One year from yesterday

Look at me trying my hardest to be cute, but I'm so sad.... where oh where is Dani?

I was officially forgiven for the cat fiasco, I think...


and then someone always has to put their head in a pinata

Lev models the special dove rings

Heres to you Andy

Thank You ladies for putting the whole thing on.

Thank you Dani and Andy for letting me use your pictures because I was too lazy to bring my camera.

Damn, I look like who!?!?

MyHeritage.com Tell me what celebrity I resemble

Kate is also afflicted with profoundly deformed hands

Just trying to bring sexy back

I now understand my previously unexplainable soft spot for Condie
Dani also got Laura Bush-- I'm starting to question her political motives

My dirty secret

Why I am so glad to be done with art school

This man once asked me

to arrange these books by size

in only 3 ikea bookcases like this:

until the shelves collapsed under the weight of the larger books.

Magic Tape

My cousin sent me these photos. All the figures are made out of scotch tape. I'm not sure who did this or where they came from. But its probably better this way. You know a little mystery.

Don Quixote has nothing on us!

While Dani was doing trust falls and team building improv at her work retreat Andy and I were charged with the important task of finding a campsite. A task we took very seriously.

But first we found this lonely old bus on the side of HWY 12. There was some barbed wire suggesting that we not go in. So we went in to check out the bus.Andy get your head out of there!

All the seats were out but there was a couch and a stove.

Wind Farming!
We found an open service road that led into a PG&E wind farm. We went chasing wind turbines for awhile. They are amazingly beautiful I could watch them forever.

The sheep huddled together in the shade of the wind turbine.



Birds Landing has peacocks and an amazing tavern. At the tavern we met Shirley and Bob. Shirley was Birds Landing's post mistress for 40 years, she took over the tavern when her husband died. Shirley was very sweet and told us the history of the town. How Collinsville used to flood and she would have to row a boat up to Birds Landing. Also, part of the Clint Eastwood Film Honky Tonk Man was shot at the bar. Shirley and her family watched Eastwood flub his lines from a field across the street.



The peacocks like to look at themselves in Shirley's hubcaps. They are for some reason a point of contention in the town.


Its strange how the first thing you find when arriving at a ghost town is the graveyard.
According to Bob at the tavern these silos hold 7000 year old oyster shells that are being ground up for Bacchi Ball courts (among other things)
I think this is Bob's Geodesic Dome boat. I couldn't really see the boat part but he said it was a boat.



Then we found camping just in time for Dani to arrive. (I think she had her doubts)

Black Diamond, Black Heart!

We went to Black Diamond Mines searching for the remains of a long dead coal mining industry and the mining towns that grew around it. At one point around 2000 miners (all the men of the town including boys 8 years and older) spent their days in tunnels under these hills. When the coal mining industry died (due to the low grade coal found) the families couldn't sell their houses because the company owned all the land so they packed up the entire house, structure and all and moved it. Mostly what is left is a graveyard and some tunnels that people like us can go poking around in, that is if we could find them.

There wasn't much around except dry grass, dead trees and the abusive sun. Oh! and some kamikaze crickets that would viciously hurl themselves at us with unheard of speed.


Those distant trees are the cemetery.




We spotted a rare wild Dani who followed us the entire day. Because they are known for their good luck and well, honestly, Andy and I grew fond of our little companion we decided to wait for her to catch up during the rough parts of the hike.


Hey wait! Where are we? Our map would not tell despite having marked our path in peanut butter. At this point our party suffered a crushing defeat. Due to our dwindling rations and the sinking morale of our wild Dani we were forced to turn back mere feet from the elusive Prospect Tunnel (our own personal gold mine.) Damn You Black Diamond Mines!


I have now studied the map in detail and have realized our mistake. I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the East Bay Regional Park District and their sorry cartography skills. Now, I am a woman possessed, I will see the Prospect Tunnel and "Jim's Place" for that matter. Black Diamond Mines we will conquer you!


The Little Dani that Could

A strange salt deposit. In the middle of nowhere, at this point I think we heard our first coyotes


Nothing like a hard hat to lift broken spirits.

Gay Bomb!

The Pentagon, yes The US Department of Defense asked for 7.4 million dollars to develop a non-lethal bomb that would release a chemical to turn enemy combatants into homosexuals. They say that the enemy soldiers would become gay and then their "units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another"

Read more about the Gay bomb! Gay Bomb!

Obscene or No?

More amazing hand painting courtesy Julia's mom can be found on Nancy's blog.

I Made It To Oregon City!

Despite some trials and hardship our party made across the Oregon Trail!

Of course Dani was the first to fake sick, she just wanted to shop at the fort gift shop.

What can I say, it felt like we were never gonna get there.

Rainbows upset Dani's tummy :(

Oregon Trail web clone its not exactly like the one of old but close enough. It really manages to convey what westward expansion must of been like for those that actually undertook the journey. Apparently, it was very boring and you get the poos a lot. Despite the common misconception if one of your companions die-- you don't even get the option to eat their remains.

Addendum to BBQ before I was born

In lieu of going to Andy's for a BBQ today (something about being tired after a marathon or whatever) I am posting pictures from a BBQ after I was born.


My Mom and her sisters:
We were together for my Grandpa's funeral, the last of his generation.
Please note the ciggerette in my aunts hand. Its good to see that somethings stay the same.

Me and My mom:

My mom, me and my cousin Shell (who sent me all the pictures):

BBQ before I was born

My cousin sent me some photographs of a family BBQ that happened before I was born. I am in love with them. I get this weird sense of time vertigo when I look at them. Its strange to see evidence of the world existing before I was in it.

These are my aunts. This photo is classic, I love the smoke and the cigarette.

I think this photo is amazing. My mom is in the center and my aunt to her right and my great aunt to her left:

This is my Grandma and Great Uncle Joe:

and my Grandpa and my aunt:

There are 3 generations of my family in this photo. I was talking with my mom about this picture and she said that "all the adults in this photo are now gone." It took me a moment to understand that she wasn't including her sisters and herself as adults. Its funny because I am about the same age as she is in these pictures and I don't think of myself as an adult either.
Everybody: