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I took this meme about husbands from Tawnya’s blog. Play along if you want.

How long have you been together?
Just had our 20th anniversary.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A couple years–in high school. He was friends with my older brother. I’d eat lunch with them and hang out before school with them sometimes in the library. He always ignored me, though.

Who asked who out?
I asked him. I had won tickets to a preview of a movie and went over to my old boyfriend’s house to see if he wanted to go. He suggested I ask Daniel’s little sister Audra, who lived around the corner. But I thought, “No way! I’m asking Daniel!” When I called, he was really surprised. “You’re calling for me?”

How old are each of you?
I am 38, Daniel is 39. He turns 40 this year.

Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?
Daniel’s. They’ve managed to come down to Cali more since we’ve moved than mine have. Although one of my brothers lives in Taiwan, so it’s not like it’s easy for him to visit!

Do you have any children together?
Yeah. Three.

What about pets?
We’ve had: A turtle, rats, a baby crocodile that I killed…I think that’s it.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Being apart for days.

Did you go to the same school?
Yes.

Are you from the same home town?
Daniel was born in southern Cali, then moved to Idaho as a kid, then moved to Seattle as a teenager. I lived in Seattle from birth.

Who is the smartest?
We’re both smart in different areas. I’m all text-based: a good speller, a good writer/reader, etc. Daniel’s all spatial: good at physics, engineering, math.

Who is the most sensitive?
I really don’t know. I guess sometimes I am, and sometimes he is.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
If it’s just us, usually Don Ramon’s, a really great Mexican place around the corner.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Hawaii.

Who has the craziest ex’s?
Since we got married right out of high school, we really don’t have that many ex’s—although Daniel has a lot more than I do. So I’ll give this one to him.

Who has the worst temper?
Daniel by far.

Who hogs the bed?
He used to for years and years. Then one night for some reason we switched spots on the bed, and I found myself hogging it. I realized our bed frame is crooked and our bed leans slightly to one side. Ever since then I’ve slept on the side that gives you an advantage. Daniel’s a physical affection type and likes being crowded.

Who is more stubborn?
Daniel by far.

Who is more jealous?
Neither of us are jealous.

Who does the cooking?
I do now, or the kids, generally. When I worked fulltime and he was home with the kids, he did.

Who is more social?
Daniel by far.

Who is the neat Freak?
Daniel. I don’t know how he puts up with the mess all over the house all the time.

Who wakes up earlier?
Daniel. He’s always had trouble sleeping, though.

Where was your first date?
I took him to that movie, but he was late picking me up. And since my ex-boyfriend had routinely stood me up for things, I was not pleased. The movie ended up being stupid. It was not a great first date. So I tend to think of our second date (on my birthday) as our first.

Who has the bigger family?
I’m one of six kids, he’s one of four. However he has an uncle with 12 kids, so I think he wins for most cousins.

Do you get flowers often?
No. I’m not big on flowers. They’re pretty and everything, but they die quickly and then you have to clean out the vase. Such a hassle.

How do you spend the holidays?
Which holidays? We’re not big on holidays, so most we don’t do much for. Christmas I tend to get a little OCD about, though.

How long did it take to get serious?
After our third date, we were inseparable all summer. We both thought it was just for the summer, though, because I was moving to Olympia in the fall for college. But when I moved we realized it was serious and we got married pretty quick.

Who does the laundry?
I do now. When I worked fulltime and he was home with the kids, he did.

Who drives when you are together?
I do. All the time. We have a rule in our vehicles: driver controls the stereo.

Is your family still growing?
Does a family ever stop growing? We’re done having kids, but they’re not done growing!

Anyone manage to dodge it so far?

My youngest, Elijah, has been really sick for a few days now. My oldest, Nathaniel, is starting to come down with it.

I feel bad that my first reaction to them both has been, “You’d better not give it to me!”

But the flu is dangerous when you’re diabetic.

I’ve been washing my hands constantly.

Is it me, or does the flu seem way more harsh now than it used to? Is it the flu vaccines that are causing nastier viruses, or what?

At least no one’s thrown up yet. This one just seems to involve a bad fever and a horrible headache. Elijah’s been complaining about light making it worse, too.

I picked up a bag full of expired film the other day, I think I did a post about it. Several of the rolls were black and white 120 film from probably the 50s. Maybe older. I went out last weekend to try it out. I developed it at home, although I had to guess at the development time. There’s no documentation for this film online anywhere, since they stopped making it in 1960.

I took a roll to the Bolsa Chica wetlands and nearby Sunset Beach to try it out.

Came out pretty well, huh?

This is my shadow on some sand at the beach:

This house is for sale. From the outside it looks like it’s in pretty crummy condition. But it sits on three lots almost right on the beach.

The price has been reduced to 3.5 million.

An old friend from high school I recently connected with on Facebook. We never actually hung out together, but we shared a table in one class, and I always had good memories of him in that class. Just a super nice guy. We had fun. It was an adult living/home ec type of class, I think. So perfect for goofing off.

He sent me two 35mm film SLR cameras. I am so stoked! More than that, he sent me additional lenses, external flashes, and tons of filters. Here’s the one I’ve tried out so far:

(Sorry for the poor picture, my old digital camera is having issues.)

