by laura beth

February is Museum month, so Julie, Bill, Kenny, and I went to San Diego's Balboa Park and hit up free and half-price museums. It was a wonderful day. We enjoyed the botanical gardens, Museum of Man, the Timken Museum of Art (it's the home of Rembrandt's portrait of Robert DeNiro, and a room full of beautiful Russian icons), had lunch in the park, and hit up the beach on the way home.

by laura beth

One of the main reasons we were able to talk Bill and Julie into coming to visit us was our 2nd Annual Oscars Party. Kenny does it up real nice. Trivia, games, snacks, cash money prizes, noisemakers. Costumes are required--you must dress as a character, title, or theme of a currently nominated film. This year's line up: Kenny as Lars from Lars and the Real Girl, Bill as I'm Not There, Julie as Charlie Wilson's War, Grandma as Fiona from Away From Her, Nathan as Sicko, and Laura as Juno. Heather showed up for a quick visit as Giselle from Enchanted. We watched the awards ceremony, ate tons of snacks, and laughed a lot. Fun times.

by kenny

We have these great friends, Bill Thompson and Julie Foster. Bill is from Laura's hometown of John Day, Oregon, and Julie is from outside of Philadelphia. Julie spent some time in John Day with mutual friend Maggie Willis, and met and fell in love with Bill. They were married, lived in John Day and became good friends of ours. They had big plans to move to Australia. In preparation to do so, they sold their belongings and moved out of their apartment, only to find out that Bill couldn't get the proper visa. And so, like us they hit the road. And because we love them, and they love us, they came and stayed with us at Ratface's for a few weeks in February & March. Good friends are hard to beat.

by kenny