we bought our rats a very special ferret carrier this weekend and it is a huge hit so far! now our rats can safely enjoy shopping, going on vacation, and even accompany me to the dentist's office tomorrow - the sky's the limit now!! they even enjoyed a game of cards with the family today :)

which has led me to look for other ferret products for our rattie boys, since they love that carrier so darned much. i found a - gulp- ferret stroller. on clearance no less!! and i want it!! (but i know i'm NOT gettting it... but a girl can dream!) and this adorable little hoodie!! i love this testimonial from "Annik in Moncton":

This is SO cute ! My little ferrets seem to like it, its nice in winter and it gives the little "boy" look they needed .. so now everybody stopped asking us if they are males or females ! lol Very nice !

hmm i think need the hoodies too. i am sooooo sick of people stopping me in Albertsons to ask if my ratties are boys or girls :|

i didn't need one.... but here's yet another reason to avoid JFK airport at all costs this summer. that airport should be renamed to something like GWB or John (major douchebag) Edwards airport... it's far too subpar to carry the strapping Kennedy name :[

tomorrow i need to buy cream of tartar. to make molten chocolate cakes. i am never going to lose weight at this rate :[ thanks, stupid internet.

ps on second thoughts, i am thinking the ferret stroller might make me a target for police harassment - i had no clue ferrets were ILLEGAL in Califreakinfornia :|

waiting for

one custom-made umbrella. i ordered it THREE WEEKS AGO! how long does it take to make a freaking umbrella?????! sure it will arrive the second the sun gets his hat back on and comes out to play :[
one custom-made computer. ALSO ordered on like 13 february. so much for the recession and a little thing called customer satisfaction :|

making

trader joe's pizza on the pizza stone thingie ,that so far, is failing to meet my expectations, it must be said. i am attempting to burn char bubbles on it to be precise... i really need a brick oven

wishing
i had used this pb& j cakewich mold for Danny's birthday cake :|

loved spending
quiet-time finishing the coco chanel movie in bed (and so rare to actually want to finish a movie... she's infinitely more fascinating and likable than Julia Childs:)

wondering

why out of a list of 473 faucets... i can't find one that isn't tragically lame and tuscany-looking and generic and awful :(

photoshopping

pictures of the boys before their haircuts - and kind of missing their long hair even though i begged them to get it cut short (what the heck is wrong with me??)

loving
that tune wiki is working again... how i missed you tune wiki xoxo

dreading

the dentist office tomorrow. if he is not unusually nice, as Aaron swears up and down he is, i am going to be soooo pissed off at 3pm tomorrow :|

note to self:
floss like a crazed maniac tonight :)







today's lame recipe, brownie thing with runny stuff underneath


(disclaimer: taken with the world's most jarringly awful camera ever: the iphone camera)
how can such a drink with such a pleasant smile be bad for you? i just don't believe a word of it, Dr Debbie Downer Oz

always the first 'person' ready for bed, Mr Bumps

rainy days and saturdays (in pictures)

today it rained... and true to the song as always... it totally poured (but it wasn't so cold he couldn't play outside in pjs:)

the boys made a house for Jerry and Teddy out of blocks

Teddy loved it

and Jerry was so excited he peed all over the 19th, 20th and 21st presidents :)

it's unpicture worthy but at this point, Aaron unclogged a worrisome drain and Sam and i ran to McDonalds for burgers and 4 - count em, FOUR, as in one each, not shared, orders of french fries :)

when the rain stopped we made a mercy dash to home depot for a doorbell

and a piece of plexiglass (this is not a picture of a piece of plexiglass nor is it taken through the plexiglass:)

we stopped at the park to pick leaves for our caterpillars

and since it was so quiet... we let the boys drive (shhh!!)


they LOVED it :)

we stopped by Wagon Train to play with the chicks


and bottle feed a lamb (who made the most heartwarming newborn bleating waiting for his bottle to be heated up:)

then we stopped at the grocery store with a real - not for decoration - hitching post for some essentials


then home for indian food, reading every eric carle books ever written and a coco chanel movie in bed :)

page 5

my right foot is back to itching like crazy again

which supposedly means we will journey to a familiar place - i wish :[ i cannot find an idyllic WHITE beach house in cape cod with perfect clean light and NO DARK WOOD PANELING and an adorable little loft with two twin beds and skylights for this summer for any less than $8500. this is very bad news :[

also bad news: having a black eye on parent/teacher conference day :[

every mom on '16 and pregnant' microwaves their baby's formula.... i thought it was a total no-no so i looked on babycenter. they say: "its very bad for baby" meaning it's very bad for THE baby. give me strength...

