Temecula Wine Tasting- October

If you ever have the opportunity to take the Vine Line through Temecula.... DO IT. 

Limo Day- October

Our crazy, wonderful friends Bob and Joy came from Kansas to visit us and Joy decided she'd like to take a shopping trip to Palm Springs in a Limo. As cheap as I am, that's really not my thing, but it ended up being a blast. Once I made the connection that you can drink wine in a limo while someone else drives, I was all for it.  

Coachella Music Festival 2009

Did I mention that I saw Paul McCartney? Live? In the flesh? I did, and it was incredible. While we were at the Coachella festival we managed to see a few other amazing shows. It was an awesome line up! On Sunday we caught the Perry Farrell show first. He's a fruit but I love him anyway. I thought the pink feather boa was a nice touch. We were lucky that he played one Jane's Addiction song as well as one Porno for Pyros song (Under the Tahitian Moon...my favorite!). He also played the Twilight song! It rocked live. This is a great picture, right? It made me want to kick myself for not bringing the Nikon with the zoom lens to see Paul. Stupid, stupid! We were also able to get much closer to Perry's stage than we were to Paul's. A living legend like Paul needs his space! Beatlemania lives!

We also had a fantastic time chatting with our friends who met us at the show. 

Jeff and Marisa are to my left and Adnan and Nora are to my right. Marisa and Nora also teach kindergarten. We had to drink several beers to ease the pain of the work week. 

Here are the remainder of the pictures we took. If you've heard anything about Coachella in the news, I'm sorry to say that I did NOT get any pictures of the naked guy getting tasered. Or the other naked guy. Or Paris Hilton. Funny story about her, I saw a blonde girl lying on the grass, nudged my friend, and said "Hey Jeff, check out Paris Hilton *snicker, snicker*" I totally meant to make fun of the Paris look-alike. The next day I read a news article about the celebrity attendance at the festival. Turns out the girl I was making fun of really was Paris Hilton. Who knew? If you want to see the naked guy getting tasered, check it out here. 

The last band was another one of my all-time favorites, the Cure. Robert Smith rocked it just like he did the last time I saw them 17 years ago. I love him and his crazy makeup and ratty hair. I was disappointed that they didn't play "Letters to Elise", my inspiration for giving Anna the middle name "Elise", but they did play most of my other favorites. I also have to give them props for continuing to play after the organizers pulled the plug on their show. Apparently the city of Indio has a midnight curfew and in order to dodge a hefty fine the organizers turned off the sound. The Cure continued to play, and the crowd sang along. Paul ended up going 50 minutes after curfew but no one dared pull the plug on him!

Next year we're camping and staying all weekend! 

OMG

I titled this post "OMG" because that's what I kept texting during the concert we went to last weekend. Being in the presence of a Beatle was nothing less than extraordinary! Check out the set list here. It was absolutely surreal.

See that guy in the white shirt in front of the microphone? It's PAUL FREAKING McCARTNEY! Yes, you read that right. The cute Beatle. 

This is my friend Jessica. She's awesome because she teaches high school Spanish. Teenagers are scary. Anyway, she's also awesome because she loves Paul just as much as I do. That middle finger behind us is Shawn. He's jealous of Paul. 

Paul's show was amazing. We were able to weasel our way up to the front. We were close enough to feel the heat from the pyrotechnics during "Live and Let Die". We wished we were close enough to feel the heat off of Paul himself. We weren't so lucky. 

Here's a video of the performance .

We also saw Morrissey. *yawn* His music was good but he was a little bitchy. 

Here I am celebrating Paul with a Heineken. I think he would approve.

