LA Risen.

LA Rising: Amazing. Bananas. Epic. Unreal. Dreamy.

Rise Against-and nowhere near the capacity this would be in a few hours.

Muse. Oh Muse and your melodies, performances, talent. Awing. Plus your fans are just so cool too. I'd feel safe in that pit. Love me some Rage, but no way Jose.

Mr Zach de la Rocha and that little band of his, Rage Against the Machine. (Shout out to my 8th grade desk buddy Brendan Haro, who introduced me to all of the rock band leaders thanks to his binder's gallery. Every day was a test of who's who. I didn't contribute much on my end with probably a photo of Devon Sawa.)

I took several videos but I could have had 4 kids, put them through college and marriage, become a grandparent before they would have uploaded.

Trust me, the performances were great. I could have done without the social agenda commentary but I've also been to my fair share of Blink 182 concerts and those guys yak it up more than sing. Comes with the territory I suppose.

Laying off the hard stuff

He's laying off the hard stuff.

Finding Bigfoot

I have some unnatural fears that include supernatural creatures-aliens being one, and bigfoot during my childhood. Trueblood has made vampires acceptable. The bigfoot fear has not necessarily been brought back to life but my curiosity of the science behind his existence. And hallelujia there is now a show DEDICATED to finding this hairy man/ape (bear/pig?) in the Animal Planet series: Finding Bigfoot.

A group of "enthusiastics" named the BFRO-Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization have made it their mission and apparently day job to see this species:

Ranae, Bobo, Matt Moneymaker, and Cliff

Essentially the team takes reports from around the US and Canada, holds town hall meetings in these remote wilderness towns looking for "squatch sitings." People come forward, and then they reinact the sitings with the citizens. The reenactments are hilarious. I'd love to be the actor whose agent calls saying "I've got a gig-it requires a large suit and deliberate yet animal-style movements and possible screeching." What a resume highlight.

Of course the reenactments never produce a sasquatch, but the team goes back at night with their night vision goggles, infrared cameras, and motion sensors. Some are even skilled enough to "call" like a bigfoot. I'm not certain as to how they know what they sound like. Occasionally they find more "evidence" (sorry about the amount of Joey Tribbiani quotes here) in large footprints and deer carcasses that according to lead BFRO member, Matt Moneymaker (really??) "are the exact signs of a squatch kill." So we know that bigfoot is a carnivore.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and retreat to my preparation for the Oak Canyon Field trip back in 1992, when we learned about scat and the evidence it provides of the particular animals in the area. Where the heck is the scat BFRO? And where the heck are carcasses of deceased sasquatches? And why have we been to the moon but cannot yet confirm the presence of a bigfoot? My opinion-there's a counterculture opposite of BFRO out there egging them on. Or, in the event they do exist, perhaps they are waiting for a proper JCPenny portrait session.

The show is entertaining and the slightest twig crack insists upon a commercial break. I know Scott loves when I get lucky and its a marathon weekend.

*Apparently the words bigfoot and sasquatch are proper nouns as I've got red squiggle lines everywhere. I will not do them justice but capitalizing.

It was Bananas

This weekend was bananas.

It started off Friday with a 10 hour work day sans break or lunch, then rushing home to load the truck with tables and chairs for the dance team reunion to get down to Tustin for set up.

Saturday brought the usual weekend chores and gym, and then the reunion. We worked really hard to bring dance teams from 1997-2004 together and were pretty happy with the 30 attendees. The party foul was that I did not charge my camera so the few shots I have do not include everyone that was there. BUT, I still think everyone had a good time.

The Committee:

Karen (1999), Kerri (2001), me (2002), and Shannon (2003)

We served white sangria (shout out to my mother in law who was the wine sponsor-thanks Sandy!), beer, iced tea, and water.

A taco cart with a very nice gentleman supplied the food. And we used dahlias for decor.

Tracy and I-went all the way from freshman to senior year together on the team.

Kane, Alex, Amanda (1998) and Carrie (2000)

Jason, Shannon (2003) Rebecca (2002), and Adam.

Tracy (2002), Jeremy, Jon, and Jessica (2002)

Our instructor was supposed to come as well but ended up having to stay home with a sick child. I wish we had taken a group picture so that I had one of everyone, but c'est la vie. We stayed and chatted and ate peanut butter pie until about 11 p.m. before cleaning up and heading home.

The next morning, we boarded the 9 a.m. train to San Diego for a little soccer and Brewfest. Little known fact (and rather ironic) I was at the 1999 World Cup with some of the ladies pictured above where we "danced" with Jennifer Lopez. I say "danced" because it was billed that way on paper when we really shook giant sheets and ran around the field. But, the game was exciting to watch live as was yesterday's. Following the dive bar soccer, we headed to Brewfest, an event for beer enthusiasts, aficionados, and just your general drinkers. We went with Scott's coworker Blake and five of his dodgeball/ultimate Frisbee/other recreational sport buddies...meaning I held down all of the estrogen.

Live music!

Live dancing!

Cheers to new beer, Pyramid Apricot Ale.

Good times with new friends and sourdough bread.

Now, I think I hit my threshold for rowdy boys at about 7 p.m. and we had an 8:20 train home. Little did I know that was about to really get full throttle.

Keeping with the theme of the weekend my phone was dead so there is no evidence from me, and it could be a "you had to be there" situation, but understand a disco ball should have been on our Amtrak car. A few seats up, a group of young guys were bumping a laptop with electronic, dance, hip hop-you name it. It raged and as soon as a conductor approached, off it went. This continued for 2 hours, and this was a full train, so the middle aged couples in front of us were unable to sit in their business class seats (but still enjoyed complimentary wine and beverages so really, this was nice for them.) In the beginning, I think they felt like they were on the Riff Raff Railroad. By the end, they were enjoying Club Amtrak. When we rolled into our station at 10:30, we (and I am not including me in this-it was all the boys) were given a standing ovation off the car. It was bananas.

Christmas in July

My in-laws were able to capitalize on their Christmas present-an afternoon of sailing (and a lesson if we wished) on the high seas in Redondo Beach. It was not our first time on a boat, but for a few, the first time sailing.


Our ride: a 28 footer:

Our instructor was Ann from Jersey. She helped the only one of us who chose to participate while the rest of us enjoyed the ride:
Frank commanded the ship like a seasoned professional.

We saw plenty of sea lions, some leaping fish, and kelp beds.


We feasted on roast beef and salami peperonata sandwiches, cannoli, wine, and Perrier. Sidenote: I went to my favorite Italian market for the meat, cheese, cannoli, and bread. That place is like a museum. I salivate looking at the deli cases, wines, and marinating goodies. So so good. If you are near Anaheim, check it out-Cortina's Italian Market. It's practically a landmark to the city and first employer to my fellow high school comrades.

My favorite boat. Classy, a touch of pirate, and clean lines.

Back on flat water and only pale green. Scott was a trooper sans sweater.

The crew. Ahoy!

It's hot.

It's hot here. The truck read 96 degrees today. And it was humid. Wah wah wah, I know I am blessed but let's just say the A/C talks are getting really serious. The hot (and humid) weather makes me cranky. In a game of would you rather I always choose freezing temps vs. hot. I'd rather be in pain with frostbite than sitting slovenly in my own sweat.

Due to the high heat I bailed on my weekly walk/hike with my sister-in-law tonight. I didn't say "how are you feeling about Mason hiking in this weather?" it was simply a no for me. So we went swimming instead. Far more fun.

Such a charmer.

He loves the water. Nothing but squeals when he wasn't busy watching the other kids in the pool.

Loves the glasses.