dissonance

Bear with me

I have a few more pics from the Bear trip.

We stayed at a cute little cabin:

I lurve animals.  I think they are a vital part of our existence, sometimes cute, and sometimes very tasty.  So I was delighted to see that the owners of the cabin shared my respect for the wild kingdom and decorated their hearth likewise:

My room in the attic  was a tad creepy but comfy enough after a long day of boarding. Other than the broken springs.  And musty pillow.  And The Lamp That Would Not Turn Off.

And finally, dinner is served:

We are flatlanders

I went to Big Bear this weekend with Mabel, Gary, Mark, and James.  Snow was ok, got some good boarding done, it was crowded.  Ok that's enough talk about boarding.  Let's get to the juicy bits: Night-time shenanigans!

Around the corner from our cabin, we spotted a local dive called The Roadhouse.  As exhausted as we were Saturday night, we roused ourselves enough to check out the scene.  We immediately knew that this was our sort of place:

And it was totally our sort of crowd:

We like keep things classy and sophisticated.

Mabel and I attempted to contribute to the establishment's atmosphere by a few choice selections on the jukebox:

Unfortunately, the crowd was just not feeling Bel Biv Devoe (P-p-p-oison! Poison! Poison!) and the live band cut our set short.  Fortunately, they were cool:

While Mabes and I were occupied by our musical endeavors, the others got schooled at pool:

And shuffleboard:

Whatchoo know about this game, son? I ownz you!

There was a bit of action going on outside the bar.  An honest to goodness brawl was about to set out but the bouncer (who was as drunk as the patrons) was able to chill things out:

Where were we?  True to form the Asians hid in the corner and just documented the whole thing:

What a great night! We made lots of new friends, like the lady who taught us the difference between "Mountain People" and "Flatlanders", the most telling sign being number of teeth you have.

(Don't let the red cup fool you, it's water. They serve water in red cups. CLEARLY we are in a strange and different land.)

All in all:  A++++++!  WOULD GO AGAIN!

Max bet y'all

The snowboarding trip to Lake Tahoe was awwwwwesome.  We drove up late Thursday night and hit up Sierra Summit on Friday.  Okay snow, little bit slushy, but it was a great first day.

Our nights were mostly filled with games (mostly involving cards) and I think we've developed two new obsessions: Poisson and Golf.  If you don't know those games, you're just going to have to join us next game night.

Days 2 and 3 were spent on Heavenly.  First day was totally windy and a lot of hard work, but I think we all had fun.

Day 3 weeded out the true boarders.  Richard, Sar and I hit the slopes one last time for 3 hours  before driving the 10 hours home.  Totally worth it!

More pics here.  Hopefully more pics and maybe videos to come!!

Camp Camp Revolution

Came back from camping in one piece. A tired, sore, dirty, and itchy piece, but a whole piece nonetheless.

I went with mainly friends from work (italics added for the benefit of said friends from work), plus an extra husband/ boyfriend/dog.  We stayed in Idyllwild, which was pretty nice. Because it's in Socal, I was expecting desert-like camping, but it was actually foresty (yes, "foresty") so there was that pleasant crackling sound as you walked around and stepped on leaves and twigs. In addition to usual camping festivities (s'mores, roasting weinders, sleeping in tents) we went on hikes.  Sar and Vix braved a 15 mile trek up Mt. Jacinto, but Cindy, Darth, Paul and I were content with our 6.6 mile stroll.  And when I write "stroll", it should be obvious I meant "hot, dry, uphill battle over rocks and streams all while encountering weird lizards and crickets".  The view at the top was worth it, although my conscience was a little spoiled by the fact that we were at what I am sure was affectionately named "Suicide Rock".

As the one in charge of food, I think I pleased everyone.  I had to battle some nasty yellow jackets and what I have been told are "biting flies" and I have the bites to prove it.  Shall I mention that three of those bites are ON MY FACE?  Further proof that as much as I love nature and admire it, I would much rather love and admire from a distance.

I uploaded pics but Typepad is being a poo so I'll have to finish it up later.  I suppose I could just publish it with default picture captions (ie "Image_335") but that is a level of laziness that readers do not deserve.  You came to visit my site,  the least I could do is "Here we are camping".

