Here are my pictures from my long weekend away with friends. You can read the notes in the browser to see my sometimes witty or irreverent comments, or you can go to the Flickr Set to read them that way.
We found the perfect house at Seaside the six of us can go in on. It's even under a million dollars. I figure if I return cans and bottles after our party Friday I can come up with the down payment in NO TIME AT ALL!
Maddie brought this pen home.
I saw it and thought, "Hey! Whoa!"
Logan saw it and said, "Hey! Where'd that come from?"
Maddie said, "China.....they make everything in China."
Logan said, "Huh, maybe they're re-purposing the moulds in China."
Max, Logan and Maddie are all crowded onto half the sofa. And Gary is all comfortable on the other half.
Maddie is making that face because I've suggested maybe we move the cat so I can sit down too.
Yesterday I took a shower, put on clothes and makeup, drove to the doctor, bought myself a Taco Bell dinner, ate it all (without crying), cleaned out a junk drawer and finally pulled down the party decorations from Maddie's big sleepover bash 2 weeks ago.
This was a banner day. Right now, I'm thinking about what to eat for lunch and the possibilities are so overwhelming and awesome I can barely stand it.
I think I may have turned the corner on this stupid thing and might be back to reasonably normal (though my throat won't be totally healed until next week). I am beyond happy about this. I even get to go on a little overnight trip with my friends (my real life friends who are always so busy with their 5 billion children they never get to do anything fun with me ever) on Saturday night.
God I am relieved. (Knocking on wood).
But this post isn't about that. This post is about being a good guest at a party. Advice about parties from the woman who gave birth to my husband that still holds true: "The host did all the work to give you this great party, your job as a guest is to make sure it's fun." (Other parenting advice she gave that is still true: "Nothing lasts forever." True, but somethings like to pop back in for a visit. Like constipation!)
Ryan and Kristen's wedding was held on the same night other friends were having a Halloween party and since we wanted to make it to both we took a few mustaches with us (you don't have a drawer of fake mustaches in your house? Lame.) and some nerdy glasses to wear in case we had time to make it to the Halloween bash.
We brought them into the (incredibly lovely) wedding reception and guess what? Making people wear fake glasses is an excellent ice breaker.
See?
Another side note, on the way to the reception we drove through a little part of Bloomfield Hills I hadn't been to before. On the drive we were discussing cutting our budget, maybe downsizing the house and being a one car family for a year. As we talked we passed by all these huge lakefront estates and suddenly it felt like we'd already downsized. Jesus, time for some perspective.
On Saturday we snuck* our way into the End of Season Dog Swim at the local city pool.
*By snuck I mean we walked up to the gate said, "We're forcing our poor daughter to live a dog-less life, but can we torture her by watching the dogs swim?" And they said, "Sure, you assholes!"
A few of the dogs got off leash and instead of staying in the water, where they were allowed off leash, they ran around like I imagine all the kids would have run around the pool all summer if there weren't any rules about that sort of thing.
Watching all the dogs play and dive and chase each other was excruciating and hilarious.
Someday we'll get a dog.
If you have a dog, or like watching them swim, there are a couple more similar events coming up as other local pools are drained for the season.
You can see the other pictures here.
This is the no photography warning outside the Super Secret Frozen Yogurt Shop.
I took it to mean don't take pictures of stick figures in wheelchairs.
Oops.
Exotic toppings at the Frozen Yogurt place.
Gummy Bears?
Crushed Oreos?
THE TRADE SECRETS ARE MINE!
I've said it before, I enjoy beating dead horses. I'm almost done.
oooh! A white table, with white cushions.....I NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT!
The amusing thing about this series of photos is the part where I could have been advertising their nice establishment. But instead, I'm stealing their trade secrets: Beautiful light + White on white + Frozen yogurt
I took this picture and a few others I'm going to share at a frozen yogurt place. The manager asked me to stop taking pictures because they have problems with designers stealing their ideas.
Their radical white on white decor and frozen yogurt with various toppings ideas.
Hmmmmm.....
This year our Blogher festivities included Antonia from Whoopee. She is from London and on Sunday Antonia's husband Ian flew in with their little girl Esme to join her for an extended holiday in the states.
We all met up for breakfast and Hank and Esme hit it off being so ridiculously cute and toddler-like I suddenly forgot I hate baby-hood and enjoy this part of my life as a parent a lot more. Since then I have had a dream each night I'm pregnant and happy about it.
Thanks a lot Hank and Esme.
The babies sat next to each other sharing toys and bits of toast. They also talked to each other and babbled back and forth. But sometimes it seems they had trouble understanding one another.
"I can't understand your accent..."
When the the little ones got out of their chairs they toddled around the table and gave each other hugs and kisses I died. I'm dead right now. I hope they're happy.
Update: Oh My God. They brought me back to life just to do this to me.
On Monday before I took the red eye home we walked around North Beach. These were leather samples for custom made shoes. I'd like something in a puce.
This plant is gone. It survived a lot of abuse, but the cats rubbing against it and knocking it out of the container spilling dirt all over. This finally proved too much for me to bear.
Number 3 on the list of things I'm really bad at and like anyway.
A lot of Michigan beaches are full of rocks. I think this is why Crocs were invented. I apologize.
Logan's favorite thing about living here is going using this bottle opener he installed on the corner of the garage.
This is me, totally kicking everyone's ass at Guitar Hero.
Rain Gutter Regatta. Yes, there is such a thing.
A quiver of arrows. Also, here's another Quiver you should check out if you like crime fiction.
We had friends over for dinner the other night. Laura is a chef and made a big batch of grilled vegetables. I'm going to recommend you make yourself a friend who's a chef.
This is Evan. He also goes by Little Dale because he looks remarkably like our neighbor, Dale.
Caroline knows every state. Here I am pointing out the state two states above where Obama comes from. Since her mom is a Republican.
I'm trying to remain enthusiastic about this hobby. Some days are harder than others.
This is Max chatting with his buddies at T-Ball. These kids are both Max's age and this is "novel" because I'm that parent.