my little mini keyring debit card finally arrived - i can shop again without carrying the entire contents of the world with me... i don't know what i did before keyring debit cards were invented :)

i really want a warm ruby fudge brownie sundae. no pudge brownies with fat free coolwhip just isn't the same thing :(

failing a warm ruby brownie, tickets to the beatles 'love' show would be nice. listening to it on my ipod just isn't the same thing either :(

ps i love George Harrison

i know you're not allowed to text and drive but i wonder if you're allowed to sit at a red light and text...? because i do that often and am too busy to watch for the pigs AND not make spelling mistakes...

i always get Johnny Cash and Wayne Newton mixed up - they are the spitting image of each other :)

tunewiki is broken.
and i have a black eye.
goodnight xoxo

i like:

• finding perfect tall/wide pictures to make into perfect little moo cards
• orange backgrounds
• writing with squeaky markers
• michael jackson
• warm caramel corn
• undercover boss
  
• shredding american girl catalogs (how i despise american girl - i have no clue why they send their catalogs to me, but my rats appreciate the bedding i guess ;)
• how my iphone shakes violently when i buy something at amazon.com - like a little person inside the phone has just been awoken to put together my order :)
  
• shopping at the mexican supermarket with their warm tortillas and super cheap bunches of flowers (that are still bright and healthy after 10 days:)
• coffeemate (it's definitely better:)
• penny pickles (super cute childrens' museum in Temecula)
  

i don't like:

• sneetches and sour kangaroos
  
• burger king
• people who inflict their horribly raised children on others and don't hang their heads in shame
• birthday parties
• the black eyed peas
  
• snakes
• dr oz (he is always all bad news - jackass)
  
• shopping at ralphs
• people who require eggshell-walking around them (won't do it - nosireebub)
• the expression 'kthxbye'
  
• pedro hernandez not being on duty at trader joes on my shopping days (should NOT be allowed....)
• discovery science center

our day at penny pickles

what's playing
'Daniel' by Elton John (he named this song after our Daniel... or maybe it's vice versa :)

what's on my desk
a valentine card from someone who "totally hearts me" that i can't yet tuck away, a tool to cut up dough, a cube of 685 post-it notes, patchouli oil, a post-it with a phone number on to set up a playdate, a butterfly that i was supposed to leave at zzyzx road but i felt bad for it leaving it alone in death valley and so i kept it instead, unlucky bamboo eaten by the kitties, my everpresent iphone, my favorite picture of my boys that i made into notecards (this is the last one which clearly i must keep forever :)

what's keeping my boys so perfectly quiet...
the movie 'G Force'... i love free redboxes ('dvdonme'=one free rental and perfectly quiet children :)

what lens is on my camera today
the 50mm f1.8 - love it more than any other (50mm f1.4 included:)

what's next
tv in bed at 8pm. and not a moment too early, i've been ready for bed since noon :)

feeling
a little disillusioned over something of absolutely no real significance

loving
alone time. i find myself to be great company, very easygoing and agreeable ;)

needing
to make a mercy dash to albertsons for the fixins to make chicken tikka masala tonight and trader joes for the rice and naan (sadly their chicken tikka masala isn't the best.......)

wondering
if 3-5 days from last wednesday equals today... i neeeeeeeeeed my new atm card :(

regretting
not checking under the little table in my car before reporting it lost at the zoo last week... everything is always to be found under the little table :|

hating
the expressions 'nom' and 'meh'

hoping
my computer ships soon or i should say optimistically, has ALREADY shipped and will arrive today via mr ups :)

eating
really bad-for-you tortilla chips... i am stopping now i promise. ok one more... that's it!

needing
to block all those awful farmville/cafeville/mafiavilla/atrologyville things on facebook...

back later with pics... maybe :)

page3

i dreamt last night we had to make hot wheels tracks with big loops and crazy turns that could carry a schoolbus with plastic people strapped on top to the end and bump softly into the wall

however much i love family fun magazine (and i do), the smug supercilious comments sent in by their 'i'm-a-better-mommy-than-you-so-there!' readers really grate on me. note to self: read everything BUT 'mailbox' and 'my great idea' (inspired tips and creative strategies from our readers' :)

we are going to Yosemite for spring break! i need filters - every kind of filter ever made for every lens i own!! i seriously need to invent a set of filters that fit all lenses and CLIP ON instead of screw on....

