saturday afternoon in the curry cottage

yes our home is full of the intoxicating scent of chicken tikka masala, due to tonight's first ever British game night! our sweet Anglo American friends Theresa and Lee are bringing our 'nephew' Elliot to watch dinosaur cartoons with his 'cousins' while we play with some Wi thingie. seeing as i cannot even understand facebook i am guessing i will suck :) but oh my gosh, my curry smells GOO-OOOD!

it is official. i am in love with Pedro, a handsome checker at Trader Joe's :) usually that place takes hours to check out of, despite having 8 cashiers and only 10 customers at any one time but today i arrived at the checkout, wearily set out my folding telescopic chair, popped a piece of energy boosting gum and readied myself for the 25 minute wait... all the while trying to talk myself out of scharfenberger chocolate while trying to block how good it tastes from my mind. suddenly i was jolted from my old-lady-with-a-checkbook-and-dumb-questions coma by Pedro Hernandez - imagine George Michael with a latino twist, THE eyelashes, THE stubble, THE soft whispery voice... it was the most sublime checkout experience ever... second only to... Barney (enters stage right)

oh Barney, how i miss you. he used to work at Lucky, where i simply COULD NOT shop. i don't shop at stores named after pets, i just can't... the same reason i can't eat cheerios because they look like cat food. anyway that day i stopped in for an emergency gallon of icecream and fell in love - he was charming and had a line of fans waiting at his checkstand simply because of the way he tied the grocery bag handles like balloon animals and whispered huskily "hold it by the handles and you'll be just fine" :) i kept my beloved Barney receipt (with his little happyface autograph) on the side of the fridge for years til it was too faded to make out.

sure then there was the IKEA hotdog guy, who looked like Michael Stipe, who i had a mad crush on during the summer of 2000, when IKEA was in Tustin and i had a major pregnancy craving for hotdogs. when IKEA moved to Costa Mesa i saw him working in some fancy managerial role then he was gone... never to be seen again. i often think about the hotdog man when i am driving by and wonder what became of him.

sigh... enough daydreaming about hot guys.... back later with pics and such :)

black friday

it is our magical 4/4/4 anniversary on 9 april 2009. every 4 years 4 months and 4 days something HUGE and AWESOME happens. marriage/babies/more babies...etc. anyway that week we will be in Boston, MA............. (whispering:) i think we are going to move there and that day we will buy a perfect little white house in East Sandwich, Massachusetts with a distressed picket fence, overgrown hydrangeas and double hung wooden windows with a white starfish in each pane (and walking distance to a windswept dog friendly beach) :0 i am so not kidding :) this has been the year of the Boston cream pie diet, Boston legal marathons, even my very first wonderful whistlestop tour of MA... and i heard from my spy on the Cape that they even have Trader Joes there now... so it's practically a done deal.

went to the mission viejo mall today. i didn't buy a damned thing. well i bought 2 chocolate velocoraptor/turkeys and some aveda moisturizer but those are practically daily essentials :) i saw absolutely nothing worth buying even at half price with 20% off... but the boys did try on some funny hats and jackets and i applied a decadent amount of issey miyake in sephora.... so it was still worth getting the car out for :)



we decided to go to the park instead... absolutely no vacuous bluetooth/baseball cap wearing moms for miles around today. yeehaw black friday!!




then we made delicious m&m brownies and hot chocolate and hung the surviving starfish all over our christmas tree. Sam played Madonna's Santa Baby 35 times in a row :)

Sam's miniature tree skirt (why yes of course he has a christmas tree in his room:) completely inspired by Jill McDonald's greatness :)

completely random: number 8 on my list of favorite things about vegas... this particular joshua tree which we are counting down to visiting very very soon :)


time for apple pie and Boston Legal!

