random monday things

last week i totally messed up my diet - i had indian food, took the kids to the pizza buffet place and even had maggie's superoversized fish and chips. and ate apple pie every night in bed. a-n-d pumpkin pie too on thanksgiving. and pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting thicker than the bread :) result: i lost 2 pounds. what the????

it's official - i am never ever ever going to concentrate for long enough to make this stupid christmas card. i just can't be bothered this year :)

i found the perfect little cabin. it's adorable and vintage, and it even has a TV. but the website brags over and over and over that the cottages are run by a christian family staff and they love to host large christian retreats :| dang, it was so almost perfect...

our new GPS arrived today. i set it the ultimate test: find Target in Foothill Ranch. Foothill Ranch is the bermuda triangle according to our old GPS - you can be in Foothill Ranch and it just stares at you blank and says 'computer says no'. but gasp - the new one found it!!! it's a keeper :)

i love that Danny calls sharpies 'markies'... now i will always have to call them 'markies' too. which reminds me, these pictures of Mark Wahlberg's third nipple are woefully disappointing... he calls that mole a third nipple???!

i went to Tustin Ranch Costco tonight :| i needed cash back to buy churros (very important) and accidentally entered 0.10 instead of $10. only at Tustin Ranch Costco would they hand you 10 cents instead of letting you know that you made a mistake :| who gets 10 cents cash back???! it's official - Tustin Ranch is a void of humanity AND common sense :|

sunday

loving

tikka masala sauce and naan bread a little more than ever before - i wish someone would just invent tikka masala soup. no chicken/fake chicken/big gross cubes of tofu required :) it could even come with an edible naan container cover to stop it exploding all over the microwave :)

wishing

i wasn't so horribly picky about finding the perfect cabin in the snow. i will NEVER EVER find one, i just know it :(

wondering

how much colder it can possibly get here??? it was like 50 degrees today (but it felt like 20 in capris and sandals...)

hoping
it rains next saturday so having the party at Chuck E Cheese will seem like a really smart decision... because right now it feels like a very wrong decision :| but on sunday it must miraculously STOP raining because i will want to take pictures at Legoland (but secretly i kind of hope it still rains because the thought of Legoland makes me feel nauseous... and i can still take pics in the rain and we can go to Farrells!)

wondering

exactly how hard it is to RSVP to a birthday party??? the mommies who didn't RSVP LIKE I ASKED THEM TO BY TODAY, will just have their children turned away when they get to the party, no questions asked :) maybe then they won't forget to RSVP to future parties...

talking myself out of
buying a coffee maker. i know if i buy one i will just resent it taking up counter space (i have issues with the toaster for this reason....) but i also want cinnamon roll flavored coffee and to pretend to be a regular human being once in a while. having said that, everyone loves those flavored coffee creamers and in a bid to be like them, i bought the pumpkin pie and caramel macciato ones today. and i don't like them, i had to pour in even more of my non-dairy powder creamer to get rid of the taste of the fancy creamer :|

loving
Danny's reaction when he sees people with red eyes in pictures... "oh dear, they must have a really terrible camera... i feel so bad for them' he says so earnestly :)

i'm not biased but i absolutely love these boys :)

vacation rentals and jet dry and petty crime

i wish my boys were on winter break till next year... i soooo don't want monday to come around and go back to normal... i love vacation too much!

we are in snowy log cabin hell. i can't possibly make a decision, since i don't want to be too spendy nor do i want to stay in a place that looks like bodies were dismembered there. and clearly it must be painted in jaunty, joyful colors and have beautiful muted light and wood floors (distressed: ok). and i am very particular about location and such (must be less than one minute to a pizzeria, a great breakfast place and a big sledding hill) and i want a place where i can take my dogs! that is why they need the sherpa fleece dog collars :)

speaking of dogs, we found a pet sitter and i love her already! Romeo peed on her three times and she was completely calm about it (unlike me ;)

i never knew (till yesterday) that a segway should be spelled 'segue' - i thought it was segway...