And here’s everything he sent along with it:

I took it out for a test run the other day. I used the wide angle lens, with a circular polarizer filter. Here’s a shot of some graffiti across the street from our apts:

Isn’t that cool?

Some electricity meters on a building:

They recently poured a patch of concrete in our parking lot, and I couldn’t resist scratching this into it:

It says WANDA. Corner Gas reference. (Scorch!)

Then I went down to a park where there were some big mud puddles to test out the circular polarizer filter. It somehow reduces reflections on water. Here is the mud puddle without it:

Here it is with it:

Isn’t that a trip? Hard to tell from this example, but it actually lets you see what is below the surface of the water when it cuts out the reflection. In this picture, all that’s below the surface is dirty concrete, so you don’t get the full effect.

The polarizer filter is also supposed to make colors more vivid and clouds more dramatic. Gotta run some color slide film through this camera!

There’s this all ages metal venue in Inglewood called The Black Castle that I’ve taken Nathaniel to a couple times. They’ve had some good thrash metal shows there. It’s a pretty cool little club. It’s also in a bad neighborhood, and we kind of stand out there. We don’t dress like metalheads (jeans, band patches on denim jackets, studded belts, etc), and we’re not Mexican, like most of the kids there. And of course, I’m not even a kid. Just a crazy old lady at a thrash metal show.

Anyway we heard the venue wasn’t going to be booking thrash metal anymore because they always end up with a huge mess after the thrash shows. Tagging, damaging the walls, kids not using toilets…all very punk rock, but not very cool. And I guess cars outside the venue have been vandalized. Inglewood is basically on the edge of Compton. Definitely not a good area.

Well last night was the last thrash metal show they’re going to have there, so Nathaniel really wanted to go. Southern Cali has a great thrash metal scene right now. His friend Dillon has his driver’s license now, so I thought maybe they’d go without me. I was really tired yesterday and didn’t know any of the bands on the bill. But Nathaniel said he wouldn’t go if I didn’t, so I decided to go.

To be honest, one reason I decided to go was that Dillon is a bit of a magnet for being picked on (he always seems to be the one who gets an elbow in the eye, or some guy randomly punching him in the head), and I’d feel really bad if anything happened to him while they were in such a bad part of town, alone. Nathaniel laughed at me: Like I’m going to protect them? But you know boys. Less likely to start a riot if mom’s along. I hope.

The irony is that I was the one to get injured.

I stood in the back corner of the venue. The place isn’t that big, but it’s basically square-shaped. I stood in front of the soundman’s booth, so I could have something to lean against. The mosh pit takes up almost the whole place. And people would occasionally come careening out of the pit and smash into the people standing in front of me, who would then smash into me. The first few times it wasn’t a big deal—you’ve gotta expect it at these kind of shows. There was a young guy next to me wearing glasses who would always ask if I was OK after each smashing. I thought it was nice of him to keep an eye out for the crazy old lady. But totally unnecessary. I’ve been going to shows for how long now?

As the night went on, it got more and more crowded, and I was having issues with people crowding my personal space. I didn’t want to give up my spot and not have anything to lean against. But I kept edging to the left so I could have some open space on at least one side. I thought several times about trying to move to the other corner of the venue, which is where Nathaniel and Dillon were, but I was tired and it was crowded.

The sound booth I was leaning against was basically just a counter. And edging to the side was a bad idea—I was leaning with my back against the corner of the counter. When the next person came crashing into us, I got hit right in the breastbone. And the corner of the counter behind me totally jabbed into my back, against my spine.

I felt like maybe I’d cracked some ribs, or just got the wind knocked out of me, or something—actually, I was worried I’d damaged my spine, because my whole rib cage and back felt weird. Mr Glasses asked if I was ok, and I shook my head, no. It was kind of hard to breathe. He immediately grabbed me and whisked me outside, pushing our way through the crowd—it was hard to walk, he really helped support me and get me out of there. He told the security at the door I’d been hurt, but they barely glanced my way. I thanked him and told him I’d be fine so he went back in.

I stood against the wall outside the door until I felt like I could go back in, then I stayed just inside the door. A young woman was standing there and she said to me, “So I’m not the only out who is out of place here?”

After that band finished I found Nathaniel and told him I’d gotten hurt and was going to go wait in the car or at the Jack in the Box down the road—there was no way I could stand for another couple hours. I ended up sitting in my car, playing my PSP, until about 11:30, when Nathaniel and Dillon came out. They skipped the headlining band because Dillon wanted to leave.

I don’t know why he wanted to leave, but I like to think it was because he knew I was sitting in the car, trying to act like I wasn’t noticing the the guy who was crouching down behind a tree trunk right next to my car, POOPING. It wasn’t even a mentally ill guy or a homeless man—it was one of the guys who’d been at the show.

I guess I can see why the neighborhood isn’t too keen on the Black Castle booking thrash metal bands.

Always an adventure, at least. I’m OK—my back is sore, in weird places, so I’ve been making everyone else do anything that involves bending, or lifting, or—well, anything besides sitting down.

