mixtape monday 9/27/10

a letter

this morning one of my students handed me a letter that her mom help her to write.  she's four years old and cute as a button.

to miss kiel

i love you.  thank you for letting me play with your toys.  i love you. i wish i could see you forever. and i don't want to miss you.  thank you for coming to the playground 2 times.

from molly

it really doesn't get much better than that now does it? 

mixtape monday 9/6/10

back to work in the morning. but hey, only 53 school days until thanksgiving break!

mixtape monday 8/30/10

my good friends brian & amanda finally got hitched this weekend!

best wedding hands down. great music, ridiculous dancing, amazing food, vegan cupcakes, and tons of friends. our friend drew became a "minister" via the world wide web, and performed the ceremony. they had a bit of a back to the future theme for their entrance which included huey louis "power of love" while wearing plastic 80's sunglasses, and then a little earth angel. their first dance was to the ramones. brian's band covered the descendents "marriage" and pressed limited edition wedding 7" for favors. (almost) everything was environmentally friendly, including the corn based eating utensils, which once discovered, quickly turned into a fork eating contest. i didn't catch the boquet that was tossed way too high, although i did slap it to the ground. that might count for something.

road trip america part seven: nevada/utah/colorado

yes, we did indeed travel down the loneliest road in america.  and how appropriately named it was.  we drove through nevada and utah, passing through nothing but desert and ghost towns for two days.  

that's us in the nevada desert at sunset.   i think in the half hour we were out there, maybe 2 cars drove past us.  once the sun went down completely, we set up the tripods to photograph the sky.  i've never seen so many stars in my life.  it was truly amazing.  again we were out there for about an hour, and maybe 4 cars passed us. at one point the boys laid down in the highway to watch the stars.  the loneliest road in america.

yeah, that's the milky way.  no big deal.

we eventually found a campsite in the desert and set up well after dark.  we thought we heard the growls of a large animal in the distance, turns out it was the mountain man in the campsite next to ours snoring all night.  we caught him in the morning dressed head to toe in camo, shooting arrows at targets. 

we also found this little guy:

the parts of utah we passed through were full of nothing and crumby, run down towns.  that about sums it up.

once we hit colorado, we started seeing green and trees again.  it has been a few days.  we also caught up with a crazy storm.  about ten minutes after i took this picture, we got a flat tire.  and about five minutes after that, the sky opened up on us, and all of our gear out on the side of the road while the guys were changing the tire.  

we got the donut on and went into town for a tire change which held us up a bit, and we ended up camping outside of denver.  we got our first cabin of the trip that night because we didn't feel like dealing with the mud.  

the worlds longest yard sale  was only two days away and we had a long drive ahead of us.  we needed our beauty sleep.

mixtape monday 8/23/10

road trip america part six: california

so, we made it out of sunny valley, oregon alive. thank god, because i was really looking forward to seeing the redwoods:

the trees weren't the only things that were giant in the forest:

for reals?

we got to the forest a little too late in the day to enjoy it fully ,but the time we spent there was pretty unreal. by far the most beautiful drive i've ever take. the 101 rules. we drove straight to oakland, where we stayed with our friend kim for two nights. she took us around oakland, berkeley and san fran with the best food tour ever!!!!! my tummy was never happier. we also met up with my good friend jenn, (we go way back to first grade) and her husband, brendan, and caught up over some pizza and beers.

this is the saturn cafe in berkeley. a veggie diner with a spacey/sci-fi theme. hands down best breakfast burrito i've ever tasted. for breakfast dessert (yes, breakfast dessert) we went around the corner to cinnaholic for the reason i would move to california:

there are no words to describe the deliciousness that is depicted above. we went two days in a row. chris and i have both had dreams about them. i feel like a junkie. if you are ever in the area, go. seriously, you won't be disappointed.