Poshdeluxe

last weekend, a group of meredith’s greatest admirers gathered in a lake house on lake quitman to celebrate the birthday of our beloved friend.

and, of course, it was awesome.

lake quitman is REALLY far away, but the drive was obviously worth it. esp. cos i got to see a spaceship!!!!!

yes, it’s the starship pegasus, which is pretty much the best name for a space craft since the death star. and guess what?! you could actually OWN this piece of space history!! see?

dude, can someone loan me a couple thousand dollars? cos hello, how cool would it be to say, “hey, wanna come over to my place tonight? the address is STARSHIP PEGASUS.”

we finally arrived at the lake house, which was graciously loaned to us by meredith’s family, including her dazzling fox of a grandmother.

seriously, when i’m old, i’m gonna BLANKET my house with glamor shot portraits. because, at that point, airbrushing will be my v. good friend.

we headed out back to the deck… dock? end of the pier? eh, whatever you call it, it’s awesome. given the celebratory nature of the evening, we were forced to break out the champ cans.

i don’t know why, exactly (attention, science: future study right here!), but hanging out on the water at night with yr friends is pretty much the best thing ever. maybe it’s the calming expanse of the water, or the reflection of the moon, or the sounds of crickets and frogs, but being out there on the lake, surrounded by some of my favorite people, gave me that This Is What Life Is All About feeling. the night was pure magic, filled with conversation…

singing…

and of course, dancing.

thanks to the 90s station on XM radio, the party eventually evolved into a full on sing-along (i’m sure the neighbors LOVED US).

when matt picks up the radio and treats it like a boombox, you know you’re at a good party.

i’m not sure what exactly is happening in this picture, but i like to think that jill has just invented a new dance called, “Flash Yo Flashlight.”

the night couldn’t have been better… especially considering that we were in the middle of nowhere and therefore prime material for some rural axe murderer. every time someone left to go back to the house, we joked about him/her getting hacked into pieces. and when i say “joked,” i mean, kinda sorta wondered if it might happen and, if so, who would be the sole survivor who gets to come back in the sequel. anyway, thanks for not killing us, murderer dude!

we began the next morning with mimosas on the porch. starting yr day with a mimosa, a swing and yr best friend is WAY better than, like, special k. i don’t care what the commercials say.

after finishing breakfast, we of course had to attend to the v. pressing business of enjoying the pants out of the lake.

i love the laziness inherent in a day on the water. there’s not that much to do, and yet, there’s SO much to do.

first, you can go paddle boating, as illustrated adorably by matt and henri.

honestly, is there ANYTHING MORE PRECIOUS than two boys in a paddleboat?!!!!!! we decided that they were the hardy boys, off to seek adventure in the nearby island.

second, you have to model yr sunglasses, because they are FABULOUS.

i told erin she had a joan collins vibe going, which is a V. HIGH COMPLIMENT.

matt and henri returned from their trip, like the hardy boys they are, with some treasure! after exploring the island, they christened it “shell island,” because this is what they found:

oh boys, being funny.

the main thing you can do on the lake, obviously, is float in it. meredith was extremely prepared, not only with a tube, but with her handy (or should i say, handless?) beer coozy!

so this is pretty much what we did, all day:

i know, water sports are ROUGH.

the entire day really did feel like a beer commercial.

henri and i decided to take the paddleboat back out for another voyage. as we paddled away, my legs were like, “what? is this EXERCISE? cos, uh, i thought we were on vacation.”

it was actually harder than i thought, until i looked behind the boat and realized that we were, uh, towing some extra weight.

what a bunch of freeloaders.

after jerry finally let go, i kept turning around and waving to everyone, just like sandy at the end of “grease” except not skanky.

the exploration of shell island whet henri’s taste for adventure, so we paddled out to the other nearby land mass (turtle island, according to the locals) to see if we could, you know, solve a mystery or find some cool treasure or maybe even a forgotten civilization!

well, we didn’t discover a civilization, but we DID find treasure AND solve a mystery! it was like one of those nancy drew and the hardy boys super specials!!! the treasure we uncovered was actually a clue to the origin of the island’s name!

dude, i love being a teen sleuth.

we arrived back at the dock to find everyone, in an amazing display of endurance, doing the same thing they were doing when we left the lake.

matt, ever the engineer, had even created his own floating bar!

erica’s present to meredith was a bubble gun, which provided us with hours of entertainment. because we are the world’s oldest toddlers.

bubbles are fabulous, but on a LAKE? they are super fabby fabulous.

another thing you can do on the lake? jet ski!

by mid afternoon, we had built up the strength to drag out the jet ski from the garage. i took the opportunity to force everyone to take a group picture, which is what i do, pretty much every day.

unfortunately, the jet ski… didn’t work. at all. which totally sucked, cos it was a huge pain (for the boys) to haul across the yard. plus, i was really looking forward to the wind ripping my hair out.

but i took a picture anyway, cos the guys just looked so dang studly on that thing.

all of the activities i’ve just listed can fill up yr day quite easily, esp. since you tend to repeat them, over and over. esp. the floating and drinking part.

erin and meredith took the paddleboat for a ride, not realizing until it was too late that they had a stowaway by the name of henri and his booty.

i love all of the videos i took on the water, because for some reason, maybe the glint of the sunlight on the water, they look like old home movies. i half expect kevin arnold to swim into the frame.

don’t worry, i moved just before i would have been torn apart by the razor sharp plastic paddle.

and then, there was more of this…

punctuated by surprise attacks from our local water monster, henri.

if you’ve done all of these activities and find yrself still lacking for entertainment, consider the classic aquatic tradition of chicken fighting.

only the fiercest of men dare to do battle in the ancient chicken style, as you can see.

check out this video for an illustration of practical chicken fighting techniques and dirty tricks, including “go for the glasses.”

and, if you’re REALLY a daredevil, you can do what teenage boys have been doing since time began: Trying Dumb Stuff On The Water That May Kill You.

for example, henri, attempting to “surf” on the lake with a boogie board.

meanwhile, matt followed up his floating bar invention with a totally sweet (and i mean sweet) new headband.

he’s like, the richie tenenbaum of the south.

after an exhausting day of chicken fights, island exploration and doing stupid stuff, it’s nice to know that you can head back to the dock for drive-thru drink service, courtesy of jill.

to sum up my tips on how to spend a day at the lake, just do this:

that night, it was birthday party time!

matt, my favorite chef, risked his life (and eyesight) to grill up some DELICIOUS fajitas for everyone.

while eating my tasty business, i discovered i had a new friend.

the friendship quickly ended when he discovered that he had picked the WRONG gal to beg from. sorry, doggie, but posh is a GREEDY PIGGIE.

henri and i gave meredith some kitten mittens that are almost as cute as she is.

and of course, there was cake! caramel cheesecake, to be exact!

so, just to be clear, we spent the weekend: floating, dancing, talking, drinking, paddling, chicken fighting, laughing, singing, exploring, eating cake and not being murdered.

yeah, i would say that’s pretty good.

LINKS

squee of the day: a cat and a dog are friends, and THERE’S MORE! see, the dog is blind and the cat guides her around!!!!! because they are friends!!

today, i’ve got a bonus squee for you: white tiger cubs!!!!! HOLY SQUEE.

did you know that IBM is sequencing and analyzing the cocoa genome? FINALLY, science is good for something!

this guy created a miniature paris in his backyard. oooh i wanna go and eat a miniature croissant!!

you can sell yr daughter on the internet! it’s like that shel silverstein poem but better (thanks, matt, for the link).