Double Feature

Plop. We landed in the land of Marcottes. Colorado feels close to home and we can smell the west coast. As we arrived, Pat and Leslie were waiting for us with cheese/sausage plates and some great beer. It is nice to be in microbrewery heaven. We talked until Pat had to go home to the mountains (we have a theory that Pat is the REAL bigfoot). The next few days were filled with shopping at secondhand shops, exercising in a room with AC, and enjoying the wonderful company of Leslie.

While in Denver, we dropped by Beth and Paul Will's home for a dinner and conversation. Talks of photography and sourdough filled the evening until Mika and Forrest came home from the airport (they were in Europe!). We will see Mika again soon in Ft. Collins, but it was nice to see Beth and Paul for a good chunk of time.

KC

A short stay with lots of flavor! We had amazing local beer...some of the best local beer we have had yet...and what was distinctly the best chicken that was ever made. We have named it super chicken. We enjoyed good company into the night and hit the hay so we could make our way west again. The bunny also enjoyed lots of love and attention from the kiddo! We took pictures when we left early in the morning, so they may be a little dark (heh, heh).

For Rob

So we pulled up to the sidewalk. We then walked over to the house of Susan Littlefield. After that we went through the door. Susan and friends had been making dinner and drinking wine. We joined in on the wine drinking. I think that was helpful. We started off talking in the kitchen. This went on for a few hours. We munched on appetizers until dinner was ready. The table was set and the where-do-i-sit-dance was performed. With Rick on the left, and Al on the right, as to not get elbowy due to right and left handed issues we prepared for dishing up. We then passed food around the table. There were two kinds of potatoes, which were both awesome, pork, salad, and MORE red wine. If there is a world wide shortage on grapes we know who is responsible. Everyone ate, and as usual, Al was the last to finish her meal. Susan is renting out the upstairs apartment to two friends of hers and so she went upstairs with them to talk about the remodeling that will be done. We sat and talked with friends and family for about an hour until Susan returned. Everyone dispersed in their homeward directions and we talked with Susan late into the night in the living room. Susan suggested that we let the bunny run free upstairs as the floors were going to be redone and she couldn't get herself into too much trouble. We then went upstairs and let the bunny out. The bunny hopped around for a while and we found a door and ember screen to block off an area for her to run around for the remainder of the night. Susan had a blow up mattress for us so we went out to the car to get our pump and inflated the mattress. She handed us some sheets and we made the bed. We got in the bed and quickly fell asleep as it was late. We woke up in the morning and went downstairs. We talked with Susan for a while and made coffee. Al then made Crepes and Susan fried up the bacon. We brushed our teeth and washed our faces. Then we started packing up the car to head out on the road. It was really really hot and humid outside so this was quite a chore. Before we took off we took our famous photo for the stop shown above. We all hugged goodbye and then walked out the door. After we walked out the door we walked down the street. After we walked down the street we unlocked the car. We then got into the car, closed the doors, turned on the car, turned on the AC, put the car in drive, and pulled out. To find out what happened next, you will have to check out the next post.

(For all readers that are not Rob, we would like to formally apologize for this post)
(If you are Rob, you asked for it...and we miss you!)

the mad ass yoga saga

Al and Rick (yes we are going for 3rd person on this one) headed down to visit the wonderful couple and dear friends of the family, Sandy and Don. Al and Rick decided to go with Sandy and Don to their weekend yoga class. This was not a mistake for Rick, the buff god of a manly man that he is, but for Al the old lady, the yoga class was a bit of a challenge. She has decided that spending time in the kitchen making food for her man, cleaning the house, and raising the 76 children is where her efforts should be focused. As Al was essentially paralyzed, the time was mostly spent relaxing with eyes glued to the enormous tv screen that graced the downstairs living room. We now know everything that has to do with "Do it yourself" home repair, thanks to the DIY network. We also found St. Louis brews to be shockingly awesome, and no we are not referring to Budweiser Beer. We are also aware that we have stopped using the 3rd person perspective. Fair enough.

