random brews...

recently, i attended the tacoma craft beer festival with a couple of my girlfriends... it was a crazy, fun time, to be sure!  but besides all the other obvious beer festphernalia (the little taster glasses, pretzel necklaces, and your basic jolly beer-appreciating drunkard) we noticed several clever beer-related t-shirts... this prompted the usually shy me to walk up to complete strangers and ask if i could take a picture of their shirt... i was super proud of myself :)  so here ya go... it's like walkin' around a beer fest in blog form...

"I used to think drinking was bad for me... so I gave up thinking."   and   "BEER   It's what's for dinner"

"I'm working on my SIX PACK"

"The Beeriodic Table"

"This beer is making me awesome!"

"Beauty lies in the hand of the beerholder"   and   "Do you believe in love at first sight... or do I have to buy you another beer?"   and   "got beer?"

"Beer Knurd"

"In dog beers, I've only had one"

"My life is a very complicated drinking game."

"Good Beer"

"DRUNK - Warning:  Explicit lyrics, slurred speech, and highly sexually aggressive."

on the hat it says "GIRL BEER"

"Now it's time for my real job - getting loaded!  (Modern Drunkard Magazine)"

"I need a BEER"

and my favorite... yet, not beer related...

wait for it.....

thanks to mary beth and denise for giving this guy a hand with his shirt :)

next up:  Fremont Oktoberfest!

#beerme

random exercism... days 1-10

ok, so i'm probably not alone in this, but i get really bored with the same old workouts...  i'm always trying new stuff... i've done the traditional cardio/weights routine, aerobics classes, yoga, hot yoga, pilates, walking, running, dance classes, zumba, and several of those workout regimes you see on infomercials - p90x, 10-minute trainer, yoga booty ballet, slim in 6, winsor pilates, tae-bo, richard simmons workouts, jane fonda workouts, and many, many more over the years... my current commitment is tracy anderson's metamorphosis, a 90-day program that includes 30 minutes of tracy's dance cardio and 30ish minutes of muscle toning... the muscle toning workouts switch up every 10 days... i've made it through the initial 10 days and thought i'd blog about it, in part because it creates a sort of accountability for me... thanks for your help...  it starts out by having you take your weight and measurements of course, and then taking them again every 10 days to see your progress...

tracy anderson... seriously killer body... will i look like this at the end of 90 days??

here's my initial numbers prior to starting day 1:

weight - 149 (how brave am i posting this??)

total measurements (in inches) - 139 (i'm not going into detail here of the specific separate measurements of chest, waist, hips, thighs and arms... nope, not gonna do it :)

DAYS 1-10

ok, so by 10 days, i really mean 10 workouts, which are 6 days on and 1 day off... and MY days 1-10 also included some days as a parent volunteer at camp and some other days where i did massive amounts of housework and yardwork, which are both things i count as workouts, but did not include in them in my "official" metamorphosis day counts... so basically, if i missed a day or two, i picked up where i left off so i actually did the metamorphosis muscle toning routine 10 times...

i've only done the dance cardio video about 3 times... i've decided to make it my "backup' cardio because (a) it's a lot of jumping around and my old knees and hips hate it! and (b) the music that comes with it does NOT inspire me...  instead, i drag my butt to the gym and get my cardio in on any of the various pieces of equipment there... elliptical, treadmill, etc... my fav is the elliptical... on super high resistance and incline... this i do for around 45 minutes... then home to do the muscle toning dvd...

holy muscle pain, this day 1-10 workout is all kinds of crazy hard, most especially the butt and legs portion... i'm thinking if i keep this up, i should have the best ass on the western seaboard in 90 days!  but i'm terrified about the next 8 workouts because if this inital one is so hard, they're probably not gonna get any easier right??  yikes.

here's my day 10 numbers:

weight - 145

total measurements (in inches) - 140.5

huh?  so i lost 4 pounds, but my measurements went up by an inch and a half?  hmmm...  well, time to see what the next 10 workouts will bring...

#gettingfit

random camping... part b...

continued from previous post...

WHERE DID I LEAVE OFF?

oh yeah, getting a good night's sleep instead of walking around a creepy, dark, campground in the middle of the night...

