Hair, hair and more (or less) hair

It's true, everyone. My boyfriend competed in the New York Beard and Mustache Competition.



Shannon and I went to support him, and as we approached the Knitting Factory venue, each of us thought, I hope we're in the right place. Then we saw this man and knew we were okay.




Here he is from the front. Good ol' Heinz from Germany, worldwide winner for the last 6 years.


The event was actually sold out! As Dustin always says, if you have the idea to do something in New York, a thousand other people probably have the same idea. But since Dusty was a competitor, he got me (his girlfriend) and Shannon (his "sister") in... and for free, which was an unexpected bonus.
The place was so ambient.


The show started with a montage of famous facial hair over the years set to "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker, with clips of Magnum, P.I., Tom Cruise, and others gracing the screen in slow motion. I got a little misty-eyed. Then there was the national anthem. Then the powerful tunes of "Angel is a Centerfold" boomed over the speakers as the Mustache Fly Girls came out to dance.






... Although Shannon and I knew we could probably do better. We plan to get Kerri and Jennifer involved and do this sort of thing for weddings, bar mitzvahs and other events around town.
Next up was a folky, blue-grassy kind of band called Curtis Eller's Elephant Circus... or something like that... I was unsure of them at first; they were a bit wacky. But they earned my folky heart soon enough.




Facial hair was everywhere!!



... except on this guy, the most hairless creature in the whole room.



The competition got underway. We were introduced to our faithful judges.


(handsome, aren't they?)


They even had a mascot!


Here's Dustin with a fellow competitor in the mustache category.



He finally was announced onstage. Ah, his moment of glory. I know he was lovin' it.



The judges conferred and even had to call a woman up for the female perspective to settle on a winner.



The competitors waited in eager anticipation.





Sigh... unfortunately, although my boy made it to the Semifinals, he was not crowned Best Mustache In Show. The honors went to this guy:



Can you believe he didn't win?!?!?!



Well, at least he got a free t-shirt.



And a few days later, I went for a change of hair myself. I've been pretty sick of this ugly crap:



So I went to the Soon Design Lab and Shelly took care of me. I had my glasses off so I couldn't see anything, but I was pretty nervous when I looked down and saw all of this in my lap:



"It's just hair. It's just hair," I breathed to calm myself. I was not very confident when I saw this, mid-cut:



But it all turned out okay! Even Dustin claims to like it. It's so much easier, no stupid flyaways in my face anymore. Who cares if I look like a little boy? Mom, these multiple views are for you.







Ciao, bellas!

Four-Star Fine Family Fun!

I went to Arizona last weekend. It was pretty much a lazy time. We all just laid around and took naps.





Just kidding. It was actually a super-busy weekend, and the above pictures represent how tired everyone was in between all of the goings-on of the weekend. I'll try to keep the post concise as most of you reading this were probably there for all events (Mom). I thought I was going just for Tom's Ph.D ceremony, but it ended up being an event trifecta: also that weekend was Mother's Day and Greg's last weekend in Arizona. It. Was. EMOTIONAL.

I got in late Wednesday night and arrived home in Gilbert to a note from my mum saying "Welcome home! Be ready to leave by 8am!" I don't know how I did it, but I did it. And I looked fabulous doing it.

It was all worth it because Tom looked smashing in his regalia (complete with puffy hat):
Even the arena was all gussied up.


The boys, Mom, Grandma, Marsha and I all sat together, as you can clearly see from the following photos.

Tom came up to say hello.
It was a fest.
We were sooooo proud of him!
Greg looked cool as always, despite the 103-degree heat (which nearly killed me).

And Nate looked... charming as ever.

Here I present to you the most hilarious picture of my family EVER TAKEN. Click on it to get a close-up of each priceless face.
Back home for the reception, the Stapleton women worked away in the kitchen (as usual).
We gave the man of the hour a "Congrats, Dr. Tom" cake and I guess he made a wish.

The best thing was that Mom and I were wearing matching/opposite outfits. Even our shoes were matching/opposite. We took some photos to commemorate the occasion.


We goofed off...

... and practiced our catalogue modeling. (2 Ls? 1 L?)

Awwwwwww!

Then it was Mom/Tom time. They were even more adorable (if that's possible).

Meanwhile, inside I tried to show Grandma how to use the computer so she could see this very blog (Hi, Grandma!). We didn't get very far beyond the concept of scrolling.
The next morning I went with Tom to his College Convocation, where he got hooded on the big screen.


Later that day, Mom and I went to the Dollar Tree to get some cheap starter household items for Greg that he otherwise would never think of (aluminum foil, paper plates, rope). It was uber-glam.

That night, the boys and I went to Dad and Dana's house for some quality time. He made us a lovely dinner, then we watched the Suns game (which I hadn't done in years) and watched Dana decorate a cake for her li'l grandson, who turned 1 year old the next day. She made it into a tiger, which turned out awesome, especially for her first time. She opted to be the photographer for this picture.


And on Saturday, we traveled (1 L? 2 Ls?) to Scottsdale for a family dinner at Grandma's.

Her cool new friend Rita was there.

Nathan and I, despite our spats, still love each other.

We were able to capture the rare occasion of all of us being in the same room together.
The entire Stapleton direct lineage:
Uncle Gene gave us a brief history of the universe.


Then we gave Greg his goody basket of Useful Stuff. (that's right, I used the non-word "stuff"!)
I think he was pretty excited.

Immediately following the Family Fest, I went to Sarah's for her graduation barbecue. Unfortunately, the only picture I got was of a painting I made years ago still hanging on her bedroom wall. How selfish is that? (and a crappy photo at that.)

There has been a nest in my parents' backyard for some time now. Its last baby bird actually flew the coop for the first time this weekend, appropriately enough. The parent birds stopped feeding it to give it a reason to leave, then flew around the area slowly for awhile to show it how to fly. By Sunday it was successfully out of the nest and chillin' on the adirondack chair.

That morning, Mother's Day, we sat on the couch with Mom and had some quality time. Unbelievably, these pictures were not posed.

I left Sunday night for the red-eye back to New York. The only good thing about flying that late at night is that you get to see the sun rise from above the clouds.

I returned to work immediately after dropping my suitcase at home. It was rainy and exactly 50 degrees cooler in the city than in Arizona. Talk about opposites.
A lovely weekend was had by all. Happy Graduation, Tom! Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Good luck, Greg!