Dillon, me and Nathaniel at Red Rock Canyon (taken by Dillon’s mom):

Me at the Valley of Fire:

Daniel at Red Rock (he’s not grumpy, just tired):

Nathaniel and Dillon at the Valley of Fire:

Nathaniel, Dillon, and Dillon’s mom hiking up some rocks at Red Rock (they’re in the lower right of the picture):

A desert dream:

The trail we hiked on at Red Rock:

We hiked up to a really small waterfall. It was a short hike but fun. There was little patches of snow on the ground in shady areas. It was all icy and had melted quite a bit, but one patch was big enough that Dillon’s mom could make a small snowball and pelt him with it.

We were going to go to a train yard full of retired train cars about 40 minutes outside of town but decided to skip it and just check out a record store near Dillon’s mom’s house. We all got some vinyl, except Daniel, who got a bunch of cds:

Salt n Peppa
J Fad
Cannibal Corpse
LL Cool J
Kreator

Does anyone know what LL Cool J stands for?

I’ve posted about this song before, years ago, but since my archives aren’t online anywhere (or at least, here) I’m posting about it again.

This song is really deep. It looks cute on the surface, but when you really start looking at it, it says so much. It’s about a window washer who is afraid of heights. (The video cuts off part of the first line. Also, he changes one line for a laugh, you’ll see what I mean.)

My favorite line is the last one.

Here’s a “bathroom session” version.

On our first date:

With Cat:

Skateboarding:

In the park:

By the pool:

At the beach:

Playing in the surf:

In the hot tub:

On a walk:

Taking a breather:

Risking abduction:

–

A recent IM conversation:

daniel: you never send me cute little notes saying you miss me or love me
me: I miss you
me: I love you
daniel: thanks, I know that was hard

–

Happy 20th anniversary, sweetcakes!

So after getting back to Vegas from the Valley of Fire, we went to the Stratosphere tower. It’s another hotel and casino with a giant tower on one end of the Strip. There’s an indoor observation deck and then another outdoor one.

Dillon could see his mom’s house from one side. He would’ve called her and had her go out in her yard and wave but his cell phone battery was dead and I didn’t have one with me.

The elevator operators here were pretty funny. On the way up, the operator was a really short woman—short enough to qualify as a dwarf, I think. She had a bit of an accent. With the crowd of people in the elevator, most people couldn’t tell where her voice was coming from—couldn’t see her. She was giving us directions about where to go depending on what we wanted to do once we got to the top, and when she was done she asked if everyone understood her ok. Everyone said, Uh, not really. She repeated everything. Then we were at the top, and everyone was like, “So, we go—this way?”

There are rides on top of the tower that hang off the sides of it, which I thought the boys would want to go on, but they didn’t.

Dillon figured out that his little digital camera would focus through the telescopes and he got some really cool shots this way.

Here’s a couple of pics he took:

On the elevator ride down, it was just us and a kooky old-guy operator.

The ride was really jerky and wobbly and he mentioned that the elevator doesn’t actually go straight down. That was comforting.

I took another picture in the elevator of our hotel. It has a mirror on the ceiling.

We drove out Wednesday night and got there pretty late—like 9:30 or 10pm, I think. We stayed in the Excalibur, because it has a tram to the trade show that Daniel was attending for work. Daniel was there all week, but Nathaniel, his friend Dillon, and I drove out Wednesday evening.

Our first day there was reserved for the most important thing I wanted to do—the Valley of Fire. It’s a national park about an hour north of Vegas. It’s full of these crazy, bright orange rock formations that you can hike through.

The rocks have all these crevices and caves that makes it easy to see faces in them.

Some are big enough to climb into. Here’s Nathaniel in one:

They’re hard to see, but there are petroglyphs on the rock below him. Ancient drawings. No one knows for sure what they mean. They’re endlessly fascinating. Here’s another rock with a ton of them:

View here larger. Or here, largest.

The boys had fun exploring all the rocks, they climbed up onto a lot of them. Here’s Dillon on one:

Dillon on another, taking a picture of the petroglyphs:

Nathaniel climbing up a crevice:

Here’s Nathaniel and me:

We drove through the entire park and out the other side, which I’ve never done before. I’ve never had a whole day to spend there. The last spot we stopped at was Elephant Rock. You park near the road and hike down and around this trail, which takes you right back up to the road. Kinda funny. At first we couldn’t see the elephant—you have to be way over near the road. Dillon actually climbed up onto the rocks looking for it, and it turns out he was right next to it. Finally we noticed the sign with an arrow pointing to it. Can you see it?

After leaving the Valley of Fire we went through a little town called Overton and stopped there for lunch. We ate at a little diner called Sugar’s.

And I had to stop at a couple places in town to snap some shots. Every small town needs a tank:

A laundromat:

And a Red Rooster bar:

We noticed a small book store that said “LDS Products” on it and tripped out that there was a Mormon bookstore in the middle of nowhere. But the area obviously had a high concentration of Mormons, because on the way out to the freeway, we passed two LDS chapels.

When we got back to Vegas, we went to the top of the Stratosphere, so stay tuned.