People are People

But why is it that the DMV and the SS office seem to have lines and lines of the worst of the worst? It's like people got out of prison and went straight to the DMV so they could drive themselves to the liquor store. No pimply faced kids going for their first driving test, no soccer moms renewing their license, no hipster getting an address change, just 100 people, who are all very cranky, and have a lot of problems bigger than I can try to figure out here. Convicts, the lot of them.

My Name is Mud

My name is officially changed to Princess Allbeehive Gannon through the Driver's License Bureau. You may all call me Princess. I decided to go last minute this morning as I was running out the door. I thought I just had to go in, do some paperwork and leave. Next thing I know, the guy behind the counter tells me I have to take the eye test again (which I barely passed last September). After staring at the letters for too long, he finally said "Maam, any line, can you read any letter on any line?" Suddenly my focus came in and I spouted "Umm I see S...S...S" - Well there must have been an S in there because I passed, barely.

So I think I'm free to go, and then I'm in the line to get my photo taken. We'll see if my lip gloss made the outfit, or acted as a mustache enhancement. ::stupid no make-up wearing aaack::

I really should start to care about my appearance again. I mean I've only been married for 6 weeks and already I just roll out of bed, pick some jeans off the floor throw my hair in a pony and I'm out the door. Poor DG.

The joys and not so joys of MySpace.com

DG posted recently about how he set up a page on myspace.com and I, being the shadow that I am followed suit. I am here.

Last night, DG was sitting with the laptop and he looked over to me smugly and said "I have a couple of 21 year old girls that want to be my friend." To which I responded in a deadpan tone, yes they want you to be their friend who pays for their cell phone bills, until they can talk you into paying for their rent.

Maybe in ten years I'll play it up and let him think that he can still get the young girls on the internet, but for now, I wish he would just pay my cell phone bill. Now how do I download another ring tone on this thing?

Birthday Weekend

Sunday morning we put the dogs in their seat belts and took a drive into the mountains. Our intent was to tree peep, but earlier in the week-end, the mountains got dumped on with snow. We only drove up to Silverthorne which is just on the other side of the Eisenhower tunnel. It was gorgeous, sunny, and beautiful.


We went up here two days after our wedding, packed a picnic lunch and went to Lake Dillon with the dogs. It is one of my favorite things to do.

BAD Aunt Christy

Whenever I teach Clare (age 5) something new, or get her a gift, I often hear the phrase: "I can't wait until you have children someday" loosely translated as, "I can't wait to torture you with this stuff when you have kids." Most recently, it occured after we gave Clare the Dora sing along CD. We told her that she could listen to it in the car, the entire way home. Her Dad tried to convince her that the cd wouldn't work in the car, but DG and I assured her that it would and that she should ask for it until she got it. (he he)

Again this weekend, I got the stink eye from Clare's mom when I showed Clare the fun things she could do with Scotch Tape. See crazy tape lady above.

Now Clare's parents are awesome and have managed to keep most commercialism out of their home. (Kudos to them!) I can only aspire to do the same. Clare is not really aware of the world of Disney, Ronald McDonald, or Barney. Beyond some Dora videos and a Cinderella movie, there is little else that she has gotten caught up in.

That is of course until Bad Aunt Christy steps in to get her the Cinderella Barbie for her 5th birthday. I know, it is two major awful conglomerates combined, Disney, and the "B" word...BARBIE. I deserve to be told NO (and I was), but I grew up with suitcases full of Barbies, and my Nana used to make clothes for them. I loved my Barbie time every Saturday morning during cartoons. I would dress Barbie up in some lovely "Little House on the Prairie" number and she would go out on a date with my brother's Spiderman doll. Though they never kissed because Spidey's mask was permanently on.

I will say that in an effort to try and make up for the B doll, I also got an Educational gift hoping that they would cancel eachother out. I just want to be on everyone's good side. Ok, I really just want to be the fun aunt, that has all the gum, and is always doing something goofy. Not the old booooring 35 year old unfun lady. So go ahead, parents of the world unite, and start your scolding!

