I just posted an album with Halloween pictures in it. There aren't many AT ALL. There are a few of my son, Jameson, in there. He looked awesome - the pics don't do his get-up justice. I cannot even express how much he scared the little kids who showed up at the door. He's a very intimidating looking person, anyway. Then you add mega blood and whatnot...yeah. I was in the kitchen carving a pumpkin, and I'd hear him answer the door when trick-or-treaters would show up, and even the Moms would GASP super loudly. IT RULED SO MUCH!!!
I wanted to get pictures of Sunny as well (She dressed as an 'Ultra Nerd'), but from the time she got home from school 'til bedtime, she was only home for like 5 minutes. She was too busy hanging out with her gang of friends - going door-to-door begging for candy. She used her pillow case as a bag...and it was full by the time she got home. They must've hit like 2398437 houses. They not only went to our neighborhood, but also the next one over.
Anyway, I baked a chocolate cake for Lonnie (that's his favorite) and some white cupcakes for the kids. I'd been told ahead of time that our house was going to be the first house on the list of places to go (apparently we're cool parents? I have no idea why the kids around here think that, but okay.) Anyway, since we were gonna be the kids' first stop, I wanted to get them sugared up properly so they'd go home totally wired off their asses. I gave them each a cupcake and filled their bags with a handful of candy prior to sending them on their way. Didn't even get one "Thank you" (except from Sunny), but that's okay. I know they were just really excited...and tweakin' on sugar.
We also carved four Jack-O-Lanterns, but I failed to take pictures of 'em. I cannot believe I forgot to, but I did. I'll light 'em up again tonight & then take pics to add to the album. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I was dressed as a nun and Lonnie was dressed as a priest. The moment we walked into the office, the receptionists and the patients who were in the waiting room all either laughed their asses off or smiled. It was awesome to see so many smiling faces. I love to have a positive effect on people. Lonnie and I really played it up, too. I mean we REALLY played it up. I referred to him as "Father" the entire time. When he was dinking around with his phone, he noticed that the receptionist was kinda looking at him, so he said, "Just scheduling an exorcism here." He got a cup of water from the dispenser thingy and when we were alone in the examination room with the nurse, I said, "May I have a drink of your water, Father?" He said, "Yes, sister. You may." I asked, "Has it been blessed?" He told me that it hadn't, so I took a drink and said, "There. Now it has." Hahaha! The nurse must've thought we were totally spun. WE ARE!
Anyway, the entire time we were there, we played it up at EVERY opportunity we got. SO FUN.
I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! Sorry for the lack of pics this year. I was just so busy with the doc, baking, carving, kids, etc...
Today is the completely unofficial, but nonetheless awesome, holiday known as International Bacon Day! The holiday, which occurs annually on the Saturday before Labor Day in the United States, was the brainchild of a group of students at University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004. As you’d expect, the holiday celebrates all things bacon, and is best celebrated by making and consuming bacon-related foods and beverages.
Are you going to celebrate this bacony awesome holiday? If so, how?
Today is Amy's 17th Birthday!!! Anyone who knows Amy has no choice but to love her. She's an amazing writer with more talent in her little toe than most of us have in our entire body. Not only is she uber talented, but she's a complete sweetheart as well. Putting herself aside to help a friend in need is nothing to Amy. She's loyal, honest, and anyone that she calls "friend" is truly lucky.
I hope that your day will be a good one, Sweetie. I know that you've got the flu - and that sucks a big one, but I hope that you'll feel better in no time. Enjoy your day and don't let anyone rain on your parade. This is YOUR day, and the first day of the last year of being a minor. Just think - this time next year, you will be able to buy cigarettes, gamble, get into nudey bars, and all sorts of other icky things!
I love you lots, little miss! You're like another daughter to me, and also one of the most awesome friends ever! Happy Birthday, Amy!!! (The picture is clickable.)
Today is Dustin's birthday, so I want to take this opportunity to wish him the very best.
The thing about Dustin is that he says it like it is...good, bad, or indifferent. If he doesn't like you, I don't think there would be a question in your mind. Dustin claims to be an asshole, and even takes pride in his asshole-ish ways. I've known him for a while now, and like I've told him - I don't think he's an asshole in the least bit. I've really enjoyed getting to know him better, and there was even a time when he stood up for me in a pretty big way over on Facebook. He never thought it was a big deal, but I've never forgotten it. It's not everyday that someone actually stands up for me. Sooo, thank you again for that, Dustin.
Anyway, I really do hope that everyone will make sure to wish Dustin a happy birthday if you haven't yet. Just to make it easier for you, HERE is his Twitter info so that you can tweet him some birthday wishes, and I already linked to his MyOpera page. Soo, what the hell are you waiting for?! GO!!!
The third annual International Blue Beanie Day will be celebrated on Monday, November 30th, 2009...TODAY!!!
Thousands of Standardistas (people who support Web standards) will wear a Blue Beanie to show their support for accessible, semantic web content.
It’s easy to show your support for web design done right. Beg, borrow, or buy a Blue Beanie and snap a photo of your mug wearing the blue. (Or get creative with Photoshop). Then on November 30, (TODAY!) switch your profile picture in Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, (and any other social network) and post your photo to the Blue Beanie Day group. For more information: see http://www.zeldman.com/2009/10/25/toque-o-the-morning/ and http://vvn.net/wp/2009/11/10/3rd-annual-blue-beanie-day/
Want to help with planning the 3rd Annual Blue Beanie Day? Planning a flashmob, meetup, or tweetup in your hometown? Organizing a group photo in your city? You might qualify to win a free copy of Zeldman and Marcotte's (brand new) Designing With Web Standards 3rd edition. Contact Douglas Vos (mailto:doug.vos@gmail.com?Subject=BlueBeanieDay2009)
4. Celebration announcement - Upcoming event page (kudos to Tantek Çelik): • http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4891244/ • (All cities and settlements worldwide or in orbit, including the International Space Station.)