wednesday

i really really need to make a pie. and cupcakes. it's thanksgiving tomorrow, i really really need to get my act together...bleck

my insider friend, Sarah from England, reports that Gordon has allegedly admitted to four 'booty calls' with Sarah Symonds. tisk. Gordon, i have eaten in your restaurant... tisk tisk tisk

i am like 3 months behind current affairs but i read (while researching if Obama has a tattoo) that Sarah Palin's lipliner is tattooed. gosh darnit... i guess she is so busy being a great mom, having babies and returning to work 3 days later and taking her pregnant teenager to NYC (on business:) that she has no time to put on the lipstick that differentiates her from a pitbull... have i mentioned how i miss dear sweet Sarah?! oh yes i miss her :)

i have a splinter in my finger. Aaron operated with a needle and a minute piece of wood came out... along with gallons of blood. the piece was like a millimeter long. how on earth can something that small incapacitate a human being??? i dont ever want to get impaled on a fence if a 1mm piece of wood in my finger hurts that bad...

random pics from the day:
this picture is why i am oh-so-glad to be a mommy of little boys. danny thinks clothes/hair on dinosaurs are cwazy. i asked him if he wanted to name his birthday T Rex 'Obama'. he said that would be wrong as T Rexes are mean pwedadors and Obama is a nice man who would not even hurt a fly. he is that smart ;)

it was 63 degrees today... definitely hat weather

my first and last time EVER in furry boots

bathtime

my tribute to the 101 kid freeway mural that is all painted over now :(

RIP freeway kids (their outlines are still there - sob)

tuesday

i am going totally insane trying to find out if George Michael has any tattoos. i started my online research yesterday at 2:38pm. it's now 6:18 the day after and i still haven't found out if he has any tattoos. however... now i know why his marriage-thingy to Kenny was postponed (bad George...)... oh and he is left handed... and Andrew Ridgley lives in Cornwall with someone from Bananarama and shops at the Co-op... sigh, so much useless data to wade through! there has to be a celebrity tattoo site... oh duh... there is :) and he doesn't. ha!

during my research, i also read in some tabloid (so obviously it's true...) that Gordon Ramsay is allegedly having an affair with someone named Sarah Symonds(eye roll), who i guess promoted her book on 'how to be the other woman' on Oprah last year. what a piece of work, i read she lives in LA too... she'd better hope and pray she never crosses my path or i won't be responsible for my temporary blackout. don't worry Tana, i have your back :)

the land of nod catalog makes me start all kinds of hopelessly ambitious crafts that are just plain impossible for someone as unfocused as me to complete. jill mcdonald is the worst offender for getting me all overwhelmed with piles of felt and construction paper, how i love her and want to gouge her eyes out at the same time for being SOOOO creative and wonderful! but having read her really cute blog (mad stalker that i am, i know she misspells voila as 'wa-laa' (tut)... her son was a matador for halloween... oh and that she voted Obama:) so i have to admit, i would probably only be able to poke her in the eye and not do any permanent retinal damage :) she seems too nice despite making me bawl my eyes out over badly executed projects<3

today's homesick blues playlist:
labeled with love - squeeze
laid - james
life on mars - david bowie
life's a gas - t rex
lips like sugar - echo and the bunnymen
live forever - oasis
living in sin - electronic
love action - human league
shoot the dog - george michael (it doesn't start with L but i don't care)

pics from our hour at disney:
he wants to make (adopts tough guy voice) Mister T Wex! did you know there is a BUILD-A-DINO store now??? and a T Rex Cafe???! uhuh-uhuh!

just in case i could possibly forget... for his birthday he wants to make Mister T Wex!!

at cali-4-nia adventure

FAO bear and Danny were keeping Santa's chair warm :)

he loves the chickawawa dog!!

