KJ and the Duck Heads. Or, a few last days in Hays

Rise and shine, after a night of not sleeping in Tanner's room, for breakfast at IHOP. We all stuffed ourselves with pancakes before the long drive back to Colorado. I was going to see Dina and the boys the next weekend so it wasn't a long goodbye. But I was left to send off Katie and Judy with lots of hugs since I wasn't sure when I'd see them again.



The last night at Joe's. By the end of the evening the crowd had mostly slimmed down to the Joe's crew and the History Club crew. My usual. A fitting end.


Everyone got ducks before I left. Naturally, what does one do with a duck but put it on one's head.

This was our Scrabble game frosted in hillarity. I don't even remember why but it was quite fun. Jarrod was really getting into the spirit of things. Threats were hurled as was ice cream, but that mostly came from Martha's delivery system I think.

The Larkettes! We didn't get a 7th inning sing-along but I think we won. Maybe not.

Just a few more pictures....

It was something that looked like Spaghetti O's.


Kendra and her little Buckethead.

Me and my girls, Amanda and Tausha. Love 'em.

The "Family Reunion"

Luckily the party went better than the planning might have indicated. The grandparents kinda forgot to invite half of the family, and it was horrible timing as far as my summer goes. We had a good time though, and some of us got to see people we haven't seen in a long time or meet people we've never met.

Mom and Dina discussing important things.
So there's some southwest/Texas/Mexican thing about hanging bags of water from the trees to keep the flies away. Yeah, well, where there are Hunsicker boys and bags of water in trees there will soon be water everywhere else. Tanner was trying to pop it over my head but I moved so they had to make do with just making a mess. As you can see, grandpa was of no help. As usual.
We had enough food to feed a couple small countries, and it was all super tasty.
We played some volleyball until we realized that the ball was really hard and it really hurt. We also tried badminton. The younger ones need a little longer to get the hand-eye coordination down and us older gals need to not play in the dark. It was extremely funny at the time though.
The highlight of the weekend was of course the world's cutest freakin baby. This is Emma Jean. She's a music fan. She's working on her bongo skills.
Like I said, cutest thing ever.
Emma and Geneva, grandpa's sister. We used to chat on messenger sometimes so we knew each other but I had never met her so that was pretty nice. I was going to hide in her ginormous camper and run away with them but I decided against it. They had room though. We'll have to plan a visit to whichever Carolina they live in one of these days.
Grandpa and Clinton working on the homemade ice cream. It's clearly man's work.
I like to call this one "Beauty and the Beasts." Makes her look even cuter doesn't it?
Jordan and Flaming Marshmallows. Sounds like a band name, and relatively dangerous. We didn't do too bad. Only a few flaming ones.
Amanda and Les probably giving each other a hard time. It's apparently the natural way for people to pick on Amanda and the other way around. She was the yougest for quite a few years. We can't start to pick on Tanner and Jordan until they get a little bit bigger and won't cry.
Saying our goodbyes to great-grandma and Aunt Linda.

I got to sleep in a tent and therefore probably slept better than I would have inside so I had a good time. I didn't have to go homicidal on my family due to lack of sleep. There were a ton more people there but I have an excess of pictures of the child. They were there, we had fun. That's good enough. I was happy to see my girls, Taush, Amanda, and Emma. I don't get to see them very often. Too bad Eathon wasn't there, but we all got to talk to him on the phone. He just graduated from some paratrooper something or other. Well done to him. He's moving on to bigger and better explosives now. It's a match made in heaven. If anybody wants to see more pictures, let me know. I have some more. And if you have any EMAIL THEM!!

Long Beach Finale

Just a bit from the end of my trip.
We tried another Dirtbag's game and it was much less soggy than the first. We kicked butt and got a spot in the College World Series. I believe they promptly fell back out but they got there.

We gave the kids a bath one day. I don't remember when. We made pillows too, but that was a few days before. I don't remember if I mentioned it. It was a task to find the Joanne store. There is this phantom moving road in Long Beach that just will not allow you to get to the store.
Anyway, Wilson got grumpy and stuck his face in the corner. But he was so soft when we were done.


