New Year, New Posts

Yeah, I realize I'm a slacker. But I promise to try and post at least pictures on here regularly so you can see what's going on....

Spent New Year's strolling down Duval St. in Key West with Kip and our British friend Chris. It was a fantastic voyage through bars with cheap but strong drinks, glittering beads raining down on our heads, and many spectactularly dressed trannies. Even awkwardly sleeping in the car and having to drive back and forth among islands to pick up our fallen comrade didn't take away from an amazing experience.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays and your New Year has begun with a bang! Enjoy the pics!

Sas

CAUTION: Shoots flaming balls. Do not touch hot wood.

Today is the Fourth of July, which in Grand Cayman means a field trip to Tortuga Liquors and the Grand Harbor bookstore for some illegal in the US fireworks.

One of two Boxes of Fun.

All sorts of crazy in there.

Hobbies & Books.
Where you can buy your crazyass mortor rounds and pick up a toy for your two-year-old all in one stop.

Medi-Mike decided to throw a Super Secret July Fourth party on Seven Mile Beach, so we spent the majority of the afternoon running around getting supplies. We bought way too much beer and liquor (can there ever really be tooooo much?) and a few more pizzas than were necessary. Kip, Robin and I followed Mike to the West end of the island, where he pulled off the road near this little break in the trees that opened up onto the beach. Paul met us out there with his new mini-Pejero jeep, which he promptly drove around on the sand.

Mike had visited the site a few days and before pulled together a nice pile of wood for the bonfire, which of course was missing at this point. So we set off in search of wood for the fire that we were building on top of a suspicious pile of ash left by dirty rotten theives.

Paul 'Bunyan' was our Fire Master

After getting the fire set up and eating some pizza, it was on to the fireworks. The boys decided to empty out all of the mortors into one box for easy access:

Like Christmas morning.

or a Halloween Basket.

The rest of the night was basically spent watching 20 to 30 year old men acting like 5 year olds in a candy store "designing" their own personal fireworks show. If it weren't so damn terrifying, it would have been pretty damn cool.

Alright. It was still pretty damn cool.

Here's some video from the evening, and the rest of the pics:

These are my new freebie Heinekin flips. But wait to get excited:



How Awesome is that?! Between Kip and I there were a gazillion little Heinies all over the sand.

This one's a 4 baller, yo.

Kip loading his first shot.

I made him fake light it for the pic, then I ran about 20 yards away.



The moon was almost full but the night was just as crazy.



They very quickly tired of the one-shot cannon and decided to start roping them together for a real show.



Fire in the sky

He was really happy

These were the only sparklers we could find. They don't mess around with those little Pixie sticks here. These things were 3 feet long and flames shot out of them.

This was the arc I got off my sparkler.

Roasting marshmallows post-fireworks.



After about ten minutes.

I'm joking. It was more like fifteen.

OH! Did I mention we discovered a new type of car? It's called a Honda "Asteroid", and our Friend Who Shall Remain Nameless crash landed it in the sand.

We "painted" the car in photoshop so he would remain anonymous.

Crazy.

The crator left behind by the Honda "Asteroid".

We had a pretty sweet bonfire going towards the end of the night.

Beau and his girlfriend Mandy who was visiting from the States.

Kip chatting with his BFF Drew while smokin a Cuban.

Saskia....you are very bright for a woman of your age. In South Africa a woman of your age would have drank herself retarded by now.

Happy 20 + 11 Birfday to Me.

Awesome birthday weekend:

Friday Night

Happy Hour at Stingers for some magic and networking. Dinner at Copper Falls, a ridiculously yummy steakhouse where the owner picked out our steaks and the ribeye was like eating steak-flavored butter. So tender, so melt-in-your-mouth, so mmmmmmmm. Complimented by a fantastic Sticky Toffee Pudding dessert (you'd think I got out of the stupid singing at the table in a nice steakhouse but NO........) and a romantic run through a torrential rainstorm.

Saturday

Slept in till noon (what? shut it.). Intentions to hang out at the Margaritaville waterslide were rebuffed by the nasty rainclouds; instead spent the day being lazy in bed watching Youtube videos documenting the decline of a Pop Icon. Got moving early afternoon for a movie with Kip, chick flick called The Proposal (which was quite funny and showcased once again Betty White's unending humor). After the movie we checked out a very nice restaurant in Camana Bay called Abacus. Excellent atmosphere, saw our first "porn" on the island (a very tasteful photography book of nudes on display at the host area; seems the owner is from Europe, loves nude women, and would make the restaurant topless if he could get away with it) (he would be a gazillionaire if he could pull that of, by the way). After perusing the bookstore trying to find their copy of the naked chicks book bible, we wandered over to the dorms for yummy cake with Medi-Mike and Mr. Beau Beaus.