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Update:  Just kidding, it's IE that's being a poo (all hail Firefox!).  Here are the pics.

Cabo, woo woo!

I've got some stamps in my passport and my appetite for travelling has grown immensely.  The Cabo trip was much needed and I had a LOT of fun!  Luckily I went with a great group of girls, most of whom I didn't meet until the trip.

Mabel and I took a flight together from SD and we arrived a couple of hours ahead of everyone else.  We explored the beach, went to City Club to buy some alcohol, and had our first taste of yummy carne asada tacos for 15 pesos apiece.

When the other girls arrived we went downtown.  The spring break crowd was already gone, so it was pretty empty. I think we hit up every single bar and club within a 1 mile radius.  We ended up at Squid Roe, which to me reminds me of a slightly nicer TJ club but whatevers, still fun!  There were a lot of bachelor's parties going on and there was this one group of guys who had us take a picture with the groom-to-be who had a rather large... prop...

Saturday was beach day.  We took a water taxi out to Lover's Beach in the afternoon but mostly we laid around and got sunburned (some a little more than others).

Our condos were equipped with kitchens so we went back to City Club and bought ourselves some chicken and tortillas for a "home-cooked" meal.  After gorging on all the food we somehow got ready to go out again.  This time we pretty much stayed at Squid Roe.  Apparently there are some interesting pics floating out there but we'll see if they're postworthy when I get them.

Sunday's big event was riding ATVs.  We mostly doubled up with one single ATV that we switched off on.  We took a 3-4 hour tour and for about half the ride I sat behind the guide who did crazy wheelies and jumps.  We rode all the way to the beach, which I think was on the other side of the penninsula.  One of the ATVs broke down so I had to ride back with another guide and his nephew Javier.

That night we decided to have a "nice" dinner at a nearby restaurant but we were too tired to go "out out" again so we chilled at the beach instead.

Mabel and I tried to do some shopping Monday morning before our flight but my bargaining skillz have much to be desired because all I got was two necklaces for $7.   After VERY GOOD fish tacos at Gardenias we were off to the airport to go back to reality.  Mabel and I were very sad.

Here are all the photos.  More to be added later as they come.

One of the most restful trips I've ever been on.  Definately a contrast to crazy Vegas shindigs.  And now I think I'm addicted to beachy traveling.  Bahamas anyone??

Wallpaper for the comp

Got back about an hour ago.  No pics yet (going to get them all from the other girls first) but let's just say I wish I was back here right now:

Uno mas cerveza por favor!

If you hold onto these long enough, they eventually are true:

Later suckas.

Oh yeah, and what she says.

Mas chingo

94.9 has an internet stream that I listen to at work sometimes.  They can't play the regular commercials they play on the radio so they fill in those blocks with random stuff.  One of which is Spanish lessons.

This could not have come at a more auspicious time because I'm going to Cabo at the end of the month!  This will be my first international trip using my U.S. passport and I'm super excited.  I mean, mucho excited.

I've learned a couple of useful phrases:

• Pardon entiende ingles? (excuse me, do you understand english?)
• usted tiene cinco dollars? (do you have five dollars?)
• soy muuuuuuuuy bien pedo (I'm soooooo drunk)

I think this site should be able to fill in the holes.  Especially this page.  Cabron!

Vegas... the remix

Ah, yes the Vegas Write Up.  I'm staying home from work today and I thought I'd have to 'fake call in sick' but my conscience has been spared because I really do have a sore throat.

It's interesting. I started this blog after the August Vegas trip .  And here I am 7 months later and in stark contrast to August, I'm in a better state of mind and you know what, life's pretty good.  It's nice to have something like this where I can see how life has changed, has been changing, and is changing all the time.  It all goes so quickly and I'm glad I've been doing the blog thing regularly to have something concrete to look at.

Ok that's enough introspective shit. Onto the writeup and pictures.

Somehow I got through 2 hours of work on Friday and then Cindy and I picked up Mabel.  The ride up was pretty uneventful except for us going, "Woooooooo" everytime we saw a sign that showed how many miles away Vegas was.  Our car was dubbed Team Envy according the infamous color coded excel sheet.

We stayed at the MGM Grand and luckily all three rooms were really close to each other.  The majority of us got to know each other over dinner at the Studio Cafe (everyone else showed up later).

