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Monday, January 31, 2011

FBOOK Challenge Day 01

A picture of yourself with fifteen facts

01. My idol is my great grandmother. I’ve never met her.
02. Making a living by writing novels would be pretty cool
03. Baking new things freaks me out
04. Blogging is my obsession and my downfall
05. My grandma says that I am her sunshine
06. I love to eat. I hate to exercise.
07. I regret not getting to know my grandfathers better everyday
08. More money more problems. It’s true.
09. I refuse to have a car payment. Ever.
10. My cat usually brightens a bad day
11. I can fall asleep anywhere in less than five minutes
12. I have to be busy to be happy
13. I always know the words to the song. Always. And sorry, but you will hear me sing it
14. I miss my work keyboard on the weekends.
15. I used to hate the word husband. Now I say it as often as I can.

Kels

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Visting Grandma Can be SO Much Fun

My Grandma has been living all alone up at our cabin for about a month now so my cousin Brittney and I decided to visit her for the weekend. 

Saturday we went into Jamestown for some antique shopping. I bought a cute little lantern and we had lunch at Applebees. Sadly we forgot about cameras and photos until we were leaving the restaurant so now you get this lovely photo below.

My aunt Sheri's birthday was Saturday.. but she's out of town.. so Brittney committed to making her a birthday cake. This was the first cake Britt has ever made so it was a pretty epic event.
I decided to make her oatmeal cookies since those are her faaaaavorite!



My grandma has already expressed that this view of her bottom is undesirable but I don't care because it's necessary as far as I am concerned.
Finished cake!
Maybe we did a photo shoot...





Someone came up with the brilliant idea of putting on old ugly sweaters from the 80's and drinking juice all cutesy. Oh yea.. and wearing lipstick.
We just couldn't pull it off. It was too darn funny trying to pose with the lipstick and the sweaters and the "straws" which are actually pencils.
Too much fun. This weekend was a nice reminder of how important family is.

Kels

Friday, January 28, 2011

Healdsburg REALLY Did a Number on Cody

So...this past weekend had been set aside for a good month as the "Weekend of the Wine". I call it that because all we did was wine taste. Cody and Christina live in Petaluma so we drove up Friday to spend Saturday wine tasting. Cody and Anthony were ambitious enough to plan beer tasting after the wine tasting. Brilliant, right?!

We got to Petaluma and Christina had a beautiful dinner made up for us and of course the first thing she says is... "Sorry, the potatoes are boxed!" LIKE WE CARE! She is a perfectionist so... you know.. she's like me and thinks nothing in this world is good enough until we get involved. We aren't as big headed as that sounded. We just speak the truth. Moving on...
After we four-forked an entire chocolate cake (no plates, no napkins, no milk.. just forks) we passed out. Saturday we awoke for another delicious meal this time in the form of breakfast and got ready to head out to Healdsburg. Unbeknownst to Christina, Anthony and I had major plans to get Cody very drunk as he has never been drunk before and the experiment had to happen at some point in order for the world to know whether Cody was a mean drunk or a nice one. GOOD NEWS! We succeeded and he is quite pleasant all around. Thumbs up Cody :)

I think these photos tell the story themselves...





So wine tasting happened and deep dish pizza. YUM! The best I've ever had and that's coming from someone who has eaten out quite a bit her in her short lifetime.

Tips for my readers on this one:

1. Don't flirt with the wine pourer dude - not a good idea - husbands don't like it - even if you didn't realize you were flirting they don't like it. 
2. If you want free wine you should definitely act older than you are and more experienced in the wine tasting world. Otherwise they see through your haughty exterior so quick that before you know it you have an unwanted "pricing menu" in your hand and a double take tells you that your husband has already left in search of a free venue.
3. Wear comfy shoes
4. Go with friends and have fun
5. Don't drink coffee afterwards.. you WILL. I repeat.. YOU WILL spill it all over the coffee shop and everyone will stare at you. 

Kels

We are Aliens... Yes we Are... Aliens


I decided it needed a reshare!
Kels

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Now That's My Kind of Journaling


 I recently bought this black book. This book is intended to get me to write more often. Whether that writing be creative or mechanical. 

When I was a kid I used to keep this journal. I didn't have a reason for the journal at all. I would share my journal with my mom and dad all the time. Often the pages would be filled with stories about them or my brothers. Most of the time I made useless lists - like a list of the same word over and over again. I never had to write sentences on the board at school so I made lists in my journal. It's a bit odd and unsettling to think of a nine year old voluntarily writing lines in a notebook... but I did. 

As I got older I wrote journals for myself. I would chronicle the days events in them - usually about how angry or happy Anthony made me that day. I literally have four full notebooks for junior high school full of stories about Anthony and I. Probably things like.. "Today after first period Anthony walked me to my next class and he put a note in my pocket. Oh my gosh it was so cool! Then he kissed me on the cheek...." These journals are so ridiculously boring but at that time it was my creative expression I guess. 

At some point I coerced Anthony into sharing a "couple journal" with me. I decorated it with pictures of us and we'd each fill out half of a two page spread as often as we could. If you saw that journal you would think.. "How did they work out?" Anthony's pages are full of stupid photos clipped out of magazines that he thought I would think were funny. My pages are lyrics of songs that made me think of him. He told me later that he hated it when I would do that because WHO WANTS TO HEAR LYRICS THAT SOMEONE ELSE WROTE? 