Dropkick Murphys

As if Shawn wasn't lucky enough for being able to go fishing out on the ocean on Friday, I had a wild hair and decided that we should go see one of our favorite bands, the Dropkick Murphys at the Hollywood Palladium. We were able to find two tickets from someone who wasn't able to go, and after fishing Shawn and Brett drove up to Point Hueneme to pick them up. Jennifer and I took a chance and decided we'd try to get tickets at the box office. Anyway, long story short, the show was sold out but the universe was on our side and we were able to get two tickets outside the gate from people who just happened to have extra and at a lower price than what we would have paid online. Dropkick fans are the best! We're so lucky! We had a fantastic time! I think Jennifer may have been terrified at one point during the show when the crowed erupted into a jumping, shoving, screaming mass, but I think she quickly learned to enjoy it :) I think we'll be making the short, 2 hour trip to Hollywood more often for concerts. The venue was historic (Frank Sinatra opened up the place!) and it's small enough that you can actually SEE the band. Hell, Shawn and I made our way up to the barricade in front of the stage about halfway through the concert. I wouldn't have been able to give Spicy McHaggis a kiss otherwise! I also have to say that the Denny's on Sunset Strip is by far the best Denny's I have EVER been to, lol.

Fishing

Shawn, Brett, and the Marines went fishing off the coast of Catalina Island. Shawn caught a sea bass and somehow also caught a squid down his pants (courtesy of Brett!). I think he was pretty happy with his first California fishing expedition. Next fishing stop, Lake Havasu!

The Bachelorette Party!

You know it's a great place for a party when the staff is buying the bride-to-be blow job shots :) 

It's a Festivus Miracle!

Here we are goofily (is that a word?) celebrating "Festivus". If you're not familiar with the holiday, click here to read about it. We had a fantastic time! 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We didn't win anything (I guess you have to play to win?) but we had a fantastic time playing in Vegas. I had my makeup done by a MAC professional, met Elvis, and dined with Nine Fine Irishmen. Happy Anniversary to all of us!

Wish us Luck...

Sunday is our 7th wedding anniversary. I know! I can't believe it either! Since we never went on a honeymoon and we've never properly celebrated our anniversary, we're taking a 24-hour whirlwind trip to Las Vegas tomorrow with our friends Jen and Brett, whose anniversary happens to fall on the day before ours. I realize that we were just in Las Vegas two weeks ago, but for a 2 hour drive and a $50 room we figured... why the hell not?

Marine Corps Ball and Las Vegas

We attended the Marine Corps Ball in Primm, Nevada last night and had a FANTASTIC time. I got to meet some of the goofy (and fun!) guys Shawn works with. You can't beat a party with handsome men in uniform and free beer :) After the ball we drove into Vegas and stayed at the Stratosphere briefly. I say briefly because we were out until 5am :) We started out at Margaritaville where I had a wonderful pomegranate margarita. We then  hit up Toby Keith's "I love this bar" bar, and accidentally walked out with our "beer in a Mason jar". Shawn was amazed that you could buy a Corona on the street and walk around with it! We've decided that we LOVE Las Vegas and that since it's just a short drive we'll have to go hang out there more often. 

Edited to add: Several people have asked us how much money we won or lost. LOL, we ended up losing fifty cents. The high rollers we are, we only used $10 to gamble with. We decided we'd MUCH rather buy beer than throw our money away in a machine ;)

Weird and Random

So tonight I went to a "Temptations" party at Jen's house and the demonstrator just HAPPENED to be the mother of one of my kindergarten students. Talk about uncomfortable moments! I'm debating whether or not I want to post the hilarious pictures of my friends and I playing with plastic penises on the internet. Not that kind of playing, you have a dirty mind. 

B-I-N-G-O

Who would have thought that a 32 year old would enjoy bingo so thoroughly? Tonight I sat through 5.5 hours of Catholic church bingo with two of my best friends from high school and I had a fantastic time despite the fact that I only won $3. I was doing really well until asked to pick numbers between 1-75 and I somehow chose an 86. 

Yep, that's me... book smart, yet lacking common frickin' sense. And I'm still laughing at the "Blessed Ball". WTF?

Fun at the Drive-In

One of the best parts of living in 29 Palms is the drive-in movie theater. I remember sneaking in beer and boyfriends as a teenager, but now that we're older and more refined... we brought a jug of wine and a husband! We saw Hell Boy II and Wanted, and of course we had a designated driver. It wasn't quite like high school, but it was still a blast (that is of course until Kelly slammed my finger in the door... OUCH!).