Erin and Ross' Wedding

One of my friends, little sister, got married over the weekend. Erin and Ross had a beautiful wedding in my hometown. I was late coming home because I didn't think I needed to set my alarm clock, but apparently I did because I got a super late start, and then ran into traffic issues. So, I skipped the wedding because I thought it would only run 30 minutes, and I was going to be at least 10 minutes late, so I didn't think it would be worth it to try to make it to the wedding. But I guess Catholic weddings last a lot longer than the average because the ceremony wasn't over until at least an hour later.

My friend JJ, her husband, kids, brother, brother's fiance', and parents all attended the wedding. My mom volunteered to watch her kids during the dinner, so they wouldn't have to sit through the stuff kids get antsy during. Since she was coming, too, she offered to drive and pick me up after the reception was over. For the wedding, I bought a new pair of heels from the Jessica Simpson collection and since I usually wear flip flops or comfy shoes, I was walking like a trannie in her first pair of heels, but they never got so uncomfortable that I had to take them off, so there was that. The speeches were wonderful, the food was great and the dancing was fun. Erin has great style and she and Ross made great choices in their wedding decisions.

At the end of the night, I was tired and my feet hurt. I had asked my parents to wait until I called to come pick me up because sometimes weddings go later than scheduled if everyone is having a good time, and this wedding went late, but when I went to check my phone there was a message from my parents. They were waiting downstairs for me. Nothing makes you feel more like a little kid than having your parents pick you up from a party.

Erin and Ross.

Erin and her sister, Stacia.

Erin, Me and my friend Stacia.

Jerry, Stryker, and JJ's dad, Mitch.

My friend JJ and her mom.

My friend JJ's little brother, his fiance', Sarah, JJ and her husband, Jerry.

Tori and Stryker, JJ and Jerry's kids.

The wedding cake.

The center piece.

Jeff's Birthday 2010

On June 28th, 2010, for Jeff's birthday, we had tickets to the Cardinal's game. It was excruciatingly hot. We went to see the Cardinals play the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is the view from out seats:

This is the view of my drink:


I got a pineapple flavored vodka with sweet and sour mix. It was in a plastic mason jar. I liked it but it wasn't really that refreshing in the heat. I'm still searching for the best drink at the baseball game when it's scorching hot.

We left the game at the top of the ninth, when the Cards were losing because Jeff wanted to "miss the traffic". The Cardinals came back and won the game in the bottom of the ninth. Instead of watching the win live, we got to watch the replays on TV when we went to the bar to cool off after the game, which only made Jeff more bitter.

The President's Last Day

My boat had her last day June 17, 2010. It was supposed to be June 30th, but the river rose and she didn't get to enjoy her last days of service.


I had started moving my stuff out of my office shortly before the river started rising, but didn't get everything out. It took two and a half weeks before the water went down enough so that I could finish the job. It's been pretty sad, all the way around, but at least it's over.

Tara's 7th Annual Floating Circus

This year's float trip had the best weather, yet. Hot, but not too hot. The water was warm to swim in. The float was 5 miles like most years, but it went much faster because we didn't stop very much and didn't stay long when we did. It was the first time I didn't spend the last hour of the trip wondering when it was going to finally end. I was actually surprised when the trip ended this year.

It's been awhile since the float trip, so I'm just going to list the 10 things I learned during Tara's 7th annual Floating Circus and elaborate on things to fill my blog post.

1. Bosch has giant Muppet feet. - Bosch had the weirdest shoes I've ever seen on his feet when the float trip was over. The were rubber like crocs, but they were molded to look like bare feet. And since he has giant feet they looked like giant muppet feet when he propped them up on the coolers.

2. When it comes to packing, Tara values Jello shots on the Float Trip over dry clothes after the Float Trip. - Tara left her bag of dry clothes sitting on her bed at home instead of putting it in the car. We did manage to pack 5 gallon size bags of jello shots, though. Billy was nice enough to get some jammies from the camp store for her because she was too stubborn to get her own.

3. Preston likes to slurp T.C.'s melon(s)...flavored jello shots. - I made about 150 jello shots for the trip in the flavors: watermelon, pineapple, cherry, grape, and tropical fusion. So, Preston was amusing himself by making jokes about my sisters "melons" and the jello shots.

4. Don't spray Off insect repellent in a small enclosed area unless you want to die. - I went to take a shower after the float trip and decided to spray myself down in Off insect repellent before I got dressed. The room I was in was an individual shower room with little to no ventilation. I thought I could spray myself down and get dressed before it got too bad, but I was wrong. It was just seconds before I realized I was poisoning myself, but I couldn't open the door to get some air because I was still naked. I almost died.

