Ruiz Reunion 2008

The blog was quiet for a little while. It was because Dan, my father and I were on our way to Stockton, CA for the family reunion. It was 4 days of eating, talking, eating, laughing, eating and even more eating.

My dad is the youngest of 11 and when my Uncle Junior turned 60, they turned it into a family reunion as well as a birthday party. They had so much fun that they decided to do it for everyone's 60th. This year was my Uncle Donald's 60th birthday, as well as his vow renewal and Dan's first reunion as part of the family. So of course we had to go. Mom stayed home. She claimed it was because she didn't want Michelle to be home alone for 4 days, but in reality I think it was because she wanted to be home alone for 4 days.
I didn't realize it until afterwards, but in this picture the bottom row is right to left, oldest to youngest while the top row is the opposite - left to right oldest to youngest. My dad is the tallest guy standing and he's directly behind his eldest brother. They all have D names - Domingo ("Jr.") David, Danny, Dante, Douglas, Delano ("Ray,") Dolores, Donald, Delpha, Della and Del (my dad.)

I'll admit that I was not excited about it. It had been 10 years since I had seen all of the family together. (There were reunions, I just didn't go.) I am close to a few cousins and 3 of Dad's siblings, but do not really know the rest of them all that well. I was wary of having to introduce Dan to family members that I did not know. Things worked out though because they all assumed I would not remember their names. Although, maybe I should be insulted...
We stayed with my Uncle Donald - the birthday boy - and his wife and youngest daughter. This is their family group shot because I don't have a shot of the entire Ruiz family on my camera, and this is the only family where I know all of their names. (They are the second smallest family, second only to ours.)

The first night, we missed a dinner at one of my aunt's houses because Dan and I had to work on Thursday. Friday was the vow renewal, held at a local community center. There was awful food, overpriced drinks, loud Mexican music and a lot of drunken dancing. It did not set a good tone for the rest of the weekend. But it was fun to catch up with everyone and to try and link all of them to each other. Mostly so Dan would know how they were related, but also in part to jog my own memory.The next day was the Suns vs. Spurs game, which was a big rivalry. Obviously being from Phoenix, my Dad is a Suns fan. Even has season tickets. Most of his family is from San Antonio, so they were all Spurs fans. We ate pizza and watched the game and even I got into it, which is saying something. Sports and I are like...well, there's no better analogy. Sports and I don't mesh well. The next day was the picnic. Did I mention already that the high was in the 60's all weekend? And that everyone told us it was going to be 80+ and beautiful so we didn't bring jackets? Yeah...I was cold. Luckily my aunt brought a ton of extra sweatshirts, so I snagged one and sat in the sun all day. I felt like someone at an old folks' home. There was more eating and more talking and lots of picture taking. I caught up with the relatives I hadn't had a chance to talk to yet that weekend and Dan was comfortable enough to spend most of the day away from my side, bonding with my male cousins. (Golf claps - that was a huge step!) He was one of 3 white guys at the first function and the only one at the last function that was actually related by marraige. He was day-glo white in a crowd of Mexicans, but he stood his own. I'm so proud of him! And even better, none of my overprotective cousins/uncles threatened to cut him! Not that I really think they would..well, maybe not...
OK, last real informative blog for a little while. No more events until Tartraz's wedding and Mother's Day. Onto frivolous posts!

Busy and Buzzing

The blog was strangely silent for a long while, mostly due to many events happening in a very short time span. But we're back and ready to blog!
March 20th marked my descent into adulthood. I turned the big 2-6. I am officially closer to 30 than 20, which I thought would worry me but hasn't phased me yet. The 20th landed on a Thursday, which does not lend itself to late night partying unless you are young and carefree. And since I am now 26, neither of those adjectives seem to describe me. So, we spent a fairly quiet evening at home with plans to celebrate that weekend. During work, we celebrated with chocolate raspberry cake. Later that day, Dan brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a copy of Enchanted, which I have declared to be my new favorite movie. He then went home to make my favorite dinner, proscuitto bruschetta and lasagna.

Unfortunately, I took only this photo of him cooking. By that time, he was basically done with the appetizer. I was hungry, it smelled yummy, and my camera was quickly abandoned in favor of food. But in case you were wondering, it was delish. We filled up on appetizers and saved the lasagna for future lunches/dinners.
That weekend, we gathered with some old friends to celebrate. It was fun to see all of them again. We haven't been together like that in over 4 years. We started at TGI Fridays for dinner with. Then took a trip to Bevmo which was an amazing place. I'm not a big drinker, but even Dan and I were amazed. We returned home for drinks and had quite the little bar going, especially since only a few of us drink. I had a rather large cherry martini, which is my favorite, and nursed that all night. Oh yeah. I'm a party animal. Dan and the others had a fair amount to drink. I'd even say Dan was slightly drunk by the end of the night.


