Monthly Archives: October 2009

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Ocean Beach Oktoberfest

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Anyone know why they spell it with a “K”? Is that a German thing? Makes it more authentic? I know next to nothing about the German culture. If I were to base my slim knowledge on the Ocean Beach Oktoberfest, I would have to say that Germans have lots of eating and drinking contests…

I volunteered to help with the 5K Fun Run the morning of the Beerfest. I made 300+ Jello Shots for said run- the Hash House Harriers run in style. We organised people, got them their wristbands, and sent them on their way. We drove to meet them and give them said Jello Shots. We drove back to the Beer Garden and redeemed the four drink tickets we earned for our hard work.

I made it through one Vodka Red Bull, but it was tough, it was 10AM or so. Then I powered down a few of those Jello Shots. I’m only telling you this so that you completely understand what I was thinking when I volunteered for the Beer Stein holding contest. Because after a little Vodka, OF COURSE these silly little arms could win 1st prize!

But then I was nervous. One drink coupon was also redeemable for swag, so I got a nice little boot on a lanyard. Then I used my last ticket to fill that boot with liquid courage (beer). And we were off. Then ten girls I was with were fortunately mostly Hashers. The only drawbacks to this were that 1. They are strong 2. My scare tactics didn’t work 3. All the boys were watching.

Side note: I am not one to make excuses, but it is pretty funny that just as my poor little bird wings were going flapping, my cell phone vibrated. It was where I always put my cell phone after a run if I don’t have pockets. That did it for me.

I was first one out. Oh well. We watched the boys, ate at Sunshine Brewing Company, and had a fun time watching bands and Brat eating contests.

IMG00162

Yet again, terrible cell phone pictures.

This is the sausage you had to toss in an itty bitty bucket far away to win a chance to roll some dice to win $10,000. Riiiight.

sausage toss

oktoberfest

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Creative Lovelies

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My good friend JC (who got married this weekend, and is now JB!!!) had me over last week to teach me how to make soaps. She’s been running a small business for a while, doing beautiful custom designs (my favorites are the soaps with a loofah INSIDE and the rubber duckie ‘on the water’). I was amazed by her hobby and curious to learn the process.

It was, of course, way over my head. The mixology of color, scent, and shape is an art! There were neat iridescent soaps, clear, and opaque soaps. There were soaps for every occasion, every gift basket, every room in the house.

Here’s a picture of the soaps that we she made:

soap

It’s a camera phone picture, so it’s a little blurry, but we she made shimmery gold flowers, and a bunch of different bar designs. In the back was a half loofah/half soap idea she’s considering. The heart was my experiment – TB gets points for showing me the wonders of Press and Seal.

My main concern was that I don’t use soap that often, I’m a body wash girl. But we got some to take home and try, and the glycerin that she uses is smooth and soft. I was totally surprised. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas…

Since I’m not just telling you how unskilled I am, and I am suggesting you try some soap…

here’s the Creative Lovelies website.

She also has an etsy store link that will be up and running after the honeymoon! 🙂

Bookmark and go back to often!

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Halloween Favorite: Pumpkin Carving

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This is one of my most popular links, I repost it every October.

Click this link for the original SomeGoSoftly blog post.

Or, click here to be brought right to the internet site that lets you carve a pumpkin online.

[picapp src=”f/2/6/c/Boston_Holds_Pumpkin_ba89.jpg?adImageId=5415177&imageId=1407187″ width=”500″ height=”292″ /]

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Full Circle

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When I went to Denver for SB’s wedding celebration, I saw her Mom. First thing Mom said was that I hadn’t changed at all. Normally that would have bummed me out. But the reality is that I tried a little of everything and learned to be good where I started.

I was thinking of what I’d changed after she’d said that. I mean, it had been 8 years! I had blonde hair, red hair, short hair, almost no hair. I had a dozen bunch of different jobs (My Mom tells me that’s a typo haha). I made new friends. Moved all over the place. Got married. Went from indie rocker to beach bum to ski bum.  And after all of that trying to find myself stuff, I DID end up almost the same way I started – long brown hair, goofy smile, loud voice. The things I tried to change ended up being things that I could learn to embrace.