Sunday

Another lazy sleep-in day (shut it already, alright?). Watched the US get their asses handed to them in a football game they should have won, then yummy dinner at Yoshi (the best sushi on island) with classmates.

Despite the apparent laziness and lack of massive imbibing of libations, this weekend was everything I had hoped for and one of my best on island. Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes, and thanks to Kip for an awesome 20+11! :)

PS - that quote in the heading is what we decided our South African physio prof would have said if he had been here for my birthday. Instead Kip said it in his best Dr. Roy voice. But it was like good ol' Roy was right there with us.

You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family. Or something like that.

Nowadays the word Family has become synonymous with negatives like Divorce and Inbreeding Dysfunctional and Custody Agreements.

I can count the number of my friends with families who are still the same cohesive unit as they were in my childhood on my left foot. And while I still retain all of my toes thankyouverymuch, unfortunately that reference would still work if I stepped on a land mine and lost a few.

Please understand I have a very broad definition of family. I was raised an only child, however if you asked me growing up I would say I’ve got lots of brothers out there. People tended to raise their eyebrows at that answer and give my father a knowing look (he was in the Peace Corps in Columbia you know), but I wasn’t referring to blood relatives. Because to me, blood does not always a family make. I think Yoda said that.

(Apparently all of my parent’s friends shot out Y chromosomes because I was the only girl amongst many many boys.)

For me, I was raised alongside another family who my parents met when their first son was very young and I was not yet a zygote. This other couple, Lynn and Dave, became my Other Parents and their sons Brad and Sean became my brothers. Brad is two years older (and the father of The Cutest Baby in the Whole World) and Sean is ten days older than me (and the father of no children that we are aware of). These boys tortured me and stuck up for me and shaped me as if I were their real sister. I couldn’t have asked for a better Other Family.

Without offending my own parents, who mean a great deal to me, I have to say Lynn and Dave both influenced me greatly during the years when a person is just figuring out how to make their life their own. Lynn taught me to be my own person, to have pride in myself, to do things my own way and at my own pace. Dave showed me a more conservative side of the world, taught me that there is a proper way to do things, and instilled in me a healthy concept of the word respect. I saw from a very early age that they were completely different people from my own parents and I was so lucky to have them.

All of our family events/holidays/etc. involved Lynn and Dave and the kids. We lived far enough away from each other that I wasn’t in school with the boys or involved in their daily lives; yet through the years our relationships have grown stronger than most we had with the kids we went to school with for years. I have fond memories of them reading my diaries aloud at Family Events or undressing my Barbies and posing them provocatively; typical boy behavior that would induce a tantrum in me then but would receive retribution from me now.

(Not that I still write in diaries or play with Barbies. That would just be weird.)

(Off topic: Have you seen some of the outfits Barbie comes in now? Might as well be called Slut Barbie or Whore Barbie.)

These Family Events were occasions of great frivolity and lots of alcohol consumption. The conversations ranged from politics to pop art to The Simpsons. There were always stories about cultural experiences, travel excursions, and personal history. It’s sad, but I’m willing to bet I learned more about history and culture through those Family Events than I ever learned in school. And as with any family, there were opinions.

Boy, were there opinions.

Oh, and stubbornness. That, too.

(Not always a good mix. Especially with alcohol.)

But despite the arguments and the loud voices all trying to talk over each other and the occasional hurt pride that caused periodic silences we were a family.

In fact, it is those arguments/loud voices/silences that taught me a great deal about how to communicate with people – both the positive and negative ways. I learned how to read people’s emotions and personalities, how to discuss heated topics without imposing my opinion on someone (or how to impose, depending on the situation), and most importantly how to diplomatically accede to another even when I’m not anywhere near their ballpark.

As we’ve gotten older and us kids have grown up and started families/lives of our own these Family Events have become fewer and father in between as well as smaller in number. Stories are told repeatedly to ensure everyone is up-to-date on everyone else. Family Events are as much about catching up with each other’s present and future as they were about learning about the past. The absentees are sorely missed as everyone’s personality brought something different to the table.

Tonight as I sat at the table with my folks and Lynn, I couldn’t help but miss the days with no elbow room and subtly exchanging place cards so that I was situated near people I preferred. (Don’t be judgy, you totally did that too.) The table has gotten quieter and the conversation is much easier to follow but the large family feel has gone.

But the eccentric topics have remained fantastically amazing, as always.

