Oxnard to tour Meli's house and then Meli, Barb, Jason & I went to a cute restaurant in Summerland to eat yummy food. I think it was lunch for them, but for me it was only second breakfast. After we could eat no more, we ladies took turns sitting on the World's Most Uncomfortable Toilet Seat Ever. It was like sitting on a rail-split fence, and it was so high off the ground, it was impossible to hover! I can't remember the name of the place so be wary of all restaurant toilets in Summerland.

Now it was time to head to the Meadowlark Inn in Solvang. The manager of the inn, Margaret, is super nice! I felt like I was visiting an aunt or cousin. She learned Jason's name quickly (since it's the same as the grooms), and she put him to work unloading firewood. Then we drove out to the farm. We had missed the heavy labor, but there were still some things left to help with. Barb & Jason touched up the paint on the pergola. Meli set up some ferns and flower pots. I supervised.

I was very excited to finally meet Jason K. I knew I was going to absolutely love him, but I was worried about whether or not he'd like me. We were telling Jason K, his sister, & his brother-in-law about the restaurant where we had eaten. And I just had to blurt out that it was only second breakfast, and I would be ready for elevensies soon. Oh yes. I said it. "Hello, very-important-man-who-I-want-to-make-a-good-impression-on, I am a huge dork. I freely reference LOTR daily, and I'm dying to dress up as Chewbaca next Halloween." (I don't reference LOTR daily, but I have been planning my furry costume for over a year now. I just have to talk my co-workers into the Star Wars theme.)

Later in the day, Dan & Carly arrived in the Death Cruiser. Carly reworked Barb's wedding veil for Meli to use. She did a beautiful job!

For dinner, Jason K grilled burgers and sausages. I am happy to report that he made my burger well-done, just the way I like it. My dad doesn't even do that for me! We all sat by the fire and enjoyed the good food & good company.

Well, dear readers, that's all for this installment. We've got four more days to go. Some highlights- explanations for life lessons 1, 2, & 4; the wedding; wine tasting; a haircut; and Uncle Fred's walk of fame star. Stay tuned!



Monday, February 11, 2008
Dominic the Deer Fawn, Part 2

Friday dawned bright. Very bright. I'm not used to brilliant sun in January. It's usually gray around here. Margaret made super yummy baked oatmeal for breakfast. I was happy.

Meli had a mission for Barb, Auntie, Carly & me: locate & purchase roses. She gave us directions to a stand right off of Hwy 154. Margaret gave us a map of the area. We marked the location of the stand. I noticed that if we went a different way than what Meli had told us, we could stop by the farm so Auntie & Carly could check it out. Also, Barb & I wanted to make sure that the Farm's Jack Russell, Jack, hadn't marked the gleaming white pergola as his territory. He'd been eyeing it the day before. Luckily, he hadn't marked it.

We left the farm and headed towards 154. Along the way we passed a miniature donkey farm. What is a miniature donkey for? Miniature carts? I recently finished reading Anne Barclay Priest's Trafficking In Sheep, and I learned from her that donkeys make excellent sheep guards. Perhaps miniature donkeys guard miniature sheep?

After driving all over the area looking for roses, we ended up at Albertson's in Buellton. By that time it was lunchtime so we ate at a Mexican restaurant called Rudy's that was in the Albertson's shopping center. The food was good when we ate it.

It seems like time really flew on Friday. After we got back, everyone got ready for the rehearsal out at the farm. Jason & I got to be lazy and stay at the Meadowlark until dinner. I can't remember the name of the restaurant we went to because life was starting to become fuzzy, but we didn't stay there to eat. It was packed. So everyone besides Jason & me drank at least one gigantic beer, and then we headed back to the Meadowlark for pizza & s'mores.

This is where everything goes super fuzzy. I remember Carly & Laura roasting marshmallows for me so I wouldn't set anyone on fire. I remember talking to Jody. I remember telling Jason K that he would never see me that drunk again. I remember talking about knitting with Michelle and the pickle book with Sally. Then somehow it was 4:30am, I was in bed, and I seriously regretted eating Mexican for lunch. I thought I was going to die and miss the wedding.

I am so glad that I lived! The wedding was gorgeous. The air wasn't too chilly, and the all of the colors were vibrant. I had seen Meli dressed up back at the Meadowlark, but it didn't compare to seeing her walk down the rose petal covered aisle. She's never looked so beautiful!

We did wine tastings at Bridlewood, Kalyra, and Sunstone. Sunstone was my favorite. I didn't like the first glasses of wine, but every glass after tasted great. After the wineries, we went to Los Olivos. We broke up into smaller groups for exploring the town (wine cafes). Jason & I walked all the way to the end of town. So yeah, it's not that big if I walked to the end. On the way back, we heard a lot of laughter. All of the people near us kind of looked around in confusion….who or what could it be? It was Auntie!

