You can be honest

Does my new widget make my blog look fat?

Over there on the right.

Do you see it?

It's my band's ReverbNation tunes widget. You can listen to Riveter music right here on my blog.

Lemme know if it jacks up how you view my blog. There's nothing worse than a jacked up layout.

Responding to Chuck Norris

Last night I wrote about how our Geeks Who Drink team won again ... two times in a row.

I posted pictures of our kick-ass team. And I commented how this win was especially sweet in that it was a packed house last night.

Then Ch ... Ch ... Check ... Chuck Norris on Drums commented I was full o' crap because the pictures I posted showed a virtually empty Rockslide patio.

Just to clarify, I took those pictures during happy hour, a full hour before the beginning of the game. And because I like to back up my words, click here to see the official Geeks Who Drink blog that shows us as the winner out of nine teams. And dudes, we didn't win by a little like last week, we kicked ass, fer reals.

Plus we won for best team name ... again two weeks in a row. Last week we were "Merkin for a living." This week, Bill came up with doozie of a name with "The Well Hungarians."

I have to admit I'm kind of addicted to this game. It so feeds into my love of trivia and hanging out with cool people. It's a total win-win!

Stepmotherness

Lookit those two shiny faces.

Cute, huh?

Sean was concerned that I was taking his picture while wearing his work shirt. Brutha, no one is looking at his shirt, right?

I wrote some about that kid over here.

Rockin' the two-peat

Just got back from our second week playing Geeks Who Drink trivia.

Last week Bill and I jumped in our friend's team and we won.

We won again tonight. And we won on a night when it was packed ... packed to the rafters.

Oh yeah baby!

And it's no wonder, look at our uber-smart team.
Below we have the girls: Brenda (who is our ringer — this chick knows music ... I mean, fer reals) and Sarah and Rachael.
Here are the boys: Bill, Greedy and Schuyler.
Dude, what a bunch of winners!

Bill Knows Best

If you follow me on Twitter then you may have seen my twitter yesterday admitting that Bill ignored Margaret's request to turn the channel because he was watching Brooke Knows Best.

It's embarrassing for all of us.

But maybe watching all these horrible, crazy things on TV adds to Bill's allure and/or smarts.

Yesterday, we had this conversation:

Me: My back is killing me. I think I'm getting cramps.

Bill: No you're not.

Me (exasperated): How do you know?

Bill: Because you're not due to get your period until the second week of August.

Me (more exasperated): How could you know that?

Bill: Because it's important for me to know such things.

Me: Dude, that's crazy. I don't even know when I'm supposed to get my period. I have it marked on my calendar at work.

Bill: Believe me.

You know what? He was right. It is true, knowing such things can only benefit him. For as it gets closer to the time I get the visit from my Aunt Flo, Bill starts wearing a jock and cup.

Smart man.

Oh and an update on my Stranger Danger entry from Friday:

Margaret and I have decided that we like Bill's face — so much so that Bill's face has taken on its own persona, a persona I call "Face."

Sometimes I'll say, "Hey Bill, you and your face should come over here."

Or I'll just call the entirety of Bill "Face" — "Hey Face, come over her and put your face on my face."
So Bill can keep his face ... plus it's like kissing a girl.

Stranger danger

This is what my husband looked like yesterday.

Today when he picked me up for lunch something had gone wrong with his facial hair.

The soul patch was intact but the rest looked like it had been sculpted with a weed whacker. Some of it was really short. Some of it was still long.

Mostly it just looked jacked up.

Bill admitted that he suffered a facial hair trim tragedy. We decided that he was better off just taking it all off and starting over.

A few minutes ago, he stopped by my work on his way to get a haircut.

This is what I saw:


His soul patch is still intact, but the rest is smooth as a 48-year-old baby's bottom.

And it's weird.

I've seen him without facial hair before.

It wasn't right then.

It sure as hell ain't right now.

It's still getting smaller

About a month ago, I wrote about my wee pencil. It was about 15 picas then.

It's just over 12 picas now.
Last time I sharpened it, I had to stick a push pin into the eraser so I could fit it into the sharpener.

I think that fact perfectly describes me — willing to go to extraordinary lengths for only the most inane reasons.

Welcome to my short-penciled world.

Check out Whitey McWhiterson

He's punny and oh so white.

Stay away, bear!

There was a bear in my mom's garage while we were visiting.

Fer reals.

Click here to read about the bear that ate my mom's birdseed.

Who knew I was a geek who likes to drink?

OK, many people. But now it's official.

Last night Greg and Sarah invited us to play on their "Geeks Who Drink" trivia team. Dude, it's so fun ... and I'm not just saying that because we won ... although it sho' does help.

Click over here to see our team picture. Yes, Bill is trying to strangle me into acting right. You can also read not only about our amazing win, but also about our oh-so classy team name.

Chip off the old blockhead

"Let's go to the pool. NOW!" said the bikini clad 8-year-old as I staggered into the house after work Monday. (People keep insisting that she's my kid, I'm not convinced of any resemblance.)

It was hot and I was looking forward to the pool, but mama needed some time to relax. I sent Bill and Mar ahead of me while I lumbered around like I were wearing molasses slippers.

Sean hunched over a car CD player that he's trying to install into our extra car.

Yes, people, Bill and I are selling our extra car to Sean. And why shouldn't we? I mean in the 18 months since he got his license he's been in four accidents, earned several moving violations and lost his license once ... of course none of that was his fault, I'm sure. (Insert requisite sour-castic comments here.)

Because I'm not happy about this sale, I won't let him drive the car until I have the cash in my hand and he and his mother register it and insure it. I have, however, been letting him install his stereo because I'm stupid like that. Wha?