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

because... Office Max elf yourself videos are back!!!

gawd how I LOVE these videos, they make me cry laughing for hours upon hours of repeated play... dear Office Max, these videos are why i am such a loyal customer (she says having bought just one thing there in the past year...) heck i even bought my laptop from you guys!

the classic video


and... the cutest video EVER............

monday morning

it's soooo cold and lovely here, 53 i believe. last night we slept under a million quilts and in our warmest German flannel sheets (with the window open so we didn't overheat:) it was wonderful!! though i don't like it to dip below 49.......

it's official, i am addicted to las vegas and cannot live without at least one trip on the horizon to live for. we canceled our christmas break on friday in a 2 person effort to curb the recession. and rebooked it last night :)

i love my sugar and lemon eau de parfum sooo much i keep it by my precious 'all you need is love' paper cube (also from vegas.....) right on my left. my other musthave perfume is JoMa's nutmeg and ginger... both are beloved childhood memories from England - pancake tuesday and my grandma's wonderful gingerbread. hmm.....

i made the best EVER batch of dog biscuits last night with egg and corn meal and chicken broth. they looked soo good, i almost ate one :) i want to start a bone-o-grams business. i just need to figure out how to engrave my dog bones... off to google dog bone stamping kit :)

i am so missing Sarah effing Palin (for all the wrong reasons). she NEEEEEDS a reality tv show on one of those religious channels, with her lovely barrel of kids and grandkids, and her vaguelooking husband, to keep us entertained. come on Trinity Broadcasting Network, think of the publicity!!! i would so watch (once my DVR is fixed... can't possibly sit through the infomercials of people singing "come! now is the time to woooorship!!" with their eyes closed and their hands in the air looking pained)

sigh. off to disneyland. again. don't ask. it's a long story.

sunday bloody sunday again

OK so not only did i NOT show up at the hilton's "Shimmer" cocktail lounge to meet Barry Manilow on thursday as planned, but i totally forgot and made a mercy dash to Staples/Petsmart that night and missed 35 minutes of his QVC show at 5pm. arggh! what kind of fanilow does that??! i wouldn't blame him one bit if he voided my BMIFC membership... however, he must really really like me (or have just one member in his fanclub) because he offered me tickets for this friday and again i was forced to turn him down. doesn't BLACK FRIDAY mean anything to millionaires??!

anyway... i was just settling down to watch the last 25 minutes of it when our bedroom DVR went into v fib and died. thanks Friday, meanest cat on earth, for throwing all over it :) i have no idea how one is supposed to fall into a golden slumber tonight without witnessing a heinous crime on SVU.... we definitely need a new DVR first thing tomorrow and i need extra strength hot cocoa/unisom at bedtime.

danny is singing in bed, bless his cotton socks. his favorite song "i want to move it move it, he wants to move it move, her wants to move it move it, i want to.......... (screams) MOVE IT!!!" God love him <3

i've been a terrible blogger this week due to temporary death by photoshop. i have lifted more eyes, pinned back more ears and swapped more heads than the entire staff of Dr 90210 since season one. whitening blue teeth (yes BLUE... blue candy should be illegal) is my specialty now...

yesterday we ate at the Habit. i read an article on these new burger joints popping up around LA and have tried them all, the trooper that i am. the counter just plain sucks. five guys isn't that great but who can resist all-you-care-to-enjoy peanuts? at the Habit i found 0% char on my charburger... 100% lame. sooo in-n-out wins (as i suspected all along it would :)

the Home Shopping Network woman with the unusually small head (Aaron you know exactly who i am talking about) had Nate Berkus on her show on friday night. he was selling his fancy sheets in shades of amethyst and paprika and chocolate, did you know if you don't have a set of chocolate sheets you are a total loser according to Nate - he doesn't care if your house is French Country or modern, everyone needs chocolate in bed. now how on earth is a red blooded chocolate loving woman supposed to sleep after a totally HOT statement like THAT from someone who looks like THIS??? i had to eat an entire pack of unisom and two bowls of icecream... note to self: no more steamy HSN at bedtime!


more random pictures from the weekend...
littlest Rue's lashes

<3

happiness is...