The Sleestack

This is the picture David sees when I call him on the phone.

Our first day in Portland, OR we went shopping downtown, found some great hip stores, and I got some new fun sun glasses. David thinks I look like a Sleestack from The Land of the Lost tv show from the 70s. You decide.

Getting by Doing the Least Amount of Work

I've always had goals, but I've never really had to work hard at anything. In high school, I was perfectly happy to be 3rd chair french horn in band. I wanted to practice just enough to be able to stay in the band, and go on band trips (woo hoo Virginia Beach 1987!). I managed to get by in school as well, graduating 11th in my class (a mere 1/10th of a point away from the top 10). But then when I went to college, I found myself struggling to even get B's much less C's. I ended up graduating Magna Thank Lordy.

Now that I am back taking a class, I have realized that I don't really enjoy being a student. Homework blows. I would rather sit with gassy dogs on my lap all night after they had eaten rotten squash out of the mulch pile than sit through another 3 hour lecture. This after only two classes. And here I am five hours away from my next class and I still have 20 pages of reading to do. Instead of doing it, here I am writing you. There's no "awwww that's cute", it's I would rather write about nothing that go read this text.

I am lazy. I can focus and be task oriented, but for the most part I am so so lazy. If you stood in my front yard and viewed me through the blinds, you would see that starting in autumn all I do everynight is stay in. (AUTHOR NOTE: This is not an invitation for stalkers.) As the trees are changing and the weather is getting cooler, all I want to do is bake, sit on the couch, and watch entire seasons of television shows. I can feel it coming....

The Geneology of the Allbee/Albee name

Wouldn't you know, when we were in line to take the ferry to Monhegan, there was a family in front of us with the last name Albee from the Bangor, ME area. Crazy. The woman was trying to give them my tickets and everyone was remarking about how bizarre it was that our names were so similar.

As the story goes, there were two ALLBEE brothers who had a bit of a falling out. They split up and in anger, one of them removed an 'L' from his last name. Thats about all I know. One letter away, though I am sure we are related somehow. I don't think there was a family resemblance.

Then we headed up to the cemetary in Monhegan and wouldn't you know there were roughly 5 headstones with the last name ALBEE. I think my family history (which I began typing awhile ago) only goes back 4-5 generations or so. All I really want to know is where I got these teeth from?

How far can you go back?

Happy Wedding Day

In our travels, we went to two vastly different, yet gorgeously done weddings. After we came got back from Alaska, we went to Kevin and Kim's wedding in Seattle. Now the picture below is perhaps not the best view and honestly, I don't know that they want their picture on the blog, but this shot is actually about the green kissing ball. These flower balls, made from green kermit mums are my absolute favorite. Their ceremony was held on a grassy lawn and these lined the aisles beautifully. Had I been able to splurge on flowers at our wedding, I would have ordered dozens of these green balls. LOVE THEM.


The next wedding was for my MBFITW3 Joy and her husband Mark. It was held outdoors in front of the Island Inn in Monegan. Have I mentioned that you need to go there? No really, fly cross country and go, or drive, you will not be dissappointed. Did I mention the lobster strata at breakfast every morning? That alone is worth the plane fare.

Ok, back to the wedding. It was sweet, beautiful, and just so filled with Joy's personality. One woman on the island with an amazing flower garden, created all of the boquets for the entire group. Even David got a bout that we kept because the aroma of whatever plant she used was amazing. After Joy and Mark gave their vows, a whale spouted in the harbor behind them creating this magical aura over the event. Afterwards, we went inside the Inn and dined on Lobster, blueberry soup, and cake. It was a perfect week-end.


