death by chocolate

Every year, some week towards the end of September, our office accountant Diann celebrates her birthday by having the company buy her this decadent, gold bedecked cake that gives everyone in the office a jittering buzz around 130 and then a nap time crash around 3. Our office has grown so much in the past year that we had to forgo the 8 inch cake and purchase a sheet cake.....which equated to about 15 pounds of chocolate. Notorious.
Here is the infamous Diann posing with her birthday cake in our conference room. The party was BYOF (Bring Your Own Fork) since those utensils tend to be rare in the kitchen and fist fights occur. Across the back: Jen, myself, Shindo, Chris, and LeslieM, all attempting to hide behind cutlery. Overheard post cake? "I need a to cut this richness with a glass of half and half."

I might die.

bearly hanging on

From my friend at Caltrans:
"This bridge is on the Old Donner Pass Highway. It has spectacular Sierra Views and views of Donner Lake and Donner Pass on Route 80. A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (Old Hwy 40 at Donner Summit, Truckee) on Saturday when two cars also crossing the bridge scared the bear into jumping over the edge of the bridge. Somehow the bear caught the ledge and was able to pull itself to safety. Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help Saturday night so they returned Sunday morning to find the bear sound asleep on the ledge. After securing a net under the bridge the bear was tranquilized, fell into the net, lowered, then woke up and walked out of the net."

in hiding

riding the bull

This is a friend of my coworker. It's not a cast, it's a club.
(ps: DON'T try this. uber dangerous. uber illegal)

(pps: I was not present at this photo taking. Jumping on the back of an elephant seal is punishable by various fines totaling $100,000 dollars and jail time. That is, if the bull doesn't eat your face.)

demon birth

it took all day. i watched.

grodie to the maxx

I went to TJ Maxx while I was in Ptown yesterday. I love that store. As a child, I learned the thrill of a bargain, and, as I grew and tastes did too, I learned to appreciate a dig sesh that would satisfy the most picky label whore.

But I can't really talk about my visit there yesterday. It was terrible. The store was not the haven my mother and I have come to expect. It was like ROSS. Like a crappy ROSS with dust bunnies everywhere and men's clothes in the women's skirt section. My mom had a diabetic reaction, I sat her down in the furniture section on an ugly straw table/bench/whatever, and as she came around, we contemplated the ugly shorts she had managed to pick up. I had no excuse for the ugly halloween underwear (MOM, they say BOOOOOOtiful on the butt in ghosts!).

We fled.

off the grid

Last week, I was east of Merced in land made of sand. It was hot, and a slam on the gas pedal saved workBill and I from getting T-boned by an orange semi. It was close enough that I wondered what our roadside crosses would have looked like on the corner of that intersection near Snelling.

overlooking.

pretty death

pretty life

workBill working. He had just been divebombed by a large albino barn owl.

leslie vs. the big bush. we needed a size comparison.