Weezer

Thursday night, Travis and I went to a Weezer concert with Jenna and Seth. They bought us the tickets months ago as a combined birthday gift for the two of us. The opening bands were Tokyo Police Club and Angels and Airwaves. Travis had to work late, so we missed Tokyo Police Club.

The band was fun to watch - the lead singer was a goof ball! Loved it. At the end of the show, they had a bunch of local people get up on the stage to play a couple Weezer songs. The local radio station The Buzz pulled together the group of muscians. They had a banjo, tuba (which had a mini solo of a Mario underground song = awesome), flute, sax, the list goes on. The funniest song they played was Beverly Hills and they got the crowd, males vs females, to do the vocals. It was a lot of fun actually. Check out all the locals:

All Play and No Housework

This weekend was all play and no work. Actually, I did go into work both days, but I didn't do anything around the house. Friday night I went straight up to Jenna and Seth's after work. Travis spent the whole day up there with Seth helping him do some work around the house. We had pizza for dinner and then hung out until a few other people from work showed up. They bought Rock Band on sale recently, so they broke that out. I lost track of time and didn't leave until close to 1 in the morning. That was BAD because I had to be at work at 8am Saturday. Thankfully, I was only in for three hours, so I had time to run home and take a nap before driving up to Houston that afternoon.

Saturday evening, some old friends from college, Josh and Clarissa, got married at the Hyatt in Houston. We decided to share a room at the hotel with Sara and JR, that way no one had to drive home at the end of the night. We got there a little early so we could drop off our stuff and change into our wedding attire. The wedding and reception were both beautiful. I am SO angry because my camera broke somehow between the wedding and reception. The lens was stuck and wouldn't come out properly. I've been having trouble with it for some time now (even though it is brand new), but this is the first time it went completely kaput.

This is the best picture I got during the whole 15 minutes my camera was working. I'm so bummed because there were lots of great photo opportunities. Our friends Scott and Ashley were there also, along with a few people I haven't seen since college. It is crazy how time flies. Towards the end of the night we went to a bar with the bride and groom and a bunch of their followers. I think we got back to the hotel around 2 in the morning.

I had a really bad weekend when it comes to my technology, now that I think about it. Before leaving for Houston, I dropped my cell phone into the toilet. I was quick to retrieve it (thankfully it was a pee and poo-free toilet) and turn off the phone. I took everything apart and left it to dry. It wasn't back to full working form until yesterday morning. At least it is back to working form. I have insurance on it, but it is always such a pain to deal with that.

The best part of the whole weekend is that I took a nap on Saturday AND Sunday. That is crazy for me. Of course, both days I woke up groggy and feeling like crap because I had to get up right away and get back on the move. I think it helped in the long run though. I feel pretty good today, despite how busy we were.

Aside from running into work for a little bit, I did absolutely nothing yesterday. I spent the day surfing the web and reading magazines. Travis mowed the lawn and began the laborious process of removing the rusty clotheslines from our back yard. He decided to cut the posts down to the concrete and then just bury the concrete blocks. Travis almost broke his shovel attempting to lever the block out of the ground. It will be just as easy to bury it and let the grass grow over. I'm just excited to make use of the pile of dirt that has been marring our driveway for months now!

Rollin' on the River

I finally got the photos back from the river. Just like last year, they mostly turned out blurry. The lens was either covered in condensation or there was a drop of water obscuring the view. This is the best I could get with a disposable camera.

We got on the water around 10am. The water was FREEZING. After a couple minutes, someone said we should have just brought a bag, filled it with beer and let that hang in the water. It was that cold. After my ass went numb, I applied sunscreen and cracked open a beer. Yes - we started drinking at 10 in the morning. And it was awesome.

The river was at a complete standstill, so it took us at least an hour to get around the first bend. At that point we didn't mind though. We were just chilling outside, sipping on a beer. Chris got frustrated after a while and said he was just going to walk home. Here's Chris walking home (behind Jenna):

It really is very pretty there. We enjoyed the majority of our toob trip. It wasn't until the last couple hours that we were miserable with sunburns. I swear to you that we had group sunblock time, where we passed around the sunscreen so everyone could have a go. And yet none of us made it out unscathed.

There were people on docks on the side of the river, mooning us. There were people down stream throwing jello shots around. I think Shannon even caught one. There were people with their dogs on their tubes. There were people with radios built into their coolers. There was even a woman who I am pretty sure was doped out on some sort of drugs. She was squirming around in her tube, with vomit stuck in her hair. And then Jenna and I got wedged between her and another group of people. Disgusting. There were SO MANY people there. Do you see all these people behind me?! INSANE.

About half way through our trip (probably because that's when all the partiers finally got up for the day), the river suddenly became filled with all these people. Towards the end, we passed a campground called Rainbow Campgrounds. Ha! There were some very butch looking women sitting in chairs in the water. And do you know what happened? Jenna, Shannon and I (all drunk), ran RIGHT INTO THEM. I'm sure they thought we were trying to start a conversation. They just looked at us and said, "you gettin off here?" Ahhh! Noooo! She didn't seem to hear us and asked again. Again, I said NO. After accepting our decision, she got up and gave us a good shove back into the flow of traffic. Narrow escape.

Ladies, it's time to be jealous. Yes. This is my sexy husband and I am damn proud of it. Some girls even talked to him about his tattoo. Silly girls. Don't they know he's with me?

We're all still nursing our burns... Except Travis. Boo on him.

