Starry Nightmare

Scooberalla and Tiger had their Prom-themed annual party. This year was "Starry Nightmare". The regular cast was there...

Me.


Tiger in her amazing planetary prom dress.

Ruhroh.


Our Domie friend.


Scooberalla rockin' the Domie/Ruhroh Two Guys for Every Girl sandwich.


Sadly, no postable pictures of Bajabucky (probably because she took most of the pictures) or Miss Mountaineer.

Some inappropriateness with the rocket from the picture booth.


Me and Domie. Of course it was a dance party! The cool kids got to be in the corner with the speaker cause the volume was quite low due to pain in the ass, party pooper, complaining neighbors. Sometimes you had to imagine the music.

This Harrison Ford cutout got lots of action that night. Pictures are too inappropriate even for here.

Aaaaand, done.


Exhausted.

Now I ain't sayin' she's a golddigger...

Sent last night from the woman who's back from Paris and needs a nickname...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5537017.ece

I'll be 30 (gasp!) in April, but I'll be in Santa Barbara!

Wanna come with me?

It's called "America's Riviera" - how could you resist? It will be sunny, it will be warmish, it will be near the water. We can grill, we can drink, we can go wine tasting, we can hike, we can lounge around the deck in the sun, we can usher in the 2009 High Life season, we can hang out on the beautiful beaches, we can watch the sunset at a rooftop bar, we can (hopefully) raisin in the hot tub, and yes we can go dancing!

The plan is to rent a house for Friday April 17 - Monday April 20. I'm shooting for near the beach or with a hot tub, with costs at or under $50/person/night.


So are you interested in ringing out the last of my youth? I hope so!

How I spent my Holiday break (abridged version)

Hello! It's been so long... but I was busy. You know how it is. First, Christmas in the center of the country. Christmas, shopping, my 20 year old brother's wedding, going bar-hopping with my step-sisters, aunt and mom. You know, the usual. Well, keep your fingers crossed about that wedding.

Then New Years in Vegas for Miss Mountaineer's 30th birthday. We crammed 9 of us in a suite at the MGM Grand. They have lions there. See?


I have to admit, it was pretty cool walking underneath a bunch of sleeping lions.

New Years Eve eve we went dancing and it was a good time. We were out until 3:30 (early by Vegas standards, I know, but I just flew in that day and was tired).

And then I made a few New Years discoveries.

A. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I like the High Life. But for me, it's a summer beer. Winter is for the heartier stuff. In fact, I still have some in my fridge from this summer that I can't make myself drink. So I've missed the High Life trends from the past few months. Such as....

wait for it...

Camo High Life.


I have so many questions...

1. Why would you take the champagne of beers hunting? Come on! That shit's classy!
   
2. Do deer get spooked by beer? What about the big logo floating around in the air?

Neverless, I was pretty excited.

New Years Eve we went to see Zumanity, "The sensual side of Cirque du Soleil." It was pretty cool, definitely had some funny parts, but I'm not sure I'm a total Cirque du Soleil convert. I mean it wasn't the best thing ever, like when I walked out of Les Miserables or Rent, but the part with the two women in the goldfish bowl was pretty sweet.

At 11:00 we all got dressed in superhero costumes (well, most of us, some of us just dressed up in our cheetah pants and cleavage keyhole tank top cause we didn't feel like going the full nine yards with cheetah face paint). We had a shooting star, She-ra, Superman, Superman if his alter-ego was a Catholic school girl and not Clark Kent, and Captain Vegetable. Behold.




Notice the green neon coming in from outside? That's what it's like to stay at the MGM Grand. I can't believe they didn't see that coming when they designed the thing.


And here's the real Captain Vegetable. At one point I told him that I would be Andy but you just can't make that cute. Sorry.



The highlight of his night was when somebody in the casino actually recognized that he was Captain Vegetable.

We made our own mini-parade just walking down the strip. We were a hit. The shooting star and Catholic school girl especially. Now we weren't all scientific about it, but the trend was clear - Latino dudes loved Schoolgirl Superman in Drag. It was weird. I can't explain it.


Then some of us went back to the room to drink the liquor stash there, and some of us (not me!) went to the casino to win several hundred playing craps.

New Year's Day we drove out to Red Rock Canyon. It was beautiful. Next time you're in Vegas, if you don't take the 30 minute drive out there then you are a nutcase.




Some of us went to rock climb (not me!), some of us went to hike. Here is one of our dudes who happened to be an excellent climber.


He also happened to peer pressure me into doing my first ever rock climb outside (!!!) (if peer pressure consists of asking if anybody wants to try it.)

So here's the wall of my first ever rock climb outside. (Sidenote: Mom - there are anchors up at the top there where the rope is hooked and Miss Mountaineer at the bottom controlling the rope. It was totally safe.)


I have to admit I was a bit nervous. I'm not afraid of heights exactly, I just don't seek them out. And I thought I might get scared cause we were already this high up...


due to the hike in. And then I was gonna scale a fifty foot wall. But it led to...

Discovery #B. I like to rock climb. Miss Mountaineer held the rope tight so that I could feel it and felt safe, and I didn't get scared. I climbed for what felt like 10 feet then decided to look down. Turns out I was half way up the wall. It was nuts. It was fun. It was fun to realize you were climbing up a mountain thingy. It was fun to try a hold that you didn't at all think would work but it did. It was fun to look to your right and talk to one of your friends who was hanging onto a rock with just air behind him at the time. It was super fun to reach the top, lean back on the rope and ballet hop the rock on your way down. It was a great way to start the New Year.

Then the next day we drove home. And time flew because I made this hat.


Due to...

Discovery C. My favorite hat pattern. I've made three so far. They just fit so well!

So there you go. You're pretty much caught up. And I am exhausted. I've been getting a lot of work done this week - I'm super proud of myself. I just got so much motivation back after the break. I think it had a lot to do with letting myself get completely bored sometimes at home and not working at all for so long (and granted it was probably only 8 days that I did no work at all). But damn, am I ready to go now! But I'm also tired. Mainly because they're doing some sort of construction at my apartments so I've been woken by jackhammering the past 2 mornings. Sooooo awful.

So I'm off to my obsessions of the moment: Swingtown, and this new scarf I'm making for myself out of green merino/silk/cashmere yarn. Pictures later...

Question: What was your favorite Christmas gift this year? I'll start. I have three:

1. Garmin nuvi - for the new car!
2. A lot more of my vintage silverware set. I should have this stuff forever if I take care of it. Now how exactly do I take care of it?...
3. Grey silk nightgown.