Halloween week...

I have had a fantastic week! (And this is the start of my new at-least-once-a-week postings.)

-saw my dad twice in Portland on layovers
-my bestie, Anneliese, from elementary-high school came here on vaca for 6 days
-good shopping at nordstrom rack (love my new Harajuku pants)
-Halloween party on Tuesday
-Project Runway watch party for Denver native and runner-up MONDO (who is way better than Gretchen, arrrgggghhhh)!
-went to boulder to see some waterfalls but the roads were blocked due to a forest fire which is why the sky was smoky and red

WOW! Busy, busy.

First off, the Halloween Party this year did not get snowed out and we had a huge turn out. We had about 25 people and every single person dressed up. Four of the guys dressed up as ladies. What are the odds?

Secondly, Thursday night was the season finale for project runway and since one of the finalists is from Denver there was a huge party to see if he won. The Beauty Bar was packed to capacity and basically standing room only for 4 hours. Sadly, Mondo didn't win but he was gracious for the opportunity and all his fans that showed up.

I enjoy weeks like this but I my laundry is piling up badly and I need to get cracking on those xmas gifts!

P.S. Visit my new movie review blog... Tothetheater.blogspot.com

family news...

Apparently I don't post anymore. Hmph. I keep starting posts and never finishing them. Maybe I am bored? Too lazy? Too A.D.D.? Probably all of the above.

I really have been up to lots of fun adventures in the last couple of months. But this last week is really worth posting.

My Grandma Kemm, who is almost 85, has had some back problems lately. So bad that she can't do her day-to-day cleaning, cooking, crafting, and everything else she always does. They didn't really know why her back was in such pain, but turns out she had fallen a couple of times and a few discs in her back slipped and a couple were stuck in her spinal cord! After weeks of horrible pain (and no meds!) she finally had surgery this week.

During this time, my 89-year-old grandpa has been doing all her chores including running errands, bills, going to the bank and post office. He has been running himself ragged due to her injury.

So, my mom and I flew to Tulsa to help them out for about 5 days. We left Wednesday and got back this afternoon. We cooked, cleaned, laundred, trimmed bushes... My grandma can barely stand or walk which makes dressing, using the restroom, and bathing very difficult, so we obviously helped out with her and made her as comfortable as possible. Her serious pain meds and muscle relaxers helped a ton.

I fell so good about helping them out knowing they have taken care of so many people in their lives including me. I love spending time with them and they truly appreciated it. I did get to see almost all my family there as well as my sis who came for the whole weekend. Although it was a rewarding trip, I am exhausted and really glad to be home.

birthday, easter, and los angeles...

We have had quite a busy week!

*Friday, April 2nd... Tony's Birthday!
He is now 29. Yikes! We are getting old. We had a really exciting day and he claims this to be his best birfday evah! He received an iPhone (from me!), new bowling ball, a Wii, GQ magazine subscription, and the series "the States" from the History Channel on DVD. I think he did pretty well! Of course Tony, Matt and I went bowling with his new ball and ate some great bar food while we were playing. For dinner, we decided to try something new with tapas. If you aren't familiar, tapas are spanish style appetizers and are FANTASTIC. We tried The 9th Door in LoDo and just happened to be there during happy hour! Basically $70 got all three of us drunk, stuffed and happy! If we went for normal dinner it would have been outrageous. All in all a fantastic day!!

*Saturday, April 3rd... Flying to Los Angeles
We decided to take a vacation just to get away and it was great timing with Tony's b-day. We have so much family in L.A. and thought it was a perfect opportunity to crash couches. I have an aunt, an uncle, six cousins, and many friends to see. We arrived at 8:30am and were ready to go...

-picked up by cousin Bo from LAX
-while leaving Bo and Hannah's house in Silverlake, saw January Jones at a restaurant
-to Chinatown, bought me a fantastic (cheap) oriental robe
-Olvera Street where it was "Bless Your Pet Day" and, yes, we saw dogs, birds, cats on leashes, iguanas, turtles in carts, and even a huge snake on a little girls shoulders
-attempted to layout by the pool at KK and Trudie's house (aunt and uncle), but it was too cold :(
-the Griffith Observatory for sunset with the most spectacular view of all of Los Angeles
-a late dinner at Malo with Bo, Hannah, and our good friends Elena and Shannan

*Sunday, April 4th... Easter
We have so many cousins here that it takes some serious planning to see everyone. We stayed with Bo and Hannah in their crazy house on Avocado St. But we needed to see the others. We decided on brunch for Easter.