did i mention i am totally excited to go to Yosemite... it's completely amazing and gorgeous and spring is wildflower season! i bet they even have stars in the sky! our room overlooks a rushing river that previous guests said is so loud they could hardly sleep - well i listen to rushing water to get to sleep - i am soooo excited to fall asleep to the sound of a real river!!!! they also say don't leave food in your car or bears will break in! well you KNOW i have to leave food in the car, just so i can see a bear... right? i LOVE bears!!! so i am taking sticky honey buns just for the bears :)

speaking of adorable little bears, Danny Bear's favorite curseword is tartar sauce and sometimes just tartar :)

i am going to the dentist next monday :[ i am so totally dreading it, i haven't been for 13 years since moving to the united states... i am scared of american dentists. Aaron swears this dentist is nice, but if he isn't Aaron is in deep trouble :[

Sam is starting boy scouts tonight. my fingers are still burning from patch-sewing-on-madness :[

i have found that on kindle (for iphone... i did not buy one) i can download the first chapter of books for free, and of course get bored with the book before the end of the first chapter, so i don't have to buy the book :)

Sam is learning all his scout stuff - for a badge, i wonder...? gasp, no more badges! my fingers need time to grow new skin!! getting them professionally sewn on at the boy scouts HQ for $2.50 each is sounding like a total deal right about now....

on a diet today :) so far i ate a bite of pancake and coffee. back later with the remainder of my 'lose it' entries for the day. ho hum

the next page in the notebook...

for the first time ever i bought coffeemate instead of generic 1cent per ounce coffee creamer... wondering if this is going to be a changing day in my life ;)

i love that Danny calls actions figures action diggers

i don't have nearly enough black bras

and i have zero of anything but white and pink (sorry if TMI for the squeamish...)

Danny is making his own breakfast :) he is sitting in the kitchen eating dry cheerios (mummy of the year:)

my blue E is broken... i can't get it to open and when it does it goes all squiffy and weird :[

three reasons why i love the Kennedys....

at the white house they had:
- a welsh terrier named Charlie
- Tom Kitten (a cat - duh)
- a canary (nameless... one point deducted...)
- two parakeets - Bluebell and Marybelle
- three ponies named Macaroni (be still my heart... how i adore them!) Tex and Leprechaun
- Debbie and Billie - the hamsters
- 8 dogs: Pushinka, Shannon, Wolf and Clipper PLUS Pushinka and Charlie's pups Butterly, White Tips, Blackie (THE best name ever...) and Streaker.
- also Zsa Zsa the rabbit and Sardar, Jackie's horse. this is all thing one :)

Jackie had a standing appointment with her grandchildren every thursday afternoon when she took a half day from work to devote to them :)

they loved Cape Cod almost as much as me :)

i'm in a cashmere mist mood kind of today, other perfumes i alternate between:

• chanel cristalle
• chanel 19
• chanel coco
• jo malone nutmeg and ginger, amber and lavender, sweet lime and cedar
  
• new west for her
• ck one
• clinique - wrappings (on the very very rare occasion i miss the smell of church:)
• byblos
• philosophy - falling in love
• plain patchouli
• fresh - sugar and lemon

wishing it was a 3 day weekend again... 2 day weekends are just too short :(

back later... off to the "inland empire".... (sign of the cross, wish me luck)... i'm goin' in :]

ps newsflash: Danny just admitted he was munching on cheetos NOT cheerios... arghh!!

i keep a little notepad full of little notes

and this is what is scribbled in it today:

16 and pregnant lame mom jennelle MICROWAVED her baby's bottle of milk..... nuh uh... yes she did... no way... i swear it's true!

i love the way Danny says plastic - he says plaskit. and he calls bakugan balls (which he is absolutely obsessed with...) battleball champions :)

i am learning to love kindle for my iphone... however i have yet to find a book worth downloading even for free :| clearly i am not much of a reader ;)

i bought moisturizer with sunscreen today.... the smell of sunscreen is kind of depressing when it's raining (yes, it's raining...)

