Yuri's Night, Costumes and more!

Hello.

Miss me?  I know I know.

I've been scarce but I have great excuses.

1.  Excuse #1:  Getting ready for the big party this past Saturday night.

Yuri's night is an international party that happens all over the world on the same night.  It honors the 1st man in space Yuri something.  

We were slammed all week.  On saturday (the day of the party) we had people knocking on the doors after we closed looking for costumes.  "I'll take anything!"  Everything that was silver, gold, sparkley or spacey was long gone.  

Party night came & we were out until 1:45 am!  

Here's a few pictures from the event:

Fire spinning.

That's one single poi that's about the size of a bowling ball.  

This guy is the one spinning the big poi.  He loves fire and is really really fantastic at spinning.

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This is Sabra.  She's a very close friend.  She also happens to sublet part of our store.

She's an amazing woman.  She's had breast cancer 3 times, ovarian cancer once and has been in remission for 4 years. She grew up in Ely, NV which is a "down winder" town. Down winder is a term used for areas in Nevada that are down wind from the nuclear bomb tests.

Oh and that's not her real hair.  It's an orange wig.  But she has orange & gold hair under it.  She hot glued the hat to the wig so it's stuck there for life. 

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Nathan & Me

Nathan is another good friend.  He, Robin & I are working on the Burning Man web site updating the local shopping areas.  He has the best costumes and it's always a surprise to see what he's wearing.  I'd love to raid his closet except he weighs about 130-140 pounds.  

I'm wearing a lime green faux ostrich blazer, black corset, short pink & yellow petticoat, black fishnets with pink fence nets over the top & my GREEN Doc Martins. 

I had 2 people grab my hair & ask if it was really all mine.  

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This was my favorite costume of the night.

I don't know this guy but I was amazed at his creativity.

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This is my friend Chelsea.  She has an aerial troupe called Dragonfly Aerials. 

She has a burlesque troupe called Bohemian Burlesque.

She organized 4 aerialists to hang from the ceiling and perform during one of the dj's sets.

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Excuse #2

Normally I post in the morning but lately I've been practicing poi & facebooking.  

I'm attempting to cut back on my morning computer time so that I can get to the store with time  to spare for sewing.  

I'm in the middle of making a lime green fur bunny suit.  I finished silk flame pants yesterday. I'm hoping to get some personal projects made in the next week.

I do miss you all.  I do read your blogs.  Just haven't had the time to comment.

Lauren

Today's outlook: Feeling thin!

Pancakes!

I started this about 2 hours ago.  The store is SLAMMED!  OH YEAH!

We had pancakes for breaky.  Loved them.  

I'll post the recipe later.

I feel thin today.  Skirt is a gap XL that's been sitting in my closet for the past 2 years.

Tights aren't rolling down my fat belly.  They're actually staying where they need to stay.

I feel thin, clean inside and healthy.

Tonight:  BIG partay!  I'll post more tomorrow.

*kisses*

Under Construction

Finally.  Finally.  Finally

Construction is finally happening.  I've waited 2 years for this.  Talk about moving slow. But now it's happening.

Today they're removing the concrete from the front of the store, the plumber is here putting water lines for the landscaping.

The electrician should be here tomorrow or monday to lay the wires for the sign.

The sign should be installed next week.

Landscaping starts after the sign.

Two years.  Two f'ing years I've waited for this to happen.  

The sign I have now cost me $300 in permits and it's just a piece of plywood attached to the side of my building.

Yeah.

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In the meantime here's some random pictures from the inside of the store.

zebra hat made by local roller derby queen

Locally made soap.  I LOVE this stuff!

Hanging lantern.  

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That's it for now.

New Goals, Family, Moving forward

What a great weekend in San Francisco!

Steve, Mom and Me

And the Golden Gate Bridge

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The wedding was fun, beautiful and perfect.  

The weather was absolutely perfect.  68 & slight winds.  Not a cloud in the sky the whole time we were there.

My brother was the officiant.  He's an "I can marry you" minister.  It was great seeing him work.  Remember the bacheloret wedding between Tricia & Ryan?  He was the guy who married them.  He's got a reality show coming out in May called "Hitched or Ditched" on the CW.   

The Bride & Groom looked absolutely beautiful.  Both were radiant and so happy.  

Lisa (my niece, the bride) had talked to the caterer about my food restrictions.  Turned out most of what they picked was ok for me to eat!  Steve & I were thrilled.  We passed on the cupcakes and opted for sparkling water with lime instead of alcohol.  Not a big deal.  

I think I was on the dance floor for most of the night.  My 9 year old niece has been taking hip-hop dance lessons and did not want to quit dancing.  She said to me "I'm tired but the dance just has to get out of me!  I can't stop!"

She kept having dance-offs with people and would win.  

Great times.  Full of memories to last forever.

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Food

We packed a cooler & 2 bags of food to go.  We weren't sure if we'd be close to a grocery store and we didn't want to be tempted.

Well.... We gave into temptation.  A couple of times.  

Next door to our hotel was a gluten free pizza place!  We gave in.  The crust was 100% grain free.  Made with bean flours, yeast, vinegar & garlic.  We substituted the tomato sauce with pesto & cilantro.  Most expensive pizza I've ever had.  $26.50 for a 12" pie.  But Mom treated.

