Pineapple. Code word. Whatever.

I've convinced Marvin that we should have a nature-style getaway this weekend. I can't wait to get in the woods! Unfortunately, someone stole my camping chair. I kept it in the carport at work and would sit in it on my lunch break for optimal squirrel-watching and salad-eating. I hope the bandit who took it will get some good out of it. I could learn to stand a little discomfort, seating-wise.

Last Saturday was Annie's wedding reception/backyard bash. There were puppies and cookies and the weather was nice. I took this picture, which is possibly the greatest ever, based on organization and facial hair:

Matt did some photo-bombing, of course:

Then later he read us scary stories and five of us fell asleep on the bed.

It's funny to wake up surrounded by so much snoring.

The next day consisted of the first swim of the year and the last LOST episode of...ever. The Piney smelled like fish and was really murky, but totally likable. The LOST finale wasn't as epic or surprising as I had hoped. I guess I had wanted more battle and less warm fuzziness. I shouldn't complain though. It's still the greatest show I've ever seen and the only series I plan to buy a boxed set of and watch marathon-style. And I will sorely miss it.

By Monday Marvin and I had stopped being pissed about the finale and decided to go digging for crystals. It was sweaty and filthy and an incredibly satisfying experience...just digging. We found a few really nice little ones, and a few larger chunks of imperfection, and a whole bucket of miscellaneous pretty rocks to bring to my mama for her flower beds. New hobby, for sure.

As always, I didn't bring my camera to any of these fun-havings. All photos in this post are stolen from Courtney.

Time for pancakes, vampires, and crafts. Happy Thursday.

Gator weather.

Today Jumpin' Josh, Brittany Paul, Marvin, and I chose to ride bicycles on Bona Dea trail. Why we chose the coldest, rainiest day possible for this adventure...I am not entirely sure. Probably because we had our hearts set on seeing an alligator. There are allegedly at least eleven 'gators in the swampier parts of the park and even more allegedly a couple of small dogs have been eaten recently. I was skeptical about the dog-eatings until we got to the part of the trail with the highest swamp-water level and found that it was closed. Naturally we ignored the orange fence and went about our merry way. I always get really nervous at the part of the trail where you can see the spots where the gators come up out of the water to cross and then slide back down the other slope, but I was especially expecting to get devoured today, due to the orange fence. None of us got eaten, but three of us thought we might have seen a baby alligator, but agreed that it was probably just a stick. We did discover a wildlife viewing hut at the water's edge that none of us had ever noticed before. Apparently some boyscouts built it in '99. We also saw a heron and some ducks and squirrels...and I am officially on a mission to find some rainboots. Not just a casual mission, but a hardcore one. This is due to one of my feet slipping into a pool of muddy water and then being soggy and numb for the rest of the day. Being clumsy and having short legs is only a downer when you're a pseudo-outdoorsperson trying to have  adventures with rugged outdoorspeople.

I found this after googling "alligator" -

Black Christmas.

Yesterday my intent to catch up on movie-watching turned into a pathetic Jon & Kate Plus 8 marathon. Fortunately Andrea called me early in the evening and we headed up to her sister's "cabin" on Mt. Nebo. This so-called-cabin is actually a gigantic old-but-remodeled fancy-but-creepy house with a two car garage and an amazing far away view of the town. We all agreed upon entering that it was exactly the type of house where scary movie slaughterings take place. We ate a little and drank a little and then decided to play Sardines. I was "it" and hid in the second floor bathroom...in the tub with feet. KT found me. Then Andrea found us. Then Lauren found us, making Marvin the loser. We had agreed to yell "LOSER" repeatedly until the last player found the rest of the sardines, so the game wouldn't go on forever. We yelled a bit, saw Marv's shadow coming up the stairs, and waited. The lamp went off. We waited for Marvin to scare us. He didn't. We yelled some more. Waited. And then he tried to scare us. "Nice try," we said. "Like we didn't see THAT coming," we said. "It took you long enough," we said. "I was waiting because I thought that after you guys turned off the light you were all going to jump out and scare ME," he said. "Uh, we didn't turn off the light. We thought you turned off the light?" "Uh, no." "Whatever. We know you turned off the light." "I'm being dead serious. I didn't touch the lamp." "Seriously?" "Seriously." "........................." At this point we all get a little freaked out, creep out of the bathroom, shining flashlights in every corner, and nervously make jokes about our impending doom. The power is out in the whole house, but the street light is on outside. I expect to be stabbed by a guy in ghost face mask at any minute. Lauren grabs an ice pick


I grab my pepper spray


KT grabs an empty bottle of sparkling blueberry juice

Marv has his pocket knife out

And Andrea,

always the sensible one, calls her sister to see if this is a common occurrence. As it turns out, the power tends to go out when the upstairs and downstairs heating units kick on at the same time. Way to scare the bejesus out of us, old house.

After that we settled in to watch some Dirty Dancing until Marv and I left to try and rescue Mark, who had wrecked his car after hitting a patch of ice while driving up the mountain. Rescue efforts failed, and a tow truck had to be called. Way to ruin Christmas for Mark, ice patch.

Today I was a useless emotional wreck. I didn't know what caused it and I didn't know how to fix it. I hate it when that happens. Especially for six consecutive hours. Ewww. Tomorrow will be better. No doubt about it.