Extreme Easter

I love my family. While we hold an uncanny resemblance to "The Griswolds" from the National Lampoon's Vacation series, there is never a Clark family gathering that ends without some sort of excitement. We may not have the best manners, funniest jokes, or your typical traditions, but we do have fun, and lots of it. Yesterday's Easter celebration was no exception.

Our lunch/dinner menu was one of the strangest I've ever seen. Chicken Fettuccine, Ham, Chicken Wings, jello salad, asparagus, BBQ Beans, cheese and broccoli rice, deviled eggs, jalapeño poppers (or something of the sort), finished with peach cobbler, rice krispy treats, and ice cream. It was like fancy Italian meal meets Summer BBQ meets Kids birthday meets Christmas. Strange spread..but mmm good.

My dad, of course, will never grow up and had to organize an Easter Egg Hunt that everyone could participate in. He had rules, maps, and weather gear lined up for everyone. The rules could not be broken, or else you were disqualified from the competition. No joke. The first round of the hunt featured "all those eligible for Medicare." I don't think they found the "humor" in that statement as we did. But, they managed to round up all 25 eggs holding spectacular prizes: candy and money.

Round two was organized for the "youngsters" ranging from my uncle who is 50 to me and Grant...so a good 27 year difference between the competitors. We also had 25 eggs to find, but our territory was much larger than the Medicare hunters. I swear on my life that my dad took it upon himself to use the Chuckit! toy and launch two dozen plastic Easter eggs into the forest. He even admitted to almost tossing one into the pond to see how we would get it. The competitive edge came out in all of us as we fearlessly scoured the mountain, checking under pine needles, looking under falling trees, and wandering into questionable terrain. Knowing my dad as well as we do, there were no limitations to where the eggs could have been hidden. About an hour later, I had a grand total of four eggs. Jersey helped me find one and Grant and I almost went swimming in the pond as we both eyed an egg at the edge of the water. Because of the torrential downpour that was not letting up,we gathered inside to track our progress. Our tally counted 22 eggs that had been collected, leaving three still missing somewhere in the wild. And since my dad couldn't even point us in the direction of those last three, we called it quits. I went home with $3, two tootsie rolls and a miniature Mr. Goodbar. Grant was totally shocked by this strange family event, but he went home with $4, enough for a couple Slurpees, so he was happy.

Thanks, family...for another tale worth telling.

Items my dog has consumed

1. Friends Season 6 case
2. Bowl of Seashells
3. Reef Sandal
4. Snow Patrol "Eyes Open" CD
5. MP3 player (thank God, not my iPod)
6. Acrylic Paint
7. Cell Phone ear buds
8. DVD Remote Control
9. Bird
10. Half of a couch cushion
11. Fudge from Cabela's
12. Package of Pita Bread
13. At least 3 pens
14. Her Dog Bed
15. Marketing Research Textbook
16. Plastic silverware
17. Bag of bagels
18. Christmas Ornaments

I love my dog dearly, but she very nearly makes me want to pull my hair out. Then she gives me that innocent look and I crumble. I'm totally doomed when I have kids.

Watch. Laugh. Repeat.

My wonderfully weird boyfriend and I were watching this video the other night and couldn't help but laugh our pretty little butts off. I only wish that I weren't 3 years old when it came out so that it wouldn't have taken me 20 years before I got to enjoy it. It's just....well...see for yourself.



Now if that didn't make you laugh, there is something terribly, terribly wrong with you.

Nil Gaeilge maith agam

What a splendid weekend! The weather wasn't too shabby for a mid-March weekend, especially for North Idaho. I did some much-needed sleeping in on Saturday, followed by our 3rd annual St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but all the people wearing green just puts a giant smile on my face. A little miniature leprechaun even stopped by and gave me some fool's gold which I thought was a chocolate coin. Boy, was I wrong. I've never seen so many dogs in a parade in my life! Good thing I left my dog in the car, or else I'm pretty sure we would have ruined the parade all together. She doesn't do so well when she cannot wrestle strange dogs to the ground.

After the parade I got some things done around the house...fixed our vacuum cleaner (again), did the dishes and cleaned out my fish tank. That night, Grant and I were going to defend our glory at Thunder Extreme bowling, but all the emo kids got there too early and we were going to have to wait for an hour to get a lane. So we strolled downtown and took some cool night shots of downtown. Grant is an amazing photographer. I'll have to steal some of his pictures and share them...it was funny watching all the drunkies downtown acting like fools and realizing how good it feels to NOT be among them.

Sunday was another relaxing day with a nice hike of Tubbs Hill in the afternoon. Although we didn't anticipate the amount of snow and mud left, it was a great time and we got some more great pictures of Spring peeking out around town. Top the day off with a yummy pot roast and Ghostbusters II, and..well, that's just one good weekend if you ask me.

Bowling and Bullies

I'm always sad when the weekend is over...mostly because it means I have to spend the next 5 days waking up to my obnoxious alarm, dressing up, going to work, making dinner, cleaning, and going to bed early enough to have enough energy to start all over again the next day. When the weekend comes, it's so much more randomness and I never know exactly what's going to happen. Plus, I get to spend much more time with Grant, which is always a good thing.