Backwoods, MO

Our second stop in the St. Louis area was with Aunt Mary, at a lake in the middle of nowhere. Not even the FBI could find us (but boy, were they trying)! We hung out with the mascot of the stop, Dusty. A sweet dog with cancer, we held a prayer vigil with 5,000 of his biggest fans (most of them were bullfrogs). The nights were very loud, between the thunderstorms and the local nightlife (again, mostly bullfrogs), it was a few decibels louder than our home in NYC. We would take the chorus of crickets, cicadas, and frogs over honking cars any day. The lake house was great, and we will think of our times there fondly. The rugs were saturate, and the various masks hanging on the wall laughed with us as we enjoyed good company.

Lake St. Louis

We found the cheapest 5 star hotel around Lake St. Louis, and enjoyed the culinary arts of Uncle Chip Costello. He and Lori put up with us for around a week, as we relaxed in their pool and sailed around the lake. Sweet luxury! The stay ended with a burrito fix at a nearby restaurant. We can't say thanks enough to Chip and Lori for all that we got to enjoy, including the chance to perfect a frontflip off of a diving board that I swear is too low to flip off of (Coach Al thinks otherwise). Other then that, Al messed up her foot scissor-kicking your mom. We amputated at the waist, and now everything is fine.

Cornville, IL

Crossing into a new timezone, we stepped back in time to a sleepy farm-town by the name of Hindsboro, Illinois. Home to many of Al's not so distant relatives, we ate coconut cream pie, and looked at a bunch of dead people (don't worry, they were buried). We stayed with Ned and Phillis, who showed us as much kindness as they showed us corn; and there was a LOT of corn around there. We took a Jeep tour through Amish country, and visited some mini-donkeys. I had trouble petting them because I kept thinking that they were far away. I guess my depth perception needs to get better. One mistook Al's Showco shirt for food, so we had to slaughter it. It turns out donkey steak goes well with corn.

Obit Update: Razor

On a rainy day, the world lost another brave soul: Our gillette mach 4 razor. It will be mourned by Rick's face and Al's legs/armpits. Especially Al's legs. The hair is now long enough to act like a prism in the light, refracting and blinding poor souls within viewable distance. We wanted to let enough time pass for appropriate mourning, but tomorrow's goal is to move forward again in life and find another razor to love. It will never replace old gillette mach 4. RIP gillette mach 4.

Leaving New England

We Finally left New England for Columbus, Ohio. We raped and pillaged with Pirate Rena and Pirate JB. We celebrated our booty with giant PBRs, and even more giant burgers. Yaar! Also, the car became even more stuffed (just like your mom last night) as we hit up a discount store named Ollie's. I had to drag Pirate Al out of there by her ankles, and they charged us for damage to the floor from her claw-marks. We will never be forgotten. The only true fatality was that of Pirate Rena's computer-machine-thingy, which took a high-dive into an empty pool. We told her it went to a good family on a farm, where it can run around with all of the commodore 286's and Apple IIe's. Run free, run free.

You Look Like Sonny and Cher

Finishing New England with a bang! The fourth of July fireworks easily exceeded both of our yearly incomes, along with several of our friends' added in. Fireworks were set off machine gun style; it is hard to appreciate 75 explosions all at once. We spent most of the night out "On a Boat" with a disco ball...listening to "On a Boat" Our main home for the week though was with the Klotz's and their two Doberman Pinchers: the fearsome Copper and the lovable, bilingual Kiera. What a wonderful family! Thanks guys! We attempted to leave New Hampshire only to run into a billion tolls. Once we were out of dollars and quarters we were forced to head off the highway in search of an ATM in what apparently was the smallest town ever. We did manage to find one and escape, but not without being stopped in our car to be told that we looked just like Sonny and Cher. I see the resemblance. You know with the plastic surgery that we have both had and the fact that we are both like 60 something.