-Gladstone's on Santa Monica Beach (very pricey seafood place) for brunch with the Kemm family cousins, Josh, Chiara, and Jessica. And we saw a dolphin!
-driving back from the beach along Sunset Boulevard, through Beverly Hills, detoured to Rodeo Drive, then the Sunset Strip
-an Easter cookout was in order with tons of roommates (from the Avocado house), more family (KK, Drake, Bo, Beata, Josh), Dodger Dogs, and kebabs
-not only did we have a great cookout there was also an Easter Earthquake! Tony's first!
-we met a friend of Bo's named Bill. Now Bill was super familiar to me. Turns out he was on How I Met Your Mother which of course we love and watch religiously and we knew his part very well (and of course we could quote his line back to him)
-apples to apples, a game of celebrity and talking late into the night rounded out the day

*Monday, April 5th... Lazy day
We didn't do much of anything and had no plans.

-got coffee at the Coffee Bean and had to run back to the house in the pouring rain
-had breakfast with Bo and Hannah at Fred 62 and happened to see the kid who played Elliott from ET. He is all grown up with a little girl and a wife. I think he knew we were talking about him. But apparently its his fault for being a child actor.
-the rent was due at the Avacado house and due to roommate drama we were hiding upstairs when I came up with our new names of Anne and Frank!
-to get away from the drama, we got a beer at the Cha Cha Lounge. A rediculously furnished, dank bar with the greatest vending machine items (jiffy cornbread mix, 21 Jump Street trading cards, naked lady greeting card...)
-to Elena and Shannan's for pizza and beer. My Tony got to meet their cat Tony!

*Tuesday, April 6th... To the beach!
-we took off at about noon and headed to Santa Monica Beach for a day in the sun!
-lunch at Hot Dog on a Stick, only my all time favorite corndog eatery!
-a stroll through the arcades and boardwalk
-off to Venice Beach to see the crazies and the drunkies
-dinner at Red Lion, a great German restaurant, with Hannah, Bo, Elena, and Shannan

*Wednesday, April 7th... home again
We had such a wonderful and relaxing trip and we got lots of great family time in. We did come home during the drama with the "Shoe bomber/smoker" on the tarmac at DIA. But luckily we landed fine and all was well!!!

busy little bees...

I have been pretty busy lately. Obviously. Since I haven't written in quite a while.

I will give you a good overview of the last three weeks. Ready? It's long...

oct 25-30
One of my oldest and best friends came to visit for the whole week! Anneliese and I met in 2nd grade at a friend's birthday party and in 4th grade she transferred to my elementary school. We have had a trillion sleepovers together with barbies, crafts, Fish Food ice cream, and movies. We have partied, traveled, cried and laughed together. We went totally separate ways after high school, but have kept in touch all these years. Even if its a year between our chats we can catch up just like it was yesterday.

She arrived on Sunday and left on Friday night. We had a very eventful week, minus the huge blizzardy storm that made us house bound for a full day.

We shopped at Cherry Creek Mall, Nordstrom's Rack, Target, Park Meadows Mall, Joanne Fabrics, and Halloween stores. We went to Lookout Mountain and Golden, CO. We cooked a few meals, did some crafts, cleaned house, decorated for the party.

The big Halloween party we had been planning for months on Wednesday the 28th, was of course ruined by the crippling 2.5 foot snow storm that started the night before and ended Thursday night. Luckily we had cooked and cleaned all day. We had 5 people at the house already; Tony, Matt, Carly, Anneliese, and me. Our neighbors stopped by with carmel popcorn and the one other guest is our friend Adam. A total of six people partied in the snow and in the garage with the keg for hours and hours!

We had sooooo much food for the 6 of us. We made...
72 mini cupcakes
chex mix
peanut butter cup cookies
sausage rolls
Rotel and Velvetta cheese dip
9 layer dip
cranberry bread
little smokies with bbq sauce
and we got a keg!

Ultimately we had a blast and I fully understood why people didn't make it out for the party. When it snows 2+ feet there aren't too many people that wanna drive to go drinking at a party! Shocking!

oct 31
Work. Blah. Cruddy Halloween.

nov 1-5
Work done by Wednesday morn. Because of the storm last week we threw together an impromptu Post Halloween party to attempt to finish the keg.

I cleaned the house all day to perfection because I knew people were actually coming this time. I asked people to dress-up in hopes of recreating Halloween.

