We rock and roll all night-- and party every day!

So after all the traveling we've been doing, it was nice to spend an afternoon just hanging out in the backyard with some tasty drinks, good friends, and a bit of Scrabble.

We had so much fun with our pals in Syracuse that we brought them back to I-town with us!

Felix put on his "O" face.

The game got kinda boring, so we thought we'd do a little rock climbing.

Felix came flying out of nowhere, with a vine tied around his waist like Tarzan!

"AAAAIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!"

"Here, Mister Brett! I give you a vowel! For free!"

Feats of strength! Acrobatics! Falling down!

"FEEELOO!"
"HA HA HA!"
"I CAN'T STAND UP!"

A beautiful boat ride...

While the humans were busy, Clarence took the wheel,

while I stood look-out.

The lilypads in the lake made us nostalgic.

While I was busy getting seasick in the cabin below, Clarence and Sidney thought about taking a swim.

Of course Sidney was going to go where the pretty ladies were.

Meanwhile, Vernadette and Wanda got stuck "bonding" with Sister Katie.

The next day ...

The next morning, we found the peoples were not forthcoming with their coffees, neither.

Felix got knocked down by a ninja starfish, which brought an end to his part in the "how much of your arms can you fit in your mouth" contest.

"Ahng inning! Ahng inning!"

Translation: "I'm winning! I'm winning!"

As always, Vernadette took things too far.

We re-enacted the last scene in Ocean's Eleven out by the pool.

Then we enjoyed the fountain.

HELP!!!!!

Never leave your password where an Uggly Wuggly can find it ...

So while our lady is recuperating from the holiday weekend, Clarence and I managed to get the camera hooked up, downloaded our photos from the weekend and hacked our way into her blog.
We stowed away as she traveled to Syracuse to celebrate the Fourth of July with her family.  Little did she know that we were meeting up with family too!

Clockwise from top:
Wanda, Walter's twin sister
Sidney, Clarence's cousin
Walter
Clarence
Vernadette, Wanda's friend
Felix, Clarence & Walter's no-good friend

We met Lady's grandmother. She ignored our request for a sip of her beer.

As did her dad. He was not amused.

We distracted him with a jar of peanuts and snagged us our own beer.

We could've used a straw or two.

The ogre they called "Uncle Bob" was quite frightening.

We began to formulate a plan.

..."And BREAK!"

Our intimidation plan was in full swing.

TO BE CONTINUED!!

FRANCES

Frances is an 8-year-old beagle. She was a puppy mill breeder dog, then spent time at a research lab, where they bred her & harvested her embryos. The lab adopted her out to a student, who had her for exactly one month before he gave her up to our SPCA. (His reason? She "wants to be with me all the time", was scared of loud noises and wasn't housebroken.) I happened to be behind the desk running some mail through the postage meter when he brought her in. He'd named her Snoop. I took one look at her and I knew she would be mine. Oh yes, she would be mine. She was so loud in the shelter that the woman who worked the reception desk warned me when I announced that I was taking her home with me. Frances had howled so long and loud that the staff had a hard time hearing people on the phone over her noise. The intake desk woman asked me how things went when I returned to work after the weekend I took her home. I told her-- to her amazement-- that we hadn't heard a peep out of her. So we gave Frances her middle name- Serena- in honor of my coworker.

I'll write more about her later, but here's some video of her "nesting."

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=407031226758&ref=mf

(Sorry it's just a link to F.B. but Blogger has now spent over 8 hours trying to upload my video and apparently just weened out so I give up.)

We think she does it because she spent her life prior to us in a cage lined with newspaper. She was probably shredding and piling it to make it more comfortable to lie down in. She kept the mannerism, even when she doesn't have a blanket to arrange. (Please excuse my husband's less than gentlemanly posture in the background.)

Celebrity Crush Time!

I accidentally saw part of the Today show recently and it inspired this topic. My husband and I have been married for 6 years this fall, together for 13, and therefore are allowed the indulgence of a few celebrity crushes. His top crush, which he has told me repeatedly, is Ann Curry from the Today Show. Uh huh. Ann Curry. Today Show. I know she's exotic and all, and she does come off as the "smart" person on the show, but eh? Natalie Portman also makes his list, and I believe, a tie between Janice from the Muppet Show and Kristin Chenoweth.

