Tell you all my secrets

Sorry for the confusion on my last big post.

I flew home from seeing my folks and Connie on Friday with no issues, other than a big belly full of nachos. Lonelydumptruck met me at the airport and we went to dinner at Taproot. It was way too noisy, be we still had fun.

Yesterday I had auditions for the ATY show I am directing. Well, joint auditions with the other ATY show we that is performing in rep with Just So, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We had 36 kids come to audition yesterday *splat!* 36!! I think that's how many I had for Charlotte's Web total! With the group today, we topped out at 64 actors auditioning. I think we have 30 parts available, and that is if I sneak two more cast members past my costume designer.

After auditions yesterday we went to a soccer gathering at Lori-o's for a few minutes, then to the final night of Brr-lesque Idol. All of the finalists were amazing, but one of us hostesses won. Go Team Hostess. I broke down and bought myself a hair decoration and a new garter, mostly because I could.

After auditions today I high-tailed it to Brr-lesque rehearsal but I ran into Lonelydumptruck and Rodney in the parking lot. When they are dismissed from rehearsal, I usually am too, so I just talked them into taking me to Roadhouse. After that we hung out and watched a crazy Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier movie.

Good weekend.

Fun day yesterday.

We took off a little before Dad and Ila went to church and stopped at a winery that specializes in fruit wines (like currants and pears, some with grapes and some not.) One of lonelydumptruck's co-workers was in the OR National Guard and asked him to pick up a bottle while we are here. We were going to make a fast dash to Portland, but Lori-O called and was going to be here a couple hours earlier than she'd planned so we drove around looking for something to do.

We ended up at the Wunderland nickel arcade where we used to wile away many an hour during college. It was mostly ticket-games now but we found an Aliens shooter game and played some Indiana Jones pinball. We picked up Lori-O at the house and went to Thompsons (The McMenamins of our college days) to kill the time until dinner. Almost as soon as our snacks hit the table Dad called to say they were already done and headed to the other McMenamins where we'd agreed to meet for dinner. Oops.

After dinner we just sat around and talked and read. We met a friend from Anchorage for coffee and crepes this morning then came back to finish the salad and get ready for the family BBQ. I'm going to go read about zombies in the sunshine until I either get assigned a dish to help with or people arrive.

The flight down was delightfully uneventful. I read an anthology of zombie stories and actually slept a bit. Mom and dad are doing well. Mom took a bad fall last week and just found out that she did not tear her rotator cuff (yay!) but she seriously bruised the bone and they are expecting it will be at least 3 months before she is in good shape (boo!) We stopped to see my aunt for a few and then hit the road.

Traffic wasn't too terribly bad. We came to a dead stop between Centralia and Chehalis after we stopped at the Olympic Club for a pint. It's a McMenamin's pub that used to be a 'gentlemen's spa' back in the day. Last time told my family we stopped, my aunt told us how she got read the riot act for walking on the same side of the street as the club when she was a girl.

Salem is wonderful. We just hung out and watched the Mariners game with dad and Ila last night. Today we went to breakfast at one of lonelydumptruck's favorite places, the Off-Center Cafe and then we stopped at the Saturday Market. I saw (but didn't buy) an awesome sign that said 'She begins every day believing she is normal.'

Dad and Ila are having a family BBQ tomorrow and they asked us to make corn salad. lonelydumptruck is roasting the corn as we speak so I should go help. 'Help' of course means stand around and watch.

Lori-O is in Portland now but she'll be down later tonight and we'll probably head to one of the McMenamin's in town.

I haven't had time to read entries, so tell me something fun you are doing this weekend?

Don't break the internets while we're gone!

Heading back up to Seattle this afternoon - They Might Be Giants tonight!

It's a Flood show, and I haven't been listening to the songs when it comes up on my iPod (because I'm being silly) but I've still had Birdhouse stuck in my head for 3 days.

We gave the three dogs pet shirts again. Yeah, they can seem like cruel and stupid gifts, but then again you have to picture Heidi (The dog who will just barely brush her ass against the floor when told to sit and then only does that much if there is a treat involved) wearing a pink shirt that says 'You Sit.'

Just a quick note - a placeholder if you will.

We met up with folks and had an awesome time in Seattle last night. Today we took the train to Tacoma and napped a lot between meals with the FLO and visiting my favorite aunt. Tomorrow will probably be more of the same (with less napping) and then it's back to Seattle on Tuesday!

I heard it finally started snowing in Anchorage. Really?

We are on our way very shortly (and I'm still packing!!!!)

Don't break our internets while we're gone!

Little late, but I am reporting that we had a spectacular weekend. It was so good it was even worth getting a hard time from every single one of my co-workers for having a four-day weekend.

lonelydumptruck, Lori-o, some of her co-workers and I went to the 4th Ave. Block Party to hear Nervis Rex play. We used to go to their shows all the time. I'm not sure if it's because we got so busy doing theatre we never heard about the shows, or if they stopped playing, but it has been years since we've heard them. Enough years they put out a second CD 7 years ago and their first one is out of print, which just makes me double-pissed that it got lost somewhere on the way to the present.

We were going to head out early Friday morning to go to McCarthy for BMac's big party, Relentless BBQ 4, but I didn't get over to REI in time to pick up the re-bungied tent poles on Thursday night so we had to wait and get them when the store opened at 10:00. The guy who did the repair set us up right, though. He only charged for the cord, so we got tight like-new tent poles for just $9. Of course one errand just leads to another (and a wild goose chase all over town to find ripe avocados) and we didn't hit the road until almost 11:30.