Congratulations to all the new brides.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I have a distressed dog at home who has never been left alone and who thinks her brother has been taken on a walk without her and I have a tembling little boy at the Vet (da duh duh!!!), who starting howling the minute we pulled into parking lot, because he knew exactly where he was. He also refused to believe I was leaving without him this morning and sat ears back, by the door. Oh the poor piteous looks, they are burned into my minds eye. Gibson is getting an ultrasound on his heart today for a murmur they found recently. Is it me, or are dogs more high maintenance today than say they were in the 70's?

Island Living

Monhegan has 60 year round residents. Most people on the island have been there for many years, inheriting the homes that have been in their families for 3 generations. The picture above was taken from the lighthouse. The large building to my right is the Island Inn. In front of the Inn is Queen’s Cottage where we stayed. Even though Monhegan is only 1 mile in length, it has 17 miles worth of trails. These range from Rocky cliffs 500 feet above crashing waves to beautiful forests where people build fairy houses. Some of the fairy houses were elaborate mansions with flags and stepping stones as the one seen below.


On the boat ride to the island, the ferry gives you an informational pamphlet which is fascinating because it is very blunt about what you can and cannot do on the island and the consequences of your actions, which are usually death. Do not try to kayak around the island: you will die of hypothermia. Do not fall into the water on the South side of the island; no one has EVER been saved. When hiking pull your socks over your jeans as ticks are prevalent. Oh yeah, and bring cash, or you will go hungry. Most places on the island do not take credit cards.

Being on the island is kind of like camping. Some inns (and houses on the island) still do not have electricity. There are no tvs or phones in the rooms. There is no grocery store or hospital. A woman named Feryl has been the island's EMT for something close to 20 years, but she is ready to retire. The lure of the island is that it is perfectly beautifully tranquil. If you are antsy and need to be on the go constantly, this is not a vacation for you. But if you can relax and sit facing the harbor and read a book all day, this could be your heaven.

This trip reminded me how beautiful Maine is. This coast line is one of the most beautiful in the country (sorry Seattle). I'm already working on a future blog post, Portland, Oregon vs. Portland, Maine!

Ayuh, Lobsta yum...

We arrived in Portland, ME last Friday and drove an hour and a half up the beautiful coast to New Harbor, ME where we stayed at the Gosnold Arms. You know you are getting old (or turning into your parents) when all you can remember about your vacation were the meals you ate. So be prepared to read about every strip of mouth watering lobster we could put in our bellies, because when in Maine, you must eat as much lobster and drink as much Maine beer as possible. Oh and eat enough blueberries to turn your poo blue. And that ends the poop talk portion of today’s blog entry.

After checking in to the Gosnold, we walked across the street (to the ocean) to the only restaurant in town, Shaw's Wharf. As seen above, DG had the lobster, Maine beer, and steamed clams. Duh and of course we had the blueberry pie for dessert.

This was merely the beginning of our lobster and blueberry feasting as we ate both at almost every meal. The next morning, after gorging ourselves on home-made blueberry pancakes at the Gosnold, we got on the Hardy Boat to head to Monhegan Island.

Monhegan is an island 1 mile in length and 1/4 mile across which is 10 miles away from the mainland and takes an hour to get to. Every ship that comes in gets a big welcome from people on the island. Joy and her whole family were waiting for us when we arrived. We felt very special.

Oh wait, but back to the food. At the Island Inn in Monhegan, they served a complimentary breakfast which included Lobster Casserole (which was really a strata) and blueberry pancakes at breakfast every morning. I could eat this every day. It was so good I'm kind of dreaming about it right now. On our last morning there, I asked one of our servers what the recipe was and he recited it to me as if he was cooking for 100 people. The minute he left the table I scribbled it down on something (that I hope DG has) and plan to recreate this soon for six. (Cyn you guys will be invited over for breakfast when this happens.) During lunch, we ate Lobster rolls with chowder and for dinner at night we had full lobsters, or Lobsterman's Pie which was Lobster cooked in heavy cream and sherry and poured into a puff pastry. I may try to recreate this as well someday. If you every go to the Island Inn, I also insist that you have the Blueberry soup with cake croutons. Ingenious. Cake croutons! Not that cake get's old enough in our house to become stale enough to make croutons. The one place we missed out on was Hot Fat. The fisherman that owns this stand goes out, catches fish, comes back and often sells out of the 3 items that he has on the menu because he is so popular. You can see pics of Hot Fat and Monhegan on DG’s Flickr account.

