ok, so after posting all these pictures of ramon amongst the beautiful pink springtime blossoms... and then again with saad smooching on his cheek, i have to say that ramon is not gay, nor is saad his secretive & decadent sometimes-boy-lover. ramon is happily married and saad is still searching. ah, The Search. sometimes it totally blows.



sorry for the blatant photoshopping - the flash sorta made the defacement of private property less visible. this is saad's beautiful handiwork the night of st patty's - the night he lost his beloved phone, the night he was five sheets to the wind (apparently, higher elevations will F U UP), the night alexis's car was broken into. also the night the server was a complete jerk to him for defacing the table we were sitting at. but seriously, can you see how badly the tables are already carved? not that that's an excuse for him carving the table, but if it were as big a deal as the server made it out to be, maybe they should, i don't know, put a sign on the table!? goodness, that was my common sense talking, what was i thinking, letting that monstrosity out?



this is the frontier restaurant - we went here after the bar to eat some amazing hashbrowns. if you can't tell, there's a line to get into this restaurant. i've also circled the cop that frisked us with a wand to make sure we didn't have any guns or shanks. a cop! at a restaurant!



ramon & alexis's cute little faux-dobe house.



this "courtyard" was to the left of ramon's house. the blue skies and sun came out for a spell!



anthony's crazy bird hair o' the morning.



alexis in the laundry mart.









mmm... buster's had the most amazing breakfast burritos!

the boys are so cute!

late in the local albuquerque wal-mart, buying scattergories and ginger ale (for some whiskey time!).


anthony, ramon & saad.
nice, saad, real nice. he's rather fond of his middle finger. ;)


bat-ramon


bat-saad


and i had to save the best for last - bat-anthony. check out that collar!

so we had a really excellent time in albuquerque! some notes:

• everything is spicy. red or green chilies are put on everything, including mcdonald's hamburgers (but, strangely, not used at taco bell).
• i heart breakfast burritos (no beans! egg & hash browns - *DROOL*)
• albuquerque is very dated. lots of old signs and really cool independent shops and restaurants.
• santa fe - not that impressive. unfortunately, it was cloudy 98% of the time we were in new mexico, so the brown burnt sienna landscape didn't get a chance to contrast with crystal clear blue skies. instead we got lots of grey skies with muddy browns. alas.
• tumbleweeds! i saw tumbleweeds on the highway! a woman was driving with one on the front of her suv. apparently, they aren't fun to try and get out from under your car, since they are really thorny. they also grow like snowballs, bouncing around the landscape getting bigger and bigger. they are also fast on the highway, so i didn't get any pictures of them. : (
• i can smell the litterbox as i sit here blogging and drinking my wine. this is not a good sign. need more litter; noted.
• on the way to yanni's (a greek-ish restaurant), ramon got the chance to practice his paramedic skills at a hit & run. saad helped by holding the woman's head while ramon made sure she was ok until the ambulance arrived.
  
• this was also the night it snowed! didn't stay on the ground, but it was on the mountains the next day.
• alexis's car was broken into st. patty's night. (jesus, that litterbox smells bad.) the idiots broke her window and stole a cd walkman (old enough not to have anti-skip protection) and a roadside assistance box (like, with flares and stuff; according to ramon, valued at $10 from wal-mart). impressive thieves.
  
• this reminds me of a time that a woman that worked at my parent's chinese restaurant had her car broken into and nothing was stolen, even though her trunk was FILLED with chinese ginseng root (valued at around $500). hahaha! stupid thieves.
  
• once, in elementary school, i stole a lip gloss from a store. i felt so guilty, i threw it into the gully behind our house w/o using it.

ok, i'm going to clean that litterbox now. oi! and read some of the artist's way. i'm trying to be more creative. oh, do wish me luck. i did finish my lace scarf and have begun knitting a red scarf w/ blue beads. mayhaps pictures shall follow. and i did tell baron baronet that i'd have sketches up sometime soon... let's say, by the end of the month! yea!

new mexico - cleaner than regular mexico

i haven't had the chance to upload and resize all of the albuquerque photos, but i figure that this lovely image of ramon amongst the flowers will have to do for now. he's just so seductive, eh ladies?

in a nutshell, we had an awesome time in new mexico with ramon & alexis. much food (read: green/red chilies) was ingested, drinks were consumed, cough drops were plentiful, it snowed and i saw a tumbleweed or three.

more shall come later, but i think i'm still exhausted from all the travel.

abq

woohoo!

me & ant & saad are in albuquerque (i can now spell this w/o looking it up) visiting ramon & alexis. : ) we got in last night & just woke up.

today we'll be visiting the atomic museum. rock it.

i smell like a monkey, and i look like one, too

in but 2 and half hours i will be 27.

strange, i don't feel 27. ... i feel like i'm 19 still. funny, that.

a few things:

1. i am going to repost my new year resolutions and see where i stand on them
2. while cleaning, i scanned in the rest of the halloween art slides and will post more of them
3. [updated] anthony's band, red room cinema, has confirmed their april 20th show with the appleseed cast & aloha! FUCK YEA! : ) i am so excited for them; these two bands are some of their favorites (in addition to them opening previously for the timeout drawer and the mercury program). w00t!
   

ok, heeeere goes!