We went to Signal Hill/Peak/something and that was pretty cool. You can see all of Long Beach, some of the islands and beaches, and L.A. There were little educational signs and after all the rain and such we had some very nice not-so-smoggy views.

We went to the Queen Mary, which is probably the coolest boat ever. I haven't been on that many boats I guess, but this one is cool. It's one of the most haunted places and it doesn't give you much reason to doubt. Right next to it is the Russian Scorpion submarine. It's awesome just from the outside. I'd love to go back and see the inside.

The smokestacks were the best part. Well aside from the anchor. And the ghost stories. I just think they are awesome. They are freakin gigantic. If you click in the informative sign it will tell you how big they are.

My last evening there we went back to Shoreline Village, my favorite place. We did some shopping, listened to a band that was there promoting itself, and ate too many fried bread products. It was so fantastic. Then we went to have pizza with Katie and company. We went to an awesome candy store, the most awesome ever. They had Mars bars and everything that exists in the world of candy. We went to Pinkberry which is a strange little place but pretty neat. It has frozen yogurt but it is more like yogurt that is cold rather than the frozen yogurt that is pretty much ice cream. You can get fruit or nuts, and even Fruity Pebbles mixed in. I was full of pizza at the time so I just tasted Audra's but you know I would have had to get the Fruity Pebbles. After that we went to The Beach store so I could get some Long Beach State souvenirs. Who doesn't want a Dirtbags t-shirt? I know I did.

This is finally the end of my Long Beach ramblings. No one else is likely to care that much but I like to think about what I did while I was there. It was one of my favorite vacations. Audra cooked for me, I got to meet Wilson, I was chaufered around L.A., and got awesome seats at a Dodger's game. As far as California goes, you can't get much better than that in my opinion.

George Carlin 1937-2008

Update: In 2023, Google decided that this post went against Community Guidelines, even though there's nothing here that goes against any specific Community Guideline. So, BEWARE of being TRAUMATIZED by strong language on the internet instead of worrying about actual harmful stuff. 

"Shit Piss Fuck Cunt Cocksucker Motherfucker Tits"

He never had a routine about words you can't blog.

George was the first person to host SNL. I did not know that until now.

Long Beach: Episode 3

Dodgers Game-- Dodgers vs. Cardinals. Aside from seeing Audra and meeting the family, this is what I was most excited about.

I'm pretty sure the Cardinals won 4-0.

Before the game we went to a Mexican place, met Audra's friends Kelly and Kevin, and ate chips and salsa while we were waiting for the bar to open. It was just across the street. I THINK it's called the Short Stop. They have cheap beer when there's home games. I didn't drink beer, I drank rum and Coke, naturally. My friends kept a glass in my hand. It was very nice of them. John and I chatted about British shows. What more can a girl ask for?

I remember there was a nickle in the toilet in the ladies room. There was some discussion on how to get it out of there and what would be the least gross way to do so and if it would be worth it. Raul is a pioneer for all abandoned coins.

After my rum and Coke I needed an Irish Car Bomb so I got Kevin and the bartender to join me and it was a beautiful moment. Audra didn't have faith. She didn't think I could do it. We've been apart too long. After the booze we wandered our way up a gigantic (at the time) hill to Dodger's stadium.

Once there we found the photo people. From what I remember it went something like this--

Lady: Do you want to take a picture?

Raul: Uuhh...

Lady: It'll be fun.

Raul: OK!

Then there was running so I just followed and jumped into the green screen shot. It's one of those things where they stick you in the middle of the field. Technology is great. And the pictures turned out great. They are a complete rip-off at $25 for a few pictures but they were too fantastic for me to pass up. It's my favorite momento from the trip. The boys look nuts and Audra looks saucy. I'm just sort of there.

This isn't it, but aren't they all so cute?

Our seats were fantastic. The whole thing was great fun. There was a funny drunk lady and we ate Kettle Corn. I didn't enthusiastically cheer for the Dodgers. I was already wearing a Dodgers shirt, I can only go so far into enemy territory. But I got to see good old Juan Pierre again. He used to be a Rockie. He's Juanderful....

Now I own a shirt I can only wear during the winter. But it was worth it to get into the spirit. I tried to Think Blue but it was kinda purpley.