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Picture of the Day(s):

You can't see them very well, but this is a swarm of bees outside our complex. I parked as far away as possible to avoid having to be anywhere near what looked like an angry horde, but I couldn't resist going back out with my camera to try to capture the insanity. Pictures do not do angry bee packs justice.

The OSF! He's back! After a week in Sedona, he finally made it back to good ol' San Diego. This was the same day we missed the Coldplay concert. :(

Ready to kick some behind at an 11pm game.

Yeah, Coffeeshop Tuesday. Although it's been awhile since we've actually had it at a coffee shop.

Random Wednesday night drive-in. Originally this was the OSF's and my chance for a hot date to celebrate my new job and getting paid, but Sonia and Mandy ended up tagging along, too. Best drive-in idea? Bring along a couple Little Ceasar's $5 pizzas and a large bag of sour patch kids.

We watched the sixth Harry Potter, which is my favorite of the books, and now my least favorite of the movies. Creative liberties. Whatever. But at least Mandy had fun at her first drive-in experience.

TV Thursdays, and dinners are back! But not cooking school quite yet. But that's okay; Chris has been offering up his culinary knowledge whenever possible.

This is a pretty flower. End of story.

Saturday Coronado geocaching and beach cruiser excursion with old roommate Sonia and our favorite male visitor back at the old apartment, Paul. We looked for seven total and came back with four. Fun day with some good friends and new bikes!

Relaxing Sunday... for me anyway! Chris decided he wanted to spend the afternoon prepping his garage for remodeling, which meant tearing down a small wall and hacking away at plywood, while I sat at the folding table he set up for me in the corner- so I could hang out with him down there while I went through some pictures. That OSF boy. He's so thoughtful.

And we end with everyone's favorite baby, Lucy Goose! I stopped by Jess and Mike's on Monday to drop off the DVD of Gwen's birthday pictures, and we set this kid up near the screen door to see if we could capture anything good. She wasn't too interested in pictures that day, but she managed to come up with some pretty adoring expressions when Mikey appeared in the doorway, home from work. Such a daddy's girl.

Blog Remodel: Please Stand By

So I've decided my blog is a little too dark for my tastes right now. It was fine back in the dead of winter, when I did my last remodel, but it's the middle of the summer now. I need something light and happy. And lime green. Mmmm... lime green....

Cute Kid Alert!

At Gwen's birthday party last month, we went out for a little photo shoot in the yard, and I've finally, finally, finally finished going through them all. The kid's just so beautifully photogenic; I can't help it if I ended up taking 200 pictures in that 45 minutes. :)

Here are just a some of my favorites from the day:

Isn't she the cutest?

Two TGO's and an OSF converse:

Chris: (On the phone with his mother) Okay, mom, love you too. But I'm here at Ryan's now with Jordan and Ryan, so I should probably tend to my friends.

Jordan: You can tend to me by getting me a glass of ice water, chilled for ten minutes.

Chris: (Hangs up.) You wanted water, right? (Gets up to go to the kitchen.) When did I become your slave-

Ryan: May 29.

Call me crazy, but...

I really, really love running errands and paying bills on a warm Monday afternoon. I think it's because I feel so grown-up. Paying off my rent, my Wells Fargo credit cart, my SDG&E bill. Love it.

Also, I'm apparently now on Twitter. http://twitter.com/purplesummer88. 

Oh, boy.

In other news, I got paid today! The OSF and I are going to celebrate with frozen yogurt and getting the bike I've had my eye on for awhile. Just in time, too, for our bike excursion with Sonia and Paul next weekend!

The One with the Camping Trip

Chris' good friend Emily wanted to celebrate her birthday with a good old fashioned campout, and so at noon we headed off for Lake Perris, a campsite an hour and a half off Interstate 15.

Here's a fun fact about Perris, California: It's freaking hot.

This picture is before we even got there:

Yes. That's a reading of 109 degrees.

There were seven of us to start out with, and two others arriving later that night. And since the temperature had topped at 111 degrees, we decided to set up camp as fast as possible, throw on the bathing suits, and head down to the lake.

It was pretty crowded, but we managed to section off our own little square of water, and Emily even found someone with an air pump to blow up the pool floats. If you've never had the experience of laying out on a pool float in a lake, drifting along in a rhythm that makes you want to fall asleep, with the sun warming your back... well, you should try it. It's amazing.

