Capitola Begonia Festival 2010. Outlaw 36 Gang's Octopus's Garden took third place. (photo courtesy of/borrowed from The Santa Cruz Sentinel.)

What is it with me and these Live Blogging fails?? Seriously.

I don’t claim to be a techno genius, but it shouldn’t be this hard. Twitter hates me. That’s all I can think of.

Or, my unicorn force field has disturbed the ability of my technology to function correctly.

Crap.

Well, on with the AWESOMENESS that was to be my live blog from the Capitola Begonia Festival.

For my seven non-local readers, Capitola is a small coastal town, near surfing-central Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz County. The annual Begonia Festival is an opportunity for anyone to build a nautical float covered with donated begonia flowers. There are usually eight to ten entries built by families, groups of friends or small local businesses. I volunteer with the Friends of The Windmill House group.

It was a fabulous weekend filled with surfing dogs, BP being stabbed by the God of The Sea, and billions of begonias….

Noelle, inside The Love Shack. http://twitpic.com/2lajol She’s the generous hostess of the Friends of the Windmill House. They’re the BEST group of float building folks! We may not win, but we have the most fun.

This is Dune, the surfing dog. http://twitpic.com/2lbnv5 You see things like this in Santa Cruz all the time.

Neptune stabbed BP. As it should be. http://twitpic.com/2lbuw3 I don’t know if they won the sand sculpture/castle contest, but they’ve got my vote.

Ok, get your glasses. See the blue paddle boat behind the float that's on the right, in the background? I'm the paddler in the front, left seat (nearest camera). Awesome.

The launch of The Love Shack. http://twitpic.com/2lm7uz Thank goodness it didn’t sink. We were a little worried for the six kids on the float. That water is cold and dirty. We weren’t about to put down our drinks and get wet to save them. Hey, it’s not like it’s deep.

We didn’t win. But I did make the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Famosity is mine! Maybe. Probably not. Unless you have great glasses.