We discussed the inevitable book that Sean, Brad and I will write one day about our highly dysfunctional and yet thoroughly amazing family dynamic. We will each bring a perspective to the stories, mine probably focusing on the psychology of our family and what it has cost us in therapy bills how it has shaped us as people. There will be laughter and tears and probably defamation lawsuits and hopefully a Pulitzer Prize.

We also discussed the movie rights and who would play each of us. Needless to say it’s quite the unique group of actors all of whom have probably never acted together in a screenplay ever. Which when you think about it might make it one of the most uniquely interesting flicks…well…ever.

(And I fully expect that you, my faithful 7 readers, to be the first in line at my book signing.)

(Because if you aren’t, I’m liable to cry at the table surrounded by piles of my books and no one who cares. Or cares enough to buy it in hardcover anyhow.)

PS. This book writing thing has been a long-standing joke in our family, but I can’t help but wonder if it won’t be Alex, the first grandchild of the group, who actually writes the damn thing. He is a Boy Genius, after all. And he’s inheriting a second-generation dysfunctional family who will no doubt fill the book with many titillating stories.

(I just used titillating for the first time ever. Ever since I learned that word I’ve always thought it was too dirty to use in public. I’d rather say Fuck than titillating. True story.)

This just in...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!


I hope you get everything you want. Including a computer. Let's make up our minds already, why don't we?

(and by "we", I mean you.)

It's officially after midnight and no sighting of Le Fat Man.

I hope all of you had a fabulous Christmas Eve and wake up to a wonderful pot of goodies tomorrow morning. All of you, that is, who celebrate Christmas. Those of you who don't, I hope you get whatever it is you're supposed to get. And a lot of it. You get my drift.

Here at The Houghton household it was quite the C-Eve event. Somehow my father's brother was coerced into driving here, accompanied by their sister and brother-in-law. Along with them, we had some family friends, The Gilbarts and The Parrishes, along with the Parrish family New Addition: Alexander.

Uncle Tommy, me, dad, and Aunt Barb

The Houghton Fam

Alexander: The Cutest Thing since sliced bread. I don't even mind the candy cane pants.

This little kid has seriously grown on me. He's just too freaking cute. I don't want to turn into a gushing Auntie or anything, since I usually stab those people with a pencil mentally while they prattle on and on about a character we never meet, but seriously. Freaking Cute.

Short Version: 8 month old kid the size of a kid twice his age, walking almost on his own, loves music and blinking lights and fire (really loved sticking his fingers in the melted tea light candles), sings to us (a bit pitchy, but I think he might have a career there), and with a smile that would melt the heart of any stone cold bitch like me.

Plus he was a somewhat willing participant in the Le Saskia Knit Fashion Show.

I made this one for his mommy.



This was supposed to be his. Seems to be missing about 4 inches in length and an inch or two in circumference.

I won't lie - there was a distinct line across his forehead when we took it off.

Too bad I can't gauge the size of the kid's head better - I swear he's like a human version of Stewie.

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

Thanksgiving on The Rock

Last night we Island Orphans got together for a potluck Non-Traditional/Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. Amber hosted, Vanessa did most of the cooking, and the rest of us ate. The last few days have become progressively colder (and by colder I mean an occasional chilly breeze and potential for jeans at night), which added to the festiveness of the occasion as it actually felt sort of like Fall. Minus the leaves changing, snow on the ground, Macy's Day parade, and snuggly knitted accessories.

Enjoy the pics, and I hope you all had a wonderful Turkey Day!

IGA only had Golden Delishious, but I found Granny Smith at Ram's. Went with a mix. That's a lot of cutting/peeling when you don't have an apple corer or peeler.

Apples cut, peeled, and spiced. Awaiting yummy sugary syrup.

Yummy sugary syrup. The kitchen ants were going bonkers!

This is how we roll. St. Kitts Rolling Pin = bottle of Brinley Gold Mango Rum.

Starting to come together...boy that's a lot of apples...should've cut them smaller, but whatev.

Crazy mound of pie!

Apples baked down quite a bit, foil prevents overbrowning of the edges (should've put some at the top, too!).

Looks pretty good...

Baker with her contribution.

She didn't even have to use her hand to draw the turkey.

Jane and Vanessa setting up the buffet.

Anna 'double-fisting' it. Hee hee...

Check out that spread!



Ron, Cora, and Kate with a little Vanessa and Jane in the background.

Amber's new dog Jasmine. She was an absolute Doll all night. Even with the retarded pink undies.

Just had to show one more pic of the food...mmmm....

Ron promptly crashed out post-meal. It's sort of his "thing".

Dessert Anyone?