We met up with Meli, Barb, Auntie, Bob, Mike, April & Jason K at Consilience for one last tasting (for Jason & me, anyway). Then we headed over to Mattie's Restaurant for cocktails before dinner.

Dinner was excellent. We definitely sat at the rowdy table. Let's just say, if you want to behave, don't sit with Casey & Bob at the same table. They are baaaaad!!! I bet April & Auntie would agree with me. Okay, okay……I may have been a bad influence on Casey & Bob. But I didn't have anything to do with Santa Claus making an appearance at the table!

Much later I enjoyed sitting by the fire with the two Jasons, Benny & Andy. We made fun of Jason K because the sole of one of his government issued boots had completely melted away from the boot! I shouldn't have laughed, though; the sole of one of my Birkenstocks shrunk from the heat of the fire!

Sunday was a day to unwind. We picked up at the farm, and then chilled at the Meadowlark. Dan took me for a ride around the driveway in the Death Cruiser so I could say I'd survived. By dinner time it was just Barb, Meli, the Jasons & me. We were going to eat by the fire again, but it got really chilly and started misting so we ate in Barb's room. Jason K remembered to grill my meat well done. Isn't he wonderful?

Getting ready for bed that night, I decided that I was tired of brushing out my waist-length hair and braiding it every night, and it was time to cut it off. Jason said he was okay with that. He was getting tired of all that hair, too.

Monday, Margaret made an appointment for me to get my haircut. Jason & I had an hour to kill between Meli, Jason K, & Barb leaving for Oxnard and my appointment. So we headed into Solvang. I had up to this point avoided looking at Solvang b/c I could tell it was the type of town to have an awesome knitting shop. I found it in two seconds! It's mainly a spinning & weaving shop. Great. Now I want to learn how to spin my own yarn. When do I have time for that???

Luckily, we made it out of the shop with only a small dent to the bank account. And plans to go to a knitting/crocheting/spinning/yarn convention in Chicago in late Summer. The shop owners from Solvang will be there, and I hope to meet up with them.

Got 16" cut off. The ponytail would have been longer than that had I cut it off. I think John the Hairdresser was worried that I would be upset so he didn't want to cut my hair too short to begin with. Dude, it's just hair. There was a psychiatrist in the seat next to mine; she was freaked that I wasn't crying. (Maybe I should've talked to her about my new inability to cry?) Seriously, though, I was ready, and I haven't had one moment of regret.

We went back by the Meadowlark to show off the haircut to Margaret, and then we stopped by the house in Oxnard to show it off and say goodbye again.
Then it was time to visit Uncle Fred's star. It took an amazing long time to get from Oxnard to Hollywood. (The detours probably didn't help, but how many chances do Jason & I get to dip our feet in the Pacific Ocean or cruise down Rodeo Drive?) It was so awesome to see Uncle Fred's star!! He's Jason's step-mom's mom's uncle, but it's easier just to call him uncle. He was a director. Fred Zinnemann. Go now and Google. We've heard really cool stories about him, and I wish I could have met him.

I had to make water yet again, and I knew I couldn't hold it till we got to our hotel. There was a restaurant called Lucky Devil on the way back to the car so we decided to eat there and use their facilities. Don't eat the Philly cheese steak at Lucky Devil. Jalapenos don't belong on a cheese steak Jalapenos ruin a cheese steak. I do recommend the restaurant, though. It's small and has an easy-going atmosphere.

Just don't order the cheese steak.

I'll make my next piece of advice as brief as possible: Don't stay at the Travelodge at LAX. There is no elevator. It's not all one building. It's very confusing. The employees are idiots. And they say they will send the shuttle to pick you up after you've dropped off your rental car, but you'll have to wait on the sidewalk in Inglewood for 40 minutes in the damp, chilly darkness of night before the shuttle shows up for the- literally- 3 minute drive back to the hotel. If we had known where we were, we could have walked back to the hotel in a third of the time it took for the shuttle to pick us up. It was a surprising and crappy ending to one of our best vacations ever.

The End.

Now I Want My Own Pool

Friday, Kimberly & I went back over to Eric's house for lunch. This time we ate outside. I barely made it from the kitchen to the patio. Sadie was not happy to see me again. (I took a picture with my cell phone of Sadie next to my purse so you can see how small she is. However, I don't know how to get the picture from my phone to the computer, so if you really, really want to see the picture I can text it to you or you can check it out the next time you see me. ) After we ate, we rolled up our pants and dangled our legs in the pool. That was almost as relaxing as getting all the way in the pool. I did lean over to dangle my arms in. I was secretly hoping that I would fall in and not have to go back to work. Alas that did not happen, and we had to leave. As we were exiting, Sadie lunged for me. Twice. Kimberly had to come back in and walk in between us.