Easter was spent with the Klick side, feasting on large amounts of food and celebrating my birthday even more. They got me a mint chocolate ice cream cake, which is one of my favorite desserts. (Hersheys with almonds is my absolute favorite, in case you were wondering what goodies to surprise me with.)
That week, we left for Ohio. Amy's gymnastics team was competing in the MAC championships and we were going to do our best to yell and scream and basically distract her while she competed. Never understood why there was cheering in gymnastics. Anyway, we fell in love with the town and the house prices and I told Dan that if he didn't let me move there and live in a big Cape Cod home, it was obvious he didn't love me.
...still in AZ. So he must not love me.

It was an awesome vacation and action packed. We decorated their locker room to surprise them. Every gymnast's family decorated a posted to hang up. We found the world's best BBQ place and brought home a quart of the sauce. I tried to drink it, Dan stifled my freedom. We fell in love with Sheetz convenience stores and discovered that "warm" in Ohio was 45 degrees. It was a great break from the work week and so neat to see where Amy lives.

It also helps that they won first place. Go KSU Flashes!

Baking 101

Not my wedding cake, originally uploaded by Klick Here.

So, Katie posted a comment on the previous post which made me think that my baking skills deserved a blog post. She is referring to a cake that I made in the microwave while living in the sorority dorm. She made non-stop fun of me, even while we sat in the hallway, eating it straight out of the pan. Because that's the kind of friends we are.
I even made a few birthday cakes for various people. My then-boyfriend's roommate had never had a birthday cake made for him before, so he got the first one. He claimed to like it, but then again who wouldn't like my cooking? I also made a few for some sorority sisters who had bad breakups. I was the Betty Crocker of Mountain View.
I had visions of making a multi-tiered cake, complete with delicate sugar spun flowers. Like the picture, but with round cake pans. By the way, the cake in the picture is not my wedding cake but happens to have our initials on it. I googled "cake" and that was the first image on the list. Cake karma.
So anyway, I had these grand ideas and not enough people to bake for. And then I moved into a room with a pot head, a nympho and a stereotypical California beach bum. My cookware was quickly trashed. I never replaced it, mostly because I was a poor college student and also because I had a meal plan.
But, in honor of those first few microwaved cakes, here is my microwavable cake recipe.

Ingredients:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 can of chocolate frosting

Mix cake according to directions on box. Pour into microwavable cake pan. Bake according to directions on cake pan. Let cool. Spread with chocolate frosting and enjoy.

You're welcome.

Ode to March

Sunny Happy Flower, originally uploaded by Klick Here.

It's finally March. This month is my second favorite month. (December, a.k.a. Christmas Month, being my supreme favorite.) This month is National Craft Month, which means that all my favorite stores are having awesome sales. Not just awesome, multiple word awesomeness. Awe. Some. It's also the month that the first day of Spring appears, bringing with it warmer weather and pretty flowers and an excuse to buy sundresses. That happens to be a holiday in Japan. Thanks, Wikipedia. And finally? It's my birthday month. Save up your pennies people, because Sara likes presents.

This month will be chock full o' fun too. Ren Fest is back and Carrie is working over there on Saturdays. We want to go visit her some weekend, once it warms up a little and hopefully on a weekend without rain. The charity auction for Friends for Life is also coming up this weekend. I'm excited to see all the auction action. And the weekend after is Petfest at West World. Dan and I are volunteering to sell t-shirts and hand out info packets about Friends for Life. It means that we'll see a bunch of cute pups wandering around and hopefully we'll find some cute gifts for our kitties. Because cats need materialistic validation as much as we do. The weekend after that is my birthday weekend, which means I expect to see all my friends and drink pina coladas or visit World Wildlife Zoo. (And as much as I joke about liking presents, no gifts please. Our closets runneth over.) And finally, the last weekend of March will be spent in Ohio, visiting my sister and seeing her compete in the MAC gymnastic championships.

So yes, this will be a month for Monster and Starbucks. I know I had the resolution, yadda yadda, but seriously? How do people cope without caffeine? Boggles the mind. It makes me talk faster, which in a way makes me more productive. And I wish it made me a clean freak, but I think you need meth for that.