Friday was Kelsey's birthday. Kelsey is my extra-special superhero friend who pretty much rocks around the clock. In honor of her day of birth, we went to Sunset Bowling and treated her to some amazing THUNDER bowling, which is just like normal bowling with neon lights, horrible music and emo teenagers. While we were waiting for our lane to open, Grant challenged me to embarrass myself with DDR. I, being the competitive freak that I am, accepted and we dueled for a good 5 minutes, him kicking my butt without question. Then this drunk guy came over and tried to mess up our game. Not cool. We tried the old-fashioned "reasoning with the drunk by treating him like a 5 year old" with no prevail. Finally, we stepped up the anger and tried physical force, which only led drunk-o to think that we wanted to step outside. If it was something much less embarrassing than DDR, maybe. But the adult hiding in me told me that fighting over DDR is pretty much the lamest thing ever and we walked away, leaving drunkie totally confused and wanting so much to be sober to figure out what just happened. But I was pissed because we had at least 3 more rounds left on the game and totally wasted our 50 cents. Lame. Must go back to finish this challenge.

Bowling was much happier, although there was this kid on the lane next to us that had a shirt that said, "cockbite." on it. At some point through the night, he went on to explain the difference between shaving your privates and using a vibrator. But whatever, if anything, it made for a hilarious conversation, especially when combined with a few pitchers of beer. My bowling skills were absolutely horrid, with my high score reaching about 60 if I remember correctly. Maybe I should stick to DDR.

The rest of the weekend was a combination of relaxing, watching TV, hanging out with Joe and Kelsey, shopping, and playing Harry Potter Scene It, which Kelsey kicked the pants off of all of us at. I told you she rocks around the clock.

But, alas. It's Monday. Back to routine. Perhaps I will return next weekend to defend my glory at Sunset. We shall see.

Fate?

I just got two Dove Promise messages in a row:

"Keep the promises you make to yourself."

Well I promised I would stop eating Dove chocolates. What the hell kind of marketing is that?

Too Much Information

In light of having to supervise my office while it's being used for a meeting, I thought I'd search the internet for some entertaining reading material. Bad Idea. I just read a story about a kid on a blind date which ended with his pants getting ripped off and him shooting diarrhea in the face of a guy who just punched him. While I have to say that explosive diarrhea may be the best possible retaliation to a good smack in the face, the story made my Wendy's Combo #1 churn a few times in my stomach.


On to some good news...ABC has episodes of My So-Called Life online! I hope that someone out there shares my love for the show...although for me, it has some "sentimental" value. You see, as a child, my mom was so darn overprotective that I wasn't allowed to watch anything that hinted at the idea of a kiss or *gasp* sex. Therefore, I was stuck watching re-runs of Full House which I thought was cool until my friends started discussing more mature matters than DJ wearing makeup to school. My first experience with My So-Called Life happened at my best friend's house and I'm pretty sure it was the moment I realized I knew NOTHING about life. But I was addicted. I needed to learn more. And while I can't say that I actually learned anything from the show since I didn't understand most of it, I enjoyed it and was horrified when they stopped filming. But worry no longer, my friends. I can now buy it on DVD and figure out what the heck was happening there.

Damn you, Wendy's, for giving me regular Pepsi when I ordered Diet. That's just a cruel thing to do.

Overshadowed

My Valentine's Day present this year rocked....literally. On Sunday, we headed over to Spokane for Joshua Radin, featuring Ingrid Michaelson. For those who haven't experienced Ingrid's music...do so, immediately. She is purely awesome. She also had an amazing singer open for her, Alexa Wilkenson. Check her out also.

The concert was great, despite the strange breed of people that always turn out for concerts at the Big Easy in Spokane. Ingrid Michaelson is probably one of the best entertainers I've ever seen...funny, talented and a great storyteller. I mean, she ended her show with a cover of the theme to Fresh Prince....you can't really top that.


It was kind of sad to see the place nearly clear out before Joshua Radin even took the stage. We stayed and I will admit that Joshua is extremely talented...but the chicks got him this time. He's not the best entertainer...very slow transitions between songs and virtually every intro started with, "so I had a pretty rough breakup about 6 months ago..." I feel bad for the guy, but tell a happy story, please! His music is great, but a bit redundant, and he ended the show so abruptly that it was awkward. He's got potential, but he definitely was overshadowed by the female vibe that night.

All in all, it was a great night...good food, good music, and an even better date. Any date that ends in a slurpee has to be good.

p.s. Sorry for the photo quality...these are the best I could do...

Simple Pleasures

The sun was shining yesterday so we decided to take Jersey out for some much needed exercise. We brought along her favorite sibling, Zuess, who definitely was excited to get away from the devil cat that has invaded his home. So we took Jersey to PetCo where we purchased her first Chuckit! toy. We graded her a C- for her behavior at PetCo. She just can't stay calm when there is a perfectly good puppy to wrestle! But, alas, with Chuckit! in hand, we picked up Zuess and headed to Cherry Hill where we fully intended on exhausting the dogs.

I must say, if I were a dog, that Chuckit! toy would be my most favorite thing ever. Even as a human, it ranks towards the top of my favorite things list. Since our dogs don't exactly have the best sight or smell, the Chuckit! certainly sent them in fits of bewilderment as it "chucked" the ball way farther than they expected. More than once, we actually had to find it for them, and they looked at us like, "how the heck did you throw it so far?" Pure awesomeness. Jersey definitely has a competitive streak in her, as every time Zuess got to the ball first, she threw a fit and proceeded to steal it right from his mouth. You'd think big brother would fight back, but since my parents cut his man-parts off, he's pretty much the biggest baby ever.

I beg you to click to view this picture at full-size. It is a laugh out loud moment.

Needless to say, our evil plan to knock the dogs out worked quite well. Jersey crawled up in a ball in the car and barely noticed when we drove through McDonald's and ordered her favorite meal. It was perfect since we were heading to Spokane for the night for the Ingrid Michaelson and Joshua Radin concert at the Big Easy. Sleepy dog = no chewing up Grant's art supplies. Phew.

When I get pictures from the concert uploaded, I shall report!