Celebration

We couldn't really celebrate Chris' birthday on his actual birthday because it also happened to be the first night of prep football, so we had a mini-celebration - I took Chris to bagels for breakfast, and made him some cherry cheese bars (as requested) for dessert. The next night, we went out for dinner and drinks with friends.

Chris, Tyler, Chris and Dan

Tammy, Vickie, Na, Erin, Grace

Zmoe, Sandor, Chun

Birthday shot

Dirty Job

I learned my lesson from the mud run, so for Saturday's La Tomatina en Reno tomato fight, I wore an orange swimsuit under a black tank top and black sweatpants. I think I can safely say that's the first time I've worn a swimsuit to work ... I was slightly concerned about my unprofessional attire, but once I saw even the local mayors were in sweats, I worried no more. Anywho, the tomato fight was crazy. Even the innocent bystanders spectating from a nearby parking garage got hit. It was nuts.

Tomatoes were flying everywhere ...

People were slipping and sliding, throwing, ducking .. and even dancing. Seems like everyone was having fun ... although for me, I was just worried about keeping my camera and my face safe - so it wasn't quite as fun. Someone even threw a tomato right at my lens. And I took a direct hit in the temple - you might be able see the orange in my hair. But considering what was going on, I came out relatively clean.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Happy 29!

Can you please wear this outfit to your birthday party? I mean, it's not as styling as Benny's, but it's still pretty rad ;)

Serious as Cancer

Denise, Debbie and my Dad at our wedding

Some of you may know that recently, my cousin Denise (she is my stepmom Debbie's niece) has been diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. After waiting for what I'm sure were agonizing weeks, she had surgery last month to confirm the cancer, to have a hysterectomy, and to find out that she will need chemotherapy. For most of the time from the surgery until now, she has had family with her - her mom, Debbie, her sister. But they all live far away and cannot be there all the time, so are working toward moving her to Seattle to be with her mom and sister. It is really unfortunate, given what she is going through physically and emotionally, the paperwork and red tape and roadblocks she also must deal with to be able to be with the people who love her and can take care of her best so she can focus on what is most important - healing and recovering. I cannot imagine the frustration. Denise has started a blog detailing her experiences and trying to spread awareness about Ovarian Cancer -- I think she can tell you about them better than I can. The link is on our blog list if you are interested in reading. But most importantly, please remember Denise in your prayers.

First Day

The good thing about parking at Circus Circus and walking to campus: It's free, I get a little exercise and I see swans on my way back to my car.

The bad thing about parking at Circus Circus and walking to campus: Arriving to my first class at 9 a.m., hot and sweaty just as I'm about to meet six people who I will be spending a lot of time with over the next 16 months.

See y'all in December

This is what I will be doing until then ...

Fun times with Mena and Miguel

Mena and Miguel got in about 5:30 Thursday afternoon from D.C. - about 5.5 hours later than scheduled because of flight delays. When they finally got in, we had to go straight to my softball game, but they were troopers about it - even after such a long day! We had quite the busy weekend, so here is the condensed version: Friday morning we got up and headed to Quincy for my sister's high school reunion. We decorated in the afternoon and the party started about 6 p.m. My friend Ashlie came to help me work the door, and toward the end of the reunion, Chris, Lindsey, and some friends of Mena & Miguel's from the Bay Area arrived downtown to hang out with us. Saturday, Lindsey and I watched the Plumas County Fair Parade in the morning, and in the afternoon Chris and I joined the reunion family picnic. Chris had to head back to Reno that afternoon to work. We went to the fair in the evening. Sunday morning there was no cell phone reception in town for several hours - no internet, credit cards, nothing. It was pretty funny how all us city folk didn't know what to do! But despite being unable to call each other, Lindsey and I managed to meet up to visit Mary Anne and Amy (mother and daughter - Mary Anne was our boss at the school district and Amy was our cheer coach and they are great!). Later, Mena, Miguel and I took a dip in the river at Oakland Camp and then Mom made us a delicious dinner. Monday morning we headed back to Reno, and stopped in Virginia City for a while in the afternoon on our way to visit our cousin Tanya in Dayton. Tuesday we spent a few hours at Lake Tahoe before taking in an Aces game and taking Mena and Miguel for an Awful Awful before they left town early this morning. Here are just a few pictures from their trip (You can see many more here):

Me and Mena at her reunion

Ashlie and Lindsey at The Cap, post-reunion

Chris gets Baggo going at the picnic

Mena and some of her high school besties - Eve, Jackie and Jessica

Oakland Camp

Virginia City

Lake Tahoe

Aces Ballpark

DIY: Necklace Holder

A couple months ago, I got it in my head that I might wear my necklaces more if they were out where I could see them rather than in a box in a drawer in my nightstand. I told Chris I wanted to try to make a necklace holder with some pretty drawer pulls, and the following week I stumbled across these pretty, clear, pink drawer pulls at a local antique store (if I hadn't seen these, I might have ordered some from Anthropologie, which has all kinds of cute knobs).