So no, I wasn’t the same at all – and I had changed, but that change made the inside see that the outside was good. That  I didn’t need to be insecure (well, okay sometimes I totally still am, way too much but I know it’s silly at least). That I could just keep doing my best to be a me I could be proud of.

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Secrets Suck

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Another thing that I’m not very good at (besides misplacing things occasionally) is keeping secrets. I mean, if you tell me something that certain people shouldn’t know, I won’t tell them. But I will tell MK. And maybe my Mom.

MK is like a package deal. I don’t think you are supposed to keep secrets from your spouse, even if they are that some girl I know has a maxed out credit card (as in, something he has no need to know). If I tell him I get the urge to share out of my system. He’s usually not even listening so it should barely even count.

Unless it’s something super juicy, like, so and so was doing something they shouldn’t have been doing, or is about to make something happen that no one knows about. Then I call Mom too. Again, it seems justifiable to me since she might not even know who this person is, and she’s not going to tell anyone.

So that’s my circle. Anyone out there have a similar circle of trust?

My main problem has nothing to do with being a good friend – I can keep YOUR secrets. My issue is keeping secrets about me. I’m pretty sure I’d try not to tell, but you’d know right after I stopped taking the pill, sold the car, or won the Nobel Peace Prize (haha). In reality you probably don’t even want to know half the things I’m willing to divulge, they’re not always that interesting. But I want to share! I mean, I have a website…that should be the first clue right?

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Blame Drew’s Cancer

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MKis not a giant fan of Twitter. He doesn’t see the point, or the theory of the movement – the possibilities. Check this story out, as I try to convince him otherwise.

@Drew got cancer. He started a website called Blame Drew’s Cancer where you can blame his cancer for anything – like how I lost my makeup bag (see last post). He partnered with LiveStrong.

Now Drew Careyis in on the action – and for every follower on Twitter will donate more money to LiveStrong – up to a million dollars for a million followers by the end of the year.

Pardon my rush to post, and be sure to read the links! What a great concept, I’m down with clicking ‘follow’ for that! I’m somewhere around 54,371. If you have a Twitter account, consider following @Drewfromtv. I think this is a great example of what Twitter can do.

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Loser. Of Stuff.

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Ever since I was a little girl, I wasn’t very good at taking care of things. My favorite possession of all time, when I was about 11, was a moon watch my Dad bought me at a yard sale. Which I took off and lost I don’t know how long after  I got it. Probably not long. The kicker is I lost it in a house, I’m sure. A house we since moved out of, but no one ever found that missing watch.

It got worse as I got older. Because then you have more stuff. I’ve lost cell phones (not stolen – although that’s happened way too much too) wallets, even whole purses. Money, CDs, movies I’ve lent out, clothes. Sneakers. Coats. Scarves. Books. Remind me of something you’ve gotten me, and I might have lost it.

Getting our things out of storage will be better than Christmas for me – I’ll be rummaging around seeing things and saying, “Oh, great! I was afraid I lost this!”.

MK hates that I lose stuff, especially since he’s been watching me do it for almost 10 years now. He apparently has never lost anything. I’m waiting to write it down the day he does and then remind him once a week for the rest of his life that he is a failure. Because man he knows how to make me feel guilty. My best tactic for getting over losses is to pretend it wasn’t that important. Or to forget it completely – which is pretty easy for my little brain to do.

Take this weekend. I was in a ladies room, with SIL. I was touching up my lipstick. I took the cute little bag that I have to keep the makeup from getting my nice purse messy out of my bag to do so. I then apparently washed my hands and left the bathroom sans makeup bag. And didn’t notice it until we were in the cab heading to another hotel. Boo.

But it was a makeup bag. It had mascara, chapstick, floss, advil, and eyedrops. That’s like 10 bucks worth of stuff. I laughed it off and said, “Oh well”. But MK wouldn’t let it go. It was another thing on a long list of things that if you add 10 bucks to might be somewhere around 500$.

So you know what I decided to do? I remembered the last time I lost something (I think I lost my ID and Debit Card in freaking Vegas during my Bachelorette Party – yes, I just remembered) and I called lost and found. The hotel actually had the bag. And I went and got it. And it had all my crap in it. So I’m off the hook right?

Not even close.