It was a long trip but beautiful even in the rain. I drove from the turn off to McCarthy along the single-lane dirt road and over a bridge that looked so much like it should be in an Evil Dead movie that I squealed. We saw two black bears (my first!). They were crossing the road in front of us and one disappeared right away. I gently snuck the van forward while lonelydumptruck got out the camera and I managed to convince the other bear that he was curious enough to take a second look at us. A little look was all he needed, though, and we just got a picture of his ass.

A few miles later we saw something else come out on the road way far ahead of us. My first thought was that it was a very small deer (lonelydumptruck is always quick to point out that there are no deer in Alaska, a fact which vexes me) and while we were realizing it could be a dog, we got close enough to realize it was a lynx! And not only was it a lynx, it was a very handsome lynx who sat down on the edge of the road, right in front of a tree, and stared right at us. It was a National Geographic cover. They lynx just sat there, pretty as you please, right up until the very moment lonelydumptruck got the camera focused....and then we got a picture of his ass disappearing behind a tree too. We rounded out the Alaska Wildlife extravaganza with a shit-load of bunnies and a moose who looked startled as hell when we drove by. Country moose.

We drove all the way to the end of the road, the footbridge that actually leads in to McCarthy, without even the slightest clue of where to find the party. We asked about BMac at the visitors information booth with no luck, then lonelydumptruck got the idea of asking the guy running the parking lot next to the bridge since someone was bound to know who BMac was. We got directions of where to turn off, and luckily we ran into Lemons on the road and we gave him a ride and a Coke in exchange for leading us to the camp.

BMac and Dani's place is great. They have a little one-room house with a sleeping loft built out there and a big old bus. The Spenard Satans Old Timey Band drove in to perform for the party on Saturday and they had a gig at the bar in McCarthy (As the Spenard Satins since McCarthy is a very small place.) The actual town was a quick 1/2 mile walk from the footbridge. What we saw of the town, it was probably less than 20 buildings total. We got a pizza at the bar and waited an hour and a half for the band to get set up. Finally we decided that was plenty of time and started back. BMac offered to give us a ride from the parking lot to the turn off but he got a ride to the parking lot while we were walking. We saw the truck go splashing across the river. BMac said he looked every direction besides up at the bridge and then took off we we ended up walking the whole way back.

It was only a couple of miles, but we took a few wrong turns. The road was really rocky so I was constantly turning my ankles like I was at Fair again. I'm really starting to hate uneven ground. It was a great walk, though, and we made it back to the camp in about a hour.

We were up until about 3 chatting with BMac when he got back so I had a really nice sleep in Saturday morning. lonelydumptruck was up before 10 and helped with making breakfast. By the time I rolled in there was already bacon and my job became helping to organize all the stuff people brought in. It ws really hot and sunny most of the afternoon, which we didn't expect. A lot of people went down to a lagoon to swim and some others went up to see the mine. We were feeling unmotivated after Friday night's walk so we stayed in camp and I opted for a nap.

The actual party was Saturday night and it was all out. They had a couple generators hooked up so the bands had amps and lights. They even built a dancing cage on the side of the porch. The Satans were fun, but I think my favorite band was the 9-year old who got up there to play his metal song Robots (the lyrics entirely variations of 'He said I hate Robots!') He and his group limped through Blister in the Sun after that but we tried to get Robot for an encore.

It started to rain at some point after midnight and we finally crashed out around 3. The bands played until 4 or so. Sunday was a good day to sleep in. Which I did while lonelydumptruck got up to help in the kitchen. We had fajitas as the main course of breakfast and then hit the road home. lonelydumptruck drove the whole way back, so we made much better time.

Monday we just spent doing laundry and easing into the week. I spent pretty much the entire day in front of the computer and I don't feel bad about that at all.

Seriously, best ever.

Friday we went to meet Mommie and Eddie for dinner. They were late, so we had a cocktail and waited until the came - followed by lonelydumptruck sister Lori-O who said "Surprise!!"

lonelydumptruck's play could not have gone better. It was the last of 4 so everyone left talking about it. He got major compliments, especially during the cruise afterward.

This was also the best cruise year ever. We were on the drinking boat instead of the singing boat, which ruled. Our boat also had a hose so the crew was able to threaten to soak the other boat. We saw a shit-ton of otters out near the glacier. The best part was (drum roll please) we saw a whale. It came really close to the boat, we could see the blowhole, and it show us its tail several times. lonelydumptruck got video which will make him the toast of Facebook.

Saturday we slept in and did some gift shopping. About 1 Rodney called to tell us an old friend was working for a charter fishing place, the friend who directed The Haunting of Hill House and the first production of Christmas Story. He took us out on the Sound in a little 4-person speed boat. we pretty much followed the same route the cruise ships had the night before and we saw even more otters and at least one seal. People kept asking us if we were disappointed we didn't see the whale again. I was MORE than fine with not seeing the whale while we were in a 4-person speed boat!

The Gala was beautiful. It was so great to see Ron honored in that way. The President of PWSCC was there and went around after the gala to tell everyone to meet in the Lounge of the hotel which hosted the Fringe. You have to love a school where the president organizes the pub crawl. He rang the bell twice too.

We hung at the bar for a while, until a Ghost of Anchorage Theatre Past, in all of his crazy-strange glory, thought the last glass of beer in our pitcher was his leftover pitcher and poured out Alaska White into his Hefewiesen. After that we went over to hang out with our old friend at the fish shop and drink wine. When he headed to bed, we went over to one of the other bars in town to do more celebrating with friends.

The drive home was great. The roads were not being constructed or very busy. We got home in time to take Dad to the ballgame. One of the players was named Caleb Bushyhead and Jay immediately became so enamored of it I have been teasing him that Bushyhead is his new nickname. Feel free to use it when you see him.

After the game we tried 2 different places for dinner (3 if you count the fact we went to a different Greek restaurant than they did) and finally ended up at Cattle Company. It was really great to hang out with family.

That's about what I have for right now.