We can't help ourselves. We said we weren't going to do this, but it just happened naturally, organically you might say...that Lacey and I just started chatting LIKE ALWAYS, and the bachelorette just kind of came up. And naturally, organically, we decided to blog about it. Only this time, we decided to spare those of you who don't want to read this filthy, trashy, amazing juicy mockery. So, we kind of made another blog. www.LandLBaChat.blogspot.com Join us. Or, ignore us. Depending how much of a secret it is that you too can't look away from the greatest continually running train wreck ever broadcast.

The First thing we did when we got to California at 4a.m. was sleep. The second thing we did the next day was kidnap the tiniest of my sister's two children to take pictures of her at the beach, show her seashells, get her a little salty and soggy, and then take her home to her mother to scrub down. It was a raging success.  She was still feeling a little nervous about having been kidnapped at this point. She warms up, I promise. We are, excited about the beach, question mark?  We are. Question mark be damned.   Uncle Dan's sandcastle construction brought her out of the shell a bit!  Friends enjoying the ocean breeze!  Our sandcastle was not the fanciest, but it had a tunnel!  Same face much, you two?  Whatever this face is, I love it, I want it. This too.  I will also have three orders of this.  I would haul that tush anywhere. Siblingho...

I'm going to be doing a series about California and the amazing wonderful spectacular things we did/people we saw/stuff we ate, but I thought I'd start with what was already on the camera before we left. Dan, Dylan and I decided to drive out to the west desert for the Super Moon night and check out the universe with my new spectacularly cheap WalMart telescope. Too bad we left the lens in Eagle Mountain and had to drive back to civilization to get it. My bad. I think it was worth it. In addition to the fabulousness which was the moon, we saw Venus, Mars, and Saturn through the magic glass, making Venus just big enough to see her crescent, and Saturn just big enough to see her rings if you held so still you had to hold your breath.  Which was, coincidentally, breathtaking.  And through a telescope, Mars is the most delicious color of peach. It makes me want to pluck it out of the sky and make a smoothie. It took me back to a lot of beautiful nights at the ranc...

Lorraine:  Do you own any The Cure albums that I can copy to my iPod? I need to explore my relationship with The Cure. Dan: Glad you asked. I have 22 albums and compilations along with 60 or so tracks from a rarity collection... all on my ipod, which is not lost. Lorraine: I am so in love with you. It's true, I am. Also, Dan found his iPod this week in the sofa cushions, while looking for my car keys which he found two days later in our large outdoor garbage can atop a Wendy's bag. Thanks, Honey. .