and i never knew that the bottle of jet dry that i bought literally years ago, but never actually poured into the dishwasher, would have such a radical effect on our knives and forks - they are SO wonderfully shiny now! it's like living in a palace :)

something is up with the MJ experience wii game... when Thriller is on and we are not using controller 4, it still racks up points... and no-one is even holding it :| it gives me the chills to even type it.... we have a dancing zombie ghost in our den :|

have i mentioned my love of all things morningstar? their chickenless enchiladas are soooooooo good!! and even Aaron and Sam ate meatless spaghetti last night and both thought it was actual meat :) and it's so low in fat and stuff and not a drop of blood in sight. anyway, i found it at my local win-co for half the price of that shameless whole foods place, so i went to stock up. i also had a coupon for $1 off one box but it clearly said "NO DUPLICATES" all over it and i only had the one coupon - grrr! our bonnie and clyde alter egos sprung into action and we schmoozed the lady at customer service into making 4 copies of said coupon, which she duly did ;) next stop - the checkout stand. Aaron kept that cashier talking about herself while i whisked the groceries effortlessly into bags, hoping our charm and helpfulness would be too intoxicating for her to notice the badly photocopied NO DUPLICATES coupon x four. and it worked like a charm!!! we clearly need to start robbing banks!!! we strode out with our $1 frozen meals - it was like the end of Oceans Eleven, except without the Bellagio fountains :) we saved all of $4 but it was how completely awesome we were doing it that counted ;)

oh well, off to bed with a small slice of pumpkin bread and hopefully a law & order: uk - the wigs are just so fascinating. oh and i am going to astringe the hell out of my face to remove the orange pumpkin pigment from my skin :)

bargains and pie

woke up
super early to shop online (i have an allergy to the people and crowds of black friday, it brings out all the scary Boo Radley type people who are blinded by daylight because they never ever go out, but every black friday, they all run out to buy all the $7 lean mean grilling machines and ugly fleece pyjamas (i bet their families LOVE them on christmas morning ;)

bought
a new GPS!!! hopefully one that doesn't have a clicker dial thingie to type in addresses :) and can find more than one Target located in Roseville, California... ours is 5 years old and still refers to JFK airport as Idlewild :|

also bought
lego - a lot of lego for a little almost 6 year old boy who wuvs his wegos :)

and
another pillow pal. because even a 10 year old boy deserves a big soft tabby cat shaped pillow :)

and
just dance 2 :) hip hip horray!!!

so happy
that Theresa braved the boo radleys and went to Walmart at midnight, and found a slow cooker for $9.97!!! thank you!!!

baked
pumpkin pie today. it's weird because it said it was cooked already but i didn't believe the box and baked it a full hour anyway, and it still seems raw to me. i wonder if i killed it? (but that isn't going to stop me eating it ;)

watched
the worst movie E-V-E-R - sex and the city 2. oh my gawd... don't EVER watch it. stick needles through your eyes, because it will be far more enjoyable. thankfully it was a free redbox. she really does look like a horse in this movie....

back tomorrow with pics and such xoxox

random-ish

i have watched absolutely NO tv today (this is very unlike me...)

i bought 12 avocados this morning, after craving guacamole on a subway veggie delite all night long. darned 'undercover boss' about subway :| also of note, i have NEVER EVER had 3 slices of tomato on my veggie delite like it said you should on that show... i should totally sue them, it's absolutely daylight robbery to withhold vegetables on a VEGGIE sandwich!

i have spent far far far too long today, trying to get 5 stars dancing to Thriller. i am about half an inch from the top (on a 42 inch tv) and as always i am blaming the stupid remote control for my shortcoming ;)

i feel like i am turning orange. Aaron is being very kind and diplomatic and saying it's in my head, but i definitely look oranger today (and i haven't eat carrots at all ever) and i wear sunblock every day but it makes no difference, i am getting more and more orange :(

hmm, i think i had better quit eating pumpkin bread... which will be easy since it's almost all gone ;)

it's raining here. which means it's snowing somewhere close to here :)

i made moo cards - all different designs to get maximum value for money. but can i give any away? no - because they're all unique and therefore too precious to part with ;) but they look something like this : (note to Aaron: at least 90% of these pics were taken with the 135mm... just sayin' :)