Then we got ready to go to Body English at the Hard Rock.

I don't know how we got in, but I do remember that all of a sudden we were herded into the club at once leaving everyone else in line. I'm sure it didn't hurt to have 7 girls in the group.

The club was pretty nice. I remember at one point Carolyn and her friends dancing on top of some booth.  I thought they would be asked to get down by the bouncer, but he was the one telling them to go up there.  That's the kind of club it was.  Oh and I remember going up to the guy who reserved the booth and telling him to be nice to my friends or else I'd kick his ass.  And the rest of the night was just as fun.  A bunch of us took a limo back to the hotel (the roof of it had twinkly lights that changed colors).

The next day I went shopping with some people at Caeser's Palace.  It was really nice and the new expansion reminds me of SF Center, but most of the stores were incredibly unaffordable and most of my time was spent window shopping. Except for Anthropologie.  Dang, that store rocks.  Afterwards, Cindy and I got caught in the rain, but it was worth it to catch this cool little double rainbow.

We were all in good spirits for night 2.  The group split up and half went to Light at Bellagio and I went with the half that tried to go bar hopping.  The operative word being 'tried'.  i think we hit up 3 different casinos before we just said eff it and settled down at Bellagio.

Then the rest of the night was a blur. I do remember settling down in a lounge and fighting over a piece of tuna with Matt.  I ended up throwing a drink at him but he still got it.  Bastard.  And shots. Lots of shots with names like Red-headed Sluts and Minderaser.  Oh and a bartender that looked like Freddie Prinze, Jr.  I told him that and a waitress overheard me and said he gets that a lot.

I've learned some things about myself when I drink:

• I am cheap to the point of recklessness: I tried to pick up a quarter that got caught in the escalator.  It was bouncing around the end of it and people had to stop me before I shredded my fingers.  For a freaking quarter.
• I am disgusting: I tried to eat my mint that fell on the floor at one of the casinos. I think I said something like, "Five second rule, dude." and everyone replied (and I agree) that the Five Second Rule does not count in Vegas.  Do not touch anything on the ground at Vegas.
• I am compulsively neat to the point of recklessness:  Someone broke a glass in the hallway and I immediately went and started cleaning it up.  In my bare feet.  Using my hands.  I need to stay away from the Swiffer around alcohol.

More pictures here.

For more Vegas goodness, check out Matt's site. Or go to Randall's site for info about the wonder that is the Shark Reef. He also has pictures .  And I'm sure Spencer will have something soon being as he's the one who organized this thing (thanks!!).

Mammoth write up

Pics over in the appropriately titled Mammoth album.  It has some pics from Patty's camera so they get kind of random towards the second half of the album.  And I didn't write a caption or title for all of them because after a while all I could think of was, "Here we are in Mammoth".

What can I say?  I had a blast.  I can't believe I met so many cool people.  With such a large group  (well over 20 people) you'd think there'd be at least one bad apple, but nope, everyone was so great (Unless I was the bad apple).

Our cabin was within walking distance from the slopes so we were able to get there pretty much when the lifts opened.  I think I've gotten a lot better (it helps to go two days in a row) and I even adjusted my bindings and felt a difference (for the better).  I think we can all agree that Cindy was the most balls out.  Want proof? Ask to see the BROKEN GOGGLES.  Yeah, goggles don't break going down the bunny slope if you know what I'm saying.

There was a lot of pokerplaying in the evenings. I tried to get people into Apples to Apples but no one was buying into it and it's their friggin loss. Anyone who attended my holiday party  can attest to the bombiness of the game.  If you click on that Apples to Apples link you will see that it is sold out.  I also got in some Scrabble, which was cool.  Yes, I just put the words "Scrabble" and "cool" in the same sentence.

The last night was the best.  We got the stereo going with some hip hop, some Crown Royal, and if there's Crown there's fruit, and before you know it we had a K-club in the middle of Mammoth.  Awesome.  I don't know how we got out of there the next day by 10am.

On our way back we stopped for some Subway and an old fashioned bubble gum blowing contest.  I was a little too enthusiastic I think 'cause I lost my gum about 10 minutes into it.  Please do not make inappropriate comments about my enthusiasm for gum blowing.  Let's keep it G rated folks.  Ok ok, PG-13.

Great trip.