I wasn’t completely sold in the concept going into Thanksgiving dinner, but last night’s buffet experience at the Treasure Island in Vegas has completely sold me.  No cooking, no cleanup.  Ten members of the extended family, including my brother who flew in from Salt Lake City around a big table eating all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes, plus chinese, seafood, pizza and cotton candy made it a great time for everyone.

And just in case our own family couldn’t supply enough drama, there were the hundreds of people at the tables surrounding ours adding to the evening entertainment.  Highlight of the evening: the waytooskinny blonde Asian chick who upchucked her first course but stayed at the table as her dinner companions kept fetching her more plates.  Gotta admire the professional staff who brought her a tub without batting an eye – that’s when you know a buffet really, really, means the meal is ‘all you can eat.’ 

Still enjoying the weekend.  Spent the Black Friday away from the malls, but took Diego and Spinner to the beach to stretch the legs and see some new sights.  Boulder Beach at Lake Mead might not be a great surf spot, but it allows us to keep with the family tradition of always hitting the beach on vacations and Diego had a blast chasing the birds.

Dog park beats a walk,

Open space and lots to sniff,

Diego runs wild.

Buttermilk pancakes.

Good swim, even though I did

double-knot my suit.

One year ago, almost to the minute, I was bouncing off the walls, stressed almost to my limits.  It was the day of our wedding reception.  The caterer had just called to tell us someone had poached our spot at Crown Point, and because of that we needed to find tables and chairs for about 80 people.  Spinner was off hunting down the cake.   Diego was probably being a pain – nothing unusual – he just gets that way when he thinks he’s being ignored or abandoned.

Everything worked out though, and it was a wonderful day.  Hands down one of the best days of my life.  The June wedding’s right up there too, and it’s hard to put one over the other.  Yes, I’m still proud to be a June Party B but always love a good party.

Small, intimate, peaceful ceremony to express our commitment versus large, public, and just plain FUN party to celebrate that commitment.  Tough call.

For years, assuming we’d never get “married”, we celebrated the anniversary of our first date.  Since then we’ve celebrated that and the anniversary of the June wedding.  We’re both remembering today, but there’s nothing special planned.  Two anniversaries per year is enough for any couple.

I don’t think this last year has been easy on anyone.  The fabulousness was so much that the H8ers felt they had to step in and try to end our marriage, and the most fabulous cake shop around was a victim of the recession.  But I’m definitely happy we’ve taken this route and appreciate everyone who came out a year ago to help us celebrate.  Now back to meeting Diego’s need for attention.

I’ve been spending a lot of time the last two months on a little non-public website.  It’s no secret – it’s just that by design it has about 35 users and is not open to the public.  It started off simple – a place some kids could access online some photos Spinner uses as writing prompts for his class.

Then it expanded into a way for them to submit their related writing assignments online.

In the current iteration the class can get an assignment with text and related media online, and complete and return their assignments online.  Students get teacher feedback as soon as it’s entered.  True/False, multiple choice, fill in the blank, open-ended essays – it’s all there for the teacher to use, including some automated scoring.  Cross-indexing lets the teacher look at a student’s entire semester work at once to get a feel for progress or issues, and share that with the parents.  It even sends the parents e-mail copies of their kid’s work if they want.

Why?  It saves trees. Teaches kids computer skills for the real world, while incorporating content not able to be shown in text-based ditto copies. Lets a certain school district off the hook with their draconian photocopy restrictions. My husband spends less time carting stacks of paper around, and so has more time for Diego (and possibly me-me-me-me-me).

And it did keep me busy while other business was slow this summer and pumped up my php and mySql skills a notch or two.

But this week a silly little plugin and a developer’s gratuitous use of javascript(s) are pushing me to get out a chainsaw and pulp an entire forest into xerox paper for him just so the headache will go away.  I’m sure the feeling will go away after a short nap and some puppy licks, and I will get this update done and published, but I just needed to share.

The morning walk, when 400 or so pounds of humans are pulled around the neighborhood by a 20-pound furball, is usually the zen part of the morning. Fresh air, a bit of chat, a little stretching of the legs and a lot of calm. Nod to the early risers, let the ladies of our local Curves fawn over Diego, check out the occasional cute jogger as appropriate and keep an eye peeled for Walks of Shame.  Good for the soul, all that.

This morning though the manager of a Kindercare here in the neighborhood interrupted the bliss (and her own posting of another eyesore sign) to ask us to keep Diego off her precious patch of grass. Just a tad peeved that the woman who keeps a multi-year supply of used cigarette butts on the sidewalk ten feet north of her little fiefdom decided to upset my balance on the assumption we wouldn’t clean up after our dog.  Not a good way to start the day at all.

Pongo used to post here from time to time, using his special powers to telepathically move my fingers over the keyboard.

Diego’s never felt the need, but we did feel that he should have the opportunity to share his vacation experiences in his own way.

Still photography from the week is up in the galleries. It was a great vacation, and I’m still regretting listening to the pesky voice of financial reason and letting it end.

Still on vacation in Pismo, making a quick post while Spinner forages for breakfast.  Diego’s getting spoiled rotten with the long, leashless, walks on the beach.  This morning’s was a special treat though.

About halfway down the beach we stumbled on (and Diego sniffed) a young couple enjoying a bottle of champagne with the sunrise.  Didn’t want to intrude to the point of asking what they were celebrating – settled for luring Diego away so they could get back to their moment.  Have to assume though they were there to help celebrate our anniversary.  Yep, our wedding was one year ago today, on the second day of California’s 2008 marriage equality window.  The marriage is still going strong despite the best efforts of the H8ers, and I love Randy even more today then I ever have.

This was supposed to be the day I got my mojo back.  Spent the end of last week focussing on the Business of Law because I was kinda sick of the law itself.  Family law does that to me sometimes, and I have way too much of that on my desk at the moment, to the detriment of the transactional work that I truly enjoy.  Gotta go where the money is, especially in this economy.  But the mojo wasn’t on my desk this morning.  It’s on my calendar, in the form of deadlines throughout the week, but it just isn’t here.  I looked behind the Afrin, and under the Naproxen, and checked to see if Diego had chewed it up (like so many other things these days), but it just isn’t here.  Hopefeully it will turn up after my nap, otherwise this could be an ugly week.

An otherwise great weekend is being marred by news of the death of J.G. Ballard and the imminent death of a friend’s beloved pet of 15 years.  I haven’t explored Ballard’s writings as much as I should, but was a huge fan of the film of his autobiography, Empire of the Sun.  Prostate cancer deaths always twist my emotions just a little bit harder; going to have to find some of his other books at the library this week.  As for the other, spending time with Diego now and planning for the consumption of alcohol is very near future.

Didn’t sleep well at all. I think Diego’s fidgety anticipation of a giant rabbit bringing colored eggs stuffed with bacon (his beliefs, not mine) kept him up, and in turn that kept me up. Randy however, is somehow still out cold.

Not for long though. In an hour or so we’ll be heading out for an easter brunch in Laguna with old friends. Kinda like an Easter sunrise service in that we’ll be on the beach too close to the hour of sunrise, but we get a private booth, and well, get served. Some of the people there will undoubtedly look like the risen dead too.

Since you’re here though, enjoy some photo flashbacks of Easters past: 1995 or 1996, 2005, and 2007.  No object lessons, no ghosts, just fond memories.