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?!

Honeybun's condition

On Saturday, Honeybun wasn't feeling very well. She began having convulsions. Sunday, we let her rest all day. Monday, we took her to the doctor. The prognosis wasn't good - she needed a distributor transplant right away. Luckily, they put her at the top of the list and the surgery was scheduled for this morning. Honeybun is doing much better. She was released from the hospital this afternoon, and is now resting and asking for a shower - she said she wants to look her very best when she picks up Mena and Miguel from the airport next week.


(She also has a new accessory - a front license plate. They are not required in Arizona, but she has been pulled over here for not having one.)

Reduce.

Sometimes, I think about our consumption and what we can do to make less of a "footprint," to use a popular buzzword.
For years, I've used reusable fabric bags to do my shopping. (One of my pet peeves is when cashiers automatically put my purchased items in a bag when I only have one or two things instead of asking me first if I need a bag.) Most of the bags I used I received as schwag at conferences I've attended. When reusable shopping bags popped up in mass quantities in every store, it seemed good ... and bad - like an interest in reducing waste prompted an increase in consumerism, and I wondered if it was counterintuitive.
Sometimes I forget to use my bags, or I don't have enough of them. For the most part, we reuse or recycle any plastic bags we bring home. We recycle lots of things, actually, even though our apartment complex has no recycling receptacle. But we could do better.
We take lunches in Tupperware containers - perhaps plastic is not the ideal option, but better than throwing away plastic baggies every day.
I have several travel coffee mugs, which I use when I make coffee at home, but I never think to take them with me to the coffee shop. I always wonder why Starbucks sells its iced drinks in recyclable plastic cups, but offers no separate bins for recyclables. (Also, didn't Starbucks years ago used to serve your drinks and pastry on plates and in ceramic mugs if you weren't taking them to go - or am I thinking of another place?)
I've cut way back on drinking bottled water. (We use a Brita water filter at home). When I do grab a bottle of water, I usually reuse the bottle a couple times - and then recycle it. But as a whole, Americans use way too much bottled water and I know I contribute to the problem.
The point of all this rambling is, I often think about ways I can do better, but I haven't taken as many steps to accomplish that as I could or should.
I stumbled upon a blog this week where a woman is attempting to go "A Week Without Plastic." It seems extreme - but it's an interesting look at how much plastic we use each day. (Also, love the idea for their "Week Without" series and may copy it one day here.) She's so far written about the first day, and the questions she raises are interesting and hopefully will inspire me to try a little harder. Check out the background here and the day one post here.
Have you made changes to reduce your waste? What are some simple things to cut out or change, and what is just too difficult to change?

On the Lake

It was a long weekend. Saturday night was Artown's closing night with the Funk Brothers, and I also helped friends do some work in Truckee Saturday and Sunday. By the end of it, we were tired. And hot. Hot and tired. We drove to the lake. We laid down our towels and we listened, and we looked.

Looked at the Lake ...

Looked at the Sky ...

Looked at the Trees.

And I thought, how lucky are we to live where we live. How lucky to live in such close proximity to such beauty. How lucky to have good friends to lay by the lake with at the end of a long weekend.