Tahoe Express

Had to put the pic in from Edgewood. This was an unbelievably good time with the ChuckDad and my Brother.

So just to catch up on a few things. It's been busy fun for a few weeks. Tahoe with the fam was amazing. Father, #1 and #2 got out to Edgewood for a great round of golf. Well, it sucked for the first three holes since the greens are slicker than a banana peel and then the whiskey took over and things calmed down. Trully didn't hit a clean shot all day and if I did, it went in the drink. Oh well, the 19th hole was a hoot and we made it back to the hotel in time to celebrate Kaycee's birthday.

We got the hats on and the noise-makers out and had a barrell of laughs for Kaycee's birthday. Just a quick story for you all - Now most of you know my background and of the ranch. Kaycee was born on the ranch and she can pop-a-squat in a barn as good as any. Well now, she started school and the potty-training lessons aquired around the ranch don't seem to transfer over too well to the playground. Apparently it is frowned upon to drop trou by the swing set and let it go. When the teacher informed Kaycee that this was not appropriate behavior, she smiled, said, "okay, no problem," and ran back to play with the other booger noses.

Back to Tahoe. We had a good time celebrating and then Jason and I tore out to the pool table to see if we couldn't beat on some locals heads. And beat we did. I was hotter than a two dollar pistol in a bar full of cheaters. Couldn't stop the game. Some yocal that had a nose busted up so bad that his glasses wedged into his bridge wanted to play me and get in my face about pool. The bets were on and this guy got his clock cleaned and nearly his bell rung, but what do you tell a guy that's already been told a few times with someone else's fist? Just let them ramble, take their money, and head upstairs for the loud music.

Later on that night around 2 am, I found the blackjack table at Harrah's. It was hot, I was drunk and had a full pack of smokes. We call this, The Perfect Storm. Again as in pool, I was hot. Hustled up about 850 bucks over 4 dealers and then came Broomhilda. This broad looked the part of the Cooler.

She waddles her fatty up to the helm, looked at me and said, "You should take your chips and go." Well once again, me being me, that's not going to happen and I'll bet bigger to prove to her that I am a man, built of brawn and grit!

By the time I got to my last cigarette, the table had been closed to all other players but me, the drinks weren't going down as fast and the head could barely hold up, I bowed in defeat with a $5 chip left in front of me. The black 100s, the pretty pink and green 25's and the bullion of 5s had all gone back to their comfy little tray in front of the waddler. I tossed her the 5 and said have a good one. She pursed her lips and gave me the look of disgust like she was starring at her son who did nothing with his life and is a lift operator at Mt. Rose.

I was still grinning ear to ear and I thought my brother was going to have a heart attack the way I was betting, but we survived and got a couple Fat Burgers and headed back to the hotel around 5am. Too much fun crammed into 2.5 days put a hurtin' on me the following week, but I'll sleep when I'm 70.

A few days later I got back in the kitchen to whip up the goods again. Mel and I pieced together I nice little delight of two different styles of New Yorks, some drumsticks, homemade corn bread and green beans to tie the healthy side into the meal. Always a good dinner with Mel.

So i'll cut the chord here and say I'm headed to Tulare to watch my cousin race this weekend. Staying at the ranch tonight, but not without firing off the tee at Cinnabar Hills in a golf tournament this great Friday. That's right. I'm in the office at 5am, it's now 6:30, and I'm going to join my buddies Pearl and GA for some big timin' on the beautiful blue-green fairways of CHGC.

I'll be back with pics from the racing. Carry on.

The Labor Day Story

This is my first big absence from this den of documentation that I've taken and since last visit I've expelled a ton of energy over a plethera of amazing adventures. None more memorable, or lack of memory, than Tahoe Labor Day '08. It's the same core group of guys that fired off the first annual way back in Chico - it all happend like this...

Way back in 2003 or 2, when beers were $2.00 and progressives were something done at Riley's on a Thursday night, Labor Day had turned stale for us hooligans. Floating the river with thousands of people and having a mud fight only did it for a few years (Honestly, the most exciting part of the day is finding a way back to town from the river.)
Anyway, I believe it all started on Luke's couch at the legendary 602 6th/Hazel house. They had finally gotten fed up with the mud and came up with the idea to party barge, and no we're not crashing house parties here,you nerd-types. This is an all out assault on Labor Day @ Lake Oroville.