i have to figure out what in the heck push notifications means... as opposed to pull. i can't work out... am i the one pushing or pulling...? it's so confusing: like spring back/fall forward... since you can technically spring forward and fall back also, i don't find it helps but just confuses me more :[

i want to find a list of mcdonalds in OC with CLEAN UNSCUZZY indoor playplaces. they're all outdoors here and in the rain, that's no fun. and the indoor ones seem to all be full of people waiting to buy drugs on their prepaid cell phones, tapping their feet really fast (ok they just look shifty and nervous)

speaking of scary i find people with light blue eyes to be very spooky and scary for absolutely no good reason

it seems like everyone i overhear is british anymore... but everyone i attempt to talk to is american. it's so unfair.... i want a british friend :(

the daffodils are back at trader joes!! they are like magical $1 bunches of sunshine!! also the free sample at the tasting hut was boysenberry jam on toast and the balloons were all gold :)

off to make toast and erasers... back later

so receiving my small paul iphone case wasn't really as life-changing as i envisioned. to be honest, i don't think i even really like it very much, as it doesn't cover the button that switches it to the place with all the squares on it... it's the button you press ALL THE TIME and i worry everytime i press it, in case i am pressing it too hard and possibly harming the phone. ho hum... oh well, it was only $3 at the end of the day. but i do always get high hopes that such trivial little things will be life changing and each time they're not, another 1% of my soul dies :(

oh and my computer won't ship for 17 more painful hour-glass staring-at days.... what the hell, dell???! how long does it take to make a computer from scratch??? you'd think they were building a space shuttle or something. then of course there's the week it takes to ship and the week that the mailman takes it home and plays with it, so maybe i'll get it around june? and i need it like tomorrow :[

i am not sure i understand why anyone cares about Sarah Palin anymore. she isn't even that ridiculous these days. sure, she's having a full scale argument with a set of cartoon characters today, but who really cares???!! we're done making fun of you Sarah, and there's a long line of people behind you, so please drive thru :)

speaking of drive thrus, we went to yet another mcdonalds today in search of the penguin eating a fish named Rico. my child is just inconsolable everytime he is offered the periscope penguin... he must have the fish eating penguin, so he can act out the capture and slaying of the fish by the penguin.... (i am hoping his fascination with predators and prey is all part of being a typical kid...?)

off to bed to watch tv... that oprah woman says it's bad to do so but dr phil said yesterday (or maybe the day before... or the day before) he watches tv in bed so that's good enough for me :)

i don't recommend the ruby sundae... it's not even a tenth as good as the brownie sundae (but it was free... so i'm not complaining, just saying;)

best milkshake ever - the peanut butter cup

i love today

so far... sure it's only 9am, and there are plenty of opportunities for it to still derail, but so far it's all good:

• i am free for the entire morning!!
• this means i can eat toast in bed and watch little miss perfect!
• it means we also could have gone to Danny's little girlfriends' birthday party but i have rsvp'ed and unrsvped so many times, i didn't want to confuse poor Steph any further :)
• so Danny went to preschool but only after saying he really really really needed to paint a rock TODAY for Sophia to put into a ring so she would marry him before another boy proposed to her :)
• Theresa, he suggested a joint wedding with Elliot and Sarah :)
  
• anyway i get to shop for a hotel in napa with free all-you-can-waffles and an indoor pool
• and go grocery shopping without dragging small sobbing children with me
• and i found an uncashed check for $1000 in my wallet that i had totally forgotten about and not already spent 7 different ways in my head
• sure i have no ATM card to deposit it or spend it but... woohoo (said with no emotion)
• oh i wonder if the real housewives are on tonight, i hope they fight - i LOVE when they fight!
• i am still snickering that Tamra T-A-T-T-O-O-E-D her hubbie's name on her finger then he filed for divorce :)
• anyway this afternoon i am continuing my one-woman-bookathon. i intend to check out all the great books that are in abundance at ladera ranch library to distribute around north county libraries that have lame childrens sections :) kind of a pied piper of picture books!

off to burn a batch of toast and watch 40 year old women make odd kissy expressions to their 4 year old daughters... how i love little miss perfect (and the nice man who sings - i get goosebumps everytime....)

at the school playground this morning (yet another reason i love this school - pretty bokeh:)

the people at aveda are soooo mean and won't let me shop :( they have these banners all over the place saying i will get 3 free samples and free shipping if i enter code 'clinical 210' (because that's really easy to remember - assholes) and when i go and buy my favorite minty moisturizer, and add my 3 free samples (which are impossible to locate on their crappity website) and go to the checkout and enter 'clinical 210', they charge me for shipping AND the 'free' samples. oh and the moisturizer is out of stock. seriously? yes seriously :[

i lost my debit card at the zoo yesterday. so if you see a monkey at the store today, please call the police :[ because he most likely has my card and i can't afford the 2000 pounds of bananas and monkey nuts he is about to charge :(

speaking of monkeys i find it exasperating that last summer i looked EVERYWHERE for monchhichi monkeys (girl with pigtail) and almost considered traveling to Hong Kong to get one. now there are rows upon rows of them at target :( so i predict in 6 months' time eames-ish dining chairs will be readily available for $50 in awesome colors because that's what i am desperately seeking right now :[

dear buyer person at target, please buy these in awesome colors for $50 each (and get them in wood too in case i change my mind)

i can't even afford the dining chairs for rats :( and honestly who took this picture... haven't they heard of a little thing called EYE CONTACT?