The first couple of guests showed at 6. Then 6:30 Carly showed up. Soon after that, more and more people were appearing at the party. There were some really great costumes; M&M, Russian mail-order bride, Mario (from Mario Bros.), sexy cop, zebra, catholic priest, and more. I think there were about 20 folks in our little house/awesome garage.

We not only had pitchers and pitchers of keg beer, but some girls brought wine, champagne, and vodka. All in all there was a lot of drinking going on. The party went on until midnight. Seriously a fun time and I drank A LOT!

Thursday I probably did something important, but now I don't remember. Oh packing for our weekend vacation!

Later that night, I had a friend's birthday party to attend downtown. I got all dressed up and told myself I wouldn't spend any money or drink. I spent 25 cents on parking and of course there were free drinks.

Someone made me a drink and we danced to the music. We requested some Cyndi Lauper and the DJ said "who?" I then asked for 80's music and he said "what does it start with?" OK. Great!

nov 6-10
Friday morning, Tony and I got up super early to head to the airport. We were headed to Portland for the weekend to visit my dad. Elizabeth flew into Denver earlier that morning to meet our flight out.

Amazing rainy events in Portland...
friday
*Ikea. good shopping, good food and now Tony is in love with the store too!
*Bonneville fish hatchery to watch the spawning salmon in action jumping up the fish ladders
*Multnomah Falls. basically a double waterfall nestled into a lush green forest.
*Kell's Irish Restaurant and Pub. Tony and I love the Seattle location and we had been telling dad about it for years. It didn't disappoint. Corned beef and cabbage with good Irish beer and soda bread ::drool::
*VooDoo Doughnuts. If you go to Portland you have to have VooDoo. The old dirty bastard is AMAZING!!
*POWELL'S BOOKS. That's all I have to say. The best bookstore I have ever been to. When you need an obscure book like Red Dragon first edition or Angels and Demons Illustrated Edition... it's there.

saturday
*pouring rain, actual flooding
*Saturday market. It is a weekly outdoor craft show which might be great except for the cold wet rain.
*back to Kell's for a warm-up drink.
*a beautiful vintage store with Chanel suits and a Karl Lagerfield jacket and much much more. I almost died until I looked at the prices and we left :(
*powell's books again. I just can't get enough.
*Bridgeport Brew pub. Seriously what other kinds of sight seeing are you supposed to do in the pouring rain?
*more vintage stores but in our price range. new patent leather lace up shoes!
*chili for dinner at Dad's house. Nice dry warm evening with family.

sunday
*Elizabeth was supposed to leave, but got really sick in the night so we got one more day with her!
*basically football all day. hmph.
*downtown Vancouver, WA. Thrift stores, antiquing, and more vintage stores.
*Blind Onion Pizza. delicious.

monday
*Tony and Elizabeth left today to go back to work.
*Pittock Mansion. A beautiful house built in the early 1900's. So much history and a fantastic view of the rivers, the mountains, and downtown.
*Powell's one last time :(
*McMenamins on the river for dinner.

tuesday
*home.

Wow. The last couple weeks have been crazy, and now there is just work. Darn. I dont think the next couple weeks will be exciting at all, even though Thanksgiving is right around the corner!!

Here's to the next posts and lets hope they are shorter!

road trip, wedding, birthday, national parks and family time...

All in one week!!

Starting Wednesday, September 23rd at 5:00am we are heading to the great north. To Eau Claire, Wisconsin for the Strozinsky-LaFollette Wedding. Our great friends, Phillip and Alicia are getting married and my husband is a groomsman. Matt and Carly are flying out to WI while we are driving and they are road trippin back with us.

This morning we were planning on running errands when the car wouldn't start. Yes. The very car we are taking TOMORROW for a 15 hour road trip! JEEZ! But, thank goodness for AAA and their roadside assistance for jumping our car and getting us back up and running (literally) for the big day!!!!

Today, I stocked up on great road trip snacks: trail mix, beef jerky, fruit, water, and other sundries. We already got The Lost Symbol (the new Dan Brown book), Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, Utopia, and The Great Gatsby all as books-on-CD. We are gonna be getting our read on, or listen to, while we drive.


9.23.9
We are starting in Denver (obviously)
EAST through ALL of Nebraska
NORTH through Iowa
to Bay City, WI (really Red Wing, WI) to visit Matt's (Carly's husband) parents.

9.24.9 - 9.27.9
NORTHEAST to Eau Claire, WI for the wedding and all that entails. Dinners, wedding celebrations, breakfasts and Phil's b-day!