MJ mochi and vegas

where i was at 6am this morning:
where else - buying MJ: the experience!! we dashed home to play it immediately! and as always... i am just not feeling the love with it yet. in my defense i have horrible tummy ache today and don't really feel like dancing... and it turns out that it really does matter if you're black or white especially when it comes to dancing, because compared to MJ, we totally suck ;) though we did score one point dancing to Thriller ,which rated as 'inhuman' on the difficulty scale :)

what's cooking:
baked mochi. and oh my gawd, it smells awful, even with a ton of cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. to quote Sam it smells/looks like caterpillar food.... but i think even caterpillars would claim to be on a diet if offered baked mochi ;)

what smelled sooooo much better:
mochi waffles. warm mochi waffles - with microwaved nutella on top. oh yes, soooo good that i just had to try baked mochi, which according to the packet claims to make "soft chewy muffins with a crispy crust".... it sooooooooo doesn't :|

what was for lunch:
fish and chips from Maggie's Pub :) with tummy ache - not smart... but oh so good!

what's at the top on our christmas list:
this adorable little trailer that we saw on the freeway today being towed by a Siena!!! most trailers seem to require a SUV to tow them, and we don't have a SUV ;)

what's also on my list:

• this absolutely useless but totally cute cityscape stamp set
• these polaroid picture frames that have been in my amazon cart for a reaaaally long time because i just don't need them :)
• a petsitter
• one more bottle of that wonderful philosophy perfume
• just dance 2 (again:)
• a trip to Vegas, we haven't been in over a year (together... someone is always home with the pets) and we miss it so much
  

coming down the mountain :)

wondering
what on earth possesses people to 'check in' on facebook....? most regular people with snaggletooth smiles and bad spelling are nowhere near as fascinating to stalk as George Clooney. in fact i don't really care where they are at any given time (as long as they are not at my front door :).... i only really care if George Clooney has just walked into my local Subway. anyone else.... not so much :)

desperately seeking
yule-ish sherpa dog collars with creamy fleece lining like these but bigger, and in festive colors. they are VHTF :(

being driven slightly crazy
being asked when 1 december is... the day the boys can start opening their lego advent calendars :)

loving
walmart a little bit more than ever today. on our way to play in the snow, we stopped at walmart on the off chance that they might have those warm padded ski bibs that make playing in the snow sooo much more fun. and they did!! and we played for hours and hours and hours and didn't get wet at all! and best of all, those brand new waterproof squishy ski pants were only $20 a pair!!!

also loving
yelp for finding us the most awesome indian restaurant on our route back home, that had spicy hot tikka masala with all kinds of veggies to mix in, and garlic naan, and really fizzy diet coke. after playing in the snow for hours and being starving hungry, it was heaven on earth (in San Bernadino - who'd have guessed! :)

also also loving
pandora - i had to listen to 'mountain song' by jane's addiction while coming down the mountain (it should be the law) and it wasn't on my iphone :| so i asked pandora if she had any jane's addiction and what did she come up with - 'mountain song'!! oh yes, it was one of those blessed days :)

wondering
if eating an entire trader joe's pumpkin loaf with cream cheese frosting in 3 days flat is piggish or completely understandable... it's soooooooooooooooo good, i froze it so i wouldn't eat it all but i find myself staying up late just waiting for the next emergency slice to thaw :)

listening
to 'i'm not in love' by 10cc (this song was written about pumpkin loaf with cream cheese frosting, i'm quite sure of it :)

thinking
after reading all about Suri and Shiloh in Star magazine this week, that i definitely like Shiloh so much more than Suri (this is soooo completely wrong to admit!!!) she just sounds so much more awesome than Suri. and Shiloh is missing her front tooth just like Danny and doesn't have a fake one in it's place, which is so completely awesome :)

thinking
i'm going to miss 'the big c' and 'weeds' tonight :(

thinking
it's been a reaaaally long day. and i am soo completely tired out (but in a good way). Michael Jackson: the Experience is at walmart at midnight (we already called to check!!!! i can't possibly entrust this important item to amazon.com and their loose understanding of what "day of release delivery" means to fanatics) i wonder if i'll sleep.... if i don't, i am so going to walmart at midnight!!!



