Easter Done Egged me On!

Ahhh Spring - the smell of budding flowers, freshly mowed grass, the open sea...and of course the stench of 6 dozen eggs being boiled in my tiny house.

Not everyone was enthused to be invited to the annual "hot tub" party:

Yes, it was time to mix liberal amounts of vinegar with dye tablets and hope for the best. Not all tablets complied:
The "pond scum pink" above did not work well, but most other colors did. DP was being somewhat snotty about the lack of "proper dye colors":
But overall, the eggs turned out quite nice this year:
my crafty ass friend made these awesome peeps for da kids:
Please note the difference here... a Peep someone wants to receive:
and a Peep NO ONE wants to receive:
Of course I made my famous deviled eggs for the Easter Feast (multiply plate below by FOUR):
and delivered the baskets that the Easter bunny left at Grandma's house for da kids:
The Peeps were a big hit with da kids:
Here's da girls, hanging with the baskets and each other:
While others were busy pondering the camouflage eggs:
The baskets were HIGHLY APPRECIATED:
Photo Ops were hard to come by, due to the many distractions the kids were up against:


some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, were not enthused to be photographed among the rabble:

The egg hunt was held off till after lunch to allow the backyard to dry out from the morning fog. Once it was on, IT. WAS. ON:




Some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, were perplexed by the whole egg in hand thing:

Some favorite shots of the day:


and a final glance at someone, I WON'T SAY WHO, who was not enthused by the whole holiday thang:

Snow Trip!

March. Spring was SUPPOSED to be in the air. Instead we had rain and cold and misery. So to escape...DP, my friend and I decided to head east...to Tahoe and fresh snow and casinos and other such miseries.

Little did we know that winter was kicking up a last minute fuss. To avoid the hoards of ski bums driving up on Friday...we drove up on Saturday and drove back on Monday instead of Sunday. Of course, to ensure our safety I had Blackjack outfitted with tire chains, and the trunk outfitted with beef jerky, candy, crackers, M&M's and other such things to avoid having to resort to cannibalism.

DP didn't seem too enthusiastic about the trip:

We stopped off first in Grass Valley, to visit friends and do some light snowshoeing. Alas, we ran into a bit of the last of the snowstorm and ended up sitting on Interstate 80 for an hour and 10 minutes. Despite boredom, cabin fever and someones (not mine) desperate need to pee - we did not have to resort to cannibalism. Instead we amused ourselves with photography and as soon as the next exit appeared on the horizon - we took it!Lots of snow fell!

not everyone was enthused by the winter weather:
The next day, we headed from Grass Valley to Tahoe - the drive was beautiful with all that fresh snow! We stopped many times to take in the view and torture DP with more photos. Here's BlackJack awaiting our return to the car:

Taken while NOT driving:

My friend's traveling companion Gort was about as enthused by the snow as DP was:
more snow type photos:

despite the road looking like this...

we made it to Tahoe! Of course, there was the added drama of driving on 89 for 2 hours only to be turned around FOUR MILES FROM OUR DESTINATION (emerald bay pass closed!!) and made to go back down 89, back to 80, back to 267 and then ALL THE WAY AROUND THE LAKE to get to South Lake Tahoe. Added about 1 hour 30 minutes to the trip, but at least it looked like this:Here is what we drove through, from the safety of the other side of the lake:

Oh yes, I almost forgot...we were staying at a Casino for the night and we lost track of DP at one point, only to return to the room and find THIS:
Sad. Some people just don't know when to hold them. Or when to fold them. Or when to walk away...or when to run!

Anyway...the next day was glorious, with clear weather and lots of opportunity for photos and snow exploring:
of course, the tourist in me came out:
Someone, I WON'T SAY WHO, was busy mourning the events of the previous evening:
We had to drag his ass over to the bench for his tourist shot:
At this point, DP was ready to head home:

We did manage to get in some exploring with a nice walk in the woods alongside Highway 50 on the way home:

INSERT GRATUITOUS RANT: I have to ask, what is with the asshat SUV drivers on Highway 50? This is not exactly a safe road in the snow and there appeared to be some sort of "first one off the mountain wins!" mentality going on with these drivers. I must have pulled over at least 5 times to avoid being run down. Were they all in that much of a hurry to return to there sadsack lives in the big city??

But I digress...a last stop on the way home to take some shots of an old highway sign I kept meaning to photograph for years:
By the way, there is no restaurant.

There were only cows giving us that "oh look, Bessie...check out the dumbass tourists taking photos of that stupid sign again" look.