(Editor's note: Thanks to Meli. I had texted her the picture, and after reading the blog she emailed it to me so I could post it for all to see. The big brown thing on the left is my purse, and the little brown thing on the right with the two teeny pink ear-bows is Sadie.)
Of course, I didn't let a little thing like razor-sharp wiener dog teeth stop me from going back the next day for swimming. I had it all figured out- if I drove over in my swimsuit, I wouldn't have to go in the house. I could go directly to the pool. Oh, it was so much fun! Eric has the kind of pool I'm not scared to swim in. It's not concrete, so it doesn't have any cracks. The filter and drain weren't scary looking. Plus it was deep enough to dive in. Even had a diving board. Well, it wasn't much of a diving board. It was impossible to get enough spring to do a front flip off of it, but I kept trying anyway. My neck and back are killing me now!

Karen and one of the twins came home earlier than expected. Kimberly had cleaned a lot of the house the night before, and I was going to help her with some other stuff. But we were still swimming when they got back. It was sad, too. Eric's brother died Friday afternoon, and they packed up as quickly as possible and drove all night from the beach to Richmond, KY to drop off Eric & the Twin #1. Then Karen & Twin #2 came back to Etown to unload the Suburban. So we got out of their way as quickly as possible.

Yes, I got sunburned.....

Sadie the Evil Wiener Dog

Kimberly is house sitting for one of our co-workers this week, and today we picked up lunch and headed to Eric's house to sit by his pool and eat. Well, it was a little bit too hot & humid to do that, so we ate at the kitchen table and looked out the patio door at the pool. Meanwhile, Eric's adorable, silky-furred, tiny wiener dog was barking her head off the entire time. When we got there, I let her smell my hands, and she stopped barking. That only lasted for about 3 minutes. I felt out of sorts; animals usually love me. I tried my best to ignore her and ate my lunch. Kimberly was on the phone trying to arrange for some car work and gave me a treat to give to Sadie to try to hush her up. Yeah, that was great. Sadie bit my hand going for the treat. Then she tried to bite me for real. Then she started growling at me. OK. So one dog in the world doesn't like me.

We went outside to enjoy a little bit of sunshine and wished desperately that we could jump in the absolutely gorgeous pool and not go back to work. But we're good employees so we went back inside to grab our bags and lock up. Only the patio door would not lock. After 5 minutes or so, Kimberly actually had to call someone to ask what we were doing wrong. I had no faith that we'd get it to lock, so I pulled out my phone to call Eva and tell her I'd be late getting back. As soon as I finished dialing, I heard the lock click. Yay!

So Sadie's still going crazy over me, and Kimberly had to be between Sadie and me so I could get my purse and get out of there. Then we get on the Dixie and hit traffic. As in stopped. So I pull the phone out again. To try calling Eva again. But I couldn't get through, and I was really annoyed. And when I saw that they had closed one of the lanes so the could blow air on one strip of paint, I got irritated. Yeah, the door not locking and the air-blowing traffic jam tacked 20 minutes onto lunch, which meant staying 20 minutes past quitting time on a beautiful (if hot & humid) summer day. Grrr...

And then we just cracked up! The door thing is something that would only happen to Kimberly, and the unimportant road maintenance is something that always happens to me. Today, we managed to combine the two. I guess Sadie the Evil Wiener Dog was the cherry on top.

Champagne Legs and Clorox Dreams

Check out this video and this video. Lara is in both of them. She was (briefly) on Last Comic Standing last Thursday with seven of the other showgirls but I don't have a video of it. They wore the costumes that match Egon Toast.
These are pictures from our trip to Vegas last year. La's on the right in the EOT pic. Can you find Kandice in the pic below?? Kristin wanted to take him on stage with her but was afraid he would go flying into the audience. That would have been interesting.
Lara will also be on the Food Network's Next Food Network Star on Sunday, July 20 at 10. So be sure to tune in!


Moving on to Clorox......Meli isn't the only one who has been choking on bleach fumes lately. OK. So maybe I didn't have as much exposure, but I bet she hasn't had the same tragic results as me. I should admit that I don't have a great track record with bleach. In high school, the basketball coaches acutally banned me from using bleach after getting it in my eyes one time and all over a beautiful green sweater another time. (Hey, it got me out of washing sweaty towels!) In this household, Jason is in charge of the bleach. I probably should have asked his assistance in my little project or begged for Delayna's help. But no.....how hard could it be? I had some mystery, greasy spots on my only pair of currentyl fitting khakis, and Delayna had told me that she got similar mystery, greasy spots out of her khakis with a bleach pen. And it totally would've worked. If I hadn't left the bleach sitting on the pants for, like, 5 hours. Oh well, my new plan is to try dying the pants to cover the bleach stains. Let me re-phrase that. My new plan is for Delayna or Jason to try dying the pants to cover the bleach stains. I'll let you know how it works out.