(Grant loooooves to kiss :)

american apparel, feasts and famines

however much i love the idea of plain simple clothes made not just in the usa but right down the road from me, i really really really dislike american apparel (yesterday's groupon... it was probably a good thing:) and ps who is their stylist...? and photographer???! these pictures are sooooooo tragically horrible!! i am assuming (at the risk of making an ass out of you and me) that these pictures were submitted by customers???!




on my list of things to do next week, i want to dine at mozza and go on my murder tour of LA (we already did the Sharon Tate house - sooooo many times but my map is a cornucopia of other crime scenes :)

today i:

• baked a batch of truly awful brownie cupcakes
  
• bought Danny a pillow pet (dog) for christmas - he LOVES them
  
• heard the disney electric light parade song at school, and flashed back to a thousand warm friday nights watching it with Sam when he was little :)
• photographed 394 rainbow colored schoolchildren in one single picture
• did a little christmas shopping at the school book fair
• helped in Danny's class - the teacher prepared a huge thanksgiving feast, but all the kids ate was the oreo cookie turkey :)
  
• hosted a playdate for three really awesome little boys
  
• had chickenless enchiladas for dinner (sooooooo good!!)
• baked two batches of madelaines for the cat shelter's bake sale
• watched the Real Housewives of BH - i really hope the whole world is in agreement with me that Camille is the most insidious vile creature in the whole world. or the whole world has gone mad....
• made a mercy dash to Trader Joe's for eggs and butter - they were serving gingerbread coffee and almond cookies
• bumped into Pedro Hernandez - he has a much squarer head than he used to have - hmm
• bought pumpkin waffle mix and pumpkin bread mix
  
• and salted caramels from my children to give to me for christmas :)
• baked sugar cookies for the cat shelter bake sale
• listened to 'mystery girl' by Roy Orbison twice
• and 'drive' by The Cars just once... because it still, 26 years later, reminds me of this video
  

Danny's in the front row and Sam is in the back row

what i did today........

• had oatmeal for breakfast with that awful better 'n' peanut butter stuff (that name is SO WRONG - it's awful, with the consistency of tarry newborn poop) BUT, if i add a teeny teaspoon of nutella, it makes it all alright (but tragically, look even more like meconium...) i wonder how low my cholestrol is these days, i think oatmeal's supposed to lower it or something. it already was normal, so now it should be like minus 150 :)

• changed outfits 4 times (i am truly thankful for my wonderfully reliable washer and dryer :)

• walked the magical 13 miles (plus 0.22 because my GPS died of exhaustion during mile 12)

• saw a man painting those huge adverts on a store window - i have always wanted to see how they get the writing so neat and straight. the trick seemed to be duct tape and not being at all self conscious of the people watching in awe:)

• passed the bad earbud jogger at a completely different street :)

• found it really really hard to just walk down the street like an average american, while listening to 'walk like an egyptian' :)

• jaywalked :)

• had all bran for lunch - i think i'm the only person in the world who doesn't hate all bran but i do hate grape nuts....)

• found the principal's salary posted online - now i don't feel so bad about being a squeaky wheel ;)

• had to sit on my hands so i don't pull out my eyebrows with my bare hands - they are driving me NUTS!!

• watched the Oprah about miracles - i absolutely don't believe in miracles :)
  

• saw a great great great great grandma delight her grandchild by picking them up at kindy :)

• spent an hour outside kindy talking with a fellow european mum about awful homesickness and feeling like a fish out of water here... she is coming over for a playdate tomorrow:)

• got a sudden insatiable desire to play 'mountain song' by jane's addiction on guitar hero (it's past everyone bedtime.... i really shouldn't get my guitar out now.... but i might not sleep till i've got it out of my system.... hmmm)
  

• started to make Sam's birthday book (and actually use a groupon!!) with some of these pictures:
  

nails and walking and fools and horses

ok so i don't want the barbie thing after all. i read all the reviews on amazon and they said it's hard to use and requires installing and uninstalling and reinstalling of software (bringing back awful nightmares of the eye-fi card of yesteryear) and you have to keep realigning things and it runs out of ink - and i just don't want it!!!!

