Father's Day at the Piccini house...

Had a lovely Father's Day here at the Piccini house... 

Invited the fam to our humble mobile home for a barbeque (would you believe that we fit 15 people in this little place?  We do... but then 7 of those are little people! LOL).  We all came together to celebrate the 4 fathers (not forefathers!) in the family...

- Rick (my honey)

- Ray (Rick's dad)

- Jim (Rick's sister's husband)

- Richard (Rick's OTHER sister's husband, and the newest daddy in the fam!)

This is Richard & Rick manning the barbeque, hamburgers & hot dogs, not to mention all the other yummy food we got to eat!

After lunch/dinner (what do you call it when you eat at 4??),  some of us headed over to the park.  Rick, Amanda (his little sister) and CJ (our nephew) played a rousing round of 'horsie riders until tomorrow' LOL  (Started out as 'horse', went too fast!)  During this time we had a nice downpour, LOUD thunder overhead and when it was over, the humidity was heinous :o)   Thank goodness we lived near the ocean previously, it didn't bug Rick & I at all!!

Here's my honey shooting a basket under the cover of some gnarly grey clouds... see the rainbow though??

Amanda just made a great shot... and celebrating :o)  Notice, the ground is wet, but the sun is now shining!

Amanda, CJ & Rick

While the big kids were playing basketball, the little kids played at the playground (l to r... Kiera on jungle gym, Abi, Emmie, Zach in yellow & Andrew).  The girls are mine, the boys are my nephews (and CJ's brothers!)

Once the rain was gone (we also had rain while the sun was shining... very odd!), Rick's dad, BIL & nephew came to join in the basketball game... just plain ol' "horse" this time. :o)

After about 2 hours of taking pictures (over 300 pictures of basketball!!!!), I headed home to hang with my MIL & SIL and my newest niece, Gianna.  Here she is laughing at her mama!

The evening wound to a close, most of the family headed back to their own abodes but Amanda stuck around to give Abigael a haircut...

Here is Abigael BEFORE her hair cut :o)

And here she is AFTER :o)  You can't tell from the before picture, but her bangs were to her nose LOL  The shorter 'do brings out the crazy curls on this kid's head! :o)
      

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Father's Day!!!

Can you bake a cherry pie? I can! :o)

When I was little, I LOVED the Puff the Magic Dragon movie... 

Here is a link to the WHOLE movie!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3476801002597020377

But one of my favorite parts is when Jackie Draper meets Very Long John Black and Blueberry Kid... 

Jackie: Can you bake a cherry pie, Very Long, Very Long, can you bake a cherry pie, Very Long John?  

Very Long John: I can bake a cherry pie quick as a cat can wink its eye, pumpkin, peach and half a dozen others.

Jackie: I don't believe you!  

Very Long John: You don't believe me?!  

Jackie: You're a pretty good pirate, but a baker?  Never.

I've never made a cherry pie.  Heck, the only fruit pie I've ever made is apple!  But I baked some peanut butter oatmeal cookies and sent them to work with Rick, and his co-workers requested a cherry pie.  I'm totally game because I LOVE to bake... my biggest wish/dream is to be able to bake and sell my baked goods for a living (but having no formal training, I'm thinking thats not going to happen!) :o)

I accepted the cherry pie challenge, and I even made the crust... which turned out to be a great idea because I got to buy a food processor! :o)  I used to cut butter in by hand, which is all fine and good, but with 3 kids clamoring for my attention, time is of the essence and all that! LOL  I did cheat though, I used pie filling.  I just didn't feel like pitting a ton of cherries, I could see that being even more time consuming that squeezing all those Key Limes! :o)  Doesn't this look yummy?

Then Rick thought it would be a great idea to do a lattice top... uh, I've never done one of those either! :o)  But I'm game for anything... here is the result, not beautiful, but it looks homemade! :o)

Here is the finished result... it smelled DIVINE!

Rick took it to work the next day and its my understanding that it was a hit.  Enough that one of his co-workers asked if I'd make a blueberry pie!  He'll even buy the blueberries for me! :o)  That should be fun!  Rick made sure to save me a piece so I could try it... but he completely forgot that I don't eat cherries LOL  So I took the last 2 pieces over to his mom & sister (since his dad had already had a piece on their drive home from work!).  :o)

Its summer and I'm baking... I must be nuts! :o)  Chocolate chip cookies for him to bring into work next week (with Guittard chocolate, yum!)... and maybe apple pie the next week :o)  And sometime next month, an Oreo cheesecake for Emmie.  Its a good thing Rick takes these things to work with him, otherwise we'd have to roll everywhere! LOL

Christopher Moore

He. Is. Amazing. Really.