9.27.9 - 9.28.9
WEST to Minneapolis, MN for some IKEA time!!!
Then WEST to Brookings, SD to see my mom for the night. Pork tenderloins, Geoffrey, and homemade sugar donuts!!!

9.28.9
WEST to Rapid City, SD to visit the Black Hills, the Badlands, and Mt. Rushmore. I have been to all 3 places but Tony, Carly and Matt have not!

9.29.9
WEST to Wyoming
SOUTH to DENVER!!!

WOW! Its gonna be a really long week with too much car time, but it will be so great! I must say that I truly love road trips. ANYTHING to get me off a plane every once in a while!!

More than anything I am soooo excited to spend the entire week with my husband. Sadly it has been a while since we have had a week together and it will be fabulous.

Here's to wedded bliss, great friends, family, and a safe car ride. CHEERS!!!

Breckenridge or Bust...

This weekend is the big Barrett family reunion! FRI, SAT, SUN, MON, and TUE!!! Thank god for a weekend off!!!


All the aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and parents are coming in from Oklahoma, Colorado, Oregon, and California. There will be 17 in all in one very large house. Luckily there are 6 bathrooms!

We just happened to plan this on the 150th anniversary of Breckenridge as a town! There will be street fairs, fireworks, bands, time capsules, and much much more. I cannot wait!

My sister, Liz, came in town last night so I thought I would throw a dinner party! We had some other friends in town, Nic, Kirsten and baby Daphne, so they were also invited. And like always Matt and Carly were here too!

We had grilled shrimp, grilled corn on the cob, lemon-butter pasta, and angel food cake with strawberries for dessert. We ate every bit of the food with no leftovers. The marinade for the shrimp was fantastic! Way to go Food Network!

Today, my dad comes in at 2:30 and then we are off to the mountians. He is bringing me his old Pentax K1000, (a film camera if you remember those) to replace the one that was stolen, and some lenses! Tony got his new camera yesterday, a Minolta Maxxum 9. We are so anti-digital. I feel like this weekend we will take SEVERAL rolls of film (too bad our hobby is so darn expensive). But we may get some beautiful shots in the mountians, on a hike or just in town.

I will report of the weekend activities once its all done...

My Best Friend's Wedding...

Oh goodness! I had such a blast this weekend for Carly and Matt's wedding.

Thursday...

Carly's family and Matt's sister came over to our house for chicken kabobs and grilled corn on the cob, bbq chips and cupcakes from Happy Cakes. I also made homemade lemonade, pink and regular!

the happy couple!!

my lemonade ad

Grill master tony

We had a wonderful time at dinner in the backyard, chatting and relaxing until about 8:30 when we got dressed up to go downtown for a mixed bachelor/bachelorette party at the Cruise Room in the Oxford Hotel.

Alicia and I

Alicia and Carly

Philly and Carl

Tony, Philly, and Lisha

We filled up 2 large booths with about 12 people and had ourselves a sloshing good time. $300 later we left at midnight where only 7 of us continued on to Double Daughters. We ordered drinks then pizza from Mario's 2 Fisted and stayed until about 1:30am. Finally, home again with Phil and Alicia spending the night.

Matt, Mark, Kim and Tony


Mark and Jenny


Philly and Jenny dancing like fools


Friday...

The next morning I got all our luggage, fancy clothes and the quilt ready to go while Alicia, Phil, and Tony went to the mall. I picked up Carly and Alicia to begin the drive to Estes Park. Tony and Phil drove the rented yellow Eclipse. At about 1:45 we arrived to get our nails done. Finally after 2 hours we ran to the Stanley and changed for the Rehearsal dinner at the Dunraven.
Tony and I were lucky enough to join all of Carly and Matt's family for dinner.

I had the veal parmesan with a baked potato and seafood bisque. Tony ordered the filet mignon with the same sides. It was a wonderful dinner with lots of laughs in a quirky little resteraunt.

Once we made it back to the Stanley, 10 of us met in the bar for champagne. We were all so beat we made it to bed by 10pm.

Saturday...

The wedding day. Tony, Alicia and I went to safeway to grab bagels for people while the actual rehearsal was going on.

After breakfast and the rehearsing finished up, we were able to set up the reception room with table decorations, gift bags, candles, and bows on the chairs.

At 2:00, I helped Carly get ready for photos. Of course, hair, make-up, and the dress took forever. By 3:30 when the photographer arrived she was just barely in her dress.

