Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

My friend Lindsey and I have been friends since the 9th grade, when she moved to Quincy (even though she insists I have her dirty looks on her first day of school, which was not the case!) For the past 12 years or so she has lived in LA, which has been nice because I got to see her several times a year when I went to visit my Dad. But this fall, she moved back to Quincy, which is even better because now she's only an hour and a half away and we can see each other a lot more (weather permitting!)

Lindsey and I during our senior trip in Santa Cruz

One thing Lindsey and I have in common is that we are both big Elvis fans. Since snow had gotten in the way of seeing each other up until now, we decided to get together this past weekend for an Elvis-Birthday-Movie-Marathon. It was really fun to hang out and talk and watch corny Elvis movies together. And, our friend Hannah happened to be in town for the weekend, too, so we got together with her and Nikki for breakfast on Sunday.

Lindsey, Nikki, Hannah and Me (photo borrowed from Hannah's Facebook)

It was a fun and relaxing weekend in Quincy and I got to spend some time with my Mom, too. Hope I get to see all these friends again soon!

Happy New Year!

Chris and I welcomed 2011 like a boring, old married couple. We went out for a nice, Italian dinner, followed by a movie.

We thought we'd timed it just right to get out of the movie in time to watch the fireworks in downtown Reno. But we forgot to include time for previews, so the movie got out at 11:59, and we were in downtown Sparks. At least we had our midnight kiss, and could see the fireworks a few miles away in the distance. It was cold, so we watched what little we could see from the car.
Over dinner we discussed our resolutions. Turns out those are pretty boring, too. Pay off the credit card, eat healthier, exercise more. Hopefully the results will be better than my resolution for 2010 (maybe I'll keep working on those this year).

I hope you all had fun, however you rang in the New Year!

What are your resolutions?

Christmas with the Gabels

We had a great Christmas with Chris' parents and Alison here for a few days. It was very relaxing, we mostly hung out at home and visited and watched movies. It was great to have everyone here for our first Christmas at home. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures. Except of Scoop. Here she is on Christmas morning, about one minute before Chris came downstairs and about one minute and 15 seconds before she was no longer wearing her Christmas outfit.

We were all spoiled with fun presents and good company, and enjoyed an evening visiting with Bill, Louise, Brad and Linda before the Gabels headed back to Arizona.

I hope you all had a great Christmas, too!

Denim & Leather

A couple years ago, Erin & Sandor threw an ugly sweater party. And then lots of other people did, too. And this year Erin decided she wanted something more original, and somehow the idea of a denim and leather holiday party was born.

Since Scoop came with us to the party, I decided she should fit the theme, so I found her a jean skirt on sale. For myself, I found a leather vest and borrowed a mullet wig to complete the look.
I wasn't the only one in a wig! Chris opted for a more "classy" denim and leather look. (Read: bo-ring.)

So did Zmoe.

I'm surprised Chris smiled for this photo. He could barely look at me while I was wearing that wig.

Sandor, Julie and Erin

The party was lots of fun with hilarious costumes, good food and good company. I don't know how they'll top it next year ;-)

Dear Santa: We're ready for you

Scoop and I got the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. (After I went out to cover the Black Friday story at 4 a.m. and we took a long nap.) But what's more exciting is that, this year, for the first time, Chris put up Christmas lights! Since he was in junior high he's been in charge of hanging the lights at his parents' house. But we haven't been able to hang lights since we moved to Reno because our apartment didn't have any outlets out on the balcony. We had to wait a couple weeks to hang lights this year until we could borrow a ladder high enough to reach the top of our house.
Finally, we got it on Sunday, and I supervised while Chris climbed the ladder.
Here's the front of the house. I think next year we'll add more above the garage, too.

And here are the lights over the back patio.

And a late addition to the decorations last night, Scoop helped with the garland for the banister.

We're having fun decorating the new house and we're excited for our Christmas visitors to arrive next week!

Feel free to call me Master

It's been a whirlwind few days here with my parents and sister visiting and graduation festivities. We were so spoiled to have them here helping us cook and clean for the party, and it was such a nice treat to all be together.

Friday afternoon the journalism school had a reception for undergrad and graduate students who were graduating. Here are the girls in my cohort with our graduate adviser.

The Family - Mena, Chris, Me, Dad, Deb, Mom

Since Chris had to go to Vegas for work on Saturday, we had a party on Friday night. Here again are the girls in my cohort - Whitney, Ana, Me, Carlie, Heather and Megan

Na, Me, Julie and Erin

Graduation was on Saturday morning. Julie was shooting the ceremony for the paper, so she got some pictures for me - thank goodness because everyone else was sitting pretty far away.

The Cohort

It really was a fun weekend and I just have one assignment left to finish and I'm all done! My Dad and Deb left yesterday and my sister left this morning. We had such a nice time visiting with them and wish we could all be together more often.

Tomorrow morning I start a new job doing social media. I'm really excited about a new challenge, but a little nervous, too, for my first non-newspaper job in many years. Wish me luck!