5. Billy isn't what you call a fan of singers under the age of 10. - When I got back to the camp after taking my shower I didn't feel well, so I laid down in the tent and took a nap before dinner. I woke up to obviously young girls screaming into a microphone pretending to do karaoke. They didn't stop for hours. The rest of us were pretty tolerant, but Billy, the most laid back in our group could not stop talking about how much he hated listening to the singing and felt no one should be allowed to sing under the age of ten.

6. Thanks to the game "Catch Phrase", we know Tara and Michelle think Penelope Cruz is a two-bit whore and Preston likes motorboats. - This was the first time I ever played "Catch Phrase". It was a lot of fun.

7. Newlyweds putting up a tent together for the first time is fun to listen to. - Tenille wasn't feeling well and her new husband who just moved here from Spain was doing the macho man role of taking the lead in putting up the tent even though the tent was Tenille's and she had put it up by herself many, many times. So the combination of those two attitudes went about as well as you thought it might.

8. Wearing "cop" sunglasses seems to naturally give you a "cop" attitude. - Michelle had "cop" sunglasses on and her sister Angie was giving her a lot of guff about them the entire float.

9. Dogs like shit. Vivi rolled in it and both Bogey and Dolly dropped a load in front of large audiences. - That's pretty much self-explanatory.

10. Four U.S. state capitals have the word "city" in their name and Led Zeplin is the best Rock n Roll band of all time. - While we were waiting to start the float trip, there was a large group with a lot of children, so the adults were trying to keep them occupied by asking trivia questions. It was actually a little bit interesting. (The cities are: Carson City, Oklahoma City, Jefferson City, and Salt Lake City.)

My last tidbit of info from the trip that isn't on my list is that I saw a funny shirt in the camp store that said on the back: "Hold my beer and watch this!". I guess you have to go on a float trip to know why this is so funny.

So, on to the pictures:

This is a beer in my friend's wedding reception favor koozie. I decided I'm going to try to take it on whatever trip I can and photograph it, just so that I can be "that girl". (But seeing how, I'm almost two months behind on my blog and I promised myself I would write once a week, I'm not holding my breathe for this plan.)

These are my $4 Hannah Montana sunglasses that I bought so I wouldn't lose my $12 sunglasses with rhinestones.

This is a piece of the annual friend chicken Michelle brings every year.

Preston and Michelle in their canoe with Vivi swimming nearby.

Rebecca and her husband on the raft.

Dolly Madison, Michelle in her cop sunglasses and Vivi.

Marie and Bosch in their canoe.

Bogey in his life vest. Tenille and Tara.

The newlyweds, Tenille and Ruben. Michelle and her sister, Angie.

Bogey and Tara. Liz and Michelle.

Pickles, Softball, and Wicked

Beginning on Thursday, I was staying at Pickles house and dog-sitting. As I've mentioned before Pickles is a Welsh Corgi who was rescued from a breeding mill. He's a sweetheart who's mostly obedient, but has a little spunk. On Friday, three of my co-workers were playing against each other (two on one team, one from the other team) in a softball game in Red Bud, Illinois. So, I took Pickles to Red Bud to watch the game. He did really well, but the humans, not so much. It was really hot, so I brought his water dish, but I had left it in the car. I sat down to watch the game, but I spent the first half of the first inning listening to the people behind me talking non-stop about their terrible neighbor who leaves their dog chained in the front yard without any shade and without water. I got the point and got the water. Pickles did not drink a drop of water throughout the entire game. I enjoyed the game even though it was so incredibly hot. At one point, I even thought it must be nice to live in a small town where everybody knows one another and then I was walking back to my car with the dog and he stopped to pee. I didn't stop to let him pee, he just did it on his own and some bitch behind me started talking loud enough for me to hear about how horrible it is my dog peed at the park. I wanted to turn around and tell her what a whore-bag she was and what a great parent she must be to have her kid out so late at night, but I couldn't because I didn't know who she was related to. Then I decided living in a small town isn't that great at all.

Sunday was Father's Day. My parents drove up with family friends and we all went to see "Wicked" at The Fox. This was the third time I've seen this play, twice in St. Louis and once in Chicago. The play was still pretty awesome. I wore a black dress with knee-high green and black striped socks in honor of the wicked witch. I got a few comments, but I didn't have to kick an old lady's ass, so that was good.