The Strozinsky/Wentzler clans were off to take family photos and couple shots.

Tony and I were able to get ready slowly as the ceremony wasn't until 5:30.

By 5:00 everyone was ready for the ceremony, except one person...the officiant. She had been very hard to get ahold of for a couple weeks so it wasn't too shocking. But of course she arrived at 5:25, just for good Hollywood effect.

Matt's brother played the trumpet while guests were seated and Phil played Book of Love on the guitar when Carly and Greg walked down the aisle. It was a beautiful ceremony and everyone laughed and cried.

(all the wedding and ceremony photos that i took were taken with normal old film, so there are no photos yet!)


Afterwards, we all had a big group shot and the reception commenced. Cheese, fruit and crackers for appetizers, open bar, wonderful dinner buffet, toasts, cake, dancing, dancing and dancing. We ended up staying in the reception area for an hour and a half longer than we were supposed to b/c the wait staff danced with us! One guy named TR (apparently like teddy roosevelt) gave us the rest of the champagne, even if they weren't opened.

Tony, Elena, and Randy (the siblings)

Finally we moved the party to the porch where TR also found cigars for all the fellas! We sat, drank, smoked and talked for a couple hours. I also gave Carly and Matt our gift to them... the quilt!!

After a really long day, everyone went to bed!

Sunday...

It was really tough getting up the next morning. We ran to safeway again and grabbed 3 dozen donuts and juice for whomever wanted to join us back on the porch for breakfast. Everyone looked very similar with shades and hangovers.

Carol, Carl, Susan, and Kim


packed up. checked out. said goodbyes.


Tony, Elena, Randy and I decided to hang around The Stanley to take a tour. We had to see room 217, the mosted haunted of them all. And of course when we got to the room something on the other side of the door knocked so hard the door visibly bowed out! YIKES!! And the elevator button shocked 3 of us terribly. So, it was obviously time to go. We found a diner to get some good greasy eggs and bacon before we started the journey home!

Room 217

elena and randy in a teeny forrest!

The stanley was so beautiful, old and interesting and was such a great place for the wedding and just to stay in general.

Oh and they play the Shining 24 hours a day on a loop. Could it get any better? We bought the book in the gift shop.

updates. always updates.

So, apparently I have become quite lackadaisical in the posting department. I have been busy lately and that's probably the main reason. But, where to start...

(since I have been so busy, I cannot even remember the order of these events)

*a visit to Portland to visit my dad since he just moved there. Including a dam, fish hatchery, beautiful waterfall, and lots of rain. Oh, and the best... IKEA!!!
*tony's bday celebration. One whole day at breweries, fancy dinner, cigars. Basically 2 full days of drinking!
*i bought "Yes Man" (which I just love, by the way) so matt and carly came over to watch. Dinner included pasta, chicken, salad, delicious angel food cake with strawberries. It all ended with a home made bonfire in our little pit in the backyard.
*a visit to okc and tulsa for a few days. Lots of family and quilting (thanks kathy and grandma)
*hot dog on a stick in Sacramento!!
*yard work, shoveling, clearing weeds and more yard work. I also bought tons of wildflower seeds and herb seeds. Time for gardening!!
*day trip to ABQ to search for a house with mom (for her, not me)
*a couple of blizzards
*wonderful chicken enchilada with the in-laws and the movie "Next"
*while visiting my sis in Norman, Ok - drag queen show at a dive bar, medieval fair, and the OKC bombing memorial.
*installing new lights under the kitchen cabinets and a lovely wine rack above the kitchen sink
*delicious mac-n-cheese at matty and carl's house
*snow + airlines = delays! 1 lightning strike, 4 gate changes, 1 bird strike, 1 broken jetway, 2 broken engines,3 de-icings, 1 sick flight attendant, 3 screaming babies, 4.5 hours on taxiways, and i cant even remember if I forgot something!! (and, yes, it all happened in about 10 hours)
*hot dogs, chips, "Gray Gardens", and a tri-bday party in stupid DTC with masses o flight attendants
*bought new beautiful weber charcoal grill with propane start and had our first cookout with Tony's family and Matt and Carl!
*we now have 2 new screen doors to make the house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter!
*one more stupid snow and a cold to go with it
*"Adventureland" @ Brewvies in SLC!


Man, I have been busy! And super lazy posting!

Jackson, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone road trip...

FINALLY, weeks and weeks late, here's our road trip. I hope you enjoy Carly's photos, as mine are all on film.