ps... 16 and pregnant season opener - that poor little baby :( urgh that horrible horrible horrible girl :( his grandma calling him 'it' over and over and over. sob... i didn't even ever hear his name used... though i turned it off before the end, it was just that awful :

listening to:
the dryer... it's very quiet and somewhat soothing (for a dryer:)

waiting anxiously for:

• king sheet set 350 thread count, white dotted (i found them for $28.99 shipped:)
• stupid monkey iphone case (still!! you'd think hong kong was the other side of the world or something...)
• new computer (it was ordered at 3pm and didn't arrive yet - seriously mr mailman, you took my new computer home, didn't you...???!)
• adobe photoshop 4 (no more death by bridge crashing... i hope!)

wondering why on earth:
so many cranky old people eat at mcdonalds... then look shocked and appalled that it's full of wild-eyed out-of-control children :| (ditto Ruby's... it's a KID restaurant... if cranky old people want peace and quiet, they should jolly well stay at home!)

(that reminds me) recovering from:
driving to every mcdonalds in oc tonight looking for one that has a penguin happy meal toy that Danny doesn't already have :| and ps he wasn't the wild-eyed out-of-control one tonight ;)

needing to:
go to bed and watch '16 and pregnant' at last... i heard it's trashy and lame and that's just what i need right about now

officially giving up:
the color purple for lent as per a kind suggestion... it's the only thing i know i can succeed at :)

shark attack at the library

he has checked out pretty much every 'how do dinosaurs...' book in ocpl circulation right now :)

we went to the monkey zoo


and Spirit helped me test my lens :)

happy new lent :|

at my catholic school we were always forced (at gunpoint by the nuns and father flatley) to give something up for lent. it was always chocolate and it was always absolutely agony to do so and i always hated it. but i always did it and kept my word 100% and put every last penny i would have spent at the paper shop into the little cardboard 'save the children' box, which by easter was soooo full of money it was bursting apart at the seams and i could take all the silver coins back out again :)

sigh. my kids don't have bullies in habits and rosary beads shaping them, they have me : and i love chocolate : but i do want them to give something up... just so they know how hard life was for me growing up ;) soooo what to give up? the 99 cent store? all meat...? pizza....? something we don't like so much seems more logical. i have too many el pollo loco bowls in the freezer to give up ALL meat. i neeeeeed things from the 99 cent store that would cost more money elsewhere and surely that would be a no-no. and pizza? i cannot even think about a WEEK without pizza, never mind 5/6/7 weeks... (jeez i can't work out what 40 divided by 7 is :) plus i know if i ban something, even something gross like summer sausage, it will seem more appealing and we will all suddenly crave and have to have it for every meal!! urgh and i know this is exactly what those goody-two-shoes nuns live for...

so i propose to give up...... umm..... hmm.... just red meat, nope - i have lots of steak and hot dogs too and i don't want to be wasteful and it to get all freezer-burnt.... umm, can't give up chocolate, we have a big huge bag of freddo frogs fresh from the UK that would go to waste.... shoes...? hmm, i could probably not buy shoes. but what if i saw a really good deal and couldn't resist? oh gosh, see THIS is why i am not religious - i am just too freaking logical :) off to put my thinking cap on... this is going to be harder than i thought :}

listening to
'your song' by elton john and dreaming of the fountains of bellagio (only my favorite thing(s) in the entire world!!)

wondering
if i can possibly stay awake till 10pm for the new '16 and pregnant'... probably not, huh?

recovering from
one too many chocolate filled crepes for dinner (yum:)

quite sure
i will give up nothing for lent (just for a change:)

seriously contemplating
buying these british baked beans... even though i think i've successfully convinced myself after 14 years that american baked beans taste better :)

i was really looking for
350 thread count (no more no less) white king sheets (no texture/stripes allowed, dots ok) for under $30 with free shipping and no tax ;) but i found baked beans instead :(

stressing slightly
that i will hate my new computer just like i hate most everything electronic and new and that i will have to return it........

going to bed - back tomorrow xoxo

from last week...