Farm in Vermont

We had a great time in Vermont seeing Ruthanne and Deborah. Farmwork and rhubarb pie were bountiful, and we discovered a great show that is new to us: the big bang theory. Leave it to us to find an amazing nature spot only to find a new TV show. What a great piece of TV! On other notes, it was good to be around some livestock and sawdust. Ahh, home. Next stop is New Hampshire.
P.S. Your alcoholic dad.

serious mustache

A bit of a serious "ish" note for a change:
We have set a date for our wedding...yeah for real.
Aug 21st of 2011!
And you are not invited! Just kidding...sort of.
But really, it is going to be a small closed ceremony on the beautiful beach in Bandon Oregon with immediate family.
Don't worry though. We are having a reception/big awesome camping trip a few days later that should last about a week! We hope that everyone can come join us and celebrate our marriage! It would mean a lot! So if we don't see you before, we hope we can guilt you into seeing us then! :)

A short stop in Maine

We happily stranded ourselves on Island Gimbel for a few days. Enjoyed a wonderful fire and a few dogs before we lost John to his next exciting adventure. Island life is quiet...just what we needed. "To be completely honest, we have never been better!" That's what your mom said. :) Also, it turns out that the blair witch is a loon.

Obit Update

New to our blog: the running list of things we have lost.

The first addition of this list happened on a rainy tuesday in Ft. Edward, NY. Through circumstances we couldn't avoid, the lens-cap of Al's camera tragically fell to mother nature.

R.I.P. the lens-cap.

Late Update 1 of 2: Ft. Edward, NY

We have been without internet for a few days, so here is the next place we went. Traveling North from Middletown, we stopped in Fort Edward, NY so I could be best man for my dear friend, Bill Sawka (this is Rick). Wow, what a ceremony! It was so hot that your mom fainted, and all of the midget prostitutes left before the show. However, we still had a great time, and after a few days, had to say goodbye. With that, we left New York state for the foreseeable future.

Stop number 1: Middletown NY

We just got to Middletown NY last night. We have enslaved an Italian family, forcing them to do our laundry and cook us meals. We plan to free them upon sunset as we will be off to Ft. Edward tonight.
P.S. Happy Father's Day

The final night...

We just got back to the apartment after driving the car from WAY out in Queens (saying that this place is still in NYC is like saying Talkeetna is part of Fairbanks) back to Manhattan. Tomorrow morning we pack the car, and take off for our first stop: Middletown, NY.

post-goodbye party

Well, there is less than a week left before we leave. We had a goodbye party saturday night. Overall, a success. Hiring the travelling circus for the event was expensive, but worth it. The place is quite empty, all of the boxes are gone now. Thanks to Al's parents for holding all of our stuff while we are on our way to Oregon. On a related note, I just bought silk-screening supplies. Al and I plan to add screenprinting to the list of services Sefener offers, and I just plain miss printing. There is still much to be done, so I will get going. Thanks for reading!

Note to our followers

We have not been posting much because we are still in NYC. Once the trip begins, we will post more often. (WOOOOO WE'RE ALMOST GONE!!!!)

Two Years, and still not Facebook official

Today is our two year anniversary, and we are celebrating by not leaving the apartment, and taking a much needed break (and catching up on our hulu queue). This morning Al took pictures of a bunch of Showco t-shirts for an upcoming book, and I stood in the way, moving shirts and blocking the light (I was SUPPOSED to block the light, don't worry). Now we are enjoying some thai food. Not much to really say, we have been knocking things off of our list for the last few days.

I think we are more excited about this blog than you are because it marks us leaving westward. We do promise to not post anything too personal, however, such as bathroom stories (unless they are really good).

p.s. a word from al: thoracotomy. that is all.

p.p.s. your mom.

p.m.s. (still your mom)

T minus 18

Just 18 days until we leave on our trip. We have one more box to ship, and a list of things to finish before we go that is several pages long. Thinking of having a going away party (with midget strippers and body shots), but it seems to us that the going away IS the party. We found a tenant to take our apartment when we leave, so at least some things are starting to wrap up. Well, that's our first post; so until next time....