but i do want to try this pizza place in Yorba Linda that has deep dish pizza (the only thing to like about that hideous city Chicago... ER and Obama aside obviously) there's a groupon. a fricking fracking groupon!!!! they are stalking me - they know what i like and they won't stop leading me into temptation.....

deep dish pizza with diced tomatoes on top aside, today's ambition is to walk 13 miles. that's half a marathon, except walking fast instead of running slow, because only fools and horses run (i changed the words to the song from the tv show which if you aren't British, you don't know anything about, but it's really funny. well it was... it jumped the shark for me after Grandad died... i loved Grandad)

anyway, i put some dixie chicks (thanks for reminding me about them Sarah:) on my little red shuffle and i have my little white GPS at the ready and i really think i can do this :) soooo "let's do this!"*

* most hated expression of 2010 :)

o.m.g.

i totally want this Barbie nail thing!!! it's like a cricut (pronounced cry cut, not cricket) but for nails! why don't they have a grown-up version that is less Barbie...? and why is it $179??? and what does it do??! it looks like you put your nail in it and a little printer flawlessly paints polka dots on them... can it do toes too??! and can i put chanel vamp polish in it not lame colors like purple and pink?? and designs like candy cane stripes for christmas and hearts for valentines? i want it!!!

as much as i hate people being late, people being early really ticks me off too. urgh, i should just admit it, people really tick me off in general and i am still blaming my painfully slow eyebrow growth project for the mean dark cloud that's following me around

my next project: (thanks to Misti for reminding me that i reaaaaaally want a hamburger phone)
make a hamburger iphone case!!! i don't actually talk on the phone due to my hard-to-decipher english accent and the above mentioned fact that realtime human interaction bugs me, so in lieu of a landline hamburger phone, i just have to try to make a case for my iphone, which requires no actual human interaction, just the pressing of buttons. or find someone in hong kong who will make it and mail it for $6.52 buy-it-now :)

off to walk the dogs, back in 12 miles of hellish uphill walking :|

i'm not in love...........

but gawd that awful girlfriend of George Clooney's really really REALLY bugs me :) maybe it's her armfuls of nasty tattoos, or maybe the 's' in her name where a 'z' should clearly be (this is reason 7 of my elisabeth hasselback shitlist) or just the fact that she's stepping out with MY imaginary husband that makes me really really dislike her. really, i just don't think she's good enough for him ;)

i'm also not in love - or even slightly obsessed - but...

and...

and....

and finally...

how is that even possible????

today i walked 11.60 miles and it was much much hotter than 68 degrees, thanks weather channel for unestimating the temperature by about 50 degrees... i am so sunburnt and scratchy and achey and have listened to 'the downward spiral' 25 times today (but 'march of the pigs' is such an adorably aptly named walking song :)

i am forced to hate johnnie boden yet again. yesterday i bought a jumper and pants that came to $100, but with all my fancy discount cards, the final total was $22.50 (i know - isn't that cool?! :) anyway, when i got my email they had charged me $100 :| big mistake. HUUUUGE!!! so i called and ms mcsnippetty american accent woman answered the phone. urgh - i wanted to talk to a real person, a reasonable human being with a british accent, who wouldn't be so patronizing and phoney bullshitty and say things like 'is there anything else can i help you with today?' when they couldn't help in the first place :| she was soooo obnoxious and just completely useless that i was forced to hang up on her. and if i see so much as a PENNY more than $22.50 on my statement, i'm sooooooo emailing johnnie boden personally over this :|

i am feeling so antsy and itchy.... i think because i am growing my eyebrows for 8 weeks and i can't touch them AT ALL (except to stimulate the hair follicles with vaseline at bedtime) and because MJ: the experience is out in just 6 days' time... i am losing sleep that amazon.com won't meet their preorder delivery promise like they did last time :|

off to bed with some gummivites and whirly word (Theresa, it's free and my favorite pointless waste of time app :)

i admit to being in love with and hopelessly inspired by Mario Testino and his gorgeous portraits

