Sunday, August 24, 2008

Sweat equity

For those of you who are familiar with our house saga, you know about the infamous crater. Our perfect little starter home was handed to us in a fleece: the gas fireplace does not have gas logs, but real ones; and the backyard came equiped with its own pool-shaped crater (from the above-ground pool we had removed in the contingency contract).

This crater has stared at us every time we visit the backyard. It doesn't just sit there; it looms. It has even gone so far as to laugh at us -- which we don't quite appreciate.

Dealing with the crater has been on our to do list since we discovered it (naturally, after signing the contract for the house, site unseen). But like most things on to do lists, we never thought we'd actually get around to it.

For the last week, One Way and I have been busy at work finishing our raised garden bed which will double as a large terrarium for Yoda. After filling in the dirt Friday night (instead of going to temple ...), we decided that on Saturday we'd go to the garden center to look for fall/winter planting seeds for the garden. Though we went to the center on Saturday, what we came home with was three truck loads of top soil -- and stoic determination to fill in the crater.

It was kind of hot -- not Charleston-hot, mind you, but hot enough for me to decide this would be a perfect opportunity for me to document One Way filling in the crater, and sit in the shade. So, I took some photos.

In the photo, you can see that One Way and I have filled in much of the crater, which I have now dubbed the Black Sea.



When One Way notices I'm taking pictures, he decides to show off a little.





Here is a nice photo of the Black Sea.



Here we can see that the crater has indeed been vanquished. Hip hip hooray! (One Way is talking to his mama on the phone about his accomplishment)



Then, I got distracted by our pretty Zinnias in bloom.



One Way seeded the Black Sea.



And then our Black Sea was transformed into the Straw Sea.



At the end of the day, Ana was exhausted, which baffled both One Way and me, since she sat inside while we worked.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Cheyenne's bachelorette party!!!

(Shield your eyes, Gramps ... this post has girls having fun and gratuitous pictures of depictions of male appendages)

Well, 700 miles and back from Charlotte for Cheyenne's last hoorah as a single gal. The weekend also comprised Cheyenne's bridal luncheon, which was very classy and very unlike Saturday evening.

Because unclassy pictures are more fun, I have decided to post the pics from the bachelorette party (yes, One Way, I took my million dollar camera out to the bars and dancing ...). Can you find all the penises on this post?

To kick off the evening, we decorated and had champagne.





Before opening presents, Ms. Francie held story time for all the gals. She regaled us with tales of her youth (though curiously withheld her old nickname of "Miss Cheese").



Then, on to presents. Here, Cheyenne examines a present closely and determines it must be a shirt ...



No? Not a shirt ... hmmmm ... well, I'm sure she'll get some good use out of it anyway.



What's this?



Incredulously, Cheyenne tries to be coy around her mother.



Now that we are sufficiently red-in-the-face from champagne and penis-talk, we get ready to leave the house (look, I'm actually in a picture on the blog!!!)



After a harrowing cab ride (our cabbie had just finished playing Grand Theft Auto, hijacked this van from a poor old lady -- her license picture still donned to windows -- and nearly ran over all the "extras" on the sidewalks ... sweet ...), we arrived at Zink's in downtown Charlotte. Delicious. Plus, they gave us crayons and let us draw on the paper. What did we draw? Well, at least one of us drew a penis. The rest did classy things like "Cheyenne and Marson = love." We all know who drew the penis but she's not in THIS photo...



After dinner, we gave Cheyenne her mission list for the night. She had a lot of tasks to complete. In this photo, it is the end of the night after every single one was completed (OK, most).



We then went every where our fearless Bachelorette wanted to go.



... And took a lot of shots.



... And then, of course, we danced. Here Chey fulfills two of her list obligation: dancing with a bald guy and dancing on a table (which is actually a stage, but we counted it):



And, here, the gals get on the balcony and shake their stuff!



We ran into Moraccan man/Flav-A-Flav/who the hell was that guy?



Some of us kept on wanting to live out our single-hood ... Cheyenne?



That's all for now folks. How many penis did you see?

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Like Buddha under the Lotis tree


She's got the belly alright! And for those of you wondering, that "tree" is a holly bush that has been modified to look better in our yard, compliments of One Way and his hedge clippers.

Just call him Captain One Way

Well, the pressures of seeing happy men fishing independently on their personal watercrafts finally cause old One Way to snap. He was haunted by the need to have a boat. It filled his every fiber.

So, he went to the boat dealer and decided to make the purchase. Naturally, I would like a boat too ... so after being very angry at him for not consulting me on my opinion before making a decision, I was happy we got a boat.

Here are some pics of One Way enjoying "our" new boat. By the way, we've caught three edible fish off the boat in the last three weeks. To my estimation, each fish cost us around $3,333. MmmmmMmmm that's good eating.



Street Family Productions

Just wanted to update the family and friends who read the blog (OK, I just wanted to update Gramps and Sandee, since I think they are the only ones who actually read the blog). My fig tree fruit has ripened and I have made my first loaves of Challah bread! Both came out delicious.

My first Challah. The one on the left is poppy seed and the one on the right is cinnamon. Both made from same recipe ... both delicious and moist!


Lattarula figs are weird and ripen to a light green/yellow color. But no worries, they are still delicious. Kind of like a turkey fig lite.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

More Buttercup pics!



One Way was very sweet today and took photos of me and Buttercup riding. And, because I know everyone loves Buttercup as much as I do, I decided to post some pics here!

Walk:



Trot:











Canter: