march madness in texas! (part three)

lindsay's dress! click on the image to see mad detail...

part three--the conclusion! we are now at the day of the wedding itself, last saturday. sophie started the day around 6:00 a.m. even though she had essentially juuuuust fallen asleep at 11:30 (her norm is more like going to bed at 8:00 and getting up at 6:30). she was hungry, confused, and generally pissed off. she yelled all morning, which embarassed the hell out of my dad at breakfast (he hasn't learned that you can't shush an almost-two-year old quiet), but we survived. ashley, amy b and i met a couple of hours later for the bridal brunch (where was everyone?) and then we got on the bus for casa blanca on brushy creek.

lindsay did great, aside from having a wicked hangover, and only freaked out once before the ceremony. and it wasn't even a bad freak out, either--after she had her hair and makeup done she started running around going, "i'm pretty! i'm really pretty!! I'M SO FREAKIN' PRETTY!!! LOOK AT ME!!!!! HOLY SHIT I'M GORGEOUS!!!!!" but it only lasted a few minutes and then she went back to normal(ish). she did much better than i did before my wedding--i freaked out by hyperventilating, breaking out in hives and yelling at everyone to get the hell away from me. she handled things much more positively (as always).

by 6:00 we were all ready to go--pictures were taken (not by me--at least not the formal ones); at 6:30 the ceremony started. lindsay and jake did great, sophie and gus got down the aisle beautifully, katie gave a brilliant reading, and no one passed out or fell into brushy creek or anything like that. it was a very sweet and concise ceremony. there were about 300 people i think at the ceremony/reception and much much much champagne/beer/wine/alcohol was a-flowin'. the food was excellent; the bands were superb; the flowers were outstanding; the night was perfect. there were multiple people at work all day and night to ensure the smoothness of the event. truly, hollywood would be hard-pressed to replicate a wedding as intricately designed as my sister's. the level of detail to literally everything was remarkable--i don't think one could say anything was left out or overlooked or whatever. the reception went on until like 1:30 in the morning.

SO, they are married now, and are on a fabulous honeymoon in new zealand for the next couple of weeks. they left the day after the ceremony, as did we. our flight, while considerably shorter, was majorly eventful as sophie screamed from the time we got on the plane to the time we got off (as usual) and gus had a major nosebleed about halfway through. so i had one screaming and doing alligator rolls in my arms and one covered in blood--people stayed the hell away from us, including rich (who was still on vacation in his mind...). actually, one group of old ladies on their way to santa fe kept asking if i wanted my older daughter to sit with them...i finally figured out they were talking about gus and once they figured out that a) he was a boy and b) he was covered in blood, they weren't so interested anymore. oh well. it's good to be home!

the bridal brunch representatives, ashley and amy b

the bride-to-be relaxing for one last moment

don't ask--lindsay and amy e having fun

lindsay's so pretty!

pretty sophie bunny--this dress was my mother's dress, many decades ago, when she was a flower girl at a wedding (see below)

my mom, c. 1950, wearing sophie's dress

pretty gus!

pretty rich!

pretty katie!

pretty ashley!

lindsay with our parents

after the formal pictures, sophie stepped on her dress and ripped the hem out right before the ceremony...so mommy is madly trying to sew it back up

still sewing--i love this picture because the woman in the background, kat, is a seamstress and between she and my mother they are both like grimacing at the disservice i am doing to sophie's hem

sophie getting her hair done

me and my bunny

sophie, lindsay and i having a dance to try and relax before the service

lindsay, ashley, and amy e's back

"LOOK AT ME! I'M FREAKIN' PRETTY, TOO!!!"

gus the big stud, after a trying evening on the dance floor

me and my boy dancing

katie, barry and ashley

me, screaming sophie, and rich

sleepy, sleepy kiddos

lindsay and jake, in christchurch, new zealand, yesterday

(p.s. for those of you who are really into wedding pictures, all of the candid ones that i shot can be seen here.

march madness in texas! (part two)

i am still a bunny

in our last installment, we covered easter...now we are up to the time between that and lindsay and jake's big day, including the rehearsal (at which i got to meet jake's sister, amy b, jake's brother, aaron, and his wife, tracy, who are all awesome and who i am thrilled to now be related to!) and the rehearsal dinner. and it was possibly the world's largest rehearsal dinner--there must have been 100-120 people there! jake's family is extended, indeed. but for being such a large gathering it was surprisingly intimate--i know lindsay and jake loved it.

the speeches were great--dad gave one announcing the start of "best son-in-law contest" season, as until last weekend he had only had one son-in-law, so rich is nervous. gus gave a remarkable speech that was very, very sweet and surprisingly good (he is only eight, after all). and i got to sit with katie and barry at the rehearsal dinner, which was of course wonderful! i also got to get to know lindsay's maid of honor, amy e, who was a total pleasure to meet. and then we all--actually, mainly gus and sophie--danced to a sweet bluegrass band for as long as we could. we all enjoyed it immensely.