CAMP - DAY TWO

katy's butt...

what... a wonderful night... slept like a baby, didn't have to wake up for a 3am night patrol shift... had my own bedroom and bathroom all to myself... i could get used to THIS kind of camping!  big stretch.... up and showered... and just enough time to hit the latte stand before breakfast (yes, they had one at this camp - it wasn't Starbucks, but it was better than the coffee in the staff lounge or the dining hall...) ran into the darbs and some of her friends, so we hung outside drinking our coffee and taking random pictures... i've included one of katy's butt here... cute yoga pants, right??

then off to the dining hall for breakfast... gag... the food there sucks BIG TIME!  so back to the latte stand for a 2nd coffee (what?  there's protein in soy milk!!)  and another parent meeting... this time we were assigned our positions for that evening's activities which included another showcase, followed by either a movie in the tabernacle or karaoke in the gym, so all of us parents were assigned spots to keep all the kids within the "perimeter" between and around the two designated areas... my assigned spot was BEHIND (and outside) the tabernacle building... so i walk back there with my flashlight and it is DARK... and CREEPY... and nobody else is back there but me... oh hell no... not staying back there for two hours (or two minutes, for that matter...) i planted my butt INSIDE the tabernacle, right in the front row, and watched the feature presentation...  i mean, i was watching to make sure none of the kids ran out the back door (behind the screen) cuz i would've totally chased 'em down...  but i digress...

some canoeing action...

after breakfast and the parent meeting, i had absolutely nothing to do until lunch... in fact, this whole entire day i had nothing to do except mealtimes and the evening activities... BORING!  being a cabin leader was REALLY looking like a much better option at this point... so this is how i spent my day... napping, reading, walking around taking pictures of the camp, just sitting on the dock down by the lake, reading some more, walking around some more, hanging around with darbey and her friends for a bit, sitting in the staff lounge quietly listening to all the interesting conversations, more napping, more reading, wondering if this day will ever end...  and FINALLY...


SHOWCASE - NIGHT TWO

puppet pals

i was really looking forward to this because showcase the night before was SO good!  the whole thing opened up with a bunch of the kids parodying the potter puppet pals, with the teachers as the puppets... it was funny even if you weren't familiar with the potter puppet pals, but it was HILARIOUS if you were familiar with the potter puppet pals :D

the kid that looked like justin bieber

then, just like the night before, there was all kinds of amazing talent displayed... here's the kid that looked like justin bieber... he actually danced to a justin bieber song... and if you know my daughter, you know i had to get a picture of this guy.




and the closing act of showcase this night was SOTA's other main rock band, Roswell... AMAZING!  and even though there were just as many warnings against mosh pits and crowd surfing, i did see at least one kid get "surfed".

roswell

check them out here http://www.reverbnation.com/roswelltheband  their song Bells, is seriously addicting!

MOVIE NIGHT
so... since i stationed myself inside the tabernacle for movie night, i kicked back to enjoy Mean Girls with a room full of teenagers... now that was an experience... lots of interesting comments being shouted out during various scenes...

AFTER THE EVENING ACTIVITIES
i should point out here that we (the parent volunteers) were all warned at the morning parent meeting that night two of camp includes all kinds of ruckus by the seniors, and usually a few "senior pranks" and the ringing of the camp bell... as we were leaving the tabernacle, we could hear some seriously loud rock music coming from the direction of the gym... turns out this was one of the "senior pranks"... Rooftop Warrior (the rock back from showcase - night one) had somehow gotten a hold of the u-haul truck they use for all the luggage and set up their own little rock concert in the back of it... it was pretty cool, actually :)  but got shut down fairly quickly... then we were trying to get all the kids back to their cabins... knowing full well there would be seniors sneaking out for more ruckus all through the night...

so here's what happened...

somewhere around midnight, a game of "capture the flag" broke out in the field... all of the seniors had warpaint on their faces and the bell got rung so many times, the camp people finally cut the rope on the thing... once that settled down, a whole group of senior boys snuck out again and went around screaming and banging on cabins and such...  all of this happened... while i was snug and warm in my bed :)  i could hear it all, but it didn't bother me in the least... although i guess some of the camp workers (who live at the camp during the season) called the cops... oopsie.

CAMP - DAY THREE (otherwise known as "go home" day)
i skipped breakfast at the dining hall and went straight for the latte stand... packed up my stuff, attended the final parent meeting to get my bus assignment, and waited patiently for the buses to arrive to bring us home... this time i was assigned Bus 8... and i just have to say that the bus ride home was SO quiet... tired kids on a bus going home from camp is much easier to chaperone than hopped up kids on their way to camp... once we made it home home, i pretty much slept the entire rest of the day... thank goodness there was still a 3-day weekend ahead, cuz i needed to recover!

bus 1 of 11 here to take us home...

NEXT YEAR

i think i wanna go back, but definitely be assigned to a cabin and some kids... i wonder if the crazy will wear off before i have to officially sign up to volunteer for next year?  we shall see...

#supertired

random camping... part one...