• learn mandarin !#@$%# occassionally, at work, i'll listen to some lessons. and i've got copies of some software programs i've yet to actually *do*... i am, however, considering taking actual classes while doing my library science degree. this is a good idea, yes? i have such a mental block when it comes to learning chinese. i just need to get over it. i took mandarin 1 in college and then dropped out of mandarin 2. not because of grades. just my own weirdly fears.
  
• keep craft storage room clean and operational HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
  
• do more art i have bought a sketchbook and drew on some placemats the other day while eating dinner with anthony. this is a start.
  
• do more craft erm, i started to make an ipod case.
  
• do more photography i've definitely taken more photos with my camera, but lack funds to actually develop them yet. also, borrowing from the words of a genius co-worker, "the prescription in my glasses has run out and i have to get it renewed."
  
• do more illustration i'm going to bulk this into "art" for now
  
• eat healthy i definitely feel that i'm eating healthier. : )
  
• work out more i definitely feel that i am *not* working out more.
  
• buy more clothes wow, have i bought new clothes since the new year??
  
• buy more shoes still making the holes in my current shoes bigger (seriously, i'm not totally poor. i just don't like to spend $50 on shoes when i could spend it on something else. like, sushi! or fabric to make my craft room shelves look pretty!)
  
• learn to invest uh, ok, still working on this one
  
• vacuum more i vacuumed yesterday! huzzah!
  
• go camping with craig in the ocala forest well, you never know! as long as there aren't a lot of mosquitos. : p
  
• ok, that last one wasn't really a resolution *teehee*
  

rachel


me


me


star


anthony

been

after a long hiatus, i am back and almost in full-form.

this past week-ish has been quite the bender!

of course, first there was the death of an aunt and the subsequent distress. and then on wednesday at work i get a call right after lunch from anthony that his mom needs emergency surgery. off to brooksville we went. suffice it to say that it went completely whack after that. his dad was already sick and without being too open with his family - both his parents ended up having sugery on the same day.

and thankfully they're both doing super - just need time to heal. as do me & anthony, we both got the flu (along with the rest of his family) during this time pretty bad. fevers of 102 F, chills, coughs like crazy, general fatigue and malaise.

we're trying to get better before our vacation out to new mexico on thursday. our throats are on fire. wheeee! lots of tea and honey.

for now, i'm just tired... ¬_¬

life is crazy

so. very strange turn of events these last few days.

*sigh*

the bad news first? my uncle dave's wife died on monday night of necrotizing fascitis.

insane. a flesh-eating disease.

she hurt her thumb on thursday, didn't even break skin. by sunday, her arm had swollen so badly her skin was ripping.
she was rushed to surgery where they amputated her arm up to the shoulder blade, her leg and removed muscle from her side - to no avail. the infection was too strong and too fast.

i can't believe there are things out there that can spread and destroy tissue so fast! i'm completely at a loss. my mom was saying that a woman in tampa had a similar experience - she went in to give birth to her child and woke up with all her limbs amputated. boxing helena. how horrific.

... hm, in other news, the weekend went well. lots of gfss fun & drinking. hm, hard to be chipper. i'll just let pictures speak for themselves:


here's my knitting project


a larger view - i've moved on to my second ball! that's the first ball in the picture. it's a little bit wobbly on the edges, but supposedly blocking will make it look better. it's going to be a scarf!


i love erika's house. it's huge - check out the size of that kitchen! this is where we spent most of the weekend - cooking & making margaritas.


we also did super girly sleepover stuff like plucking each other's eyebrows and putting on masques.


meaghan and erika - during our game of celebrity*.


she's not picking her nose, folks.


virginia's wearing an "i heart nerds" shirt!


rachel also has a heart. she is totally in love... awwwwww..... : )


erika's students also love her. they write her poems and gift her like crazy. one boy made her this record clock - he's so infatuated. (p.s. loverboy is rachel's favorite 80s group)


meaghan & her husband craig came by our house before & after the weekend (we carpooled to ft. myers) and they brought their little dog junie! i don't know if you can tell in the picture, but thomas is about 3 times the size of junie. junie looks the same size as thomas because she's closer to the camera. junie wanted to be friends, but thomas was a little territorial.


thomas works out to maintain his top physical shape. i mean, you saw his physique in the above photo. he's totally a biff (like in back to the future!).




*celebrity is a game in which everyone writes down 10 famous people (can be fictional) on slips of paper. in the first round, one person gets their group to guess the person by saying anything they want to describe the person. one minute to get as many famous people as they can. second round - same thing, but the group has to guess it in 2 words. third round is charades! meaghan got us to guess "old macdonald (has a farm)" by pretending to have sex with a goat. she's so talented.