a grilled cheese

he's almost four (that must mean it's time to procreate again:)

a beautiful face :)

wednesday

i don't know what on earth possessed me but i decided to do lawn work this morning. as in cutting the grass, weed whacking and leaf blowing - urgh a total pain in the ass! the weed whacker is somewhat bearable but gawd, i can't stand that evil leaf blower and can't use it to save my life. after hours and i mean HOURS blowing leaves in ever increasing circles trying to get them in one neat pile i stealthily just blew everything in the gutter and gave up.

my next nemesis - my bonesmoker garage door. it won't go down unless every planet is perfectly aligned. i went through my usual checklist for broom handles, stray tennis balls even swept meticulously for leaves and dust particles in the line of the "magic eye".... still the alarming flashing lights and clicking noises it makes to tell me it's not safe to close! finally I had to summon help and my knight in shining armor found a shred of SPIDERWEB on that evil "magic eye" that was keeping the door from going down. that is taking safety to a whole new level when it won't even close on a spiderweb??? arghh!!!

then just as i was hating the world, i glanced outside and saw the STREET SWEEPER swish by in his big truck and scoop up all those pesky lawn clippings and leaves i had swept into the gutter!! (it's Obama! i know for a fact he is magical!)

finally finished my godforsaken tedious christmas card where all the pictures fit together perfectly ;) sure i have spinal curvature and carpel tunnel syndrome but it is done and i now know my 1300pixels times table by heart. looking at the hideous templates for cards at whcc.com makes me realize:
a) i may be american now but i am soooo not and never will be a generican
b) my card isn't that bad
c) for as nice as whcc are, giving out lollipops with orders and all, they have really horrible taste!!!

off to walk. it's a perfect 73 degrees today (much better than yesterday's 90)

walmart... if only that box contained a REAL cape cod house :( think i can sue them???


barefoot in the park - always. i used my kit lens today - how i miss the days when i just had the kit lens... before dumb f.stops/shutter speeds/ISO woes.

tuesday

i am sitting here making windmills from pipe cleaners for Sam's school project, to build a green town and deliver it to school by 12/16... i should add i still have the scars left from the miniature picket fence day.... slave labor i tell you...

though i am absolutely ashamed to admit, i have no idea how to make papier mache NOR do we have a stack of old newspapers to make it from. we actually need to BUY newspapers to turn into a papier mache windfarm

i hate that headline that yahoo have been showing for ONE WEEK now 'unhappy people watch more tv'... seriously are there NO simple pleasures left in this sad life? i don't watch a lot of TV but when i sit down with a refreshing glass of diet coke and some delicious lays to watch dragon's den all i can think is that if the sodium and nutrasweet don't get me, the deepening depression TV causes will finish me off... it's just not fair. be gone wretched 'unhappy people watch more tv' headline!

Barry Manilow is soooo going to kill me. i just got an email back from him saying to be at the "shimmer cocktail lounge" of the las vegas hilton at 3:30pm on Thursday in my quote, sunday best unquote, to get into his 5pm QVC taping. i sent a note back saying if i can't bring Aaron, i'm not going and signed it 'thank you so fucking much Barry' because:
a) i know he loves bad language just as much as i do
b) i'm sure the answer's no ;)

must go work on my wretched tree skirt some more - i only have 4 skyscrapers left and then the park and then... it's done! do you know how many windows skyscrapers have that need to be cut out one by one in mismatched colors and sewn painstakingly by hand??! a lot....

our friday afternoon date to the toy store


he loves his 'pikey' hair

Elliot and Boomer the T Rex share a book :)

sunday things

yesterday was the world's longest day ever on earth. we went to the "salton sea" - the poor man's cape cod to enjoy a nice walk down the shore. then we went to some huge supercool sand dunes - we were almost in MEXICO we went that far!