(look for part three tomorrow--the wedding!)


this is how gus spent pretty much every waking moment at the farm (when he wasn't watching cartoon network)

a trip to brenham isn't complete without visiting blue bell ice creamery!

sophie and her hero, daddy

gus and his hero, aunt lindsay

sophie and mommy at the rehearsal dinner (and sophie looks as i have never seen her look before--who is this child? she kinda resembles rosie perez from "do the right thing")

gus at the rehearsal dinner

buzz-cut barry and ashley at the rehearsal dinner

gus giving his speech to jake and lindsay

march madness in texas! (part one)

i am a bunny.

we're back! did you miss us? did my one reader and one stalker notice i was gone? well, fret no more, as we are here. gus, sophie and i went to texas almost two weeks ago for easter and for my sister lindsay's wedding. rich joined us just before the wedding (because taking vacation days apparently causes him psychic-verging-on-physical pain...) so he missed out on much of the craziness.

so, i'll start at the beginning--easterish, about 10 days ago. the easter bunny came to the farm and left all kinds of goodies for gus and sophie!

my sisters, ashley (in the foreground) and lindsay (blowing bubbles)--a perfect representation of them both

nice doggie--this lab adopted my dad a couple of months ago and i think we are adopting him soon

gus is on the hunt...

...and aunt lindsay is stealing the reese's-esque spoils

sophie finds an egg that matches my mom's shirt

gus' stash

comparing hauls

sophie LOVES her new uncle jake...

...and she charmed him into flinging her around...

...and forced him to entertain her for forever...

...but eventually wore him out.

the women just watched

trying something new at argus gallery

i have been trying to update the look of my photography site, argusgallery.com, and i would love some feedback. i designed the site five years ago, and it was great for five years ago, but now i feel like i should clean it up a little. anyway, if you get a chance, check out this link:

possible new venice 1999

and the old site for the same exhibition:

old venice 1999

what do you think--old or new?

my domestic disconnect

if i had married to be a classic doctor's wife, i would be alright. if i could be contented to shop for a living and spend guiltlessly on myself and my kids, i would be fine. if i could just go get a fucking mani/pedi/waxing/massage every week things would be great. but i'm not that person. i actually want a partner i can grow old with.

maybe i should get a dog.

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY MOST WONDERFUL BOY!

dazed birthday boy with friend eagerly eyeballing his chocolate chip pie

today is gus' 8th birthday! we have had an extraordinarily noisy and busy weekend to celebrate it. and the fun isn't even over yet--i'm bringing 2 dozen triple-chocolate brownies to gus' class tomorrow (in an act of sheer passive-aggression against his school). actually, i'm just mean that way--i really do love his school.

ANYWAY, on a side note, i no longer fear hell because i've experienced an 8-year old's sleepover party. we had NINE very active, very noisy, occasionally destructive friends spend the night on friday. my ears are still ringing. the noise level was impressive--and much of it came from gus. we only had one meltdown (by a kid, not by us), one or two mild incidents of physicality, and one broken window. no one threw up, which was a total bonus, and no one wanted to go home. i think the kids had fun overall--the only problems arose when it was getting late (like 11:00) and some of the kids were getting really tired while others were really wound up. we made them all sleep in the playroom together (except the one who had the meltdown--he got to sleep in gus' bed) and as a result they didn't get to sleep until close to 2:00 a.m. it made for a fairly low-key morning, though. of course the main reason for sleeping in the playroom is because we can close the door and have them sealed off from the rest of the house.

sadly, it didn't dampen gus' enthusiasm to do this again next year.

happy birthday to gus!

the night of madness...

...and the morning after (that playroom is a godsend)

the el vado motel is saved (for good!)

this sentence alone bears offsetting and italics:

the city of albuquerque did the right thing.

period. and i have to say, i am surprised. i don't have a ton of faith in government acting in the best interest of the population, especially in cases like this where there is a historic issue at stake (and a lot of money to be made from taxes on expensive condos), but this time they absolutely came through for the city. after years of negotiations, the city of albuquerque finally condemned the el vado motel and seized it. prior to this the city had made the owner a perfectly legitimate and reasonable offer for the property, which he not only refused but added that he would never sell it to the city on principal. former owner ("developer" richard gonzales) is no doubt stewing over this latest chapter in the el vado saga. he will, however, be compensated appropriately in the end--a judge is to determine actual value of the site soon in order to finalize this deal.

i, and many others, have been fighting via email, city council meetings, and however else we could be heard to have this structure saved from demolition. i wrote about the plight of the el vado here; ron at route66.com wrote about the most recent developments here. yay for preservation!

happy birthday mom!

my mom's birthday was yesterday and i thought i would help her celebrate by posting an online exhibition of my favorite artist's work. happy (now belated) birthday!

trying to stay positive in a medical marriage...

...without devolving into this.