Have you read any of his books?  I have, and I need to catch up... its been a little while.

Practical Demonkeeping - where I fell in love!  About Catch, the people-eating demon and his 'master'.  Some funny stuff here!  (Are you aware that Pine Cove, California is loosely based on the Cambria area?  It was!  The Head of the Slug bar?  Camozzi's.)

Coyote Blue - About Trickster, a Native American god, and him getting joy out of screwing with a 'former' reservation dweller :o)  (You know the term 'coyote ugly'?  Moore used it BEFORE the movie!)

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story - Female vampire finds a guy to do her day-to-day errands, and he falls in love :o)

Island of the Sequined Love Nun - Guy impales his... nether-region on the gearshift of the airplane he is flying/crashing.  OUCH!  Finds traveling buddies in a transvestite and a fruit bat (named Roberto!).

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Back in Cambria :o)  Prehistoric lizard lives in the ocean, doc replaces everyone's antidepressants with placebos, lots of horny people.  Fun for everyone! :o)

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - I think the title says it all.  Biff is brought back to life to write a gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John & BIFF? LOL) about Jesus' life... those missing years.  It is incredibly inappropriate, hilariously funny and a very easy read.  I shouldn't love it, but I do!

Fluke (Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings) - A guy wants to know why humpback whales sing.  At one point, while researching, he sees a whale who's tail has BITE ME written on it.  LOL

The Stupidest Angel - Back in Cambria!!  Christmas terror, brought about by a screw up by the Archangel Raziel.  :o)  (There is a 'version 2.0... I don't have it, I probably should... I don't know if there is a difference)

A Dirty Job - Charlie becomes death's 'helper'  :o)  (haven't read it yet... here is the point that I need to start catching up!)

You Suck - Bloodsucking Fiends revisited... Tommy is now a vampire, too.  Now he has to find another 'errand runner'.  I did read this one... yet another hilarious Moore tale!

Fool - Moore's newest release... still have to read it.  King Lear told in Christopher Moore's style :o)  Bound to be full of laughs!  I NEED to get this book! LOL

My mom, when she worked at the Cambria Post Office, used to put mail in P.O. boxes... his was one of them.  She got to know him a little, he signed a couple of my books.  Then he did a book signing for Lamb, and I got to meet him in person!  I would love to hold a conversation with him, I can only imagine he would be hilarious :o)  He signed my copy of Lamb "with mint jelly"... having never eaten lamb, I didn't get it.  I do now... and its funny!  :o)  

He has since moved away from Cambria, well, Ragged Point, in case you were wondering :o)

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I wanted to add... Chris Moore has Twitter... TheAuthorGuy... and he Twittered about Twilight (of which, you already know, I also love).  Here are some things he said...  VERY funny!

-  Twilight: My next vamp book EVERYONE is going to have lip gloss on at all times.

- Twilight: Ah, I get it. Indians and vampires are natural enemies. Like pirates and ninjas.

- Twilight: Bella: I'm sure of three things. Edward was a vampire. I love him. I have no personality.

- Twilight: OMG, it's werewolf/vampire air circus. Crouching Emo, Leaping Indy

- Twilight: On noez, Edward has to suck the venom out. That line NEVER works for me. "No, you have to or I'll change to werewolf!" Nope.

Afternoon Randomness: Pictures

I'm going to try to be a woman of very few words (which is hard for me!).  Mostly just pictures, maybe a quick explanation.  Enjoy!

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I *heart* Rocky Mountain sunsets...

My Emmie :o)

As usual, Kiera needs to brush her hair :o)  But don't you just LOVE the color?!

Abigael undressing a Barbie... her mission is to leave no Barbie DRESSED!  LOL

Pink Gerbera daisies, my second favorite flower.  First are RED Gerbera daisies! :o)

Morning randomness

It will only be morning for another 37 (or so) minutes, but still enough time for morning randomness before afternoon randomness, right? :o)

First.  I had a bad dream the other night.  Really creepy.  Will NOT even talk about it, so don't ask.  I will tell you two things about it though.  

1.) Paris was in it.  Right, Paris, from Gilmore Girls.  LOL  That information would totally be funny if she wasn't part of the creepy stuff. :o)  (rabbit trail: Was watching GG season 1 the other day and Rory said something was "Hearst Castle-y"... I lived 10 minutes from Hearst Castle!)