VOLUNTEERING?  REALLY??
so, yeah, i've never been much in the department of volunteering at the kids' school, but for some reason, i got it into my head to sign up for all these damn things this year... one of these damn things was to be a parent chaperone at my daughter's school's camp...  she goes to this weird artsy high school, and their first official three days of school take place at a summer camp... now, those of you that know me, know i am really not the outdoorsy type... especially when the outdoorsiness involves sleeping outdoors (this includes tents, for those of you who might be inclined to argue that point...)  i want a real bed to sleep in, with some indoor plumbing and such so that my shower does not have to take place in either one of those icky campground community bathrooms... or a freezing cold lake...  nonetheless, i found myself hitting 'send' on an email that said "heck yes!  sign me up!!"  that's when the dread set in.  what had i done?  and why had i done it??

not to worry, my daughter said (even though she was all like "who are you? and what have you done with my mother??' when i told her i volunteered) "they set up all the girls in the nice cabins, with in-room bathrooms... and they put the boys in the tee-pees and wagons, which suck..."  ok, cool, i can probably handle that... and out the door i head to the mandatory parent volunteer training and orientation...

VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION

One of the wagons.. in fact, THE wagon, darbey had to sleep in...

this is what i heard... blah blah blah "kids..."  blah blah blah "mealtimes..."  blah blah blah "bus ride..."  blah blah blah "and this year we've decided to switch things up and put the boys in the nice cabins and the girls in the tee-pees and wagons... doesn't that sound like fun?!?"  ummm, NOOOO!!!  what the h-e-double-hockeysticks had i gotten myself into this time?  and darbey (who got her outdoorsy camping gene directly from me) was also not going to be thrilled by this exciting news... and then i heard... blah blah blah "if you're on night patrol, we put you up in this nice HOUSE!"  now we're talkin'!  ok... crossing off cabin and signing up for night patrol!  might as well save one of us :)

CAMP - DAY ONE
day one was cuhhhrazzzyyyy... beginning with the whole check-in process... a bunch of us parents lined up on one side of this long table, with our lists in hand... and throngs of students piled up on the other side (sort of) patiently waiting their turn to check-in... what was scheduled to be a 40 minute process took almost two hours... i have a few suggestions for next year, but as i was told, if it was organized, it wouldn't be SOTA (School of the Arts)... well, alright then.

so, check-in complete, time for our next task... loading the buses... i was assigned to bus 3 with this other mom, and my first job was to hold up the piece of paper that said "BUS THREE" for... ever... she was taking charge of checking kids' names before they got on the bus... once all our kids were present and accounted for, it was clear there were no seats left for one, let alone both, of us parents... lucky me, she was super-quick and got the hell outta dodge, so there i was, cramming into a bus bench made for two, with darbey and her friend derek... well, to be fair, only my left butt cheek was crammed onto the seat.. with the right side left to fend for itself in the aisleway...

in case you were wondering, riding this way on a school bus is EXTREMELY uncomfortable... and we had about a 45-minute ride ahead of us... or so we thought...

two-plus hours, and MANY wrong turns and turn-arounds later, we (officially dubbed "THE LOST BUS") finally arrived at camp... starving... just in time for lunch to be over... awesome.

black lake...

now, most of the parent volunteers had to find their first instructional block, but i thought i'd go scout out my house and pick my room... S-C-O-R-E!  i got the master bedroom, the only room in the house with it's own bathroom... and a lovely view of the lake out the window... things were beginning to look up!

the next stop was the parent meeting... where my night patrol shift was assigned... 3am-5am... yep, i was gonna have to walk around that dark campground in the middle of the night... suddenly visions of jason, his hockey mask, and his machete were flashing through my brain... and i couldn't remember if he ever died!  wagons and tee-pees were sounding much better now... but that wasn't happening, so i went back to my room, unpacked and settled in for a nap before the evening activities...

SHOWCASE - NIGHT ONE
can i just say, OMG!!  ok, backing up a few steps... what is showcase, you ask??  well, i think i may have mentioned before that this is an ARTS high school, and showcase is designed to, well, showcase, the students' performing arts of choice... this right here made the whole camp experience worth all of the aforementioned hassles... ok, so back to OMG!!  there's some seriously great talent at that school, and such a variety... there were singer/songwriters (wrote their own songs, sang them, and accompanied themselves on guitar or keyboard); hip-hop dancing (darbey got up on stage for this one!); classical violin solo; a sax performance (in the style of dave koz); and much more...

and topping off showcase night one, was one of SOTA's main rock bands, Rooftop Warrior... they played three songs amidst somewhere in the neighborhood of 427 warnings against mosh pits and crowd surfing... they were pretty awesome... check 'em out here... http://www.reverbnation.com/rooftopwarrior

Rooftop Warrior

and that was day one... now off to my room to nap a bit before my 3am night patrol shift....

buzz buzz... buzz buzz... what the??  who's texting me at midnight??  oh, that would be the co-director of the school calling all the night patrol parents over to the staff lounge for a quick meeting... so, off i go, trodding through the woods in my p-jams and baseball hat... super annoyed... until i got there and they told me they won't be needing a 3am-5am patrol and i can just go on back to sleep for the rest of the night!  (insert happy happy joy joy dance here) oh, i think i can get used to this kinda night patrolling :D  so back to bed i go with nary a worry about jason's whereabouts...

to be continued...

#camprock