Ball '06 pictures

Gavin is enthused about his suit:


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Red Eye Family:


 

 

 

 

Gavin spends too much time at the bar:


 

 

 

 

The couple on the beach:


 

 

 

 

 

 

Gavin uses me as a maypole:


 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike dances with my mom:

Flop

Valentine's Day. Mike's face dropped when he realized that he had not bought me anything, no chocolate or flowers, but had instead done our taxes and cost us a lot of money. His face sagged further when Gavin gave him the box of candy I had helped him pick out for his dad; Mike had not arranged for Gavin to give me a valentine, either. My present was supposed to be Thai food, but the restaurant was closed. Mike scoured the phone book outside the dark restaurant for alternatives. The phone book binder on the pay phone covered the number of the restaurant we wanted, so he told us to get into the car and he drove all the way to Kailua in the driving rain. We finally had some luck and went back home with a steaming pile of curries, sticky rice, and spring rolls. I then spent a romantic evening in the storage room of my uncle-in-law's coffee shop watching the kids play choo choos while kneading a stress ball and drinking iced chai.

For our anniversary last night, Mike and I drove down to Ala Moana for an evening together. We went upstairs into the tourist comfort-food arena of upscale chain restaurants and hit the Macaroni Grill. Traditionally, we spend some time talking over the events of the previous year, but that didn't last very long. I spent most of this year tramping to the end of my leash and howling at the moon. I picked up the crayons next to my grilled salmon and drew stick figures on the paper tablecloth. The waitress came by to inspect my crude handiwork.
"This is us when we got married 3 years ago," I said, pointing to the stick figure in a kilt and the bubble figure holding a stick baby. "This is us now," I pointed to the stick family with stick toddler, "and this is us next year," indicating the stick figures with new stick baby and stick preschooler. I decided that I looked like a South Park character in the first picture, so I scribbled, "cheesy poofs" next to my head.
"What happened to him here?" asked the waitress, pointing to the third picture.
"He gained a lot of weight with the second baby," I said.
"And who's this?"
"That's Jack Black in our basement."
"RAWK!"
I drew a circle around Jack Black, crossed out "basement" and wrote in "hot tub".

After cheesecake, we went down to the Apple store and I choked on the price of the web cam Mike wanted. He doesn't even need one. We left empty handed, then couldn't find anything for me, either. Finally we decided that we could not return home without something for Gavin, and spent the rest of our time digging through Thomas the Tank Engine books at Barnes and Noble. I used a gift card to buy a book for my library, and we left without buying each other gifts. "Well it's not our fault 2/3 of the mall is devoted to overpriced handbags," Mike said. We agreed that we owe each other something nice in the future, went home, and fell asleep. There will be no second stick baby at this rate, but at least the eating's good.

This morning I rolled out of bed into the shower, ran downstairs in my librarian disguise, and remembered that I had to have snacks for a baby shower at work this afternoon. And that is why I was baking cookies at 5:30am. I pulled out a Tupperware container and sent the contents of the cabinet crashing out onto the floor, shattering a glass pie pan. The cats streaked like bullets out the door, but somehow the household slept through it.  Friday. Friday. Friday!