While I was pretending to get ready for the pool, Sean and I started laughing over Mar's crazy behavior. He was really busting a gut over it until I reminded him that he was just as crazy when he was the same age.

Then we started talking about when it used to be just me and Bill and Sean. How the three of us used to hang out and horse around all the time.

Sean said that he has great memories of playing hide-and-go-seek with us at the old house. I recounted the time we were playing professional wrestlers and Bill smashed Sean's head into my nose (I now sport a nice crook in my nose from that day).

We laughed and then I commented that I guess he's too old to play with his old dad and evil stepmom now.

His response verbatium: "I'd play hide-and-go-seek with you guys any day."

Really. He said those exact words.

At first I was all, "Wow isn't that nice."

Then I was all, "'the hell? Laying it on a little thick, no?"

Bill thinks he was being sweet.

I think he's a schmoozer ... and a damn good one.

It doesn't get better than this

Reason number 6,035 why my husband rocks

Actual conversation I just had with my husband:

Bill: I just brought the neighbor's cleaning people over to our house. They said they could clean our house for $40 every two weeks. Is that something ...

Me interrupting: Yes. Yes.

Bill: So we should think about ...

Me interrupting: No we should do it.

Bill: So ...

Me interrupting: Hire them now.

Bill: OK.

Me thinking to myself: He's so gonna get lucky tonight.

Last Dollar Saloon

Great food, great people, great friends (thanks Randy and Deb!), great time.

I heart Telluride

Where else but Telluride can you see dancing dogs in the street?

Saturday, my band played the Last Dollar Saloon in Telluride.

This was one of our most favorite shows ever. We had a great crowd ... I mean, really great crowd ... and we had a kick-ass time playing.

Wha'?
That town smells good and the bar really treated us well.
We can't wait to play Telluride again.

Riveter goes to Telluride

Tomorrow we're loading up and heading to the high country. My band is playing the Buck Saturday night.

We are very excited about this show ... Telluride is about to be Riveterized.

We even made it into the Telluride Watch's entertainment column, Grooview, written by Rebecca Thoreson:

Down the block, The Last Dollar Saloon will rock this weekend, when the all-girl band Riveter rolls in for a show on Saturday night. Based in Grand Junction, Riveter formed in 2004, and as the pink-glitter Daisy Rock guitar-slinging Robin Dearing says, the girls have been rocking ever since.

"We recorded a full-length CD Whatever in 2005. In 2007, we put out two EPs, which we will have for sale at the show. We are currently working on a new EP which we expect to have out by the end of summer.”

The girls are gaining attention across the country, including playing the famed Austin, Texas, South by Southwest Festival for the second year in a row, and Dearing says Riveter hits it hard, with classic rock flavored with punk/alt influences. “We put on a fun, high-energy, kick-ass show, and we can't wait to rock the pants off Telluride!”

Look for Riveter to wow ya, Saturday night at The Buck.

Do you see the family resemblance?

Three goofballs.

The littlest one is Mar (obviously). The other two are Mackenzie and Colby, my niece and nephew.

Believe me, there is never a dull moment when those kids get together.

I left my heart ...

I haven't traveled as much as I've wanted in my lifetime. But I have seen a good portion of our country.

You know what? I've liked it all.

I loved the fall in Pennsylvania, the museums in Washington, D.C., the food in Buffalo, margaritas in San Antonio, the music in Austin, and I could go (and have gone) on and on about how I love western Colorado.

But I will always have a special place in my heart for northern California — specifically the San Francisco Bay Area.

I grew up there and I still miss it.

On our recent trip, Bill, Mar and I went — accompanied by my mom and my brother's family — to San Francisco.

Some people hate the city, but I love it. I love its smell and patina. I love its architecture. I love its food and people. I love that it's a big city, but it's still small.

I love that all you have to do is head west and you'll end up at the beach.

And the beach is a beautiful place to end up.

It's all Madalyn's fault

I've become addicted to Facebook.

And it's all Madalyn Sklar's fault.

She twittered that she was looking for people to review her new Facebook e-course. I volunteered.

I started the course this afternoon. Now I'm still horsing around on Facebook. Someone please save me from myself.

I created a Facebook account for my band several months ago and didn't really get it, so it just sat dormant. But it's so ...

(Please, don't let me be casting the virtues of an online social networking Web site on the Internets. Please let me have something more ... rock 'n' roll to be doing)

... fun.

There I said it. It's fun.

Now I have to go ... um, play my guitar.

It's all relative

I can't buy pants from Old Navy off the rack. I have to order "tall" sized pants unless I like my ankles showing.

I've taken to cuffing a few pairs of my jeans into capris because they shrank after I bought them and even though the river is rising, I'll pass on wearing "floods."

I'm just under 5' 9." To many people that is tall.

In my day-to-day life in western Colorado, I'll even say that I'm tall.

Whenever I'm around my mom's family, I'm reminded that I'm not.

Here's the proof. This is a picture of me with my brother (he's to my left in the hat) and my cousins.

Now, there are some truly tall people.

Real life marriage

I'm in the bathroom this morning getting ready for work. Bill walks in wearing his bathrobe with his reading glasses on a lanyard around his neck.

Me: I like your necklace. (Said with a smirk — if I had a trademark, it'd be the smirk. I'm a smirker ... what?)

Bill: Thanks. It goes great with my hair shirt.

Oh so true AND sexy.

Well, golly

And I'm blogging again.

Huh.

I wasn't sure it was going to happen and it has.

So, yeah.

I wrote about seeing some giant fish over here.

I'm actually happy with that blog entry about the giant fish for no other reason than it seems written instead of digested and extracted.

Look at my friend dance

Dance, Sarah, Dance!