amazon and arizona

i check my amazon shopping cart every single morning to see if any of the items i have saved over the years have decreased so radically in price that i just have to buy them :) today the jurassic copter building system (of Danny's wildest dreams) had jumped up in price but the linen cardstock decreased by 10 cents... hmmmm, i wonder what it all means

i am soooooooo beyond tiiiiiiiiired. last night we went out to dinner for the first time in a reaaaally long time and i was so tired, i just wanted to fall asleep in the booth... except they squeezed us all into a booth meant for 2 people which meant even using a knife and fork was impossible, nevermind laying down... bleck

i really really really want to go to Arizona next week - anywhere in fact! we haven't had a vacation to speak of all year long and we are all running on empty and in desperate need of some family time away. we are all off work/school/etc - we just need to find a petsitter willing to help us out. despite having spent the past couple of years petsitting for weeks at a time, we sadly don't get the favor returned very often :(

the little baby i take care of is absolutely lovely - he is the textbook dream baby in my eyes :) and he is my partner in crime on my daily walks and starts to cry if the stroller stops... which may sound like a un-dream baby thing to do, but when you have to keep a constant pace of 4 mph for 90 minutes, it's actually a very very good thing :)

off to walk the dogs - it's going to be 68 perfectly cloudy degrees today :)

highs and lows and inbetweens

my latest dangerous obsession:
groupon. i buy them because there's a clock ticking away to them being g-o-n-e and i don't want to miss out!!! but then i forget all about them and only remember briefly, then forget about them again - which is dangerous because there's another little clock ticking down to their imminent expiration date.... will i ever make the blurb book? or the pixable book for that matter? or take the duffy boat ride around Balboa Island? i should unsubcribe to groupon before my obsession gets out of hand...

today's lowest point:
Coldstone Creamery running out of free cake :( how very dare they :| and the woman in front of me was buying icecream in her pyjamas and slippers. there really should be a law against both these things....

today's highest point:
Barbra Streisand on Oprah. i am watching it in 7 minute increments so it lasts all week :)

today's ok-est point:
actually losing weight on my scales (i really want to sue weight watchers for making stupid evil scales that are clearly possessed by the devil)

what's bugging me right now:
my itchyscratchy neck. i got sunburn in Pasadena - i confess i don't like Pasadena (even though Dr Drew lives there) it's hotter than hell

what i had for dinner:
salad and a sweet potato. the restaurant asked if i wanted brown sugar on my sweet potato - what the???!

where i'd rather be:
in PJs in bed watching 7 more minutes of Barbra

news story that makes me happy (but also a little bit sad):
Prince William (sad because i still miss Princess Diana soooooooo much... she's the reason i wanted two little boys. and i even got two little Williams and no little Harrys :)

news story that make me horribly sad:
Target :( this is why our dogs have ID tags and licenses and microchips. and we get every single one of our pets from the city shelter :(

news story that makes me even sadder:
Sarah Palin (i don't know where to start on what's wrong with this woman....)

what my wildest fantasy looks like: (ps not the man)


off to bed early with just the ears of a mickey mouse cookie and some cocoa to dip them in :)

hurricanes and cats

Sam's completely awesome hurricane project - complete with actual size pic of Katrina and a real life hurricane made of cotton wool... and what did his teacher say about this stupendous work of art? not so much as a dickybird :| she is SO in my teacher's christmas gift "no box" :| oh yes, parents have no boxes too.....


cutest 5 and 23/24ths year old ever :)

Mr Bumps loves sleeping on warm fresh laundry

and little spots of sun

new kitties - this is Jenny, one of 200 cats at the pound from a hoarding situation :( i feel sooooo sad for the person who had all their cats taken away, these cats are so very sweet and clearly were very dearly loved :(

and this is Grant - he gives the best nose bumps and kisses and put up with being carried around by Danny all evening :)

Oreo.... still looking for a home (Danny wants to adopt him for thanksgiving... isn't it customary to adopt a cat on thanksgiving:)

and the cuddliest most camera loving cat ever, Angelo

:(

still hopelessly on the fence

about where to hold Danny's birthday party... in the past twenty four hours it has been everywhere from the bounce house to chuck e cheese to farrells icecream parlor to our house and now it's back at chuck e cheese but ideally, farrells (even though Aaron says mission viejo is soooooo far south it's practically tijuana and no-one will drive that far...)

