The Marcottes

Because Leon has been being such a pain in the butt about getting photos of my family, we have tried to oblige him. But giving him just any old photo of Stella or Anya has not worked out. He needs it to be vertical, and he needs to complain that Stella’s head is chopped off in this photo:

From Stella Grace

This evidently ruins the entire picture. A fact that had somehow escaped the notice of everyone else who saw it.

So we went to Picture People in Arden Fair Mall and spent a bunch of money to get “professional” portraits taken by people who probably also turned in applications at Orange Julius and Hot Dog on a Stick.

We had a pretty good time and hammed it up a little. Our photographer was either a current or former “Miss Sacramento,” which was nice, I guess. Anya found friends to run around shrieking with while we waited. And, according to Patti, I told inappropriate jokes to the other families in the lobby.

So here are the results of the shoot, complete with watermark to prevent me from printing my own copies.

We got an 8″ x 10″ vertical for Leon of the whole family, and a few more for ourselves. If anybody else wants any of these, let me know and we’ll try to get some more prints made.

Patti, Anya Stella and I went to Monterey this past weekend. It wasn’t our original plan, but since the entire northern part of the state was on fire, we decided to go south.

We saw the aquarium, an IMAX movie and WALL-E, all in one action-packed weekend.

Here’s some photos from the trip.

Maureen organized a trip to Fairfield to see the Kingston Trio with Dad — and by “organize,” I mean she bought tickets for everyone an then told us we were going and that we owed her money. I got a lot of crap for telling Dad that we were going to see the show because at some point I was unaware that this was a big secret. I know I ruined everything, but somehow I am living with the pain.

The Trio no longer has any of the original members. I’m guessing that, like Menudo, they cycle the guys out when they get to be a certain age to keep the teenage girls interested. By the looks of them, I’d say that age is 85. At least one of the replacements has been with the band since the ’60s. By my math, he’s now been in the band longer than any of the original guys. At any rate, all of them have been in other folk bands and were accomplished performers.

When they did their encore 90 minutes in, they finally hit a song I knew the words to: Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Great song, and a song about the sadness and futility of war. I thought it was interesting that the politics of the song have recently become relevant again, although there was no acknowledgment of that fact from either crowd or performers.

We ended up sitting really close to the stage (although far to one side.) I took some pictures. Here you go.

I’m bald.

Thank you to everyone for your generous donations to such a great cause. I even raised an additional $156 at the event for shaving my goatee and eye brows.

Well, now that I’m finally feeling better, I can get us all caught up on 2 weeks worth of the Biggest Marcotte Loser. Hopefully you are all still cheering us on. We need all the support we can get! So, without further ado, here are the stats for the last 2 weeks:

If I’ve done my math correctly, that makes a grand total of 73 lbs. lost in just 6 weeks!

Keep up the great work everyone!

Sorry it took me so long to get the update for you all. I’ve been sick as a dog the past week. Including all of us passing pink eye around to each other. So, it was not a great week for all of us - but I’m sure we will have better results coming up! **Note: Mary has opted to continue on with us after Leon goes back home. So we’ll put her back in the challenge next week.

Total loss for week 4 was 3.5 lbs. I am sure I will have a better week next week when I’m not coughing so much and can actually start working out again.
Let’s all get back on track and stay focused - WE CAN DO IT!!!

Ok, I hope you all are paying close attention here because we are making great progress!!

Here are the week 2 results for the Biggest Marcotte Loser challenge:

Week 3 Total = 6.5 lbs. lost

The grand total for pounds lost for all challengers is a whopping 58.5 lbs. so far. Great work everyone!

**Mary has informed us that she had a full week of birthday celebrations, so she said she’s back at the starting line again. But, that’s ok. You can do it Mary!

Let’s all cheer each other on for another great week!

Ok, I hope you all are paying close attention here because we are making great progress!!

Here are the week 2 results for the Biggest Marcotte Loser challenge:

Week 2 Total = 13.5 lbs. lost

The grand total for pounds lost for all challengers is a whopping 52 lbs. so far! You all should be very proud of your progress; I know I am.

Wow! keep up the great work!

We’ve had some great progress so far with the Biggest Marcotte Loser challenge. We’re motivated and doing a great job!

This last week was incredible for John and Steve (I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m sure they are cheating some how.) Debbie, Patti, Mary and Maureen also felt great about their losses.

Here are the totals for last week:

That’s a total of 38.5 lbs. lost just in the first week! Great job everyone.

Keep up the good work and check back here for more recipes this week.

Here are some self proclaimed Christmas pictures