(yes, i'm aware that these are two males; no, i don't have a penis.)

dr. n's shed

the owl can't believe what he is seeing

dr. n's shed is no more. amazingly, it wasn't destroyed (as rich and i thought it likely would be) but rather was moved by some seriously creative and adept electricians. they were armed with two house jacks (although one didn't work), a 24 by 8 foot mobile home base that had been semi-converted to a trailer, a toyota land cruiser that was about as old as i am, a winch on said cruiser (of the same vintage as the truck itself), lots of boards of wood and a couple of long steel pipes. there were three guys--J.W., who is pushing retirement age and weighs almost nothing, jeff who is my age and also weighs almost nothing, and rob who weighs a bit more but who has MS and is a physician of oriental medicine in addition to his electrician skills. it was a motley crew with a remarkably odd assortment of implements.

so, these three necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention masters decided they were going to put our one ton shed up on this homemade trailer. several problems presented themselves: first, we couldn't get a crane in the backyard because the power lines were too low. and we couldn't get a crane in the front because the driveway was too narrow for the stabilizing arms. our neighbors, who have both a very wide driveway and a sand backyard said absolutely not when asked if we could put it there, so that was out. and, the shed was built in situ so it couldn't be disassembled without turning it into a pile of rubbish. so it had to be lifted but it had to be lifted another way--house jacks.

second, we couldn't get the trailer that the shed was to go on actually in the backyard because J.W. drives a converted 1970 tom's peanut truck/snack wagon for his transportation and the length of it combined with the length of the trailer meant that he would most certainly end up in the ditch that runs behind our house. so he cut the fence down and spent about an hour slowly angling it into place. although then we had no fence. and, after the trailer was in place he realized it was about 6 feet too far over from where it needed to be to get the shed on it.

thus problem #3--how to move the shed? solution--they jacked up one short side of the one ton shed (i might be exaggerating the weight, but that sucker was heavy and solid!) as far as they could then pushed it over--BAM!--so it fell on a slight diagonal from its original position. then they went to the other short side and did it again. they walked the shed the whole distance by doing this over and over, one side then the other, about 5 or 6 feet. and that thing totally held together! there was one slight crack between two adjoining pieces of wood, but it held. impressive.

after they got the shed moved to position they jacked it up one last time, as far as they could, backed the trailer up as far as it could go and realized there was about a 6 inch gap because of the trailer bumper. couldn't get the bumper off, so they got behind the shed and these guys PUSHED as hard as they could. it cleared the gap and caught on the trailer. amazingly, the trailer didn't flip over (it was being weighed down by the toyota).

now, how to get it on the trailer? they wrapped the shed with an extra-long piece of nylon mesh rope, which promptly snapped the first time they tried to winch the shed and thankfully didn't hurt anyone. so, they tied random bits of rope and what was left of the mesh together and tried to winch again. ultimately, it all worked.

gus takes a break from foremanning

when we first moved into the house, we had a lot of electrical work done and J.W. (who did all the work) told me that if we ever wanted to get rid of the shed he wanted it for his property in the mountains. he is a committed activist and has been pushing for light rail in albuquerque for years; he will certainly be in this shed/cabin writing his rails manifesto for years to come. rich and i have wanted a basketball court back there where the shed was, and the neighbors (the ones who wouldn't let us use their yard...) were complaining that squirrels were living under it and infesting their ductwork, so we figured it was time to let it go. we are getting one half that size and placing it in a totally different place--dr. n (the previous owner) liked to keep lots of handy things in the shed, but we are not so resourceful. thus dr. n's shed is no more. (and, FYI, there wasn't a single squirrel or squirrel dropping or anything anywhere--perhaps they just like my neighbor's ductwork?) look for pictures of the basketball court to come!

i'm putting two movies up of some of the action--enjoy!

is he insensitive or one burger short of a happy meal?

pop quiz: your husband accepts a request from a neighbor (one you are not particularly close to and have multiple requests of this sort from) to babysit their son from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. for the following day (today) without asking you. and then he forgets to tell you. and then for said day (again, today) he happens to be on call and off checking on inpatients and emergency clinic visits for most of the day so you are on your own. and you've been stuck in the house for almost a month with your two sick kids and haven't even gone to the grocery store for forever. and you're more than a little pissed.

so what is the verdict--insensitive or lacking the burger? or both (that is a possibility...)?

i feel like i need to make a public proclamation that i am not the neighborhood babysitter! this particular family is a two-physician family with crazy work schedules and i swear i think they think (and rich thinks, apparently) that i have nothing else to do with my time so why not take care of their kid. and the kid is fine--he's not terribly intrusive or anything like that. but shit, am i not even worthy of being consulted anymore? is it because i've gained weight since we got married or stopped working and am not bringing home a paycheck or what? rich worked from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on friday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. yesterday and is at it again today. he is not terribly involved in our life here at the moment and i'm so glad he has decided to determine my time for me. in any event, you'd think two physicians could get it together enough to hire a full-time nanny.