We split the pizza in half & took our leftovers with us to the pre-wedding party on Friday night. Pasta was being served & we didn't want to feel left out.  So pizza it was.  

Our other splurge:  Hash browns.  Wrong for so many reasons.  Fried, made from white potatoes and well just wrong. Oh and we had avocados.  Forbidden fruit on anti-candida but tasted so good.  yum.

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Back to reality on Monday.

Scale said I was up 2 pounds.  Not surprised.  We hit a buffet on sunday night & I ate my weight in shrimp.  

New short term goal:  199 by Memorial day.  That's about 1 pound a week, 5 pounds a month. Very very do-able.

Weather is warming up.  Time to get the bike out & get it tuned.  It's a 5 speed beach cruiser and is great for hitting the neighborhood.  Reno is very hilly so it's not that great for distance riding.

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one more thing

This guy has lost 100 pounds.  I love his blog.  Go congratulate him.  

 

Adventures from San Francisco

Fog City Wedding

San Francisco Here we come!

Fog City Wedding time!

This is going to be a brief blog.

STeve & I are packing rightthisminute for our trip to San Francisco.

My niece Lisa is getting married this weekend and we're leaving a few days early to enjoy some SF city fun.

Everybody enjoy your weekend.  Play nice & say "Please" and "Thank You".

I'll see you on Monday.

Happy April Fools Day aka An ode to my Friend Teri

Happy April Fools day!

I'll be you're wondering why I have a picture of Mary Ingals from Little House on the Prairie. Well I'll tell ya.

Today's post is going to be all about one of my closest and bestest friends Teri.  If you're looking for weight loss stories today's not going to be one of them.  I woke up at 5 am thinking about my adventures with Teri & decided that I really needed to blog about them.

Our history:

Teri & I worked together about 20 years ago in radio.  I was a dj & she was in sales.  We just hit it off as friends and have never looked back.

The thing about Teri is that she loves a really good practical joke.  She's great at dishing them out but also great at having them played on her.

April fools & Halloween are her 2 favorite days of the year.

I had been warned by friends and her family to watch out on April Fools.  She had been known to pull some great pranks.  

Year #1 The day went by & she ignored me which made me crazy.  I kept expecting something to happen.  "That was part of your prank.  I knew it would make you wonder what was going to happen."

Year #2 she had pre-planned a bunch of stuff for everyone but it fell thru when her husband had left her the night before.  

She showed up to work with puffy eyes and said "he left me".  

None of us believed her.  "Great joke."

Turned out she was serious.

Year #3  We both had gone thru the big breakups with jerks (mine got another woman pregnant.  Hers was just an ass.) and decided it was time for us to become housemates.

She had my boss call me & pretend to be from the health dept telling me that there had been reports from a few men with STD's and they all had used my name.

First off Harry (my boss) was terrible at character voices.  Secondly he used the name Hunter S. Thompson.  

Oh part of this story is that we shared a phone line & answering machine.

During this time I was so mentally messed up from my break up that I had taken a step back from dating.  No men in my bed. No men in my life.  Period.  So there was no way I was linked.

How to get back at Teri?  

I got on the phone & started calling every single man I knew.  "Call me back & leave a message saying you heard from the health dept and want to know what this is about."

They called their friends to leave messages.  

By the time she got home the machine was full of strange men calling me to ask about the health dept.  

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Ok.  Why the Mary Ingals photo?  

Teri looks like her.  

And

We used it to our advantage.  (Yes. I said "Our" advantage.)

We'd go out & convince men that she was Mary from Little House.  They'd buy us dinner, drinks,  show tickets, etc.  Our prey was tourists.  Never local men.  We'd get dinner & they'd get a story to tell when they got home.  ("Remember that show 'Little House on the Prairie'? Remember the blind chick? You're not going to believe who I had dinner with in Reno.") 

"I tried doing a few after school specials but I was type cast as the 'girl next door' and couldn't get good roles."  She'd tell them. "So now I'm selling radio time in Reno". (Which was true.) 

She'd do the Mary is blind move: arms out & saying "Mama?? Papa?? Laura??"  

Well a couple of years ago she had mis-emailed me about a dinner party.  I had been part of an email list and decided it was time for her to be pranked.

I emailed the hostess of the party.  Explained the Mary Ingalls connection and how Teri loved being told she looked like the chick from Little House.  

Hostess took the joke & ran with it.  Needless to say I believe that was the last and final time Mary Ingalls has been used by Teri.

There's more stories:

--The day after halloween & finding over 100 pumpkins in my front yard from her.

--Finding a 10# fish under my driver seat then putting it in her car after saran wrapping the steering wheel & seat together

--Ditching her at b'fast while she was in the bathroom.  I got the whole table to leave her behind.  (The radio station was paying for it. She wasn't left with the bill.)

--She & her husband having sex in my bathroom during Steve's & my wedding reception. Our reception was at our house.  Her husband showed me that he was wearing her bra. (And I was worried about Steve's friends... HA!)

--She had a secret wedding on her lunch hour and didn't tell anyone but me.  They got married a month later and eventually told of the previous wedding so it's ok that I knew about it before everyone else.

There's more. A lot more.

Teri you're my hero. 

You ran away at 18 & joined the circus.

You ran away & moved to Pismo after a 3 day vacation.

You have no fear.

You've been thru hell and back and have the best stories about the trip.

I'm glad we're friends.