anyway on the 3 hour journey back the traffic was blocked on the 91 (the freeway from hell) due to some big wildfire that took everyone by surprise for the 13th consecutive year since i moved here. so sarah the gps woman told us to take the 57. closed also sarah, any more bright ideas?? she actually suggested the road that runs alongside the freeway which i am guessing would also be engulfed in flames...? anyway it was just awful, we had no chocolate in the car and we had to go home via LONG BEACH! we finally got home SIX HOURS later. oh yah, so glad we had that antique pack of mentos and Barry Manilow's Here at the Mayflower in the glovebox (a box that has NEVER housed gloves, just stale gum and dried up wipes and an odyssey manual that has never been used)

speaking of Barry Manilow, he emails me almost daily. he sends funny notes like to ask if i can run into target and check where his CD is being displayed - i guess he pays for it to be on the aisle end caps and doesn't have time to go in EVERY target to check up on the red shirts :) anyway, today's note was asking if i want to go watch him tape his QVC show on thursday in vegas. i said yes but i am not really sure i want to... i just don't feel like sitting in any more traffic jams for a looong time... i hope he isn't pissed when i change my mind ;)

i just read that Barack doesn't use emoticons. so neither do i anymore :( it's that simple

facebook is perplexing to me. lowers voice.... i just don't see the point. i have someone named 'lisa marie' who looks like lisa marie presley in her picture (and may i add the pics are far far too small to make out who is in them) who i am supposed to know. do i add her??? with if she isn't THE lisa marie but an imposter? when i add people i do it superfast so it doesn't ask for the annoying authenticator word that is illegible to my robot eyes. sigh. so i don't think it ever really works :) oopppps.....

without further 'adieu' my pictures from the salton sea:

it (almost) never rains in southern california

spooky - to me - peanut butter

greetings from the salton sea! now please can we go home?

soon enough boys... just stand here and look sad...

danny was completely fascinated that the ground was made up of dead fish

(it was kinda cool ;)


sand dunes somewhere north of mexico

note to self: don't change lenses on a windy day on a sand dune :) (i give up with the giving up emoticons)

wildfires make perty sunsets, the glass is always 51% full. another note to self: clean sensor

it's a great day at friday's

i cannot for the life of me remember my ridiculously easy blogspot password. i have it written in a blue book to remind me and i still get it muddled with my yahoo password, i dont know why i made them different. i always say remember it for me and it never does. sigh

took my bucket of change to the coin star machine. waited on pins and needles, it said 6 cents only for the longest time even though i had tipped half the bucket in. but lo and behold.... it came to $40.70 - anything over $40 got the bonus $10 spending money at amazon.com! it was like election night all over again!! good times in stater bros...

i hate to talk politics again but here i go, it's what i do ;) my long standing top 3 favorite hot presidents list now has THREE names on it!! number one is obvious. number two is JFK. number three... drumroll... Barack O-freaking-bama! we pored over a lovely picture book of him in Barnes&Noble last night. i want it for christmas!! in one picture he was washing dishes (using "Dawn") with his daughters and beaming. be still my fluttering heart! we know from this:
a) he does dishes
b) he is a great Dad
c) he has lovely clean fingernails and soft hands :)

my walk today was the worst ever BAR NONE. since the flu i have had the weirdest varying voracious/nonexistent appetite. today i ate voraciously when i should have eaten like a bird. i had animal fries. then had to walk superduperfast because i left too late (but it was so nice chatting, Missy Casey Jose!) and oh my god, animal fries vomit burps don't taste so hot. it was 88 degrees also (that's 2 fat ladies in bingo lingo;) and my music choices were the worst. you just can't walk fast to Whatta Man by Salt N Pepa (what the hell made me choose that??!)

another bad song for speed walking. loser by beck. i always thought when i lived in England he was talking about burning down the centerparc and i thought how odd, centerparcs are so nice and streaming with natural light and family friendly fun! but today i realized he was saying trailer park. you have to be american to understand i guess...

speaking of losers, an "anonymous commenter" wanted to add that he thinks Nate Berkus is a "phoney user"... a phoney user??! i have to wiki that phrase later, maybe it's like milf and butterface and means completely perfect guy who is much more adorable to women than straight guys ;)

back later after i attempt to cook our "mexican night" dinner.



these pics were taken shortly before we were banned from party city forever :)