obsessing slightly

over David Bowie via youtube - he's just sooooo completely wonderful. i had no idea he was once manic depressive and his favorite home cooked meal is shepherds pie. in shocking contrast to David Bowie's fascinatingness, having watched an interview of them together, Trent Reznor is soooooo much duller than i ever imagined possible :( i've never heard him talk before, but it was so underwhelming and black and white and disappointing... like the ending of the wizard of oz :(

wishing

i hadn't been so terribly hasty in getting rid of 'just dance two' :( i am just dying to walk like an egyptian and do the indian duet with my honey bear again :( hopefully it's on sale for $10 on black friday along with the 5 quart slow cooker and all my wildest dreams can come true simultaneously and i can make my Jessican Seinfeld lasagne while i dance like a crazy russian to rasputin by boney m ;)

hating

mozilla - it won't work and i can't blog with the blue E (that's where i am right now) or post links and it just doesn't feel right. hence all the sad faces :(

loving

the subway veggie delite with sweet onion... it was what was for dinner last night. and for lunch today in Padadena. and for dinner again tonight :)

thanks to the stupid blue E i can't post any pictures... and i have a great picture of a homemade hurricane for Sam's science project, but it will have to wait till mozilla is fixed....

dog beach

laguna

flowers, parties and peanut butter

loving
there being nothing on the table but a vase of fresh flowers (10 perfect little iris buds from Trader Joe's = $3)

hating
that i'm still procrastinating over Danny's party... there's only one thing i hate more than parties and that's hosting them :|

still seething
over the stranger i called "a total fucking jerk" yesterday. hangs head in pretend shame. in my defense... he really really asked for it though. he was holding an impeach Obama poster, and it would have been wrong of me not to say something ;)

wondering
how the better'n peanut butter (i absolutely hate that name) people make their peanut butter so unfattening... i mixed it into my oatmeal today and it wasn't really that horrible (though it's been probably 2 months since i ate anything with sugar/fat so i don't remember what actual food tastes like anymore...) and why they see fit to taunt me with this picture... don't they know it's bedtime and i am starving and living off 3 gummivites and a diet coke??!



wishing
we had the american life channel. they have Chicago Hope and i want to watch it but of course we don't have it :( i love Mandy Patinkin even though he has a girl's name. i can't watch criminal minds anymore - that little squirrel man just doesn't compare and the whole show sucks :| it's like watching scooby doo (except there was no squirrel in scooby doo) it's just awful and obvious and lame and pathetic and the unsub at the end is always an old man in a rubber mask who would have got away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids ;)

also wishing
the Santa Anas would go away... they make the crazy people of Santa Ana even crazier...

itching to
hike up that big hill by George Clooney's house (with a step ladder, binoculars and big camera lens and proper walking shoes :)

hoping
to find treasures at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on Sunday - it's flea market day :)

off to bedfordshire xoxxox

teddy bears and kitty cats and jackson kids

what i did today...

• slept in till 7:07am, which felt much later and much more disastrous, thanks to the falling back of the clocks...

• bought 7 new songs to perk up my walk

• walked 11.5 miles :| (i think i need to buy 7 new songs everyday:)

• on my walk, i found a very sad looking little teddy bear in the rain, clearly discarded by some uncaring child :( i took him home and bathed him with lavender soap and he is looking so much happier already (i am hoping he doesn't turn lotsobear on me... :)

• (ps toy story 3 really made me cry. and laugh too. i looooove pixar :)

• watched the real housewives of Atlanta - they are so boring, like almost as boring as the New Jersey housewives...

• obsessively stalked my amazon.com account waiting for "the diary of a wimpy kid: the ugly truth" to ship. we pre-ordered it on the condition that it would be delivered on the release date (tomorrow)... but it hasn't shipped yet :| (though it's actually ok because Sam is caught up in awful long division and hurricane report hell....)