More about the wedding tomorrow...

The Extended Honeymoon

Joy is married! We are back from Maine, back from eating Lobster for breakfast lunch and dinner, and all blueberried out. The babies are in our laps and we are headed to bed.

Vacation review tomorrow.

Baked Alaska

During our 7 day cruise, formal dinner was every evening at 8:30. Though we always had the option of going to eat a buffet or have a seated informal dinner in a different dining room, we loved our table so much that we wanted to go to dinner with them every night. This however meant dressing up (no jeans, flip flops, or tank tops). Two of the evenings were formal nights. We are talking ladies in their full length beaded sequined gowns dressing up. For me, formal night meant wearing eye liner. Above is a shot of DG in our room amusing himself while I was putting my face on.

Every night we were seated with the same group of people. I don't know how they pair you up, but Celebrity did us right! We were seated with 3 other couples that were young and fun and that we wanted to hang out with even after our 2 1/2 hour dinner was over.

Even our wait staff was great. Everyone was from a different country. Debravko our waiter was from Croatia and Lorenzo our wait staff was from Honduras. They honestly treated us like kings and queens. Debravko had been on the ship for 7 months, working 7 days a week. This was the last week of his contract where he was going back to Croatia to spend a couple of months with his wife before heading back onto the ship. During our last formal evening, Lorenzo and Debrako pose with our dessert, Baked Alaska.

Two naps a day Christy

Each evening, we were given a newsletter with a schedule of events for the next day. The schedule listed numerous activities that we could participate in. There were wine/margarita/martini tastings in the several bars, bingo, karaoke, classes, shows, nature talks, and in addition to the events, there were also night clubs, a coffee bar, spa, gym, casino, 2 level theater, movie room, video game room, computer room, as well as shuffle board, ping pong, and basketball. Here is a day in the life on a cruise ship:

8am Get up and work out at gym with prime whale watching views
10am Eat at the breakfast buffet until you are so full that the only thing to do is start drinking
11:30am Go to a wine tasting with Fernando the ship's Sommelier
12:30pm Slightly tipsy and still full from breakfast, cuddle up and take nap
2:00pm Eat lunch buffet
3:00pm Play bingo and drink Mudslides (a milkshake with liquor)
4:00pm Play ping pong hoping to get more exercise
4:30pm Catch the last 1/2 hour of European Pastries at the Cova Cafe Coffee Bar and play cards. Kick DGs butt at Gin Rummy.
5:30pm The motion of the ocean lulls you into taking another nap
6:30pm Watch movie
8:30pm Dress up and go to our 5 course dinner (Pick one appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert.)
10:30pm Go to bar and try to dance off how full you are.
12:30pm Go to bed bloated

By my 3rd day I seriously had to stop eating dessert at every meal. I limited myself to twice a day. This made me feel a little better. I also tried to limit my dinner to 3 courses, though our waiters were total food pushers and salad dressing pushers. I haven't stepped on a scale yet, but lets just say that my pants are a bit snug and I am having sugar withdrawal.

A Room with a View

Let our overview begin with our lovely luxurious mother ship, The Mercury. It was big, very big. Big enough to hold 2,100 passengers and 900+ crew members. There were 13 or so floors, though we never took the elevator. The rooms though were small, very small, 175 sq. ft. small. Luckily we had a room with a window. DG sat out in Ketchikan and took a pic of me up in the room.

From one of the top decks of the ship, here is a aerial of the pool. There were 4 hot tubs, but in the 40 degree days, it was a bit too nippy to be out in it.



Tomorrow, our lackidasical days.