Wednesday, July 30, 2008

omg



yesssssssss.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

We're still here

My mom's computer has decided it no longer wants to play with my camera's memory card, so I'm having trouble uploading photos. Hopefully I'll get it fixed soon! I really want to post pictures of the beautiful children's museum we visited yesterday, and today we're going to Balboa Park, one of the most photo-worthy spots in the city. Crossing my fingers!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

San Diego::Day 5

We finally made it to the beach. Prepare for photo overload!
This is La Jolla, my favorite place in the whole wide world. The clear blue water, the cliffs, the sand, everything was just as I remembered it. It was absolutely beautiful.



Go mermaid go!









Mermaid tail made by mommy, natch. I decided to make it for our trip after seeing something similar on Etsy. She had a ball running through the waves with it.
On the way home we passed a chocolate shop that sold HELLO KITTY APPLES! Omg. Are they not just the cutest dang apples you've ever seen? Two of those now belong to me. I wish I could preserve them forever.
I can't wait to go back again. I wish we never had to leave.

San Diego::Day 4








Sea World, part one. Next week we'll be going back to have dinner with Shamu!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Monday, July 21, 2008

San Diego::Day 2

Lunch at Roberto's Very Mexican Food...

and Family Fun Day at the Del Mar racetrack.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

San Diego::Day 1

Not yet...
not yet...
finally. Oh yeah.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Leavin' on a jet plane

This afternoon Autumn and I will be flying out to California to visit my mom and sister for a whole month! A month of sun and sand and decent Mexican food! Goodbye humidity, goodbye supersized insects, goodbye garbage filled harbor! Hello crystal clear Pacific!

The only bad part about this vacation is that my dear sweet Adam won't be joining us. See, he has this silly job thing that's keeping him here. Who needs those, anyhow? Rubbish.

We leave at 2:42, then we have an absurdly long layover in Georgia (luckily I've been told the airport there is huge so we shouldn't be too bored) and then finally, finally we'll be in sunny San Diego! Okay it won't be sunny when we get there, but still. Palm trees! In-N-Out Burger!
Can you tell I'm excited? I miss California so much. When I left there I felt like I left a bit of my heart behind, buried in the sands of La Jolla cove. It's my paradise, my answer to "if you could go anywhere in the world...".
It's not every day that we get the opportunity to spend a month in the most beautiful place in the world, so I fully intend to dig my toes into the sand, soak up every ray of sunlight I can find, and gorge myself on the aforementioned Mexican food without caring about how many calories I'm consuming or what I look like in a bikini. While we're gone I'll continue to blog about our trip with mostly photos and maybe a few words, because one really can't keep this kind of joy to oneself.

Au revoir, Maryland! I'm off to paradise.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

two years

I don't write about Adam on this blog as much as he deserves to be written about. Maybe it's because it's so hard to put into words how incredibly happy he makes me.

When we met I was a single mom, very young, but wanting someone I could settle down with. Barely out of high school, I felt too old for the guys I met. My life was going in a different direction than most of my peers. They wanted to party, I wanted a family. They wanted college dorms, I wanted a house in the suburbs. Then I met Adam.

It scared me, how quickly I fell for him. In a matter of weeks I was in love. It was different from the infatuation I had felt with others before him. Real, complete, beautiful, imperfect love. Being with him was, and still is, like putting on a favorite pair of shoes. Like curling up under a well-loved blanket. It's comfortable and warm and it just feels right.

Adam brings me ice cream and brownies when I've had a bad day, and celebrates with me when I've had a good one.

He believes in me when I don't.

He takes me to the fabric store and when I come out an hour later, greets me with smiles and hugs instead of complaints.

He tells me I'm beautiful when I'm wearing an oversized t shirt, pajama pants and bird's nest hair. And even better, he really means it.

He treats Autumn like she has always been his. She absolutely adores him. He's introduced her to his nerdy hobbies like comic books and LARP and D&D.

He is the Uber Nerd, assembled from the parts of lesser nerds. And yet he is incredibly charming and fun and not at all what you might expect someone like him to be. He can talk to anyone, anywhere. We go to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy towels and the next thing I know he's having a 15 minute conversation with someone he's never met before.

He's forever loyal to his friends and family, even when they don't seem to appreciate it.

At night after Autumn goes to bed we watch crappy reality TV or a bad horror movie and make fun of it together.

His wit is razor sharp. He has a comeback for almost anything you can throw at him, the kind of responses most people only think of ten minutes later. And yet every so often he'll tell the corniest joke or the most groan-worthy pun that only makes him even more adorable.

He supports me in everything I do. When I decided to close my old Etsy shop and start making zombies, he was right there with me. When I told him I want to give our back deck a super tacky makeover, complete with astro turf and plastic flamingos, he told me to go for it.

I could go on and on about how awesomely awesome this man is, about how he knows just how to make me laugh when I'm crying, about all our stupid coupley things we do, like slow-motion fistfights and throwing grade school insults at each other for no particular reason. I could spend at least ten minutes just writing about his magnificent hair and sleepy puppy eyes.

But instead I'll just say happy second anniversary, babe! I love you.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

the swap gods have smiled upon me

By swap gods I mean my awesome partner Emily and by smiled I mean sent me a totally amazing package of handmade zombie goodness.

Prepare yourselves for awesomeness.

First, a gorgeous hand painted tin. Recognize that cute little rotting face? It's Xanbie!
Inside were ten magnets printed with memorable zombie movie quotes. Click to embiggen.
Next, an AMAZINGLY AMAZING tile bracelet with zombie movie posters! Eeek! Yeah, it's awesome. I'm wearing it as I type this and I never want to take it off (seriously Emily, get an Etsy shop! You'd sell zillions of these!). But if you thought that was as impressive as it gets, get a load of this...
Why, it's a shadowbox diorama! And who, pray tell, is that charming zombie girl inside? Pink hair, stripey tights...
OMG IT'S ME!!! This is seriously the rockinest, most badass thing I've ever seen in my dang life. Sadly the glass front made it difficult to photograph, so the pictures really don't do it justice. It's so incredible in real life. I took the back out to show you all the detail in the background...
That sign says Baltimore County! And I thought it was hilarious that she crossed out and rewrote the population a bunch of times. Only five left, huh? Guess I didn't make it. Oh, and just to show you how detail oriented she is, the background is painted on a page from the Zombie Survival Guide! It doesn't show in the pictures but up close you can see some of the words.
I wish you all could see it in person. It really is just a magnificent work of art.She even made tiny barbed wire! Oh, and did I mention this was her first time working with clay? Yeah. No, I'm not kidding. Kindly pick your jaws up off the floor.
Hold on a sec, I just want to marvel at this thing.





Okay, done. For now. When I found out she was my partner I knew I'd be in for some good stuff, because she is incredibly talented. But I had no idea I'd be this fortunate. I sort of feel bad because I think I got the better end of the deal here. The stuff I sent her wasn't nearly as awesome! When I grow up I want to be Emily.

Emily, for outstanding craftiness and general badassery, I award you the Rock Fist of Approval.