A Year In The Blog

well, what started as a bit of a joke on a slow "friday before labor day weekend", has turned out to be a pretty decent way to share photos and stories with my peeps. 76 posts later and here we are.

so... happy birthday blogalicious! (i know i'm a few days early, but i won't be online over the weekend.)

looking back, i've blogged some pretty neat memories (and a lot of other random silliness), and i've chosen this photo to sum it all up... cheers!
-

anyway, i just wanted to say thanks to all of you for taking the time to keep up with the blog.

more madness to come...

Street Fair!

don't miss the orange international street fair this weekend! it's always a good time! it starts friday night at 5 pm and ends sunday night at 10 pm. you can find out more information here.

if you thought my post about the food at the OC fair was entertaining, just wait for the recap from this. oh baby! that was just a warm up for this weekend!

i'll be there saturday afternoon for sure, as there is a pretty big group of us planning to kick off the annual migration at jamie and darin's house around 2:00 pm. let me know if you want to join the herd. as always, the more the merrier!

OINK!

Beach Blanket Bingo

i'm not sure if you noticed, but summer is almost over! it's shocking, i know. anyway, with this in mind, we decided to throw a little beach day together, bonfire and all. we weren't sure what kind of turn out we'd have with such short notice, but we ended up with a great group. we partied into the night, and a good time was had by all.

(check out my savage tan! i was at the beach for 14 hours and although i thought i may have ended up a little crispy, but by this morning, it had faded to a shade that i know won't peel. score! it is.... my finest achievement. =P~)

The Spoon

If you've known me for more than 5 minutes, than you have, at some point, heard me speak of the spoon... The Golden Spoon. It really is heaven on earth!

-

-

I credit this place with single-handedly keeping me from becoming a size 18. Their frozen yogurt is fat-free and only 17 calories per ounce. It seems impossible because it tastes to freaking good, but it's true.

Anyway, they add new flavors every now and then and on Monday, I had the pleasure of trying the cake batter yogurt. I thought I was going to die. It really tastes like cake batter. Seriously. (Okay, now I'm sounding all Willy Wonka-ish.) But I'm telling you people, it was a life-changing experience. So much so... that I had to blog about it. Here is the entire list of the rotating flavors for August:

The"Fab Four" (Always available at all locations)

Old Fashioned Vanilla
Just Chocolate
Strawberry
Peanut Butter


This Month's Selections (Available at all locations)

Island Coconut
Peach
Pistachio

St Patrick's Mint
Cafe Latte
Classic Coffee


This Month's Optional Selections (Available at some locations)

Heath Bar®
Chocolate Malt
Vanilla Malt
Peanut Butter Cup

New York Cheesecake
New! Cookies 'n Cream
New! Cake Batter

-

-

Now get thee to THE SPOON!

(Find your nearest location here!)

Donkey Kong

oh yeah baby!

check out what just came in the mail today. i got it from PhatRags.

you're jealous, i know you are. =P~

Return To The Kern

it's hard to believe it, but it was 2 months ago that my brother and i dragged our dad down the kern on a raft. i never got around to posting photos from that trip, so here is one of us paddling away (jer and dad front left and i'm back right)...

anyway, we had so much fun on that trip, that as soon as i got home, i started poking around at a return visit. we met an awesome family on that first trip (the fosters), and when i sent out the inquiry about another run, they jumped onboard.

once the fosters were in, my brother couldn't wuss out. and with my friends tara, christy, and matt in the boat as well, we had a good sized group going.

we even got oscar to come along as our guide for the second time.

last time, we made the fatal error of not bringing enough booze. we came prepared this time... sippy cups and all. (we even tried the jello shot recipe from a few posts back. good stuff!)

it's christy's birthday today (and kari's was last friday), so we celebrated at camp. Check out the birthday girls...

the river was running at a way lower level than last time, so it was a completely different experience. although we lost some of the power of the rapids, we got the opportunity to swim a lot more and even jump off a few tall rocks.

we ordered the action shots from this trip, but we'll not have those for another few weeks, so that is why all i have to post are the ones from the party at camp.

obviously, we had an amazing time (again) and i'm ready to get back on the water ASAP! (although it may have to wait until next season.) i'm going to start looking into other rivers, and i'll be recruiting for partners in crime, so i'll keep you posted.

WICKED!

"Long before Dorothy dropped in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for the most spellbinding new musical in years."

i'd always wanted to see the musical WICKED, but i never seemed to get it in gear in time to buy tickets the few times it has come to LA. luckily, my mom and her work friends bought a block of tickets last year and they ended up with 2 extras. so kristine and i snuck out a little early from work and caught the matinee with them yesterday. we're both very glad we did. awesome show! super funny too! i definitely want to read the book now. it was really neat to see how they wound the storyline around the details of the wizard of oz.

you can find out more about WICKED here. they'll be back in LA at the pantages in februrary 2007. if you are interested in going, let me know, i may join you!

Golden X Boy

a while back, i tried to motivate the troops for an outing the x-games this year. it was the first year they were doing a rally car event and i thought it would be neat to see it live. momentum kind of fizzled on the field trip, but i caught a lot of the x-games from my couch.

i wandered in and out of the coverage, but made sure to catch the entire rally event. and boy am i glad i did. they did an amazing job working this event into the x games format. and the tv coverage was great as well. you can read more about the entire event HERE.

travis pastrana was definitely the shining star of the weekend. after landing the double back flip friday night, taking the gold for best mtx trick, he proceeded to edge out rally all-star colin mcrae, and take the gold in the rally event as well.
-

of course, mcrae didn't go out without a fight. after rolling his car on the final turn, he kept the peddle to the floor and blazed on through to a silver... less than a second behind pastrana.

next year, no more lame excuses. we're going to the x-games!