So therefore, my celebrity crushes are listed below:

1. JOHN CUSACK

Whether he was Lane Myer from Better Off Dead, Hoops McCann from One Crazy Summer, or Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything, I love John Cusack. He is adorable, dark, wore black Chucks and a trenchcoat, listened to Fishbone, kickboxed, and tried so hard to be taken seriously in the ridiculous situations he was put in in those movies. And LLOYD DOBLER, man! "I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen." Lloyd Dobler set the bar pretty damn high for high school guys; most of the ones I dated fell well short of Lloyd, even if they were determined not to "buy, sell or process" anything sold, bought or processed. He still makes me swoon, although crap like Hot Tub Time Machine is making it more difficult.  Ya hear me, John?

2. EWAN MCGREGOR

Okay, I have to admit, this started primarily in response to Brett oohing over Natalie Portman being in the Star Wars prequels. But then I started seeing him in more films and was thoroughly charmed.  He chooses quirky roles in unusual movies and seems delightfully silly. But I really took notice of him after my friend LB made me watch the Long Way Round documentary series where he rides motorcycles around the world with his friend Charlie. It showed a definite goofy side of him, and it was really touching that at times on the journey, particularly when they were making their way through Mongolia, he was genuinely scared- especially when they had to cross water. He made my list for sure when I saw the last episode when he's reunited with his wife after being apart from her for over 3 months. He just scooped her right up and kissed the HECK out of her- it was adorable. They have been married forever and have two daughters, and he has all three of his girls' names in a gigantic tattoo on his arm (you can see a bit of it in this photo) that he has to have covered with makeup in every movie he's in.

3. MARCUS MUMFORD

He is the lead singer and main songwriter in a band called Mumford and Sons that I am CRAZY over.  Beautiful, heartfelt songs, mostly of heartbreak and the redemption that follows. The month that I discovered them, I listened to their album a minimum of three times a day, no lie. He's a very young pup, but his lyrics are world-weary and full of hard-won romantic insights. He is apparently extremely shy, as I've seen in interviews on the web and in this photo that a fan took. This guy asked him after a performance if he could take his portrait. Marcus said yes, smiled awkwardly, and looked down at the ground. ADORABLE!

EXTRA CREDIT:  ABE LINCOLN

God help me, I'm not kidding. I have such a thing for Abraham Lincoln. Maybe he was no conventional looker, probably wasn't a real cool dancer, but what a wit! And just a damned real good guy. Boyo could work a stovepipe hat like nobody's bidness. And we know how he enjoyed the theatre. He was probably totally buff from all that log-splitting, too.

Damned boys ...

I should've known there would be some repercussions from me commenting that I enjoy "guyishness." Last night was our friend Karl's last night in town before he moves to NYC, so my husband and our friend Dan went out for drinks with him. I was tucked up all nice in my bed with a snoozing doggy on either side of me, when I am awakened by the two of them returning at about 2am. Lots of incoherent drunken stammering. I put my earplugs in and went back to sleep. I was woken AGAIN about an hour later by my friend Dan singing something from Les Miz at the top of his lungs. Now Dan has a very nice voice & he's actually a trained tenor (IC school of music) but I did not want to hear a version of I Dreamed a Dream so damn loud I could hear it through my industrial-strength earplugs. I stomped on the floor and he shut up. This morning, after I dragged my weary self out of bed- husband passed out on the couch downstairs still- and see the debris they left after post-bar snack. Yup, salsa strewn across the counter, jar left out. And then the topper:

A mosquito-type bug and a moth, trapped under the lid of a plastic cake container (the last piece of red velvet cake had also been eaten, bastards).

Thank you. Right in front of the coffee.  I am presuming I am going to have a delicious and very nice dinner out somewhere tonight.

Dan is an interesting friend to have.  He and Brett were college roommates. Brett dated this girl, Polly, in high school. They broke up before he went to college, but they stayed friends. She came up to I.C. one weekend for a party at the boys' place, met Dan, fell in love and were married in 2002. I also went to college with Dan, but didn't know him then.  HOWEVER, one day I was looking through my pictures of Fountain Day- on the last day of classes, as the last class of the day ends, all the seniors would meet up and jump into the fountains on our campus. With a great deal of booze involved. I found this picture of me, my roommate and a friend, and who is that in the background, but Dan!

<- There is Dan.