Thanksgiving 2.0

We were lucky enough to not only have one great Tday but two! The first with the Pyles, their friends Don, Bee, Deb and Barb...great food, company and times. The turkey was phenomenal as was the smoked ham. When we got home we had to check in on our neighbor, Nelson...who'd just returned from vacation. He loves the girls but Chiso has wiggled her way into his heart. So I wanted to bring her over as he's seen her grow and change more than anyone else...and with her chameleon transformation lately....I knew he'd be tickled. So we had a great reunion and the girls were spoiled with the attention. Its funny how neighbors, good neighbors can add to the fabric of your life.

As for the rest of the weekend we committed time to housework and chores that needed attention...but there were also movies watched, art worked on, dreamy bloody marys and indulgent eating...and we capped all of that with yes another Thanksgiving. So today Rich started our own turkey at 9am. Greg came over and schooled us on Rock Band! Another wonderful, stuffing turkey fest.

Do I hear Penny saying, "bring on the holidays?" (thanks Bren-its too much!)

we snuck outta the workweek a day early

We had great plans (visualize sweeping hand gestures....) in Tahoe. We booked a cottage at our fav place in Kings Beach (cuz they take dogs) and we were going to meet up Rich's Sister, Cookie and her hubby Tom. PERFECT....well maybe not so much. No problem getting up the hill Thursday night...clear as a bell. We stopped at a fav dinner stop, Lanza's and got two killah pasta dishes...and Cheesy Toast (Chiso's new nickname). So all's good...we watched some TV d hit the sack early. Friday morning...we got up and took Chiso and Allie to the Tahoe National Forest up behind the cottages. Then headed into Tahoe City for bagels and thats when the storm started. Within the hour we had 4 foot swells and up to 50 MPH wind gusts. We called Cookie and Tom to find out if it was as blustery across the Lake? Yep...the wind kept whipping up and in came the snow...so by 3 Rich went to the grocery store and bought supplies, a movie and wine and fishtailed his way through the snow and hunkered down we did. Cookie and Tom did the same thing. We had an official Snow Day where we did NOTHING. It was great and a great first snow experience for Chiso....and once we stopped fighting it, we relished in not being able to do anything. Thankfully we metup with the Lynchs back in Sactown-lovethem!!!

Laptop surgery

Well my HP TX1000 laptop died a month ago...lights worked but no Boot Up...total black screen.. Tried all kinds of ideas...removed and reseated hard drives ,battery , ram...nothing. So I bought a new ASUS laptop and have been getting ready to dump the old one...but b-4 I do I decided one more time to see if I can fix it...I find a post by a kid on youtube showing how to heat up the moterboard and reseat the Graphics Processor (GPU)...So I tear apart the case and get at the buggar and follow the kids directions...make a cardboard mask to only heat the GPU and use a 150 watt bulb to get it hot and then smoosh the processor back into the motherboard..then use a penny as a heat sink and put the bastage back together....Well the sombiatch is working.. Will be reloading the OS and keeping an eye on it..cost me $20 bucks for thermal paste and a big spotlight,,and I learned alot about laptop repair. His video is at...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctHTF3oNdxI

Boog's Birthday debachle

I took Friday off to celebrate Margaret's /(her nickname-for that matter, both our nicknames for each other is Boog or Boogie) Boog's birthday with her. We had been planning for a while to go wine tasting in Lodi and after freaking months of talking up Wine and Roses, we were going to have "big girl" lunch there! I know one winery in Lodi, so that's where we started, Jessies Grove. Ok, so its closed...no worries, they open in an hour-we'll come back. So lets check out Wine and Roses...we got there while the staff was still going over the specials and such...so we had to walk around a bit before getting seated. We start with a glass of wine, Boog red and me White. Out comes my white nicely chilled and Boog's slightly warm Red. Perfect...now this is what we came for, a true indulgence. We start with an appetizer that was good, and accented the wine well. Then we hear the "specials" and opt for what we understood as a crab BLT sandwich...ok, here's where things went South for me...a few minutes later out comes this deep fried creature sandwich...now mind you, I've had soft shelled crab before and really not a huge fan. But after the first bite included the fish flavor of the deep sea....bleck! I put it down and see Margaret is doing ok and I look down at mine and a spider walks out from under the half I had already noshed on, it was a bitty spider, but a spider nonetheless. As casually as I can I ask Boog, so "kinda fishy?" and she's a TROUPER. She's like "um yeah"and promply takes the crab off hed sandwich and proceeds to try to enjoy the remaining BLT. By that time my tummy was in knots. I'm no snob and if you know me, I eat my share of fish...but between the soft shell crab and the spider...that was like 14 more legs than I wanted on my plate. So the waitress kindly asked "how was everything?" Before I knew what was happening I was telling her of my dissatisfaction and she was asking if there was anything she could get us to "make things right." I was twisted in belly knots...so different food was not an option...MORE WINE! Then the Hostess came over and she was GREAT, she joked that we didn't like the legs hangin out our buns and I had to tell her, it wasn't just that but the spider was the topper. Note first time Margaret knew of THAT development...needless to say, they comp'd our entire meal and added a free dessert. So ya win some, ya lose some... We returned to Jessies Grove for a little tasting and then headed for a little shopping. We found the HomeGoods in Elk Grove and had a orgasmic shopping fest-which made up for the funky lunch.

Saturday we headed up the hill to see Margaret and Mikes new house in Penn Valley. Rich offered to help move the heavy stuff, as my back is in a bad way...and I moved pillows and lamps. Margaret and Mike have been living in their guest house waiting for the "Final" on their house which has been an ordeal, as expected building your own house. We only worked a couple of hours but it was unbelievable to finally see the house after hearing her stories for months.

Lob ya Boog and next year you pick the place for your birthday meal (I swear!)

Halloween fun

So I get a bug in my butt and there's no stopping me. I heard Rich say that he wanted to incorporate our Trailer Woody in this years festivities...so I embraced it. A Swiss Chalet deserves Swiss themed characters. I rented costumes that did wht we needed them to be and it was downhill from there. We woke up Saturday morning with a spark in our step, we separated with the divide and conquer. Rich headed to Home Depot and I heade to my fav thrift store, then Target. I grabbed sandwiches and ran home to compare notes. While inhaling our lunch we delighted in unveiling everything we'd found. We had gumdrop lights, gingerbread cookie placemats and lite up candy canes...we were a flurry of activities. Then we attempted to nap-hah! both our brains are racing a million miles an hour so a nap just wasn't in the cards....I think Rich changed an was ready for kids at 5:30 but we were an hour or so away from dark. So I ordered a pizza and donned my outfit...we went with the Hansel and Gretel story with a witch in our makeshift oven in Woody! We had Barverian music playing too. Lori O came over to verify just how crazy we were...but she was encouraging and we were in it for the long haul. Kids came and it was really the Parents that thought we were a hoot. Oh then there was the beer...yes in a accordance to all codes of Baveria...we drank our weight in beer and wound the night down after putting all the decorations away tucked away, safe and sound. But noone can say we didn't commit...