B.) I was watching a video for Depeche Mode's song 'Wrong' and it gave me the sick to my stomach feeling I got after waking up from this creepy dream.  Not EXACTLY like my dream, but it was close enough to part of it.  I'm glad I only watched it once, the vomity feeling hasn't diminished my liking of the song!  Phew!

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Yesterday, the girls and I were coming back from Wal-Mart (needed diapers.  Totally need to get Abigael potty trained!!).  In fact, we were home, and I was just putting the car in park in our driveway.

Abigael:  Mama?

Me:  Yes.

Abigael:  I have to go home, mama.

Me:  O-kay.?  Well, we are home sweetie.

Abigael:  Okay.

Seriously, Abi is a strange bird.  Maybe that conversation doesn't sound strange, but it is, believe me.  It is strange because, randomly, Abigael will come up to Rick or I and say "I want to go home."... when we are sitting IN our home.  Sometimes when she has a bad, meltdowny day, she'll start crying and saying she wants to go home.  Rick says maybe its because I'M weird.  :o)  Weird in a way that I can remember things from when I was 2 (a little while back, of course)... like maybe Abi remembers California and she wants to go back to her home in Morro Bay.  Who knows.  Either way, she's a strange bird. :o)

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26 minutes left to the morning!

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Heading out to Golden, Colorado tomorrow.  For those of you who don't know, Golden is home to the Coors Brewery!  And they really do use "Rocky Mountain water"... from Clear Creek, it runs right past/through the brewery!  Personally, I always wondered if they were making that up, but they aren't!  :o)  Golden is quite beautiful, and tomorrow I am finally going to get the chance to GET OUT OF THE CAR to take pictures!! (normally, I get to sit in the passenger seat and take pictures as we drive by places.  Sometimes I get good pictures, other times, not so much!)

Golden is a 'western' town.  Founded in 1859, during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush... interesting, right?  Golden is also home to the '2 hour vacation'.  And while THAT sounds like a quickie, it is really just all the fun stuff you can do in and around Golden.  Seeing how the city is only about 20 minutes from our home, but closer to the foothills, I'm hoping we'll be able to do quite a few of these '2 hour vacations'!  :o)

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Morning randomness has been over for 10 minutes... finding those Golden links turned into a whole lot of rabbit trails! :o)  Distracting, but informative! :o)

Afternoon randomness will ensue after lunch and some vegging out with the girls :o)

Sick and tired...

Not me, but everyone else!  I'm hoping it will stay away from me!!!

Rick fell asleep with X2 blaring, glad its over LOL  I had to go pick him up from work this morning, he was just feeling that bad.  I'm such a 'mom', I didn't even want him to GO to work... but they don't do 'sick days'.  He went in and they said go home, they thought he had pinkeye because one of his eyes was bloodshot... kind of funny to me. :o)  No pinkeye.  No swine flu.  No flu at all.  Just sick.  Sleeping it off, contaminating the room... maybe I'll sleep on the couch tonight :o)

The girls are all a little sick, mostly runny noses and sneezing.  Incessant sneezing.  Because we've classified them as sick, they're playing it up a bit.  Hot tea.  Chocolate doughnuts (bought by dad when we stopped to pick up Nyquil).  A Gooby-Goo marathon.  Aren't they lucky that I bought all three original seasons?  AND the Gooby-Goo Movies.  Abigael loves Gooby-Goo.  :o)

Guess I'm going to church alone tomorrow.  Wouldn't want to get anyone else sick.  Should be interesting... we're on week 3 of BaseCamp.  Basically a 'get to know you' at our church.  I'm hoping to make a friend or two out of it, seeing as we've lived here for 10 months... and attended our church for just as long.  **Crossing fingers**

Off to watch Gooby-Goo & Shaggy catch the bad guys.  Maybe I'll talk them into watching the live-action one...

Channeling Derek Zoolander

How could a person NOT LOVE Derek Zoolander?! :o)  Magnum... its just.... beautiful.  :o)  Except when my children do it...

     

Really, that is what they're trying to do! :o)  

See?  :o)  Scary isn't it?  I thought so.

I'll leave you with my very favorite line from the movie....

What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read... if they can't even fit inside the building? ...  I don't wanna hear your excuses! The building has to be at least... three times bigger than this!

Every time I hear that line, I nearly die laughing... its just classic!  :o)