200!

We saw #200 in the license plate game...only 799 to go!

Forks, WA

Chloe went with my Mom and my sister Lisa to Forks, WA today. They went to have a nice drive, and to see the landscape in the Twilight series. Chloe has read 3 of the books, and was not too impressed, but liked the time with her Grandma and her Aunt.

She took the above pictures. One is of the table reserved for Bella and Edward at the cafe that they had lunch at. The other is from the sign from the local motel.

My Mom got a couple of cute T-shirts, and it seems like they had a nice time, so all was not lost. :)

G-Force

We went to see the movie G-Force last night (Friday). It was a really cute movie. I wasn't going into it expecting much, but I love guinea pigs, so I think I enjoyed it more than a lot of people would.

We saw the 3-D version, and I found myself wanting to reach up and pet them at times. Chloe, of course, thought that was hilarious.

The story revolves around an elite force of guinea pigs, a mole, and a fly that were trained as special agents. The new commander in charge of their unit thinks they're an embarrassment, so he wants to close them down. They decide to show them that they're worth keeping by cracking a large case that the FBI has been working on for years.

The voices in the movie were pretty funny - Nicholas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Jon Favreau, Sam Rockwell, and Tracy Morgan as the mole and guinea pigs, Steve Buscemi as the crazy hamster. Nice job on the casting for that!

One thing I really liked about the movie, was that they had references to other action movies. "Yippie-ki-yay coffeemaker!" was one of my favorites. (Die Hard is one of my favorite movies, and my favorite Christmas movie. Ever.)

It was a nice night - we went to The Rock for pizza, then the movie. Fun night out for the family.

HOT!

It was freakin' hot yesterday. It's still hot today (96 degrees outside as I post this), but yesterday was amazingly hot (108 at my parent's house at one point). Four local libraries had to close because it was too hot. Our Comcast cable/internet went out. Fire broke out on a median of I-5 because some stupid idiot flicked a cigarette butt out of their car. Several other fires were reported. Many brown-outs and blackouts because of the heat. "Cooling Centers" were set up around the area at local air-conditioned facilities for people to come in and beat the heat. And today, we had the first heat-related death.

Now, before you go on bashing us wimpy Seattle-ites because we're so delicate...are you in an air-conditioned place at this time? If so, then consider that only 13% of Seattle-area houses have central air, and only 30% of Seattle Metro buses have a/c (can you imagine getting stuck in a traffic jam at Safeco field on your way home in the non-air-conditioned bus because of the Mariner's game, in 103 degree weather?)!

It was pretty miserable all around, yesterday. We've never had temps that high, and our records go back to 1891.

Strange weather here...snow in April, and 100+ degree heat in July!

Movies...

Ray, Ray's friend Randy, Chloe, and I went to see Star Trek today. Ray and I had seen it, but Randy and Chloe had not. I really wanted to see it again. It was a great movie, I really enjoyed it both times. I saw things on the second viewing that I did not on the first - such as the Tribbles in the cage, cooing, when you first meet Scotty, and little bits of dialogue that were lost on first viewing.

Chloe said she enjoyed it, too, even though she only recognized two names: Spock and Captain Kirk. We may need to rent some episodes of classic Star Trek for her to catch up!

I was impressed with the lobby displays, too. When I worked at the movie theater (many years ago..) the displays were mostly just cutout standups of the characters. The Transformers lobby display was probably 10 feet tall, and really intricate. I would have hated to put that one together!

Oh, and I saw a movie that I will probably want to see. I just love guinea pigs. I hope it's as cute as it looks. Probably only Chloe and I will see this one!

Awwww

Wedding Shindig

Early on the day of our shindig, we stopped at the Pike Place Market to pick up the flowers for the centerpieces. 11 huge bunches later, we were on our way! All of the arrangements had lilacs in them, along with other flowers.

Above is a picture of the bunches in our bathtub, waiting to go to the venue.


Around 7 pm: people were just starting to show up. The Hollywood Schoolhouse, where we held the shindig, was so beautiful. We loved the antique bar! We had coke, sprite, rootbeer, etc., along with Widmer Hef on tap, and various wines.

The happy couple - it was such a fun night!

My ex-husband, his wife and baby, and his Mom and Dad also came. Above is a cute picture of Chloe holding her little sister. I was happy to have so much family attend. My parents, many of my siblings, their spouses, and Ray's Mom and Aunt (my new MIL and Aunt-in-Law now!) were all also able to attend.

My sister Lisa took some incredible pictures. Thanks, Lisa! I am so glad to have such a great record of the night.

After dinner, we screened the 7 1/2 minute dvd of the Las Vegas wedding, officiated by Elvis. It was a hoot! Everyone seemed to enjoy it. One of my friends emailed me the next day to say that now they could check "see an Elvis wedding" off their life list!


Later on in the night, there was dancing - even an impromptu conga line after a group picture. The band, Streamliner, did a great job, and everyone seemed to enjoy them. Streamliner is made up of members of the band 'The Blues Orbiters', which is one of our favorite bands. They're the same band that we went to see in Anacortes last year.

It was such a magical night...everything I could have dreamed of and more! I really appreciated everyone that came and made it such a success!