• watched Oprah and fell in love with MJ's Mom.... being the crazed MJ stalker that i am, i went by the Jackson kids' new school on Saturday ;) i want to move to the valley! it's so much more wonderful than here!
  

• meanwhile back in hell, i went to McDonalds for a happy meal with a toy (seriously San Francisco???) i hate Tustin Ranch McDonalds - it's the most soulless place in the most soulless city in the most soulless state (but i guess on the bright side, you can get a toy with your kid's happy meal here :)

• went to the awful Tustin Ranch Costco. i hate that place. the big pussy man checking the groceries winced and complained that he needed a break because of his sore arm, and thought he was going to get away with not putting my shopping all back in my cart - big mistake, bebby!

• visited my cats. i want to take them all home :( i need a big house/farm thing. in the valley. next door to George Clooney or Katherine Jackson :)

• had 3 aleve and an icy diet coke. i wonder if i'm addicted to painkillers. or addicted to diet coke... i have a headache and the diet coke and aleve make the headache go away.... but it's their job to! hmm...
  

off to bed to watch The Big C xoxoxxo

stars' homes and star cookies

despite having the time of my life hanging out with all those stars yesterday, i think it's just so so wrong that Elvis wasn't there :( so we still have to go to Vegas ;)

i am not a germophobe by any means, but i really hate buying food from anywhere but indoors... farmers markets and street vendors* are completely out of the question. maybe it's the cash exhange i fear, and the possibility of accidentally touching a stranger's hand...? must write to Dr Phil :|*

*(exception: those big tree trunk churros at the fair :)

*speaking of Dr Phil, i am utterly fascinated by this map of Hollywood homeowners :)

i just made a batch of perfect little super mario star cookies for a birthday party (i really want to eat them all, but i mustn't...)

... because i want to make these salted double chocolate peanut butter cookies too! and i reserve the right to eat at least a couple :)

it's destiny, the recipe requires two eggs and i have two eggs left!!!*

*(must go for more...... you never know when a fried egg craving will strike ;)

i really really needed to order some memory cards and yesterday a postcard came in the mail, saying some boring computer store is giving them away... so we just stopped and sure enough they gave us free memory cards :| how odd.... but totally cool!!!

we rode our bikes at the park last night - i had no clue how hilly that park was and thought i had flat tires/the flu till i realized it was just a whole lot of uphill peddling :) i slept like a log last night

i loved the extra hour this morning, i had peanut butter oatmeal and coffee in bed while watching watching Property Ladder and shopping on my phone (does life get any better???!)

off to make cookies....... back later xoxox

our day in Hollywood

and things i learned there...

• Madame Tussauds is completely fun and awesome - how is it we've never been there before???!
• if you get there at opening time, you'll be the only people in the entire place (which is totally the best!!!)
• Barack Obama is really really really tall
• Sarah Michelle Geller is the size of a Barbie doll
• William Shatner was famous like 50 years before he was Denny Crane :)
• all stars are awfully disgustingly thin and no matter how much you breathe in, you just can't hide behind them :)
  
• Michael Jackson is soooo tall!
• Hamburger Hamlet is gone!! (sob - i loved it, i ate there ALL THE TIME! ok, twice... and i'm vegetarian now... so i guess it's not the end of the world...)
• my kids think Whoopi Goldberg is Oprah :)
  
• i'm like head and shoulders taller than Ryan Seacrest and Dustin Hoffman (almost)
• a wax head weighs the same as a human head (10 pounds)
• a whole wax body weighs 55 pounds
• a map of the stars' homes is compulsive reading, i have all kinds of tours to plan - murder tours! sex crime tours!! and just good old fashioned movie star homes tours!
  
• Gil Grissom has a star on the walk of fame
• George Clooney doesn't...
• you can pretend to hike behind George Clooney's house :)
• we are sooooo taking our hiking boots next time we go on a tour :)
  

the last part of our tour to George Clooney's house (the number is Xed out to protect his privacy:) past Casa Vega of Flipping Out fame (we did not eat there, it looked iffy and very un-Jeff Lewis... we had pop chips for lunch instead. also i thought he was getting rid of the C V bushes) and to the place we first met exactly 16 years ago at Highland/Hollywood!!!