I didn't want to take my camera down to the lakefront, so this is the only picture I've got of the lake, with that cute OSF posing in front of it.
Then it was back to the campground, where the boys started a fire in the pit and Cody fired up the grill for dinner. It was still freaking hot, and no one bothered trying to keep the pit alive. Sad, since Cody and Emily had brought up a ton of firewood.
While Cody grilled up a ton of burgers and hot dogs, we sat around in our wet suits and camping chairs, snacking on Goldfish and french onion Sun chips, and wondering when in the heck the heat was going to stop.
Silly, OSF. Why do you hide from the camera?
Our amazing chef, Cody, taking his duties very seriously.
The OSF and I, in our post-swimming, lake gunk covered, gross and sweaty state.

It still hadn't cooled down by the time the sun went down and the "games" started. I'm just going to say that these games may or may not have involved red cups, a deck of cards, and various bottles. In the middle of the "festivities," Sarah and Kristen finally made it to the campsite, bringing more ice and snacks with them. We stayed up until around midnight, chatting about Disneyland passes and our favorite characters on The Big Bang Theory, before the "game drinks" and two hour swimming excursion finally caught up with us.

I think it was actually cool for a total of one hour during the night. All I know is that I eventually fell asleep feeling hot and woke up around 7:30 feeling hot, with a brief reprieve at 1:30am when I ventured out into the cool for the bathroom.

Cody was up bright and early when I woke up, already working on breakfast for the troops. Bacon and eggs, baby. Because Chris and Sarah demanded it.

The plan was to stay until checkout at noon, but as the temperature rose higher and higher, we decided to "get the he out of he" as Chris put it. So while breakfast was cooking, the rest of us packed up tents and bags so we could make a quick exit.
Chris and Emily work on breakfast's finishing touches.

After breakfast, we loaded up the cars; somehow, even with all we ate, drank, and/or left behind (ahem, firewood), we still had a heck of a time getting everything back in the two cars. It took awhile, but we finally managed to squeeze in the last camping chair, and jumped in the air conditioned cars to "get the he out of (t)he."

We were back before eleven, to find that San Diego was a measly 86 degrees. 86. Phfffshh. You haven't felt heat until you've been to Perris in July.

And the final trip picture: Chris and Sarah jumping on the pile of blankets and sleeping bags as we unpacked the car.

Five on Friday

1) I finally, finally, finally got my 2006 taxes refiled. Turns out the government still owed me $490. Take that, IRS! Note to college kids: If your parents aren't claiming you, make sure you get the form from your college that reports how much you paid in tuition that year, including what your loan company pays for you. You'll get waaaaay more back.

2) My sore throat is finally, finally, finally better. The turn came on Wednesday, when I was able to get through the day without pain killers and manage to eat full meals. Last night I yawned for the first time in over a week. Let me tell you something: not being able to yawn, when you really need to yawn, is not a fun predicament. Try it right now. Try thinking about yawning without actually doing it. Don't you want to yawn really badly now? Now imagine giving in to the need and getting shooting pain through your throat and ear when you try. 

I'm really happy that I can yawn again. In fact, I'm yawning right now.

3) On the way back from picking up my newly refiled taxes earlier, I stopped to treat myself to a 79 cent (86 cents with tax) coke at McDonald's. The line was longer than usual, so decided to see if I could come up with the total using just change I had in my purse. I had to count out 36 pennies, but by the time I'd picked out all the change, I had exactly 86 cents. Not one cent over or under. And yes, I apologized to the cashier when I dumped a pile of coins into his hands. He didn't mind. (He also didn't bother counting; good thing I'm honest.)

4) The OSF and I are going camping tomorrow with some of his friends. Should be fun, and a great time for a photo op. Note to self: Charge camera battery.

5) The OSF tried to help me crash the Coldplay concert last night, but they were sadly sold out of tickets by the time we got there. Big bummer, since he already had a ticket, and our other friends were already inside Cricket waiting for us. After conversing with some shady scalpers and putting on our best 'we need a ticket' face, Chris ended up giving his ticket to a pair of girls who also only needed one, and we went up to the overlooking park to listen to the concert from there. Poor OSF! He flew home from his vacation early just for this concert. :( At least the sound reaching the park was better than the Rascal Flatt's concert from March.