The third annual Blue Beanie Day will be celebrated on Monday, November 30th, 2009
Thousands of Standardistas (people who support web standards) will wear a Blue Beanie to show their support for accessible, semantic web content.
It’s easy to show your support for web design done right. Beg, borrow, or buy a Blue Beanie and snap a photo of your mug wearing the blue. (Or get creative with Photoshop). Then, on November 30, switch your profile picture on My.Opera, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, (and any other social network) and post your photo to the Blue Beanie Day group!
Could it possibly get any easier? Ummm, no! DO IT!!![/URL]
A little birdy just told me that today is Rick's AKA cwbywz's birthday! I wish I'd have known sooner in the day...perhaps I would have had I logged into Facebook. (I don't like it there anymore. ) Anyway, Happy Birthday, Rick! I think you're a totally awesome guy. Your talent with a camera has boggled my mind since the first time I met you. Not only that, but your sense of humor, your generosity, & the fact that you don't refrain from speaking your mind has caused me to have the utmost respect for you! I'm sure I'm not the only one on here who thinks the world of ya'!
I hope you have/had a wonderful & special day. I'm sure that Lenora did her best to make it a good one for you. Soul mates tend to do things like that.
Lonnie surprised the kids, my Mom, and me by saying he was going to take us to the beach on Sunday. As I'm sure you can imagine (if you know me at all), I was SO stoked! I freakin' love the beach! The kids and my Mom seemed pretty flippin' excited, too. It was to be our first beach trip in 2009! w00t!!!
Once we all got over the initial surprise and excitement, we realized that we'd better pack some crap up. Here's Lonnie loading the back of the SUV with said crap...
Once we got all our junk loaded in the back of the SUV, we all piled in and prepared for our 2+ hour drive to the beach...
Of course, our first stop had to be the gas station. *sigh* I took a picture of the prices...
We were finally all gassed up and ready to go! During our travels, we must've seen about 239473 different fireworks stands like this one...
We couldn't afford fireworks, so we just past all of them up. No big loss, really. Those things are a huge waste of money!
Anyway, we continued to drive and drive. We saw all sorts of interesting things along the way. For example, this Sasquatch statue carved out of a tree....
Apparently Big Foot is really big in this area. I had no idea. I don't even believe in Sasquatch, so whatever. To each their own.
We finally started seeing signs that meant that we were getting closer and closer to Seaside, Oregon! Here's a perfect example!:
We've been to the Aquarium at Seaside....it's nothing special AT ALL. But then, I didn't care for the Aquarium in Seattle, either. San Francisco has the best one I've seen.
So anyway...we kept driving and driving until we finally saw some signs for Seaside...
I looked into the back seat to see if they were getting excited back there, but nobody seemed nearly as excited as I was. For example, here's Sunny...
I expected to turn back and see her with an ear-to-ear smile, but got that little smirk instead. *shrugs* Oh well. Moving on....
Somewhere along the way, Lonnie was driving along when POP!!! One of the lenses from his sunglasses jumped right out of the frame! ...
Of course, I just about died laughing when he turned and looked at me with a totally straight face.
Well, we finally made it to the beach around 6PM. (we got a late start) It was fairly brisk out there...certainly not bikini temps...pisser. The beach was cram packed!!!
Jameson and Lonnie did a lot of 'manly bonding' while on the beach. They built the big bon fire and whatnot. It was nice to see them getting along so well.
My Mom even seemed to have a great time! That's not as easy as it seems. She's not exactly up for too much fun lately.
My daughter got impatient, so she started snappin' pictures of me. I hate having my picture taken, but I humor her all the time. She takes most of the pictures of me. This is the one she likes best from the beach...
Sadly, I came across a dead fish. The way it was laying there was pretty interesting, though, so I took a picture of it...
Something happened a little farther down the beach because the trucks came out with their lights going and whatnot. I didn't hear of any drownings or anything, so it must not've been too much...
I then happened to notice some dude taking pictures of a couple girls. I thought it'd be interesting to take a picture of him taking pictures...hahaha...
Well, the night progressed and everyone decided to hover around the bon fire...but first, Lonnie and I just HAD to take a pic together.
Before it got too incredibly dark, we all went somewhere to take a nice family picture. My Mom took the pic for us...
Thank goodness we thought to take a family pic before the sun totally went down. My son's hardly ever home anymore. Getting him to take pics is like pulling teeth!
Anyway, as the night progressed, more and more people started shooting off their fireworks. It was so flippin' neat. There were fireworks EVERYWHERE! We couldn't afford to get them, ourselves, but that was totally okay! Everyone else around us had plenty for us to enjoy.
Here's a picture of one of the fireworks...I didn't get too many shots. I was too busy enjoying myself.
We finally ended up putting our fire out around 2AM...at which time we headed back home. We all had a terrific time!!! Lonnie has declared that this will be our new July 4th tradition.
I took a couple videos. The first one is from when we first got to the beach - showing how crowded it was. (Although it got MUCH more crowded later on.)
My Opera
He's a very intimidating looking person, anyway. Then you add mega blood and whatnot...yeah. I was in the kitchen carving a pumpkin, and I'd hear him answer the door when trick-or-treaters would show up, and even the Moms would GASP super loudly. IT RULED SO MUCH!!!
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