Welcome Allan Davis Schoenbeck!

My best friend Jesika just had her second baby. It was her first boy, and she named him Allan Davis Schoenbeck. He was born on Friday at 6:09pm. This was after I joked with her that I wouldn't visit until Sunday since she was in labor for 37 hours last time. This time it was about 10 hours. Whoops.

When she was pregnant with Sierah, her mother-in-law insisted that she throw a shower for Jess. She found out about 2 weeks beforehand that it would only be her mother-in-law's friends and family. None of the people on the guest list that Jess gave her mother-in-law were actually sent an invitation. By this time, it was too late to throw a shower. For this baby, I called dibs on the shower hosting.

This picture is minus me, of course. It is also missing Jess' boss, who had to leave early for her husband's bday party. From left to right, the guests included Jess' sister-in-law's mom. Her sister-in-law, who also happens to be pregnant. Her older sister in the back. Her younger sister in the front. Her mother-in-law. Her mom. And her, 7 months pregnant and holding her 2 year old daughter. Who is taller than I think a 2 year old should be permitted to be.

These are the baby shower favors. I drove around town, collecting empty baby food jars. I had posted on Craigslist months in advance, because I knew Jess was inviting 50+ people and I wanted to have enough. Each time someone contacted me, they told me they had about a dozen. They all lied. Each person had at least 30. I ended up with almost 150 baby food jars. If you should ever need some empty baby food jars, they are currently sitting under my desk while I try to come up with a brilliant use for them. You are welcome to them, as long as you take them all.

I made about 30 of them for the baby shower because there were ton of RSVPs that I never received and I was paranoid about not having enough favors. I filled each one with blue mints, then tied a square of blue tissue paper to the top with white ribbon. Finally, I attached a sticker that stated the soon-to-arrive baby's name, Jess and Jim's names and Sierah's name. This was before Jess decided to change the spelling of Allan's name though... Oh well.

I contemplated posting on Craigslist again, advertising pre-made baby shower favors. All the hostess would have to do is attach a label of some sort with whatever info they wanted. This would involve me making more of the favors though. That doesn't sound all that appealing...

Booze and Birthdays

This weekend was action packed. On Friday, Dan worked the crap shift, (a.k.a. 4:00pm-2:00am) so I went out with Jason and David. We went to TGI Friday's, and I proceeded to have the girliest drinks I could. My first was an upside down pineapple martini. It was pure pineapple juice with a cherry and half a shot of malibu rum. My second was a grape martini which was a lovely shade of blurple. My last one was a Bluetini PomPom. Fabulous. But I started to feel the alcohol, so I spent the rest of the night drinking water.

The funniest moment was when David ordered a martini. Jason spotted the waitress wandering around with a martini in hand, looking confused. When he flagged her down, she said she had forgotten who the drink was for. And I quote, "I was looking for a girl. I thought a girl had ordered this drink since it's so popular with females." This made Jason and I laugh hysterically and ensured her a large tip.

After that, David's ego was bruised, so he ordered a whiskey sour in an apparent attempt to remind us that he is indeed manly. She brought back a whiskey sour with foam bubbling on top, and a very large garnish of pineapples, a strawberry and many little swords. This ensured her an even larger tip. I attempted to take a picture, but David yanked it out of his drink faster than I could grab my camera.

Note the garnish in the empty martini glass-that was originally in his drink.

This is David, trying to absorb the fact that he is drinking a whiskey sour with foam. I apparently did not take any pictures of Jason that night. I pretended to, while I attempted to get photos of the hot girls sitting at the bar so the guys could see what they looked like. I am a great wingman.

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The other part of my weekend was celebrating Dan's birthday! It's not until Tuesday, but my parents wanted to make him dinner. This is him, pretending to be thrilled about the fact that they gave him my first pair of baby shoes. It was a not so subtle hint that they are expecting grandkids soon.

I'd like the record to show that the bag was originally from me to my dad for father's day. Isn't it cute?

A better picture of his gift from me. Isn't the wrapping divine? And, in case you are wondering, my ultra-romantic gift to him was a vacuum sealer. He's wanted one forever, so it's not my fault I got him a weird gift.

And, as a side note, my camera sucks. I would like to request a new one from a certain husband who reads this blog but never posts or comments on it. He shall remain nameless to protect him from the blog nazis.

10 Posts Old

This is the 10th post. I really had nothing to say...I just thought the occasion deserved a little recognition.