**Update** I forgot to mention how we nearly lost the cooler for the second year in a row. We lost it last year going over a three foot waterfall. This year, a bunch of us were tied to the cooler tube. At some point (after plenty of beers), Jenna and Shannon went on one side of a rock, and Travis and the cooler went on the other side of the rock. The result was a torn rope and a spilled cooler of beer. I tried to grab a rope that was tied to the handle to right the cooler, but I just tore off the handle. The top got knocked off and all the beer spilled out. Along with our bag full of IDs, clothes and snacks. I was more concerned with the beers floating away than our bag (drunkenness is bad) so I focused on collecting those. There were a bunch of people standing on the side of these "rapids", and they helped us grab everything. Nice people. When we got to the end, we had everything. Thankfully someone thought to grab our bag. We found out later that the same thing happened to our neighbors at the campsite. But whoever grabbed their bag, also took the liberty of removing all of their debit cards. Not nice people. That's what started that whole fight that I mentioned several days ago. We made it away WITH all of our stuff. Including the beer!

The Guadalupe

Toobing and camping this weekend went great! We left Friday afternoon for the campground with Shannon and Chris. I think we got to our site around 6pm. I could not believe it when we got to our site and it was the exact same two we had last year! What are the chances? Well, it turns out the chances are pretty good. I guess they try to put people who reserve two or more sites together at this location. I'm guessing its because one of the sites is pretty small compared to the rest and it is on a hill, so there is no place to park. Next time we go I'm going to request a different site because the slant of those sites really gets to you after a while. Not to mention you have to arrange tents and beds according to the slant so you don't spend the entire night rolling over your significant other. Anyhoo. We had plenty of sunlight hours to put up our tents and set up shop. Jenna and Seth borrowed our other tent, so we set that up for them before they got there.

Chris brought two hammocks. Of course he and Travis had to test them out immediately.

The boys started up the fire and the grill so we could get dinner started - hamburgers and brats. We ate dinner and even had time for S'mores before Jenna and Seth finally made it to the site. They had to work until 4pm and then they stopped for dinner on the way. We all stayed up until 1am and drank a little too much cerveza. Despite the late night, we were all up by 8am. I guess we're all used to our daily routines. Travis made breakfast burritos and then we packed up for the river.

Here's our camp during daylight (it is so pretty there):

We had a couple run-ins with "nature" during our first 20 hours. A little before Jenna and Seth arrived, Mr. Skunk decided to pass through our campsite. We all stayed calm in hopes that the animal would leave us alone. Until Chris threw a rock at it. UGH. Thankfully, he was just scared off. I would have ripped Chris open if that animal would have sprayed us. I have never been sprayed, or had a dog that was sprayed, in my life. And I'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much. Our second run-in, was with a creepy, crawly poisonous creature - the Texas Giant Centipede. !!! While we were waiting for breakfast to be ready, he ran under my chair. I didn't even notice until Jenna pointed him out. We got a photo and then Chris set him back in the forest.

YIKES! Gives me the jitters just looking at the photo.

Our plan for tubing, or toobing, as it is spelled down here, was to do the same schedule we did last year: take the bus upstream, float back to our campsite to stop for lunch, then get back on for the other half of the ride where we would be picked up and brought home by the bus again. Unfortunately, water flow was at an almost complete standstill. It took us 7 HOURS to do what took us 3 or 4 last year. The huge bummer for me is that I did not pack a lunch since I thought we'd be back by that point. I at least brought a few snacks. I usually eat every two hours, alternating snack and meal. 7 hours of crackers and granola bars just didn't cut it for me. About an hour before we finally made it to our campsite, I completely ran out of juice. I decided I would just float it out and hope I made it there before I passed out. Luckily, there was a random hot dog stand on the side of the river. Chris got out and grabbed me some chili Frito pie. Not my favorite, but desparate times call for desparate measures. About 15 minutes after scarfing that down, my energy came back and I was able to paddle myself the rest of the way back. We were all burnt to a crisp by this point, so we were ready to get back. I don't have the photos back from the river yet. I brought a waterproof disposable camera with, so I'll get those up later.

We were all so worn out after the river that the evening quickly fizzled out. There was a fight between two drunk dudes at the campsite next to ours. After one of the guys left, Chris invited the rest of them over to help finish our food for dinner. While dinner was cooking, I decided to run and take a shower. Despite the peanut butter sandwich I devoured when we got back, I felt dizzy while standing in line. I had to postpone the shower to lay down in the tent while I waited for dinner. I've found that when I'm this far gone, the only thing that will bring me back is protein. Travis was awesome and brought me a fajita to the tent. I was able to eat that and drink a bottle of water while I waited for life to return to my body. It was horrible. I got up and ate a little more, before heading back to the showers. I was still dizzy, but I think it is mostly because I was still getting my land legs back. I felt like I was floating in a toob for the rest of the night.

I'm sad I felt so crappy because it sounds like I missed a lot of fun. Everyone played washers with the neighbors while they waited for dinner to be ready. Then afterwards, everyone headed down to the pavillion to watch Seth sing karaoke. He's known for his amazing skills at the mic. Actually, that's how Jenna and Seth met - at a karaoke bar. He prefers to sing Prince, but the DJ didn't have that. He settled for Lisa Lobe. I know that sounds strange, but you've gotta know the guy to understand. So sad I missed it...

Sunday morning we all got up and assessed the damage. Everyone was sunburnt. Bad.

Shannon and Seth

We had camp coffee and then loaded up the trucks.

Jenna, Chris and Seth

Jenna and Seth were ready to head home. Sunday was Seth's birthday and they didn't want to spend the whole day on the road. We, on the other hand, headed to a local German restaurant called Oma's Haus. I guess the area is known for it. It was awesome. I tried schnitzel for the first time ever, which brought to mind Tenacious D. Good stuff. After we picked up some extra sausage links for our neighbor, Cowboy Willy, we started the ride home. It seemed a lot quicker than the ride there. Despite the three feet of grass growing in our lawn, Travis and I took the night off to rest. Why is it that we always need vacations from our vacations?