Long Weekend

Jason & I had a wonderful long weekend, doing as little as possible. We rented a bunch of movies Thursday night and stayed up until 3 am watching them. We saw Drillbit Taylor, Fools Gold, Charlie Bartlett, and Be Kind Rewind. The only one I would recommend is Charlie Bartlett. Hope Davis and Robert Downey Jr are hilarious! Friday we rented The Onion Movie (one of the worst movies I have ever seen) and Stardust. We'd been thinking about renting Stardust for awhile, and I wish we'd seen it sooner. It was really good! It's based on a graphic novel. I've decided that if a movie is based on a graphic novel or on a video game, chances are I will love it. And yet, I don't read graphic novels or play video games. Go figure.

When we weren't watching movies, Jason was in his man cave gaming, and I was planted on the sofa knitting my fingers off. I had lofty plans this weekend to finish two knitting projects and two books in three days. I probably could have finished the books if I hadn't watched so many movies. Instead, I didn't touch the books at all. I almost finished the blue striped socks. But six rounds from finishing the second sock, I looked about 15 rows lower and noticed a dropped stitch. My first instinct was to throw the sock and all 5 tiny dpns across the living room. I controlled myself, though. I put the socks away while I decided whether to tink back all those rows to pick up the stitch or to just frog the whole sock and start over. It took me 24 hours, but I finally decided to just finish the sock and let the dropped stitch unravel and have a weird space in the sock. I don't care; I'll be wearing handknit socks, and that's more than most people can say. Weird space or not.

I have to admit that I had a 20 0z diet Coke Thursday night. I wanted it, and since it wasn't crack or a cigarette, I decided not to deny myself. That would be silly. Then I had some more diet Coke Friday night, but I only had a fourth of the bottle. It just didn't taste that great. I really love water; it's my favorite drink. But I'm getting a little bit bored with it. Besides tea and coffee, what do people drink during the day?

Oh yeah, last weekend we went to Georgia for the day to pick up a dining room set from Lara's parents, and we saw a DeLorean on the interstate in Tennessee. It's not everyday that you see one of those out on the road!

If Wishes Were Horses...

...beggars would ride like kings. My step-mother-in-law likes to say that. And "is it bigger than a breadbox?" That's her response to anything technological.

I wish I had more time in the day! I'm always telling Meli, "I have a date with the laptop tonight; I'm going to blog." Yeah, you can see how often that happens. I feel bad that I keep missing my dates. I'm a bad girlfriend. Of course, I'm cheating on my laptop. I have a desktop model at work, and I spend 8 or 9 hours everyday with that one. No wonder my laptop likes to act out sometimes, freezing up and stuff.

To make it worse, I can't even be faithful to the "other" computer. (What? You're surprised to hear that I'm cheating on both computers?) I'm reading five different books. Why I am doing that, I don't know. I've got quite a few works in progress (WIPs) on the needles, too: a baby blanket, three scarves, blue socks, red socks, a sweater, and a red blanket.

Then on Monday, I got a box from KnitPics with some new yarn. I got some lace-weight and some cotton-linen blend. Naturally I grabbed a hank of lace-weight to start something lacy.... And I've got at least three baby sweaters that will need to be knit soon.

Clearly, I need to make myself finish what I start, and be a more faithful knitter/blogger.

Life Without Bubbles

This isn't the blog that I'd been planning on writing tonight. Maybe I'll get to that one tomorrow.

Instead my mind is stuck on a commercial I saw for a movie. I saw it about a month ago on comcast on demand, but something was wrong with it and there was no audio. I said then that it looked funny anyway.

Then tonight I was watching "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." (The main girl really, really needs to eat. Anything.) Anyway, my mind was lulled by the show and I was starting to doze off when the movie commercial came on. With sound this time. It's for "The House Bunny." There's a bit where Anna Farris talks like she's possessed by Dr Claw. I don't know if the movie will be funny or not, but hours later I am still crying-laughing because of the commercial.

I hope I still think it's funny tomorrow. I need something to laugh about at work!

By the way, I've got two soda-free days under my belt now, and I'm doing okay. Monday afternoon I had a really bad caffeine-withdrawal headache. I drank a lot more tea today, and that helped with the caffeine. And my kidneys thanked me for the exercise.