I asked John, my mom's boyfriend, if he could bring some wood scraps with him the next time they came to Reno. He brought me a few of different widths. I picked one out, bought some spray paint, and gave it a coat.

Then, I decided where I wanted the "hooks" to go ...

Measured and marked the spots ...

And then drilled holes (with some help from Chris) in the three spots I marked. With the screws in, I covered them with tape, and gave it another couple coats of paint. Once dried, I screwed the knobs on, and screwed the necklace holder into the wall.

The places where it could use some improvement are: the screws that screw into the drawer pulls seemed to be different lengths once I put it together, and also the wood cracked when I screwed it into the wall. But, overall it's functional and I'm pretty happy with it.

Ten years

If you have been paying attention here at Gabel and Gabel lately, you know that today my sister and Miguel are coming from Washington, D.C., and they will be here for almost whole week! There is lots of excitement around these parts. Tomorrow, we will go to Quincy where my sister will have her 10-year high school reunion - I thought that was a good reason to post some of her high school pictures here. Fun fact: Mena was class president her senior year (just like me!) and has done a lot of the planning for her reunion (just like me!). I'm super excited to see some of her friends this weekend - many of them were also like little sisters to me growing up. (We're gonna miss you, Nan!) Above are some of Mena's senior pictures, and some candids are below. I sure wish overalls would make a comeback ...

Mena, Eve and Jacky at good old QHS

Terry and Mena

Nanette, Mena and Opie

Sadie Hawkins '97 - I'm a senior, and Mena is a sophomore

Nights on the Town

Saturday night, Chris and I met some friends at a going-away party for our friend Red who is going to school in San Jose. We went to a new (to Reno) place called Cadillac Ranch. So new, they had quite a few kinks to work out ... but we still managed to have a good time.

Red rode the mechanical bull ...

... and so did Erin

Na and Erin

Vanilla Ice came on and our friend Ray informed me that song is from my generation. At that point, I thought the kids should see how the Roger Rabbit is done. I'm afraid I may not have done it justice.

Team Gabel

On Monday night, Chris and I went out for our friend Tyler's 23rd birthday. (Why is it that we are the oldest of all of our friends?)

As you can see by the pin, Tyler is feeling good

I tried to get a little artsy with the camera, but every time I took a picture someone was either moving, or looking right at the camera. Sigh.

Chris wanted to see what he looked like with Tyler's glasses on ...

... so I tried them, too.

Tyler didn't need them, with his head on the table. (But as you can see by the two thumbs up, he was still feeling good.)

Four

Saturday morning, my Mom came over for a little while and then her, Chris and I headed to my cousin Tanya's house in Dayton (about 40 miles away) for her son Andru's fourth birthday party. Here is a good day for a 4-year-old, in pictures:

Chris is getting pretty good at the slip-n-slide business.

Andru kept wanting to go again and again!

Andru and his little brother Zack having fun in the pool.

He was pretty excited about the Transformers!

My Uncle Dave with Neco Jr. (my cousin Neco's son, obvs)

Chris showing one of the Transformers to Zacky and Junior - these cute cousins are just two months apart!

Andru blew out all the candles on his Spiderman cake before we could finish singing!

I ain't scerred

A couple days ago, I saw an ad from a local slot machine maker on Craig's List for an actress/model for a new game. Having done lots of acting (I was in drama for a year in high school, after all) and lots of modeling (Once I was in a spa video for a hotel I worked at. Also in Yuma I let a friend take some portraits of me to practice for the side business he was starting. Also I tried out for Barbizon once and was accepted, but declined.) I decided to give it a shot.

The ad was pretty vague, so I sent an e-mail and found out they wanted someone for a game with a 1950s, horror B-movie theme. The model/actress was to project a sense of horror. I figured I had nothing better to do, so I made an appointment and started making faces for Chris. He said the faces were good ... but would be better if it didn't also look like I was going to burst into laughter.

Today, I put on some makeup and the most '50s looking outfit I could think of (the ruffled dress and red cardigan I wore on our anniversary - pictured in the upper right corner of our blog) and headed down to South Reno to make some faces. The guy had me fill out a form, make three scared faces for still shots and react three times to a pretend-something-scary for a video. In all, it took about 10 minutes. I have no idea if I was any good (I'm pretty sure I still looked like I was going to laugh), or if the other six people coming in will be any better, but wouldn't it be such a kick if my face ended up on a slot machine?!