Year one included one limo, one boat, one keg, one cd...pretty much one of everything. Year two we hit a growth spurt and brouth the outta-towners in for the weekend for some time-of-life experiences. Two limos, Two boats, 4 kegs, but again one cd. Who's perfect in their second year anyways? We brought it hard at the bar in the marina playing liars dice with the local town representatives and held the libation down while Hunter patiently waited for the rigs.

Now to be clear on what the rig is, it is a floating shitter with a bbq on it. It's got a few other bells, like a cd player and a rope, but basically it's a floating outhouse. That doesn't mean they are a ton of fun - you get some women and some legends dancing out on the front of that thing and it starts to flood over the bow, then you really have a party.

The early years sure got crazy, but we were just getting our feet wet and the word annual was gettin' thrown around knowing full well some of us had graduation coming up thus the end of career training.

But it was now time to get serious. By now, there are many return patrons every year to this group and missing out on Labor Day really isn't an option. The plan switched to a meeting of the legends in Jones Valley on Lake Shasta. It was the beginning of the Aquaholics and the start of what might be 'the greatest time ever spent by people once a year'. Lynn came correct with the drinks, Luke and I dialed out the daily maintenance and Block took care of the driving. Mj manned the other vessel with a strong crew included a mix of Chicoans, and old friends from the day. Everyone will always remember the 3rd and 4th sets on the beach from the killer guitar picking and beautiful vocals.

To be totally honest, all this round did was show us what we were really capable of, and in 2007, it was lights, camera, Action! for 4 days/3 nights on the Jones Valley Escapades.

I don't know what else to say except watch the videos, but I'll try to scramble some words around to make a picture. Basically we took ever good thing about the trip and made it better. Details.

• If you're going to bring beer, use a jockey box.


• If you're going to bring booz, buy by the case.


• If you music, bring the sweetest ipod player ever and 8 ipods.


• If you're going to have a camera, film a music video.


• And last but not least, wherever Labor Day is there must be a jacuzzi.

check out that outfit.

These are just a few of the key details that made this trip the best-to-date. Marc Permagrinfilms.com Donahue makes mean videos and Conor and LD outdid themselves and became internet celebrities. Our theme was the pirates taking over the lake and take over we did. I think the best way to explain this trip is an anecdote about when we tried to meet people on the lake...someone got on someone's phone and said they had some co-workes that had a houseboat on the lake too, so we picked a spot to meet them on the lake. We finally connect and the boat finds us and is approaching, they get close and a good look at us and all of the sudden they threw it in full reverse and took off. Don't want none a these pirates. I guess it was the costumes, fun, themed out boat slash best time ever that scared them (some just are not ready) Oh well, they missed out. BonBon came correct with his various outfits of the trip, my personal favorite being the pink cowboy get up.

Well I'm getting tired of writing so to this year's trip, we had to go to plan B. Shasta is a dump right now and is a puddle, so we quickly pulled together a trip to Lake Tahoe at a nice house in Dollar Point. The jacuzzi overlooked the lake and the fun didn't stop all weekend. All the usuals, dancing, fraternizing, addy-pursing...yea, that's right addy-pursing. Is there a problem?

Best time ever had in a casino happened on this trip. We lit the dealer up for a good hour. We had her surrounded. Entire table staying on 12 and 13 and watching the dealer blow a 6 skyhigh. Sitting at home was miss kelly and she came through in the clutch to knock the dealer on her ass and make us a little money to blow at a later time. There was a rippin' good band playing at the Bilty that night and this guy wielded an ax as good as anyone I've ever seen. Rourke danced with every girl in the place and LD was dancing with himself in the mirror at one point. I tried to take a picture but it didn't come out all that great and it's stuck on my phone, so maybe I'll figure that out later.

here is LD dancing with himself in the mirror. told you it was a bad pic

The journey was excellant. Some of the smarter members elected to stay Monday night. We got pickled for Rourke's birthday that his parents had forgotten about and then took in a movie, 2 cheeseburgers, mac n cheese with hot dogs, slice of pepperoni pizza, watermelon slice, an It's It, and a sleeve of Mamba's. Oh yea. and another sleeve of cinnamon crumble donuts with milk. I still wasn't right Tuesday at work. That right there will tell a story.

Yea, then I saw Willie Nelson and had a kick ass time with my ol man. We bro'd down hard on the veranda at Mountain Winery and I heard the prettiest voice in the world open for Willie. But thats if from the couch at 409. I gotta run cuz I needs to lace up my super f'n radical new SBs, SON!!!!!