I kept a journal of poems I wrote too. I filled that one and never started another one.

So this black book that I bought is blank. I've written in one page and that page isn't even finished yet. It's been two weeks of carrying it back and forth from home to work and putting it on my bedside table when I get home. I even took it on the last two trips we went on. And yet I have nothing to say. How can I have nothing to say? I've been thinking about this a lot but tonight I found my answer in this photo.

I don't feel that I have the ability to draw in any awe inspiring way. The only art I can proudly create is with a ruler or a camera. I like to color code and organize. I make lists for fun people. That. to me. is art. Today at work I won the (fake) award for "Most colorful spreadsheet" and beamed with pride. People make my day when they tell me that my house is clean and organized. Computers are my friend. Everything is on a grid. 

Not to mention the fact that I have an overwhelming obsession with people reading my journals. I specifically remember reading excerpts of my early journals to my parents and cousins, my junior high journals were shared with my best friend Andie on many occasions, the couple journal was shared with Anthony and my poem journal's contents littered English assignments for years. I think that you few readers who do read my blog are the reason why I journal today. But I do it on the internet instead of on paper.

So maybe that black book will stay empty. But I hope I keep carrying it around.

Kels

So... What's Been Happening Lately?

Here's a sum up of what you've missed during my bloglessness
Christmas in the Park
Wedding photos - at some point I'll actually get all the photos and post them on here
Joey moved in for a couple months
New Years Party


Our new club - "Club 1937"

Not sure - I just like this photo
A trip to Reno, NV

Two good photos of Joey from the hundred or so that I shot that night

Kels

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Update: 01/26/2011

I've been slacking quite a bit lately on this old blog of mine. Life has been pretty simple. 
Our daily routine goes something like this:

5:45 First alarm - snooze
6:00 Anthony gets up
6:30 I get up and make our lunches while he eats breakfast
7:00 He goes to work
8:00 I go to work
4:00 I come home from work - usually Ant is home by now too
5:00 Make dinner / Think about making dinner / eat out etc..
7:00 start a movie
8:00 fall asleep watching said movie

Wow our life is sad. I guess I shouldn't say that our life is sad because it's not.  What I should say is that it's stable and predictable. These are good things. Let's repeat that.. these are good things. With school starting this fall and the unpredictability that it will bring with it I'm trying to appreciate what we've got going right now. The weekends are usually spent either out of town or with people here in town so that's the fun and excitement, right? 

In other news... I recently got a promotion at my new job which is absolutely amazing! I start my new job on Tuesday. I'll be in the same office in the same desk but with a new boss, new salary and new duties. Needless to say.. I am EXCITED! Anthony is looking forward to the summer with longer hours and the sun. I think his lips are tired of being chapped - but I guess that's what working outside all day in the Winter will do to you. 

This weekend looks like it will be filled with skateboarding and grandma visiting. FUN fun FUN. 

Kels


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Unknown Artist: Camera Mural

 Found this beautiful mural off Virginia Street behind a Starbucks in Reno and thought I'd share. Click to enlarge.

Kels

Reno: The Dirtiest Little City in the World

Now no offense to the classy areas of Reno such as where my cousins live and where our friend Chelsea lives and where the nice big stores are but... Reno is pretty dirty. It's like the kind of place where you are walking into a casino thinking "This just isn't Vegas". Not that I've ever been to Vegas (Tina we need to go!!!) but I just know it's classier than Reno. 

This weekend we drove out to Reno to visit our friend Chelsea who just had her little baby boy Andrew Marcus. He is absolutely adorable! I think he's almost two months old and he's so big and strong already. We were also there to celebrate an early birthday for Anthony whose birthday is in a few days and for Robby whose birthday was last week. We were so lucky to visit my mom's cousins Michael and Thea as well while we were there. It was a BUSY weekend for sure.

First we met this little cutie for the first time. Needless to say... I fell in love.

Kim and Donald still had all their Christmas stuff up in the house. I will say one thing for a snowy town and that is that it makes for a longer Christmas season. Lucky bums.
The view from Chelsea's backyard
Helloooooo Reeeennnooooooo
We were so hungry we could have died right then and there. So naturally we ordered too much food.
My lovely husband and his adorable faces. I kid. I kid. What is it with those faces?

I guess I shouldn't complain. This face is... interesting.
I discovered allergies in Reno. That was a joyous tissue filled time.
I LOVE the El Dorado and the Silver Legacy. They were the only casinos that didn't smell like cigarette infested puke filled waste paper baskets. Just saying...
Anthony likes the slots because...
THEY GIVE HIM $300.00. He played $0.40 for that jackpot! Definitely the highlight of the trip. I was getting high fives left and right! Ok technically it was one lady and she high-fived Anthony but SO WHAT?!
After a long 12 HOUR day of "Spin to Win" I was pooped as can be seen by the sad and depressed look in my eyes (we had just lost $200.00 of the $300.00) and the grease in my hair (Cigarette smoke air is to blame I have decided) but we managed to make that last $20 go for an hour and a half. Now that my friends was my legacy in Reno 2011. Fun fun times. We need to go back soon and win more MOULAH!!!

Kels